A Day in California

My aunt sent this to me.  Simply magical.


A Day in California from Ryan Killackey on Vimeo.

Move

Eleven countries, one film, one minute.  If you're not bit by the travel bug after watching this, I'm not sure what will do it.  :)


MOVE from Rick Mereki on Vimeo.

Collection of videos

I've been using Socialcam (a new app created by Justin.tv!) for the last few weeks when taking quick-clip videos of the kids - posting them immediately to Facebook, but not going back to also link them here.

So, for those that haven't yet seen them on Facebook, thought I'd share a few here...

(From newest to oldest)

Callum Walking (4/11/11)



Logan Rocking Out (4/2/11)



Drunk baby learning to walk (3/28/11)



The baby side shuffle (3/24/11)



Logan entertaining Callum (3/23/11)

Peek-a-boo!

One of Callum's teachers emailed me this video a couple of days ago and it was the best thing I could have received to brighten my day.



You'll hear one of the teachers say "Jeffrey!" right at the start of the video.  Apparently Callum thinks his name is interchangeable with one of the other kids in the classroom, and will answer to either name right now.  ;-)

Off running!

I got the walker out the other day and Callum was simply interested in playing with the toys on it.  But, this week, he's been showing more and more interest in walking - cruising around the coffee table and chairs, and pushing benches and stools along the floor to help him walk.

So, today (he had to stay home because he had a couple vomit episodes at school yesterday - great timing since it was the first day I had returned back to work after being deathly ill all week!), I stood him up next to the walker and showed him how he could use it to walk.

AND OFF HE WENT!

Speedy Gonzales fast too!

Jon took a video, but sadly Socialcam can't yet embed videos on other sites.  So, you'll have to actually go to their site to check it out.  I promise you though, it's worth it!  :)

Parenting fail #2587

Jon and I were both rushing around the house getting ready for work this morning. As always, we were juggling both kids at the same time, sharing responsibilities in getting them fed, changed and ready for school. While I was in the bathroom, I had laid Callum down on our bed with a couple toys to play with, like I always do. I could hear Jon come in and out of the room, talking and cooing and playing with Callum every time he stopped by. A few more minutes rolled by with Callum grunting and cooing and doing his normal chatty ritual and then all of a sudden I heard a loud and heavy THUD.

Followed by some pretty loud cries. :(

Both Jon and I came running - exclaiming "Oh God!" in the process (Jon beat me to him, as I had been sitting on the toilet when it happened). Poor little Callum had fallen off the bed! It was an immediate deja vu and reminder of the time Logan fell off (me and off) the bed. Ugh.

Apparently during one of Jon's cooing sessions with Callum, he had placed him on his tummy. Callum is pretty squirmy and strong - pushing off on anything he can get a hold of - yet we hadn't seen him make it all the way across the bed before. But, I guess those days are now over - since it appears he was able to scoot all the way across the bed before falling off the edge.

Yeesh.

Jon was doing a great job at calming him down, but I really wanted to make sure Callum was ok and wasn't heading into concussion territory. So I nursed him (which helped calm him down even more), then gave him a bottle after that (which he gladly gulped down). He seemed to be totally normal but I still had Jon do a quick "follow my finger" test to make sure he was watching and tracking with his eyes fine too (he was). At any rate, through all of this, Jon thought I was being a little too overprotective and worried about the whole thing - telling me Callum was fine and not to worry.

When we dropped Logan, it was VERY upsetting (granted, it was in the middle of the night and he was only a month old, but still). It was a pretty traumatic experience for both of us - being brand new parents, we felt like we had COMPLETELY failed our child. :(

This time around, however, we were much more methodical and, dare I say, less emotional about it. It was still traumatic for everyone (poor Callum had it the worst I think) - but I don't think it affected us quite the same as with Logan. Jon even commented how it didn't feel like it was as big of a deal this time around.

