WEEKEND'S over

weekends over and its time to go back on break! the last two days have been some fun filled hard working days!

we got a lot done, but still have a lot to do.

the picture above is of today when we went to go get pictures of akello in his baptism outfit at Sears portrait studio. He had a good session but was wearing thin towards the end. We managed to get out of there for only 60 bucks and got some great pics! i cant wait to share them. We have been waiting for a few bad scratches to clear up b/f we took him in.
BUT, soon he will be too big for his outfit so we decided to take him in today with scratches and all, and during the photo-shoot he even scratched himself on the nose!

i swear, you just cant keep those nails short enough. and when your playing with him, he will grab at your cheek and squeeze! it feels like hes going to rip your cheek off!



while we were at sears i spotted these cute little adirondack chairs. if they had one in green i would have bought one. speaking of adirondack chais, the wait for the green ones to go back into production is over. I spotted a huge stack outside the HD and had to stop and pick some up. i bought 2, b/c now i dont need so many with the school going in the backyard now and all.



speaking of the backyard, its starting to look, well, like a school!



i have begun to clear out the flower bed of old landscaping rock and will soon be teansplanting the plants to the front (wich are still alive, they just look dead)



then i can lay the weed carpet and dump all that pea gravel thats sitting on the concrete into the hole!

We took a family trip to ikea too!

(akello was mad cuzz we were leaving when i took this pic)

this was akellos and theresas first time. I (the seasoned vetran) was able to guide us through in minimal time.



Akello loved ikea! he was smiles throgh the whole thing. we picked up the expedit bookcase and some other items that theresa needed for the school. I also took back some pendant lamps that didnt work out for the living area.



We bought some little bitty table and chair sets for the school as well, but we are going to have to cutt off the legs, b/c the dimensions are a bit too high.

i also looked around for a floor lamp that could best compliment my new reading chair. thats right! look what arrived!!!!



Its simply gorge! and im so glad i sprung extra for the Edelman leather upgrade. its quite noticible an worth every penny. I mean how could you say no to the "dream cow" leather option if this is your dream chair?

i have been expiramenting with placing it in the house and for now have repositinoned it in front of the Tv for the superbowl, but i think i will put it in the guest bedroom. but well see.

i cant show you a picture of the rosewood finish on it because no picture can do it justice, so youll just have to come over. im still planning a reception and viewing.

Since this is the 50h anniversary of the chair i got this free book that came with the chair! i have already read it, since we have one at work, and i might just leave this one in the cellophane. im that crazy.



we re-arrranged the bedroom too. that window is so cold, so now i sleep next to it and the air ionizer, (wich puts off a draft) is on my side too instead of next to akellos floor bed. so now im cold enough to sleep under the cover with theresa instead of on top of the bed.

heres what the room used to look like.


and now


this is walking in and looking to the left

this is as seen from the hall


theresa and AK take a break after a long day out.

Hello!

Holy Craigslist Batman!

SOOOO!

i dont know where to start. first a pic of akello



I love it when he plays with his feet! he's like a little rolly polly!


Saturday was a COLD one! after Theresa met with her "my husband works on saturday" mommy group she brought akello to visit me at work on saturday! what a treat.



Here he is testing out the freja sofa, (which is on sale by the way till the 31st)
Akello highly recommends it.

The past 24 hours has been a frenzy of Craigslist Hookups so unreal, I can hardly take it.

Sometimes The craigslist gods are with you and sometimes they are against you. In our case, the craigslist gods were not only with us, its like they were emailing us to say, "i found this table that you have always wanted for free, go pick it up at 11:00am tomorrow.

I am usually not on Craigs that much but lately theresa and I have been looking for some key items to fill the school. Well, in the hunt for a little tikes table and bench I happened across this FREE dorm fridge that didn’t work out for the owner. “this fridge is just too cold, its only good for beer or liquor as it keeps it at the brink of freezing.” Hello!!! Yes I can pick it up today!

The funny thing that I noticed about people on craigslist is that older people (40-up) will give you directions on how to get to their home. But younger people don’t, because we all assume that you have heard of Mapquest or Google maps by now.

Old people will start giving me directions, and im like,"I already have directions, see you at 8! this only confuses them and so i just twiddle my thumbs and let them give the direcs to me.


So anyway!

Later that day, Theresa hit the gold mine on craigslist. Long story short....
She hooked up a bunch of stuff from a school that was going out of business and had to be out of the space by this week. So she ventured with akello to go seal the deal.

