Whoops

I used to love putting a quarter in the "gum" machine and getting a whoopie cushion out. Never mind that the gag was a simple one, and never really seemed to work. Or that it's been eclipsed by more sophisticated devices. I was thinking that if we dress Ila up for Halloween in this particular costume, it might take me back years (to my childhood) -- or months... to Ila's early days as a baby whoopie cushion. In case you're interested in buying one, click here.

At last!

At last Ila got to meet her Uncle Dan and Aunt Marika! we drove down to Berkeley to meet up with them while they were on their first ever trip away from their kids. My favorite quote from the trip was a comment from Marika after I told her about how Kyler is so clingy these days, "Kids are very dramatic." I think I'll have to keep that one in my back pocket for a few years...

Don't you think that Ila might have been confused about whether Joel or Dan was her dad?

What's Cookin'?

Now this one deserves a caption...

Working Out

Ok, it's weird raising a girl. Girls have so many body image issues in our culture. Now that I'm a parent, I feel like I want to protect my daughter from the impact the culture will undoubtedly have on her one of these days. No, "protect" is the wrong word. I guess I want to educate her and provide her with better things to concentrate on than her body and men's attention.

For me, body image problems didn't happen til I was a teenager, but these days girls as young as 7 or 8 will go on a diet. (What am I talking about? I went on a diet when I was in fifth grade. I can still remember losing 3 pounds, from 73 to 70 lbs. And all my moms friends praised me...) Anyway, thought this was a great video from Pink that made me think about this issue today. Good thing we're planning to limit TV...


And if Ila wants to get in shape once she's bigger, she can do something like the fun exercise in this video by OK Go. YOu've got to see it, its amazing.

They say parenthood changes you...

But we didn't know how much! Something has happened-- our once sweet countenaces have taken a turn for the... strange. Suggest a silly caption for this photo and the one below and win a prize! (Prize is revealed in the post below)

In need of a caption...

Can you think of a snappy caption for this photo? The winning caption will be awarded with an autographed print of the picture with your caption hand written on the back!