Happy Halloween!!!!

Happy Halloween!!! One of the best holidays on the calendar every year by far is halloween. A great excuse to eat a ridiculous amount of candy (not that i've ever really needed an excuse), dress up like a fool (which i probably do more often than once a year unintentionally), and get engaged!!!! Ok, that last one might just be for stephanie and I, but we've celebrating our 4th engage-aversary this coming all hallows eve (or dia de muertos for jumpings spanish contingent). So think of us while your stuffing your second Candy Corn or Peeps into your mouth (i can't believe people actually eat those).

Brayden picked out our costumes this year, and he decided that as a family we should go as the fruit of the loom guys (i tried to tell him the banana wasn't one of the official fruits, but whatever, i personally wanted to go as crazy celery hand guy).

Anyway, i'm going as the apple, but i'll just be holding my breath until i turn real red, but here are some pictures of brayden in his costume.


A closer look, gotta love potassium...



And his special PJs for the day (notice the feet as well as the bum)...


And brayden in our nightly starring contest (his record is 104-0)...


And here he is taking some superman lessons...


Can you believe its been 15 weeks?!?!?!?!?!



And in the halloween spirit, here is brayden's Edvard Munch's The Scream impression


Happy Halloween Everyone, now give me some candy!!!!

Not Quite a Month Behind

So I'm not quite a month behind, but i'm getting there. If i Had posted closer to real-time it would have gone a little something like this....

"Just like Dennis Kucinich, my trophy wife just turned the big 3 - 0" (by waiting this long to post this, its actually true, her birthday was yesterday). "And what better way to celebrate than to have brooke and chris throw a failed surprise party for her to honor the big event. Unfortunately, we waited until a week before the party to actually plan it so the turnout was a little low, but what we lacked in quantity we made up for in quality.

(Here is a link to the pics)

Late september and early october is a big time for stephanie and I. We have our date-aversary (21st of september, thanks to earth, wind, and fire), stephanie's b-day, pj's b-day, and pieter's birthday (with julie's b-day in there as well). we decided to combine all of these events into one big birthday gala and celebrate with brunch at canoe's. Besides the hundreds of snakes that we saw in the water, it was a absolutely perfect day, i did a little research on the snakes and found out that they were "twig-snakes", a common variety found near trees.

(here's a picture of the group taken from somewhere around tennessee)

(great family photo of casey, pj and rece)

(our family picture with me, stephanie, and brayden..........and jeff.......checking out the twig-snakes)

(Oma and brayden)

(2 things to note in this picture: 1) Shadows make for aweful pictures and 2) kids love shinny necklaces........)


(kids really love shinny necklaces.....and Oma's should really leave them at home or risk asphyxiation)

"

So that's how the blog would have gone. knowing then what i know now, it would have been waaay...well, it would have been the same.

Beautiful Destination Weddings (Part 1)

Brooke and Chris tied the knot with a beautiful ceremony at the Davenport House in Savannah last month. A great time was had by all, and brayden had his first experience with a non-family baby sitter. With all of the concern about the impending tropical storm, the weather turned out to be fantastic. But it didn't always seem like thats how it was going to turn out. The usual 3.5 hr drive to savannah turned into a 5+ hr crawl because of the monsoon like conditions. The windshield wipers on the jetta could barely keep up with the downpour.

There is actually a car about 50 feet in front of me in this picture. I realize taking the time to take a picture wasn't the brightest idea, but in fairness, we were cruising along at about 25 to 30 mph.

(warning, about to get to jumping's sappy moment of the day)

But sometimes you have to go through a storm like that to have beauty like the rainbow that didn't get captured in this picture (you'll have to take my word for it, it was pretty fantastic. Also, i realize that I either need to carry a camera around with me, stop posting about things i snap on my phone, or get a better camera phone).


On a side note relating to the pour quality of the camera phone, I've had to scrap 2 blogs due to the quality of the images taken by my phone. The first was the Amish choir in Dupont Circle that I came across before moving back to ATL, if this picture were at all clear, you'd be able to make out the massive sound system they were using to amplify their songs of praise. So apparently light bulbs and cars are out, but sounds ystems and iPod's are in.


The second blog that I had to scrap deals with the menu that I saw while walking through the Denver airport last weekend (blog to follow on this later this wee.....in the future). Now if you thought that the pic of the Amish Tabernacle Choir was pathetic, wait until you see the pic of the burger king menu, it makes the prior seem like an Ansel Adams. But basically the picture is of the burger king menu, more importantly, the portion of the menu that reads "picture menu available upon request". Now this is a great service that burger king is offering. Much like the Huddle House menus in the north georgia mountains that offer visuals of the available entrees to those who are literately-challenged, burger king is offering this same service to their patrons. The predicament lies in the conveyance of this feature to said customers. On the one hand, you don't want to ask every customer if they require the "picture menu", risking insult to potential customers. But on the other hand, you might as well advertise this in hieroglyphics, because the people requiring these menus would have a better chance of interpreting that (even without the rosetta stone). Not sure what the answer to this quandary may be, perhaps have a stack of "picture menus" available at the cash register? just a thought.

(perhaps this picture offers a glimpse into what it must be like to live as a functionally literate adult, who loves burger king). Second side note, as chris and brooke have pointed out, is it strange that the only fast food chain to offer a veggie burger as an option is the same company that offers the "Triple Whopper with Cheese"? Check out this hilarious commercial, again courtesy of brooke and chris (LINK TO VIDEO).

Stephanie and I, along with a fleet that rivaled the spanish armada, took a kayak tour of tybee island. It was a great workout, and we even had a chance to paddle along with a pod of dolphins (or school if you will).

