13 months
By Mom

Okay, so I haven’t edited the first-birthday video down just yet.
“A few days”… ha! I will get to it, it just may take until his next birthday!

Until then, here are some of the excellent photos that Archer’s Aunt Kym took that day (9/12/09). Enjoy!

By Mom

Quick follow-up on my last post:
Climate change is an issue close to my heart. Sticking with the status quo will not only affect my generation faster than was previously thought, it will make Archer’s life much harder (if not shorter) than mine – a parent’s worst fear.

This Saturday, 350.org is running the International Day of Climate Action. “350″ refers to the parts-per-million level that scientists have identified as the safe upper limit for CO2 in our atmosphere. Right now, we’re around 390 – so we must make a change, globally. A BIG statement will show our leaders that climate change will not be ignored. After all, “nature does not do bailouts.”

So far, over 4,000 gatherings are planned in over 170 countries (that means only 25 countries on earth aren’t participating).
Find an event near you at www.350.org/map.

From 350.org:
President Obama is scheduled to give a major climate speech on Friday, and the Senate is set to hold hearings on its global warming bill on Tuesday¹. This will be one of the last best chances to make the support for much stronger efforts unmistakably loud and clear. Your efforts this weekend will be doing double duty–helping with the fight in Copenhagen and also on Capitol Hill.

Greenpeace predicts that Chicago’s event will be the biggest in the United States.
Come be a part of history:
Dvorak Park, near Pilsen’s Fisk Coal Plant (1111 W Cermak.)
This Saturday, October 24th, at 1 pm
Visit “How Green is Chicago?” for more info.

P.S. On Blog Action Day, there were a total of over 31,000 official and unofficial blog posts about climate action!

1 Samuelsohn, Darren, “Obama to Give Senate Climate Bill Push with MIT Speech” http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2009/10/21/21climatewire-obama-to-give-senate-climate-bill-a-push-wit-53858.html

By Mom

Before Archer was born, I was under the impression that climate change would only affect the golden years of the next generation and beyond – and I hadn’t imagined what those effects would be.

I’ve learned, through watching The Age of Stupid (at its global premiere last month) and through organizations like Greenpeace, the Union of Concerned Scientists, and 350.org (plus many others) that some horrible things could happen if our world leaders don’t step up at this December’s climate conference in Copenhagen. It’s our greatest (and latest) chance to sign an ambitious new treaty that will save our climate.

The elephant in the room is U.S. participation. We ignored the Kyoto Protocol, and many predict we’ll do the same again. That just can’t happen. The clean air bill in in Washington, though groundbreaking, will not be enough.

The new goal, as agreed among the world’s top climate scientists, is to level out carbon emissions by 2015 – then quickly take them down. This will prevent the earth from reaching an unstable, devastating temperature.

Greenpeace tries to get Obama's attention in Martha's Vineyard

“We have already passed the stage of dangerous climate change. The task now is to prevent catastrophic climate change.”

– Professor John Holdren, now Obama’s Science Advisor, in 2006

Tck Tck Tck, a global alliance of non-government organizations, trade unions, faith groups and consumers, is showcasing stories of how climate change is already affecting us. Check out more facts from the Pew Center on Global Climate Change. Still a skeptic?

Chicagoans, stand with me on Climate Action Day:
Saturday, October 24th.

I’ll be at the demonstration outside the Fisk Coal plant – Dvorak Park, near 1111 W Cermak – 1 to 4pm. Hundreds will attend to encourage President Obama to lead the world to a new international treaty that will avert the impact of climate change. Please RSVP on Facebook or get more information.

Not in Chicago? Visit 350.org to find Climate Action Day events near you.

By the way, I posted this because it’s Blog Action Day!

12 months old
By Mom

Archer’s birthday party was a ton of fun! Thanks to everyone who joined in. It was so much fun to see the comments – like you were there with us!

I never knew that a ride-on cow, a climb-through tunnel, and some cake and ice cream could make a kid so smiley. I guess I’m learning new things right along with Archie!

