For each day in 2010 (give or take) I’ll be showing a picture from somewhere in my life with a little explanation as to what it is. Enjoy the trip down memory lane. (CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE ARCHIVES!)
Style/Anti-Style
Date: December 31, 1997
Location: Wyckoff, NJ
Description: 1997 saw the height of my ‘I will be different and I don’t care what anybody thinks’ attitude that lasted, with its ebbs and flows, from 1994-2005. It was epitomized most evidently in my attire, which was once described as ‘the color and pattern of Derek.’ It was all about color volume and pattern clash. I had often been found putting a shirt back if it matched too well with my pants. My eggs that had eggs and bacon on them (I miss those pants.) It was on this New Year’s Eve when the stark contrast of my clothing and normal people-clothing gained immediate perspective. Doug, never a slouch when it came to clothes, decked himself out in his finest duds and I had duds on too, but using a totally different definition of the word. Someone (who was apparently 3′ 7″ tall) managed to snap this awkward juxtaposition. One of the saddest results of that era being dead and gone is that I would kill to have those sunglasses again for poker.
So as many of you know, Landen got hit with a stomach bug over the weekend that kinda knocked him on his kiester. Wait, that’s a terrible start to the blog. How about a cute picture first?
The cheesy smile
Right, now Landen was kinda down for the count over the weekend, and even though his fever has gone down, I think a weekend of constant coddling and babying (as any good parent would) has left him attention-spoiled. He’s becoming more and more a connoisseur of crying. During the weekend, he’d have moments where it sounded like his thought process was “MOMMMMM, pay attention to me! Stop looking at me! I want to be picked up! Don’t touch me!” I think we found the best was to be sitting right near him but ignoring him completely. And even that only partially worked. He’s still been very tired lately, but that’s to be expected after getting his intestines all worked up.
Clashing racing stripes is the new black
He’s an adventure baby, no doubt. According to Ash, the only time he’s really gotten angry at school was one day he went over to his coat and started bawling. We think he just wanted to go outside. He has no fear outside – snow, mud, water… he just dives straight in. I mean, sure, he’s a kid. That’s sorta what they do. But he loves being outside. A few more pics to prove it.
Since coming back from NY, I’ve been astounded at the skills at which he is adept. When I left, he was probably 60% crawl, 40% walk. By the time I came home, he was almost exclusively walking, saving crawling for when he was in a really bad mood. He can follow directions pretty well (”Are you ready to eat? Let’s go over to your chair” and he’ll walk there.) Also, if we just get his coat out, he’ll walk over to it and put his arms through the sleeves.
He’s also becoming quite proficient at tickling the ivories.
Notice the inverted major third he plays at the end – he’s got an ear
While he still doesn’t say too many words (mama, dada, uh-oh, more), he can sign ‘more’, ‘food’ and ‘please’. I don’t have video of that, but I’m not sure why. However, the amount of SOUNDS he can make is astounded. Just the other day, Ash tried something out, doing her famed elephant call. ON HIS FIRST TRY, he repeated it. (This video was taken less than a minute after the first try.)
A career in impressions?
He’s also looking bigger, starting to develop some muscles. Oh, and actually, we finally got a picture of his very strange tooth progression. Normally, it’s bottom two first, then top two (or four), then the teeth on both top and bottom start to branch out. Landen got his first 6 normally, then all his back teeth. He is still missing the middles. Observe:
With wrinkles, this is what he’ll look like at 80.
His hair is also getting very long (even with Auntie Jen giving him a trim up front.) It’s only curly in the back, but we’ll give that time, I’m sure it’ll get worse. Plus, it’s fun to style.
The Yahoo Serious 2010 look
I’ll leave you with some random pix and videos. More videos up on ashsparks’ Youtube account, and hopefully even more will go up soon. Still haven’t found our camera. Grrrrr….
For each day in 2010 (give or take) I’ll be showing a picture from somewhere in my life with a little explanation as to what it is. Enjoy the trip down memory lane. (CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE ARCHIVES!)
Ash on the Rocks
Date: August, 2008
Location: Klamath, CA
Description: Ashley and I never did anything in the correct order. We had our wedding celebration four months before legally tying the knot, we bought our first car three days before finding out Ash was pregnant, and most apropos of this declaration, we had our honeymoon a full year before marriage, and it was to pick out our wedding rings. Confused? Yes, but that probably had more to do with the poor sentence structure. Anyway, we made a large road trip to celebrate our honeymoonish, driving west to the ocean, then north to Portland and then Seattle, east to Boise, and back home. The Pacific Northwest, if nothing else, is just that… northwest. But the sites we saw along the way were pretty breathtaking. Within a short walk of the Trees of Mystery motel we stayed at was a small beach on the Pacific. We got there just as the fog rolled out, and I snapped this picture without Ash’s knowledge. The fact that a bird swooped into frame was just gravy on top. This will assuredly not be the last honeymoonish picture you see.
For each day in 2010 (give or take) I’ll be showing a picture from somewhere in my life with a little explanation as to what it is. Enjoy the trip down memory lane. (CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE ARCHIVES!)
Bland
Date: November, 2002
Location: Bland, VA
Description: It was only meant to be a road trip with my buddy Jaymar down to visit my mother in Florida. What it became was epic. On the first leg of our journey, we broke out our atlas early because of some construction, only to realize we weren’t very far from a place called Boring, MD. Naturally, Jaymar and I determined, we would HAVE to stop there and snap photos. That lead us to wonder – what other silly places aren’t too far out of our way? As it turns out, “out of our way” became a very loose term, as we added an extra 1000 miles onto our trip when all was said and done. It took us to places we’d never imagined: Boring, MD; Coward, SC; Retreat GA; Coats, NC. And indeed, our crowning jewel, Bland, VA. What surprised us most about bland was actually two-fold. First off, wedged high up in the beautiful Appalachian mountains, the scenery in Bland is anything but. Although quite far off the beaten path, we were glad we tacked on nearly 4 hours on our trip to see it. But the second thing that surprised us most had to be the Bland Ministry Center and Dental Clinic. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. This one might be worth a million.
