Two Body Problem

2009-06-05T22:15:00.000-07:00

So I'm playing around with a new layout and some new toys. Hopefully now the photos will be easier to see and the lifestreams will make more sense. The main photo widget will gather our photo and video postings from Flickr or Twitpic in one central location. Unlike the old slideshow videos will not play automatically.

The lifestream on the right sidebar is a combo of both of us. Currently it shows our photo and video postings as well as our Twitter feeds. In the future I'll add more to the lifestream, such as photo comments.

New site

2009-03-20T14:51:00.001-07:00

If you are reading this you must still reach Two Body Problem via the old blogger address. Please update your bookmarks to www.twobodyproblem.com for future updates.

Elephant Check

2009-02-21T17:47:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since we did an elephant size check with Ezra.

Hello Bathroom, Goodbye Disgustoroom

2009-02-18T21:34:00.000-08:00

Our bathroom remodel is finally done. Only 3 times as long as planned and 3 times as expensive as I was originally wishing. I was going to post before and after pictures, but the before pictures were so disgusting, they deleted themselves from our computer.

Shower

Bathroom vanity

Powder area vanity

Baby Loves Disco

2009-02-16T20:30:00.000-08:00

This past weekend we went to a Baby Loves Disco event with some friends. In the middle of the day they open up a Hollywood dance club for parents and their kids to dance and have a good time. I think we all did. There were a few moments that were very LA. At one point the DJ made sure everyone know that you may have seen him on American Gladiators.

Ezra took some time to warm up, but once he did, I think he had a great time.

Pilot Dave, your grandson says hello. I have to admit, I've pulled out a vacuum in the middle of a party at my home.

February 10, 2002

2009-02-10T19:38:00.000-08:00

Hard to believe it was seven years ago. Who let those children get married?

I asked Shanna if she wanted to watch the whole hour long wedding movie on our anniversary. She said she couldn't handle that until our 10th.

I would just like to note that it is totally the rabbi's fault the glass shot out like a cannon. He didn't close the bag after he inspected it. Seriously, someone could lose an eye!

As an aside, the dvd with our wedding video seems to be flakey and it won't play anymore. Luckily I was able to find a way to extract the data off it and onto somewhere I can back it up. Let this be a lesson to you. Back up important stuff.

Final New Orleans photo dump, I promise

2009-02-01T07:45:00.000-08:00

Yes, we know Ezra. You're the star. Just don't get a big head about it.

Ezra does this cute "where'd it go?" thing whenever anything he's looking at disappears from view. I have a feeling this is fleeting, lately he seems to have caught on that things come back. This is at the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas in New Orleans.

After the aquarium we stopped by Jackson Square for a second go at beignets and cafe au lait at Cafe Du Monde. You know, for Ezra.

Hey kid, where'd you get those beads?

Our last stop before we went to the airport was Audubon Park. As you can see, these geese were pretty used to being fed by people.

Mom of the morning

2009-01-30T21:26:00.000-08:00

Our friend had to go to the ER the other night - the ordeal started when I picked up their son, Nicholas at his daycare the evening before. I had Aaron's help until 5:30 am when he had to catch a flight to a conference. (FYI our friend is doing better).

Feeding two kids oatmeal at 6:15 am (one ate two bites, the other fed himself about two servings - guess which one): $0.50 and pleasant satisfaction
Listening to the kids fighting over the rabbit and finding Nicholas sitting on Ezra: Two gray hairs
Putting on Sesame Street: a moment of extreme gratitude for PBS
Hearing that you forgot your phone: a big sigh, "of course you did"
Finally calling Nicolas' father and waking him up: a moment of guilt
Realizing that I'm going to have to take Nicholas to his daycare and the carseat is in the living room: "oh #@&%!"
Finally coaxing Nicholas out the door (10 minutes) while carrying carseat, daycare bag, and Ezra: Moment of relief
Realizing that at any moment Nicholas may break for the swimming pool: a little nerve wracking
Getting two young boys in the car and installing a carseat: 5 gray hairs
Coaxing Nicholas out of the car at daycare with Ezra in my arms: 15 minutes
Dropping off Nicholas and having to take a crying baby out of the daycare and back into the car (yes, he was ours): 5 more gray hairs and 10 minutes
Dropping off Ezra at his daycare after waking him up: Many many tears (his, not mine) and a very small feeling of guilt but mostly extreme relief
Knowing I survived 3 hours (really, was that only three?) as a caretaker to two young boys: priceless.

