prutopia

ma's birthday

2008-07-20T18:28:00.001-05:00

the girls and i drove to columbus for my mom's 60th birthday. the drive went fine (god bless in car dvd players). our only real meltdown came from eve about 10 minutes from my parents' house. typical. the birthday party started at 4:00, and we arrived right on time. eve was crabby from the crying and only wanted daddy, until the end of the party when she became slap-happy. then the ham in her came out. olivia spent most of the time playing by herself when she wasn't monopolizing ma's time.

neither of the girls were terribly excited by the fire truck and paramedics, but all the other kids sure were. no, there wasn't a fire from all the candles (sorry mom), my mom works for the upper arlington fire department. they came out for her. the party was a lot of fun (nice work, wendy), but we will not speak of the horrible karaoke.

the rest of the weekend was fun. we were all glad we got to see ma and pa and all the cousins. one the way home, we even stopped in indianapolis to see gigi. we had fun, but boy were we glad to get home to mommy.

here are some pictures from the weekend.

happy 4th!

2008-07-20T17:47:00.001-05:00

more belated tales. this one of a family walking in the oak park 4th of july parade. i have a long-standing dislike of parades (as well as festivals, street fairs, etc), but as a father, one must make sacrifices. so, now that i have sufficiently established my martyrdom, i will say (begrudgingly) that we had a good time.

we were invited to walk in the parade by the proprietors of a toy store in oak park, geppetto's toy box. i'm going to pretend that our invitation had nothing to do with the fact that my lovely bride buys every single birthday present from the store. coincidence that they just expanded? i kid. truly, the store is fantastic. it's what a toy store should be.

anyway, we walked the entire 1.5 mile parade route, and the girls didn't tire. daddy carried both for a portion of the parade, but mostly to keep us from falling behind. fortunately for us, there was a tap dance group following us. they stopped periodically to dance, so we didn't hold up the parade.

olivia and eve took turns riding on daddy's shoulders, pushing a baby stroller, and riding in the wagon. eve was a big hit as she walked along carrying her flag waving to the crowd wishing everyone a "happy 4th of july". good times.

so, yes... i had a good time at a parade. well, until i realized that daddy had to walk the 1.5 miles back to get the car. did i mention that i'm old and fat?

anywho... here are some pictures. i hope everyone else had a wonderful 4th.

geneva 2.0.1

2008-07-20T17:17:00.001-05:00

ok... bad daddy. these are long overdue. by "these", i mean pictures from eve's 2nd 2nd birthday. not a typo, eve had 2 parties. this one was 8 days after her birthday. we had it at My Gym in river forest, just down the road from our house. i think all the kids had a good time. i know eve did.

check out the pictures.

geneva 2.0

2008-06-25T22:16:00.002-05:00

yup... it happened. my baby turned two.

two.

wow.

she still seems like such a little baby, much more than olivia did at age two... maybe because we want her to be. unfortunately, she's not going to stay that way much longer. i swear she grew a couple inches and matured a couple years in the week i was gone.

anyway, we celebrated her birthday in fine style in indy. gigi and papa had a bouncy thing for all the kids, a huge fancy cake and lots of family came to share in the festivities. eve opened her presents late in the day saying "oh my gosh, oh my gosh". what a cutie!

here's a link to the pictures from the day. enjoy!

happy birthday, geneva grace. i love you.

wedding pics

2008-06-24T23:27:00.003-05:00

well, my brain is still functioning, albeit at about 65%. i still can't tell if it was the alcohol or the sun stroke that's causing my slurred speech and my newfound narcolepsy. either way, i'm sure it will clear up just fine.

i hope everybody made it home okay. after a brief redirection to Columbus, GA (d'oh!), i made it just in time for my baby's birthday party. i will be sharing those pictures in a subsequent blog entry, but my purpose for this entry is to share with you the results of my (sometimes annoying) camera work down in key west.

