Welcome home Grandma & Grandpa DeWoody

Can't wait to give you big hugs and kisses!!

Playtime with daddy

A couple quick shots of Nattie and daddy during tummy time.

Features, feeding, and feeds

Need to bump that politics off the top of the page.

I've added some features to the side bar over there <---

• The Quotes of the Week are archived and you can comment on them there.
• Now you can see the first few lines of the latest posts from our friends' blogs and click over to their sites to read the rest.
• A new "Side Dishes" blog of cool links (that's actually been running over at David Yow's Blog for quite a while)
• And feeds!

I know most people don't care about feeds, but you will someday, and we here at Baby NRM! are just a bit ahead of the curve. If you happen to use a feed reader (like the very easy to use Bloglines or Google's really cool new Google Reader—which are both free) you can subscribe to our main feed to get all the new posts plus there are feeds of all the new features too!

Baby NRM! (this is the new FeedBurner version which you should switch to because, well, it's better)

Quote of the Week

Latest from Friends' Blogs (It would make a lot more sense to subscribe to all their blogs individually so you get the full text instead of just the snippet.)

Side Dishes

Voting Advice

Yes, the Voter Guide is rather intimidating this year. Nationally, there are a record number of ballot measures—although the 13 (plus local measures) for California is nothing like the 20 we had in March of 2000—and they can all start to be a jumble. Here are some tips for sorting them out.

1. When in doubt, vote no. If a measure doesn't pass, nothing changes. Less laws are usually better than more laws and if the legislature just packed up and went home for a few years we'd all better off. Same for ballot measures. In addition, legislating by initiative is messy. There is no opportunity for debate or amending less than ideal parts to make a better law. Far too often the legislature doesn't do it's job, but it is, in fact, it's job, and it is better suited to doing it than the initiative process is. A measure worth supporting is rare enough that you'll probably know about it.
   
   
2. Bonds are credit cards. When the legislature doesn't have enough money to do whatever they want to do, they put a bond on the ballot, borrow the money, then we (or our kids) have to pay that money back plus interest. It's the same as making decisions for your own finances. You wouldn't pay interest on a 30 year loan for groceries, but for a house it might make sense. That's the same criteria you should use when thinking about bonds.
   
   
3. The enemy of your friend is your enemy. Look at who is for or against the measure. If you see someone you trust vote with them. If you see someone you know you generally disagree with, vote against them.
   
   
4. The web is your friend. A lot of people know a lot of stuff out there in the big collection of tubes that make up the internets. Here is a sample Google search. Just make sure you're looking at the right year and the right election. When two reliable sources disagree you'll have to do your own homework.
   
   
5. What would Tom do? You can't go wrong following his advice.
   
   
6. Limiting government: Good. I added this one after I found this guy doing that Google search above (there were a couple intermediary steps). Can't argue with that.
   

Ok, here are my recommendations. Except for the two I have comments on, I pretty much line up wholeheartedly with the arguments at those last two links. They're worth checking out.

• Prop. 1A – Transportation Funding YES
• Prop. 1B – Transportation Bond NO
• Prop. 1C – Housing Bond NO
• Prop. 1D – Education Bond NO
• Prop. 1E – Levee Bond YES
• There are good arguments on both sides of this one but it's not often you'll see McClintock supporting a bond and, well, we live in Sacramento.
  
• Prop. 83 – Jessica’s Law NO
• Again, good arguments on both sides as you can see in the links above. In addition, Arnold has signed legislation that goes a long way toward increasing these penalties and this measure could very well go too far. I'd rather see the legislature do its job. (See #1, above)
  
• Prop. 84 – Park Bond NO
• Prop. 85 – Parental Notification YES
• Prop. 86 – Cigarette Tax NO
• Prop. 87 – Oil Tax NO
• Prop. 88 – Parcel Tax NO
• Prop. 89 – Taxpayer Funding of Campaigns NO
• Prop. 90 – Protect Our Homes YES

Ok, fine, here's a picture: Nate's not too sure what he thinks about this whole election process, yet.

Another adorable Duran to add to the fam!!

Born this morning, Daniel Joseph weighs in at a mere 7lbs 6ozs and is 19 1/2 inches long making him the tiniest Duran yet! Mommy, of course, looks like a million bucks, making this whole birth thing look easy! And dad looks pretty good too for having a few hours of sleep under his belt. You guys couldn't be any cuter! We are so happy to welcome little Daniel to the RCG family! Love you guys!

Nathan's thoughts on mommy's photo shoot...

For Nicole

Josie and Satchmo entertain themselves outside...

An update and promise fulfilled...

Rodney has asked me a number of times to post pictures, stories, and the like of Nathan periodically when I had the chance. As of late, the chance has been few and far between, but seeing as our little guy has just gone down for a nap....here it goes...




My single claim to Irish blood and heritage comes from this man....my wee little Irish grandfather (who even wears green!) We went to So. Cal a few weekends back to celebrate my mom's retirement and were delighted to visit with grandpa, now great-grandpa, (who flew out from Chicago) and Nicole, who had not seen Nate since the week after coming home from the hospital. For those keeping tabs...Nicole plans to be home (i.e. Sacramento) by the end of this month.

Rodney and I also got to visit with some other friends and family while we were there.



In more recent days however, we have passed the 8 week mark! Nathan grows heavier and bigger everyday. He now will look at you and laugh and will try to reach out and touch things. He even takes his daytime naps in his big boy bed.



All this and the curtains and ceiling fan hold his greatest attention. Although daddy does try everyday to spend lots of time with Nate and teach him how to be a rugged man.



But some lessons are sweeter than others...

Sleepy time

We know 10 days without a picture of Baby Nate is simply inexcusable so here are a couple for his fans (and me so I can look at them at work). He's awake for longer periods of time now but he still sleeps more than anything else.