A tired boy

From Annaka and Ja...

Poor boy. Jack could not make it through lunch today. I could not believe he could sleep while keeping his head up. I did manage to put him in his crib without waking him.

What's Wrong with Barbie?

I am not sure which disturbs me worse, art imitating life or life imitating art(if one could call it art). Today I needed to take my daughter shoe shopping which is always an event within itself. She insisted on bringing her pink princess mafia purse (containing her Lava Lips lip gloss and her purple princess sunglasses) while sporting her faux fur lined pink Dora the Explorer vest with matching pants.

I tried to make a case for some sensible traditional black Mary Janes for church but I was completely shot down for some princess pink "Tommy Girl" (that's Tommy Hilfiger's branding apparently to the toddler market) retro Mary Janes and some hot pink leather boots with light up jewels. I guess this is one level better than neon orange Mary Jane Crocs with her current church wardrobe and at this point is not a battle worth fighting. To top it all off as I feel like the prince placing the glass sneaker on my daughter's foot, I can't help but to notice that my three-year old is wearing "Tink" socks (short for Tinkerbell), and probably "Belle" panties.

Upon leaving the scene, she points to something she sees in one of the storefront windows. "Look," she says, "It's Barbie!" I turn to see a full size cutout of Paris Hilton in a pink teddy, and I think to myself, "Yes, that is what's wrong with Barbie."

What’s Wrong With Cinderella?

One mother’s struggle with her 3-year-old daughter’s love affair with princess culture. A very applicable article. Read NYTimes article.

Quiet Moments

Annaka and Jack are really starting to play together. Dad captured this really well in his short video. They were sharing stickers in Jack's new Thomas the Train tent.

Sometimes in the quiet moments of our house, I have found Annaka and Jack in a room playing or sharing a book. In other quiet moments, I discovered mischief. My favorite of this month was the time I caught Annaka teaching Jack how to use the bathroom. I found Jack naked sitting on the toilet stuffing it with toilet paper. I guess I was sleeping on the job.

From Christmas 2006

Merry Christmas!

The Mini-van Bandit

In tribute to the one minute movie trailers, I clipped some misc. clips together to create Jack's own movie trailer. Not sure what the subject of the movie or the title would be. One thought for the title was "the mini-van bandit".

Annaka's turn with the Mack Truck

This week we all have taken turns hosting what Kristen and I have called the Mack truck virus. It hits you like a big truck with a fever and sore throat and then 24 hours later like magic you can stand back up. Unfortunately, Annaka was hit with it last night which resulted in Annaka waking us up at 4:00 in the morning. Mom took Annaka downstairs for some medicine and some TLC. I went back to sleep.

Apparently, they never returned. Jack and I found them sleeping together downstairs this morning.

Needless to say, I did not tell Kristen how rested I felt.

What's in a name?

This past weekend we celebrated "Jesus' Birthday" at the church and ended the event with an impromptu Christmas Pageant. Annaka wanted to be an angel (because they got to wear the wings) and tell everyone about the good news. Tonight Annaka and I were reading the story of the Nativity before bed. We came to the part where the angel comes to Mary and says that she will have a baby and that she will name him Jesus when Annaka asked me, "How did you know what my name was when I came out of your belly?" I said that an angel told me too.

The Christmas Performance

One final performance at Church this year.

Annaka, Davis and Payton

Annaka and her friends after the Christmas Church Concert.

Handbells

Annaka performed at church tonight. This has to be the youngest handbell choir ever assembled under one roof.

Dreaming together. . .

Right before I put Annaka to bed every night, she asks me "What are you going to dream about tonight?" I usually respond with something good that has happened that day. She then says that she is going to dream about that too. Tonight I said I was going to dream about the two of us making Christmas lollipops and she thought that sounded good to her too. The night before it was painting fingernails together, and the night before that it was wrapping a present for Jesus' birthday. We've been doing this for months now and we usually decide to think about the simplest of things. But then, it really isn't about what we are dreaming about–but that we are doing it together, leading each other through the darkness of the night.

Unbelievable Bird

The Lyrebird apparently can mimic human sounds such as car alarms, chainsaws, and cameras. Read about it!

Clemson Christmas Parade Princesses

From Annaka and Jack

Princesses Annaka and Payton rode in style on Clemson's smallest Christmas Parade float, "The Blue Belle's", representing Miss Fain's School of Dance. Both sporting white logo sweatshirts and red santa hats, the girls enjoyed some cheese and grape juice before the festivities began. The float was designed and decorated by Princess Annaka herself.

PowerPoint without Bulletpoints

I watched Al Gore's movie "Inconvenient Truth" this weekend. While I was impressed with the movie itself. I was really impressed with Gore's presentation. It was one of the best uses of slides I have ever seen.

One of the disadvantages with PowerPoint is that all presentations start looking the same just like driving through Any Town USA these days. One must drive past a Wal-Mart, a McDonald's, and a Home Depot. No matter who does a PowerPoint they all conform to the same general guidelines. Gore's presentation broke this mold. There were no bullet points, no words looking for some empty space to breath, and no tacky animations.

There were three reasons his presentation really worked:
(1) A good/important topic,
(2) an engaging delivery, and
(3) visuals that enhance the message.

Watch it.

Checkmark for the Sandbox

We finally finished a sandbox eight months in the making. I bought all the materials and hauled everything up our hill last spring. With perfect weather and no more excuses, I spent yesterday actually building it. Kids love it.


Notice, Tchaika in the background of the video. She has an obsessive compulsive disorder with the chipmunks in our yard. There is a chipmunk hole above the sandbox that she is constantly monitoring.

Byzantine Empire and a little ipod

My little ipod is a lifesaver when it comes to my 50 minute commute everyday. While I have been enjoying an influx of new music thanks to my russian music site, I also listen to many different podcasts. Lately, I have found some interesting lectures.

Mr. Brownworth teaches History at The Stony Brook School on Long Island, New York and provides a great overview of Byzantine history as seen through 12 of it's greatest rulers. While it is hard to imagine that this could be an exciting audio adventure, surprisingly it is. Enjoy the ride and visit his site or visit his podcast on itunes

Cars

Jack is obsessed with the movie Cars. He will come out of the blue and tell you "cars", which means "Hey I want to watch Cars". I made the mistake several months ago showing him the trailer to the movie and he wanted to watch it over and over again. Now that the movie is out, he finds the dvd and drags it around the house wanting you to play it.

Uncle Brian this week showed off his new ipod which plays movies. We put the Cars movie on the ipod and Jack had a new toy. Within 20 minutes, Jack figured out how to play and pause the movie and how to put on headphones. He was totally enamored. Don't worry he will not be getting an ipod for Christmas. I think we will stick with the analog joys of dumptrucks and firetrucks.

From Annaka and Jack

Thanksgiving Drop

You can't beat WKRP...here is one for the Thanksgiving Holidays.

Ohio State Wins!

What a game! This afternoon Jack wore my old shirt to help in his own way. It appears to have worked.

From Annaka and Jack

Better Days

It's been awhile since I have gone through any of our video. One evening I edited this short movie from about three months of video. We have not been taking as much video lately but its always fun to go through and remember some of the things we have taped.

NC State Game

Before the NC State Game last week, Jack and Annaka got to explore a helicopter that landed on Bowman Field. Pretty Cool! Jack really liked sitting in one of the jump seats.

From Annaka and Jack