75 BUCKS LATER.....



We were the proud owners of "whatever we wanted" including a bunch of "softplay", (expensive vynl covered foam). and a bunch of other stuff, including a phillipe stark designed childs Teepee. I saw the logo on the teepee and was like...."wait a minute!" this thing is worth hundreds!"



We left a lot of it, we simply didnt need it or have room for it, or it was too damaged.



NOT only that., but the lady said that we could have alllllll the gravel in her backyard. and there is enough gravel for me to not only build a gravel pit for the school at our house, thereby saving me the 50 bucks that i was about to drop at the Depot but enough to landscape our entire property.!


this is a foot deep folks. this gravel is prolly worth 1 to 2 grand!

Oh, did i mention friday that i hooked up a fridge? oh i did, ok,

now what im about to tell you is so awesome i cant beleive it.

remember a few posts back when i was talking about how i put in the new ikea light in the dining area, and how i closed the post with "but what we really need is a 42 inch circular dining table, more on that later"? do you remember that!!

well. there i was...on listpic....(wich is a craigslist picture viewer)....

looking at free stuff......and what do my eyes see but a horribly taken picture of a table. the caption reads..."free table, good condition, 28 inches high by 42 inches round off white."

well i was pretty sure that this guy was GIVING away an eames table by herman miller.
thats right a table that would go perfect in our dining area. i emailed him literally 6 minutes after it was posted. He emailed me back saying, "its yours, pick it up sunday."

HAPPY HAPPY JOY JOY HAPPY HAPPY JOY! (ren and stimpy voice)

you gotta be quick! im surprised i got it actually!

well i show the pic to my co-workers and they all confirmed that i was right. Designed in 1950 the eames table was part of the Aluminum group series.
and while the pic was dark,. we could all see what appeared to be the indicitive "contract" base denoting what it really was.

Well i picked it up this morning, and let me tell you that yes. its the real deal and yes, it looks amazing in the space.
BEHOLD!!!



nO! the pictures do not do it justice! the great thing is that theresa wanted a round table too and just hadnt had a chance to discuss it with me. we need more space in the kitchen for the little kids table thats going to go in there for the school as well as a bookshelf. i have been wanting a saarinen Tulip dining table by Knoll but its not even in my price range right now.



(perhaps its in yours? Knoll prices go up 11% on feb 11! call me!!) so i was going to go with an Ikea KNOCK OFF! the Docksta!



but now, im out no money, i can make some money selling our old one. and i have a vintage eames piece for my dining area. This will hold me for a long time! until i can afford the MARBLE sarrinen table. that will be when akello graduates collegs.


the picture you see is in dining view mode. i will put it in the corner and re-position a hook in the cieling to center the light over it. that rectangle table was just too big and sure we can only seat 4 now, but let me tell you, it feels so much better in the kitchen. the table is the perfect size. did i mention it was free? its also going to be better for playing poker! oh, and another thing....

if anyone needs a glass topped aluminum based table in good condition i got one for sale for 100 bucks! delivered!!!


that is all.

im beaming with joy over here. beaming.




stay tuned...next time i will talk about replacing this lamp




and this lamp



BYE!

Jaden the testdriver

Jaden and his mom came over to play the other day and it really helped to have jaden test out the room with his curiousity and physicality. Jaden is in the age range of the kids that T will be teaching.

We learned that the floor lamps in the living room are going to have to go! I got a plan for their replacements already, more later. you can see it in the pic below.



Theresa and I have been finding a good deal of used items off craigslist for the school but will still have to buy a few things. If you have any push or pull toys, balls of any shape size or texture, wagons or easels, or anything like that dont hesitate to donate it to us if its just sitting in the attic.

Theresa and I are excited and busy and have already started re-arranging furniture (my favorite part) as if school were to start any day! THeresa and i get so excited just seeing the big empty room. We are busy designing the flyer and the website for the school too!

scratched forehead

We were going to go take pics of akello in his Baptism outfit at Babys'rus but he scratched himself AGAIN. so maybe next week.



Akello has discovered the "VISUALIZER" in itunes, also known as Baby Crack. If i need a moment to chill out, i just put on some tunes and turn on the visualizer.

happy tuesday!

Birds!

So here is more of the bird that i talked about a post back.




the Sewcial Butterfly Logo.

Bird on the fan pull. Ball on the light pull.


