Eleanor and Ben

Ben's Rube Goldberg machine

2010-04-29T20:18:00.000-07:00

Ben has been watching the following video on youtube a LOT.

He's been designing his own "fancy machines" in his head. The following one might be difficult to build--it involves blasting off in a space ship and dragging Saturn back to Earth, for one thing. I think the Earth blows up at some point, too. But most exciting: it involves compost. I think we've been in Berkeley too long...

Eleanor scoots!

2010-03-15T19:25:00.001-07:00

Eleanor has figured out how to scoot on Ben's underused scooter, and she can really go.

The Tea Party Riot of 2010

2010-02-08T18:11:00.000-08:00

Eleanor really enjoyed the tea party we had this afternoon, and protested its end vociferously.

2010-02-01T07:56:00.001-08:00

Another video of Eleanor singing.

On the way back from Yosemite

2010-01-26T11:43:00.000-08:00

In the car on the way back from Yosemite. Not a great video, but it does capture Eleanor's unique voice these days. Very toddler-Tom-Waits.

Negotiations with Ben

2009-12-09T07:44:00.000-08:00

It's very hard to get Ben to do anything these days, so I tried hard-nosed bargaining combined with battery-operated bribery. We'll see if it works tomorrow.

2009-12-02T19:48:00.000-08:00

Ben and Eleanor play in a fort we built in the living room. Kindly ignore the marker scrawled on Eleanor's mouth...

The Scooting Giraffe

2009-11-26T16:03:00.000-08:00

Eleanor on Thanksgiving, scooting in her Halloween costume.

Old film of Mom, Dad, and Chris

2009-11-26T15:59:00.000-08:00

We just digitized this old 8mm film from 1970 of Mom and Dad playing with a not-yet-walking Chris. At the end is a shot of Snowledge under construction, with Dee and Randy Kuerzel.

Ben's 4th birthday, in the car

2009-09-18T20:45:00.000-07:00

We were waiting for Mom to get back from the bakery on Ben's 4th birthday. Eleanor sings a version of Happy Birthday that features a minute of whispering, so turn your volume up.

2009-02-07T15:36:00.000-08:00

Walking, five days later...

Eleanor walks!

2009-02-01T16:30:00.002-08:00

She took her first steps this week. Today she walked across a room. Here, she applauds herself while walking outside.

2008-11-07T17:34:00.000-08:00

This is how Eleanor sleeps, roughly half the night. Thus, Melinda types one-handed very effectively.

Eleanor's favorite place is standing as close to Ben as possible. Ben puts up with it some of the time, and wants to be left alone some of the time.

Celebration

2008-11-07T17:17:00.000-08:00

Moments after CNN declares Obama the winner, Ben celebrates by dispensing an inordinate amount of scotch tape. Owen jumps, Palomi jumps and tootles.

2008-11-01T18:06:00.000-07:00

Ben was a robot. When he got overwhelmed with the attention, he turtled and ate candy from the interior candy chute. Eleanor made a very fine chicken.

Trains

2008-11-01T16:46:00.000-07:00

Eleanor crawls!

2008-10-16T19:02:00.000-07:00

Her first crawl steps were last week, and now she gets across the living room in a few seconds...

Ben's TV Ice Cream

2008-10-10T08:22:00.000-07:00

Ben spent yesterday laying unusual eggs. Here he serves breakfast, and explains the concept of "TV ice cream eggs".

Ben sings Take Me Out to the Ballgame

2008-10-10T08:07:00.000-07:00

He prefers alternate tunings on the ukulele...

The surf at Point Reyes

2008-07-28T20:46:00.000-07:00

We drove to Point Reyes National Seashore last weekend with Palomi and family to enjoy a freezing, windy beach. Ben loves the ocean, and refused to get out despite the cold.

Oh, and a giant yellow crab came out of the water and chased Ben around. He now talks about this incident as if it actually happened... Oh, and it is, of course, a flying crab.

Eleanor sits up!

