An Important Msg from Andy, Richie, and the Fonz

See more Ron Howard videos at Funny or Die

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Janelle Slide Show - birth to 6mo

Janelle's YouTube Timeline

Direct link here.

Someone likes Mommy's laptop

Baracky II

Our future president! LOL!

The next generation of geek!

Wash interviews Mal!

Well, actually Alan Tudyk interviews Nathan Fillion. :D (And if you don't know who the heck I'm talking about, YOU NEED TO WATCH FIREFLY!!! I have the DVDs. Call me.)

Outing Riley Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story Knocked Up Hearts in Atlantis

Want to see my new teeth?!

Click on the picture of Janelle, then look at All Sizes >> Original Size, and you can see her two front-bottom teeth!

She's my Sesame Street baby!

Here's a preview of the next season of Sesame Street. I can't wait til Janelle's old enough to really enjoy it. Right now we watch a few minutes every once in a while of our baby Sesame Street dvds. When she's old enough, this'll be her first tv show she'll watch.

Banksy's identity revealed??

I love it!!! A true story about a famously anonymous street artist who creates artwork (or graffiti, depending on who you talk to) with a social msg. Hunted by police worldwide, Banksy has managed to keep his identity a secret... until now. Britain's The Mail has a (possible) scook on Banksy's true identity (...maybe). Here are some links for ya:

Wikipedia’s page on Banksy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banksy

Banksy: The Famously Anonymous Street Artist
http://weburbanist.com/2008/07/15/who-is-banksy-about-banksy/

The Mail’s (possible) expose on Banksy’s true identity (…maybe)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1034538/Graffiti-artist-Banksy-unmasked---public-schoolboy-middle-class-suburbia.html

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

The great and wonderful Joss Whedon's Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog - Act I is up! Here's the trailer:


Teaser from Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog on Vimeo.

Go! Watch! Now!

We've started solids!

On Sunday, July 13, Janelle had her first bit of solid foods -- baby oatmeal. We, of course, caught a video of the event:

And a few snapshots from yesterday:





Lessons Learned:

• Feed baby when she's naked (nothing but a diaper). If not, *definitely* put a bib on her.
  
• Stick with the regular rubber-covered spoons. Pass on the fancy colorful long-handled spoons. The handles are heavy, so they fall out of the bowl, and they're too distracting.
  
• Pretend to eat along with her -- this will help her figure out what's going on.
  
• Hold her hand while feeding her -- that way she doesn't smack the spoon away while trying to grab it.

It was *great* though! And Janelle was thrilled, I'm sure, to be eating like Mommy and Daddy. :D

It's a conspiracy against Mexicans!

• First it was tomatoes that had salmonella. Ok. Everyone eats tomatoes.

• Then yesterday they announced they're investigating jalapenos b/c of strong suspicion that they have salmonella as well. Eyebrows were raised.

• And this morning, they announce that now cilantro is suspected to have salmonella!

If tomorrow they announce that avocados have salmonella, it'll be official ....

It's a conspiracy against Mexicans!! (As a Mexican, myself, I'm terrified!) Well... and against Mexican restaurants and people in general living in southwestern states.

And interestingly, reports are finding that the highest number of outbreaks of salmonella are happening in Texas and New Mexico. ... YA THINK?!?!

(I kid you not. All of this has been reported this morning and yesterday on NPR!)

Another declaration

And as your President, I promise to give every baby their own play gym, and there will be mandatory poop breaks for all!

Janelle's Declaration

And so that is why I pronounce Mr. Octopus to be my best friend... this week.

My little gal

Haven't posted any pictures of Janelle recently (although I've got 700+ pictures on my flickr set). Thought I'd post just a few of my recent favorites...
Click on the picture below to see a larger view.

STTN: A Baby's Point of View

Found this on one of my 'mommy-msg-boards':

Sleeping through the night: A baby's point of view

OK, here's my situation. My Mommy has had me for almost 7 months. The first couple months were great--I cried, she picked me up and fed me, anytime, day or night. Then something happened.

Over the last few weeks, she has been trying to STTN (sleep thru the night).

At first, I thought it was just a phase, but it is only getting worse. I've talked to other babies, and it seems like it's pretty common after Mommies have had us for around for a few months.

Here's the thing: these Mommies don't really need to sleep. It's just a habit. Many of them have had some 30 years to sleep--they just don't need it anymore. So I am implementing a plan. I call it the Crybaby Shuffle.

It goes like this:

Night 1--cry every 3 hours until you get fed. I know, it's hard. It's hard to see your Mommy upset over your crying. Just keep reminding yourself, it's for her own good.

Night 2--cry every 2 hours until you get fed.

Night 3--every hour.

Most Mommies will start to respond more quickly after about 3 nights. Some Mommies are more alert, and may resist the change longer. These Mommies may stand in your doorway for hours, shhhh-ing. Don't give in. I cannot stress this enough: CONSISTENCY IS KEY!!

If you let her STTN (sleep through the night), just once, she will expect it every night. I KNOW IT'S HARD! But she really does not need the sleep, she is just resisting the change.

If you have an especially alert Mommy, you can stop crying for about 10 minutes, just long enough for her to go back to bed and start to fall asleep. Then cry again. It WILL eventually work. My Mommy once stayed awake for 10 hours straight, so I know she can do it. Last night, I cried every hour. You just have to decide to stick to it and just go for it.

