Some Videos from October

Pretty self-explanatory, really (by the way, there are no more embarrassing videos of my mother, so please stop asking!)

Kim Singing to Sally




I wrote in a previous post that we didn't take any videos while D;;aslkjdf was here, but I found a short one from the park with Amelia




Sally Running




Amelia Running




Both of the girlies running (do you see a pattern here?)




A short one of Sally running




A short one of Amelia running




The girlies standing by their stroller




How big is Amelia? (So Big)




Enjoying a tasty snack

Halloween in New York

We bought these very cute Panda costumes for the girlies and took them to the Central Park Pumpkin Festival the Saturday before Halloween. They actually liked being in the costumes and we got plenty of attention walking around the park with two beautiful little pandas.

In the pumpkin patch

Sally is so cute!
Amelia in her panda costume - I could use a shave
Kim and Amelia

A few days later we dressed the girlies up again for Halloween. We (meaning Kim) had huge hopes for this, as Kim LOVES the Halloween. I have never liked it - first of all, it is the night before my birthday, which I never liked. More than that, though, I just never liked dressing up in costumes. The only exception is that I once dressed up as a big ape when I lived in Iowa (ARRRGGHH!!) and I sort of enjoyed that. When you are dressed as a big ape, you can pretty much do whatever you want and no one can say anything. "Hey! You can't throw the copy machine out the window!" "Sure I can - I am dressed as a big ape!" "Oh, you're right. Never mind" See what I mean?

Anyway, Kim was really looking forward to Halloween because it's her favorite holiday, and the girlies were amazingly cute again in their costumes. One block up from us they have a huge Halloween celebration - each of the brownstones quite elaborately decorate the outside of their buildings and the street is packed with people. This is quite cool, but for 16 month old girls it was a bit overwhelming. Overall, though, it was good fun and Kim is counting the days until next Halloween, when the girlies will be older and will (she hopes) share her love for this goofy holiday.

The girlies at the Halloween street festival

As many of you know, the woman that helps us take care of the girlies is named 'Mimi' - the girls love her and we are very lucky and happy that she has become part of our family. Mimi, in addition to being excellent at dealing with 17 month old twin girls and hanging out with movie stars during music class, is also an avid runner. She ran the New York City Marathon in early November, so we customized a few of the girl's shirts to give her some encouragement. Sally's says 'Run Mimi' and Amelia's says 'Go Mimi'. She ran the whole stinking 26.2 miles!!

The Girlie's Get Baptised

Photo of the cake from Rutgers Church - it was quite tasty, although I only got about a half-bite

DeYan and Elijah holding the girlies at 'Baptism Rehearsal'

My sister Sarah holding Amelia
Elijah feeding Amelia (she doesn't seem very smiley in these last few photos)The two Grandmas (actually Grandma Linny and Grammy). I prefer that people call their grandparents simply Grandma and Grandpa, because I cringe when I hear grown adults say 'I am going to Poughkeepsie this weekend to see my Geegaw and my Gagagapoo'. I had some childhood friends who used to go visit 'Meema and Daddy Joe'.

The Rev. Laura holding Amelia during the ceremony.
The Reverend Prince, the minister at Rutgers Church, holding Sally after a bit of dunking
The ceremony - the girlies are now all set up with Jesus
All of the Godparents (we had five in total, just in case) after the ceremony
The very handsome family
Kim's Mom (on the left), us with the girlies, my 'Mom' (Judy) and Don
The four of us with Laura Jervis, who performed the wonderful service
Kim with the beautiful Sally at dinner after the ceremony
Amelia is ready for some dinner!
DeYan and Elijah with the girlies A really good picture of Kim with her Mom

October in the Park with the Girlies

October was quite warm and beautiful this year (Global Warming is AWESOME!), so we got to spend much more time in the park than we expected. Here are some more photos and junk:

The Chinese Moon Festival, one of the two most important dates on the Chinese calendar (this was actually in September)


Kim standing next to a tree with Sally

The girlies loved this tricycle (this belongs to another kid in the park, but our girlies are not to be denied)

Amelia on the tricycle

Amelia in the park - she is so cute

These next two photos may be my absolute favorites so far - as my sister D;alskdjf says: "I could just die of cuteness", although that's not really a fatal malady. But if it were, these photos would cause a level of cuteness that would certainly cause instant death. But it's not, so fortunately I am not dead. Anyway, this is one of Kim's favorite pictures.

