We had a great time in California last weekend. We were there for Dave’s cousin Cathy, who was getting married. We met her husband Marc several years ago when we went on a snowboarding trip to Mammoth. We immediately got along and had an awesome time, snowboarding/skiing and quoting Napoleon Dynamite the whole time.

We started off the weekend at Cathy’s place, with a mini reunion of the relatives. It had been a while since Dave’s mom and all her siblings had been together with all their kids. We all just hung out and watched “Dancing with the Stars” (Benjamin’s idea, of course). I got a really great pictures of Dave’s grandmother and all of her grandkids and her one great grandkid.

We were honored to have Cathy ask Ben to be her ring bearer. We were a little nervous that he wouldn’t be able to do it, so we practiced with him a lot. During the wedding rehearsal, he did a great job walking down the aisle. We practiced a million times, during the rehearsal and before the wedding. The kid had it down! He was walking like a pro!

We had a plan to have Dave be in the back with Ben and me in the front of the room, since it would be more likely that he would want to walk to me than the other way around. Dave would give Ben the cue to start walking and Ben would walk down to me. We prayed that it would go off without a hitch and that he wouldn’t throw the pillow at someone, since the actual rings were on the pillow. When the time came, they had put down the cloth aisle runner and sprinkled flower petals down the aisle. I was starting to get nervous - Ben didn’t practice with all the extra fluff!

So all the bridesmaids and groomsmen came down the aisle, and it was time for Ben’s performance. The door opened, Dave and Ben came through. As soon as he stood on the aisle, he started whining, “I don’t want to! I’m finished!” and as soon as he saw the petals, he said, “I want to play! I want to play!” He put down the pillow next to Dave and tried to pick up the petals. I was loudly whispering, “Benjamin! Come here!” But he paid no attention to me. By this time people were laughing and to me it felt like an hour had passed - I had no idea what to do! Do I go down the aisle, pick him up and drag him down the aisle? Dave eventually picked him up, to which Ben did the “i have no bones” things where he just becomes limp so you can’t pick him up, and he dragged Ben down the aisle. I took Ben from Dave, put the pillow next to the chair in front of me and we sat down, allowing the wedding procession to go on as planned.

It was a great wedding. The priest was a hoot. I was still a little anxious because there was still the moment where Ben had to bring the pillow up to the priest for the blessing of the wedding rings. He was already getting bored and fussy, and a pack of m&m’s was the only thing stopping him from starting chaos. It wasn’t a big room, so all his little comments were easily heard. When the priest mentioned the rings, I knew it was time. Time for redemption.

I stood Ben in the aisle and reached for the pillow. When I tried to give it to him, I realized that the lace on the pillow was stuck in the zipper of Ben’s diaper bag. I started pulling, but nothing happened. Dave was trying to help, too. Finally, the lace was unstuck and we got the pillow loose. I handed it to Ben and gave him a little push to send him down the aisle. Nothing. The kid was as still as a stone. Marc bent down and opened his arms and made a “come here” motion. I gave Ben one last push (some say it was a big shove, I say it was a gentle nudge) and he finally toddled up the aisle into Marc’s waiting arms. People aww’d. Some clapped. Me? A sigh of relief.

The rest of the wedding was pretty uneventful, in terms of Ben drama. Ben had a good time dancing with the flowergirl on the dancefloor as people were coming in for dinner. When we were waiting outside of the reception for the bridal party to be announced, Ben kept on wanting to go to Cathy and give her kisses, saying, "I want to go to the princess!" I was surprised that he was ok walking into the reception hall with the flowergirl without me, but I guess they had bonded throughout the weekend, so he was comfortable with her. Afterwards, he danced and had a good time, by the end of the night exhausted.

Here's some pictures from the weekend (hover near the top corners for navigation):

Tags: Photography, Ben, Travel, Party On! by Yano
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This page needs more Ben!

Ben’s going to be in a wedding this weekend in California. Wanted to give a preview of his outfit. He’s gone ahead to LA with this grandparents (because he flies free with them), and I miss the little bugger. Dave’s at the hospital tonight too, so I’m on my own. I should be packing, but my DVR’d CSI is too intriguing. Anyway, it’s been a while since I’ve told y’all what little Ben has been up to.