Still more New Orleans

2009-01-28T21:23:00.000-08:00

On new year's eve day we went to the Louisana Children's museum. It turned out there was a big party with a zydeco band and a countdown to noon. Unfortunately, Ezra was a little off schedule and we missed the actual countdown. He did enjoy the museum, however, when we did make it back later that day.

DIY 80s video

Of course, Ezra enjoyed listening to all the street musicians. We happened upon this family during a break - we had seen them a couple days earlier and they were fantastic, especially the clarinetest. Her son was playing on the drums and Ezra approached and the mom had her son give Ezra one of the drumsticks. Ezra loved it! He attracted quite a crowd as well!

Ezra enjoyed watching this jazz band on Royal street in the French Quarter even if he had to stay out of the way of the dancers

Somebody needs a haircut.

Uh Oh

2009-01-21T13:01:00.000-08:00

New Orleans (part 2)

2009-01-08T20:27:00.000-08:00

On the next day of our vacation we left New Orleans to visit some nearby plantations. The first stop was the Laura Plantation. Which was restored to how it may have looked in the early 1800s.

Ezra enjoyed the bell at the Laura Plantation. The buildings in the background were the homes where the slaves lived. We were told that someone lived here until the 1970s.

Auntie Mara and Ezra on the banks of the Mississippi. Here Ezra is pointing at something other than Auntie Mara's mole.

The second plantation we went to was Oak Alley. This one was a much slicker operation and seemed less authentic. Overall though it was more grand. The highlight was a grove of 300 year old oak trees.

New Orleans (part 1)

2009-01-07T20:43:00.000-08:00

Hey kid, you're supposed to fasten your seatbelt! We're on our way to New Orleans. This was our longest and probably most difficult flight. Ezra only slept for about 45 minutes and he was upset for what seemed like an eternity (but was probably only like 15 minutes).

We spent our first day in New Orleans in the French Quarter. Once we got past Bourbon Street it was pretty interesting. We ate lunch at Napoleon House and met up with some old friends of mine from graduate school. Also, I should note, the weather was fantastic, the perfect temperature and not to humid.

We waited in line for beignets forever at the famous Cafe Dumont and ate them in the park right next to the river. The doughnuts were fantastic. If only Shanna would have let me eat more.

On the second day we went to the Audubon zoo which was fantastic. The exhibits were all done really well, especially the Louisiana swamp exhibit. No trip to the zoo is complete without a trip to the petting zoo. Ezra knows the routine.

The weather was perfect at the zoo and many of the animals were pretty active. We happened to be in the right place for giraffe feeding time. After the keeper got set up and let the giraffes go to the food some of them galloped toward us. Very cool! As an aside, Ezra can now say "Giraffe".

It's exhibits like this that made the Audobon zoo so cool (especially the Louisiana exhibit). I should also note that the food there was excellent. My only complaint about the zoo is that the signage for the individual animal exhibits was somewhat lacking, more information would have been nice. By the way, I think Ezra's favorite this time was the house mouse (which was done up like a pantry cabinet). I had to pry him away.

Ezra's first carousel ride started out well.

On the way to breakfast on Magazine street we stopped at Lafayette cemetery no. 1. As you can see, Ezra wasn't as creeped out as I was. A stop on the self guided walking tour of the garden district we were planning on doing later. Most of the graves are done in a Latin style above ground. We were told that this is not due to flooding, contrary to popular belief.

Ezra behaved about as well as could be expected on our self guided walking tour of the garden district. As usual, Shanna took the brunt of the abuse.

Photo widget

2009-01-01T21:37:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone has had a chance to figure out the photo widget. It is currently in the middle of the page but I may move it to the top. You can get there quickly by either clicking the "photos" tab at the top or the "most recent photo" link under the "recent activity" sidebar.

To use the photo widget, you can click the thumbnails to choose photos to view. Also, clicking on the photo cycles to the next oldest. If you scroll over the "info" label you can see a caption about the photo. To access the full size photo in Flickr click the "link" label. You can make comments either on the Flickr page or in the recent activity sidebar. Currently, both require a login.

If anyone has any trouble, please let me know in comments.

Layout changes

2008-12-23T22:04:00.000-08:00

So I played around with the layout. I think it will be easier to use. Let me know what you think.

A domain to remember

2008-12-18T08:54:00.000-08:00

As you may have noticed we now have a dedicated domain name for this here blog. You can reach us at www.twobodyproblem.com. There may be some issues with the photos in older posts. I'm not planning on going back to fix them all but you can access all of our photos, even the old ones, via our Flickr page.

Also, in my copious amounts of free time I've been playing around with a new site layout and some new features. They aren't quite ready for prime time, but you can check out the "beta" features of the blog by clicking the "beta" tab at the top of the page.

