Year 4 (Part 1) from Mike C on Vimeo.

Here’s the latest episode of our “Life with Lucy” series, where I post a video collage of pics and video snippets from the last six months. (A picture collage can be found here.) Previous “Life with Lucy” installments:

1. Year One: 2007 Part 1 (Jan – Jun) | Part 2 (Jul – Dec)
2. Year Two: 2008 Part 1 (Jan – Jun) | Part 2 (Jul – Dec)
3. Year Three: 2009 Part 1 (Jan – Jun) | Part 2 (Jul – Dec)

All pics and short videos used in this collage were taken between January 1 and June 30, 2010. Noteworthy happenings from the last half year:

• January: Lucy’s third birthday
• February: Valentine’s Day, My big garage clean-up project
• March: Grass Valley visit in the snow
• April: Meeting BJ Penn, Easter
• May: Lucy’s first ballet, last Lost episode
• June: Father’s Day, Michelle’s wedding, a new nephew

Music used:

• “Maggie May” from Every Picture Tells a Story by Rod Stewart
• “Life’s Lonesome Road” from A-Town Blues by Wayne Hancock
• “Let’s Stay Together” from Let’s Stay Together by Al Green

We had an interesting fourth of July weekend, though not in the best of ways. Wubert had been under the weather lately, so we ended up taking him to the vet a couple of times over the weekend. Fortunately, the old guy is doing better now and is getting back to his normal vocal self.

We managed to catch a fireworks show in Milpitas. Though Lucy enjoyed it, I think she had more fun dancing on top of my car trunk during the show!

Actually, that’s another benefit about having a beater as a car; a 3.5 year old can form her own mosh pit on it and I don’t even care (though I did make sure she didn’t break the rear windshield—I don’t want my car to look too Sanford and Son-ish!) She also got a kick out of trying to name the colors she saw in each aerial explosion.

Once we got back home, Lucy immediately checked on Wubie to make sure he was OK. He was. It’s about 2 am right now and it sounds like the three of them (Jill, Lucy, and Wubie) are engaged in a snoring and wheezing contest in the next room. Everyone’s OK for now and tomorrow is a day off. These are the good times.

With June now over, I thought I’d make a post about it. In addition to the obligatory end of the month collage (above), here are a few notes from the month of June, 2010.

A few Lucy quotes from June:

“That’s Wubie, flowers, bunnies—and me, your little child.”
– when referring to my Father’s Day card.

“The bug on the windshield is crying”
– an observation while riding in the car

“Let’s walk over here Daddy, away from that obnoxious noise!”
– when coming across some city workers breaking up the sidewalk

“Let’s watch something bundley!”
– when requesting some TV time

Speaking of TV, we downgraded our Comcast cable subscription. Jill and I had actually discussed completely dumping cable a few months ago. At the time I said “Let’s wait until ‘Lost’ is finished. Well, Lost ended in May, so I finally got around to calling up Comcast last week.

When I told them we wanted to dump our cable (along with our landline phone), I was told that internet access by itself would cost about $60 a month. However, internet access plus a basic cable package would be about $52 per month. So, I took the $52 deal. So far we haven’t missed it. I’ll probably write up a more detailed post about this sometime in the near future.

Other notable happenings from the past month:

• Lucy attending her first wedding
• Lucy’s flying a kite for the first time
• Lucy no longer being the youngest kid at Christmas get-togethers
• Lucy’s first time in a bouncy house
• Mike hurt his ankle
• A new gadget
• Some quality time with Jill’s family
• Mike (finally) saw: Inglourious Basterds and The Hangover

Here’s #7 in an ongoing series of compilations showing how the kid has grown over the past half year.

Here are the previous pics. Click on a pic to view the original post. A super-duper size compilation of all 42 months is available here.

Notable happenings from the past month:

• Lucy attending her first ballet
• Lucy’s first dentist appointment
• Lunch with Thea, a friend we hadn’t seen in a very long time
• Family get-together at Gma Vita’s
• Family get-together with Gpa Tom, Laura, and John
• Farmers’ market trip with Gpa Tom (he even had Lucy wrapped on his back for a while!)
• The end of Lost

It’s by far the easiest way for us to take “family” pics (Jill, the kid, Wubie, and I) because we can all just pile in front of the iMac, line up the shot, and snap the pics (the 3-2-1 countdown Photo Booth does before it actually takes the pic helps a lot!)

I was pleasantly surprised when I found some forgotten Photo Booth videos and pics we’d taken with the kid when she was still shiny and new. Some of those older pics are in this post’s collage, mixed in with some new (i.e., hippie hair) pics we took today.

Thanks, Photo Booth. We hope to use ya again before the kid gets her driver’s license.

Notable happenings from the past month:

• Celebrating Jill’s birthday in SF (too bad John couldn’t make it!)
• Easter Egg Hunt at Gma Vita’s place
• BJ Penn Book Signing
• Getting together with old friends, including Kelly

Stuff I’ve watched/read this month:

Movies & Books

In these pics you’ll see the kid:

• Jump up and down on a bed
• Battle a squid!
• Get sniffed by a cat (or is that a really small dairy cow?)
• Stare down a Rover security sphere (aka, a 10 cent white balloon)
• Play with blocks!

Some fun stuff from the past month:

• Got together with friends to celebrate Aedan’s fourth birthday
• Traveled to Grass Valley to visit Gpa Tom & Gma Karen
• Played in the snow in Soda Springs
• Played in Gma Vita’s garden
• Visited with the kid’s Auntie Laura and Uncle John

Stuff I’ve watched/read this month:

Movies & Books

TV

• American Pickers. Junk, cool stuff, history, interesting people, $$ changing hands. I love this kind of stuff. Like Pawn Stars, this is the kind of show I would have liked to watch with my dad.
• Lost Season 6 “Ab Aeterno” episode. My fave episode of the season so far. I’m so glad they’ve left that temple!

Misc. March Events

• Snow Trip
• Pet/Toy Store

Year Three (Pt 2) from Mike C on Vimeo.

It’s the end of another year, so here’s the latest installment of our “Year X” series, where I post a collage of pics and videos from the preceding six months. Here are the previous installments:

1. Year One: 2007 Part 1 (Jan – Jun) | Part 2 (Jul – Dec)
2. Year Two: 2008 Part 1 (Jan – Jun) | Part 2 (Jul – Dec)
3. Year Three: 2009 Part 1 (Jan – Jun)

All pics and short videos used in this collage were taken between July 1 and Dec 31, 2009. Noteworthy happenings from the last half year:

• Jul: Gma Vita’s birthday, Obon Festivals in MV and PA
• Aug: Auntie Laura’s birthday, Filoli visit w/ Gma Vita, Max’s birthday
• Sep: Oregon visit (post 1, 2), Grass Valley visit
• Oct: Halloween (post and video)
• Nov: Thanksgiving, candy store visit, 1st letter to Santa
• Dec: Xmas Eve, Snacks for Santa and his reindeer, Xmas

Music used:

• “Wicked Little Town (Tommy Gnosis Version)” from the Hedwig and the Angry Inch Film Soundtrack
• “Ex Lion Tamer” from Pink Flag by Wire
• “Sugar Daddy” from the Hedwig and the Angry Inch Film Soundtrack