Happy Anniversary

Six years ago today, Chris made me an honest woman at the St. Martin of Tours Catholic Church in Brentwood, and we celebrated with our family and friends at a wonderful party at Shutters on the Beach in Santa Monica. It's hard to believe we've been together for a total of thirteen years, and that we still like each other's company. To keep things interesting, our babysitter's car broke down at the last minute. Rather than cancel, Chris went to pick her up. We rarely go out as it is, and there was no way we weren't celebrating tonight, even if it meant taking Kate to the Indian restaurant and movie with us. Kate would've loved the restaurant, but probably not "The Visitor," though Chris and I enjoyed it very much. The above is a shot of Chris being mortified by me taking a photo at the restaurant.

Dancing to the '80's

For the past couple of months, Kate's favorite CD has been the one that Dr. Lisa made for me, Andrea, and Ilene a few years ago -- a compilation of '80's songs from our high school days. Kate has three favorite songs that she listens to at least ten times a day: "We Got the Beat" by the Go-Go's, "Mickey" by Toni Basil, and "If You Leave" by OMD (which she says is "very sad"). (Related side note: Toni Basil used to live around the corner from us in LA. We once saw her standing outside in her slippers having an argument with some dude). This is a video of Kate dancing to "Mickey" and trying to copy Toni Basil's cheerleading moves from the music video. Dad makes a cameo...

End of First Week of Swim Classes

Kate finished her first session of swim classes today and received a Certificate and a piece of sour-apple licorice from the instructors. She was equally thrilled about the Certificate as she was about the candy ("Is that for me??").

She was so excited that she sang VERY LOUDLY (a Korean song, the "Green Sea") all the way to the car, while pretending to read the Certificate.

Since Kate learned about Safety today, she and Dad practiced calling 9-1-1 in an emergency. Kate pretended to call the "Police Officer," telling him to

"come right away" because "my Dad ate too much soap and feels sick!"

After dinner we went to the Farmer's Market where Kate rode a pony and got to do her favorite thing in the world -- JUMP. She had a rip roarin' good time until the teenage kid barked, "TIME'S UP!" and freaked her out.

Chris in Oprah

Chris' friend, Liz, called to tell him she saw his cartoon in Oprah Magazine. So if you're waiting in line at the supermarket, check out Page 91 . If it's a really long line, you may want to learn "Why Men Do Stupid Things," which is on Page 171.

Swim Lessons, Part Three

Today was even better than yesterday. The kids had to jump off the side of the pool, and Kate literally jumped right in. The next couple of times, she forgot to jump and just fell in, scraping her shins on the way down, but it didn't seem to faze her. Chris took her by himself today, which makes me think that Kate likes having Dad with her in the pool. That's okay, because Kate and I celebrated by taking a bath when she got home.

Swim Lessons, Part Two

Today was much better. Maybe because Dad was there taking a million pictures, or because the pool was heated, or because we swung in the park first, but Kate had a great time in the pool.

The class practiced blowing bubbles, "scooping ice cream," kicking and floating. Kate even went completely under water -- twice! Of course, both times were accidental and I nearly had a heart attack, but Kate emerged from the water just fine. A little confused, but cool as a cucumber. Hopefully, tomorrow will be just as fun.

New Camera

We finally got an SLR camera the other day. Woo hoo! Our compact digital camera has a shutter lag of about an hour which means we have tons of photos of Kate just before or after the moment I meant to capture. Hopefully, this new camera will solve that problem. Or maybe we'll just have a lot more photos.

Kate's First Swim Lessons

Our inaugural blog post! Welcome! I've been avoiding doing a blog for years, not wanting to add to blogmania in cyberspace, but just like I eventually caved with the cell phone, here we are. My justification is that I usually clutter your in-boxes with photos anyway, so this will be much more efficient! The name of the blog was inspired by one of Kate's catch phrases. Enjoy!

Kate had her first swimming lessons on Monday. It was over 100 degrees last week, so it was nice to be in the water. She learned how to blow bubbles, kick, and float. To get the kids to put their face in the water, the teachers told them to "make a fish bowl" with their arms and "talk to the fish." Kate did everything the teachers asked on the first day. But the next day, she said, "We're going again??" And would have none of the fish-bowl-making or talking. Apparently, there were "no fish" in her bowl yesterday. We'll see how it goes today.