First visit to the “zoo”
On Saturday, while in the middle of errands, 
helloheather and I stopped off with Nathan at the local PetSmart (tm). It's something I've wanted to do for a while now but kept forgetting or running out of time.
Because it was a Saturday, there were many dog owners (and their dogs) in the store. This, of course, leads immediately to problems with dogs reacting violently to the presence of other dogs. Not all, of course, but those that do are very vocal about it.
So, seeing Nathan's initial shock of walking into the canine version of Fight Club, we headed over to the fish tanks. He was fascinated with them to say the least, especially when we went over to the tanks full of goldfish. So many small shapes shimmering and moving, sometimes as a group and others seemingly in chaos is enough to attract anyones attention, let alone Nathan's. After spending some time there, we headed over to the section of birds where parakeets and finches fluttered and squawked. We were treated to a similar reaction of wonderment, and even a little surprise when a couple of the birds flew and landed on the wires of the cage a few inches from his face.
It seems like such a silly small thing but to me it was such a joy to be able to do. I feel this overwhelming responsibility to introduce the world to Nathan. Even though he doesn't comprehend what he sees, that he's able to show interest and enjoyment at observing The New fills me with happiness.
Nathan – photos from November
Photos of Nathan from November have been uploaded and captioned:
http://www.bernhard.us/photos/nathan-112006
I'm slowly catching up 
“frozen” on Chicago Public Radio
A recent photo of mine was selected for today's photo on ChicagoPublicRadio.org
A relationship strained
Because the 30 deg F high today is going to be the warmest it will be all week, I took the opportunity to walk up to Gamma in order to drop of my recently completed roll of film from my pinhole camera. The camera takes 120 roll film and, given how poorly my last rolls of film faired at the hands of Wolf Camera (who sends it out to who knows where), I thought it better to let the professionals do the processing.
I've not been to Gamma in a long while (because I've not been shooting 120 film or 35mm slide film recently) and so I did not know that they've instituted a minimum charge of $10 for all orders. As I only wanted my film developed (normally a $5.50 charge) I now have to pay $10.90 for the same service. This additional cost has put something of a strain on my already tenuous relationship with film.
I enjoy film, especially the much larger negatives produced by 120 film. I don't subscribe to "Film vs. Digital" arguments because film and digital image capture are not mutually exclusive. Film is simply a different medium than digital just like painting is different than sculpture.
Shooting with my Holga camera and my pinhole (both of which take 120 film) is a /fun/ process. It's so different than shooting digital or even 35mm film. But using these cameras, due to the film, is also a pretty significant expense. Or rather, my approach to photography means shooting film is very expensive, especially if you're looking at anything outside the color (C41) 35mm world. The most cost-effective solution to shooting film actually seems to be to return to true B&W photography. Souping your own chemicals and developing your own film at home can be done for pennies, but requires a decent buy-in of hardware and is time consuming.
The middle-ground of "occasional" film users is now washed away. The digital market has reduced demand far enough that consolidation and elimination of luxuries like inexpensive 3rd party processing for the amateur is, at least in Chicago, a thing of the past. Couple this with the amount of work it takes to either print the images or scan them (at questionable quality) and I have to closely examine my relationship with film. Digital's low cost per-shot has made film's expenses too large to be comfortable with anymore. Yet I've maintain a fridge full of film waiting to be shot…nay, wanting to be shot.
I'm not sure how to proceed. Sell the film at a considerable loss? Use the film at considerable expense of both time and money? There's no clear path.
cetan dot org RSS feed – thumbnails
The RSS feed for cetan.org has been modified to allow non-cropped thumbnail images. helloheather pointed out after she added the feed to Livejournal that the thumbnails were all crops of the original images. I finally made some time to fix that, so now what you see in the thumbnail should be what you see in the full size image.
Also, I've been enjoying the daily updates a lot as it keeps me on my toes, but I'm worried about running out of images to post. Between the weather and the A80 being in the shop I've had fewer chances to find new images.
Proof of Concept
About a week and a half ago, Nathan demonstrated to us just how much he's grown. While on our bed he rolled from his back to his front to his back. And to prove that it wasn't just a fluke, he did it again.
And then, for a number of days, he was content to stick with his usual front-to-back rolling. Until this weekend, that is.
I believe we can officially say that Nathan is mobile. He has figured out that he can use rolling to get places. Usually not very far, as he's likely to run into a toy or a piano bench or some other obstacle along the way, but mobile nonetheless.
