I love Disneyland at Christmastime!

These are pics from our November visit to Disneyland-we went the weekend they started their Christmas season, so we could enjoy all of the decorations early on.


Ginny and Dada in front of the big Christmas tree at Disneyland.




















Wow! Those are some big presents! And check out that giant ornament! It's as big as Ginny!!!

















Mama is happy to be there...Ginny is trying to take in all of the decorations.











First time on the teacups! It was a wild ride!!




















Ginny also got to meet Brer Bear for the first time. He's very tall!












She loved to do the rope walk at the Redwood Creek recreation area at California Adventure.













She put on her fancy jacket and got to explore the Redwood Creek area-lots of room to run around!











Too happy...and too cute!

Around the House

Ginny sure loves her puppies!














































Exploring in the kitchen.












Ah! Found some good stuff to play with!

Cutest Cowgirl on the Block!

I nnow it's been quite a while since we posted pics (okay, okay, I'm behind 3 holidays now!!!!). I'm trying to catch up. Here is Ginny in her Halloween costume-a cowgirl! (I think the technical name for her costume was wild west cutie!). She was complete with cowgirl boots and all!

































She loves lollipops!

The Dangers of a Can of Dog Food

Ok, so this is a follow up to a post made LONG ago. Do you remember the post when we thought there was an intruder in the house, and Darwin passed up all of the kitchen knives for an empty can of dog food as his weapon of choice to fight off the bad guys? (In case you don't remember, the window was cracked open and the wind was pushing the door against the door jam...no bad guys).

So, apparently, the empty dog food can was a pretty good choice, because one of those violent weapons sliced Darwin open last week! Bloody mess-yuck! Someone should issue a permit for those things!

October 2009

Here are some pics from the rest of Ginny's October.






Resting the morning after the big party.




















After Ginny discovered the wonders of unraveling toilet paper from the roll.




















I love the weekends!!!

















My Daddy's a little crazy sometimes.













Rolling around on Mickey & Mulan's blankie is so funny!













Cheese!











We have Halloween pics too, but they deserve a separate post...stay tuned!

Ginny's 1st Birthday Party

Here are the pics from Ginny's first birthday party. A big thanks to everyone who came-it was a great time!!

Ginny Turns One (photo version)

One Year Old

Ginny turned one almost two weeks ago. She had a fabulous day with Mommy. First, we went to the Zoo, where we met up with Cousin Elliott and Aunt Jessica. We saw lots of cool animals and she got to walk around a bit with Cousin Elliott. Then, we met up with Daddy for lunch at El Indio (yummy!). Then, Daddy had to go back to work, so Ginny and I ran some errands for her birthday party. We then went home and made cupcakes to eat later that night and to share with her friends at school the next day. We went to the mall and met up with Daddy and Auntie Em for dinner at Red Robin (she got a balloon-super fun). We capped off the day with her very first cupcake (complete with a "1" candle and singing of course).

The next day, she had to go back to school, but they threw her a birthday party! She had more cupcakes!

Then, the next day, she had her very first official birthday party. She was visited by lots of family and friends and was overwhelmed by all of the fun toys and cool clothes she received. We have a ton of pictures, but I am writing this at work, so I don't have any to upload here. Later. I promise.

Ginny had her one year checkup today. The doc gave her the big thumbs up! She weighs 20 pounds, 5 ounces; she has gained 13 pounds since she was born (although she is a bit on the light side-25th percentile). She is 29.75 inches long, so she has grown 9.25 inches over the last year. She is tall for her age too-75th percentile!

Ginny has mastered walking and has now moved on to talking. She can say mama, dada, ba ba, hi, yum, up, yes, and no (although not always at the appropriate time). She's also been heard to say a slew of other words from time to time, including Mulan, Alex (other baby at preschool), Lola (dog at preschool) and "all duh" (aka all done). Otherwise, we have a certified teenager on our hands-babbling away all day long!

Next time, pictures.

Drumroll please....

Ladies and gentlemen, I believe we have a walker!!!!

