The Abba (Dad) Blog

The Rewinding Machine

2010-08-12T23:29:00.003-04:00

I'm not sure how the discussion even started. A few weeks ago Cynthia was out of town and I decided to let Kiki sleep in our bed since that's what we do when I am out of town. Our usual night time routine includes reading and a story which I usually have to make up on the spot. And it has to be new every time. I usually try to make it funny and have a moral. I don't always succeed.

So I made up some story about white and black bunnies and a river and long story short, turns out all these bunnies had the same great-great-great-grandparents. So then after the usual slew of questions, Kiki asked me what a great-grandparent was and why are they great? I told her that this is how you call the parents of your grandparents and that I am not sure why they are great, but they usually are.

And to demonstrate this I asked her about my mother, being her Savta (grandma in Hebrew - Happy Birthday by the way) Mara , and her mother, Savta Riva, who is in fact her great-grandmother. Since she knows how all that works her next question was a bit of a surprise.

She wanted to know where her great-grandma Grace was and why we never get to see her. Grace was Cynthia's grandmother and she passed away nearly 25 years ago. I wasn't really sure what to say and decided to just go with the truth and told Kiki that we don't see great-grandma Grace because she died a long time ago. So she wanted to know how come Savta Riva wasn't dead and I answered that she just wasn't and we should be happy to have a great-grandma because not many people have one.

Then Kiki said she doesn't want anyone else to die. I hugged her tight and said that she doesn't need to worry about that right now and that everyone will be fine. But she wasn't having any of that. She said something should be done about it. I asked her what she thought we could do and to my surprise she came up with a brilliant idea.

The Rewinding Machine

There I was thinking she was going to say people would need to eat better and maybe take pills to make them healthy or something of that nature, but there she was, thinking outside the box again. I asked what she meant.

She said the rewinding machine would be used on a person's birthday when they were old. Every birthday, the person would get into the machine and instead of being one year older, we could rewind them with a crank so that they stay the same age every year. I thought that was a fantastic solution and I told her so. But she had more...

She said we should build this machine right away, just to be safe. We should go to Home Depot and ask them for the instructions. I told her that we would need to invent one because there were no instructions for something like this yet. Since we already need to invent a teleporting machine, we really have our hands full. I told her that we would need to study math, science and biology and come up with a design and then get the parts we needed.

She told me I was wrong and we need to go get the parts now because we can't let anyone die while we're learning all these things. And we would first use it only for our family and then let our friends use it too. But we can't use it on her because she doesn't want to stay five.

She eventually agreed to go to sleep and figure this out later. Yesterday she reminded me that we need to go to Home Depot and get some wood an nails to build our machine. I said we would need a lot more than just wood and nails. So she said of course.

"We need buttons too!"

Playing catch up

2010-05-18T21:03:00.004-04:00

Yep, it's been almost two months since my last post and really, I haven't written anything since last year (yikes). And so much has been happening...

Kiki turned 5, Bella turned 1, I turned 40!!!
We went to Israel for two weeks over Passover and had an amazing time.
I published a children's book about my grandmother called 'Grandma Birdie's Red String' and Cynthia published a children's book called 'Nobody Likes Me'. The books are amazing in their own way with beautiful illustrations and a great story. You should check them out (just click the links or find them on Amazon).
What I really should write a book about is the process of finding the right private school for your 5 year old kid. It was quite the challenge, but we think we made the right choice in the end.
Oh yeah. Kiki graduated from pre-school today!

There are so many other things that I haven't written about, but time just flies. I am probably not going to remember to write about most of these stories and they will fade away. I really need to make some time to write these memories before they all vanish.

Here are a few photos from the trip to Israel:

Banks!

2010-03-22T22:29:00.002-04:00

Wow, it's been a really long time since I put up a post on this blog. Where does the time go? I've missed so many posts, including Kiki's 5th birthday. Bad Abba!

Anyway, I had to put up a quick carpool story from this morning before I forget and miss another post. It all started when Kiki asked me a simple question:

Kiki: What's their last name, Abba?
Abba: Who's last name sweetie?
Kiki: Their last name!
Abba: Who are you talking about?
Kiki: The children, Jane and Michael.