the pictures in the albums have been unaltered and unedited, and there is some partial nudity. so, you'll see some blurry pictures, some poorly lit pictures, and possibly some unflattering pictures. most of all (hopefully), you'll see some great shots of great friends and family having an incredible time. oh, and remember, you all signed waivers. no, really. you did. i swear.

have fun with these pictures. all the thumbnails have been scaled down (as far as file size goes), but you can download the higher resolution version by clicking - ready for this - the "download file" link on each individual picture's page. there is also a link (click on the printer icon) that will upload each picture to shutterfly.com (4X6 at best, though) in case you want to order prints easily. feel free to use the pictures when and wherever you would like. just mail me a check for $3,000,000 for each picture used.

anyway, thanks to everybody (especially sean and katie) for a wonderful time. i hope to see you all again soon! here are the links:

wednesday
thursday
friday

please leave comments to let me know what you think or if you have any questions. enjoy!!!

happy mother's day... ER style

2008-05-11T12:28:00.004-05:00

if there was any doubt that olivia was my daughter, it was put to rest today. she got her first (eight) stitches this morning.

while adjusting her blankets on the couch, she lost her balance and... SMACK! forehead into the coffee table. mommy was awakened to daddy yelling from downstairs that we were taking a family trip to the emergency room. fortunately, there wasn't a whole lot of blood, so we took the longer trip to children's hospital... well worth it. they were great, and the stitches were well done (as you can see below).

olivia handled it like a champ. we had some tears, but that wasn't unexpected. i think most of it was fear of the unknown... but that's better than being an old pro, right!?! anyway, any trauma was soon cooled by an orange popsicle, a stuffed duck (karen wally... named after the doctors that took care of her), and a couple of stickers.

at the end of it all, we came out okay. olivia's in good spirits, and she told me, "i'm never going to do THAT again." mommy and daddy are quite tired, and eve... well, i'm not sure she has a clue that anything actually happened other than a fun trip to something called a hospital.

so, happy mother's day all!!!

enjoy, and watch your head.

Happy National Moisturizer Day

2008-03-02T14:31:00.000-06:00

unbeknownst to mommy and daddy, sunday was a holiday... National Moisturizer Day!!! i know, i know. how could we have possibly have forgotten what with all the crass commercialism that surrounds this sacred day. all the decorations and the special displays in the drug stores. well, leave it to the innocence of youth to remind us how wonderful and unexpected this day truly is.

as you can see by the pictures below, the girls started National Moisturizer Day off with a bang. olivia took the lead before mommy and daddy even woke up (what a go-getter). with careful precision and the skill of a licensed hair stylist, olivia emptied about a half of a bottle of mosturizer and lathered it thoroughly through her hair and spread it generously around her face. talk about holiday spirit!!! of course, olivia played it off. "why did you put lotion in your hair," her befuddled parents asked. "to make it curly," she said. i guess she's a little worried about being on of "those people" who go overboard on the holidays.

not one to exclude, olivia made sure her sister got into the act. ever the mentor, olivia started applying the same techniques on eve that she used on herself. of course, eve was thrilled.

somehow, though, mommy and daddy were not. call it the cynicism that age brings, but National Moisturizer Day just doesn't touch my soul like it once did. sometimes, i wish it did. at least my skin would be smoother... and maybe my hair would be curlier.

so, Happy (or is it Merry?) National Moisturizer Day. We got a late start, so you'll be getting your cards a little later than usual this year.

i have to sign off now... we're going down to the spa to sing carols.

snow day

2008-01-21T22:34:00.000-06:00

the new year started out right. good friends and good snow. olivia and anya tramped around every inch of the yard, making snow angels,throwing snow balls, and even playing snow soccer. the girls had a great time and finished it off - naturally - with nice hot cups of cocoa. enjoy the pictures.

my little senorita

2008-01-21T21:57:00.000-06:00

i've been a little lax in posting lately... sorry. so, i'm starting off a round of entries with eve playing dress-up, south-of-the-border style.

cousins

2007-12-05T21:32:00.000-06:00

the cousins got together at thanksgiving, and we took some pictures. enjoy!

bed-head? what's bed-head?