Yesterday, she took 25 steps from the dishwasher to the kitchen table area-all on her own (no tempting teasing or luring by me or any other third party). She has really started taking at least a few steps on her own from the standing position before she goes off crawling.

She is also loving standing up (without using anything but muscle to pull herself up). She was going through all of Darwin's Pooch Cafe page-a-day calendar and pick each one up, standing up, throwing the paper to the side, and repeating the process.

Then, as if that wasn't enough, by luring her with some goldfish before bed, she took 57 steps!!!!!! That's right, that number is not a typo. Fifty-seven. I decided at that point, it's kinda silly to count the steps, so we have deemed her an official walker!

Now, it is time to prepare for the big 1.

Walking?

Ginny is 11 months old now (getting ever so close to that 1 year mark) and is trying to learn to walk. She has been taking a couple of steps here and there.

This past weekend, though, she took FIFTEEN steps! Followed immediately by ELEVEN steps! She sure is getting the hang of it. We'll post some video and a pic of her in her super cute Chargers cheerleader outfit later.

Another Birthday Surprise!!!

For my birthday I planned on taking Ginny with me for a Daddy-Ginny day at Disneyland while Missi went to work as normal. Little did I know Missi and her family had other plans...

That morning as I was getting the diaper bag ready to go I look up and see Missi in denim capris. I think to myself "It's a weekday, why isn't this girl in a suit?" So I asked her, "Why isn't this girl in a suit, it's a weekday?"

She replies, "'This girl?' You mean me?"

I exclaim- "Yes, woman!"

"Oh, she replies innocently, don't you want me to go too?"

So that's how I thought I learned it was going to be a Bustarde Day. But as we're driving up to Disneyland I realize that neither Sarah or Emie had texted or called to wish me a happy birthday. So I ask Missi "Why hasn't Sarah or Emie texted or called to wish me a happy birthday? Are they coming too, so that's it'll be a Bustarde plus more day!?"

Consequently, my thought process went as follows, "They always text or call pretty early to wish me happy birthday, well it's still early in the day, but why does Missi have a funny smirk on her face? What's the answer to this conundrum? Ask more questions!"

A rapid exchange between Missi and I then took place. While Missi's trying to avoid my questions I notice a curious tugging at the top-left corner of her lip. "She's hiding something!" I think to myself. I decide to let the issue drop during the rest of the drive as I try to analyze the birthday texts that come in as we're riding up.

Sure enough as we walk into Disneyland I see Emie, Sarah, Ken and Laura lounging on a bench on Main Street. Ah-ha! I was right! What a fun surprise!

Boy, was it hot though. Here's me and Ginny beating the heat by waiting for big splashes from Grizzly River Rapids. We got soaked pretty good.Ginny got to meet Aladdin on this visit.
She rode on Pirates, the Haunted Mansion and got to ride in the sliding cars on the Fun Wheel for the first time too.
She got a little scared from all of the movement on the Fun Wheel. I don't think Granny Laura's screaming was very reassuring to Ginny. ;-)
Ginny had a good time playing with Auntie Em on opposite sides of some glass.
Pappy's excited cuz Ginny was lot more comfortable being held by him that day.
Ginny loves her Dada!!
We were able to take her on Dumbo too! She loved it!

Thanks to the fam for taking the day off to help celebrate my big 2-1.

***

This past weekend we celebrated Joshua and Zoey's August birthdays. Here are a couple of photos from the party.

I like this picture because I think Ginny is gonna give her Auntie Em this look for many years.
Here's Noah kissing up on Ginny, "Hey! You're related!" I wonder where Noah learned his technique? :-) I blame the programs on the television machine and Marilyn Manson. Won't somebody think of the children!

Surprise Party to Celebrate the Onslaught of Old Age!!!

They say you shouldn't disclose your private information on the web, and I fully agree. That's why I will strictly enforce the prohibition of anyone mentioning my alleged age on this blog. Suffice it to say that my friends and family threw me a surprise birthday party to test the strength of my heart in my old age. I passed with flying colors, in other words I lived through the trauma.

