Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Fatigue

OK, turns out I don't have the Christmas day photos on my hard drive yet and all this posting has left me a little ragged out, so I am heading off to bed in a bit. I will try to get all the Christmas-related pics up in the next day or so, pending how insane my work schedule is. Stay tuned!

Monday, January 01, 2007

Of Horsies and Haircuts


Not long ago we decided to go to Hollywood Park to have a little fun making $2 bets on the ponies. Mostly, so Jack could get a close up look at the horses. We all had a really fun afternoon and Jack loved seeing the horses.


Jack really got into the spirit of the thing. Without any encouragement or suggestion, as the horses were off and running, gripping my racing form he started shouting to the horses. "Go! Go! Go go go!" he shouted, pumping his hand in the air like a veteran gambler. The only things missing were a well-chewed stogie and a green eyeshade. It was absolutely hilarious. We grabbed the camera and got a quick video of him doing it in the next race, but we had to encourage him and it wasn't as funny. Still pretty funny though.


Not too long ago we needed to get Jack his second haircut. His first haircut passed without incident but this time Jack was highly suspect of the whole endeavor and most displeased. But, with the rich, velvety mullet he had growing down his back, we had no choice. We were still charged an absurd $15 for the service.

Miscellaneous shots

Before I get to the Christmas pics, which I might not get to until tomorrow or Wednesday, I want to clear out a bunch of miscellaneous shots I've had sitting around for a while. Most of these speak for themselves. Most of them are just too cute to not post. There will be another kind of mixed bag post before the Christmas ones, too.

This Mickey Mouse robe was mine, I think, when I was little.



Jack as post-bath monkey-boy. Sometimes after I wrap him in this monkey towel he will immediately start making "ah! ah!" monkey sounds.
Sometimes, a daddy is a daddy. Most of the time, a daddy is a handy piece of furniture. Jack will often come careening into the living room and grab me by the hand, or shirt, and pull me into his room. He will sit me down in the corner and show me his toys, or sometimes, as below, stack them on me so he can see them and play with them better. This is as fun for me as it looks.Some mornings -- now that Daddy is working nights -- we watch a movie. Lately, the other obsession of Jack's is Buzz Lightyear. Jack can't quite say "Buzz" so he refers to Buzz as "Baouw." Or "Bo," for short. He flies him around and tries to say "To Infinity, and Beyond!" (Buzz's catch phrase) but what he says is "Oooo, eee -- yahhhh!"

Anyway a couple of times we've had an early morning Buzz film festival and this pleases Jack greatly. He gathers up his Buzz and a blankie, crawls into an easy chair and has a great time, rapt for the whole 90 minutes.

Jack loves to "read" his books. All the time. The socks complete a great look for him.I don't know when this one is from -- judging by Jack's hair I'd say summertime. But it's way too cute not to post.

A Million Pictures

So I have been procrastinating like crazy getting pictures up here. Mostly that's because we have the most heavily documented child in the world and the sheer amount of work involved in getting these photos into shape and uploaded appropriately has become overwhelming. You know how it is. It's one of those tasks that keeps getting bigger and harder to do the more you put it off.

Well one of my resolutions this year is to get much better at regularly clearing my picture folder of pending blog photos. To do that I have a lot of catching up to do -- so without much further ado, here is a round of pictures from our DL trip on my birthday, 11/17/2006. I've so much to post that sometimes my comments will be sparse, so bear with me.

Our first stop on 11/17 was for a big breakfast at our favorite breakfast place, Storytellers Cafe in the Grand Californian, the insanely beautiful arts and crafts/Greene & Greene-inspired hotel adjoining California Adventure. As usual Chip, Dale, Koda and, um, that other bear from Brother Bear were there.

Jack performs his patented "funny face" routine for Dale.
And kisses Koda. Awwwww. It's always the lower lip sticking out, by the way, for the kisses.
Then it was on to the parks. Jack, as many of you know, has a growing fondness for (bordering on obsession with) choo-choos. Well, of course the Disney parks have some of the coolest choo-choos in the world -- antique real steam engines, rescued and restored and running around the park all year long. The trains were Walt's babies, and in the lobby of Main Street's train station is a replica of the Lilly Belle, the train he had in his backyard (the original is on display, with many other trains, in a holiday display at the Nixon Library up in Yorba Linda pending its permanent relocation to a Disney Family Museum at the Presidio in San Francisco in 2009. This is literally the only thing that would ever get me to the Nixon Library and I don't intend to stray out of the train exhibit except to use the rest room).

Anyway, if you're lucky, on any given day you can ask for, and receive, the opportunity to take a ride around Disneyland sitting in the tender of some of the trains. It depends on a few things -- whether someone is training, which means they are sitting on the tender riding with the crew, or if they will need to take on water. And I may be wrong but I think it's only the CK Holliday and the Ripley that you can ride the tender on. But if you ask the conductor at Main Street and it's OK with the engineers they will let you ride practically right up in the cab of the train.

Well, it is awesome. Jack and I got to ride the tender on my birthday. Jack was overwhelmed. We had to wait at the station until the right train came along and that alone was worth the whole day as far as Jack was concerened -- running about the station, looking at all the cool train stuff, and watching trains arrive and depart, all to lusty cries of "OooooOOOOOhhhhh! Choo-choo!!" It's really something. The engineer and fireman explain all the ins and outs of the engine, the fire (fueled by diesel) that boils the water and how they maintain the mix of air and aerosolled (is that a word?) fuel to keep it at the appropriate temperature, the pressure gauges. It's really remarkable. Jack was really in awe. He just kind of sat there and took it all in. I mean it's one thing to wave at a passing choo-choo but to actually sit up front with the driver? Amazing.


Mickey was meeting and greeting in California Adventure and Jack was straining to run and meet him. When he did, a love-fest ensued.