New Adventures

As some of you know, on June 8th (two days shy of my 30th birthday!) I'm stepping away from The Nature Conservancy, my employer and second home for the past seven years. I've had an incredible time at TNC; I started as a temp rearranging office furniture, followed that with a stint as receptionist, and eventually worked as Operations support for our conservation programs along California's North Coast, Sierra Nevada mountains and Klamath River basin. Anyone whose had a chance to visit the Mendocino Coast, the Feather River or Mt. Shasta knows that these are some of the most beautiful places anywhere in the country, and it was a tremendous privilege to work towards their protection.

So why leave? With Mather at such a young age, now is the perfect time for her to be home with a parent. I have the opportunity to study Library Science through San José State University, which has a largely online curriculum. I can earn a Master's Degree and raise my daughter at the same time. This is a chance I cannot pass up!


Why library science? Why be a librarian? Perhaps a quote from my application essay would be appropriate:

"Librarianship is a distinctive career path. Few professions combine the intellectual stimulation, the academic environment, and genuine public service in such a compelling way. From a personal perspective, the profession offers me a chance to combine my passions for literature, history and technology. While my career path up until now has been quite fulfilling, librarianship fulfills a sense of service and of community involvement that I aspire to."

I've thought long about where I see myself and what I want to be doing with my life. I enjoy the educational and academic setting of the library, and I'm attracted by a sense of community service. I'm also inspired by the historic legacy of the librarian -- after all, compendiums of knowledge are a defining aspect of civilization; the founding of ancient libraries by Assyrian kings and Egyptian Pharaohs were keystone events in human history.

Modern librarians use research tools unimaginable 3,200 years ago when the first known library was built. My own interest and skill with computers and in online research -- not to mention my love of books and reading -- will pay dividends in the Master's program and my future profession.

In the immediate future, I'll spend the summer Mather-tending and start school in mid-August. New adventures await!

Reuniting old friends and making a new friend

Last week, a few days before The Nature Conservancy baby picnic extravaganza, Mather met a new friend - Parker Jane (P.J.) Corbal...



P.J. is the three-month old daughter (Happy 3rd Lunaversary P.J.!) of my college friend Erin. Erin and I were dorm hallmates our freshman and sophomore years. Erin and her husband Rick live in Southern California. I haven't seen Erin in a few years but fortunately, Rick's family is in the Bay Area so we should be able to get the girls together every few months.

The highlight of the evening was discovering Mather's tendency towards kleptomania. Daniel was holding Mather in his arms while P.J. was relaxing in Erin's arms (kinda like the pictures above). Mather reached out to stroke P.J.'s arm, then... BAM!... Mather steals P.J.'s pacifier and goes to put it in her own mouth. Needless to say, it was hilarious and you can see that the second time around, we made sure that Mather already had her own pacifier.

We hope the kiddie hijinks continue during our next playdate at the end of June!

Party at the Playground

Today, the Ransom clan picnicked with two other new families -- Kristen & Jerrold, and their 10-month daughter "Lil Chimpy" Isabel, and Sylvia & Bruce, with their 6-month daughter Aiko. We met up at the nautically themed Union Point Park along Oakland's waterfront to see how the munchkins would interact.

The best moment came when the toys were pulled out. Each baby would rather play with another baby's toy, so they kept trying to steal from each other. Various colorful gizmos, toy rattles, fabric books and plush animals went back and forth with nary a tarnished conscience. You'd think all three were only children! Of course, since Isabel is the biggest and can crawl, she ended up with the largest toy collection, only to ignore her hoard in favor of stealing my water bottle.

Aiko, Isabel and Mather play spin the bottle.

Sumo Babies!

"Where are the slides?"
"That way. Make your dada take you."

All smiles after playtime in the sand.

Three mommas and three tots.

It's not even windy -- that's the natural state of Chimpy's hair!

Celebrities and Sleeping

Big news... Mather nearly slept through the night all by herself! Dan had to soothe her for about a minute around 1am. Aside from that, she made not a peep from 8pm to 6:30am.