For each day in 2010 (give or take) I’ll be showing a picture from somewhere in my life with a little explanation as to what it is. Enjoy the trip down memory lane. (CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE ARCHIVES!)
Blizzard of ‘96
Date: January, 1996
Location: Wyckoff, NJ
Description: In honor of the massive amounts of snowfall received on both coasts this year, I thought it only appropriate to harken back to the big one: the Blizzard of ’96. Not since the 1800’s had this much snow fallen in a single burst in the New York suburbs. Dropping about 2 ½ feet overnight, combined with pretty heavy winds, it was a snowstorm to remember – the kind that, when I google “Blizzard of ‘96”, it has its own Wikepedia page. For the most part, no major catastrophe befell us, but I do recall days afterward, and even weeks after, driving was super precarious because of the massive snow-plowed drifts that were on every street corner (as you can see, the pile here stood well over 6’ tall, and that was common.) Compounding the danger in driving was the fact that, in our first full winter having a driver’s license, we had to accomplish all shuttling in the Funkwatt, a car that had a tenuous grip on the road even in perfect conditions.
I’ve been pretty crap at this blog thing lately – I was in NY for 10 days and now I’ve been trying to get back into the swing of it (which has entailed going to bed before 10:30 the last two nights.) I will hopefully be back with some adorable Landen photos and videos from my sister’s trip, as well as continuing the DPOD series.
But first, a story. Landen has a favorite stuffed animal, after over a year of not really caring a whole lot about stuffed animals. It’s a monkey that some family friends got for him on his 1st birthday. He has tons of monkeys (well, okay, *I* have tons of monkeys that he plays with), but this one is definitely his favorite. Ash just calls it ‘Monkey’, and I call it “Mr. Monkey.” Well, yesterday I gave Landen his monkey to play with, and I swore he said “Nigel!” So I think we’re naming his monkey Nigel.
Yeah, being a parent reduces my anecdotes to this. Pics very soon.
Despite my insistence that I only like New York City in very small doses, I can’t argue that things can be found here that just aren’t found elsewhere. Stacey has made frequent mention of this, as she managed to photograph many very odd sights in and around the city (Boba Fett Accordionist, anyone?) Yesterday, I experienced one, although it was very ’slice of life’, having missed what happened before and after the event.
Walking to the subway in Penn Station, I was approaching a little courtyard where there is almost always some band or musician playing for money. It’s often a pipe flute band in the mornings. Today, it was an old black blues guitarist. Kinda stereotypical in his attire and his warm vibe. As he got into view, I saw a flash bulb and a small girl in a pink jacket run back from him all excited. Her father (ostensibly) had just taken a picture of her with this musician. She was beaming ear to ear with a huge smile as she trotted back to her dad.
That in itself was a touching moment. But it was the second part that kinda got me. I had already passed out of direct view, approaching the red line, when I heard the musician chuckle over the microphone he had set up. Then he breaks out his harmonica and plays a little riff into it. It sounds pretty familiar, but until he said “E I E I O”, I was unsure what he was doing. Then I realized: just for that girl, he was playing an improptu little rendition of Old McDonald. Before he even got a little into it, I was out of hearing range and missed how long it went or the girl’s reaction.
For each day in 2010 (give or take) I’ll be showing a picture from somewhere in my life with a little explanation as to what it is. Enjoy the trip down memory lane. (CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE ARCHIVES!)
Helmethead
Date: ~2004
Location: Wayne, NJ
Description: As already illustrated, 1342 (my apartment for a year, and an apartment that stayed in our group of friends for the better part of a decade) was home to many shenanigans. Often times, our roommate Jeff (pictured above, laughing) would leave items on our front stoop, available for free for anyone who wanted them. It was sorta like old-school Freecycle. Despite a few complaints, it was a convenient way to get rid of our crap and help people find free stuff. One problem was that it would leave certain items available for our friends to don during parties, such as this one. Paul, never one to simply make a statement with a silly outfit, had to outdo himself with an attempt to imbibe something. As seen above, this was very funny. This one is honor of Paul, who gets married in a few months, and also Jeff, who just proposed to his longtime girlfriend. Good luck, guys.
For the hundredsdozens couple of people who have asked, we seem to have lost our digital camera and haven’t been able to take any photos in a while, at least none of Landen. Ash has a very adorable video which I anticipate her putting up any day now.
In the meantime, I do have a milestone that I managed to take a photo while driving. Errm, while totally safely on the side of the road. Yeah, that second one.
For each day in 2010 (give or take) I’ll be showing a picture from somewhere in my life with a little explanation as to what it is. Enjoy the trip down memory lane. (CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE ARCHIVES!)
End of the Rainbow
Date: November, 2008
Location: Reno, NV
Description: I’ve seen a number of rainbows in my day (and very few in my night.) I’ve seen brilliant ones and dull ones. I’ve seen ones that were large enough where the section I saw appeared nearly straight. I’ve even seen a double rainbow. But you tend to hear the fable that you never see the ends of the rainbow (or perhaps that, at the end, there will be a pot of gold.) These are old wives’ tales, and this is photographic evidence to prove my claim. Of course, if you google it, you’ll find plenty of pictures of ends of rainbows, many more stellar than mine. But screw off, I took this one myself.
