Zoe at the Strawberry festival

A little animatic about a little girl and the magical place called The Strawberry Festival!

Is Anybody out there?

I really have no idea who reads this. If anybody reads this besides the one or two who, thankfully, comment. I don't know if anyone cares or if I am pissing into the wind.
I am just going to keep plugging along and if you're out there, hope you enjoy watching my daughter grow up.

I don't consider myself a photographer. I know nothing about exposure or ISO's. I like to think that I, occasionally, have a good eye but, at best, I am an amateur with delusions of artistry.
That said, how fucking great is this picture?


Because it really captures Zoe at her best. At her most playful. I think I really got her. (And she got me.)

This is a kid at a get together. He's a camera ham. I think his parents shoot a ton of him. He was never hesitant to pose and wait for pics to be taken. So, it was actually kind of hard to get him in a candid moment. But I snuck up on him and Zozo and managed to get this. The amount of communication is sort of astounding when one considers that neither of them can speak yet.



On Saturday we ventured down to Garden Grove to the annual Strawberry Festival. It was really a free to enter carnival with Strawberries a very distant theme. But there were rides, oh, yes, plenty of rides.
Turns out, while Zosie may have inherited certain genes from me (eyes, fat, temper) she has inherited her mother's love of nausea-inducing rides.



And a healthy appetite for Strawberries. Can't get enough.



And corn dogs. CORN DOGS! Crikey. Battered meat on a stick. Yeah, go for it, Zo.

Cam Ham

After a year of magical elph shots and crappy cell phone pix today I bought meself a presento. My birthday is in one week and I was lucky enough to get a little bit of found cashola.
So I got an entry level Nikon SLR.
And immediately got home and sought out Zoe for some candids.
Here's some new ZoShots.
For no reason except that she's damned cute.










No captions necessary.

Zoe makes our Coffee!

Yes, Zoe has learned how to make our coffee.
Precocious, isn't she?
In fact, if we want to distract her from something in the morning we now have "help Daddy make his coffee" in our arsenal of shiny objects.

Zanimoto!

You know me, Mr. Early Adopter. So, when this new app came out, I had to try it. We only used a couple pics.
I will get something more interesting in the future.
enjoy.

Japanese Toilet Training for Kids

Oh, those wacky japanese.
To quote my friend Kristen, "Why don't we have this here?"

Crack for Zoe

I have, on many occasions, extolled the virtues of Noggin's "Jack's Big Music Show" program. It contains a huge variety of musical forms and it's completely adult friendly and tolerable.
It's also crack for toddlers.
Zoe has been ambling around the living room this morning, generally crying over absolutely nothing. I can't keep my eyes open, since she has been crying to get up since 5.
Time to feed her the crack.

One Month Checkup...one month late....

Sitting here in a coffee shop, readying myself for an audition I found a couple minutes to update the blog.
So much has been happening and yet I haven't written. (Bad dad!)
So, you know that Zoe is walking. Yes. She toddles like an alcoholic epileptic and crashes on her padded bottom. It's a site, but she just gets right up and starts again.
The terrible twos (which are really about the second year) have officially begun. Gone is the sweet cherub who loves everyone and everything and, on occasion, she is replaced by a screaming, demanding devil child who hates the word "no". But, to her credit, even though we get those crocodile tears, she has learned NOT to pull the wire, NOT to push the buttons on the dvr, NOT to...well you get the idea.
She is infatuated with Balloons. Can't leave a store without one. MUST.PLAY.WITH.BALLOONS! It's an obsession. But we like balloons and so it is a compromise. Ballon, yes. Dangerous electrical cords, no.
Doc says Zozo is in the 20% for height and 30% for weight. Or maybe that's backwards. But not to worry. It's not a big deal. She's gonna drop weight as she gets more active (chasing balloons!) and given the legacy of Molly, Lee, Batya and Beth & Me, there really was never much of a shot that she would break 5'4" anyways. He thinks 5'3". I think that makes for a cute little monkey girl.
Beth has joined a bunch of mommy groups and lo and behold the Zoster has found a toy that she is fanatical about.
Here it is:

If she isn't moving then she is shouting and rocking back and forth to make it go! No doubt Beth and i can finally get in shape with this thing.
So, there ya go. That's a quick update. I gotta get in to the audition soon. Here's a shot that I snapped of Zozo the other day when we were off to Toys R Us to buy a (impossible to find) Wii.
How cool is this kid?