Happy Birthday Max! 3 Years!

My girl is three years old today!

We had a heck of a party to celebrate on Saturday. My wife is the box office manager of an amazing old theatre, a real landmark here in Sacramento, called The Crest. The business owner is also one of our best friends, in fact she officiated at our wedding. So, we asked if we could use the theatre for Max's birthday and she said we could. So, we invited everyone to come down at 10am, coffee for the grown ups, juice for the kids, muffins and mini donuts for all. Then we ushered the crowd into the theatre and played The Wizard of Oz on the big screen! Our friend Laura supplied the movie on Blue Ray and it looked gorgeous! It was great that we had the whole 1,000 seat theatre as the kids were free to dance around during the musical numbers and it was fine if they were noisy. The best way for tiny ones to enjoy a movie on the big screen, Max's first. Also cool because its her favorite movie. After the flick we all headed into the lobby for pizza and cupcakes. Here is your I told you so Bryna, the wife said "Are you sure two XL pizzas (plus a small cheeseless for me and Max) will be enough?" I was a bit defensive. I was handling the food. She was micromanaging me. But, past experience tells me, she is often right (CALM DOWN HONEY! I DIDN'T SAY USUALLY!) I ordered tree XLs and we still ran out. That's Max showing her reverence for a chocolate vegan cupcake in the picture above
. Oh, did I mention my mom made her a Dorothy costume for the occasion? We encouraged the other kids to wear costumes which most did and we brought a bunch of costumes for any kids who didn't (my wife's great idea). It was super fun, all the grandmas and grampas were able to make it. We're so far from rich, it felt really good to use the midtown artists barter system to make Maxine's third birthday such an grand affair. Today we sang to her, and sent her off to grandmas. Tonight we'll have a special dinner.

Maxine and Santa

Santa is a friend of mine and he was determined that he get a picture with Maxine for her first Christmas. Twist my arm Santa, I was stoked to get to have these great pictures and not having to go to the mall to wait in line for hours for priviledge of putting my daughter on the lap of a stranger who, under that beard, might have a face I'd recognize from the evening news (and I don't mean that out of work newscasters are taking gigs as Santa.) No, having our own personal Santa is totally the way to go. In the first pic Max is on Grandma Kathy's lap getting a present form Santa, a nice keepsake ornament.

In these other two we capture Max in her holiday dress and in her casual wear. This baby has SOME wardrobe, let me tell you.

Gooo

Had an amazing morning with my little girl. Bryna caught a few minutes of sleep and I played with Maxine. She makes a "ggggoooo" noise and I imitate it. I could get her to imitate me after a while and then she smiles real big. Is this advanced for her age? She's not yet six weeks. I'm very impressed. I also heard her laugh this morning which is a wonderful sound. She hears me laugh a-lot. Everything she does cracks me up.
Bryna is of course exhausted. We have gone from thinking of Max as a little piglet to a little bear cub as she growls at the breast and sometimes seems to be hunting her milk. Other times she smiles with the nipple in her mouth which is quite adorable.

Maxine Smiles

She has such a great smile but it's like we were trying to photograph Big Foot, everytime the camera comes out the smile disappears into the woods, so I was very excited when Bryna sent me this this morning.

Thanksgiving pictures coming soon.

More Banana Goodness and The Off Button

My friend Kiny is an amazing photographer. I am likely going to be featured on the cover of Atheist American Magazine and Kiny took some pics which will hopefully be used.
In this one you can see me pressing "the off button." When baby cries a quick but gentle placement of the pinky finger to the roof of her mouth gives her some security. You can clearly see her being soothed in this picture. It works less and less the older she gets though. She has become aware of the difference between what gives milk and what does not! She is a hungry-hungry baby.

Baby's first Halloween

Yes, that's daddy banana with a baby banana. Thanks to Sid for that one. I'm pretty excited to finally be part of a bunch.

The costume is a bit big on her, but the way she's been feeding I'm guessing that problem will fix itself in no time.

And here is mama with baby in her "I want my mummy" onesie, the first thing we ever bought for the baby.

They're both fresh up from nap and feeding. I was dancing around impatiently during both. Very excited about hot chocolate and It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown.

Know it all

I've often heard parents complain that people without kids think they know it all. Maybe they do know a few things. They knew enough to not have kids accidentally, which is more than most parents can say.

Yes, that is my introduction for my new parent tangent. I don't really think I know everything but there are things that all parents "know" which I won't accept and the biggest of these is that your kid will someday hate you.

I'd been thinking about this a lot and then on Car Talk this morning the brothers advised a mother to be ready for the hatred from her kids as they reach the later years of teenagedom. It has become a part of our culture, this alienation between parents and teens and I think we resign ourselves to it and make it a self fulfilling prophecy.

I will fight it. I will work hard to maintain a close relationship with my daughter even as she goes through her "rough" years. I won't just roll my eyes and say "Teens! What can you do?" We'll have our disagreements I'm sure and her fight for independence will be tough but her mom and I will love her and make sure she knows it, always.

Keep in mind, "Teenager" is a marketing concept anyway. A demographic created in modern times and soon after they went to work on tweens, etc. and so on. We were being asked what our "theme" was for our baby before she was even born. We were expected to choose a corporate brand, Disney Princesses, Winnie The Poo, Elmo. You see babies are supposed to love Disney Princesses and teenagers are supposed to love Hot Topic and hate their parents. Thems the rules.

So, here it is, in writing. Maybe, 14 years or so from now I can come back to this post and comment on what a naive young papa I was. We'll see...