• Ben is a total poser - a poser in that when he sees a camera, he loves to pose, have me take a picture, then say “Let me see” so he could see the preview. Before taking this picture, I said, “Let’s try on your outfit and then we can take pictures.” I changed him into his outfit and right after, he says, “Where’s your camera? Take my picture!” The smile he has in here is his “gentle smile”. The regular smile is full of teeth and gums.
• Now that Dave’s done studying for his boards, we’re able to hang out as a family. One of the things we do is just hang out on our bed for “family time” where we read books, let him jump around, and just hang out together. Ben loves this time, and at night, often requests to have “family time”.
• He’s a skinny little guy. At his last doctor’s appointment, we discovered he’s in the lower 5th percentile for his height and weight. Even though he’s 30 months old, he still fits into 18 month old clothes (though pants are a little short, they fit his waist). He’s a horribly picky eater, some days eating normal meals, some days hardly eating anything. We’ve still got him on whole milk so he gets the extra fat.
• Ben has a great pitching arm. Dave’s been coaching him. He’s not that great at catching, but he definitely has good aim. He also is pretty good at kicking around a soccer ball, but gets bored of it quickly. Dave really wants been to be great at sports. However, Ben’s favorite non-cartoon show is “Dancing with the Stars” so that may not happen.
• He’s getting bossy. “Papa, you sit there” “I want chocolate milk now!” “I don’t want cereal anymore.” This kid knows what he wants and isn’t shy about ordering people around. They weren’t lying about those terrible twos!
• This kid talks. A LOT. You know, when he turned two, I was a little concerned that he wasn’t talking a lot. But over the last several months he’s been talking non-stop. I think his longest sentence has been “I’m going to the mall with Mommy and we’re going to the store and we’re going to buy shoes!” He’s like a little parrot, copying everything he hears (you can only imagine our horror when he started reciting lines from HBO’s “Entourage”). Sometimes I have no idea where he picks things up - once he got a toy pirate hook and he held it up and said, “It’s a question mark!” He was home once when I was working, and when I came down for a break he asked, “How’s work going today, mommy?” It just made me melt into a puddle of mommy-goo. A couple months ago I finally got a DVR, because I’ve been unable to hear anything on TV because of Ben’s chatter. It’s a good thing he’s talking, but sometimes I can’t hear anything else!
• He’s finally playing with other kids. He goes once a week to Gymboree, goes to the library every now and then, and lately has seen his cousins a lot. His favorite little person is Jillian, who in a way has become the leader of the little cousins. She’s very outgoing and makes it a point to play with Ben when he’s around. He’s warmed up to her and always asks about her. He follows her around like a little puppy.

That’s about it for now…it’s incredible how fast Ben has been growing up. These things are just a fraction of the things that Ben’s been up to lately.

Tags: Photography, Ben by Yano
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So it’s pretty late, even for Alaska, and I need to get up at 5am tomorrow to catch a 6:45 train to Seward, which is 4 hours away. But I wanted to post a couple pictures before I leave Anchorage. We had a pretty busy day today - went on a trolley tour around the city, went to the zoo, and saw a sled dog show. Much happened during and inbetween those times. I’d like to say I’ll write about that later, but those words, as you may know already, are probably just lies!

Here’s a couple pics that I’ve chosen for your enjoyment:

We passed by the Alaska State Trooper Museum, and saw on the window that they had a rebuilt Hudson Hornet in there - it’s Ben’s favorite car from “Cars”!

My “real wildlife” quota of 1 animal has been filled on our first day - saw a couple moose grazing on people’s lawns as we drove by

Ben makes friends with a sled dog puppy

Ben really wants to do the Iditarod someday

We take off for our cruise tomorrow night. Yay!

