Home of Steve, Christine, Katherine, Ally, Rosebud, and Rex
AOL Network Magic launched today. AOL Network Magic is a branded version of our retail product Network Magic for AOL members. There is also cool video they did to promote Network Magic. It’s a banner day at Pure Networks. Here’s a link to the AOL press release:
Network Magic, CES Day 2
Today was quite an eventful day at CES for Pure Networks and Network Magic. We demoed Network Magic at the D-Link booth and several of our industry partners stopped by to check it out. Marty, Brett, and Sherman did a great job demoing Network Magic to visitors at the booth. We left our wireless AP open so we had plenty of intruders poping on the network.
In the afternon, Steve spoke at a Park & Associates panel on Making the Home Network Work: The Role of Managed Network Services. The panel went really well and we successfully positioned Network Magic as the simple solution to making home networks work for consumers. There were 50 or so people in the audience, mainly partners and members of the participating companies.
In the evening, we found out that Network Magic got nominated as finalist for Next Big Thing Award for CES 2005. This is a huge accomplishment and validation that Network Magic is truly delivering on a clear customer need for simple home networking. Kudos to the team for building a compelling product and getting the word out there.
Today, Pure Networks announced the Public Beta of Network Magic at CES. Network Magic is the product that I and Pure Networks have been working hard on for the last year to make home networking simple. I encourage you to download it, try it out, and send me any feedback.
Home Networking Made Simple
Network Magic is the only software that makes the day-to-day use of your home network easy, intuitive and enjoyable. With Network Magic, you can:
I updated the blog last weekend, but it didn’t post for some reason (hm). So, here are two batches of pictures from our last two weekends. You can see that one of our family projects this weekend was washing our very dirty cars. Katherine took it as her personal mission to make sure that our bucket remained full of soapy water – “more soap.” She must have put several tablespoons of dishwashing soap into the bucket. She even decided that “tata” had her own towel! The amusing part of this story is that Steve decided to futz with a PC to get some music. About 20 minutes later, I had finished the sedan and K had started in on the wagon! One hour later our cars were washed, vacuumed and wiped down. We even excavated K’s car seats.
Shiver
One of Katherine’s new words when she’s cold is “shiver.” On Sunday, she got sopping wet and we ended up stripping her and changing her clothes. Last night, I walked in the house and found K standing at the back door. She looked very unhappy, saying “Shiver….hold me.” So, I pulled her up and within 30 seconds, she had gotten sick all over me. I was racing up the stairways and to the bathway, thereby ensuring that Steve had quite the cleanup job. ๐
She doesn’t really have a fever, just a slight 99.5 at most. But, she does have a slight stomach bug. Tonight she had crackers and applesauce for a quick snack. What’s unheard of for her is that she sat on my “lap” and read books tonight. We watched 10 minutes of Olympic swimming (TV is a treat only when she’s sick!), with her cuddled on a pillow under a blanket on the couch. It’s amazing, even when she’s sick she still kept me on my toes tonight.
Swim Party
We went to a swim party this past Saturday to celebrate a friend’s birthday. Part of the fun was watching Steve blow up some of the plastic animals. Well, it took a while but Katherine finally ventured onto a plastic bee with Steve. ๐
We had a wonderful Father’s day. We woke up super early courtesy of Katherine and played around the house until 10AM. Our friends with their children then showed up on their bikes – we popped Katherine in her Chariot and took off for the local watershed park. About half way through the ride, Katherine was slumped over snoozing in her Chariot. Predictably though she woke up on the way back because of some tough bumps that jostled her out of her nap. We went home showered, grabbed some food and headed off to a friend’s house for more play time. Katherine loved her friend Audrey’s green jeep. Audrey took Katherine for a brief ride and it was a hoot to see Katherine clutching the handle in front of her and loving the experience. While the other children played, she lurked around Audrey’s Jeep finally sitting in the driver’s seat tapping the gas. We took K home, gave her a bath, cooled her down (it was HOT today!) and put her down for a nap.
After her nap, we headed into Redmond and checked out a local children’s toy store. This is where we learned what Steve really wanted for father’s day (but didn’t get from me) – a Brio railroad set! We picked up a super jumbo railroad set (156 pieces) and Thomas train table that fits under Katherine’s crib. After a quick dinner and shopping, K and Steve spent the rest of the evening putting the table together and selecting which train parts to start with. It was really funny to see Steve put together an intricate table design and gradually take more and more parts off the table as Katherine threw them around. We finally ended up with a simple oval track and 3 train cars. ๐ I guess we’ve got a lot of upside yet still out of this table. Good news is that Katherine loved sitting on the table and playing with the track and cars.
What did Steve get for Father’s day? I’ll post the pictures soon, but Steve and K got matching t-shirts. One says “Katherine’s Daddy” and the other says “Daddy’s little girl.” Both have drawn and labeled pictures of a little girl and daddy. What was extremely cool was that Katherine pointed to the t-shirt and said “Katrine” and “daddy” – this was the first time she’s ever said her name!!