Oh, how times have changed! ;-)

I told Callum's teacher when we got to school (which she was shocked about - that I would actually admit and tell her about it, not that it happened), mostly because I wanted her to keep an eye on him just to make sure he didn't act strange the rest of the day. I'm happy to report he did just fine and was his old normal self the entire day.

And, since we're on the topic of parenting.... thought I'd leave you with this little gem. Quite the entertainment, particularly since I know we've met parents like one or the other and/or have demonstrated some of these qualities ourselves! Enjoy. :)

The Cables Visit

This past Memorial Day weekend our good dear friends Eric and Jill (you know the ones, the friends who were willing to travel to New Zealand with us, with a 9 month old baby, even when they didn't have any children of their own) came to visit. They brought their daughter, Amelia, (now 8 months old) along for the ride and it was so much fun to see how much she's grown since the last time we saw her!

As I mentioned in a previous post, I was naked without camera all weekend long. I realized toward the end of their visit that we DID still have our smaller camera, so we got a couple quick shots with that camera before they left. But, overall, we were sans pictures for the weekend.

Nonetheless, we had a terrific visit.

Jill held the baby from time to time to give me a break. It was glorious.


Jon held the baby from time to time while Eric looked on. It was glorious.


Jill and I pampered ourselves to a relaxing and much needed pedicure. It was glorious.

Amelia laughed like she's never laughed before, because she's never seen big crazy furry hyper dogs before.



She also spent most of her time doing laps around the train table - walking only in one direction, just like Logan did at that age! :)


Logan wasn't so keen on sharing his toys with baby Amelia however, since she liked to put everything in her mouth and got them quite wet.


We spent a lot of time hanging out, catching up on our lives, eating good food, playing games and making our kids laugh and giggle.


We visited the Monterey Bay Aquarium on Sunday where Logan got to see lots of fishies and sea horses and jelly fish and sharks - BIG sharks mind you, that go RAWWWWWWR! Amelia had a great time as well. Callum ate and slept the entire time.

Come to think of it, he did that pretty much the entire weekend.

When we got home, Amelia practiced walking with Logan's old walker.



And we noticed Callum's feet (6 wks old) are almost as big as Amelia's (8 mths old!).


We had a fantastic long weekend with them and can't wait to see the Cables again soon.

Why we like Toyota

You've gotta have a great sense of humor to create something like this for your ad campaign. :)

A Giggling Machine

I don't often think about shooting videos anymore; I barely have enough time to grab the camera for a quick snapshot. But, last night Jon was reading one of Logan's favorite bedtime stories and I always listen from the other room through the baby monitor because it just makes me smile like crazy.

Logan's starting to understand comedy - what's silly and funny versus not. We've seen him catch on with jokes and silly antics on tv shows or movies (Kung Fu Panda comes to mind) more and more. This particular book strikes him funnier than most - and no matter what, he can't stop laughing at each page's punchline. I figured a video was appropriate, as any amount of descriptive prose I'd write just wouldn't do it justice.

Enjoy.

That blasted Chicken Dance song

This song was banned from our wedding for a reason.

I hope after watching this, you are humming this little tune in your head all night long, like we now are.

Happy Halloween!

Logan's Aunt Catherine came down to visit us this evening to take Logan out on his first Trick or Treating experience. I'm so glad she came! It was a lot of fun having her there with me and she took a video of several house visits too!! Priceless!! The video is a little long, but I couldn't bring myself to cut any parts out - they were all just too precious.



Logan seemed to enjoy Halloween - he was really interested in helping me carve pumpkins and decorate our porch earlier in the day, and watch the kids come by our door for their own candy once the sun set. After the first visit, we knew it was time to take off ourselves, since the minute he saw them getting candy - he wanted some too!


