A few anecdotes:

Zoe
Last week, while Zoe was asleep, I went into her room and "stole" her Pillow Pet pillow (i like them, what can I say???).

So, I wake up in the morning and Zoe comes up to me and says: "You stole my Pillow Pet last night, but I took it back". And low and behold, at some point during the evening, she had snuck up on me and taken he pillow back!

Now, the past few mornings she comes down and says: "You didn't get my Pillow Pet last night"

Ryder
This morning, after I had left for work and Kia was taking a shower, Ryder took it upon himself to go into the refrigerator and get some water. The problem is, we buy one of those gallon containers of "spring water" that has a nozzle you pull out to get water and push in to stop the flow... So, Ryder succeeded in pulling the nozzle out, but didnt bother pushing it back in to stop the flow. As a result, the entire gallon flowed out into the refrigerator and onto the kitchen floor.

We took the kids to Ocean City, MD 2weeks ago. We stayed at the condo of a relative of Carlos and Sabrina Rodas. It was both kids first times being at the beach (with the exception of Zoe going to Costa Rica when she was 6 months old). They had a blast!

Getting ready to hit the beach:


1st Pic @ the beach:


Kia helped Zoe make her 1st sand castle:

Ryder playing in the sand:

Zoe and Kia made a sand sculpture... guess what it is:

We hit the "boardwalk" one evening:


There was a park right near our condo... Here is a cool pic I took of Ryder:


Bonus video... While walking along the boardwalk, we passed a store that was blaring a rap song, so Ryder did what he does in those cases:


Overall, it was a great trip. They both loved playing in the sand and playing at the pool. As far as actually going in the ocean, we'll just say, "baby steps". Zoe eventually allowed me to carry her into the ocean. Ryder tended to just stand on the shoreline crying while we went in the water. The sound of the waves crashing scared him and he'd yell: "Shut up waves!"

For most of Ryders life, he has required a bottle of milk before bed. The past 3 or 4 nights, he has not asked for a bottle! We may be coming to the end of an era.

On the flip side, he has been putting up a major fight lately to get his butt in bed. Last night he was crying and yelling: "I want my Zoe!!!". Because he likes to sleep in her bed

SMH...

So the other day, Ryder woke up at his standard 5:30 to 6:00 AM time slot and proceeded to harass me incessantly to wake up. I tried desperately to ignore him and fall back to sleep. He continued to mess with me. Eventually I gave up and in exasperation said: "Ryder, you're f'n crazy". Only I said the actual word. Ryder smiled and said back to me "no daddy, you're f'n crazy and I'm gonna tell momma you said that bad word".

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Test post from Blogsy

This weekend, we took the kids to Ocean City, MD for their first ever trip to the beach. We have had an amazing time. They love playing at the beach. As I type this, Zoe has her back to her food and Ryder is stealing her grapes. They are not so fond of going in the ocean, but they love playing in the sand. Zoe did eventually allow me to carry her out into the ocean. She looked at me and said: "I'm ready Daddy". She grabbed onto me and held on tight and we went into the water.

Ryder allowed Kia to dip his legs in the water. He didn't like the noise the waves were making so he told the waves: "Shut up waves!!! Or i'll punch you in the face!". He said the same thing to the thunder during a thunder storm we had while here.

We also hung out at the complexs' pool. Zoe put her entire head in the water for the 1st time! She was so proud of herself.

Last night we took them to the boardwalk and just walked up and down taking in all of the sights. They both had a blast. We got them funnel cake and cotton candy. They weren't big on the funnel cake, but Ryder couldn't get the cotton candy into his mouth fast enough. Last night, as I'm talking to Zoe she asks for more cotton candy and I tell her that cotton candy is not good for you. She says: "Why did God give us cotton candy if its not good for us?".

We have video of Ryder "rockin out" outside of one of the shops that had music playing. I'll try to upload the video asap.

Last week, Ryder woke up at his standard 5:30am timeslot. He proceeded to mess with me and annoy me in an attempt to get me up out of bed. After attempting to ignore his antics, I finally had had enough; I looked at Ryder and said: "Ryder, you're f'n crazy". Only I used the actual word. Ryder looked back at me and says: "No Daddy, you're f'n crazy and i'm gonna tell momma that you used that bad word".

Riders 1st day of Summer Camp

This past Monday was Ryders 1st day at summer camp at Hope Montessori. He and Zoe are there together. I tried to be there for it and had planned on it up until the morning of... I was Acting for my boss at the time and EVERYONE in my office called in sick, so I had to go in.

Kia took him said that he marched right in hardly looking back. He had a great day and Zoe said that she checked in on him throughout the day. A far cry from the 1st time we left Zoe at school.



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Ryder poops in potty!

This morning, Ryder Did his 1st poop in the potty. He and Zoe were both home sick from summer camp. Ryder did his usual "hide under the dining room table" routine; only Kia stopped him and convinced him to use the potty instead.

As it turns out, it was a tiny poop, so Ryder got up and looked at it and said "a baby poop!"

He got a popsicle for being a big boy.

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This morning, as we were all waking up and I'm heading out the door to work, the kids hear the Garbage truck approaching outside. For some reason, Ryder has been enthralled by the Garbage truck from the 1st day he saw one.

Anyway, our neighborhood has 2 different Garbage service providers: AAA and American.

So, this morning the American truck comes by and the kids rush to the window to watch. Zoe notices that the truck didn't stop at our house and asked why? Kia says something to the affect of "that company doesn't do our garbage, another company does". To which Zoe responds with confusion because she reads the huge writing on the truck "AMERICAN": "But, we're American".

