Sam's First Steps

Sam and Ella have been fine, upstanding, young people for over a month now, but Sam made a giant leap, or, well, a small series of steps, for the first time on Monday:

Ella is trying to get there as well.  She'll happily hold hands and walk a marathon around the living room (around and around and around), but when she doesn't have hands to hold on to, her feet seem to forget how to move, and her hands find other ways to express herself:

I'm sure they will both be walking and running us ragged very soon!

Birthday pics, belated...

Wait, what is today's date? The 23rd? Can't be. Ella and Sam just had their birthday yesterday.... er, three weeks ago. Well, better late than never with the posting of the pictures. Here's a quick sampler:

You can see lots and lots more at the picasa album. Check it out here:  Ella & Sam's First Birthday Album

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hi again. sorry, didn't mean to be so boisterous in that last post. this beer stuff makes me feel a bit funny. and really, i don't mind the pink. someone once told me that don johnson was super cool. back in the eighties. whatever that means...

Happy New Year Everyone!

Hey Y'all! Happy New Year! This Beer Stuff is GREAT! How can I get more? Also, who put me in this ridiculous pink outfit? I mean, come on, who's going to respect the big man dressed like a strawberry.

Ohh those eyes

Closeups of Baby Blue Eyes, and my little Brown Eyed Girl.

Cardinals Christmas Tailgating

The last NFL home game of the year for the Arizona Cardinals happened on Christmas day evening. Jaime and I had tickets, and were trying to figure out the best way of going to the game, tailgating beforehand, and arranging for babycare for Ella & Sam. Our friends Mark & Jessica also had game tickets, but between the four of us we only had one parking pass. Our friend Anna had graciously offered to watch the kids for us, but a 10 hour babysitting stint is too much to ask of anyone (except grandparents :-). A couple days before the game the perfect plan popped into my head. Why not buy a second parking pass and bring Anna & Sam & Ella to the tailgate, and then they would drive home at sunset while the rest of us went into the stadium to watch the game. Since it was Christmas we tried to stick to Christmas traditions, Jewish style: Chinese Food for our tailgate. We ordered a bunch of chinese takeout the night before and brought the grill to reheat it on. We also brought Mark's "volcano" burner and a pot of oil so we could freshly deep fry some food. In there, we threw partial contents of our freezer (lumpia & pierogies), as well as a fresh batch of ricotta fritters (mmm, donuts). That was an awesome appetizer and dessert to sandwich our chinese meal between. Here's a picture of our tailgating setup, though the grill and volcano were outside our shade tent, and not in the picture:

The kids were in our laps, or playing happily in their pack-and-play in the shade:

A great time was had by all. Perhaps a bit too great for some...
We are going to have to keep an eye on this little imp as she grows up and figures out how to reach for the liquor shelf!

Chuckle Fest

I picked the kids up from daycare a little bit early last night, but then they both fell asleep on the drive home and got a good nap in.  That's normal for Sam, but special for Ella, and resulted in them both being in a great mood for the evening.  We spent some time playing with their new blocks, and they thought it was the funniest thing ever to knock the towers of blocks over.  Click on the image to get to the video. Enjoy!