We were on a float in the Chino Christmas Parade this year. My buddy Tim has a cancer fundraising group and he asked for local cancer survivors and their families to be on the float. It was a great time… Brody really loved it, but said that his arms were tired from waving to everyone.

Brody: Daddy, you get a medal… for eating.
Me: Wow, really? That’s… awesome.

He made me put it over my head. So I obliged, then finished my meal.

Brody: I want some runch!
Me: Oh, you mean breakfast?
Brody: Yeah… my tummy wants food in it.
Me: Is your tummy hungry?
Brody: My tummy is mad at me… it goes like… “GRRRRR”

Me: Here you go buddy, have some yummy waffles
Brody: I want some ketchup on it!!

Not quite sure if he was serious or not.

Me: Oh man, that trash got out and it’s all over the street. Maybe Mr. Trash Man will pick it up?

Brody: Yeah, it’s yucky trash.

trash truck comes by for the other side of the street… and does nothing about the trash that got out.

Me: What? Mr. Trash Man didn’t pick up the mess. Shame on him!!

Brody: Yeah, he’s got shame on the truck. We put shame on him (making a throwing motion with his arm)

Me: Let’s have a snack and then we’ll go to the park and play baseball

Brody: OK

Me: What kind of snack do you want?

Brody: Beer!

Brody: (watching me finish a glass of beer) What is dat?
Me: It’s beer
Brody: Beer? Where did it go?
Me: I drank it… it’s all finished.
Brody: Oh
Me: What should I do now?
Brody: Get more beer!!!

So obvious, that a 3-year-old knows what to do!

We now have the living room filled with trains! Here are some photos that I took at Disneyland and him opening and playing with gifts. I have some videos as well, but haven’t processed those just yet. Stay tuned.

It was non-stop action with him; he was only temporarily occupied with my hole digging adventures. He wanted to be down by the water and watch the waves creep up. The water was freezing, probably in the mid 50s, but he did not care at all. He was all about looking closely at the water and sand, investigating every little thing he found. And, another favorite thing to do at the beach is dig in the sand, which is not normally a bad thing… but it is when he throws the sand up into the air and it gets into his hair and eyes. Good times!

I think we’re in store for some fun this summer when it warms up even more. I took many photos and shot some video! Here are some of the choice photos and a little video that I edited together… enjoy.

I thought I’d post this video of Brody and I from a few weeks ago. He’s really trying to say so many more words now, and doing so well at it. Here he is doing his best to say ‘pizza’. You may need to turn up your volume since he’s sort of whispering.

I always love seeing how Lauren has changed over the years! Now we have Brody in there and we’ll have more fun changes to watch.

The ever popular compilation of all the years:

2009:

I know it’s been a loooong time since I’ve posted, and I apologize for that. But, my daddy has been super duper busy over the past few months. He stopped going to work every day back in April, he said something like laying down, or laying off… I dunno what you grown ups mean sometimes. He was real busy trying to find another place that he can go to work. Anyways, he got to stay home with me a lot and I really liked that! Well, he found a new place to go to work and we’re all happy for him.

So, let me quickly catch you up on thingz I have been doin’ over the past few months! I’m gonna run it down in a list for you.

• I know how to crawl on my hands and knees now! Yup, I thought that scootin’ around on my belly was cool… forget about scootin’ because crawling is waaaay faster. I’m really watching mom and dad, because they know how to walk around up on their feet. I like to pull myself up on everything in the house to get up to my feet. You just wait, I’ll walk around like mom and dad in no time.
• I drop stuff a lot, and I know how to say “uh oooh”.
• I got my hair cut twice before my first birthday. Mommy sayz I have daddy’s hair… which makes no sense to me, cuz if that was true then daddy wouldn’t have any hair, you know?!?!!
• I like to pretend to sneeze when anyone else sneezes. Heck, I even do it after I sneeze!
• I love waving at people when mommy and daddy take me places.
• I give kisses when mommy asks for one… sometimes, if I feel like it.
• I like to go swimming in the pool with mom and dad. I get to take swimming classes with mommy now. But I’m not sure why mommy needs the classes, since I think she already knows how. She’s funny.

Talk to you soon. Bye-bye for now!

Oh, and my mommy started giving me some things that she lets me put in my mouth. She usually doesn’t let me do that with all the stuffs I want to eat. There’s all sorts of neat stuff I find around the house, but mommy and daddy take them away from me before I get to taste them. Were was I?… oh yeah, these things she gives me are round and crunchy in my mouth. They call them cherry ohs or something like that. And there are some other thingys  they give me … they call those pups or pufs. Those taste different, and I like the cherry ohs better. Don’t ask me why, I just do.

Awww man, mommy and daddy have been taking me to this place by home… it’s sooo fun to go there. They put me into this hanging chair thingy and push me back and forth. Makes me laugh so hard, I LOVE it!! Daddy took some pictures of me in it. Mommy sits me on her lap and slides down this thingy… my belly feels all funny and tickly when we slide down. That makes me laugh too.