So to get you up to speed, Kiki is pretty much obsessed with Mary Poppins. She's watched the movie about 1000 times. She knows all the songs. She will just spontaneuously burst into "Spoonful of Sugar" and "Supercali..." and she can't wait to see Mary Poppins live in May.

Abba: Well, can't you remember what it is?
Kiki: No...
Abba (singing): Hurry nanny, many thanks, sincerely, Jane and Michael...
Kiki: BANKS!
Abba: That's right!
Evan: Why couldn't you just say Banks instead of singing?

Evan cracks me up!

Bella Crawls Backwards!

2009-12-05T22:34:00.001-05:00

Here's a quick video I took of Bella crawling back from the living room to the kitchen. I had to speed it up 400% or otherwise it would be over 5 minutes long. Enjoy!

Singing the ZYX's

2009-11-17T11:25:00.004-05:00

Some days we have a quiet car ride to school. Some days the kids fight over toys. Some days I put all the toys out of reach and torment the kids for the whole length of the ride. Today was one of those days.

I decided that we were going to learn to sing the ABC's backwards. Yeah, you heard that right:

Parenting FAIL

2009-11-17T10:02:00.003-05:00

No, I'm not speaking of us of course, we're wonderful parents. Just ask our kids.

In this case I am speaking of these parents, who are trying to land a gig for their children on the "hottest photo shoot ever." So of course they agree to a long list of conditions:

Baby on a crucifix?

Bees, wasps and hornets?

Dead or dying animals?

Amateur scientists?

Mixing pots of acid?

Extremely rapid acceleration?

Does she always have to be in a car seat or can she freestyle it?

Antiquated heavy machinery and would she be fine to operate it?

Lit phosphorous? Does he like it?

Can she lose 10 pounds in the next week?

Watch for yourselves:

I hope all these parents are in jail.

I think Sacha Baron Cohen is a genius. Sure, he can be crude and disgusting, but he is able to get people to say and do things that you wouldn't think sane people are capable of. I haven't seen the whole movie yet but the previews and scenes like this one make me want to go out and get it.

Bruno is now available on Blu-ray and DVD.

These are the Months of the Year

2009-10-21T23:57:00.004-04:00

One more video I forgot to upload. Kiki and Evan were showing off their month-singing abilities:

Abba Goes to a Football Game

2009-10-21T23:11:00.010-04:00

So after my recent adventure with Kiki to the baseball game, eBalz asked if I wanted to join him to "Defend the Dome" and go to my first NFL game. It was a decent game with the Chicago Bears taking on the Atlanta Falcons who have been on quite a heater lately, especially coming off the previous trouncing of the 49ers the previous week in San Francisco. The game was on Sunday evening so we had some time to go eat at Ted's Monatana Grill, throw a football around at Centennial Olympic Park and walk around the craziness outside the Georgia Dome before the game.

Here's what I mean by craziness outside the field (awesome cameo by eBalz):

We were the only two people there who had no idea what tracks were being played. And with the whole crowd going nuts after just the first three notes were played of each song, we felt old and out of touch. Oh, well.

We walked around for a bit and then got to see the Falcons Drum Line perform before heading to our seats:

Our seats were way up near the rafters, but at least we had a great view of the entire field. For some reason the whole section we sat in was full of Chicago Bears fans so I had no idea who the cheers and boos were for for most of the game. Good thing I had eagle-eyed eBalz next to me to tell me what was going on.

Here comes the photo dump.

Introducing the players with cheerleaders and flares:

By the way, the cheerleaders were all dressed in pink for Breast Cancer Awareness Month which was a nice touch. But they didn't stop there. The players had pink shoes and gloves too. Which was a nice touch but looked kind of weird. Back to the photos.

They had a giant flag out on the field during the player introductions:

Here are the Falcons kicking one of their 3 extra points:

And after every one of those extra points they had these guys run across the field with huge flags:

The game started out very badly for the Falcons and for the first quarter they could not get past their own 30 yard line and could not get a first down. Eventually during the second quarter they started playing better and ended up winning 21-14 after some great defensive play that stopped the Bears from scoring after getting to 1st and 1. They fumbled their 2nd and 3rd down and when the Falcons recovered it the second time around the crowd went nuts after we all helped "Defend the Dome"!

Can't wait for my next game.

