It’s been a year already
And a quick one at that. January 18, 2011 brought us the early arrival of Leah Kylie, who is now one year old. She’s doing great and is lots of fun, as you’ll see.
Showing off her one year old reading skills
Leah turns one
Some recent pics and vids
My first videos on this here blog
I’ve been taking videos of the kids for several years now, and I’m just starting to experiment with DSLR video (so far, not very good, lol), but I never get around to posting many of them. Here are a couple of short clips of Aly sledding:
Leah or Aly?
Happy 1st Birthday, Leah!
We frequently note how similar the two girls look at comparable ages. Other people, however, tell us that they can easily tell them apart in pictures – though they’re usually wrong if they don’t have obvious environmental clues in the picture. Aly frequently gets it wrong herself – often identifying baby pictures of herself as Leah. She then proceeds to argue with me until I open the picture in iPhoto and show her the date.
I thought it would be fun to create a set of side by side images of the two girls at similar ages, in honor of Leah’s first birthday today. Can you figure out which girl is which in these pictures? (Note: as I’m occasionally known to be sneaky, it’s not outside the realm of possibility that one pair of pictures could be the same girl)
#1: Newborn
#2: One month old
Check out this Snauxhawk. (snohawk? snow hawk? michigan mullet?)
The joys of winter
One of the great things about Michigan is that we get snow. Okay, I don’t really think that’s a great thing, since I pretty much abhor winter by this point in life. Mostly because of the short days and ever-absent sun, but also because I hate scraping car windows and getting snow off cars.
Wait, there is a good thing
When we get a lot of snow here on the lakeshore, I like letting it build up on my car, and then only cleaning off the windows and the hood, leaving a huge pile of snow on the roof. I alternate between calling this a “Snohawk” (alternate spelling: snauxhawk) and a “Michigan Mullet” (I know it’s not technically a mullet, but the name works, so give me some slack here, people). I think ti really increases the classy factor of my car – people in the South don’t know what they’re missing.
Tell me this isn't a good look for my car. You might say the words, but I won't believe you.
The Mad Libs of vi@graspam
There is one benefit to spam email
I have to admit, I’m highly entertained by some spam emails. I understand that many of the people perpetrating these crimes are not native English speakers, but their use of words can be utterly hilarious. It’s like they use MadLibs to create their email subject lines and content.
In particular, I’ve gotten some great emails lately pushing the little blue pill that I felt were worth sharing. These are all actual spam emails I’ve received in the last month or so – nothing made up by me in this post.
A word of caution
There is some content here that is not appropriate for children. Or grandparents. Don’t say I didn’t warn you, and remember that I didn’t write these – I’m just an observer in this amusing society of ours.
Also note that I have posted these as images, and not the raw text, because I don’t want my site to be flagged as pharmaspam, lol. This type of spam email must work, or they would stop doing it.
Leah’s first Christmas
Christmas in downtown Holland
We had a chance to take some pictures downtown after meeting with Santa, even though it was bitterly cold and windy on this day. No coats on our kids, though – that would ruin the pictures, wouldn’t it?
Note the attractive photographer in the reflection
Stranger Anxiety Pictured
Kids go though interesting stages, don’t they? Leah was very outgoing, even with strangers, until maybe October or so. Leah and I were shopping at the grocery store, she strapped into her car seat in the cart I was pushing. Towards the end of the trip, an old guy came up and started talking to her, and you could see her tense right up, but he kept his distance, so she was fairly mellow. Then the old guy’s wife comes out of nowhere (Leah couldn’t see her coming), pops in front of Leah and tickles her foot. It was instant screaming in terror, which of course caused me to have a good laugh. Here’s best part:
The old lady angrily turns to her husband and says, “Look what you did to that baby!”, grabs him by the arm, and drags him away. We’ve even seen the stranger anxiety thing with people who see her every week – it’s an interesting phase.