The Fabulous World of VK: October 2004

The child loves to streak!

Ready for Winter. Cute and warm!

Video

I borrowed a video camera from a friend with the intent being to shoot a little video of VK, pull the digital video to my PC, edit it and make some DVD's for family to enjoy. All the while Andrea and I would assess the need for one of our own.

Well . . . let me just say that video cameras have a ways to go. The camera I borrowed is a very nice one, and the software seems pretty good too. However it is a time consuming process. The capturing takes the exact same time as the amount of video you want to capture. If you want 20 minutes of video . . . find it, mark it, press capture and wait 20 minutes. then you edit, insert transitions and any other whizzy effects, then save it to a file which takes . . . you guessed it . . . 20 minutes.

What does all of this mean? I am reluctantly admitting is that parenting takes time (I am not reluctant that parenting takes time, only that I didn't factor the limited amout of time that is available in an earth day to the equation) and regardless of how much I would like to create DVD's of my daughter and my birthday jam it is doubtful that it will happen just because there aren't enough hours in the day.

If you are one of the likely recipients of the DVD that I would have made. . . sorry. Who knows I might get a burst of late night energy, but don't count on it. It also means that it is unlikely that I will spend hundreds of dollars on a digital paperweight that we shoot video on and never do anything with.

What the heck is happening to me that I sound so damn rational?

The many faces of Victoria Kate

We had a good weekend. Mom was sick, and so VK and Daddy spent a lot of time together. We played guitar, watched the World Series (Go Sox!), played bongos, ate a lot of cheerios, climbed stairs, played piano, but mostly Dad followed VK around with a camera.

Life as an 8 month old must be a horrible emotional rollercoaster because in any given 5 minute stretch she will go from happy (whee crawling is fun!!!) to sad (fall and bonk head) to mad (stupid toy bonked my head) to curious (I wonder what this cord is for?) to tired, to hungry, to happy, to sad . . .

I whipped up a few examples below.

Suspicious VK

Sad VK

Unsure VK

Curious VK

Happy VK

Embarrased VK

Crawler.

Future Fire Fighter of America

I finally got around to getting VK in the fire truck.

The Fire Truck is a very special gift to VK from Grampa Don. Don dragged the thing all the way from Illinois and set it up in the garage with the dogs . . . all for VK.

Today we played with it for a while. Everything was going great until she discovered that the ladders came off . . . thats when all hell broke loose. Try as I may VK refuses to read the firefighter manual that says the ladders have to stay with the truck in case there is a fire somewhere.

Future Fire Fighter of America

Ding Ding . . . look out I got a fire to go to!

One picture of the little girl wearing a hat is never enough!

VK is happy to be a proper hat wearing member of the family.

Playing with Uncle John in the back yard.

VK brushes her own teeth.

Grandma feeds VK a pickle.

Serious Blog slacking. . .

I have been neglecting my duties as family blogmaster lately. We have been busy, had company, and did I mention busy.

The pictures below are in random order and don't reflect the sequence of the events of late, I just felt it was more important to get them up for everyone to see rather than obsess about the order. In other words . . . deal with it.

So it went something like this. . .

We went to dinner at Esparza's with Matthew, Tenley and Jacob. Jacob is VK's buddy from Moms group. Apparently they are terrors together crawling over the other babies and such. It was fun.

Don and Sonja (Grandparents from Illinois) visited as well as John and Diane, and we celebrated birthdays and anniversary (John and Diane's) as well as just generally enjoying having everyone together. Sonja and Don went on a week long Alaska cruise and we drove up to Quincy Washington to visit our friends Cari, Greg, Kendall, and Piper and to see a concert we were all excited about. The concert was Donovan Frankenrieter, G. Love and Special Sauce, and Jack Johnson at the Gorge Ampitheater. If you have never been it is spectacular. The stage sits on a bluff over the Columbia River Gorge, and in addition to sitting and watching the bands play the audience is usually treated to a sunset, and amazing views. Cari hooked us up with a Luxury Box and the whole night was magical. VK enjoyed the show but fell asleep (like dead asleep) in the Baby Bjorn near the end of Jack's set.

Later in the week Don and Sonja returned from the cruise and brought VK a hat. Everyone (except Dad who had to work) went up to Mt. Hood, and Lost lake. It was wonderful to have Sonja and Don visit, Don had never met VK, they really enjoyed each others company.

I am sure that I missed some details, but I am out of gas for now. Enjoy the large update!!