UNFINISHED BUSINESS

In my neglect of this space, it was the children that were hurt most. I've heard from a few of you that I haven't posted any photos of the little guys in some time. So here we go. Let's get a photo of the two guys together.
Ok, that's not going to work. Instead, let's divide and conquer. We'll start with Nate. I look at these pictures and realize that he's growing up fast. But he's turning out quite handsome, if I do say so...And as for Will, he's developed a thing for hats. Sometimes he'll wear three or four at once. Lucky for me, he was only wearing one when I started taking pictures.These pictures are just about as current as they get. They were taken just a few hours before I posted them here. That's important because they're changing so fast, the pictures become obsolete just moments after they're taken.

BABIES ARE BACK

I have been criminally delinquent in my fatherly duties surrounding posting pictures of the little guys here. So no more messing around, no more idle chat, here's some baby action. First up, Will sitting in the backyard on a chilly June afternoon.

And the same running through the backyard...And once again, Will standing in the backyard...How about Nate? Well, he spend some time standing in the backyard, too...And watching TVAnd walking around topless...But despite the fact that I haven't posted any baby photos here in about 3 weeks, that's just about our entire stock of new baby photos. Instead, the guys have caught the video bug. They love having videos of themselves taken. They really like watching them on TV. So here are some of the greatest hits. None are much longer than 30 seconds.

First up is one of a series of 8,000 videos in the "child tries to take camera" series. In this video... well... one of our kids tries to take the camera.

Even more popular is the video of them watching TV and trying to do the hokey pokey. In the post modern tradition, they actually prefer watching themselves watching the hokey pokey than actually doing the hokey pokey.

But none of these creations can possibly compete with "Downward Facing Baby." In this 30 second classic, Will does a yoga pose, then discovers there's a camera pointed at him. He promptly runs towards the camera. That's it. But when Nate and Will watch it, they can't stop laughing. And not just giggling, loud, raucous belly laughing. Then they ask to see it again. And as the 25 seconds pass until Will charges the camera, they titter with excitement until the payoff happens. It never gets old... for them anyway.

So please allow me to present... Downward Facing Baby...

A CUT ABOVE

Some weeks ago, I promised photos documenting the aftermath of the little guy's haircuts. Photos of the actual haircuts as they happened aren't available. The event was far too traumatic for both children or parents. But now it's over, and let's see what we've got. Here's Nate...

And here's Will...These are not the straightest haircuts in the world, but they're amazing when you realize that they wiggled and screamed through the whole thing. They're happier now.The little guys will turn two in about 8 weeks, but they're not really talking yet. Will can mumble nonsense words to himself and make lots of animal sounds.Just this week he spent several minutes earnestly trying to carry on a conversation with a duck. He would walk up to one and yell, "quack!" Then he'd look at the duck and wait for a reply. He's still waiting.But it's Nate that we really have to watch out for. He can say "cracker" and a few other words, and now he's picked up a real doozy.Julie often sings to the little guys and "I know an old lady" is in heavy rotation right now. For those of you who don't remember, the song goes a little like this:

I know an old lady who swallowed a fly
I don't know why she swallowed the fly
I guess she'll die.

The old lady goes on to swallow all manner of items to catch the items previously swallowed. For instance, she swallows a spider to catch the fly. I'm still not aware why.

In each verse (there are about 800) the swallowed items are recounted and then followed up with, "I don't know why she swallowed the fly. I guess she'll die."

Recently, Nate has been accompanying Julie on this song. At first, we couldn't tell what he was saying. But today, it was crystal clear:

Julie: I don't know why she swallowed the fly. I guess she'll die.

Nate: DIE!!! DIE!!!!!

Matt: (Sound of grown adult falling off chair while choking down laughter.)

Attempts will be made to videotape this phenomenon. If we catch it, I'll post it.

HAIRCUT TIME

It has been much too long since I've posted photos of the little guys, so allow me to remedy this tonight. Here were some pictures snapped in advance of Nate and Will's 2nd haircut. First up is Nate, showing lot of energy, and wild hair.

And also becoming the subject of the "what does this macro lens do?" experiment.Will turned out to be a somewhat more difficult subject...For whatever reason, Will was less willing to play ball. Perhaps he was self-conscious about his longer hair.But with a little convincing...And a pair of finger cymbals...Everything turned out ok.

So what of the haircuts? Tune in next week for the dramatic pictures. (Or pictures, anyway, they may not actually be all that dramatic.)

TODDLER STOPGAP

I've been too tired at night to post any Istanbul updates, but I should have more tonight. But for now, may I offer some extremely short films of the little guys.

Here we have Nate and Will running around in the backyard. This clip demonstrates why it's so hard to get a decent picture or video of the guys: cameras look so delicious.



And lest you think life here is a nonstop romp of cuteness, this video deserves equal time. Will has two sippy cups, and Nate wants one. Nate takes one and, well...

ASLEEP A THE MEAL, PART 2

I'm just packing up to leave for Los Angeles and I gave the little guys a kiss before putting them to bed tonight knowing it will likely be the last time I see them for about two weeks.

It's actually harder leaving them than I thought. I've been gone for a night or two, but nothing quite like this. It's actually physically painful to contemplate this kind of separation.

Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled to be leaving for LA/Istanbul. I've wanted to do this my whole life, and I'm going to go through with it. But it's still a bit hard. So in memory of the little guys, I'll post a small snippet of video I shot about a week ago. It's the video component of the "Asleep at the Meal" post.

