Wow, has it been a while

I'm embarrassed that it's been seven months since I last wrote in this space.  The usual excuses pertain:  oral arguments (April, May x2), a long Colorado vacation in July (punctuated by several trips to New York, Boston, Phoenix, and Chicago), and the inevitable drinking-from-a-firehose rush after returning from vacation. 

Still, the principal contributing factor to my inability to write has been motion.  As in, two girls in perpetual motion.  When I'm home (i.e., not at work, and not traveling for business), four-year-old Alex and now-one-year-old Ella-Anne seem to be in constant motion, which means that sitting down, let alone sitting down to write at any length, is not in the cards.  I've been a Sunday subscriber to the New York Times for years, but I can't recall the last time I actually read that paper in any detail.  Sometimes, the blue bag goes directly into the recycling bin without the paper ever having been removed. 

Of course, I'm "just" The Daddy.  The Mommy has this issue on a daily basis, in spades.  So don't mistake these comments for complaints.  No, far from it.  I am the luckiest man in the world.  And that's not just how I consider myself today, but every day.

Virtually anyone who reads this blog (is there anyone left?) is probably also a follower of ours on Facebook, which is where you can find, via status updates, the daily Haiku of our lives.  There are also a bunch of pictures there, but I'll replicate a few below.

Here's what has been going on with The Girls.  Alex started her third year of preschool at the Lake Anne Nursery Kindergarten the day after Labor Day; she also went to summer book camp at L.A.N.K. this summer -- that was a fun experience for me, because she went every morning, and so I got to take her to school camp every morning, usually with the convertible top down.  We'd talk about the day to come, occasionally talked about her fears ("I'm not going to have any fun today," she would occasionally proclaim), and bonded more as father and daughter.  She knows I'm a pushover; she's my buddy and pal, but occasionally I have to remind her that I am The Daddy.  Such as yesterday, when she wanted to do an art project at 8 a.m. and I needed to get some rather in-depth comments on a brief out to my colleagues in new York; after three sweet "Pleeeeeeeases," and my third "no," she stood in the center of my home office, her lower jaw started to quiver, and she broke out in tears.  So much for getting that brief out in a timely fashion.

Ella-Anne, a/k/a Her Serene Highness, continues to be just about the most agreeable person in the world.  Right now, she's taking her first few steps -- she can stand up by herself for a minute or more, and she will take four or five steps on her own before plopping back down onto her butt (or, occasionally, face-planting).  She's also talking quite a bit.  Much of it is jibberish, but we definitely detect "Mama," "Daddy," "La-la" (which we're pretty sure is "Alex"), and "Maga" (Magda, our all-star babysitter and the key to keeping Jane off the roof).

I'm going to try to write more frequently again -- it's good for my sanity to make words fit together, and believe me, my sanity has been challenged more than once over the past few weeks.  But for now I'll wrap up with the latest professional photos of the ladies, and some from Alex's first day of school.

Happy Valentine's Day -- with teeth

Golly gee, it's hard to sit down and write as often as I used to.  I think there are two reasons for this.

One is Alex.  When I was at my most prolific during the first few months of "Raising Alexandra," Alex was largely non-mobile.  Once she got active, and mobile, my writing trailed off -- faced with a choice of interacting with her or sitting down and crafting some paragraphs, the writing slowed down.  And she certainly hasn't gotten any less active or less mobile since then.

The other is work.  When I have an argument to prepare for, I try to be as single-minded as I can in the weeks leading up to the argument date.  Of course, I have other cases and other work obligations going on, but even with those, I try to push as much and as many of those obligations to the side as the argument approaches.  That means any extracurricular writing -- like this blog -- dries up completely.

With that in mind, let's review my schedule over the past six months or so.

September 1, 2009:  Get call telling us we have a new daughter.
September 8, 2009:  Pick up said new daughter, Ft. Worth, TX.
October 6, 2009:  Federal Circuit argument, Washington, DC.
November 4, 2009:  Federal Circuit argument, Houston, TX.
December 10, 2009:  Federal Circuit argument, Washington, DC.
December 14, 2009:  Argument in federal district court, Boston, MA.
January 4, 2010:  Federal Circuit argument, Washington, DC.
February 2, 2010:  Federal Circuit argument, Washington, DC.

So since Ella-Anne arrived, almost six months ago, I have either been preparing for, presenting, or recovering from presenting, arguments.  No wonder my last entry was over a month ago.

But, thankfully, I have March off from arguments (I should be back at it in April and May, however), so I'm back at the keyboard today.  Let's recap.

First of all, Happy Valentine's Day to one and all (or, as one of my Facebook friends/work colleagues describes it, Happy Singles Awareness Day).  Happy Valentine's Day especially to my bride of almost 10 years, the preternaturally youthful Jane Castanias. 

It is a testament to the strength of our relationship -- or, perhaps, to the size of our house -- that we enjoyed being stranded at home from the evening of Thursday, February 4, through the morning of Friday, February 12, thanks to a 30" snowstorm followed only a few days later by a blizzard containing another 14" of snow.  Not once did it seem like one of us was about to drive the other one nuts. 

Alex, on the other hand, occasionally tested our sanity.  At one point she was so wound up about being trapped inside that I took her down to the basement and told her to run laps.  "I'm exercising!" she repeatedly pronounced.  "I'm exercising!"

Ella-Anne continues to be the calmest human being I've ever met, wth the only challenge being her recent teething.  As I noted in my December 23 post, Alex got her first tooth around March 1; Ella-Anne's first two have already emerged (both on the bottom front, like Alex's first two).  It appears that she's getting another one, if saliva production is any indicator.  Despite her overall easygoing nature, though, we are beginning to see signs of a temper.  It appears that Ella-Anne will wait out just about any inonvenience, but only up to a point.  Then she just gets pi--, ahem, ticked off.  "Mad Baby" is what Jane calls it; I call it Wet Hen with a Touch of Evil.