Kiki's First Baseball Game

2009-10-21T22:19:00.003-04:00

A couple of weeks ago was the last game of the season for the Atlanta Braves and eBalz scored some tickets for the afternoon game against the Nats. Neither team had anything riding on the game, the weather was good and we decided to take the kids to their first baseball game. So it was Kiki, Sophie and Christopher with the dads and our poker buddy Brian came along as well. We had pretty decent seats behind first base and a great view of the field.

Right after finding our seats we left Chris with all the kids and went to get some dogs and drinks. He gave them a quick explanation of how the game works and by the time we got back they were watching intently. But baseball being the slow paced game that it is, they soon lost interest and were busier trying to figure out what the vendors were trying to sell and pretty much asked to buy everything.

At one point the Braves scored a home run which brought with it some fireworks and a lot of cheering. The kids loved that of course. But when we were at the bottom of the eighth inning after 2 hours and still tied 1-1 we decided to beat the post-game rush and headed out. They even brought out Chipper Jones as a pinch hitter to end the season, but nothing came of it. Earlier in the game I said that I'm sure that since this game didn't matter to either team they won't want to drag it out too much. So obviously it went to 15 innings after we left. Doh!

Here are some pictures from the game. First, me and my girl enjoying her first ball game:

Then, it's the two sweet, sweet-toothed girls:

Chris carrying all three kids out of Turner Field:

Laughing with a baby is a mitzvah!

2009-10-21T21:56:00.005-04:00

Kiki has a mitzvah tree in her school where the kids bring paper leaves home, the parents write a mitzvah that the child has done and then the bring it back to school and staple it to the tree. It's very cool and the tree is already covered with mitzvah leaves.

But this has created a situation where anything Kiki does, she tells us it's a mitzvah. By the way for those who don't know what a mitzvah is:

1. a commandment or precept, esp one found in the Bible
2. a good deed
[from Hebrew: commandment]

So one day I was outside with Bella in the Bjorn and Kiki in her Wonder Woman costume because she just wanted to swing on her playground before it gets too cold. And every time Kiki would get close to us, Bella would just start cracking up! We've figured out that any time Bella sees Kiki running, swinging or spinning it make Bella laugh.

So then Kiki came up with the notion that laughing with a baby is a mitzvah. Here's her explanation as well as some great footage of her swinging in her costume:

And here's Bella laughing:

I think Kiki's right. Laughing with a baby is indeed a great mitzvah!

Driving the kids... CRAZY!

2009-09-25T19:47:00.000-04:00

If you read this blog you know I drive the kids to school in the morning and I get most of my material from the discussions with these 4-5 year old geniuses. Well this morning I decided to mess with them a little. I was in a good mood and we were listening to music, as we usually do.

It started with Evan mentioning that his neighbor wrote the Britney Spears song "Womanizer". Then this curly-headed boy start singing "womanizer, womanizer, woma, woma, womanizer, you're a womanizer..." and that just cracked me up. So I turned off the Imagination Movers CD, because how many times can you listen to "What's your favorite snack?" and started playing some Black-Eyed Peas.

Evan said he liked Boom Boom Pow and Tonight's Gonna Be A Good Night but when I played them he pretty much wrapped his head in his hands and covered his ears. I took that as a sign to stop. Then Evan came up with the quiet game. You all know it, everyone has to be quiet and the first person to say anything loses.

So we drove in silence for a few minutes and then Evan said something. I pointed at him and smiled and then Kiki said something too and I pointed at her and smiled. And it went downhill from there:

Abba: I am the winner, I am the winner, you are the losers, you are the losers (imagine a taunting sing-song way of saying this with an annoying voice)

Evan: No we're not. There are no winners and losers in this game.

Abba: Yes there are. I am the winner and you are the losers.

Kiki: No Abba! You are not the winner!

Abba: Loo-hoo-se-hers (with a big L on my forehead)!

Evan: You're cheating! There is no winner in this game!

Abba: Then what's the point of the game?

Evan: To see who can stay quiet the longest.

Abba: And I stay quiet the longest, so I am the winner of the quiet game. I am the winner, you are the losers. Loo-hoo-se-hers!

Kiki: No you're not! We're going to play another game.

Abba: Bring it on, suckahs! I am going to win every game we play today.

This is where these two start whispering in the back and trying to come up with a new game.