If you recall, in the original post, I shared some cute photos of Nate and Will sleeping during lunchtime. It got a huge response. So I took some video of them falling asleep while having lunch a few weeks ago. Sorry about the bad edits, but I don't really have editing software right now. Indeed, it may not be the most compelling video in the world, but I may find myself watching it from Turkey if I need a little fix of these tiny guys I love so much.

(For those keeping score at home, Nate is the one who is falling asleep. Will is mostly faking it.)

CIRCLE OF BARF

This post is completely disgusting, so let me soften the blow by starting with some cute images of the little guys. Some cute video images. We bought a new digital camera last week and I was playing around with the video function and caught this fun image of Will when he awoke from his nap.


And I got some video of Nate as well, but he was a much more elusive subject.


But all at our home is not cute video segments of less than 10 seconds. No, the guys have been sick for the past week, and it has been nasty. You see, they've had a stomach virus, and that can make for some unpleasant surprises.

On Friday morning, we awoke to find Nate's crib covered in foul-smelling excrement (as opposed to the sweet smelling stuff, I guess). We had to open every window in the house to get rid of the smell.

Then came Saturday's lunch. We were feeding Nate some of his favorite foods, but he was starting to grimace, and we knew something bad was about to happen. In a flash, he erupted like one of those elementary school volcano projects. When it was over, there was a pile of fruit, zucchini, Cheerios, and scrambled eggs just about as big as Nate. Seriously, where did he put all that stuff?

Julie and I sprang into crisis mode. She took him into the bathroom and began to wash Nate off. I took the chair outside along with the plastic tarp we keep on the kitchen floor. There I had the unenviable task of hosing the puke off everything it touched. When I was done, you could still see little flecks of zucchini and scrambled eggs in our lawn.

A few hours later, I was looking out our window and I noticed a bluebird picking away at the eggs in the grass. It was then I knew that this whole disgusting incident was just another segment in the circle of life.

Think about it, some bird laid an egg, and we served it to our kid... who barfed it up. Then this bird took the egg and most likely barfed it up for his kid. "Twice Barfed Eggs," I'm sure that's considered a delicacy somewhere.

And who knows, perhaps that little bird will puke the eggs up again... and the circle of life will continue.

NEW CAMERA OF CUTENESS

A well intentioned young man smashed our handy point and shoot camera against a stone wall a few months ago, and this week we decided to replace it. We got ourselves a nifty little Cannon that has twice as many features as our old camera, and costs about half of what we paid in 2001.

Anxious to try out the new toy, I went and woke the boys up from their afternoon nap. I was able to snap some groggy photos of Will...

And a few of Nate as well...While this new camera looks quite different from the old one, they still know it's something worth grabbing..And Will still knows what to do when that little light starts flashing.He may have human DNA, but deep down inside, he's pure, "Grade A" ham.

ASLEEP AT THE MEAL

Ever since we changed Nate and Will's sleep schedule to include only a single nap per day, they can sometimes have a hard time staying awake for the entire morning. This is especially true when they've had a very active morning. This is one such morning.
Lunch was abbreviated by a nap taken a few minutes too early. Perhaps Nate needed time to recuperate from a morning of running around the back yard.Will was most likely worn out by his unsuccessful (and very loud) attempt to compel an encore performance of Elmo before lunch.Perhaps they're already dreaming of the busy weeks ahead.They'll be basking in the attentions of two sets of grandparents in about three weeks. That means another trip on an airplane.I was 23 before I had been on as many flights as these two. With the prospect of another one coming up soon, I think I need a nap, too.Perhaps we can all behave like this when the next trip begins. Dare to dream. Dare to dream.

TIME OUT FOR CUTENESS

Time to stop obsessing over my mysterious facial paralysis and get back to the reason why a lot of people come to this site, to look at pictures of the little guys. The batch is a little thin this week, but here we go:

That's Nate playing in the backyard during a lovely Sunday afternoon.And that's Will sitting on his mom's lap while she tries to take his picture.

Most of the pictures you see on this site and taken by Julie. She's got access to them when the lighting is good and, quite frankly, she's a better photographer than me. We're both noticing that it's getting harder and harder to take pictures of the little guys.

Every since they could move around, they've been obsessed with cameras, both still and video. As a result, we've got endless hours of video of the guys trying to grab our little camcorder. Obviously, that's not the footage we were trying to get. We wanted to get them doing their little yelps or impersonating animal sounds or doing that amusing high-stepping dance/run they've been doing lately. Alas, once you turn the camera on, all that stops and it's all about the camera.

Oddly enough, I have this exact same problem at work. I'll be trying to shoot some footage or a story, and people will immediately change what they were doing because I got a camera out. Of course, the difference at home is that I don't have to turn a story out of my footage. I'm free to put the camera down and start having fun with my former subjects. And luckily for me, my two favorite little subjects are a lot of fun.

ORAL FIXATION

As soon as babies can control their arms, they begin shoving stuff into their mouths. Doctors call this "exploring their world through their mouths." I call it "marking their territory using drool."

Whatever the case, this phase is supposed to end at some point. But our guys have been stuck in their oral phase. Observe Nate "playing" with a Magna Doodle...

Will is more partial to wooden stuff...But Nate is most undiscriminating. He'll chew on storage chests...And just about anything else he can find. But he's most interested in plastic cubes...He won't stop for a ride on his favorite toy...Or for a good book...He won't even stop while trying to take the camera away from his parents...Perhaps I should be concerned, but I'm just too tired right now.