BE CONSISTENT! I cried for any reason I could come up with.
My sleep sack tickled my foot.
I felt a wrinkle under the sheet.
My mobile made a shadow on the wall.
I burped, and it tasted like pears (I hadn't eaten pears since lunch - what's up with that?)
The dog said 'woof' (I should know. My Mommy reminds me of this about 20 times a day.) Once I cried just because I liked how it sounded when it echoed on the monitor in the other room.
Too hot, too cold, just right--doesn't matter! Keep crying!!

It took awhile, but it worked. She fed me at 4am. Tomorrow night, my goal is 3:30am.
You need to slowly shorten the interval between feedings in order to reset your Mommies' internal clocks.

P.S. Don't let those rubber things fool you, no matter how long you suck on them, NO milk will come out! Trust me.

Our little talker

Just so my recent rant isn't at the top of my blog, I figured I'd post a video of our little talker. She's been talking a *lot* recently -- to us, to her hands, to the side of her crib, to her toys (starts off as happy babbling, but then turns serious, and eventually she's threatening them). Love it!

As long as you're not Muslim...

In response to the ridiculous email that's going around:

In Obama's own words …

This guy wants to be our President and control our government. Pay close attention to the last comment!!

Below are a few lines from Obama's books … his own words:

From 'Dreams of My Father': 'I ceased to advertise my mother's race at the age of 12 or 13, when I began to suspect that by doing so I was ingratiating myself to whites.'

From 'Dreams of My Father': 'I found a solace in nursing a pervasive sense of grievance and animosityagainst my mothers race.'

From 'Dreams of My Father': 'There was something about him that made me wary, a little too sure of himself,maybe. And white.'

From 'Dreams of My Father': ; 'It remained necessary to prove which side you were on, to show your loyalty to the black masses, to strike out and name names.'

From 'Dreams of My Father': 'I never emulate white men and brown men whose fates didn't speak to my own. It was into my father's image, the black man, son of Africa , that I'd packed all the attributes I sought in myself, the attributes of Martin and Malcolm, DuBois and Mandela.'

From his book 'Audacity of Hope': 'I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.'

Barack Obama is not a Muslim. (And who cares if he is? If they’re such a horrible religion, why do they believe in the Old Testament? And why then do they believe that Jesus was a prophet?) He has stated many many times that he is Christian – United Church of Christ, to be specific. What more does he need to do for you people to prove himself? Does he need to nail himself to a cross in order to prove he’s really a Christian? Sometimes it seems that people will accept nothing less.

Or is it that people are so upset that this man has an Arabic last name? (And he’s a black man on top of that!) His name sounds Arabic, so he *must* be a radical Muslim. That’s like saying that all Mexicans must be illegals, so we have to start practicing racial profiling in order to get them out of the country. … Oh wait. We do that. … Ok, so it’s like if we said all Japanese people were out to get us so we have to lock them up because they bombed Pearl Harbor. … Oh wait. We did that too.

Oh America. Home of the free and the brave. Land of opportunity. … Well, as long as you’re not Muslim. … And your name doesn’t sound Arabic.

Here’s the explanation of what Obama really said: http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/ownwords.asp)

This statement is a rewording of a passage from page 261 of The Audacity of Hope, in which Barack Obama spoke of the importance of not allowing inflamed public opinion to result in innocent members of immigrant groups beingstripped of their rights, denighed their due as American citizens, or placed into confinement, as was done with Japanese-Americans during World War II. The original contains no specific mention of “Muslims”:

In the wake of 9/11, my meetings with Arab and Pakistani Americans, for example, have a more urgent quality, for the stories of detentions and FBI questioning and hard stares from neighbors have shaken their sense of security and belonging. They have been reminded that the history of immigration in this country has a dark underbelly; they need specific reassurances that their citizenship really means something, that America has learned the right lessons from the Japanese internments during World War II, and that I will stand with them should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.

If you’re going to pass along damning “evidence” based on what he supposedly said, make sure you’re looking at his actual words. Don’t blindly believe what every right-wing fanatic tells you.

I am very excited about voting for him in the November elections. I’ve bought into Obama’s message of hope. I’m hoping that soon I’ll be proud again to say I’m American.

Cellphone Photos

I finally downloaded my photos off my phone, and below are some of my favorites (...so far). Of course you can see *all* of my Janelle photos in the Janelle Flickr set.

Tummy Time - We're making progress!

We've been having Janelle work on strengthening her neck and back muscles by doing "tummy time" with her every day. This prepares her for rolling over and eventually crawling, sitting, and walking. Welp, she's definitely been making progress. The first video below is her tummy time at 5 weeks. You can she that she's not too thrilled with it. Last week (at 9 weeks) I noticed she was doing much better, so I recorded the second video below.

5 Weeks


9 Weeks


My apologies for the "shakey jake" camera shots!

Some political humor for ya...

Heheheh!

2 Months Already!

I cannot believe that Janelle is two months old today! Happy birthday Janelle!

She's a talker!

For the past couple of weeks, Janelle's been watching our lips intently when we talk to her. Well, the past couple of days, she's gone from simple cooing sounds to a kind of baby talk. (Hard to describe -- watch the videos below to see what I mean.) It's great, though -- every day, she and I have long "conversations". :D

Janelle's First Professional Photos

For our baby shower, one of the gifts Kristy and Dory gave us was a Smile Savers subscription at JC Penneys, which gives us two years of no sitting fees at their photo studio, which is really great! Well, we took advantage of our gift, and below are "a few" of my favorites.

View entire photo set.