Kiki: We are going to play the "Wonder Woman and Wonder Boy Shooters" game.

Evan: Yeah!

Abba: How do you play that?

Kiki: You make shooters with your hands.

Evan: And then we shoot you and win the game.

So i point my fingers back at them and go "pshew-pshew, I got you both Wonder Woman and Wonder Boy. I win again!"

Kiki: We were not playing yet!

Evan: Yeah, we weren't ready!

Abba: Too bad losers! I win again (followed by a manaical laugh)!

Evan: You cheated! We weren't playing yet!

Kiki: Yeah Abba. You cheated!

Abba: How did I cheat?

Kiki: You didn't let us go first. The youngest always goes first, remember?

Abba: That rule only works for CandyLand. I was faster and I won again.

Kids are totally baffled. Speechless. Then Evan starts saying something about Bakugan battles and brawls and I have no idea what language he's speaking.

Evan: Bakugan this something something something and Bakugan that something something.

Abba: I don't know about any of that. I can't play it because I don't have any Bakugans.

Evan: Well, we're going to use invisible ones.

Abba: Well then I win again! Because my invisible Bakugans just beat all your Bakugans and once again, I am the winner and you are the losers. Loo-hoo-se-hers!!!

This caused a huge uproar. Something about me not following the battle and brawl rules, playing out of turn, not using the correct cards, etc. To which I simply replied that I don't really care because i won every game on our ride to school.

When we were standing in line at school I took this quick video:

When it was eventually our turn in line, I opened up the back door of the car and out came a bunch of screaming and yelling that made the poor teacher wince in pain. I am really sorry about all this, teachers.

But I was the winner!

To inifinty and beyond

2009-09-25T12:49:00.003-04:00

I like messing with the kids on the car rides to school. So a couple of days ago we had a really interesting discussion about math. Now you have to remember they are 4-5 year old kids:

Evan: Do you know what the biggest number in the world is?

Abba: I think I do. Do you know what it is?

Evan: Yes, it's a googol.

Abba: How big is a googol?

Evan: It's got a lot of zeros.

Abba: That's right, it has a million zeros (actually my bad it only has 100 zeros).

Evan: Wow! How did you know that?

Kiki: Yeah, Abba, how did you know that?

Abba: You might not think it, but I know a lot of stuff.

Kiki: Is that the biggest number in the world?

Evan: Yes!

Abba: Well, actually, there are bigger numbers. Like, googol plus one.

Evan: That's not true.

Abba: How about two googols? Or 100 googols? Or a googol googols?

Kiki: Well, I know the biggest number in the world!

Abba: Really, what is it sweetie?

Kiki (whispering to Evan): Evan, what is the biggest number in the world?

Evan: I told you already, it's googol.

Kiki: The biggest number in the world is 8 million, 500, 80, 90, 100, 150 (whenever she gets to the big numbers she starts to confuse them a bit).

Abba: I know one number that is bigger than that.

Kiki: Really?

Abba: Yes, it's 8 million, 500, 80, 90, 100, 150 and one.

Kiki: Hmmmm....

This is where the kids were in deep thought/confusion for several minutes.

Kiki: I know the biggest number in the world!

Abba: What is it?

Kiki: It's called the "Biggest Number in the World!"

Abba: What about the "Biggest Number in the World" plus one?

Kiki: Stop it Abba!

Abba: What about the "Biggest Number in the World" plus two?

Kiki: STOP!

Abba: You're kind of right, you know?

Kiki: Why?

Abba: There really is no such thing as the biggest number in the world, because you can always add one more to it. So they call it infinity.

Kiki: Infinity?

Abba: Yeah, and you know what inifinity plus one is?

Kiki: No.

Abba: It's still inifinity.

And I didn't hear another peep out of them until we got to school.

Back from the beach

2009-09-20T15:24:00.003-04:00

We're baaaaaack!

What a great vacation! We did our annual Litchfield Beach family vacation and got back home yesterday afternoon. Yes, pretty much everyone got sick again (Jeff and I think the filters in the AC system are the cause), but we still had a fantastic time. The weather could not have been better for this time of year and considering Atlanta got about 7 buckets worth of rain and we only got a sprinkle on Friday - I'll take it any day.