I’ve been practicing a lot lately, going forward to grab some toys or slobber on dads leg. Sometimes it’s wierd, mom will come running quick if I get too close to certain things… I think she thinks it’s some kind of game. Whatever – it’s funny to see her hurry and keep me from getting stuff.

So, my dad says you can watch me doing this thing, he calls it an army crawl or something like that (I don’t even know who this army guy is). Here is the video. Check out my skills! That stupid wheel keeps moving farther away from me everytime I got close to it, man I wanted to just smack it so bad!

HI!! This is my first blog post… my daddy wants me to start writing my own stuff from now on. He keeps saying something about being too busy. I don’t really know what that means yet, so here I am. He already has me updating my own page, but wants me to make new posts when stuff happens and junk. I just turned 6 months (what mommy says at least), so please bear with me… I haven’t quite yet developed a writing style.

So, the other day my dad was pulling on my bottom lip and trying to look inside my mouth. I thought it was really weird that he would want to see inside my mouth. Then mommy and daddy were all excited and kept saying “tooth” or “teeth” or something like that. Kinda funny how they were all excited about it. Can someone tell me what a “tooth” is? Maybe it’s why my mouth has been hurting so much lately… and I keep slobbering all over the place. I like to slobber on people, it’s fun! They keep grabbing for these rags to wipe my chin, but I’m getting pretty good at landing the spit right on them. Anyways, where was I? Oh yeah, tooths… inside my mouth it has been hurting really bad, but when mommy rubs her finger in there it feels better. When I bite down on her finger it feels the best. But when I do, she makes funny faces yells “ouch” out loud. Makes me giggle sometimes. Mommy is fun.

Yesterday, they took me to that place where they lay me down on the cold paper to measure and weigh me. This lady in a white coat said something like “19 point 5 pounds” and then “26 and one quarter inches”. Oh man, I almost forgot!!.. then she put this thing around my head that had all these numbers on it and she said “17 and three quarters”. I hope I get some of these quarters they keep talking about!!! I need to start saving up! Everything was all over since dad put my shirt and pants back on, or so I thought. That lady came back and poked my legs with needles and made me cry! If I knew how to say bad words I sure would have at that point. But, then she was nice and held me and showed me some posters on the wall… I smiled for her and forgot all about the needles in my legs.

Oh oh oh…. one more thing! At home, daddy put this huge tree in the living room. Yeah, right there next to the couch. Then mommy and Lauren put all these shiny things on it… hanging them all over it. When it gets dark, there are bright thingies that light up on it. I like it, but not as much as slobbering on people.

By for now!

This page is the official family newsletter for 2008. Why have it on our site? Partly because we’re lazy, but mostly because we can keep it here forever. In 10 years, we’ll all be able to go back through the newsletters and see what happened during each year. Sort of like our little annual scrapbook.

First, we’ll cover all of the important events of 2008, and below all of that will be a slide show of photos taken around the holiday season.

• Of course, the highest on our list is the birth of Brody! He joined us on 6/7/08 and has been keeping us busy ever since. 
• Lauren turned 12 in April and started 7th grade in the fall. She’s doing very well in school and enjoys Drama and Science as a few of her favorite subjects. Seeming to grow taller every day, she now matches Melanie in height… and they can wear the same shoes and some jeans, too.
• Melanie turned the big three oh in May, and Neil turned 38 in July. (we’re old)
• Lauren enjoyed her final soccer season. She’s claiming to officially retire from the sport (for now). Volleyball has her interest and she hopes to persue it more next year.
• In October, Lauren got braces put on. She loves to switch the colors of the bands now and then. Currently, she is sporting seasonal green and red.
• Back in March, while very pregnant, Melanie flew with her friend Rene to Loveland, Colorado. They surprised their friend Stacy for her birthday. Stacy knew all along that Rene would be there, but was bummed that Melanie wasn’t going… until they landed and Melanie was with Rene!
• Neil’s work travels were much less than they were in 2007, with only a few trips to Portland, Seattle and New Orleans (and he met bass player Jimi Jazz of Special Sauce on his flight to New Orleans).
• Melanie and Neil enjoyed just a couple of concerts in ’08. Jack Johnson in August (Neil’s birthday gift) and G. Love & Special Sauce in February (pregnant Melanie was a trooper for that show).
• In July… Neil’s brother came down to visit in July with his wife and son Colton. Brody’s other cousin, Jake was also there. We all had fun watching the 3 boy cousins. They were all born within 7 months.
• In August, we all went to the Orange County Fair and did our annual photo booth shots. This was Brody’s first time in the booth, and it’s getting crowded. Up on the header of the site, you can see a shot from each year we’ve done it, starting in 2001 on the left.
• Neil is enjoying his side work doing photography, and hopes to have more work soon.
• Melanie and Neil started doing baby signs with Brody. Hopefully in a few months he will be able to communicate with us. (a little at least)
• Early December, Brody cut his first teeth… two on the bottom. Read all about it here.

