Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Go Team



Gimme a "C" Gimme a "R" Gimme a "E" Gimme a "A" Gimme a "M"
Gimme a "C" Gimme a "H" Gimme a "E" Gimme a "E" Gimme a "S" Gimme a "E"
What's that spell?

More of today's pictures : HERE

Sunday, November 26, 2006

Happy Birthday to Sara



Today is Sara's Birthday, and Magali wore a crown all day, perhaps in commemoration. We went to IHOP because that's what Sara wanted.

Dash wanted to give her a gift certificate to the Gap. He HATES the Gap. He calls it a "Mama store" and complains whenever we go in one. So it is cool that he wanted to give her the gift. I suggested that she might like a gift certificate to Target even better than the Gap and he said, "Yea, but then it won't be what I thought of." Gap it was.

She has a cool tattoo with Dash's name on it:



It is on the side of her tummy where he used to kick a lot when he was in utero.

But she doesn't have a Magali tattoo. So I took the kids to our favorite tattoo parlor and we bought her a gift certificate. I told Magali, "You BETTER NOT tell Mama what we got her for her birthday!"

When we got home Magali ran inside and told Sara, "We went to the bookstore and to the cafe and got a mango juice and... I'M NOT THINKING ABOUT YOUR PRESENT!" She practically screamed it. She closed her ears with her hands and ran out of the room. But she didn't tell her what we got.

When our neighbor, Lucy, turned five we bought her some presents, dolls and such. We told Magali that it was very important that she not tell Lucy what we got. Sara went to go check the mail or something and when she got back all of Lucy's presents were displayed on the floor and Magali was showing them to Lucy. "Magali! You weren't supposed to tell Lucy what we got!"

And Magali said, "I'm not TELLING her. I'm SHOWING her."

More of today's pictures : HERE

Saturday, November 18, 2006

Noah and Judy







A few weeks ago I got to photograph little Noah and Judy, et al. in the woods. Man, this family is cool. Not only are they artistic and quirky, Joan (Mom) actually asked me to photograph their shadows. How cool is that?

I made an album which can be viewed HERE

Thursday, November 16, 2006

Dash, The Evil God



Dash has started to like real time strategy games and he decided to use his own birthday money to buy Black and White 2. This is a "God" game. Basically, you are a disembodied hand and you rule an island inhabited by tiny people and a huge creature. You raise this creature and train him to do good or evil as you see fit. You can help villagers and nurture the land or you can destroy them. You can bend them to your will using benevolent acts or fear. Guess which side Dash is on?

The above picture is his reaction to his ability to pick little villagers up with his hand and huck them across the landscape. He picks up villagers and drops them in the sea. Then he picks up a huge rock and drops it on top of them.

The game is very cool in that it shows consequences of good or bad actions. The terrain and architecture change to reflect the disposition of your rule. Unfortunately, Dash is evil. I hoped he would be good. But he is evil.

Now, I suppose, I should turn my attention to Magali and cross my fingers.

More of today's pictures : HERE

Monday, November 13, 2006

Dash's Birthday Party











Sara's supermom. She made Dash a super cool Star Wars party. She made PB&J sandwiches and just PB sandwiches and even just J sandwiches. They couldn't make a Star Wars cake at the bakery so she bought a regular cake and Star Warsed it up.

More of today's pictures : HERE

Thursday, November 09, 2006

Sarah and Teddy







Sara and Teddy Album : HERE

Here's a few shots and a photo album from a recent kid shoot. Sarah loves the camera and was constantly directing me, "Take a picture of me like this!" etc. Little Teddy has some adorable nicknames like, "T-Mobile" because he tends to just shoot off in a direction. He basically doesn't stop. They are both awesome and the whole day was fun and easy going. Just likes I likes it :)

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

That's My Boy!



My six year old son, Dash, took this picture of me. While it's not amazing that he holds the heavy D2H nice and straight, he also directed the shot. He asked me to hold the leaf up to my face (like I had just asked him to do) but then he said, "No, move it down a little... Over a little, YEA! Right there." Then he clicked once and handed me the camera. I FREAKIN' LOVE THIS SHOT! I told him this shot looks very professional and he said, "Yea, that's because I want to be a professional when I grow up."

More of today's pictures : HERE

Monday, November 06, 2006

Nightmare Before Christmas







It's no secret. I love Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas. In fact it holds the record as the movie I have seen the most times in the theater (excluding Rocky Horror Picture Show). I saw Nightmare five times in the theater. I saw Toy Story four. I've talked about my being a grown up sized kid in other posts.

Anyway, they are playing the movie in 3D in the theaters now so we all went. The kids loved it as much as I did. The 3D is amazing and the movie lends itself to the technique because the camera work is really great. The camera gets inside those tiny sets with very cool angles and sweeping motions. It really works in 3D.

At the end credits they had original sketches come shooting out at you in 3D. Dash was amazed and kept running around the theater trying to reach out and snatch the drawings. That's what the bottom picture is. There is no light in the theater so the shots look like spy camera footage. Cool!

More of today's pictures : HERE

Cousin _____ Elin Rust Is Born







On November 2, 2006 my brother, Marc, and my sister-in-law Nanda had a little baby girl, their first. They still don't know what her first name will be but her middle name is Elin and her last name is Rust. Dash and Magali are both excited to have a little cousin but Magali is beside herself. When we visited them in the hospital Magali could not stop touching her and holding her hand and touching her face and inspecting her closely. She's really happy.

It's hard to believe my little brother Marc is a Papa now. He still seems like a kid to me in so many ways. But I still can't believe that I'm a Papa because I still feel like a kid in so many ways. I wonder if Martin Luther King or Thomas Jefferson or (you name a responsible adult) ever just felt like they were kids going through the motions of being a grown up in a big confusing world. Because I never do...

Welcome to the world little ______. Magali will teach you all you need to know about candy and doing whatever you want regardless of what big kids going through the motions of being grown ups say.

PS (added 11/07/06) Her name is Jane Ellen Rust.

Here is a LINK to more pictures.

Here is a LINK to a little album I made of our quick hospital visit to meet little _____.