2007-11-25T11:28:00.000-06:00

olivia 3.0

2007-11-07T23:33:00.000-06:00

okay, so i'm a little delayed in posting these pictures. sorry. i guess part of me hasn't come to terms with my baby being three. ouch. it doesn't get any easier. she certainly gets cuter, though.

enjoy these pictures from her ice cream birthday party.

trick or treat 2007

2007-11-01T21:05:00.000-05:00

another year, another successful halloween. eve got to join in this year. she was apprehensive for about 2 seconds at the first house, but as soon as she took hold of her first piece of candy, she was hooked. oh, and she seemed to like her kitty cat costume (she started meowing right after i put it on her).

olivia and anya worked the neighborhood with ruthless efficiency. well, as ruthlessly efficient as a princess and a fairy can be. they were very excited, but they were fantastic with their lines: "trick or treat", "thank you" and "happy halloween".

fortunately for the adults, the girls all started to run out of steam after about an hour. but, they went home happy and finished up the evening with a viewing of It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown.

happy halloween! enjoy the pictures.

summer concert series

2007-08-19T15:16:00.000-05:00

olivia's summer performances were a couple of saturdays ago. we started with her school performance in the morning. it was held at a local senior citizen home. the show was fantastic. the choreography was outstanding and the costumes were crazy cute. i'm still not sure if olivia was a parakeet or a chicken. i am sure that she was adorable. all the kids seemed to have a great time, especially olivia and anya. they continued dancing for a good 15 minutes after the show ended.

later in the afternoon, olivia performed her 2nd piano recital. it was just as amazing as the first. she played "old macdonald had a band" and accompanied her teacher on "isty bitsy spider". the kid's a natural. even more amazing than her piano skills was the fact that she did the whole day on no naps with no meltdowns. oh, the little joys of life. good job olivia! mommy and daddy are so proud of you!

enjoy some pics

chopsticks

2007-07-21T17:09:00.001-05:00

the kid ate her whole meal with chopsticks. not bad for a two year
old, huh!?!

cubs redux

2007-07-15T18:04:00.000-05:00

took olivia to her second cubs game. the seats weren't near as good as the game last year, and the train ride was ridiculous (hour and a half), but we had a great time. we were joined by angela and anya who were kind enough not be fuming over our half hour plus tardiness. anyway, the cubs pummeled the astros 9-1. ted lilly pitched. on being informed of this, olivia commented that there's a lily in her talking words factory dvd. i guarantee pat hughes and ron santo didn't bring that up on air.

we got to our seats at the top of the 4th and stayed to the top of the 8th... a much better performance than last year's 2 innings. olivia even got to sing take me out to the ballgame this time. i think that may have been her favorite part (a true cubs fan).

i think we'll try to catch one more game this year. maybe a playoff game? sorry, optimism and cubdom don't mix.

haylee's wedding

2007-07-04T16:11:00.000-05:00

we were in florida this past weekend for my cousin haylee's wedding. it was our first trip via airplane with both girls, so there was a little trepidation that preceded our departure. and well-deserved trepidation it was. getting both girls and all of our stuff to the gate was quite a chore, especially if you're out of shape... which i am. as usual, we were running a bit late. no worries on parking, though, as we decided to valet. that was pretty quick and extremely painless. until the parking guy told us to go up to the 4th floor and go straight to get to the terminal. not having gone through the airport valet process before, we followed his instructions. the problem was, that led to no terminal, only more parking. so, either the guy misspoke, has communication issues, or is just a(n) (insert degrading expletive here). i'm going with number 3.

after finding our way to the terminal, we stood in line to check our bags only to be told that since we checked in online, we had to go down to the other end of the ticketing area. reluctantly, we obeyed (as i mumbled a few choice words audible enough to turn a couple of heads). after checking our bags with the hyper-efficient united employees (insert sarcasm here), we stood at the back of the security line to present our IDs and boarding passes.