In other news... we followed the lead of Lil' Chimpy and found Mather's celebrity look alikes:

I ran a few other pictures, but this one had the most favorable results. I wasn't going to settle for Muhammad Ali and Chaka Khan!

Enjoying the sunshine

We had another weekend of glorious May sunshine. On Saturday, we celebrated Bob's 30th birthday at an Oakland A's game - Papasan was bummed that Mather's first baseball game was not her home team... go Giants! I was glad that the Cleveland Indians beat the A's - I was born in Cleveland, although I only lived there for 6 weeks.

Clockwise from top left: The Birthday Boy and Miss Magoo

Bob teaching Mather about the rally-cap
Daniel protecting a sleeping Mather with his baseball mitt
Adriane and Mather having a fun time.

On Sunday, I celebrated Mother's Day by sleeping until 9:30! I fed Mather in bed at 6:30am, then Dan took over morning duty. We spent the afternoon in Golden Gate Park. We checked in on the status of the new Children's Playground - expected completion is mid-June. Then we headed further into the park to a bustling playground where we frolicked in the grass and watched wistfully as toddlers scrambled around with the assistance of their parents. Daniel continued his Mother's Day sushi dinner tradition, but this year there were two moms to celebrate.


Mather had her six month doctor's visit today. She is now 13 pounds, 4 ounces and 25 inches tall... still on the petite side for her age, but very healthy and "following the curve".

Those of you who remember my big sleeping post will be excited to hear that we are going to start encouraging Mather to sleep through the night (the normal person definition of sleeping through the night, not the infant version). Mather has still been eating once or twice in the middle of the night. Beginning on Thursday, she will have dinner around 7:00pm and breakfast around 6:00am - no midnight snacks! I imagine it will be pretty rough, so we're waiting until Thursday night since I don't work on Friday.

We also need to fit in two solid-food feedings each day. Up until now, Mather has only had solids at dinner time, except on the four-day weekends when she is home with us. She eats iron-fortified infant rice cereal, apples, bananas, pears, avocados and prunes. Next on the menu are carrots and sweet potatoes. Except for the cereal, I've been making all of her food myself. Most fruits and vegetables just need to be steamed and pureed for her. Bananas and avocados can just get mashed with a fork. She is also learning to drink water and watered-down juice from a sippy cup.

She has definitely mastered rolling-over, her hand-eye coordination is vastly improved, and she can sit up for a few seconds all by herself...

A New York Wedding

So many days have passed and no new posts. Sorry, faithful readers! At least for the last few days we had the excuse of being in New York to see my sister Elsa's wedding. She and her fiance Chris got married on Sunday in Manhattan's Riverside Park, in a beautiful flowering grove directly above the tunnel named for him.

Chris and Elsa on their wedding day

Friday was Mather's first plane flight, a transcontinental trip no less. She was pretty good on the flight out -- I don't think our neighbors hated us, the fussing was minimal (the flight back I won't mention) -- and we arrived in the early evening with time to meet up with my folks, my sister, my Grandma, and my Manhattan-native Uncle and Aunt. Naturally we had pizza Friday night.

On Saturday we hit the Metropolitan Museum of Art to check out the new displays of Greek, Roman and Etruscan artifacts, while also taking a couple strolls through Central Park. Weather was idyllic the whole weekend and I've got to admit I just love Manhattan. The energy, bustle and crowds make San Francisco seem quiet and mellow.

Sunday was the wedding itself. It was a sweet and humble ceremony and a pleasure to witness. We picnicked with a handful of guests and fine food cooked by my mom in my patient Uncle Jeff's kitchen. Chris's cousin Jenny served as officiant. The sun came out to approve of the union.

I brought our camera and took a lot of photos. Check them out by clicking here -- there are a few photos from Saturday but most are of the wedding. You can also get to the web album by clicking on the lovely picture below!

Elsa and her nieceling

One of the side benefits of traveling to the wedding is that it finally provided a chance for my grandmother, Dorothy, to finally meet Miss Magoo. Mather is her first great-granddaughter.