Tags: Ben, Travel, Pictures by Yano
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I’m planning on writing an Olympic review eventually (is it just me, or do the Olympics feel extra exciting this time around?) but in the meantime, there’s something that has had me scratching my head. US Cellular has been running an ad during the Olympics that I just don’t understand. For those of you who haven’t seen it (since I was talking to my sister in Detroit on the phone when it came on and she was seeing something else) I’ve linked to it below:

So what’s up with it? Are people smiling at the phone dude because he’s laughing and smiling as he’s talking on the phone? Because for me, when I talk on the phone people just look at me like I’m crazy - then again, I’m often grunting or making cackling sounds into the phone. And what’s up with the Snuggle fabric softener bear coming to life and walking with the little girl. Is it just me, or was that totally out of place? Are we in an alternate universe where a walking teddybear wouldn’t get a second glance on the street? Also, fireworks in the middle of the street? Really crappy fireworks?

I don’t get it.

But ironically, Ben does. He loves the commercial. As soon as he sees that guy, talking on his cell phone, he yells “Balloons! Balloons then fireworks!” Then he watches intently until his favorite parts come.

Too bad he’s too young to buy his own phone…I’m sure it would have been US Cellular if he could!

Tags: Video Gaga, Ben by Yano
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As most of you know, I work from home. Most of the time it’s great, but there are some downsides. One thing is that sometimes customers don’t know I work from home or what timezone I’m in, so they call really early or late.

Early this morning, I heard my work phone go off in the other room, my “office”. I decided to let it go to the answering machine, since I was still in bed. I heard the answering machine go off, and instead of hearing my voicemail greeting, I heard Ben’s little voice blabbering. It turns out, he figured out how to change the greeting on my machine, which isn’t an easy feat since you have to click on the settings button and then click on the record button right after.

I’ve been so proud of him for learning how to use a computer mouse to play his games and how to click the Wii button to shoot ducks, but I think I need to start teaching him that not all electronics are for little boys to play with!

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So You Think You Can Dance

Tonight is the finale of So You Think You Can Dance, which I have been absolutely loving this season. My favorite is Katee, who has always been entertaining. There have been so many awesome performers this season, it’s been hard to choose just one, but Katee seems to have it all and deserves to win. I also have a soft spot for Joshua, because he’s like a loveable big-butted teddybear. Whenever I think of him doing the Disco, it makes me giggle inside.

Anyway, here’s Joshua and Katee’s awesome Wade Robson routine from last night (how I’ve missed you, Wade!).

Ben’s been sick for the last couple days. Not sure when it started - he was feverish last week but nothing happened, but then on Sunday he had a bit of a cough. Yesterday he was just miserable - coughing, sneezing and sniffling. He still hasn’t learned how to blow his nose yet, so we had to be on-hand to wipe his nose for him. In the late afternoon he was just a pitiful lump of sick baby - he just sat in my lap for the rest of the night, whimpering and not wanting to move.

He didn’t want to get off the couch last night so we just slept there, and woke up several times. I got more sleep than I did on Sunday night, but he was still a bit fussy this morning. I debated on taking a day off today to take care of him, but Dave was off of work anyway, so he took him to the grandparents.

Here he is holding his favorite Kabuki Scarab panda:

Poor little guy!

Tags: Ben, Pictures by Yano
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I’ve been thinking about when it would be a good time to take Ben to his first movie. My ex-coworker, who has two kids, told me to go as soon as possible to get Ben used to behaving in a theater, so I decided it was worth a try.

Dave came home from work on Friday, and suggested we have a family outing. Usually during these family times we go to the zoo or Chuck E. Cheese, some place we know where Ben would have a good time. I suggested going to a movie - Kung Fu Panda (because, of course, I want to watch it, too!) and we packed up some snacks and juiceboxes and headed to the theater. We were a bit nervous - Ben could either go super-crazy and be a total brat, or he might be totally into the movie and behave.

Turns out, he fell asleep in the 10 minutes it took to drive to the theater. We got our tickets, nachos and drink and found some seats at the edge of the row, just in case we had to make a quick getaway. The previews started, and Ben was still sleeping. The movie started, and Ben was still nestled and softly snoring in Dave’s arms. We tried poking him to get him to wake, but he was out like a light. Finally, after about 15 minutes of sporadic poking and prodding, Ben woke up.

…and had NO idea where he was.