There are so many great stories to tell and one day when the kids are all grown up and I have more than 5 minutes to write this stuff down I might induce some self-hypnosis and try to remember everything. But for now, some highlights:

Adults - 8

Kids - 7

Total nights - 7

Nights Kiki slept in the same room as Sophie - 1.5

Nights I slept with Kiki on the sofas in the living room - .5

Nights Cynthia & I slept with a toddler limb on our head/back/butt - 4

Nights Bella slept in her crib - 7

Rummykub games I won - 0

Rummykub rules I hate - all of them

Games of Yahtzee I played - 1

Games I won - not even close

Golf rounds - 4 (well, one round but we were a foursome)

Discount on our rounds - 50%

Pars I made - about 5-6

Final score - 97 (low score for the group)

Dinners we all cooked - 4

Dinners the chef cooked - 1 (better than all of ours combined)

Beer/Wine consumed - way too much

Drive to the beach - 6.5 hours

Drive back home - 8+ hours (seriously, why is that?)

Hours without my Blackberry - many, many hours

Relaxing with our friends - Priceless

Carnival in Alabama

2009-09-06T22:11:00.003-04:00

It was a cool overcast day so I decided to take BOTH girls for a little ride on the Silver Comet Trail. Kiki on her princess bike, with training wheels and tassels, and Bella in her "bike" - the Abba-Powered Aubergine Bugaboo. Kiki has been apprehensive about actually doing any actual bike riding. She's been more into talking about it than physically doing it. So I figured the trail is nice and flat, no way she can complain about being scared of going down hills too fast and no other excuses.

We hit the trail at a pretty slow pace to start our journey. But a couple of hundred yards in people were just zooming past us so Kiki started to pick up the pace. Which eventually turned into a slow jog for me. Bella loves being outside so obviously she fell asleep 5 minutes into it.

I had to constantly remind Kiks to watch where she was going and stay in her lane. And not to swerve around and to stay in her lane and to watch where she was going. You get the point. But she was loving it! Absolutely loving every second. She did a fabulous job of riding and I made sure to compliment and encourage her.

Then she asked me where the trail goes to and I said it goes alllllll the way to Alabama. To which she responded that that's where she wanted to go because there was a special carnival in Alabama. She said it loud enough for a few walkers to hear and crack up. She was serious too. She would not turn around and head back to the car. At the 1.2 mile marker I finally said that she could keep going to Alabama and to call me when she gets there if she needs me to pick her up because Bella and I couldn't walk to Alabama. But since she has a bike and she is such an excellent rider she should go ahead and go.

So we headed back.

That's when the trouble started. Since I was jogging pretty much all the time now, I had to stop for some water. When Kiki saw the water she wanted some too. Then after 30 seconds she was thirsty again. Then after another thirty seconds she was thirsty again. And again. And again...

Eventually we got a rhythm going again and we were back to the watch where you're going stay in your lane routine. At one point she decided to look back at us and veered right off the trail. She knew something was wrong, probably by my look of panic, so she did the only appropriate thing and let go of the bike. Luckily I was close enough to grab her in mid-air and save the day.

That didn't phase her at all and a couple of minutes later while trying to go as fast as she can her sneaker slipped off the pedal and she lost control of the bike which once again veered right off the trail. This time I wasn't quick enough and she landed in a big mangled kid+bike pile in the grass. When I got to her she was cracking up and yelling that she's OK. I picked her up and brushed the grass off her face and we were back on track.

We eventually made it back to the car after working up a nice sweat. I am so proud of us for going 2.5 miles. Let's hope she likes it enough to try it again soon.

Back to School & Car Pool Chatter

2009-08-27T11:58:00.003-04:00

School's back in session and Kiki is so excited about going to "big kid pre-kindergarten" that she burst into our room this morning and said "it's the second day of pre-k today!" Ahhh, youthful excitement...

Anyway, with school starting, I got back to car pool duty and obviously that leads to some lively discussions in the car. The level of language, logic and conversation has increased dramatically and these 4.5 year olds are speaking like adults already.

Here's a quick sample (the topic is Evan's Bakugans):

K: We can play with your Bakugans when we go to the playground.
E: But I won't have them in the playground.
K: Where are they going to be?
E: In my book bag.
K: Well, I have a great idea! You can take them out of your book bag.
E: But then Ms. Sherri will see them and I am not supposed to bring toys to school.