Pictures from the Last Month
We’ve been delinquent in posting new pictures, so here’s a fresh batch. You can see that Katherine is still growing like a weed. I tell people that Katherine is over half my height! 33″ at her last doctor’s appt vs. 61.5″ my height. She’s also still really skinny at just under 22 lbs. We put her in 2T clothing which fits lengthwise but is too baggy. Or we put her in 18 mo which is a tad short but fits well otherwise. It’s a great problem to have. ๐
Sense of Humor
Katherine is developing a real sense of humor. The smallest things make her laugh. For instance, we were at a local children’s store buying PJs with feet. Steve and Katherine were checking out the sunglasses which were only 2 for $5. Steve would hand Katherine a pair, help her put them on, and then she would come running down the aisle with a big smile. It was almost like she was saying “look, ma, check out the glasses!” The more outrageous the glasses, the bigger the smile. We ended up getting two pink sunglasses, including the big round glasses in the picture and a more 70’s pair. She just laughed and laughed when we got home and put them on. She kept trying to put them on my head and I would keep telling her they didn’t fit.
Blossoming Vocabulary
Taking a cue from other moms, I started a list of Katherine’s words on the fridge. She knows over 70 words now!! Many of them just come out. For instance, we got her a long shovel for playing at the park in the sand and she ran around all afternoon yesterday waving the shovel (ow!) and saying “shuvel.” Certain words make her laugh like “stinky.” We tell her that Bisco is stinky and she giggles. We also ask “is Dada stinky?” and she’ll run to and sniff Steve’s knee. This is probably not a habit worth getting into but it’s really, really funny.
She’s also putting two words together. Today she said “more juice.” It’s still sporadic but she’s getting the idea of conversation. As we put the box of train parts and table into the car, Katherine kept pointing to the car and saying “box.” I then explained that Daddy had bought the box and it contained a choo choo train. We then had an interesting dialog where I would ask “what’s in the box” and she would say quietly “choo choo ….” and then “daddy.”
I can tell that she knows where she’s going now. As we pulled into Larry’s, Katherine said “shop” several times. She then said “houme” totally unprompted as we got within a few miles of home.
The Lamb Saga Continues
It’s now unclear whether the latest shipment of lambs to our local gift store will contain Lambey. We’re keeping our fingers crossed, since the store owner ordered every lamb that the manufacturer carries. We were in Gilman Village yesterday and I was shopping for a baby gift for our new nephew. I walked into our favorite clothing store and first thing saw a lamb that looked 90% like Lambey hanging in the display. I disregarded it because it was clear that this wasn’t going to pass the replacement test. So, I continued to shop. Katherine and Steve walked in two minutes later. First thing, Katherine points to the lamb and says “wawa” (Lambey) and gets all excited. So, we got it down and asked her if she liked it. She hugged it and we were sold (or rather we bought the lamb). Of course, she doesn’t think that this is Lambey. We call it Mama Lambey. She gets a big kick out of it.
Our trip to Whistler
Overall, Katherine loved being at Whistler – the trip there was another thing. We were running late the Friday before Memorial day and got a late start. As a result, we stopped only a couple times during the 5 hour trip to Whistler. At the end of the trip, I was in the back seat singing and singing and helping K play with these magnetic boards. We have a Mr. Potato magnetic board. She would take the glasses and put them up to her eyes, Lambey’s eyes and mine. This was about 30 minutes of the trip. Needless to say we left early on Monday AM and took our time heading back home.
There were some funny moments during our Whistler trip. Katherine experienced milkshakes for the first time. We stopped at Cows, an ice cream shop in the village. Steve got a cookies & cream milkshake and made the mistake of asking Katherine if she wanted any. Did she want any? She drank almost the entire shake. We asked her “can dada have some milkshake?” and she said “no.” Finally, I said “can mama have some milkshake” and she gave me a half empty cup! Given that she was such a good traveler the way home, we stopped at a local diary and got her a vanilla milkshake (see third to last picture). Our instructions were not to drink it too fast – of course she did and got brain freeze. Poor kid. ๐
Other funny moment was having to share her chariot with another baby. We rode to and from the village with both kids. On the way home, both girls feel deep asleep which is why you can’t see Katherine’s face.
I’m going to have to provide feedback to our web site provider, since I just lost my original posting. Let’s try this post again…
Katherine needs to go back to the pool! She’s been doing little froggie pushups in her bath – pushing up and down on her arms while leaning on her knees. She then leans forward and blows a bubble or two in the water. She then sits up and laughs out loud. She’s really getting the hang of being in the water and I think she’d enjoy some of our water baby exercises now. Apparently, she’s been floating on her back in her bath – so this is a good sign!
Katherine loves her ABC book. We flipped through it at least 2 times tonight, pointing to different objects. She would point at objects and we’d say the word. Occasionally, she would say the word too. Unprompted, we got “abble” and “egh.” Once we said the word, we got “babee” and “dohl” for doll. This morning, she grabbed Patty’s house key and said “dohr” for door.
We went mountain biking on Sunday morning. We strapped Katherine into her Chariot (it’s got a neck harness and seat belt) and we went careening thru a nearby park set of trails. Luckily, we put down the clear plastic cover on the Chariot, because it got covered in mud and dirt. Nevertheless, she seemed to do well – munching on raisins and asking for “agua” (e.g. Steve’s water bottle). The only time she made any sort of noise was when Steve would go down the steeper trails with wooden bars – then we’d hear “ahhh ahhh ahh” along with the bumps. I asked her this morning “Did you have fun with Daddy biking and did he go fast?” I got vigorous head nodding and smiling. I guess that means we’ll be biking again. Unfortunately, Steve’s bike gave up the ghost and two links, so Tina towed Katherine home from the park.