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Christmas 2002

Christmas 2002 was low key and relaxing as we unwound from our whirlwind first month with Niamh. We got our tree put up, after much battling with the tree stand, which included a partial dissassemble so I could reseat the tree properly on the base pedestal about 8 or 9 times. This is the type of exercise that really puts one into the holiday mood, as I imagine replacing a carburetor in an 82 Oldsmobile might.

Tracy did the tree decorating, and when Christmas day rolled around, Niamh donned a Christmas dress, and posed with Mommy in front of the tree. Click on the Frame above. After a batch of pictures taken using natural light had to be discarded, we got the right prescription and got a great series. A few more pictures are included Here and Here.
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Visitors from afar

Niamh has had a number of visitors from abroad, including Grandma Betty visiting from Ireland, and Uncle Leonard (and honorary Aunt Carolyn) from Australia. She's now one month old, and has grown to twenty two inches, and nearly ten and one half pounds. The pediatrician says if her eyes remain their current blue color for three months, they will probably stay that way, which would make daddy very happy. Of course, the real news, is I finally got a selection of photos from Grandma Betty's visit. Click Niamh for the gallery.
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Kick-n-play

Niamh is 17 days old today. Yesterday we assembled one of her first toys, a Fischer Price Kick 'n Play Bouncer. To my surprise the chair worked very much as advertised and seemed to be incredibly fascinating to her. It features touch sensitive pads where her feet reach, and given the right level of agitation, she is capable of setting off a number of different chimes and short songs, accompanied by flashing lights. She reaches for the dangling items which extend from the bar, but is not currently able to reach them. Click on the smiley sun toy for a picture of Niamh in action.

Although the chair requires 4 batteries none are included. My god, shouldn't this fact be written in large letters across the box! Luckily like all men, I am genetically predisposed towards hording a variety of batteries, and squirreling them in various locations around the house. I readily admit to a strange compulsion that causes my hand to involuntarily throw a package of batteries (lately the NIMH rechargeable variety are especially alluring) into whatever shopping cart or basket I might have available to me. It might not even be my basket, and no doubt many a stranger has found themselves the unwitting owner of a new set of 4 AA's whilst unpacking the shopping bags at home. No doubt I'm not alone, as batteries seem to be one of the common impulse buy items that every retailer no matter what their focus, likes to put on the shelves in the checkout aisle. Show me a woman who professes to have no need for a man, and I'll show you a woman with an inadequate supply of batteries.
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New residents and digital sunsets

Betty is visiting and getting some quality time with her new Grandchild Niamh. For interested parties, I have a small Niamh update photo. The latest photo features the amazing two arms raised sleep position. I know this is another sleeping baby photo, but heck, newborns are supposed to sleep a lot. This picture was taken in the Rolston family bassinet, which was purported to have provided a resting place for my father, myself, and now Niamh. Unfortunately I'm not sure it will make it to a 4th generation of Rolstons as the base is crumbling, but one never knows.

All the recent photos have been taken with a Nikon Coolpix 995 a 3.34 megapixel digital camera. Tracy gave me the camera last Christmas and it took me nearly a year to get it out of the box and start using it, but I must admit it's an amazing techno-gadget. Between learning how to take care of a baby (and documenting this process to a degree with images for the website), I have managed to snap a few landscape photo's, and put a page together with a mixture of the more interesting shots. There's views south and north, all taken the last few days, which in typical LA winter fashion have come after days of sweltering heat, followed by high winds, and now rain. I've found that rain and wind often combines to produce some of the most beautiful atmospheric conditions and sunsets, and I've attempted to capture a few here.
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The Fairy princess

Niamh Elizabeth Rolston was born on November of 2002 at 5:24am, in Los Angeles, California. Dr. Peter Weiss delivered her at the Cedar Sinai medical center after roughly twenty hours of labor by Tracy.

Niamh weighed in at 8lbs, 7oz, and was 20 and 3/4 inches long. As for her name Niamh (pronounced as Neeve) it's Gaelic meaning "luster, shine, radiance, brilliance". Niamh is also the name of a faerie princess from celtic mythology:

One day while out hunting with Finn and the Fena, Oisin (the son of Finn) saw a beautiful maiden on a white steed ride swiftly towards them. As she came slowly to the presence of Finn, he addressed her courteously in these words, "Who art thou, O lovely youthful princess? Tell us thy name and the name of thy country, and relate to us the cause of thy coming". She answered in a sweet and gentle voice, "Noble king of the Fena, I am the daughter of the king of Tir na nog and my name is Niamh of the Golden Hair. I love thy noble son Oisin; and this is what has brought me to Erin." She took Oisin on her white steed to Tir na nog, the land of never ending youth. The steed galloped swiftly and smoothly towards the west, till he reached the strand; and then moved over the face of the sea with the speed of a cloud-shadow on a March day....


In a similar familial vein, I recently scanned a few old (and somewhat damaged) pictures from Tracy's youth, and did some retouching. Those photo's are available here
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Baby Gizmo



It's been a while since I did a mainpage update. Came across a couple of classic old photos taken by my old college roommate Peter Fong, and decided to do a rescan. These were taken when we had an apartment in Redondo Beach across from the ocean, and Giz was still just a puppy. These were pretty badly damaged, but thanks to Adobe Photoshop they're looking pretty good again, at least in the online form. This scan was a lot better than the original one which has been on the site for a long time. Click on either photo for the fullsize version in the gallery.
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