It's a frightening prospect, this mobility. It's a big....er...step and my brain is taking a bit to come to terms with the implications.
Last week we also started Nathan on his first solid food: banana. In true fashion, a picture is worth a thousand words. And so I present Nathan & The Banana:
He seems to be satisfied that, yes, he too can eat food like mom and dad do. But he seems less than compelled that it's something he actually wishes to continue with. Bananas may be on the back-burner for a bit.
Relative cold
It's cold out, but it's not. Not really anyway.
It's 29 deg F right now and with the wind it feels like 24. Relative to our recent temperatures, this is a drop of about 25 degrees. But this is winter and it's supposed to be this cold. I've been placated by the above-average temperatures and now I /feel/ the cold. It makes me want to stay inside during lunch instead of heading out for a walk. It bites at my face and my saps the batteries in my camera.
I feel like a wimp for needing a hat, gloves, and neck gator to walk around. I'm a Chicagoan for crying-out-loud.
In other news, tomorrow will have 1m 22s more daylight than today. Climb sun, climb!
Travels
torapines is winging her way back home after an extended stay with us. It was really nice to have her visit for so long and for Nathan to not only meet her but really take a shine to her. He gave her such big smiles the whole time, it was really wonderful to see.
helloheather's birthday was on Sunday, so Saturday with G&G Broman over to babysit, we (along with torapines, Aaron, Serena, & Charlotte, hilhas1, and gonj) headed to a local place for dinner. 'Twas a lot of fun and good to get out for an hour or two.
In other news, our Canon A80 is finally making its way to the Canon repair center in Elk Grove Village. I hope to hear from Canon in the next week regarding the Service Advisory it falls under. Best case scenario is that they simply offer us a newer camera as a replacement. Worst case would be them rejecting the claim entirely due to the body damage. We shall see.
Sharing a laugh
I've been meaning to post this photo for some time now, but it kept slipping my mind. Now that I've had some time to sort through images I rediscovered it.
somebodystrange was causing Nathan to let out peals of laughter. I think by "zooming" him to and from davesanngel but I'm not sure. Either way he was having a great time.
Six Months
I find it difficult to believe that six months ago I met Nathan for the first time. Six months ago he stared and stared at me while gripping my fingers as I stood by him in utter shock and amazement. Six months later he is sitting in my lap pulling wrapping paper off of presents, starting to babble, has two teeth, and is soon to start solid foods.
I have no idea how we got here so quickly and I cannot image how rapidly the next six months will progress.
Happy 6-month Birthday Nathan!
Insert Clever Subject Here…
I had a decent subject line picked out but now I've forgotten it. Since the busy holidays are now behind us, it's time to take stock (in reverse chronological order)
New Years
The three of us rang in the new year with Aaron, Serena, and Charlotte in Wisconsin. Dual baby wrangling left us too tired to last much past midnight, much to the chagrin of Aaron who had just arrived home from work at 11:45pm... Sorry man, I wish I were a younger me.
Watching Nathan and Charlotte interact this weekend was a joy. Getting a glimpse of what the future holds in terms of behavior and requirements for parenthood was sobering and at the same time exciting.
A Week of Christmas
Christmas gatherings of family occurred on:
Saturday, December 29th
Tuesday, December 26th
Monday (evening) December 25th
Monday (afternoon) December 25th
Monday (morning) December 25th
Sunday December 24th
Saturday December 23rd
And at each event, Nathan was a joy. He was happy to see everyone (and there were a lot of everyones to see) and rarely fussed. It was amazing. He learned that wrapping paper is possibly the Best. Toy. Ever. and that each has its own unique taste. And with three sets of grandparents, there was a /ton/ of wrapping paper to go around
helloheather and I hosted our first Christmas event this year, with my parents, my sister, and my maternal grandmother and paternal grandfather coming for an afternoon meal. All in all it went very well.
In the mean time...
Between this all we visitied tinyprayers for dinner on the 28th, had 2 motor mounts repaired and new brakes put on helloheather's car, visited helloheather's paternal grandmother, tried to get some sort of grocery shopping done (it never goes well when I try to do the shopping and this was no exception), cleaned the house, ran about a zillion errands, and spent some time at the donut shop.
What I didn't get done was processing of all the photography (at least we got it sorted and started to cull a bit) and a couple in-house projects I was hoping to finally complete.
Being on vacation from the 21st until today was very nice. The holidays took up more time than I had realized they would, but being able to spend so much time with Nathan and helloheather was wonderful. I miss them both dearly and I wish I could spend time home like this more often.