I guess it would be weird if you fell asleep in a car and woke up in a dark place with a HUGE screen showing a fat panda running around, with the sounds of little kids laughing somewhere in the room. He was a bit confused, and was constantly looking around. I handed him a nacho and he just held on to it, staring at me in the semi-darkness. Then he realized that there was something interesting showing on-screen. He started enjoying the movie, laughing when he saw the Panda do silly things, pointing out the turtle, tiger and other animals he knew. He crawled over to sit in my lap and drink some juice, and I gave him a little play be play of what was going on.

In the end, he loved it. No break downs, no screaming. I loved the movie as well - the casting of the Panda was PERFECT with Jack Black. We also found out that our theater has special showings for kids - once a week during the day. I’ll probably send Ben to one of those with his grandparents.

Next up: Wall-E. We’ll see what happens!

Tags: Ben by Yano
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I know it’s a bit late, but Happy Father’s Day to all you dads out there. Ben, who does not yet have the hand eye coordination or spelling skillz to write a post, would like to say a couple words:

Hey blog-o-sphere. I just wanted to let you all know that my dad is the best. Even though it’s obvious that I prefer clinging to my mommy because she plays really fun games with me, I love my dad too. He’s really good at throwing me up in the air and makes me feel like the tallest baby in the world when he lets me ride his shoulders. He takes me to fun places, like baseball and basketball games. He teaches me fun words when he yells at the TV, but mommy says that they’re words I shouldn’t repeat. He’s good at throwing my basketball in the hoop, and even lets me have a turn once in a while. When we’re driving around together he gets me Happy Meals at McDonalds because he knows I love fries and chicken nuggets. He likes to hug me and give me little kisses when I’m sleeping. I know he loves me a lot and I love him, too. Happy Father’s day!

Barack Obama made a great speech today, talking about the importance of fathers in the lives of children. I’ve got part of the speech below and you can click on the link for the whole speech at the bottom, or watch the 24 minute youtubed version below. I’d have to say my favorite quote from this massive speech is this: “We need to show our kids that you’re not strong by putting other people down - you’re strong by lifting them up.”

Good morning. It’s good to be home on this Father’s Day with my girls, and it’s an honor to spend some time with all of you today in the house of our Lord.

Of all the rocks upon which we build our lives, we are reminded today that family is the most important. And we are called to recognize and honor how critical every father is to that foundation. They are teachers and coaches. They are mentors and role models. They are examples of success and the men who constantly push us toward it.

But if we are honest with ourselves, we’ll admit that what too many fathers also are is missing - missing from too many lives and too many homes. They have abandoned their responsibilities, acting like boys instead of men. And the foundations of our families are weaker because of it.

You and I know how true this is in the African-American community. We know that more than half of all black children live in single-parent households, a number that has doubled - doubled - since we were children. We know the statistics - that children who grow up without a father are five times more likely to live in poverty and commit crime; nine times more likely to drop out of schools and twenty times more likely to end up in prison. They are more likely to have behavioral problems, or run away from home, or become teenage parents themselves. And the foundations of our community are weaker because of it.

Yes, we need more cops on the street. Yes, we need fewer guns in the hands of people who shouldn’t have them. Yes, we need more money for our schools, and more outstanding teachers in the classroom, and more afterschool programs for our children. Yes, we need more jobs and more job training and more opportunity in our communities.

But we also need families to raise our children. We need fathers to realize that responsibility does not end at conception. We need them to realize that what makes you a man is not the ability to have a child - it’s the courage to raise one.

We need to help all the mothers out there who are raising these kids by themselves; the mothers who drop them off at school, go to work, pick up them up in the afternoon, work another shift, get dinner, make lunches, pay the bills, fix the house, and all the other things it takes both parents to do. So many of these women are doing a heroic job, but they need support. They need another parent. Their children need another parent. That’s what keeps their foundation strong. It’s what keeps the foundation of our country strong.

I say this knowing that I have been an imperfect father - knowing that I have made mistakes and will continue to make more; wishing that I could be home for my girls and my wife more than I am right now. I say this knowing all of these things because even as we are imperfect, even as we face difficult circumstances, there are still certain lessons we must strive to live and learn as fathers - whether we are black or white; rich or poor; from the South Side or the wealthiest suburb.