"details are not details. They make the product" - Charles Eames







So my sling came in the other day. im no expert at it yet, so you wont see me sweeping like mama does...



whistle while you work.


Here i am putting akello in the sling. You can almost see the breathable holes in the nylon fabric.
Better pics later

Theresa and Akello

Sometimes Akello looks like me. Sometimes he looks like T.

These days he's really showing T's eyes. Below is a picture of Theresa at the same age as akello is now, in the same chair in fact!

cooped up

Were all cooped up here in the house due to the bad weather that has paralyzed central texas.
Icy roads all around! they even closed off all overpasses that connect to I-35.

Theresa and I have not really been too fazed by the whole thing. I have been sick for a while, so i couldnt do anything but rest and tuesdays and wednesdays are my days off anyway, and im used to staying at home on those days. so it was pretty normal, just cold. What was frustrating was the fact that my fridge is full of beer and i cant drink any of it b/c of my cold, or allergies, or whatever i have.



i am hoping that tommorrow is the day. i felt pretty good today cept for some congestion this morning.

Akello is better than me! he got a cold on monday night and he seems to have bounced back already!
we also think that he might have had pink-eye. We caught some early signs of it and squirted some breast milk in his eye immediatley! yES bREASTMILK! apparrantly its the cure for what ales you. Behold the power of breastmilk!

we have been continuing to apply warm compresses and milk squirts and his eye seems back to normal. well, not really squirts, but drops from a bottle.

We have been having a good time these past few days despite beeing cooped up. Theresa has been thinking more about her school and has decided to have it on thursdays and fridays from 9 to 12. she is going to be looking for 2 students ages 12 to 18 months (i think) im not sure on the ages, but she did decide on a lot of things after speaking with her friend Lara who runs a school herself.

New Art!



Akello received a gift for his baptism from Amy with The Sewcial Butterfly, a pretty red bird mobil! theresa put it on one of the pulls on the fan above. on the other pull she attached a ball via a red ribbon. Akello lays down on the sheepskin and kicks the ball. the ball therefore moves the ribbon that moves that bird, that holds akellos attention, that gives daddy time to make breakfast! Thanks Amy.

The bird even has a little SB logo tag sewn in on the wing, a nice touch. i will post more pics and video later. in the background you can see akellos new gym mat. it fits perfectly between the wall and the shelf!

DESIGN STUFF/////////////////////////////

New Lamp!

i have been wanting one of these lights ever since i saw it at IKEA a couple of years back.
the KNAPPA! it weighs in at 24 bucks and a whole lot of "you put it together"
it came in this tiny box



I finally got clearance to buy one b/c of theresas upcoming school.

She wants to put our dining table against the wall so as to make room in the kitchen for a kids table. Well the only problem with that is that the pendant light will hit you in the forehead if you get to close to the table once it is pushed against the wall.

lets look at this file photo of how the kitchen used to look



As you can see, the Jbox is not centered in the room, even though it is centered in the middle of the blinds. so the only way to place your dining room table and have it centered is to put it like so. This complicates things when we have dinner for 6 and want to move the table the other way and put to chairs on the ends of the table. aggg frustration. So i knew we needed a pendant light on a cable.

Below is a picture of Eneas at the table in the new "schools in" location. i had just put up the new light seconds before. Now it is centered above the table!



we put it this way for the baptism reception, and with the new light it wasn't a problem, because i carefully measured and measured and measured again so as to get two correct locations for hooks to go into the cieling for the pendant to hang over depending on the positioning of the table.

(this pic is in dining mode)

Another thing that required measuring , measuring , and measuring again and some extra patience was the wiring. this light comes set to plug into the wall! wich is cool i guess, but i just needed the plus and minus cable. so i had to cut it at the right length to allow for all the right length + the wire that i had to dig out of the insulation and strip to conect it to the jbox.
the beads of sweat were starting to gather! but i pulled it off!

You might also notice that the clock that was in the original picture on the back wall has been replaced with our Bonnie Gammil art piece that was from the bedroom.
the clock was too small and had to much angulatur to be in such close proximity with the new light pendant. Bonnies piece looks awesome in the Dining area. We still need to tell time though and i moved another clock into the kitchen to fill the void.




yay!!!!!!! dining for six! and centered in the room!!!! its an awesome light. these pictures do it no justice. you can barely see the new clock on the left there. This is awesome but what this room really needs is a 42" circular table. more on that later......

BAPTISM'S ALL AROUND

I have been sick for the past days and have been going straight to bed as soon as i get home. Im no better today, but since im already sick, One hour wont make me any worse.