Somehow the conversation shifted to a different avenue and took a wrong turn:

E: Well, Bakugans are too complicated for girls.
K: (Sitting in stunned silence)
Abba: Kiki, do you think that's true? Do you think Bakugans are too complicated for girls?
K: Well, I am the only girl in the world who can play Bakugans.
E: (Sitting in stunned silence)

Anyway, it was an awesome car conversation and I am not doing it justice at all. Then we got into a discussion of who was going to get who Bakugans for their birthday:

K: Well, I want to have Bakugans for my birthday.
E: You can't have them, because that's MY birthday present.
K: Evan, I have a special idea! Why don't we both get them for our birthdays?
E: But how?
K: Let's decide that I will get them for you and then you can get them for me.
E: You can get me a one-pack and then I can get you a one-pack?
K: Abba, will you get Evan a Bakugan one-pack for his birthday?
Abba: Sure, if that's what he wants.
E: Maybe... we can get a two-pack and split it?
K: Maybe we can get a three-pack and split it and give one to Abba?
E: Yeah!

So apparently I am getting one third of a three-pack of Bakugans, that I am buying anyway. At this point we moved on to trying to finagle a play date:

K: So can I come over for a playdate and play with your Bakugans?
E: Well, I can't have any more playdates.
K: How come? (this is her favortie question these days)
E: I was too wild on my last playdate so I can't have any more.
K: Who said that?
E: My mom.
K: Abba, can you talk to Evan's mom about letting us have a playdate?
Abba: Sure.
K: Because Evan is my BEST friend and I REALLY want to have a playdate with him, OK?
Abba: OK, sweetie, I'll see what I can do, but you know, moms make the rules, right?
E: I didn't know I was your best friend.
K: Well, I have three best friends, you, Jed and Robert.
Abba: Those are your best friends, huh? Aren't there some girls who are your best friends?
K: Yes, but these are my very very very best friends. Evan, do you know who my very very very best friends are?
E: Me, Jed and Robert?
K: YES!!! How did you know?
E: You just told me that!
K: Well, you guessed it!

And then we got to school...

Baby Beatbox - The Remix

2009-08-05T11:19:00.002-04:00

I just had to play around with this.

Bella the Baby Beatbox

2009-08-04T15:03:00.004-04:00

Cynthia took this quick video of Bella yesterday.

Mahna Mahna

2009-07-30T22:44:00.003-04:00

I love listening to the kids' radio station on XM when taking Kiki to school in the mornings. Today they played Cake's version of Mahna Mahna:

Which reminded me of the muppet version:

Now try to get that one out of your head.

Golf

2009-07-25T21:57:00.005-04:00

My dad introduced me to golf a couple of decades ago but I never really saw the point in spending 4-5 hours hitting a tiny dimpled white ball in random directions. He kept at it and is now playing about 3-4 times a week with his friends. Several years ago, when I was back home for a visit, he convinced me to take a lesson with the club pro and I was more than happy to try it out again. I figured it would be a great way for my dad and I to spend quality time together.

And boy was I hooked! I started playing every chance I got. No matter what the weather was like, what destination I was headed to or who I would play with (or without) - I always tried to squeeze in some golf. I worked my way down to about a 13 handicap in 2-3 years while living in Manhattan where I had to travel off the island to play.

On my parents' recent trip to visit us and meet baby Bella for the first time, we decided that it would be a great idea to get out of Atlanta for a change and headed to Hilton Head Island, SC. Being a mini-mecca of golf I booked us a round of golf on one of the island's many courses. The day before our round there was a golf exhibition staged by the local pro and after that there was a 4-7 year old golf clinic. And Kiki was extremely excited to try it out.

We all had a blast watching her try her best over and over again. They started out on the putting green and the pro taught the kids a simple song to get them to hit the ball properly:

"Aim your club,
Aim your feet,
Tick, Tock"

Simple, yet effective:

From there they moved on to chipping just off the green and the song changed just a little bit. The final line was "Potato, Chip." And finally they headed off to the driving range to hit full swing shots and the final line was "Squash, the bug!" That means you squash the imaginary bug with your knees as you turn to hit the ball.

