Blog Title: Powered By Steam

Halloween 2008

The weekend before Halloween I agreed to help Emma and Henry carve their pumpkins. Whatever face they drew on the pumpkin I would do my best to carve. Emma, as you might guess, drew a pug. I created a cute little smiley pumpkin face for Cora. Henry? Well, he scribbled all over the front of his pumpkin but I dutifully tried to carve it.

(Note to readers: don't carve your pumpkin the weekend before Halloween. They'll mold and cave in on themselves. Duh!)

Emma and Henry began plotting Halloween costumes months in advance, thanks to the arrival of the Costume Express catalog in August. How we got on this mailing list I have no idea, as we've never bought anything from them. I can't complain, though, as it provided literally days of entertainment for the kids. They would debate the merits of the many costumes in the catalog all afternoon long, never tiring of the game.

After finally deciding on a $50 costume each, we turned to our secret weapon: my mother. She sewed many a costume for me as a kid. From Dracula to Mark from the G-Force she created some great costumes that still live in my closet at home today.

This Halloween Granma Northcutt transformed Emma into The Crimson Countess, replete in crimson cape and black robes. Henry became The Wizard with a fancy hat, a dazzling cape and a light-up wand (to go along with his orange pants and a basketball shirt.)

That's My Name

Emma's always looking for an excuse to "dress fancy," so while Grandma and Grandpa Mandel were visiting us in October we had Cora's baby naming. Emma and Henry were little angels and behaved the whole way through the service. (See photos from Henry's naming here.)

I completely dropped the ball and took no pictures of Henry on his big day so I overcompensated with Cora and took a slew of pictures, both before and afterward in the yard.

I'm pretty sure that these are the very first pictures of Cora grinning at us. I'm not sure what, exactly, we were doing to get her going but she would occassionally crack a smile after staring at us blankly. A month later and she nearly always has a smile on her face and is quite the giggler, too!

Tanaka Farms Pumpkin Patch

We are no strangers to Tanaka Farms in Irvine. We've been for there for strawberry season, watermelon season and now we can add the fall pumpkin patch to our list.

I took the day off work to go with Henry and his preschool class. (Some boys-only time, you know.) We arrived a bit early and spent a good half hour throwing dirt clods at the sunflowers lining the waiting area. That right there was entirely worth the trip. I think both of us could have skipped the whole pumpkin thing and just kept right on slinging dirt.

At any rate, though, we joined the rest of the class and took a tractor ride around the farm. Henry was fairly nonplussed about the tractor since he's an old hand at driving both tractors and backhoes. The rest of the class, though, seemed to be having a ball.

After a brief stop-over at the petting zoo we made our way to the main event: picking out a pumpkin. The kids could pick any one they wanted with one catch: they had to be able to carry it out to the car. Henry, being the sensible one, went and picked the smallest one he could find - literally no more than a few inches in diameter. Not so good for carving so I forced him to grab one a little larger.

We ended the excursion with a visit to Wendy's for a Frosty. Henry loved it then spent most of the ride home napping with a smile on his little chocolate-covered face.

Impossible!

Emma has joined The Brownies this year at school and, unlike her experience with blah, she seems to be enjoying herself. There are no protest signs this time around and she looks forward to each meeting.

She continues to love school, including both reading and math. Just last week they had a short math quiz where they had to finish as many problems as possible in two minutes. She'd completed 24 out of 40 questions in 2 minutes. I was impressed but apparently the teacher was not.

When I asked how many she should have done the response was simple:

"Impossible!" she said, complete with index finger pointing straight up. "Can't be done!"

I had to work hard to maintain a straight face as she repeated how it was inconceivable that all 40 questions could be answered in so short a time. We'll have to practice a bit more to see if we can get that time down.

Speaking of time, it seems to fly faster and faster. It really feels like just yesterday that I was posting news about our impending 3rd child... and here we are already near Thanksgiving! There are some shots in this short set from a month ago, where Cora is first starting to "play." Henry is a loving, if rough, big brother and is always eager to play.

I'll have pictures up later in the week with Cora's first smiles and - hopefully - some video clips of her first giggles!

Sing Us A Song, You're The Piano Girl

Emma has been taking piano lessons for two months now and I wanted to snap a quick video to remember the progress. The first few weeks were spent learning notes (quarter, half, whole, etc.), learning the "musical alphabet" and finger positions. Last week's lesson was the first time she had played notes from both bass and treble clef at the same time.

I've been a little surprised at how quickly all the new concepts keep coming. I certainly can't keep up! Emma, however, seems to soak it in and remember everything.

"No, Daddy. That's a G, not an E."

"No, Daddy. It's 'whole-note-hold-it' for four beats."

Her first "recital" is in December. We can't wait!

That's My Granma

A few photos from when my mother came to visit right after Cora was born. Enjoy!

I Don't Want The Polar Bears To Die

Late the other night, after I'd gotten the kids down to sleep and the house was still, Emma came creeping down the stairs. In her hands she held the two nightlights she and Henry have in their room.

"Daddy, I want you to take these away right now."

I asked why she wanted them gone, because they love swapping the "daytime" light for the "nighttime" light just before bed.

"Because I love penguins and polar bears and don't want them to die."

Now, I have to admit that at first I was a little taken aback. Next I wanted to laugh. How on earth did she get the idea in her head that animals far, far away were being killed by her nightlights?

"Daddy, I promised Mrs. Renz (Emma's first grade teacher) that I would do whatever I can to stop global warming. I really love penguins and polar bears so I must stop global warming!"

Again, I wanted to laugh, but she was genuinely upset so I resisted the urge.

"We have to save energy. Because if we don't, they will DIE!"