I think akello has a little something too. He's sneezing and has a little cough. Its always hard to watch him wake himself up by coughing or sneezing. poor little guy.

Well, the baptism went very well. It was a beautiful day, and the service was beautiful as well. We were so lucky that Larry, (one of the godparents) was able to make this event seeing as how he works in Turkey, (the country). We were very happy and fortunate to see him and for him to be able to be here with us on akello's special day.






I didnt take any pictures during the service, because as the rector mentioned, "if your taking pictures then your not in the moment. its better just to live the moment".



I agreed, so i took a picture of vivian, another little one getting baptized. My pictures were shaky because of the no flash rule.
After the baptism we went home and had a reception at our home for him. It was a good time and akello received a lot of gifts. Theresa also read a poem that she had been working on for him on this day that was very nice. I had a chance to catch up with jaden and we shared a beer and talked about life in general but mostly about how His dad never lets him have beer at his house. Must be a cultural thing.







Valerie (one of akello's godparents) bought him this cake!


So many of our friends are either pregnant or have babies. it makes things a lot more fun! both girls that aren't holding a baby in this picture will be soon!



My grandpa was about to leave and i saw him whip out these red hook thingys.

"what are those?"

"for the boots!"




later in the day we worked on Akello's Goalie skills.

busybusy

Things are fast and furious around here. We are getting ready for Akello’s baptism, which occurs on Sunday, and have been trying to get ready for the big day.
Yesterday we went to the mall as a family for the first time; this was akellos first trip to the mall ever. He seemed to take it ok, and we taught him to politely decline the sales reps at the fragrance counter.(haha, that used to be our jobs)



We took him with us so that he could pick out what he wanted to wear for his baptism, or christening. I don’t know what the difference is. Someone asked me that today and I told them that baptisms are for Baptists and christenings are for people that believe in Christ. Haha. They just said, “oh. That makes sense!”

But seriously. Akello picked out a good outfit and we came back home and setup the computer so that Theresa could record a song that was going on in her head before it was gone.



After Theresa recorded her vocal track. I put akello up to the mic since he was in such a talkative mood.



Of course once he got there he was quiet and just wanted to play with the mic so all I recorded was some fingers tapping on the microphone.



A while back we were thinking about moving akello to the floor bed, but also to put the floor bed in our bedroom. Now for whatever reason we moved his bed into our room but he has still been sleeping with us, and the floor bed is still in the room taking up space. I forget the reason that we have not moved him to the bed AND I forget the reason I have not put the floor bed back. That’s how unimportant it is, how often we change our mind, and how tired we are to even think about it.

Well this has left a void in his room, and Theresa had said that she wanted to, (if we have another child) convert the office into the babies sleep room, where all they did was sleep,
And then akellos nursery would be the playroom.

I liked that idea, so Theresa wanted to find a play mat, or better yet, a gym or exercise mat for that room. Because the flor tile looks cool, but those flor tiles are placed directly on the cement slab and its not the comfiest floor to walk on, much less bang your face against while in the throws of tummy time.

So I told her that there were some at target and even bought "the puzzle" version on a hunch and brought it home.



Theresa preffered the other version, the foldable black gym mat as opposed to the “puzzle piece” one that I had picked out

So I as all set to get this one, even though it was $40 as compared to the $14 puzzle version.Not that im opposed to spending $40 on a mat.



Well Theresa suggested Academy too. Well I thought….Duh! and I went over to academy to look around. And that where I found this!!



Bigger, cushier, cheaper and blue!

Theresa approved.

The other day akello’s Internet Aunt Corina came to visit, dragging along Joey and Steven. They arrived just in time for akello to awake from an afternoon nap!









Joey was able to snap some pics of akello and me, (a rare sight as im usually the one with the camera)




Here is a shot of us doing the superman/new ab workout.


i swear, if you want to drop some pounds, have a kid! its a constant workout, from dancing with him for 45 minutes so that he'll go to sleep, to playing with him to holding him, to going on walks, constant movement.

Speaking of pictures. Its tough to get a good shot of akello these days b/c once he sees that camera he just freezes and stares at it. I have to shoot from the hip and get creative to get a smile out of him while taking his picture. I delete tons of photos that I take everyday and manage to get one or two good ones. Thank god for digital. Speaking of digital,

I noticed a new mannerism in the world today. Gone are the days when we used to take one picture of something and move on. With digital, and the immediate display of our results, we take a ton more pics, until we are happy. So the act of taking a picture takes much longer than it used to, especially when you get the “oh, let me see” people.

