Swiss Family Embarrassment

Yup. That's Laura brushing her teeth in the front yard down there. "It's like camping!" you'd hear her say. This whole outage thing has been humbling. I like to think one day I could live in the trees like the Robinsons, but I just need a little more prep time really. It can't just be sprung on one like so. I need to slowly transition into tree life, on my own terms ya see...

It has been a little rough tho. The dirty dishes are piling up. I'll use our last clean bowl for Special K in the morning. We are running out of clean water for the toilets. We need to do laundry and neither of us have bathed since Friday. Casualties in the freezer at currently at a minimum, but I see that number going up if we can't get some power soon.

Monday was rough, me home alone with Yuula, sure the power would surge the house at any moment. Instead we played with her toys and thanked goodness for battery power. We were entertained by a car horn and a dog bark in the distance and were serenaded by what must have been 300 crickets in symphony as the sun dropped and left us in darkness. No concept of time or light beside candle flicker, the day lasted a week and neither of us had ever been so happy to see Laura come thru the door.

Power's supposed to return sometime this weekend. Too bad we'll be Canada-ing.

Closing It Down With Mommy

Sometimes Yuula gets to help her mother close up shop. More actually that she slightly hinders the process by insisting on her mother holding her, but I never hear any complaints.

What To Do Without The Buzz

Just sitting around looking at each other...

C'mon, Irene Too Loo Rye Ay

The power out can be a lovely thing. Despite the charred bacon on the grill and all the down trees and the game of hide & seek in the mall and no bananas at the Thai place, it was a pretty terrific day. Dani & Vic's flight was cancelled so they got to join us on this apparently apocalyptic day. Street lights out. Outlets closed. Ice cream melted. I bought a jacket. For the wedding. That's right I'm taking it up a notch. Corduroy. An evening lit by candlelight and impromptu techno music. Good times. Come again.

My Wife, The Carnosaur

I love the days when Laura comes home from work and without saying hello makes a beeline to the back deck, raw meat in tow, and begins to grill, feverishly, as if she's been salivating all day long awaiting the fleshy taste of animal on her lips.



Yesterday was one of those days, and I must admit, I wasn't all that surprised to see that she was cooking seven pork steaks. Yup. Seven pork steaks for two people, and one baby. But the reality is that we will probably only eat two or three of them tonight. The other four are for her to carry around in her pockets for the next couple days and gnaw on at her leisure. My wife is a carnosaur.



Look how happy it makes her.



These guys better find a better hiding spot.

Baby Slide: You're Doing It Wrong

Surprise Surprise

Rendezvous At Rockaway

Had to teach Wednesday morning. This is what that looked like:



Then I met the gang at the playplace in the Rockaway mall. This is what that looked like:






Then we had lunch at Red Robin. That looked like this:




Go ahead Mom & Dad. Say "Yummmm".

Then I saw two old dudes sitting on a bench by the bathrooms where the babies were getting diaper changes. That looked a little like this:



Wednesday.

Self Spoon Fed

Yuula is not taking her 1's laying down. First the sleep development and then earlier this week she decides to use the spoon for Danielle, and with pinpoint precision. Or not really. I tried it with her today for the first time and ended up with yogurt all over her face, on the rug and the bottom of my feet. No lie. But she understands. The power of imitation is a strong one. We better watch what we do now or...

Tuesday Was Shakey

Wanna know how my Tuesday went? Something like this.

Earthquake earthquake earthquake. Earthquake? Earthquake earthquake earthquake earthquake, earthquake earthquake earthquake earthquake. Earthquake earthquake. Earthquake earthquake earthquake earthquake. Earthquake earthquake earthquake! Earthquake earthquake earthquake earthquake earthquake earthquake, earthquake earthquake earthquake. Earthquake earthquake.



