Major Award!!

Tim has won a major award!!




I've always told him that he is super awesome at all things audio, but it's always nice to have an unbiased third party confirm this.

The Los Angles Reel Film Festival awarded Splatter "Best Narrative Feature Sound Design." Yep. Tim designed the crap out of that sound, and is getting props for it.

We'll let you know when Splatter is available for public consumption.

Focusin ... for reals

This is a quote from an actual magazine ad…

“His math homework is two days late.

It’s in his backpack, which he left on the bus.

Again.

It feels like everyone is giving up on him.

I need a way to help him, but all I have is tears.”


Whoa.

Unnecessary drama alert! Wooooot! Woooooot! Woooot! Dingdingding!! ALARM! ALARM! ALARM!



That’s my unnecessary drama alarm. I have it set to “ironic”.

Anyway…Guess what that is an ad for? ADHD drugs 4 kidz.

Now, I’m not denying that a small percentage of children truly need and benefit from pharmaceuticals. That’s a decision for parents and doctors to make, not some random judgmental outsider (like myself). But… Really, pharmaceutical company? I mean… really?? Your desperation to broaden your consumer base is getting a bit embarrassing for all of us. Now you want parents to medicate their children for leaving stuff on the bus?

The “mom” in the ad is hilariously fragile. Surely parents like this only exist in the fantasies of drug company CEOs. I mean, we all have bad days where perhaps we entertain the idea of drugging our children. (Ok, I've never entertained that thought ...but as this blog clearly demonstrates, my children are perfect and cannot be improved with any child-enhancing drugs.) Maybe the pharmaceutical company just happened to catch this fictional mom at a bad time. But, honestly, if you are going to break down in tears and toss pills at your kid every time his homework is late, you are clearly living in The Valley of the Dolls (or beyond).

(simulated drug company CEO fantasy)

Here’s what I imagine will be their next ad campaign:

“He refused to eat his broccoli at dinner.

Again.

I feel like everyone has given up on him eating lima beans.

I need a way to help him, but all I have is tears.”


So… yeah.

...

(FYI... "Focusin" in the title is a reference to the Simpson's take on ADHD drugs and not the name of the actual drug from the ad.)

The Drama of a Haircut

I know where my skills end and the possibility of dismemberment begins.

Despite the fact that I have repeatedly asked Alexander to stop growing so much hair, we found that he was once again shaggy and in need of a haircut. *sigh* Two year olds… Cutting his hair has never been easy, and it has just gotten harder as he has gotten bigger, stronger, and more attached to his rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle and hairstyle.

I decided it was time to call a professional. Bub did NOT like it.


It was really sad to see him so upset…but I did feel somewhat vindicated that it took THREE adults to cut his hair.




In the end, he looked like a handsome young republican. (But he's still rock 'n' roll on the inside.)



And he earned a certificate that is suitable for framing... which we will not frame.




True story.

My Kid's Cute _>_ All Other Kid's Cute

(That's supposed to be a greater than or equal to sign, but I can't underline > in the title)

Here are two recent pictures that make me smile.


Taken last weekend at the park:




Taken two seconds ago... right here at the computer. Ah, memories.

Something about an apple not falling far from the tree...

This is not a staged photo. Alexander loves to look at guitars. He is constantly taking his dad's catalogs and leafing through them saying "pretty guitars".


Bubby was born to rock. And sit 'n' spin.

Hinder Lifting

Ava has very strong legs. Her efforts to crawl have resulted in a reverse (or inverse) army crawl. Her legs are so strong, she doesn't need to use her stinkin' arms. She moves up to an inch or two at a time with this technique. She sometimes uses her face as a fifth appendage for balance.

Some may call this weird. We call it "innovative".







"TA-DA!!!!"

Rice Cereal Tastes Almost As Good As Foot

Ava recently had her very first bite of "real" food... rice cereal! Yum! We were surprised by how readily she ate it. Here is actual video of her actual first bite of actual food... actually ever.





OK...so she drooled out a substantial portion of that first bite. Maybe it was just that mouth-wateringly good. Subsequent bites were just as enthusiastic. It still ranks below boob and foot on her scale of yummy things... but not bad at all.

Harmonica-Controlled Bub

It doesn't matter what he is doing, he responds to the harmonica every time.





The funniest part of this last video may be the unison parental "yeeaaa." If you've ever seen Stella, it's very Stella. If you haven't seen Stella...well, it's still very Stella. Our reality is not based on your understanding. (BONG!!!!) (That "bong" you just heard, by the way, came from this gigantic gong I whack every time I say something deep and fortune-cookie-esque. It rarely gets used. Unless I've been awake for three days straight, then it constantly gets used. Everything seems deep when you are tired... at least it does to me. And the hand that bongs the gong blows the collective mind of the world. BONG!!!!!) In any case, enjoy some more Bubby awesomeness:

Gold Medal Dreams and Jumperoo Routines

Ava's been mastering her Jumperoo Routine. (Up, Down, Giggle. Up, Down, Up, Down, Space Off. Up, Down, Giggle, Request Assisted Dismount.)




She's got an excellent, if micromanaging, coach working with her.



His ways are controversial, but he makes champions.

Nunchunk skills... computer hacking skills...

Alexander has acquired some mad computer skilz. He's gotten pretty good with a mouse and likes playing a few games on pbskids.org.



Here he is identifying animal sounds on Sid the Science Kid's website. No animals or final consonants were harmed in the making of this video. Please also note his "I've Just Invented a Flux Capacitor" hair-do. Enjoy.

Historic Pink Dresses, Giant Eyes, Bub Love, and a Few Other Things

Here is Ava sporting some babywear from my own babyhood:



Mmmmm... nostalgicious. Think if I get really serious about dieting, I can fit into it again?

In other news... Ava's experimenting with ways to get from point a to point b. Rolling has been the preferred method, but she has recently discovered that she can push herself forward a bit with her feet while laying on her stomach.. It's an awesome sight - her wee little hinder wiggling away as her feet scramble to connect with something solid. She leads with her giant baby eyes. Which, incidentally, is the same way she plays the piano:



Who know when she will work out the mechanics for crawling, but it could be soon. She is certainly strong enough for it. We like to call her scrappy. She's tiny, but super strong. Like altoids. But scrappy sounds cuter. Altoid sounds like a condition that requires minty preparation H. Or some obscure muscle that only a hardcore body builder wants to develop (this bronzing oil really shows off my Altoids when I flex like this. Huuuu-yaaaaah!!). So we call her Scrappy instead of Altoid. The nickname is perfect... only slightly tarnished by the memory of Scrappy Doo... his appearance on Scooby Doo was when that show jumped the shark. If you aren't familiar with that term, let me just say that Scrappy Doo was to Scooby Doo what Cousin Oliver was to the Brady Bunch. And if that didn't make any sense to you, then you really need to brush up on your classics. Now what was I talking about? Oh yeah... Ava's a very strong little girl.


Alexander loooooooves his big cousin Harrison. Like he reallyreallyreallyreally loves Harrison. Harrison is generally polite about the whole matter, even when Alexander's intense love makes it hard to eat a meal:



Bub continues to say the darnest blahbity blahs. He said his first three word sentence. He was counting cars on the road, one car, two car , three car ( you get the idea.... if not... four car, five car...) Suddenly we had a long stretch of road without any cars around. He said "No more cars." Yar. He likes to read or label or narrate everything he sees - usually using just one or two words and a LOT of enthusiasm. It's very cute. I mean, anyone else would sound crazy... but he just sounds cute.