Mike, Jill, Lucy, & Wubie!

A few Lucy quotes from August:

“Someday I’ll be four!”
– the first words out of Lucy’s mouth one morning

“Poopy old man!”
– Lucy talking to Wubie

“I feel refreshed and ready for anything now!”
– Lucy after pretending to nap for a few seconds

“Let’s make one side of the floor rainbowy colors, because girls like rainbows!”
– Lucy throws out marketing ideas while creating a “store” with her blocks

August is done, finito, history, so last month. Here’s an end-of-the-month post/collage to commemorate its passing. Some stuff from the past month August, 2010:

• Lucy went to her Gma Vita’s Birthday celebration/family get-together
• New iMac and Macbook Pro (and we got iChat to work)
• Mike bought some beef
• Lucy’s mommy made her a swell dolly
• Lucy had a birthday party for her Gpa Peter and Auntie Laura
• Palo Alto Obon Festival
• Two firsts: Lucy’s first movie and first time in a swimming pool
• Movies seen: Paper Heart and Hot Tub Time Machine
• TV Shows: Rome: Season 1 (Jill) and True Blood: Season 1 (Mike)

“Tell me a story Daddy, but keep your eyes open so I can see them!”
- Lucy getting her sleepy dad to tell her a story

Here are some pics of the kid from the past week. Every time I look at pics like these it always hits me how fast the kid is growing up.

We had a nice get-together at my mom’s place last weekend. My mom has a neat backyard, with lots of trees and plants, squirrels and birds. The neighborhood cats love it. These pics show one cat in particular who’s always lazing around in the yard. Lucy and her cousins gave the cat rockstar treatment. The cat loved the attention.

Jill and I had never used this pool before. However, the kid had never been swimming, so we packed up our towels and flip-flops and made the trek. It was actually pretty fun (and very refreshing) so I think we’ll make regular use of the pool until the weather cools.

I’ve written before about how I like tooling around on weekend mornings while the girls are asleep. Last weekend I hit a few garage sales. My dad took me to lots of flea markets when I was a kid. I loved going, even enough to get up at 7am on a Saturday (that’s pretty early when you’re 8 or 9.) He’d look at old hi-fi equipment while I was on the prowl for comic books.

One of my fondest memories involves my dad getting me a big box of a beat-up comics for $2. I had enough to keep me reading for the whole summer! Talk about heaven.

I think that’s why, to this day I love hitting garage sales, flea markets, and thrift stores. Anyway, at one of the garage sales I hit, I saw a neglected little bicycle. I immediately shifted into flea market mode:

(look at everything except bike; before leaving, look at bike and ask out of curiosity…)

Me: “How much is the bike?”
Seller: “$10.”
Me: (pause) “Would you take $5?”
Seller: “I’d rather have $10.”
Me: “Well, good luck with that!” (interest gone, turn to leave)
Seller: “Howzabout $7?”
Me: “I’ve got my truck right here. I’ll give you $5 and take it off your hands right now. You won’t have to worry about it.”
Seller: “OK. $5.”

My dad would have been proud of me. So I got the bike home, scrubbed a couple of years of grime off, and voila!—the kid has a bike.

This weekend we hosted a birthday party for Auntie and Grandpa…our annual August birthday bash.

It was a lovely day so we all decided to have a picnic in the park, then come back home for cupcakes. It was so relaxing in the park, I forgot to take any pictures, so we’ll have to start with the cupcakes Lucy and I made…

the gang’s all here…

about to sing the birthday song…

partygoers and birthday celebrants. Happy Birthday Grandpa and Auntie!

“You look fancy!”
— Lucy commenting on my attire as I leave for work (I’d decided to wear a sport coat)

iChat with Gma from Mike C on Vimeo.

Over the weekend we set up my mom’s Mac Mini with a camera so she could start doing video chats. We have family throughout California, Oregon, Hawaii, etc., so it’d be great if we could include regular video chats as an additional way to stay in touch with each other.

Setting up the chat was pretty simple. Mom just needs to get a little more familiar with the iChat application itself.

Note: on the video above you can only hear Gma’s side of the conversation and not ours. I think this is because I was using Skype on our iMac to walk Gma through this first video chat. Future video chats will have both sids of the conversation.

Music:

• Rymden I En Låda from Wermland by Detektivbyrån

“Shhh…I’m baking.”
— Lucy, while making banana bread with her mom (and wearing apron and chef’s hat.)

Part 2 of the summer pic series…more beach, boating on the lake, painting with auntie, and playing at the park.

LUCY: “WAAAAUGH! Wubie bit me!”
MOM: “Let me see that. Oh, I think he broke the skin!”…(continues to inspect the ‘wound’)…“Unless that’s just dirt.”
LUCY: “I think that’s just dirt.”
— Conversation overheard following the latest cat vs grubby kid confrontation

Happy Birthday Song for Gma Vita from Mike C on Vimeo.