Here are some pictures of the weekend (ALL unfiltered pics can be found HERE):

(Brayden seems less than amused about my attempt to make him laugh)

(The lovely bride and groom, did i mention it was warm in savannah in september?)

(Julie needs a moment, she's feeling a little verclimpt)

(Kristen and Jason all the way in from SF, getting a little practice at parenting, my assessment: naturals)

(In 2 or 3 more years henry will be throwing me around like this)

(4 non non Blondes)

(post reception at the bar, you only wear the dress once, make it last)

A good time was had by all at the wedding, from bryan's mismatched shoe's, the pedicab rides to and from the ceremony, the after party at the bar, kayaking, and julie's clogging at the rehersal....wasn't it a wonderful party.

One last note, for those of you wondering, paternity leave is going fantastic, especially those afternoon naps that allow me to entertain, well, at least myself if no one else with my blog. But seriously, any comments anyone wants to leave would be appreciated, topics you'd like me to cover, just say hello, whatever. I've got about 6 more weeks of this before i go back to "work", not that watching a 12 week old isn't work.

HE DID IT!!!!!!!!!

He did it!!! Little Brayden finally slept through the night, all the way from the time we put him down at 11pm (which he was actually asleep beforehand) until 7am. Unfortunately mommy and daddy were not so lucky. We were both up from 3am until 5am, oh well. We'll have to take some lessons from the not-so-"Little"-man. We made the switch from the swaddle to the footed sleepers, and we think that brayden discovering his thumb aided in the 8 hour sleep-a-thon. Unfortunately, he's no Magellan at navigating his thumb into his mouth, so we're just trying to avoid people who'd turn us into DEFACS until he can learn to stop scratching up his face.

(Picture from brayden's first night in his crib, not first sleeping-through-the-night-night)

With September drawing to a close, click HERE for some random pictures of Brayden and others, not filtered, but there are some pretty good ones in there, worth sifting through, including the Photo Shoot model pictures.

The Big Three Oh!!!!!

So earlier this month i hit the big 3 - 0. I have to say, i really don't feel much different than I did last year at this point, or much further back for this matter. We had a little shin-dig at casey and pj's to celebrate the big milestone. It was wonderful weather and a wonderful time. Dwyer probably had the highlight of the party when he showed up with an "over the hill" balloon for me. but in typical dwyer fashion, failed to check the knot on the balloon, and it was set free to kill some pigeons before it ever actually made it to me. luckily it made it far enough to give everyone a good laugh. But as far as me being "over the hill", not sure who said it, but i'll quote them anyway that i'd rather be over the hill than under it any day.

As you can tell brayden LOVES hats, being outside, and had a wonderful time at the party.

(we should consider changing his diaper more often)

Here's a pic of the deRijke clan, finally a family picture that I am actually in.

(not sure what's on stephanie's shirt, we can only assume brayden was involved)

Brayden's first dip in the pool with nana

Also, brayden has his first sleepover, with a girl no less. Here is brayden and Lila Baron.

(photo courtesy of Hairy Baron)

And of course, any time there is water, jack is sure to make himself at home

He was even nice enough to offer rece a ride

Full galary of pictures can be found HERE


On a related note, what is it about baby's and dogs, here's a recent picture of brayden and his pseudo-mom/Mr. Ed, shelby:

The Theatre, The Theatre, What's Happened to the Theatre...

So we've been taking brayden to acting lessons, and his teacher says that he is her prized pupil. Here's a little sample of some of his work (all poses within taken in a matter of seconds, pure professional):

Happy:



Sad:



Anger:



Shock:


Interest:



Faking Interest:



Disinterest:



Pure Silliness:



And finally, brayden likes to call this one Magnum:

Welcome to Atlanta where....

So we've had a really busy last couple of weeks, I mean really busy. Since August 15th we've:

Took one last outing in DC (is it bad to take a baby to a cemetary?):



this was not an easy picture to get...



thanks Jack...



Way to go Shelby...

But we did manage to get a picture of the illusive "Bird Face":



Moved Back to Atlanta:

Our place in DC was absolutely tiny, but we somehow managed to have an absolute ton of stuff packed in there. So upon packing we ended up with boxes everywhere:

In the office (or bedroom if you will):














In the Kitchen and living room:




















And in the hallway:




















(Don't worry, we put air holes in the box)

One thing is for certain though, moving with a child is exhausting.














So Tiring....


but like they say, sleep when your baby sleeps, so we did...



Met a lot More of the "Kin Folk":

But its been great to get back, and we've had a booming social calendar every since:

The deRijke's welcomed us back, and brayden got to meet his cousin rece and aunty casey:



His uncle Jazzy (jeff), although they may have to be reintroduced, as he slept for the entire visit:



His great aunt Kathy (although I'm not sure if he's been formally introduced to the monkey or not yet, but who we owe a ton of thanks, along with peggy, for setting up the nursery):



Were hosted to dinner aunty brooke and uncle chris at their new house. We were also joined by aunt julie, margaret, and henry.



Also Met grandpa and Tami, although I can't seem to find the pics with grandpa, and we even dressed him in his pirate outfit especially for the meeting, to make an extra special first impression (thanks to grandpa for picking up the nursery so kathy could set it up):



went to dinner at Emily and Trip's new house with Mark, Jen, Jake and Emma:



Were treated to our first night out on the town by Opa and Oma at Einstein's



met his cousin's henry and margaret (virtually impossible to get a good picture of 3 kids under 4)



And were hosted to dinner by nana (and henry and margaret)




These are just a few of the things that I can think of that we've done in the past two weeks. The one thing that we really haven't done, to this point, is actually unpack. We have a ton more pictures that you are welcome to sort through if you like by clicking HERE,