Both Kia and I laugh out loud and Zoe is still staring out the window at the truck pondering why mommy and daddy laughed at such a simple comment.

Zoe came home from school singing Firework by Katy Perry.

Ryder is now monitoring "bad words". If he hears us using a bad word he says "why you say that bad word Daddy?".

I'm hanging with Ryder outside and I ask him: "where is your football?" He responds: "uh, I don't know, maybe its upstairs". His vocab/grammar is improving!

For the past few months, i've been singing "Raspberry Beret" to Ryder before bed time. I did the same thing with Zoe when she was a baby.

With Zoe, when I finally got around to playing the actual song on the radio, she got this huge smile on her face because she recognized the song. If i'm not mistaken, there is video on this blog of her singing the song.

Anyway, today when I picked Ryder up from daycare, I played the song for him to see if he'd recognize it... When I started playing the song, he started dancing (as he always does) and then when the lyrics kicked in, it took a few bars for him to recognize it, but when he did, he started singing along! It was awesome. He says "outdoor, outdoor!" And of course the chorus, "Raspberry Beret"

Very cute moment.

Current Events:
Last night, President Obama announced that Osama Bin Laden was killed by US Navy Seals:



Link to News Article



To Zoe and Ryder,

The magnitude of this announcement brings me back to the events of 9/11. You two weren’t even a “twinkle in our eyes”. One day, you guys may wonder where mom and dad were and what was our reaction to the events of 9/11.

So, I’m going to tell you here:

We were not yet married, in fact our wedding was 11 days later on Sept. 22nd. We lived in the lower level of this house
on Alma Place in Oakland, CA. I was 29 and mommy was 28. Mommy was a high-powered prosecutor for the San Francisco District Attorneys office. I had recently gotten a new job with an Engineering Company named MACTEC in Oakland, CA. I think I had been there only a few weeks. So, Sept 11th 2001 was a regular work day, just like any. Your mom and I were asleep. At around 5:30am, I was woken up by a phone call from Uncle Rob. All he said was “Turn on the news”. I said OK and hung up, knowing that something pretty big must have happened… So I turned on the news and saw the live footage of a city building burning from the inside. Considering I just woke up, it took me some time to make sense out of what I was seeing. Smoke coming from inside of one of the World Trade Center buildings. Reading the scroll, I saw the word “airplane” I thought, “wow, looks like a small plane must have accidentally flown into the World Trade Center”. Then I listened to the reporting and understood that this was no small plane, nor was it an accident. I woke your mother up.

We watched together as another airplane flew into the 2nd tower. I think my reaction was something to the affect of: “Holy f’n s$#T”. I remember my heart was pounding! We continued to watch the news footage as at this point it was impossible to take your eyes off of the TV (it would stay that way for days to come). So, we’re thinking, man, those poor people. I remember wondering how in the hell they would fix the damage done to the buildings. That concern became moot as your mom and I watched in shock and disturbed awe the 2 World Trade Center buildings collapse, killing over 3000 people and setting off a string of events that would lead to 2 wars, hundreds of thousands of lives lost and a 10 year hunt for Osama Bin Laden.

Writing this and remember back actually gives me a lump in my throat. It was a very emotional time. It was also frustrating as you wanted to “do something” but there really was nothing that you could do. I remember thinking that were I in New York, I’d go help with the clean-up / recovery effort. But I was in California, so that wasn’t really an option. In hindsight, many of the 1st responders to the World Trade Center disaster are now suffering physical ailments related to their time spent around “Ground Zero”.

That is pretty much it, in a nutshell. Hopefully, by the time you guys are old enough to read and understand this, terrorism will be a thing of the past and the American economy and job market are once again flourishing…

Last Friday, my job had a "Bring your child to work" Day. I decided I'd take Zoe.
It turned out to be a really good day and she had a lot of fun.

She took the bus and metro in with me.

She met "The Crime Dog" McGruff:

She got to see and pet a drug sniffing dog... no pics of this. However during the drug sniffing dog exhibit, my colleagues daughter, Raven, took Zoe under her wing and they were inseparable for the rest of the day. Raven is super sweet and loved Zoe to death. She is now Zoes hero:


Here is Zoe at my desk:

Prior to Easter, Zoe wanted to get her hair straightened. Here is the sequence of pics:





And, finally, the finished product:



The day before Easter, we took the kids to see the Easter Bunny @ Tysons Corner. Here is their picture:

On Easter, Kia made brunch (with Mimosas) and Grandma and Grandpa came over to watch the kids do their Easter Egg Hunt. Good times were had...

So... Mama is out of town partying it up with Auntie TT and Auntie Andrea.

Its just me and the kids.

WE LOVE AND MISS YOU MAMA!!!

Here is a video for mama:

Getting kids ready for bed tonight; Zoe gets mad @ me and screams "I'm not your princess anymore!". 20 min later Ryder screams @ me "I'm not your friend!". Ugh.

Last night, we took Zoe out to a special dinner with just Mommy and Daddy.

The occasion was to celebrate the fact that she no longer uses/needs PullUps!

Kia told her a while back that if she can go 5 straight days without peeing in her pullup that we'd take her out to dinner.

So, congrats sweetheart! We are super proud of you.

Here are a few pics:


Thanks to Uncle Ray and Aunt Leah for watching Ryder while we were out. He had a blast as well.