He would have been 102 today. I still miss him.


Mia and Mama Nellie - Instagram


Haven't had a sip yet. WTF Starbucks?!?


The Mythical and Elusive Bread Eating Monster


Wide and Tall

This Wide This Tall

This makes me want to get a dog. But of course, they never stay this tiny, do they?

Via (halfway-through who sourced it from gusnyc)


The Jacket

The Jacket

Farrah thought this multi-colored jacket Mia is wearing was lost. But luckily, the great folks at daycare found it - stuck in a backpack. So I put it on Mia as we left daycare yesterday. Oh, we had to stop by the pumpkins that were placed throughout the lawn area. It gave me a chance to try out the camera on the iPhone 4S. Not too bad.

It’s going to be a fun Halloween this year!


Mia and the Luau

Mia and the Luau

Mia’s daycare was having an end-of-summer luau. Even though sunglasses and hula skirts were handed out, the weather wasn’t exactly sunny and tropical. We stayed as long as we could (the hula performance started late) until the wind and time forced us to leave.

I took only a few photos, on August 26, 2011. You can find the rest here.


Irene

Hurricane Irene: MTA Metro-North Railroad closed Grand Central Terminal as the hurricane approached. Photo by Metropolitan Transportation Authority / Marjorie Anders.

This is a photo of Grand Central Terminal in New York City. Mid-day. Nearly empty. It’s one of those photos you wish you could capture yourself, but probably won’t ever be able to do so. It was taken by the MTA and posted on Flickr. The reason why it’s nearly empty is due to Hurricane Irene.

Grand Central Terminal is a sight I’d like to revisit again. The place is huge. And when it’s filled with people it feels amazing. Oh, and they’re going to have an Apple Store there someday soon.


Mia's First Birthday

Mia Bathing

At 10:16 am last year, Mia arrived in our lives. And what a year it has been. Ever since then, time seems to have been moving so fast, often a complete blur. I’m sure every parent has a similar experience.

Wasn’t it just a month ago that it seemed like all she could do was cry, eat, and poop? Wasn’t it just last week that she learned how to crawl? Wasn’t it just this morning she learned how to stand? And it seems just now, at this very moment, she really knows, by the glint in her eye, who mommy and daddy truly are. There is so much to share, but now so little time to write about it.

I took this photo as Mia was bathing this morning, getting ready for her day (or actually the whole weekend). I hope to post more photos later today - when I can find a moment. We’ll see how that works out.

But for now, Happy Birthday, Mia!


Mia's First Easter

Rabbit ears. Eggs. Money.

It’s Mia’s first Easter. It was a quiet Easter, spent at the house with the grandparents. It was quiet by choice, as Mia was recovering from being sick all week. Otherwise, we would have made a trip to spend Easter with family.

We had a lovely lunch - a Honey Baked ham, fried chicken and egg rolls from King Egg Roll, green beans, and Brussels sprouts. Then it was to the living room to watch Mia open her Easter eggs.

She’s a little too young for candy, so money was a good substitute. Yes, she did try to eat the bills. We then headed outside to take a few photos with each grandparent and ourselves. I wanted to take a full group photo, but unfortunately, I ordered the wrong tripod plate for my camera. I’ll need to get a new one.

You can find more Easter photos in the://Easter album.

Photos were taken with both the Canon 7D and the Canon S95 on April 24, 2011.


Mia and Her Bunny Ears

Mia and Her Bunny Ears

Bunny ears. A gift in Mia’s Easter basket from Grandma and Grandpa. She wore them yesterday and this morning, even though she isn’t feeling 100%. Hopefully, she’ll be hopping around with them on Easter Sunday.

On a different note, Mia woke up at 2 am crying. It’s a bit unusual, but since she’s not feeling totally well, it’s understandable. What was interesting was that Farrah found Mia sitting up in the middle of her crib. We haven’t seen Mia get herself from a lying posting to a sitting position, so this is the first occurrence we know of. Next thing you know - she’ll be climbing out of her crib. Eeek!