And come on - what is cuter than Amelia with a stuffed Panda bear sitting in a Huggies box? Nothing, that's what.

Random Photos of the Girlies

Here are some more random photos of our darling little girlies from October.

Sally after a bath in her Bunny towel
Amelia after a bath
In the 'rowboat' at Gymboree
Riding the Carousel in Central Park
Sally just relaxing and playing with a container of yogurt (in England they spell it 'yoghurt' or 'yohgurt' or something ridiculous)
Kim in the park with Sally (make sure to watch the video of her singing 'Bubble in the Bath')

Pam's Wedding

After we spent a few days in St. Louis, we went to Springfield, Illinois to see Pam got married and stuff. Here are some photos of the girls that weekend.

Abigail with Sally and Amelia at the table

Cameron (holding Sally), Elijah and Austin being nutty in the back, Amelia, Brandon's 'girlfriend' Breeee, and Brandon

Gil and Amelia - he has just told her the hilarious punch line 'Linoleum Blown Apart!' but Amelia doesn't get it

Cousins (Cameron, Jake, Elijah and Jackson) with Amelia desperately trying to escape

Steve and Brandon's 'girlfriend' Breeeeee, holding Amelia. Steve loves to bake and Breeeee hates ExxonMobil.

Kim is really pretty

St. Louis with the Girlies

So Kim and D.laskldjf made it to St. Louis with no help from me and the girls got to meet all of our family - well, not my brother Ronnee, who lives in Portland and enjoys climbing huge mountains for no good reason and making socks out of hemp. But he will meet the girlies at Thanksgiving.

But anyway, I am getting ahead of myself - the girls made it to St. Louis and Connie had much of my family over to her house. The point was to get everyone with kids to come over, which I think was mostly a success. My cousin Sam named his son Michael, which means he will grow up to be sort of bald and able to run really fast, but not for very long. Anyway, everyone came over and brought their kids, including my cousin Lindsay, who has TRIPLETS!!!! I think I speak for everyone when I say 'HOLY SCHNIKEY!!! TRIPLETS!!!!!'

Yes, TRIPLETS!!! By the way, I still have not met the lovely triplets because I wasn't in St. Louis when this gala event was held, but I am very eager to meet them. Two kids is a challenge but three is simply incomprehensible.

Anyway, here are some pictures and a video or two:

Kim with Amelia, practicing her imaginary piano

Sally just sitting, waiting for a text message

Sally with Kim's sister Scott and Elijah (Elijah came up to NY a few weeks later to become the girlies Godfather but not the Italian kind where you ask him to whack your enemies)

D;;asldkjf with Amelia at Jenny's house

Kim's brother Scott - if you click on the photo, you can get enough detail to see nostril hair and a line of spit from his top teeth to his tongue - it's quite gross. He also appears to have had some cavities as a child.

Jake with Sally - what a great picture. At the time of this photo, Jake was just days away from beginning his illustrious college career at the University of Chicago. My advice to Jake was to study hard, meet lots of good looking girls, and just because you are in college doesn't mean you have to agree 100% with the hippies at the 'Bush-Halliburton-Logging-Low Tax Rates-Global Trade-Incandescent Light Bulbs-America is/are Evil' Rallies that seem to happen on college campuses every day. Well, I didn't tell him that, but he is so incredibly smart that he knows there are two sides to every issue. But I think we can all agree that the true evil in the world is Rosie O'Donnell and Reba McEntire and they must be stopped. But anyway, here is a picture of Jake with Sally.

The girlies with D;a;sldkjf's son Joey Bag O' Donuts, with Judy and Don in the background

The girlies with Kim and my Uncle Ron

The girlies with Uncle Ron and his trophy wife Debbie and their daughter, the precious little Amy

D;;alsk;kjldf and Kim - I think D;asld;kjf is crying

And now some videos:

Uncle Ron with Sally (Kim INSISTS on videoing lengthwise, which is tough to watch - sorry)

The girlies with Judy (my 'Mom'), D;a;sljkdf and Debbie - Judy will LOVE this one