We walked up and down our street and hit a few houses on the adjacent street. Poor little Logan got a bit tired toward the end, so I think the amount of houses we hit was just perfect. And, most everyone knew him by name which really helped as well. He was a bit overwhelmed by it all - couldn't quite say "Trick or Treat" until the very end - and was also a bit afraid of some of the carved pumpkins (standing back up against the wall at a few houses). Otherwise, he was very happy with the loot he ended up with and though we only allowed him one candy for the night, I think it kept him up a little longer than usual. ;-)


Thanks again to Tia Catherine for being with us on this special night and taking some wonderful pictures and videos!! Hope everyone had a safe and fun Halloween!

Halfway there

Not sure if this will work but sending a video from my phone to the
blog. If it doesn't work I'll fix it tonight when I'm back online.
This was taken last night. I was working and Logan was sputtering
(very cute!) nonsense for a good 15 minutes before the genius in me
thought to pull out the camera. You can hear a little bit of it still
but he got camera shy pretty quick. :)

I'm currently siting on a plane, in Houston, waiting to take off for
the east coast. Jon flew home today, via Houston as well. We waved
while we passed each other mid air. I'll have to wait till Friday to
get my "I'm finally back home" hug and kiss.

Preschool Buddies

There are three boys that Logan has moved up together with at school, from the very beginning in infant class, to the pre-tots room, and now in the toddlers' room. Logan gets along with everyone and is famously friendly at school, but these four boys seem to be particularly more tight-knit than any of the other kids (it doesn't hurt that all four boys are definitely the rough and tumble push and shove kids of the bunch).

This week, one of the boys' mothers was picking her son up at the same time I was picking up Logan and grabbed me to show me a few pics and video she caught of our two boys that afternoon. They were so damn cute I immediately scribbled down my email address and made her send them to me.

(After seeing these pics I realized I better get Logan a haircut this weekend!)

Enjoy! :)

Cat and Logan

Jon's sister Catherine just posted an awesome recounting of her babysitting experience with Logan last weekend. I wanted to share it with all of you - especially since she included some great videos of him playing outside!! You can see a potential basketball star in him. :)

Thanks again Cat! I'm so glad you and Logan got to spend some quality time together. :)

Weekend Update

I'm exhausted and not looking forward to returning to work tomorrow. So, just a quick post before I go lay down and ice my back. ;-)

• I worked from home on Friday mostly so I could get some grocery shopping done during a break, to prep for baking cupcakes that night.
• Nathan stopped by Friday night to hang out with us and play Dominion (a new card game Jon got) once Logan went to bed.
• We discovered our (practically brand new!) washing machine broke - so Jon spent Saturday running errands, including buying parts to fix the machine and composite decking (for a deck we're going to build just outside the doggy door), while Logan took one of the longest naps in history (~4 hrs, 20 min)!
  
• Saturday night, Jon's sister Catherine came down from the city, last minute (since our sitter we had lined up couldn't make it after all), to babysit Logan while Jon and I met up with the Jodoins, Chouns and Hicksons for a quick dinner and long wait in line (but we were first!) for the new Harry Potter movie. It was good - but I haven't read the last of the books yet so I can't comment on how it compares to the book.
• This morning we got up bright and early to head to the East Bay for our friend's Eleanor and Audrey's 3rd Birthday Party. Logan had a blast at My Gym; the hit was toward the end when he got a turn zip-lining across the room. :) Here's a quick video I took of it! (notice the excellent background music they were playing! hehe)
  

• We took off about noon to try and get Logan to take another long nap, but weren't successful, as he only slept an hour (aiiieeee!!). Jon worked on the washing machine while I frosted the cupcakes in preparation for the next party we had scheduled.
  
• About 4pm, we three and my parents headed to the Paluska's house on the "West" Bay (San Carlos), for a laid back BBQ and play date with their kids Lucas (age 5) and Margot (age 2.5). We had an excellent time and the cupcakes were a hit!

Hope everyone had a great weekend and stayed as cool as possible in all of this heat! Yowza.

3GS Baby!

