Wedding album

Click here to view this photo book larger

Finally got around to organizing those wedding photos...5.5 years later.

misperceptions and miscommunications

Pop-pop finally came home from the hospital today (Yay!). Returning to Fairfax from our day in Berkeley, Micah speculated as to whether Pop-pop would show us his "shot". That's what you get when you go to the doctor, right-- shots?

Amy's retort confused Micah even more: "Pop-pop would take a shot any day, over what he ended up getting."

"He didn't have one any day-- he had one today"

"Micah-- I think you're taking me too literally"

"I'm not little!"

growth spurt

Before heading to Disneyland with Micah in October, Amy measured his height in order to determine which rides he was big enough to go on. On October 17th, he measured, 40.25''-- just tall enough to go on every ride at Disneyland save Indiana Jones.

Lately, he's been seeming rather big and his clothes rather small, so we measured him again. On December 17th he measured in at 41.50'', meaning that he grew 1.25 inches in under 75 days. At this rate-- half an inch a month-- he'll be almost 7 feet tall by the time he's 10.

3.5

For all you base-ten lovers out there:

Micah is three and a half years old. He's 42 inches tall-- three and a half feet. And he weighs (if we dehydrate him) approximately 35 pounds.

SnoCal!!

Surprise!!! Where we live, we can actually do this:


A big storm hit us on Monday. After braving the downpour in SB, on the way home I caught a glimpse of the snow covered mountains above Ojai. While Mama and Levi were in Berkeley, Micah and I slipped away Wednesday afternoon and visited the snow.

We drove up Highway 33 past Ojai, around the mountain to Rose Valley, in Los Padres National Forest. It's at about 3500', but most importantly it's hidden under the north face of Nordhoff Ridge, so I knew it would have seen little sun in the intervening days.

Micah had a blast. We ran in the snow, stomped on it, made some snowballs, threw them,
attempted a snowman, and-- most importantly-- investigated the properties of yellow snow:

antipodes

We've been passing through the nether regions of our birthday cycle. Micah's un-birthday is today. Everyone else's has already passed.

dinner time

Dinner time with the boys. Despite the fact that Amy was on the train home from OC, this one was relatively peaceful:

happy birthday grandma!!!

We love you!

Here's a portrait of us that Pop-pop Phil took last week:
You can find the original-sized file at his website.

Stay tuned for school pictures and more portraits.

mama's (and micah's) race

A few weeks ago, Amy ran a 9km trail run put on by PCTR in La Jolla Canyon in the Santa Monica Mountains. The runners zig-zag up the 1000' climb of the Ray Miller Trail, then bomb back down.

Stretching before the start:And they're off:Micah and I took a shortcut to the see the runners at the first switchback:

Micah in hot pursuit:


Micah demonstrates his uphill speed (and spunk):



The view from where Micah (and Levi) and I turned around:


Great job, Amy!

Triumphant finish-line reunion:The last time we saw those sunglasses in one piece:

carpet time

breakfast time

movie time

wake-up time

Click picture to enlarge.

b(ack)log

Here's a grab-bag of videos from the past month or two. We'll get back to blogging a bit more after we manage to retrain Levi to go to sleep when his brother does.

Dump complete!

6 months!

Levi turned six months old today-- hooray!

T-day

We braved the trek up 101 to Fairfax to celebrate Thanksgiving with the family. The drive went decidedly better than the one in August. The highlight of the trip was seeing my middle school girlfriends and their babies. Of six girls, we have eight children among us, seven of whom are boys. How's that for a skewed sex ratio?

The photo shoot is available here.

In addition to shooting pics of eight children under age 3.5 (what a circus!), my dad also photographed us on the trail by their house.

Micah Forest:

grandad joe's visit

Where did November go? Well here we are nearing the end and we have a back log of great photos. Grandad Joe visited earlier this month and as he is the photographer, you'll just have to take our word he was here and captured the boys on film:


Levi eyes my beer at Padaro grill:



As usual, he came bearing another large vehicular plastic monstrosity which was a big hit:

Roll out

[Roll out! Roll out! Roll out!]

"Me and my homies, so drop that
We rollin' on twenties, with the top back
So much money, you can't stop that"

...anyone?...anyone?

After quite a while Levi has finally figured out how to maneuver that Buddha belly and demonstrates his latest trick:

It's an exciting developmental milestone, but as is commonly the case: once a baby picks up a new trick, it wreaks havoc on the sleep. Levi wakes himself up having rolled over to unfamiliar territory and can't fall back asleep.

Proud boy:
Here he plots his take over of the world:
And here there is something about his look that reminds us of his cousin Joey (not the expression, but something in the eyes) :

Dr. Bee

So Micah had a toy when he was a wee one that we have since passed down to Levi. It is a great toy and Micah has taken to calling it Dr. Bee for a couple of months now. The other day he finally enlightened us as to why the name: Micah always puts the plastic hook around around the bug's neck and he explained it looks like a stethoscope...hence Doctor bee. Oh ! now we get it!
and here Levi models his latest vertical-assistance devices:

boo!

Micah and his buddy Elijah went trick-or-treating tonight. They were a T-rex and triceratops, respectively:
Though, triceratops became a no-ceratops pretty quickly:
At 2, Elijah was our fearless leader while Micah followed with a bit more trepidation at the spooky homes of the die-hard halloween-lovers. Micah would follow nonetheless, as the lure of "candy!" was too great. After a few houses, Micah hit his stride, dutifully chanting, "trick-or-treat!" followed with a hasty "thank you" and "happy halloween" as he was making tracks to the next house (lest we lose valuable candy hoarding time):
Whereas Levi was just along for the ride, trying desperately to keep his eyes open:

You'll note the return of the chili pepper! While Micah donned the latest Nanny Gorgeous handmade creation, Levi got to recycle the pepper--much to our great satisfaction. But who wore it best?

Levi?

Or Micah?

advancement

Levi is getting more active in his play...as well as more vertical:

Photos from Grandma & Grandpa G's visit

We hit up Underwood Family Farms again for the perennial pumpkin roast in the Valley:
The ergo came in handy leaving the pumpkin patch:
Tractors were a big hit this year.


Pumpkin patches elicit a desire to go down memory lane....