I found this great little tool at a place called Animoto that brought in our Flickr feed and merged it with some music and then automatically created an awesome video. Super fun!! Enjoy!!
Filed under: David on August 26th, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Many of you may or may not know, but since starting my new job at Avenue A | Razorfish downtown I have been trying to be a lot better about how I get to work. It wasn’t a real conscious decision at first, like “ooh I want to be green”, but instead more of a realization that I can definitely get around without the car. After several months, I can safely say that I have tried every possible route and mode of transport, aside from things like helicopters and hot air balloons of course.
During my first week, I drove/parked two or three days and vowed to never do it again. I’m not sure if it was the traffic or what, but it seemed crazy to be going so slow and then the cost of parking downtown… well just seemed a little silly. If the weather is horrible or if we are going out to dinner, then Lauren and David might drop me off or pick me up, but we are trying to keep this to a minimum.
Next I tried the bus, which easily enough stops about a block and a half from our house. The buses here are great; clean, efficient, “green”, and just a nice way to get in to town. Plus it lets me keep up on all my video blogs like Mahalo Daily, Wine Library TV, Geek Brief, Epic Fu, and a ton more. The only downside was really the time it took to get downtown… it seemed like forever.
The weather started cooperating and so I started biking in. It is so much faster than the car and the bus and the only downside is really the fact you get to work a little sweaty and if starts raining, well… you get the picture. Plus when you first start riding, your legs would like to kill you and then riding the next day is a lot harder. I also tried to walk it, but we won’t be making that a habit. It’s not that it is far, it just takes way too long.
So what are the details you ask?
Driving: 4 miles, ~20-45 minutes (depends on time of day and traffic)
Bus: 5.6 miles, ~40 minutes + 5 minute walk
Biking: 3.8 miles, ~20-30 minutes
Walking: 4.1 miles, ~50 minutes
So all in all, I will stick with the bike and walking while I can and then supplement with the bus when either the weather doesn’t cooperate or my little legs can’t carry me any further. It sure feels a lot better than driving to work and sitting in traffic every morning no matter which way I choose.
Filed under: Work on August 22nd, 2008 | 1 Comment »
My mom is visiting from Boston for a few days and she saw how much David liked to climb in and out of our Ikea chair. Lucky for us, Ikea makes the kiddo version… its awesome. We went there yesterday and as a gift from Nana, David has his own chair. He loves it - climbs in and out of it and I snapped a quick photo of him in it watching the Backyardigans this morning. So darn cute!!!
Filed under: David on August 19th, 2008 | No Comments »
David had one of his first toddler play dates yesterday with Jack. Jack’s mom was in labor and his folks dropped him off in the morning. We got the news that Jack became a big brother in the late afternoon and everyone is doing great. The boys played very well with each other - just napping in the same room was a little bit of a challenge so we alternated nappers instead. Thankfully Jeremy was here to help out with the boys!
David has also learned to crawl up into a chair. This morning he decided that he wanted to chill out and watch tv so he grabbed the remote and climbed into the chair with it. I thought it was too funny so I snapped a photo really quick!
My mom is coming into town today so we’ll hopefully snap more and more photos. We also picked up a Flip mino (thanks to an old co-worker of Jeremy) and we’ll be taking more and more videos on the run. Check the Flickr site for more photos and a new video!
Filed under: David on August 17th, 2008 | No Comments »
I feel like every day we put David down to sleep - he’s taking up more and more room in his crib. Its amazing to me to see him grow - the small things that he works on everyday are amazing. Lately he wants to climb the stairs to the front door on his own and he brings in toys to us to play with him. He has learned the concept of putting things away (finally - even helps with the bookcase once and a while) and watching him makes me smile. I never thought that being a mom would be like this and it surprises me every minute of the day.
I took him to the park the other day and snapped this with my phone. He sat there for a few minutes and just spun the wheel around and around.
Filed under: David on August 6th, 2008 | No Comments »
Well, this weekend was our final one with Mike before he set back off for Redding and then on to Oklahoma. We wanted to go out with a bang so we hit up the Flugtag and then grabbed some chow at Hopworks down in the Southeast.