I consented to taking the nightlights and walked upstairs with her to get her back in bed. I found Marla sitting at the foot of Henry's bed in the dark, consoling him as he whimpered. Apparently he didn't want to kill polar bears but neither did he want to sleep in the dark.

The next morning I had a talk with Emma about energy efficiency and the nightlights were allowed to return.

Dinner in the Backyard

We had dinner in Santa Monica in Jamie's new backyard. Cora was just a hair over a month old and quite the center of attention. It was a cold, foggy day - unusual for this time of year - but that made for some interesting lighting.

First Day of First Grade

Just after Labor Day Emma embarked on her latest adventure: first grade. She was very excited about it, having talked all summer long about all of the wonderful things she was destined to learn.

With Cora being brand new the task of back-to-school shopping fell on my shoulders. Emma, Henry and I went to the mall on weekend and searched for some suitable outfits. Somehow, we came back home with fancy pink plaid dresses and matching boots. What a shocker!

The first day arrived and we decided on a more tame outfit, the swirly blue and purple dress you see here. The boots would make their debut later.

We're lucky enough to live within walking distance of the school so we make the short trek to school each morning. Emma and Henry stayed close by and chatted excitedly on the way up. Once we arrived we stood in line with her classmates until the bell rang and the teacher called us in.

While some children clung to their parents in fear, others broke down in tears, sobbing uncontrollably. Emma, on the other hand, barely glanced back and waved.

"You can go now Daddy!"

And with that, our little girl was off.

Granpa and Cora

I've been remiss in not posting more photos. Cora is a growing girl and looks nothing like these pictures. Soak in your last glimpses of an underweight premie. Cora is now a healthy, happy 9 pounder!

The first few photos in this group are from when Cora was just a wee two-week-old. She still had the "wrinkly old man" look and was still a little jaundiced. (Darn you, Billy Reuben!)

At any rate, my Dad was the first grandparent to meet Cora during a quick business trip to the West Coast. He conveniently has had business trips to California shortly after both Emma and Henry were born. Hmmm....

He stared. She stared and everyone had a grand ol' time.

GameSpy Beach Day 2008

GameSpy took a trip down to Doheny State Beach for an office outing at the end of July. What better to do on a Thursday afternoon than grill burgers and dogs, drink beer and play in the sand?

In addition to a cookout and some play at the beach there was a "Fear Factor" style eating contest. The delicious entrees: dried sardines, barbeque-flavored crickets, durian and balut. The prize for the person to finish all three courses was a hard-to-find Wii Fit.

I'm always one to try cuisines from other parts of the world, including things that might be considered disgusting by Western standards. Witness my delight at eating shrimp heads, sparrow, chicken ovaries and lutefisk.

The sardines and crickets were no problem. Crunchy a but still with some flavor.

The durian I was excited about. A few folks in the office have brought some in on occasion but I've always missed out. Flavor-wise, the durian wasn't bad! The texture was nice and it was a little sweet. The sulfurous stink, described as "pig-shit, turpentine and onions, garnished with a gym sock" by some, on the other hand, reminded me of chemicals I used to work with in the lab. Not exactly what I was hoping for in terms of a food item.

The final course was the balut. I can't say what I was expecting but, believe me, it wasn't what I saw when I cracked the egg open. Once cracked, the liquid from the egg spilled on my hands. I got one whiff and it was over. No Wii Fit for me.

Only one brave soul finished the balut. After being awarded the Wii Fit this spouse-of-GameSpy said, "What's a Wii Fit, anyway?"

Cora's First Bath

Some wise men once asked, "What do you do in the bath?" If your name is Cora and it is your very first bath, you quietly look around and, generally, look cute.

Pink Birthdays

Ten short days after Cora was born Marla had a birthday. We were all too tired for a proper party but did manage to have some cake and sing. We'll do it right next year, when we have fewer distractions!

Marla and the kids all went to Emma's dance class on Friday. All of the others mothers were crowding around trying to take a peek at Cora while she snoozed in the car seat. There were a few who claimed to have never seen a tiny baby like her since their children were all full term and 8+ pounds.

There are also some shots of Cora doing her cute baby thing in this set of photos. It's hard to see just how tiny she is in most pictures, since she fills the whole frame, but there are a few in here where you can see my hand in the shot, too.

She is still a tiny thing, despite the fact that she's gained over a pound and a half and grown nearly two inches since she came home.

Little Ballerina

Emma has been taking dance for a little over six months now and had her first recital back in June. It was a tap-dancing, tendu-ing festival to behold. Luckily, Geek Dad was there with both still and video camera in hand!

Despite a few complaints about it being "too hard" or her not liking dance because she has to "get sweaty" Emma has stuck it out and is doing quite well. Truth be told, I think the pink tutu and pink shoes really are what has kept her going.

Kindergarten Ends

In early June Emma wrapped up her Kindergarten career with a few exciting events. First was an "art show" where the kids showed off all of the artwork they'd created throughout the year.

The teacher, Mrs. Gustufson, had assembled a giant book of their assignments. It was pretty amazing to see what changes had taken place in the kids over the short span of the nine month school year. Handwriting and art skills improved, stories became more complex and vocabularies expanded.

The final event of the school year was the kids' very first field trip. Emma was so excited. Not only did she get to leave school and go on an adventure without Mommy and Daddy, but she got to do so on the big yellow school bus! You can see from the photos that she was nearly beside herself with glee.

June was also a month for babies. First was Emma, Marla and Henry meeting Ethan Vonderhaar for the first time. Emma looked at this as a warm-up for when her own new baby would arrive. She was delighted to hold Ethan.

Lastly we had a family of baby hummingbirds that grew up right outside our door. They're long gone but the nest remains. I'd love to take it down but I'm hoping it might be reused next year and I'll start the photo history earlier!