A shorter clip of highlights is forthcoming, but here’s the whole thing if you’d like to see it. It’s around 2 hours long, so it’s not for the faint of heart.
(Stay tuned in the next few days for a much shorter highlight reel.)

Click here to see the whole show!

12 months
By Mom and Dad

This is a bit wild and crazy, we know, but we’re going to broadcast Archer’s first birthday party today!
The festivities will go from about noon to about 1:15, CST. (No worries if you miss it – we’ll add highlight videos to a future blog post.)

We’ll capture a few key moments – gifts, singing, cake-eating… we won’t bore you to tears (though we are 150% certain Archer will fuss when his cake and ice cream are gone.)

Slight change of venue: Instead of streaming video on the blog, we’re using a site where you can “chat” with us in real-time!

Click here to join the party!

12 months
By Mom and Dad

Just wanted to send out a quick reminder that tomorrow (Saturday) is Archer’s blog party! We’re going to have a more complete setup on the site than I’d planned for, with a live chat underneath. 

(If you’d like to get an idea of the setup, visit ustream.com and sample one of their many shows!)

We’re looking forward to it. Are you?

12 months
By Mom and Dad

Hi guys!
Please help us celebrate Archer’s very first birthday! He won’t know what the heck is going on, but he’ll smile anyway. (You know him.)

Saturday, September 12
12:00 – 1:15pm

No need to be there in person – you can participate in the festivities via live video feed right here! (I’ll even send out a reminder on Friday.)

On Saturday, when you come to the blog address – http://grembaby.wordpress.com – you’ll see a video window. We’ll be taking short videos for about an hour or so, which you’ll see LIVE through that window. (It’ll be like a very short-lived TV channel.) Don’t be alarmed if it goes dark for a little bit. We’ll take little breaks, but we’ll record as much as possible!
(And no worries if you miss it – we’ll update the blog with video highlights.)

One more thing – we’ll check for comments during the party, so please send us messages while you follow along!

By Mom

Pampers has done a few pretty cool things, but this latest one is my favorite.

“A Parent Is Born” is a series of 12 bite-sized webisodes following one couple – soon-to-be parents Suzie and Steve Barston – from their giggly first ultrasound to the stark realizations (and sheer amazement) of post-delivery. All can be viewed in the window below.

If you have a chance, be sure to check out this page, too – I wrote the top banner (with the series logo) and the copy about the series and couple (toward the bottom).

11.5 months
By Mom

We’ve just returned from our first vacation with Archer! We stayed for a week-long beach respite in Glenn, Michigan (near Saugatuck) in a quiet cottage with Jed’s mother Mary, Jed’s cousin Kym, and her girlfriend Melissa. We were all hoping for more cooperative weather (only two of six days were rain-free, and those same two were the only to break 80 degrees) but all in all it was a good time. Archer was very cautious with the sand and surf on his first day at Oval Beach in Saugatuck. (See the first video below.) On the second day, a nearby sand shovel belonging to a very nice boy (who shared) was enough motivation to get Archer traveling in the sand.

Speaking of traveling, the whole trip turned out to be Archer’s intensive locomotion workshop. By the end of our stay at the cottage, he was taking strings of 5-8 steps on his own (without us giving him a target of any kind)! We didn’t catch a video of his first independent steps, but below is one taken on the day after our return home.

Archer’s favorite part of his cottage stay was the overwhelming number of ceiling fans there. Over half the rooms had them, and Archer loved pointing to each one as he moved from room to room, or even just randomly. He’s doing a lot of pointing, babbling, and trying his best to imitate silly (but complex) mouth sounds. In fact, he said “Hi!” several times, but we’re not sure if it should count as his first word – he was mimicking one of us each time.

We’re looking forward to many beaches to come – so much that we already have a trip planned for next summer! (Carlsbad, CA, look out!)

And here’s the one you’ve been waiting for…

10 and a half months
By Mom

Archer’s been getting a lot of “laugh practice” lately, and as crazy as it sounds, his laugh is maturing! We’re so glad our little guy has a great sense of humor (or at least one with generous standards)!

Roll clip! :
(Watch for Archer’s new teeth – they make an appearance about halfway through!)