Flugtag was kind of a mob scene, but we did get to tour some of the home-built rides most of which were pretty amazingly done up. The Red Bull aerial team did a pretty sick skydive onto the stage and then the festivities started. Basically, wave after wave of crazy people in costumes drive their “flying machines” off the pier to see who goes the farthest. It is actually all in good fun and most of the folks were really entertaining. The only killer was really the amount of people, 50,000+ easy…
After that, we wanted to try a new place so we ventured over to Hopworks. Mike was feeling brewpub-type food for his last dinner in Portland, so we checked it out. It is a great place; the food is all organic and the building is all sustainable… and of course the food is pretty good and it is super kid-friendly. We will definitely be back.
And then today the time came to say goodbye to Mike. It was hard saying goodbye because he has become a fixture in our house these past months. He really became David’s buddy and every morning he would come up the stairs and David would grin at him from his highchair. It was fun having my brother around while I could and I do really wish he was closer and wish we could hang out more during the year. That being said, I know he is headed back excited to finish school and move on with his life. Make sure you check out his blog as well as I am sure he will have stories to tell.
Filed under: David on August 3rd, 2008 | No Comments »
I guess you could say that we have a shoe problem in this household. I (Lauren) have been known to peruse shoes and buy a few a year. My dear husband has become somewhat of a Nike Airmax freak. I think he’s made himself up to a different pair for every day of the work week. I can’t say that I have stopped this trend - I love finding sneaks for him.
So, that brings us to a sneaker fetish for David. This will be his second pair of Adidas… they are just so darn cute on him. I’ll photo him n them tomorrow, but I can’t resist. Check back for more photos soon!
Filed under: David on July 30th, 2008 | 1 Comment »
After watching Lauren and David head home after meeting me for lunch, I was reminded of how far we have come. First off, meeting them for lunch is really my small piece of serenity and normalcy in an otherwise hectic day and I cherish every chance I get to see them. Seeing the two of them walking off hand in hand still gets me choked up, it is amazing to see how much our little guy has grown and to see what an amazing mother Lauren has become.
His little laugh and smile is enough to melt any problems or worries you might be having.
When you become a parent, you really truly start to see the world through a whole different set of eyes. I look at David and see how he intently investigates something like the flowers outside or watches the dogs walking by. You realize how these things that we consider trivial, now that we have become older, are really things that you should cherish. Life definitely slows down and the nights out become a lot shorter and the quality of entertainment definitely changes, but it really doesn’t matter. And now I realize that as much as I try to teach David as he grows up, I will always be reminded of how much he has already taught me.
I look back at everything we have done and I realize more and more that one chapter has closed and a whole new chapter is beginning. I don’t look back and regret anything we didn’t do or places we didn’t go because I know we will go back. And I look forward to going back to those places we have already been because next time we will be seeing it through a whole new set of eyes.
I couldn’t be happier to see how far we have come.
Filed under: David on July 30th, 2008 | No Comments »
First off - thank you for being so patient while we didn’t write for so long. We’ve moved over to WordPress so we will be more connected than ever and its going to be so much more fun writing for you folks (if there is anyone left still reading).
Our summer has been amazing - the weather is perfect and we’ve taken a few trips. Grandparents have made it up/out here and we’ve taken a family trip to Disneyland! If you check our Flickr blog, you’ll see what’s been going on. Jeremy’s brother, Mike has been with us this summer (he helped design the banner on top) and its been a lot of fun seeing him watch David grow.
Onto David… he’s now almost 16 months and he’s walking. He started about 3 weeks ago and he’s now getting to the point where he’s getting to be just as fast walking as he is crawling. Its amazing to see how much he grows - it surprises us every day. I look at him while he sleeps and he takes up more and more of his crib. He has all of his teeth (aside from his 2 year molars) and is a slim 25 lbs. He is a very happy guy, even when he catches a cold.
Well, don’t worry - we’ll be keeping you updated. We promise! Welcome back to the new-and-improved blog!
Filed under: David on July 28th, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Well with Mike staying with us for the summer, we have all found a new way to communicate our daily activities using a great service called Twitter. Think of it like a mini-blog where you can just jot down what you are doing or where you are going. Your friends can then “follow” you and basically subscribe to your activities. It is actually a ton of fun, so check us out.
Jeremy - http://twitter.com/jeremykrall
Lauren - http://twitter.com/lkrall
Filed under: Uncategorized on May 12th, 2008 | No Comments »