Happy Halloween

Here is Abby with her first Halloween costume on.

September 2007 Playlist

So, it has been awhile sine I last posted a list of some of the music that I’ve been listening to, but with this post I’ll try to correct that. here is a run-down of some of the music that has caught me ear this month.

Colbie Caillet - Bubbly

Rob Thomas - Street Corner Symphony

Flaming Lips - The W.A.N.D.

Flaming Lips - Do You Realize

Kayne West - Stronger

Louden Wainwright III - Daughter

Brett Dennon - Blessed

Daft Punk - Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

Whats in a Month - August Edition

I was thinking recently about where the names for the months came from and have decided to post about the naming of each month. So, without further adieu, I give you August.

Augustus for ‘August’

After Julius Caesars’ grandnephew Augustus defeated Marc Antony and Cleopatra, and became emperor of Rome, the Roman Senate decided that he too should have a month named after him. The month Sextillus (sex = six) was chosen for Augustus, and the senate justified its actions in the following resolution:

Whereas the Emperor Augustus Caesar, in the month of Sextillis . . . thrice entered the city in triumph . . . and in the same month Egypt was brought under the authority of the Roman people, and in the same month an end was put to the civil wars; and whereas for these reasons the said month is, and has been, most fortunate to this empire, it is hereby decreed by the senate that the said month shall be called Augustus.

Not only did the Senate name a month after Augustus, but it decided that since Julius’s month, July, had 31 days, Augustus’s month should equal it: under the Julian calendar, the months alternated evenly between 30 and 31 days (with the exception of February), which made August 30 days long. So, instead of August having a mere 30 days, it was lengthened to 31, preventing anyone from claiming that Emperor Augustus was saddled with an inferior month.

To accommodate this change two other calendrical adjustments were necessary:


The extra day needed to inflate the importance of August was taken from February, which originally had 29 days (30 in a leap year), and was now reduced to 28 days (29 in a leap year).

Since the months evenly alternated between 30 and 31 days, adding the extra day to August meant that July, August, and September would all have 31 days. So to avoid three long months in a row, the lengths of the last four months were switched around, giving us 30 days in September, April, June, and November.

Babys First Email

OK, so Abby is now 4 months old and is a real joy. However, it occurred to me that this modern digital world is getting crowded quickly. Already good email addresses are hard to come by.

So, in an effort to secure Abby a good email address that doesn’t look like (A88ygai1@Gmail.com) I set her up with her own good email address that matches Mom and Dads very good email addresses. (Ellie.R.Baxter@Gmail.com & Andrew.W.Baxter@Gmail.com) So, if any of you want to send Abby an email that she’ll get around to answering in 5 years or so, you can email her at Abigail.R.Baxter@Gmail.com.

I know I’m a geek, but I could have done even worse and secured a domain name, but I restrained myself, plus I figure I can just create a sub-domain of BaxterSphere.com for her.

What Babies See

With the addition of Abigail to the Baxter family two months ago, I was curious as to the development of Abigail’s eyes and babies eyes in general. I found a very cool website that lets you upload a picture and with the click of a few parameters, enables you to see what your baby can see. It is pretty interesting to see how a babys vision develops over time. Check out the Tiny Eyes website for more information and to try a picture for yourself.

Here are some examples:

First the Original



This is what an 8 week old will see at 24 inches.



This is what an 8 week old will see at 12 inches.



And lastly, this is what an 8 week old will see at 6 inches.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I am pleased to announce…

Abigail Rose Baxter.

Weighing in at 6lbs. 6oz. and at 18in. long Abigail is a beautiful bundle of joy. She was born on 3/8/2007 at 2:24 am at Helen Ellis Memorial Hospital.

Ellie started to labor around midday on 3/6/07. I got a call from her around 1:30 and headed home to be with her. Things progressed very well for several hours and contractions were coming regularly at eight minutes apart and then around 8:00 that night they just stopped. We awoke the Wednesday morning to some very minor contractions and Ellie insisted that I go back to work, because she didn’t think anything was going to happen. I had a gut feeling that she was wrong and I stayed home to be with her. Around 8:00 Wednesday morning, my gut proved to be right. The contractions started up very regularly and increased in regularity and strength.

At 1:45 that afternoon we were to have a regular office visit at the OB/GYN office, but at 1:15 Ellie and I decided that we would just head to the hospital. So, we loaded the car, got ourselves ready, and headed off. As we headed to the hospital Ellie said that she was worried that the contractions had stopped again and to me to go to the regular doctors appointment: I again had a gut feeling that that was not the right decision, so we agreed to proceed to the hospital and see what was happening. On the way to the hospital I was excited and nervous, and as we neared the hospital there were police cars and fire trucks beginning to block the road to allow a medical helicopter to land. The police officer approached our car and told me I would have to wait till the helicopter landed and left before I could enter the hospital parking lot. I told the officer that I had my pregnant wife on board and she was in labor, so he waved us through and into the parking lot we went.

We were greeted by a nurse in the women’s center who then examined Ellie and told us that she was dilated at 5 cm. So, we were admitted and spent the rest of the afternoon and evening laboring. Ellie eventually opted to have an epidural at around 10:30 pm and that eased the intense pain she was having, but also eased the contractions and slowed the process down. Around 1:30 am on 3/8/07 our OB doctor ordered pitocin to be administered to Ellie to get things moving again. Within 15 minutes of the pitocin being administered the nurses were calling Dr. Williams to come quickly, because Ellie was ready to go and Abigail wanted to get OUT!!! Dr Williams came into the room at about 2:10 am and by 2:24 am, Abigail was out and everyone was overjoyed.

After a time to get everything cleaned up we first called my Dad who couldn’t be with us and was recovering at Morton Plant Hospital in Clearwater, because of a scheduled heart catheterization the day before. We told my dad the name of the baby and all the stats. he was elated and told us he would be released later that morning and would be up in the afternoon to see us and Abigail. After talking to dad, I went down the hall to the waiting room and told the rest of the family that Ellie had given birth and asked them to come to her room. When the all gathered around Ellie’s bed and saw Ellie holding Abigail; I told everyone that here name would be Abigail Rose Baxter. We had to wait another day before we were allowed to come home, but we are getting in the groove of things now that we’re home.

I’ll have more to share in the coming days, but that’s all for now.

Baby Shower and Fun With Cribs

Well we recently had a baby shower for the Mom To Be. It was held at Andrews Moms home and Ellie’S Mom, Grandmom, Aunt, and a bunch of friends threw her a wonderful baby shower. Here are pictures of some of the festivities. On the home front, I assembled the babys crib, in record time after having to cope with the directions being placed in the most frustratingly usless place. But, I got the job done and now the baby’s room is painted the crib is set up and Ellie has decorated. We are well on our way as we enter the last month before we welcom Baby Baxter home.

January 2007 Playlist

Here is a sampling of some of the music that has caught my ear recently.

The Raconteurs - Steady As She Goes
The Fray - Over My Head
Snow Patrol - Chasing Cars
The Killers - All These Things That I’ve Done
West Indian Girl - What Are You Afraid Of
The Gabe Dixon Band - All Will Be Well
Graham Colton Band - First Week
Hopefully you can provide some additional bands that I can add to my playlist. Just leave a comment.