We had a get-together at Gma Vita’s place on Saturday to celebrate her birthday. Jill snapped a few pics, which you can view in the slideshow below. She also shot a video of us all singing “Happy Birthday” (see above).

It was great seeing (almost) everybody. The newlyweds, Michael and Michelle made it, especially nice since they’ll be moving to South Carolina next month. Cindy, Patty, Mario, and their families were also able to make the trek over.

Though the covered deck in the backyard is now but a memory and Gma Vita’s sunroom still a work in progress, we managed to make do with the shade provided by the old walnut tree.

Patty and Michael had just gotten back from a visit with Sam and family in Oregon. We were a bit jealous that they got to see the newest addition to the family!

Hopefully, we’ll all be able to get together again soon (including those who were missed this time around).

A few Lucy quotes from July:

“I can dance beautifully—and that’s why I’m a cool ballerina.”
– Lucy, describing her dancing style.

“Some of the ballerinas are nighttime ballerinas and some of the ballerinas are cat-toy ballerinas and some of the ballerinas are friendly ballerinas. I’m a princess ballerina.”
– Lucy, explaining the various types of ballerinas.

“What are you doing here, Wubie? Screwdrivers are not for cats!”
– Lucy, instructing Wubie to stay away as she tries fixing the fridge handle.

Can ya believe it’s August already? Sheesh. Since July’s in the books, here’s an end-of-the-month post/collage about it. Some notable happenings from July, 2010:

• Lucy participated in her first Bon Odori. Pictures | Video
• We got to see some Fourth of July fireworks
• Lucy attended a family get-together/birthday party for her Gma Vita (post to come)
• We said goodbye to our trusty old iMac and got…another iMac (post to come)
• Lucy’s been making the most of her summer
• Movies seen: The Runaways, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Män som hatar kvinnor), both of which I liked, and Whip It (Disappointing!)
• Mike’s books: Sh*t My Dad Says by Justin Halpern, The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption, and Pee by Sarah Silverman, and Naked by David Sedaris.
• Jill’s books: The First Man in Rome and The Grass Crownby by Colleen McCullough

“Wubie crushed my wand — no magic show for him!”
— Lucy’s response after she waved her ‘magic wand’ (stick with a ribbon) in front of Wubie one too many times (he destroyed it).

We went to the SJ Obon with friends recently and had loads of fun, especially Lucy…she got to dance in her first Bon Odori.

Lucy went to her first Obon fest way back in 2008, when she was still a baby. Grandmommy had suggested we go, she had cut out a clipping from the newspaper for us, and urged us to go that very day (it was a Sunday and we had been visiting her in the hospital). We went and had a lovely time. Shortly thereafter Grandmommy got out of the hospital, so we all went together to the Palo Alto Obon fest. That was about a month before she passed away in September, and it was our last big outing together.

The Obon festival is held to remember ancestors and loved ones who are gone…so it seems appropriate that we keep going in memory of Grandmommy. (Posts from last year’s visits here and here.) If she were still here, she would surely be dancing with us!

Lucy: “Tell me a pretend story about how Wubie doesn’t like Christmas lights and it’s Christmas.”
Jill: “Does Wubert get a present?”
Lucy: “Yes, a catnip mouse…but he doesn’t like it!”
Jill: “What would he rather have?”
Lucy: “A sardine sandwich!”
Jill: “OK. Wubert gets a sardine sandwich. Did he get a present for you?”
Lucy: “Yeah, a poop! Yeecch!”
— A conversation overheard in the car

Academy of Sciences from Mike C on Vimeo.

I’ve been cranking out the videos lately in an attempt to get caught up with the mountain of footage Jill and I shoot on a continual basis. So with that said, here’s another gem from my “Getting Caught Up/Making Room on the Drobo” series.

Jill shot this video in April when she, the kid, and Auntie Laura visited the Academy of Sciences. It’s full of penguins, fish, stingrays, and seahorses, with a couple of squirrels thrown in for good measure.

It also features a little kid having a most fun and memorable day, courtesy of her mommy and auntie. Check it out and see if you can spot where Jill encounters the elephant butt.

“We’re going to make a pumpkin pie. It’s going to be very tasty. Why don’t you have some when you are done with work? It’s going to be very tasty!”
— Lucy, upon waking from a dream she had where she’d been baking

“Wubie drove me to the cupcake stand and picked out which cupcakes I wanted.”
— Lucy at the breakfast table that same morning

Wedding Video: Extras from Mike C on Vimeo.

Here’s more video from my niece’s June wedding. This one is mostly the kid just running around and acting goofy.