Two Thumbs Up

I have a few suggestions this week for some family entertainment this holiday season. The journalistic integrity of my blog (?!) requires that I disclose that I am not an unbiased source when it comes to these recommendations.

My first recommendation is The Princess and the Frog. Ryan and I attended the wrap party a couple weeks back, and I thought it was the most beautiful animated film I have ever seen. Ryan thought it was right up there with other classic Disney animated films, and that's after he responded to the trailer with "and they think this is going to do well?" Interesting story about this film is that it's from the same directors who did The Little Mermaid and Aladdin, who were eventually shown the door at Disney, and then brought back again when the Pixar leadership took over. If you want to see the trailer, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8N-kIiELUA.

My second recommedation is a half-hour Christmas special Disney Animation Studios did for ABC titled Prep and Landing. It premieres December 1 after the Charlie Brown special, so have some peppermint hot cocoa and make a night of it with the fam. I can't do the story justice, so check a little bit of it out for yourself at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etq-d8Ci7uI.

Hope you like it!

Halloween

Halloween has come and gone, but Kieran's Batman fetish is still going strong. His Batman costume is literally beginning to disintegrate. He was very disappointed when the Halloween decorations on the homes and business around here came down. Halloween is serious business in these parts. A house down the street even built a movie-set quality haunted house in their yard. Here are some photos of a few of my favorites:

Here are our first-time trick-or-treaters:

And of course...

We've been watching some of the old Batman and Robin cartoons from the 1960s on YouTube, and I finally understand the context for expressions like "The Dynamic Duo" and "The Boy Wonder" that my dad used all growing up.

Let the holiday season begin!

The Happiest Place on Earth

A friend of mine once had to conduct an experiment for a class, so she decided to test a hypothesis about where people were happiest/friendliest. She tested the hypothesis by tracking what proportion of people smiled or said hello to her at a grocery store, a college campus, and a recreation trail. The friendliest place was the recreation trail, and the grocery store was the least friendly place. I remembered that experiment yesterday as I was running on a trail near our house, when I couldn't help smiling despite the tortuous run. The sky was incredibly blue after a few days of rain, and the smell of fresh cut grass was in the air. Sometimes it doesn't get better than that.


I may have to go all Mythbusters on Disney's claim using that same experiment to see if it holds true. My guess is the recreation trail would still win out. However, Disney does provide some great backdrops for a photo. Here's the fam from our trip last week.

Batman and Pebbles

Kieran's in a Batman kind of mood these days. He wants to wear his Batman pajamas everywhere--pre-school, church, the playground, and, of course, bed. He's quite distraught when they actually have to be washed. I already bought him a green dragon costume for Halloween, but I'm thinking Batman might slay the dragon Halloween night. Some cute things he's been saying lately is "that's what happens," which is his very philosophic response to any unfortunate thing that happens, "polk-a-nuts" instead of "polk-a-dots" and "gee-cano" instead of volcano.

Haven is our blonde Pebbles Flintstone. She has a favorite stuffed toy, "Lambey," which she uses as a security blanket. She also loves to sing, especially to herself in her bed.

Teetering on the Edge of Irrelevance

I do realize that I'm breaking a cardinal rule of blogging by letting months lapse between posts. I have no excuse, just photos from our summer:

The summer began with Ryan running the L.A. Marathon on Memorial Day. It was his 5th marathon, and he was happy to place in the top 8%. The highlight of Kieran's day, as evidenced in the photo above, was the toxic blue Batman popsicle.

In June, we celebrated my Dad's 60th birthday...

...and welcomed the newest cousin into the Shoemaker family.
We've been to the beach...

...and said goodbye to L.A. and hello to Burbank. I don't actually have a photo of Burbank, so this one of Hollywood is close enough. :)

Until the next post...

Earthbump

My years of practicing for "The Big One" in the Utah school system failed me. Yesterday, I experienced my first earthquake, and I froze. The earthquake registered in at 4.7, so it wasn't huge (thank goodness!), but we felt the brunt of it, since we were quite close to the epicenter. I was sitting at the dining room table with my laptop, and Ryan was in the living room. Next thing I know the house was moving and there was this eerie rumbling noise. I don't know who reacted worse--me sitting frozen right next to our solid dining room table or Ryan rushing across the living room toward our glass bookcases to keep them from tipping over. Apparently, fire drills are in order for the Shoemaker household. Kieran's been talking about the "earthbump" all day, and it's his newest excuse for why he can't go to bed.

Still Emerging from the Post-Holiday Fog...

As the lack of posts would suggest, our life has been busy the past couple of months. Nothing too terribly interesting, mostly just the day-to-day grind and some birthdays. Kieran and I celebrated our birthdays in January--his 3rd and my 33rd--and Haven's 1st birthday is fast approaching. So with that, I'll cut straight to grandma's updates:

While we're hesitant to don the flight jacket and declare mission accomplished in the war on wetting, we will say that significant progress has been made in the battle of Kieran's heart and mind. The advice is solid: Wait until 3 years old to potty train a boy (and don't get involved in a land war in Asia). He amazes us every day with all the new things he's learned to say. His newest favorite thing is tatter telling on Haven. And for some reason, he has to call me by name when doing this. For example, "Jen, Haven's throwing her food on the floor." He also calls Ryan "Ry." If you check out his photo closely, you'll notice that his forearms and shins are all bruised up. That's our Kieran!

Haven now has eight teeth, an eardrum-breaking screech, and the ability--though not the desire--to walk. She officially began walking about a month ago, but we think she must have taken a few nasty falls and decided that crawling is more civilized. While our firstborn's first words were "mama" and "dada," Haven's first words were "mine" and "no." She seems to become a little fiestier everyday as she learns to hold her own against Kieran.