Missi successfully hid her planning from me. She fed me a story about how we were going to one of her client's restaurants to have a work-dinner. I believed her. Here I am immediately after the shock.
Chris and Missi enjoyed pulling one over on the old man. As did my loving sisters.
Elliott took the time to feed his cousin some food during the party. Ginny is so trusting she didn't question how he got food considering that he doesn't have a job or any means of purchasing food.
Mama and Ginny enjoyed surprising Dada for once.
I got some great gear out of my cardiac event. Go Chargers! (thanks Chris and Anh!)
If you notice a sly smile on Sarah's face it's cuz it is a sly smile. Little did I know I had another surprise on my actual birthday. But that'll have to wait for another post.

Many thanks to everyone who helped ease me into my twenties! The dinner was great (special thanks to Sarah and Emie) as were the chocolates that Jon and Sheona got me. Thanks to Matee and Kelly for getting me a great helicopter that Mulan loves to chase around. I've already bought a bunch of songs from iTunes thanks to Lolly and Gary. I'm gonna enjoy using the BestBuy gift card that was bought by Van, curiously not from BestBuy. And, thanks to my bro, Jess and Elliott I'm gonna be able to put up another post about how I bowled a 300 or maybe even 3000! Good times.

Rattlesnake!!

Here is a picture of a Western Rattlesnake (Crotalus viridis). You must be wondering why we posted a picture of some snake, well, because it was right outside our backdoor!

It all started with Mulan running outside barking up a storm, much more urgently than we've heard before. Normally Mickey will nonchalantly walk downstairs to join her but this time he ran at break-neck speed downstairs. I got up to check out what was going on and noted that I heard Mickey touch the rubber doggy door flap but he didn't go out all the way. As I got into the kitchen Mickey was sticking his head in and out of the doggy door. Without really looking I opened the backdoor and saw Mulan barking toward me wildly.

That's when I heard a funny sound, you might call it a rattling sound. Sure enough I see the snake three feet away from me. I was able to get Mulan inside. Fortunately, the snake didn't strike at me and neither of the dogs were bitten.

Missi came downstairs and called the fire department. They responded very quickly. Three firemen went out and took care of the snake.

Many thanks to the firemen of Fire Station One, and of course our hero Mulan and sidekick Mickey! Look at how vigilant she is!

Here's a short video of the snake:

P.S. Ginny slept through the whole thing.

Standing Queen

Ginny had a great session of standing this evening. She stood for 4 to 30 seconds once and then stood again for 5-37 seconds. The time discrepancies are the result of the application of the theory of relativity, as put into practice by the two time-keepers on hand (me and Missi). Without disclosing who guessed what time I can let you know that the following exchange took place...

Parent A - "How long did she stand?"
Parent B - "4 seconds about!"
Parent A - "What! That was more like 30!"
Parent B - "..."

The slightly longer second standing attempt, which is memorialized pictorially below, yielded the following exchange...

Parent A - "How long was that!?"
Parent B - "I don't know, about 5 seconds?"
Parent A - "That seemed longer than before."
Parent B - "37 seconds!!!"

When I Say "Mama," You Say "Mama"!

Yesterday, Ginny began saying Mama clearly and distinctly over and over again. Yay! This morning she continued repeating her new favorite word. We managed to catch one of her soliloquies on camera.

Ginny's Gal Pal Bed-Bye Story Time!

Favorite Auntie Em came down to visit Ginny! Auntie Em read Ginny The Little Mermaid pillow-story book edition. It was very exciting.
One last gaze for bonding purposes and then Ginny went night-night!

GE, no longer just about lightbulbs.

Ginny visited cousin Elliott ("GE", get it? Ha-Ha-Haaa!) at his new house! She had tons of fun and Elliott was a great host. They shared snacks with each other and Ginny got to play with a bunch of his toys. While they were playing I beat my brother at Super-Bomberman on the Wii. Excellent victory!