Kiki was having some trouble adjusting her hands to grip the club properly, mainly because I believe she's a lefty so holding the club cross-handed came more naturally to her. When I tried to tell that tidbit to the pro, he cut me off and got the kids to practice how to hold the club "like a hot dog" where the right hand is the bun and the left thumb is the hot dog. Hot dog goes in the bun and voila, they were all holding their clubs properly.

Anyway, I hope she likes the game and grows up learning to play it. I would love to be able to get a round in with her. If she's not too cool for her Abba, that is. I really enjoy playing golf with my Abba, so I hope she will too.

Here's one more photo of that amazing smile:

So You Think Your Daughter Can Dance?

2009-07-21T19:51:00.003-04:00

Probably the only "grown-up" show Kiki watches with us (other than Cynthia's design shows) is So You Think You Can Dance. She loves it. She stands in front of the TV and dances her little butt off. She giggles when they hug or kiss and she says Evan is her favorite dancer, you know, "because he's cute."

Obviously all this is going to bite us in the butt sooner rather than later and the signs are right there. One evening when I was putting the Kikster to bed, she was prancing all over here room, quietly muttering something to herself. So I asked here what it was she was saying and she goes "Sexy Walk, Sexy Walk, Sexy Walk." I knew right away where she heard it and it always amazes me how much she absorbs. I tend to think that she's too young to pay attention to everything, but I am realizing that this kid does not miss a single thing!

So where was this "Sexy Walk" from? The choreographer for the girls' Bollywood routine says it ONCE when he is filmed showing them how to start the dance. As you can see below, they fill their jug (called a matka in Indian - funny word) and then do a sexy walk to the back of the stage before they go into hyperspeed.

So that's what my dear 4-year old daughter picked up from the entire 2 hour show. At least when I asked her what that means she said it's a very difficult dance move to do.

I am in so so so much trouble...

Photo Dump

2009-06-14T20:31:00.006-04:00

I haven't had much time to write lately so instead, here's a bunch of photos taken over the last month or so with short captions:

1. Yesterday we spent half the day over at the Elkos celebrating Emily's 2nd birthday. The theme was Thomas the Tank Engine so obviously they had a train to take the kids around the neighborhood. Here are Kiki and Sophie on their maiden voyage (they eventually rode it about 20 times):

2. Not sure when this happened. I think we made homemade chocolate pudding and this is what Kiki looked like after licking the spoons and bowls:

3. Baby Bella is all smiles these days (except for the times she's tired or hungry and then she finds audio ranges you didn't know the human ear could actually hear). Check out those long eyelashes:

4. Kiki really loves Bella and wants to hold, hug and kiss her any chance she gets:

5. This one was especially funny since Kiki decided to just hop right into Bella's Moses basket:

6. Lovely:

7. Cynthia took this a few weeks ago:

8. Last time we made deviled eggs Kiki decided it was more fun playing with giant olives than eating them:

That's it for now I think. More later.

Kiki's Apple Ka

2009-06-14T20:17:00.004-04:00

The other day Kiki and I were hanging out in the kitchen in the afternoon and she wanted a snack of some sort. Being the creative and industrious little girl that she is, she declared that she was going to make Apple Ka. At first I thought she said apricot, but then when she repeated it I knew I was mistaken.

Well, what is Apple Ka you may ask? We created a recipe card for it:

Basically, she opened up the fridge and grabbed anything she could reach. And she ate the entire bowl. I tasted it. It was delicious!

My girls are gorgeous!

2009-05-28T14:29:00.003-04:00

Am I going to be in trouble later in life or what? These two are going to break a lot of hearts.

Here's Bella sleeping quietly and waiting for the valet to bring the car around:

Kiki has been out of school since last week so this week she went to cheer leading camp. This is her posing with the 'Y' in 'ROWDY':

And after a tough day of cheers a girl needs to relax in a bubble bath, right? Well, sort of:

Stay at Home Dad

2009-05-15T18:39:00.001-04:00

I just heard this on XM Comedy and had to share:

Quick Post - More Bella Photos

2009-04-17T16:48:00.003-04:00

Crystal is our dear friend and neighbor and this morning she took some amazing photos of Bella (and me). Follow this link to her blog and take a look. She is really an amazing photographer. Highly recommended!

Thanks Crystal!