This photo was taken on April 20th, 2011 using a Canon S95.


Mia and Mommy at Whole Foods

We were able to get a lot done this weekend. We first started at the Mountain View Farmers' Market, it was off to Milk Pail to get other fruits and veggies not found at the market. We finally ended the triple play day at Whole Foods. Mia has been enjoying all the new textures on each type of food she’s tried. She’s been enjoying chicken, carrots, and rice. We need to expand her palette even further, as she’s shying away from the purèed food. In this photo, taken at Whole Foods, Farrah is searching the baby foods trying to find something that would appeal to Mia. What’s Mia doing? Just hanging out on the BABYBJÖRN. This photo was taken on April 10, 2011, using the Canon 7D. This photo was edited in Photoshop CS5 as well as Flare.


Mia and Dr. Seuss

Mia and Dr. Seuss

Mia loves listening to Dr. Seuss stories on the iPad. She started off with Dr. Seuss’s ABC. In this photo she is making her first pass at Dr. Seuss’s Green Eggs and Ham, a bit of a long story for her to sit through.

Oh, don’t worry, we don’t let the iPad do all the reading to Mia. Farrah takes time each day to read to Mia from the stack of books we have sitting on our bedside table.

This photo was taken on March 6, 2011, using the Canon S95.


A Sunday Post

I wanted to start writing a regular post on Sunday, time permitting of course. I’m not sure what subject it may be. Perhaps it will be about something that happened during the week. Or it could be a summation of the week’s events in total. Or it may simply be another photo. Let us see what comes of this.

Mia turned nine months old this past week. She has been out of the womb longer than she was in it. A fantastic thing to realize this week. If you were told me 18 months ago we’d have this babbling bundle of joy to deal with I would have simply replied, “Huh? You’re crazy.” Yes, we’re happily crazy.

Farrah was able to put Mia in short sleeves, sunglasses, and a hat, as the sun finally came out of its hiding place behind the clouds. Earlier that day Mia had some blood is drawn, an unpleasant experience for all of us. I was the lucky one to hold her still while the needle was inserted. It’s a task I hope I do not have to do often. But going outside in the sun cheered up Mia immensely.

I had a birthday recently. As a whole, it was a pleasant experience. But there were individual elements, like being stuck on Highway 17 for over two hours, that were unpleasant. A tree was down across the highway, making the trip to Santa Cruz more arduous than normal.

Part of the presents I received was a very cool backpack and tickets to WonderCon.The last time I went to a comic book convention was over 15 years ago. I had never been to WonderCon, a large local comic book convention. This would be Farrah’s first comic book convention, making the experience even more memorable.

The Moscone Center, where the convention is held, was extremely crowded. There were many people in costume, though a majority of the attendees were in everyday clothes. We saw at least a dozen Stormtroopers, a couple of Wonder Women, a Superman, an Alien, a couple of Jokers, and several scantily clad women who were, I’m guessing, some Sucker Punch characters. (I need to watch that movie.)

We were able to attend a talk from one of my favorite comic book artists, Bill Sienkiewicz.  I’m not an artist, and not being able to draw is worth a lick. But I enjoy listening to creative people talk about their passion. Sienkiewicz talked with no prepared topics, simply taking questions from the audience. It was interesting to hear about his past experiences which help shape his artistic point of view.

Wondercon was crowded. Moving around the first half of the show floor was like swimming through molasses. When we got to the middle of the showroom floor we had more opportunity to move a breath more freely. Even with all of this, I think I’d like to go to Wondercon next year as well.

The above photos were taken on April 1, 2011.


Mia and Her Chubby Cheeks

Mia in a chair

Mia was sitting in her high chair, waiting for her next spoonful of lovely baby food, when I took this photo. Doesn’t this picture make you want to pinch her chubby cheeks?

This photo was taken on March 24, 2011, using a Canon 7D and the Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8.