Well Abby is right at 2 months old now and growing crazier by the day. She tries to communicate all the time, cooing and cawing until her heart’s content. She’s in a bit of a fussy stage lately, especially at night, but hopefully that will pass. She loves to sit on the table with us now and look around while kicking her legs in the air. Click here to see a movie of her on the table. Click here to see another movie of her on the table. 
Look at the last one. She’ll hold onto things now when you put them in her hands! Not for very long, but still. She also likes to try and hit things with her hand, whether it’s a milk carton or a poster by her changing table. She’s getting pretty good at it too. We practice every night. We had a good Halloween with quite a few trick or treaters. We almost ran out of candy. 
She even dressed up as a hapless football player: 
With all this activity, sometimes she just gets fed up: 
Mostly though she’s just been our sweet little girl. 
Visit from Grandparents
This weekend Abby got to hang out with her grammy and grandpa from Medford. They came up to visit us all for a couple of days and got to see a big little girl! Abby continues to grow like crazy and is eating all the time.
Grammy and grandpa babysat for us on Saturday night so that we could go to an auction at the Portland Art Museum. It was pretty fun, with a lot of good food to sample.
Here is a picture of Abby reading with her grammy and grandpa:
And here are a few other random pictures leading up to Abby’s first halloween this Wednesday. She can’t wait!
Abby Attack
Hi! Abby has been growing like crazy lately. She’s 10 pounds, 3 ounces now. We’ve also seen other big changes in her in the last couple of weeks. For one, she’s more alert than ever, and loves to be carried around the house just looking at anything and everything. She also has started making a lot more random noises. I bet it won’t be long before she’s talking!
Her facial expressions are also coming along, and every once in a while she’ll even drop one of these on us:
I don’t think it’s fully intentional yet, but she’ll get there in the very near future.
Here are some more good ones:
End of a Era
Well, TEK as we know it is no longer. This was a big shock when walking in on Monday morning, more so I’m sure for the 30+ year veterens who gave their entire careers to the place. All of the intentions seem well and good, and I’m sure this was bound to happen sooner or later. Yet there’s still something sad about it, and I can’t deny that part of the reason I took the job originally was because of the homegrown “little big company” spirit of the place. If nothing else, the reaction this week was a pretty powerful statement on the attachment that this community still has to TEK. For me, it was always a little source of pride knowing that I was helping to keep a local economic engine running, helping keep jobs in Oregon, etc. This is all still true, but reading between the lines you just feel that now there is no stopping it slowly becoming less and less so.
Anyway, because most people outside of Portland don’t know the incredible influence this company has had, here is a pretty heartfelt editorial from the Oregonian:
Goodbye, Tektronix. And thank you
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Outside Oregon, the agreement to sell Tektronix Inc. to an East Coast conglomerate was just a blip on the business news wire. But the agreement announced Monday by Tek and its acquirer, Danaher Corp., signals nothing less than the end of perhaps the most remarkable chapter in Oregon business history.
Founded in 1946, Tektronix was the first seedling in the grove — the forerunner, the inspiration and, in many cases, the incubator of scores of other technology companies that employed thousands of Northwesterners and created billions of dollars of wealth. It was the early model of enlightened corporate self-interest, encouraging innovation inside and outside its walls. Eventually it spawned one of the great philanthropic foundations in the region, the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust, and one of the greatest individual philanthropists in Oregon history, Jean Vollum, the widow of Tek co-founder Howard Vollum.
Oregon claimed to be “the Silicon Forest” in large measure because of Tektronix and later, Intel Corp., which overtook it in terms of employment, revenue, market leadership and just about every measure of business success. The most recent iteration of the graphical map of the Silicon Forest’s roots shows two major centers of gravity — Tektronix and Intel. But Intel never had its corporate headquarters in Oregon, nor does it hold the highest place of honor in discussions of Oregon business history.
Oregon hasn’t had the premier research universities that anchor the nation’s biggest technology hotbeds — Boston’s Route 128, North Carolina’s Research Triangle or California’s Silicon Valley. But it had Tektronix, which sponsored and conducted research in a wide variety of disciplines, from display technology to printers. It spawned instrument makers, software companies, public relations firms — even a furniture company. For decades, the company was Oregon’s mother ship, generous with its support and broad-minded in its outlook.