We're still here (again)

2008-12-16T08:43:00.000-08:00

Don't worry everyone, we haven't forgotten about our loyal (20 or so) viewers. This past week has been very busy at work (or school) for all of us and we didn't have a chance to take too many pictures. Stay tuned though we have some good stuff in the pipe.

Also, I've heard your compaints (hi Dad) and have been playing around with some new layouts.

The blah days of autumn

2008-12-07T12:58:00.000-08:00

All of us in the Two Body Problem house have had a big case of the blahs. Ezra for whatever reason hasn't been feeling very well so nobody slept very well this weekend. He may have a cold, teething, or just going through a growth spurt. With all this we didn't muster enough motivation to do anything fun.

Overall, however, things have been going well. Ezra has been doing well in the new daycare room, all indications point to Shanna having a job next year, and we signed a contract for our much needed master bathroom remodel (goodbye 1970). We have a much better feeling about this than our disastrous kitchen remodel three years ago. Unfortunately, our homeowner's association won't let us do everything we want, but it will still look great.

Here are the pictures and videos since the last blog post:

Waiting for the women, Los Altos, CA.

Ezra at the Steinhart Aquarium in San Francisco.

Quick take the picture, he's not moving!

Next to dirt, rocks are Ezra's favorite toys.

Ezra and Grandma find a puddle.

The little explorer's room at the California Academy of Sciences. Luckily this wasn't as crowded as the rest of the museum.

A rare family photo at the Noah's Ark exhibit at the Skirball center. It is probably designed with a 4-6 year old in mind. Ezra seems to enjoy this place more every time we visit.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-27T08:59:00.000-08:00

We're having a great time with Shanna's folks for Thanksgiving. And by great time I mean we've dumped Ezra on them and are quietly reading in peace. Our trip up here did not go so well. Our plan was to leave when Ezra goes to sleep and make it up in five hours or so. Unfortunately, we got out the door late and were stuck in traffic for an hour trying to get out of LA. Ezra did eventually go to sleep, although he woke up a few times along the way. It was also raining, which we needed overall, but it slowed our travel time tremendously. We finally arrived at Shanna's parents home at 2:30 in the morning.

Last night was much better. We got to go out with some old friends and Ezra let us sleep in to 7 am! It doesn't get any better than this.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone, here's are the photos and videos since our last post:

Where's your nose? He's actually stopped doing this for whatever reason.

Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, CA

Ezra got to play with his old friend Amarie when she was visiting from Michigan. You've seen Amarie around our blog before.

The next stop on our Culver City Park tour

Transitions

2008-11-21T20:25:00.000-08:00

It has been an exciting week for Ezra. He's started transitioning from the infant room to the walking-to-two year old room. He's been the oldest kid in there for several weeks and we were concerned that he was getting bored in infant room. Not to mention that I was worried he would mow down one of the babies with one of his wrestling moves.

Today, when I picked him up he was calmly sitting at the top of the slide on their play structure. When I've picked him from day care in the past he has had kittens trying to tell me that he wants to leave. Today, he wasn't eager to leave at all, we even stuck around a few more minutes so I could talk to the teachers. I don't know which one of us was happier.

He had some good days and some bad days but overall it is going well. After Thanksgiving he'll be in there full time.

Here's the videos and photos we've posted since the last blog post.

As you can see, Ezra is a general in the lettuce army.

We're taking a tour of all the parks in Culver City. This is Culver City Park.

Ezra by the fountain in the rose garden in Exposition Park

Ezra learned a new song and the foundations of good dental hygiene.

Our alma mata was nice enough to send Ezra a T-shirt. The least I could do was post a picture.

Vacation: I'm all tapped out

2008-11-12T21:52:00.000-08:00

I had a few more vacation footage I was going to post, but everything else that's good either shows my fat gut or will possibly get me disowned by my mother. Therefore, I'm all tapped out of vacation photos and videos.

For those of you who only see the posts here's what I've posted on Vimeo and Flickr since the last post.

Ezra was very serious about his time in the pool.

It was a challenge finding a picture or video of Ezra in the pool without my gut in it. Somethings shouldn't be shown on the internet.

Ezra LOVED the mini mock grocery store in the children's museum in Palm Desert. The name Ezra is related the Hebrew word for Help. As you can see he lives up to his namesake and tries to be helpful.

Wait, that's fake sheep, not a real goat. What are you trying to pull here!

Because it has been far too long since you've seen Ezra and a goat, here he is at the Living Desert Zoo in Palm Desert.