She's also started solid foods in the last couple of weeks.  That is, if you consider pureed sweet potatoes mixed with formula to be a "solid." 

Beyond that, she's talking up a blue streak right now.  Most of it is gibberish, but it really seems like she's trying to communicate.  To me, it sounds like "Aggle Flaggle Klabble.  Blaggle Plabble.  Lumpy Flappy.  Snurp." 

The four of us just finished Valentine's Day dinner about an hour ago.  (With all due respect to those who ate out in restaurants with their sweethearts tonight, Valentine's Day is Amateur Night for Eaters in the same way that New Year's Eve is Amateur Night for Drinkers.)  I askd Alex this morning what we should make for Mommy for Valentine's Day dinner; she thought about it for a minute (with an audible "Hmmmmmm"), and pronounced "Chicken Pot Pie!"  Now, to the best of my knowledge, Alex has never had a Chicken Pot Pie in her three-and-a-half years.  But that was what she said, and since (as is my motto) I JUST WORK HERE, I went to the store to purchase the ingredients for the requested Chicken Pot Pie. 

And some other stuff.

First course:  Butternut squash ravioli with sage brown butter:

Second course:  Chicken pot pie with a puff pastry cap:

Third course:  Maple souffle served with a maple sabayon sauce and whipped cream:

A la Iron Chef America, "The Secret Ingredient is . . . TIME."

But you don't want food photos, you want GIRLS!  GIRLS!  GIRLS!

Here, Alex prepares to brave the Oakton tundra on February 8 (after first storm but before the blizzard):

Here she is outside in the driveway (sticking out her tongue at the camera is a favorite pasttime):

Ella-Anne is sitting up with almost no help:

One of my favorites -- Ella-Anne asleep in Mommy's arms, face-planted into her toy lamb:

Alex, in her costume of alter ego "Clara," attempts to hold her baby sister:

The aftermath of Ella-Anne's first solid food (oatmeal):

Finally, allow me this observation.  I now have irrefutable proof that men are just larger boys.  As I was driving to the store this morning to obtain the supplies for Valentine's Day dinner, I found myself feeling sad that the 40+" of snow was cleared from the roads, and was melting (somewhat) in the bright sun.  My sadness was directly related to the fact that when the snow disappears from the roads like this, there's no way school will be cancelled.  After a few moments of this melancholy, I realized:  YOU'RE ALMOST FORTY-FIVE YEARS OLD.  YOU DON'T GO TO SCHOOL.  YOU WORK WHETHER THE OFFICE IS CLOSED OR NOT.  YOU DRIVE A REAR-WHEEL-DRIVE CAR THAT SUCKS IN THE SNOW.  YOU CAN'T TAKE MUCH MORE OF BEING COOPED UP IN THE HOUSE.  YOU WANT THE SNOW TO MELT AND THE ROADS TO BE CLEAR.

Yet, despite that obvious intellectual truth, my visceral, emotional self was the same 13-year-old boy sitting in the Northview Junior High School library, sketching out what the forecasted "ice topped with snow topped with ice" would do to the roads the next day.  The same 13-year-old boy who got up early on potential snow days to listen to WIBC-AM 1070 for the school-closing announcements, hoping to hear "Washington Township Schools, closed" so that he could go back to bed without guilt.

Of course, my wife would tell you that she already knew I was 13 years old.  She knew that from my sense of humor. 

It was so cold in Central Park today, I saw a squirrel winterizing his nuts.

Christmas, RSV, and Papou

"Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a very common virus that leads to mild, cold-like symptoms in adults and older healthy children. It can be more serious in young babies, especially to those in certain high-risk groups."  "Young babies" includes Ella-Anne, and it's been a bit of a whirlwind these last few weeks because of that.

Right after Christmas, Alex was sniffling a fair amount, and coughing occasionally.  At that time, my biggest fear was that I was going to get sick while preparing for my January 6 oral argument for DIRECTV.  What we didn't bank on was a respiratory infection that was reducing Ella-Anne's "O2 sats" (I thought I would only hear that term on "ER" and other medical shows) down to 92, and had her on the cusp of hospitalization.  Fortunately for us, antibiotics, repeated nebulizer treatments, and our outstanding pediatricians kept us from the ER, and now Ella-Anne is on the mend.

(For the record, I did get her cold, the day before my argument, but adrenaline and Vitamin C powered me through, and we achieved this victory, only two days after the argument -- for all practical purposes ending a five-year patent battle in which the plaintiff's suit at the beginning threatened the very existence of DIRECTV, and ended with all of its patent claims invalidated by the courts and by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.)

But Christmas, Christmas, Christmas.  Ella-Anne got a new bouncer-seat:

And Alex got Cinderella's Castle:

And some new Disney Princess jammies:

And a Tiana dress (from "The Princess and the Frog"):
 

 
In which she danced with her Daddy:
 

 
Until she fell asleep:
 

 
Mommy got a sous vide machine:
 

 
In which she made this delicious beef tenderloin for Christmas dinner:
 

 
Which she served at this table:
 

 
With these girls (and Daddy, and Papou) present with Mommy:
 

 

 
It was the best Christmas ever.
 

 
One of the best parts of the best Christmas ever was having Papou with us for a whole month (December 2 to January 2).  He'd probably still be here if he didn't miss his doggie, Brittie.  We look forward to having him back for another long stay.