Also that day we got to spend time with Unkies Robert and Brian B. and Auntie Melissa at Balboa Park. Uncle Kuya, Auntie Jess and Elliott were there too. While we were eating a picnic lunch Ginny got to see Elliott test his boundaries as Elliott tried to sneak off a couple times. Oh man, you could see the wheels turning in Ginny's head as she watched her cousin take off. Ginny fell asleep as we walked through the park, but Elliott had a great time checking out the koi fish and getting wheeled around by Robert.

Mickey asked me to close off this post with a picture of him and Ginny, so here it is! Kinda random I know, but it is a great shot of smiling Mickey.

Daddy-Ginny Day: To The Extreme.

Today was our first Daddy-Ginny Day! We had a hard time deciding where to go: Disneyland, Seaworld, the Zoo, Wild Animal Park, Pink's hot dog stand in L.A., the choices were endless!

I tried to convince Missi that we were going to Disneyland. She didn't fall for it though. After I got my free iced Mocha drink from McDonalds we were on our way to ........ the Zoo!

Before I go on, some of you may notice that Ginny is lacking pants in many of the photos. Despite what you may hear from Missi, the reason why Ginny does not have pants on is because a goat ate them while we were at the Children's Zoo. Prove me wrong. You can't!

OK, so while we were at the Zoo we rode Skyfari and Ginny loved it! She enjoyed looking down at all the people and the animals down below. After the ride she got to meet two baby Kiwi birds and a baby parrot at an animal encounter presentation. Ginny is so great to have around, if I tried to get up close to those birds by myself, the exhibitors would have pushed me aside in favor of some kid. Good job Ginny, way to be cute!

After the Zoo, Ginny and I cruised on over to Balboa Park. The first place we went was the gem and rock association exhibit. Ginny fell asleep looking at the rocks. (I forgot to upload this pic when I first made the slide-show below, so that's why it's all by its lonesome.)

We ate lunch at the Organ Pavilion and were serenaded with some organ music. It was a lot of walking! Well, the rest of the pix pretty much speak for themselves, so here you go!



Ginny enjoyed Skyfari more than this video shows-


We can't wait for another Ginny-Daddy Day. Mom can come too if she wants. ;-)

Still Catching Up On Our Blogging...

With this post we'll have caught ourselves up on the major events that we've experienced since we got back from our Northern California/Reno trip. In June we celebrated Auntie Sarah's birthday. Here she is with her most favorite birthday gift ... a photo-op with me! Just kidding, we got her the necklace she's wearing in the picture.
Ginny experienced her first Fourth of July too! Our little Toothy girl wishes everyone a belated Happy Independence Day! I picked out our little smiler's outfit, wonderfully Americana don't you think? Speaking of Americana, Ginny said the word "apple" twice very distinctly. She said "Apple" without any other babbling. Missi and I asked "Apple?", and she replied "Apple." It was a thrilling conversation about an apple. None of us used any adjectives or verbs but we understood what the subject matter was.
Check out her two pearly whites! So far we only see the two. But you can also see that she can flip her tongue over, alright!
She loves to smile!
She loved waiving her little flag on the 4th, U-S-A! U-S-A! But, she fell asleep watching the fireworks. While me, mama, Ginny and Mulan were outside watching fireworks and eating some kettle corn, poor Mickey was heard running around in the house trying to find a safe place from the loud explosions. Poor Mickey!
The next day Missi and Ginny got to meet my Auntie Mildred from the Philippines. She's spending the summer over here. We got together at Seaworld and had a fun time, but I don't have any pictures to share. :-(

You can probably tell from our prior posts but I feel compelled to highlight how Ginny and Mulan have become quite the pair. Mulan has been a good Ate (big sister), and Ginny is a generous little sister/food sharer. Here they are sharing a moment and a rope toy.

This last part of this post is of Pappy entertaining Ginny on a car ride. First, he used hand puppets, which was pretty successful as you can see. But then...
... he took an ill advised foray into some stand-up about horses. I don't think Ginny got it. I enjoyed it though. Good times.