The first is setting an example of excellence for our children - because if we want to set high expectations for them, we’ve got to set high expectations for ourselves. It’s great if you have a job; it’s even better if you have a college degree. It’s a wonderful thing if you are married and living in a home with your children, but don’t just sit in the house and watch “SportsCenter” all weekend long. That’s why so many children are growing up in front of the television. As fathers and parents, we’ve got to spend more time with them, and help them with their homework, and replace the video game or the remote control with a book once in awhile. That’s how we build that foundation.

It’s up to us - as fathers and parents - to instill this ethic of excellence in our children. It’s up to us to say to our daughters, don’t ever let images on TV tell you what you are worth, because I expect you to dream without limit and reach for those goals. It’s up to us to tell our sons, those songs on the radio may glorify violence, but in my house we live glory to achievement, self respect, and hard work. It’s up to us to set these high expectations. And that means meeting those expectations ourselves. That means setting examples of excellence in our own lives.

The second thing we need to do as fathers is pass along the value of empathy to our children. Not sympathy, but empathy - the ability to stand in somebody else’s shoes; to look at the world through their eyes. Sometimes it’s so easy to get caught up in “us,” that we forget about our obligations to one another. There’s a culture in our society that says remembering these obligations is somehow soft - that we can’t show weakness, and so therefore we can’t show kindness.

But our young boys and girls see that. They see when you are ignoring or mistreating your wife. They see when you are inconsiderate at home; or when you are distant; or when you are thinking only of yourself. And so it’s no surprise when we see that behavior in our schools or on our streets. That’s why we pass on the values of empathy and kindness to our children by living them. We need to show our kids that you’re not strong by putting other people down - you’re strong by lifting them up. That’s our responsibility as fathers.

Click here for the whole speech…

Tags: Photoshop, Ben, Cool Link by Yano
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…now that when I say, “Smile!” Ben actually stops and smiles. Now if I could only get him to keep his eyes open!

And yes, the boy LOVES sitting in boxes. He’s weird like that.

Tags: Ben, Pictures by Yano
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Last Saturday I brought Ben to Gymboree class for the second time. Gymboree classes offer a lot of ways to teach little kids about themselves, art and music. I decided to enroll Ben in the general play class, since in his grandparents take care of him during the week and he doesn’t have much exposure to other kids. Whenever we do see other kids he’s shy and reserved, so I just want to make sure he does something social.

We had gone to Gymboree several months ago, before Ben had turned 2. I wanted to take advantage of the free first class that they offered. It wasn’t too successful. He never took part in the group activities like story time, playing with the parachute, and dancing and singing. All he wanted to do was go on the slide. There was a point where they were playing with maracas that Ben enjoyed, but when it came time to return them to the bin - “clean up time”, Ben would NOT let go of his maracas and I had to pry them out of his hands as he screamed. The whole experience was not an enjoyable one.

But this time around, Ben had a great time. At first he didn’t want to take part in story time, but once I made him try out some of the other activities, he really had a great time. There was one activity where the teacher had a big monkey puppet and hid little “baby” monkey around the room. As soon as Ben figured out that they were supposed to find the baby monkeys and return them to their mommy (which they would get a monkey kiss as a reward) he was ALL over the place hunting for baby monkeys. He found the most monkeys of all the kids there. Then came the big test - maraca time! Ben listened to the teachers instructions, first making lots of noise with the maracas, banging them on the ground. Then, making soft maraca sounds by gently touching the ground with the maracas. He was the only one to make the soft maraca sound like the teacher, and was rewarded with a “very good, Ben!” After that, it was parachute time, and Ben actually played with a little girl, running around the parachute and chasing her, laughing and jumping the whole time.

It was definitely a better experience the second time around, and now that we’ll be going weekly I think Ben will get better and better around other kids (there were still a couple crybaby moments, but not as many as the first time). If this works out, I don’t mind spending the extra money to pay for art or music classes, which I know he’d enjoy. But for now, we’ll just stick with playtime!

Tags: Ben by Yano
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