Ezra loved the drums at the Living Desert Zoo in Palm Desert

Ezra and Shanna halfway down the slide on vacation.

Ezra and Alex enjoy the park.

We did a lot of jumping into action while on vacation

Alex and I chat with Mara.

Ezra and Alex enjoy the huge tub in Palm Desert

Bonus Halloween video. He has to start digging his dungeon sometime.

Happy Halloween!

2008-10-31T22:14:00.000-07:00

Beware of the dragon!

Happy Halloween everyone. As soon as I have a little more time I'll post a bunch of the cute stuff we took on our desert vacation, but I wanted to jump in with some Halloween footage.

Even dragons need milk

Over the past week Ezra developed a new skill. He can now go from sitting down to standing up without holding on to anything. Also, he's been enjoying walking while holding objects. Of course this means that we find things we thought were in the kitchen in other random places in the house.

If you missed our recent Flickr photo post, click here. For our recent Vimeo video post, click here.

You think you're tough, here have a toddler, Part III

2008-10-25T15:33:00.000-07:00

Ezra's favorite activity these days is climbing. The Playa Vista playground delivered.

The last stop on our toddler tour last weekend was the playground at Playa Vista. Playa Vista is a moderately controversial housing development near our home. The playground is like the one at the zoo, but newer and better. In my opinion, the crowd at this one skewed younger. Ezra found a few friends to play with, including an Israeli who spoke to him in Hebrew (or rather her mommy spoke to him in Hebrew).

"More soccer"? There was also "more tennis" (but we didn't catch it on camera).

Somebody is too big for this playground

You think you're tough, here have a toddler, Part II

2008-10-22T22:00:00.000-07:00

Ezra in the pumpkin patch

Next stop on our quest to entertain Ezra was a trip to the "pumpkin patch". By "pumpkin patch" I mean the pumpkin selling setup and fall themed mini-amusement park set up in the parking lot of a grocery store near our home. I don't mean to sound snarky, I actually thought it was quite well done. I have fond memories of going to an actual pumpkin patch as a kid and I've heard that they have actual pumpkin patches relatively nearby that you can go to, but with a kid Ezra's age it isn't really worth it.

We're not really happy if Ezra doesn't see a goat every weekend day but I didn't take a picture of the petting zoo so here's another picture of Ezra and the pumpkins.

The pumpkin patch had a couple of other goodies. There was a trackless "train" ride that we passed on, a petting zoo and pony rides that weren't quite open when we got there, and he never would have sat through facepainting.

Stay tuned for even more exciting weekend playground action soon.

You think you're tough, here have a toddler, Part I

2008-10-22T20:50:00.000-07:00

Shanna and I were marginally prepared for having an infant. Having a toddler has totally caught us off guard. First of all, they need to be entertained. Ezra the infant was happy staring off into space. Ezra the toddler will tear our place apart if we don't get him out of the house. Fortunately, two major perks about living in southern California is that the weather is usually nice and there are lots of things to do. This weekend we pulled out all the stops.

Mira! El tigre!

First up was a trip to the zoo. This was our third trip to the zoo in the past year (not to mention zoos elsewhere) which put us over the cost effectiveness threshold for buying the membership. We've learned an important trick. The food at the zoo sucks. I imagine this is true even if you don't eat vegetarian there as we do. Bring your own food.

Without goats, what would we put in our petting zoos?

The zoo playground very good, but for a new toddler's parents, not for the faint of heart. It is packed with children, most of whom are a couple of years older than Ezra. The structure itself is large and generally intended for older children; there are plenty of Ezra size gaps he could fall through if one of us wasn't preventing him. However he loved walking around the play structure and climbing the animal statues on the ground, even though he nearly got mowed down by a bezerk four-year-old a couple of times.

Isn't this a limerick? "There once was a boy on a hippo"... Okay, maybe not.

Stay tuned for more later. If you've missed last weeks Flickr posts, look here, here, and here. We also posted a video on Vimeo, here.

More?

2008-10-15T20:31:00.000-07:00

It was about here we realized Ezra needed a haircut

As we have mentioned before, we've been trying to teach Ezra some sign language. He uses it all the time. He still only knows "all done" and "more". Using your imagination he may have made the sign for "milk". Sometimes, we have no idea what he is all done with or wants more of. For example, he's sitting in the bath playing with his bath toys, then he makes the "more" sign. More what? More bath? I'm reminded of that scene in Princess Bride where after Vizzini says "inconceivable" a bunch of times, Inigo Montoya replies, "You keep saying that word. I don't think it means what you think it means.

Wednesday Flickr catchup: If you haven't seen our past weeks Flickr posts, take a look here, here, here.