Yeah, there was an earthquake. Apparently there's some action going on with our tectonic plates. Katie, Nancy & I were in Panera and I had just finished my chipotle chicken panini when the whole place starting wiggling. Katie tried to blame me for shaking the bench. Then the three of us jumped up and ran outta there. Halfway across the parking lot, seeing all the buildings evacuated it became more clear what had happened. I tried to call Laura but all circuits were busy. Same with Dani who was watching Yuula.



Got back to the school to see the whole place evacuated and finally heard from Laura. She had tried to evacuate the store but apparently a sale on Indian vases was too strong to remove even the most frugal housewife from such a bargain. And Dani had felt a little shimmy in the floorboards but not enough to wake little sleeping baby.

So there was an earthquake. Stop making such a big deal people. California thinks we're wussies.

Bubbles With Aunt Dani

The Year A Difference Makes

So many people have asked me in the past few days, "Hey Travis! What is the big difference once a baby turns one?". Actually no one has asked me that. Kind of rude really. You people are inconsiderate. Geez. But I'm gonna answer you anyway. Even tho you're rude people.



The biggest difference, for Yuula anyhow, is sleep. This girl turned one and fell asleep. Right the hell out. And not only does she sleep well, but she does it in her crib. A couple months back we tried to transition her into her own sleep quarters, quite unsuccessfully. This time she seemed to be ready to break away from us in the evening and retire to her own side of the house. Let's see if it lasts.

She just woke up today. Hit the hay for a good 14 hours. Now she's ready to go crazy. Good thing we got all these new toys.

Teach, Work And Teach Work

What are we on, Monday?



Yeah Monday I taught early and came home late.




Danielle watched Yuula because Laura had to work as well and then I had some work to do when I got home. Yuula was already in bed and I wasn't far behind her.



This is a busy week. Glad it's now over.

The Styrofoam Stand-In

Sunday was also the first day of RxHS'11 camp. For me anyhow. Their day one was Saturday, but I had other things to do. It was a short day, 2-9, and it rained most of the time, but we got some stuff done.



During dinner the girls presented to me a birthday cake for Yuula and sang to her.



Well... actually, they sang to a styrofoam stand-in one of their demented minds had created. I guess it was sweet. Only because it had icing on it.



Katie was not impressed.

Harvesting Monstrosities

Laura's growing some massive veggies

Thank You Everybody For Everything

We kept the party going Sunday morning and opened some gifts friends had brought for Yuula. Many new outfits, one cuter than the next and some great new cuddle buddies. Yuula's collection of stuffed animals is growing exponentially and some day she's gonna have a hell of a tea party. Loved all the new toys and baby gadgets. I think I enjoy some of them more than she does. All the handmade gifts are pretty awesome. She loves books and we got a bunch of those. Good thing I've been practicing my reading.








Thanks all for taking the time to give Yuula a magnificent first birthday.

-------------

Also had some awesome eggs & potatoes for breakfast. Mmmm.

Yuula's 1st Birthday Celebration

Yuula turned one on Saturday.

We threw her a party.

It was a rager.

I will show you photos.

Should be sufficient.



the birthday setup




birthday family showed up early


Grandpa guarded the birthday banner


I convinced some guests to do some last minute birthday cleanup


the birthday gift table filled up quick


having fun birthday girl?


the birthday Mommy club


the birthday foods


birthday Steph & birthday Connie


we hired a birthday clown / we didn't hire a birthday clown


tired yet birthday girl?


the birthday dogs


Yuula collected some birthday cakes


O (red velvet), N (double chocolate), E (vanilla strawberry)


Mexican wedding cake


Yuula's personal birthday cake


the birthday song

while nothing outside of the norm, it does show the rare image of my father holding a beer



it isn't in her nature to go crazy on the birthday cake


more special birthday guests


birthday bubblers


the birthday team takes a much deserved break


the birthday evening winds down


the guests have all but disappeared, hopefully with full bellies and happy hearts


birthday quiet sets in


to end the celebration, a lone birthday balloon hangs in the rafters

Yuula was born on August 20th 2010 at 9:50pm. On August 20th 2011 at 9:50pm she fell asleep, exhausted from a long first year......