Nowadays I see peopl take a picture, then they huddle around the camera to see it, then they complain and go back to pose again, and then go through the steps over and over.

Well, with this in mind, I have also taken pictures WITH akello. I will either put him on my lap or lay with him as I did when Corina was over and let him look at the big LCD display and we take pics together so that he can get revenge and flash other people in the eyes.



Here is one of his latest works. He calls it, “Visitor. # 35 in a series”


Oh!

I had been meaning to talk about my sling that I ordered. So a while back you may remember how I went to that meeting and checked out a sling to see if I liked it or not….
Well I had to turn that back in. but I did like the sling and wanted to order one. I went to kangaroo korner to get one, but there were so many fabric options and colors that it became a little overwhelming. Plus you had to figure out your size, and who has time or fabric tape laying around to measure their chest.

Well after these past few days of holding him in my arms I made it a priority and ordered one up the other day. I can wait for it to get here.

I went with the “mesh” version. It’s supposed to be for warm climates and quick drying. And it’s made out of that nylon/spandexy material like my running shirts are made out of which I like.



Oh,

I never really posted a note about our Christmas. We had a great Christmas and spent it at home, and had visitors come to us throughout the day to say hi. Akello was able to wear some cute Xmas outfits that Michelle gave us and akello received lots of money from his friends and relatives for his college fund.

Theresa and I both like the spirit of Xmas and while we don’t get too much into the commercial aspects of it, we do like the feeling of holiday food and family. I bought or made every holiday drink there was, eggnog/brandy-cider/brandy-hot coco-baileys Irish cream/coffee. Even though I get burnt out on that stuff after one cup, I still have to have just a smidge every year. That and tamales.

This year my grandmother didn’t make any tamales, so we bought some. My parents gave my in-laws some tamales for Christmas and we were over to have dinner with my in-laws on new years day. They were telling us about how they didn’t know what to eat with the tamales, as a side dish. I told them, “You don’t eat anything with them, just coffee. That’s it”

I had to tell Theresa the same thing. Christmas morning I was getting out all the tamales and she was like, “well, should I make some beans or something?”
And im all, “nope…. just tamales…. that is all.

Well my in-laws went on to say that they went ahead and made some broccoli to go with the tamales! BROCCOLI!!!

“It was great! The perfect side dish” –Ted burke

Well you go Ted! KEEP KILEEN WEIRD!

Onward with the 07

I always seem to dread the new year, because it’s another year gone by that I didn’t do what I said I was going to do last year. But this New Year is quite different.

Theresa and I have been doing a tradition since we were married. We have this little canister that’s labeled, “gil and THeresas hopes and dreams” Each New years eve, we open it up and look inside! What lies inside are little pieces of paper that have dreams and goals written on them from the new years eve the year prior.



We mostly forget whats in there, so when we open it up, we have a good time reading what we thought we wanted to do, or whatever. Sometimes it’s a little tough reading the paper slips, (loose 10 lbs) and we just put it back in the pot for next year. Other times it can be very rewarding. I remember last year when we opened the canister and I pulled out a card that read, “to work in the design field, some-how..some-way..” it was so great to pull out that piece of paper and throw it away! Dream realized.

Wow, what a great feeling to see a goal realized that you yourself wrote down on paper.

When i worked at a gym, i would tell people the same thing every day:
IF you are serious about a goal, the first step is to write it down on paper. The second step is too tell your friends about your goal. This is crucial because they will know if you fail. But your friends can help you along the way, that’s the plus.



That friend for me is Theresa. And while she can be a great motivator, I find the most motivation from my son, akello. If not for me….then for akello. That’s what I find myself saying a lot these days.

I knew going into this new years eve that there would be some dreams going back into the bucket (10 lbs) but some others that would be coming out! (paying off a credit card)

This new years was funny with akello and all. We couldn’t go to any parties b/c of akello’s sleep time, and don’t feel like he’s “sitter ready” especially with his recent bouts of diahrea. Oh the diarreah! The poor thing! His ass was so raw for a spell. It hurt to look it! He started to get it after he received his 4 month shots. Wich by the way went soooo much better than the 2 month shots. He didn’t even blink when he got the first 2 shots. And cried just a little (and at moderate volume) when he got the third. So we don’t know if it was something in the shots, or if it was all the sweets that theresas been eating lately cuzz of the holidays and all.We think it was the chocolate from Theresa. So T quit eating all the sweets and eggnog and He’s starting to get back to normal.