when we reached about the 5th spot from the front of that line, the line behind us split as another airport employee came to help diminish the ever-growing line. strangely, the gal in charge of our line disappeared. it was as if the 10 or so folks in our line were part of an elaborate yet simple candid camera/punk'd prank. fortunately, i am an amazingly patient man (more sarcasm). once we got past the disappearing lady, however, security breezed by. 'twas a good thing too since we were 1 minute from our scheduled boarding time and an entire terminal's length from our gate. so, we had to rush to our gate without being able to feed the girls.

when we finally got to gate B-20 sweaty, sore, and frustrated, we were greeted with information for a flight to vancouver. reasonably sure that the city of west palm beach had not changed its name, i prepared for another sprint through o'hare holiday congestion. then, we caught our first "break". our flight was merely delayed. the vancouver flight had just not taken off yet. true to airline efficiency, however, we were informed in 10 minute intervals that they would inform us about our flight in 15 minutes. so, we caught our breath and hunted down food for our increasingly tired and restless children.

we finally boarded. not early, mind you, as united's ted apparently does not board "passengers traveling with small children" early, unlike most airlines i'm aware of (or ted for that matter, as we had the opportunity to do so on our way back). the rest of the travel was dotted with similar small yet aggravating details, but we survived.

the weekend itself was worth the trouble, though. it was great seeing family i hadn't seen in a couple of years. many of them had never had the pleasure of meeting the girls, so it was fun introducing them. the wedding was fantastic. my uncle larry and aunt leslie threw an extravagant yet laid-back affair, and that's hard to do. like me, larry's the father of only girls, so i can relate. unlike me, he handles it pretty well. i had to walk away from the father/daughter dance. can't even think about that yet.

anyway, congratulations haylee and alek. we wish you all the happiness in the world. special thanks to don and kathleen for letting us stay at your house. much appreciated. to the rest of the family, come on up to chicago soon. love you!

see pictures from the wedding here. as always, enjoy.

my new glasses

2007-07-04T12:11:00.000-05:00

little eve went to the eye doctor a couple weeks ago, and was fitted for glasses. we noticed that her right eye goes a little crossed now and again. the glasses are supposed to correct it. she also has to wear a patch over the left lens to help as well.

is it possible that she's even cuter in the glasses!?!

eve in pictures

2007-07-04T12:05:00.000-05:00

well, the day came and went. eve turned one. now, she's walking all over the place. yikes.

anyway, i wanted to share some photos from the weekend that was...

happy birthday, eve!

2007-06-21T06:04:00.000-05:00

well, it has finally happened. my little baby eve has turned one. it's been fun watching her turn into a little person. she's not quite the talker that her sister was, but she makes up for it in personality... and dance moves. i can't wait to see what the next year brings.

happy birthday, geneva grace. daddy loves you.

Liverace

2007-05-22T22:08:00.001-05:00

for all you music fans out there, a star is born... a star of unparalleled talent and charisma. all who witness will remember where they were when they first heard the majesty of "eating fruit is good for me".

enjoy. listen. believe.

happy easter!

2007-04-09T23:54:00.000-05:00

our first easter at home. it was a tad bit different not traveling, but we were happy not to be stuck in traffic on sunday night. fear not, we were not alone. some of our good friends joined us for easter dinner. all total, we had eight adults and 5 kids. i put a leaf in the dining room table, and we even busted out a separate kids table. now that, my friends, is a holiday dinner. a good time was had by all (unless somebody lied to me).

i've included a couple of pictures of the girls from easter morning, and you can see the rest of the pics here.

i'm so excited!

2007-04-06T14:54:00.000-05:00

excitement... eighties style!!!

olivia the artist

2007-02-24T10:45:00.000-06:00

just wanted to show off my 2 year-old's artistry...

eve crawls... sort of

2007-02-03T13:04:00.001-06:00

i know it's been a while since the last post. i've been slacking. sorry. but, i figured i'd make up for it with a video of little eve commando crawling on the floor. she's getting pretty good. she's almost completely mobile. yikes!

enjoy.