Keep in mind that all times can be “give or take” 5-10 minutes or so. We don’t quite have it down to an exact science just yet.

• 5:00am
  • wake up
  • check work email (usually via my phone while getting ready to shower)
  • shower
  • shave
• 5:45am
  • try to wake up Melanie
  • get dressed
• 5:50am – 7:00am (the order is dictated by when Brody wakes up)
  • start putting our lunches together
  • eat english muffin with peanut butter, drink some OJ (this is done while doing the previous step)
  • check diaper bag to ensure it contains all items required
  • wake Brody up, if he’s not already squirming
  • change his diaper
  • dress him
  • bring him to Melanie once he’s dressed and ready to go
  • make us both instant coffee for the drive (Melanie takes cinnamon and brown sugar)
  • toast english muffin for Melanie (also with peanut butter)
  • load up the car: lunch bags, diaper bag, coffee mugs, any other misc bags
• 7:00am
  • put Brody into car seat
  • load Brody into car
  • drive to my work
• 8:00am
  • I get to my work
  • Melanie takes over and drives to the sitter’s place
• 8:15am
  • Melanie drops Brody off with sitter
• 8:30am
  • Melanie gets to her work
• 5:00pm
  • Melanie leaves work to pick up Brody from sitter
• 5:15pm
  • Melanie leaves sitter to pick me up from work
• 5:30pm (ish)
  • Melanie picks me up from work, I take over the wheel for the leg home
• 6:30pm (ish)
  • we arrive home
• 6:30pm – 6:45pm
  • bring Brody inside
  • unload all of the stuff from the car
• between 6:45pm and 7:30pm
  • Melanie and I eat dinner
  • feed Brody cereal or some jar food if he seems hungry
• 7:30pm – 8:00pm
  • bathtime for Brody
• 8:00pm – 9:00pm
  • Brody gets fed and falls asleep
  • this could go past 9pm if he doesn’t crash easily
• 9:00pm – 10:00pm
  • do some random chores that need to be done before the next day
  • do anything else that I’d like to spend my free time on… sometimes I can last until 10:30pm if I really want to
• 10:00pm – 10:30pm
  • go to sleep

Brody was born in early June of this year, 6/7/08 actually. Since then my flickr stream has been chock full of photos of Brody. He is the cutest little baby you’ve seen, so it’s tough not to keep snapping pics of him. This also keeps family and friends satisfied with new photos of him; they are all very aware of his page on our site, and are instructed regularly to go there if they want to see new photos of him. This is especially nice as we (and that really means “I”) don’t have to fiddle around every week or so with sending an email out to everyone with images attached. 

Today I quickly skimmed through my photostream and estimated that since June 10th, the day that the first photos of Brody were uploaded, he is in roughly 85% of the photos I post to flickr. Another thing I’ve noticed is that my photostream gets less views now. I suppose that this means most people see thumbnails of cute babies on flickr and don’t want to look at them. Case in point: the photo in this article I took as I was carpooling to work last week. In the 10-ish hours that it has been on flickr, it has gotten just about the same number of views as each of the last 4 photos posted before it… and those have been up for 3-4 days now.

Memories. And that’s just fine with me, the main purpose of me posting his photos is noted in the opening of this very article. Even more important, is the purpose of me taking them in the first place. I take them for me and Melanie… for Lauren, for our parents, our brothers, my sister… countless friends. But, mostly for Brody. For him to have photos to look at when he’s my age. I love to look at photos of when I was a kid. To hear my parents talk about what I (and my siblings) were like when we were Brodys age.

Priorities. Being creative has taken a back seat to what is currently more important: helping as much as I can at home with a 5-month-old, and spending time with him, with Melanie, and making sure Brody gets to spend time with the extended family. So, I have lapsed in my creativeness lately, but not totally. I still get to take lots of photos, but Brody is the center of the attention of it. One thing is for sure, we will have tons of great photos of him!

Creativity. Part of me still wants to draw those flickr viewers in to see my creative photos. The ones that don’t care to look at babys, but would rather look at a blurred car speeding along. It may sound vain, but I think it’s in the blood of any photographer to want people to “want” to view their photographs. At least for me, it’s a big part of why I photograph in the first place. I like to know that people enjoy looking at something I’ve created.

It’s been gnawing at me recently: gotta get out there an take some new photos! I pass things and can’t help but think to myself: I would shoot that, and this is how I would process it. Photography, for me, is part creativity, part meditation. It gets my brain to think differently, to break away from what could be clogging it up. It helps releive stress; a head-check if you will. I’m promising myself to slowly get some creative work done and post more of it. They will just have to be well blended among the shots of Brody and other family.