I got to say, if there was a contest for The loudest crying baby, I would sign him up! He is soooo loud! I even keep a pair of earplugs handy. He doesn’t cry too much, but when he does, it’s painful. He really doesn’t cry too much these days. In fact Theresa and I have seen a difference in a lot of things with him lately in the past two days. He has been doing really well in the car lately which Is really great. (knock on wood) Theresa and I really are amazed. We shall see how long this lasts. We attribute this change to a difference that we made in his sleep schedule and also think that it might be that he's just maturing. We read in a book that baby’s should not be up for more than two hours at a time, and this same book actually gave a reason for akello’s figiting and constant movement. The book explained to us that he is overtired. And told us a lot of other symptoms of overtired babys and how you can think as a parent that nothings wrong. Well the case studies matched akello to a T! so we started giving him a nap between every one to two hours. No more nap schedule. We start the day as soon as he wakes up and go from there. And sure enough its made a difference. He doesn’t figit as much as he used to and he sleeps a lot more during the day. And its easier to get him to sleep too because,,,,,,HE’S NOT OVERTIRED!!!



Its my job to cut his nails. They grow fast and he will often cut himself accidentaly by waving his arms around and will also cut himself on the face whenever he rubs his eyes when he is tired.

I was doing really good with trimming him until one day…..oh it was bad.

I was going along trimming the nails as usual when I realized that after I made a cut, I didn’t hear the usual sound of “clip” in fact I heard nothing at all. I feared the worst and looked at his face, for an expression, then to his finger. That’s when I saw it. The slow rush of blood coming from the inside of his little finger. I looked back at him just to see his smile turn into the saddest little face, oh and that cry!

I didn’t cut his fingernails for days. I felt so bad. But, nature left me no choice and I was back at it. This time super careful.

Its very difficult to do this. Hes always moving around. And he does not keep his hands open. They are usually curled around my hand or opening and closing. Never still.



He moves around so much that our pediatrician told us at his 4 month checkup that he’s a very active baby and is burning a lot of calories, needs to nurse more to make up for it, or maybe use baby cereal. We are looking into the baby cereal thing but havent done anything on it yet. We are nursing more though. He grew 3 inches since his 2 month checkup! so all that weight is going to his height.

Well. We did wind up going to a NEW years eve party. But! it was a Babycentric one!
the party started at 6 and we treated 9pm as midnight. Babies were all around and parents sat and exchanged stories while munching on BBQ and sipping champagne



the party hosts even set up a changing table in the hallway!



akello did really great and had a good time. As did we. we left at 8:30 though.

We have started to retrain akello's bed time. it used to be 9 then 6, then 7 then 6 then 7:30

We change our minds allllllll the time. Heres the thing. all the baby books say to put you kid to sleep earlier. the earlier the better. and that they will sleep longer, and that its healthier etc. well theresa has been talkin to all her freinds and they all say the same thing. 8:30 to 9:30 is when they put their kids down. for the obviuos reason. They can get sleep close to the same time that baby gets sleep.
and its like, HELLO! babys dont know what time it is!

with akello, he would go down at 7:30 and would sleep for 3 hours. this gave theresa and i some time together wich was nice, but as soon as 10:30 rolled around, he would be up every 2 hours. And theresa would be right up with him.

Now we have not made an immediate jump from a 7pm bedtime to a 9pm bedtime. we are slowly increasing it.

our pediatrician always tells us, "throw away all those books!!"
theresa reada a lot of books. but for all the philosophy and methods she picks up on a lot of information that comes in handy.





For christmas, akello got some good starter toys to start him on the road to a proffessional career in sports. A mini soccerball from Aunt Anita and a mini table tennis set from Ron! i cant wait for the first mini ping pong photo-shoot!

01/01/07

Happy New Year!

We made a list of the top 10 things we learned in 2006

10. Poop comes in many colors and textures

9. Not all babies fall asleep in the car, or even like the car for that matter.

8. there are no hard and fast rules for parents or babies.

7. We will make mistakes

6. Try to smile when people give you unsolicited advice. They only mean well despite their advice being outdated or just plain crazy.



5. Sleep?! who needs sleep?

4. Baby farts are cute. Adult farts....not so much

3. Family is the most important thing

2. The best gifts come in small packages.

1. Dreams can come true.