Jon got one of the new iPhones last week and, because I've been a good girl and have been using the First Gen for the past two years, I decided to get one too. ;-)

One of the main reasons I decided to snatch one up was for the video camera (and improved digital camera) - since I almost always have my phone with me, but don't always carry around one of our two cameras. So, tonight on our front porch, hanging out in our brand new chairs before swim class, I decided to test out the video myself. It's a little long but I left most of it in so that you could hear Logan say a few words (altho, he's more interested in his juice than chatting with Mommy). *sigh*



You can see hear a couple of times the sound is super muffled. It took me a few minutes to realize I was covering up the mic when moving the camera around. But other than that, I really like the functionality! I can't wait to start using it more often! Logan also really enjoyed watching himself immediately on the playback, pointing to his sippy cup and informing me it was "juice" over and over again. ;-)

(Funny, the quality looks a lot better on my iMac than it does on YouTube. Still, not bad for a phone.)

A weekend of new toys

It's been awhile since I've posted a video - so long that, the last few clips I had on the camera, which I had grand plans of putting together, were from when Logan had first started walking, some 5 or so months ago! Yikes.

So, I finally finished that little long-forgotten project. And, though 5 months late, I'm sure most of you will still enjoy it since Logan is just so damn cute. :)



This weekend we spent some serious cashola and bought a few toys for the house - a new TV for our bedroom, a new Blu-Ray disc player, and (so Logan wouldn't feel left out, of course) a new Bean Bag Toss game to hone his mad throwing/tossing skillz. ;-)

We took a bike ride this evening just after dinner and Logan was so wiped out from the weekend with Zafu and Zabuton (he spent last night at my parent's while Jon and I met with our friends for an adults-only night of dinner, hilarious movie and games afterward to celebrate Kim's recent birthday) that he actually fell asleep toward the end of the ride!

But, the minute we got home, he woke up, caught a second wind and decided to run around playing with his new tossing game. Here's a few clips I put together of him playing just before bedtime. Enjoy!

Almost walking....

I've been wanting to get a little "walker" toy to help Logan learn to walk around the house since he's so very close. A co-worker of mine suggested this one, as it's been a huge success with his own son. Turns out, Jenn and Jarrod have the same one that Robert never really used (he went straight to walking on his own!) - so they gave it to us today to check out and first chance he got, Logan already started walking on his own quite a bit! I think it's going to be a huge hit in our household.

Thanks Jenn and Jarrod! :)

Learning the art of anticipation

There is a "popper" toy at Logan's school which essentially scares little kids in anticipation (think a baby version of Jack-in-the-Box). Logan has learned exactly when the toy is nearly done, making the most hilarious faces ever in anticipation of the final POP.

I borrowed the toy from his school so we could play with it over the weekend, and so I could capture a few of his expressions for everyone to see. Enjoy!

Mommy's starting to feel better, so I guess I'll go mobile...

This afternoon, I came to pick Logan up at school and the teachers greeted me with a big smile.

Logan's been crawling all day today!!

You mean he's just army crawling and scooting around, right?

No, he's really crawling.

No way!! Let's see!!

And so we put our little monkey on the spot. Of course, he then just sat there on the floor with his million dollar grin up at me, not moving an inch. That is, until I brought out his latest favorite "toy" - my car keys! He then proceeded to crawl about 8 ft or so across the floor, while I watched in amazement.

I cannot describe how giddy and happy and PROUD I felt! I called Jon immediately, telling him to get ready for the show of his life when we got home....

Of course, Logan was hungry and tired by the time we got home. He did do a little crawling for Daddy, but while crying at the same time. *sigh* So, my first few videos were a little sad (who wants to watch a baby CRYING while they crawl for the first time??). However, selfish persistent as I am, I tried again later tonight when Logan was in a bit better mood and caught a few clips that I think you'll enjoy.

Look out! Our world traveler is on the move!