2008-07-06T17:34:00.000-07:00

Yes, that's "sits up" not "spits up". She can sit up on her own, unsupported, although when she gets excited she kicks her legs and topples.

She's just 4 months old; Ben was 6 months when he managed this feat. I will now presume that Eleanor will do everything one-third faster than Ben, and will graduate from college at 16.

Oakland Fairyland

2008-07-06T17:25:00.000-07:00

We went to the slightly--okay, very rundown Fairyland in Oakland. It was built in 1950, and last cleaned in the late 1970s. Still, Ben had as much fun as he could while fighting a nap. The puppet show Pinnochio was great; Ben loved it.

Here Ben is in jail in the Old West, and rides the scary My Little Jim Morrison Pony.

2008-07-05T13:19:00.001-07:00

Palomi came over today, and we went to water and weed our garden. This ended with Ben yelling "I'm a plant and I'm growing!" while watering himself and Palomi.

Santa Cruz Boardwalk

2008-06-24T15:13:00.000-07:00

We drove down and met Matthew in Santa Cruz to ride the rides on the Boardwalk. Not visible: the massive wildfire to the south that closed Route 1.

The Fancy Airplane

2008-06-24T11:38:00.000-07:00

Ben took a small airplane I made for him out of Knex parts and modified it. Heavily. He's been working on it for three days now, with two complete teardown rebuilds. When working on it, he's so fixated that he doesn't hear anything you say to him...

Eleanor swings

2008-06-24T10:58:00.001-07:00

Eleanor's first time on a swing.

The Strega Nona broccoli remix

2008-06-13T18:02:00.000-07:00

Mom had a notebook on her lap, so she wrote Ben's song down. (Sung to the tune of "A Bear Went over the Mountain, more or less.)

"Strega Nona went over the mountain, then went into the village to get some paper broccoli.

The broccoli spilled out and covered Strega Nona's town, and Big Anthony ate all the broccoli, big fat broccoli.

He got some broccoli and cooked it and didn't spill any more.

Then Strega Nona went over the mountain and they cooked pasta together again.

And that's the end. That's my Strega Nona song."

A post on boardgamegeek

2008-05-14T20:23:00.000-07:00

It was a slow day at work, so I posted a note about Ben on the website Boardgamegeek, which became one of the more popular threads on the website today. Melinda thought I should link to it, so:

My son, the 2-year old board game designer

There are lots of inside jokes and lingo for board gamers, so beware...

Eleanor smiles

2008-05-11T11:24:00.001-07:00

She now grabs, tracks things carefully, and smiles all the time.

Ben plays ukulele

2008-05-11T11:21:00.000-07:00

A shorter version of Down by the Bay.

Palomi and Ben sing Raffi

2008-05-11T11:20:00.000-07:00

Lots of moose kissing moose here.

Eleanor smiles!

2008-04-09T17:59:00.001-07:00

Ben with Dad and little sister

2008-04-09T17:54:00.000-07:00

Another video of Ben and Palomi

2008-04-09T17:32:00.000-07:00

Papa Daniel has posted a short video of Ben and Palomi playing outside. It's at http://palomiblog.blogspot.com/

Ben and Palomi Read

2008-04-09T17:26:00.001-07:00

Remember how you were supposed to be able to hear Satanic messages if you played Stairway to Heaven backwards? Well, I was shocked to find what happens if you read The Armadillo from Amarillo upside-down. (Hint: They went to the A's-Red Sox game last week.)

A greeting from Eleanor

2008-03-26T12:15:00.000-07:00

Bunnies

2008-03-23T10:39:00.000-07:00

Easter morning...

Ben's bike gang

2008-03-15T11:31:00.000-07:00

Palomi, Ben, and Owen ride their bikes in the Village. Palomi and Owen have upgraded to bigger bikes, but they no longer have a storage bin in back. Also, they fall over a lot.

You'll be happy to know that Ben did NOT ride off the stairs.

Video of Eleanor at 10 days...

2008-03-14T17:15:00.001-07:00