In recent decades, Tektronix changed — and was forced to change — the way it operated. It sold or spun off auxiliary divisions, took a dimmer view of employees who left and stopped funding so many startups. It fought a battle with insurgent shareholders, laid off employees and slimmed down to its core business of test and measurement. It had become a technology company like so many others around the world, focused primarily on quarterly returns and seizing opportunities in narrow niches.
By the end of the year, if things go according to the companies’ plans, Tektronix will become another division of Washington, D.C.,-based Danaher, a diversified company that already has brands such as Fluke, Gendex, Hart Scientific, Kollmorgen and Pelton & Crane. It will be subject to all of the vagaries that buffet corporate divisions that lie far from headquarters.
But it will always be heir to the greatest name in Oregon’s technology history. And it will always serve to remind us what can happen when a couple of smart, driven and generous people like Jack Murdock and Howard Vollum decide to work together.
One Month In
Today is Abby’s one month birthday. We can really see a difference now in how alert and aware she is. It’s fun to carry her around the house and let her look at the scenery. We took Abby out to lunch today with Sara’s parents. She got through most of it without making a sound, but woke up toward the end. She usually just sleeps whenever we are out of the house, which makes it easy enough on us. We decorated the house for Halloween yesterday. Here’s a picture of the 20 pounder we grew out back: 
This weekend we’re going to our favorite place- Eugene! It should be a lot of fun. Abby will see her future home!
Three Weeks!
Today is Abby’s three week birthday! She is getting old! She does actually seem to be changing a lot almost every day. She looks bigger (and fatter) and she really has been more active over the last week or so. She likes to gaze around at the world with no apparent target in sight. We’ve also found that one way to calm her down is by blasting music around the house and carrying her around like a football. I’ve had some long days at work this week, but that should settle down after next Tuesday. Sara has been doing a great job keeping Abby on her feeding schedule, even though it is almost non-stop. And look at the payback: 
Also, this is a great analysis that I hope a lot of people in Oregon will read: http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/david_sarasohn/index.ssf?/base/editorial/1191372906164290.xml&coll=7 OK, more Abby love: 
Bye for now!
Congratulations Abigail!
Abigail now weighs in at 8 pounds, 10 ounces! She is hungry almost around the clock, but it’s a great turnaround. No stopping her going to 9 pounds and beyond! 
Weight There’s More
Well Abby and Sara have been working real hard on feeding the last two days, and it seems to be paying off. Today in fact Abby won’t stop eating! She seems to be going through a growth spurt, and has already eaten about six times by the early afternoon. Yesterday we took her in to get her weighed and she had gained one ounce from two days before (up to 8 pounds 1.5 ounces). Today we rented a scale so that we could do the weighing ourselves, and took two measurements: Before a feeding at around 11:00 am: 8 pounds, 3 ounces After a feeding at around 1:00 pm: 8 pounds, 5 ounces 
So she is doing great. The big difference is that she is now holding food down and not spitting up. Unfortunately, this required an almost around-the-clock regiment of feeding, burping, and holding her upright. But it’s worth it to see her back up to birth weight. We’ll keep you posted! For now there’s no stopping her going back to 8 pounds, 8 ounces.
New Challenges
Well we’ve got the tear duct problem pretty well licked, but now poor Abby is having trouble keeping her food (milk) down. It’s been a pretty frustrating couple of days as we’re working to try and get her weight up. We’re going in for a weight check tomorrow afternoon, so hopefully there is some progress. It’s been hard on Sara especially with the constant feeding required. Wish the little girl luck! CLICK HERE FOR ABBY’S FIRST ON SCREEN APPEARANCE (MOVIE) More pictures: 
Out and About
This weekend we took Abigail on her first two outings (not counting doctor visits). On Saturday night we went to Baskin & Robins for some ice cream (though none for her). She seemed to like the car ride more than anything else. And then today we took her with us to do some grocery shopping. Having watched other people bring babies into stores, we figured her car seat would fit nicely into the shopping cart. Unfortunately it was a little more complicated, but we did get her in securely enough to ride around the store. Today she also developed a bit of an eye problem, which Sara’s mom says is a blocked tear duct (supposedly very common). This evening she had trouble even opening her eye because there was so much goo in it. We are going to call the doctor tomorrow and get some eye drops that should take care of it. It’s scary seeing her out of whack like that! Here are a couple pictures of Sara playing dress up: 
And here’s one ridiculous pose: 