Merry Christmas, Everyone!

Happy Hanukkah

.... and Happy Sinterklaas (Even though there's no greeting for this, according to Nicki).

I'm convinced Felix is a girlie man, as our governor says. He wears leg warmers.



He wears a princess crown.



The other day he just had to reach out and play with Ella's "Hello Kitty" dress. I'm telling you...I don't want to cast aspersions to his lack of understanding of gender roles, but he is, as we say, a little "festive." He should be a manly man, grunting, watching sports, and playing with trucks while smoking a cigar. That's the manly way!

One nation, undergone

With livertine and justice for all!

Happy Halloween!

Ella is FOUR!

Ella turned four years old three weeks ago and she celebrated by having four friends over for a backyard party. They played in the playtents and tunnels, chalked on the patio, went on the swings & slide, ran around the yard, ate pizza bites and cake, and laughed and screamed under and riding around on top of the parachute.

This is what Felix thought of it all:

In Case You're Wondering...

Some of the friends and family who read this blog may not know Los Angeles very well, but, rest assured, we are nowhere near the wildfires that are going on all over Southern California right now, as I'm sure you've heard about in the news. Most of the fires are in the north of Los Angeles County, easily 30 or 40 miles (or 50-60 km) away from our house, and are confined to the Malibu area (where Nicki and I had our wedding) and the Santa Clarita areas, and to the San Diego area, far to the south. It does however make for some apocalyptic scenes in the skies above our home, such as in this picture I snapped this evening:



The brown hue you see are not storm clouds; it's smoke. Tomorrow we will likely wake up to ash on our cars, house and yard. The fires are a somewhat regular thing here, and some years it's worse than others. 2003 was the last time. It always seems to happen in October, especially with the Santa Ana winds; hot, dry winds which fan the littlest spark to set off brush that has been dried out over a long summer without rain.

Anyway, we're not in any danger.

Dianne, my mother-in-law, came to visit and left on Friday. The previous Friday, the 12th, we went up to the Getty Villa Museum in Malibu, and we drove around that area. Dianne snapped this picture of huge home in the hills above Pepperdine, known as Castle Kashan. It was named after a deputy oil minister in the Shah of Iran's government, who emigrated here. Here's the picture:



Castle Kashan was burned to the ground on Sunday.

Felix is ONE!

Our little monkey is one year old today. Here he is, the seasoned restaurant-goer, perusing the menu at Fromin's Deli. More pictures to follow...

"Hmmm.... what shall I have?"


"I think I'll have the pancakes."


"WAITER!"

Funny Stories

Two stories that illustrate how fun it is being a parent:

As you can see in the sidebar, Felix is already saying a few words, like Mama and Dada. Usually when he does it, it comes out like a mantra, saying "Da da da da..." or "Ma ma ma ma", like he's using more syllables for extra emphasis.

Last week, our satellite dish remote broke and the company sent us a new one in the mail. Nicki had it out and was trying to program it to control the TV without much luck. So I said, jokingly,"Let me try it. I'm smarter than you are." Nicki protested, "No, you're not." So I asked Felix, "Who's smarter, Mama or Dada?", also as a joke. But then without hesitation, he said, "Da da!"

Today we left the house to go to school and met a cloudy day. As Ella and I were walking to the car she looked up at the sky and said, "It looks like it's going to rain." I assured that it probably wasn't, since I had read the forecast, and that it was just a cloudy day.

A little bit later, while Ella was going to school in Nicki's car it started to drizzle and Ella said, "See? I told you!"

E L E V E N

Only one more month until Felix turns one - we're already planning the day.

Above you can see his fangs from a week ago, but now those are being flanked by two teeth growing on top and in the middle.



We took Felix and Ella to Travel Town, which has a display of actual old trains you can climb on and act like you're an engineer. It's been around forever, and I used to go there when I was a kid. Ella rode on the mini train that goes around the park. Six months ago we could never get her near one of those.

A Very Special Day

Today is Tante Dunie's birthday! Happy birthday to you, our dear Tante/Sister! If you were here, we would take you to Crazy Tokyo for some delicious sushi. Well it's the thought that counts, isn't it? So let's just pretend it happened.

Another reason why it's a special day today... Ella's first real haircut at the hairdresser! We went to Lollicut and Ella chose the pink car chair to sit in while Dora cut her hair. We got a little envelope with a lock of her hair to keep and a certificate commemorating the occasion.

Et voilà! Basically, Dora cut 4 inches off the back and cut some bangs in so that Ella's hair doesn't fall all over her face. And then she pulled the sides up into a ponytail and added a pink curly bow.

Catching Up

Last month I had my 40th birthday on the 31st, and started a two week long party during some much needed vacation time starting the 23rd.

I started a big project xeriscaping my front yard, which means killing the lawn and replacing it with decorative stones and water-wise plants, which will reduce our water use. Seems like a strange way to spend a vacation, since most people want to sit on the beach and drink mai-tai's, but it was pretty fulfilling for me, and that's the kind of thing I enjoy doing.

We went up to northern California for Nicki's Baby Signs conference, and later we visited with a friend I went to middle school and high school with, Jim, and his girlfriend Nancy. We met up in Sonoma, the heart of the wine country, in the park in the middle of town. Felix got his first trip on a swing and his first touch of playground sand.



Later we enjoyed a nice picnic and a bottle of wine (natch), and some good conversation. Felix cooperated by taking a nap, and Ella was the sweet, calm little angel she always is.


Don't ask me how I feel about turning 40. Many have, including my uncle Marshall, who arrived at a party Nicki threw for me the last Saturday of my vacation. He knew me when I was a baby, and when he saw me, he asked, "How does it make you feel to turn 40?" I replied, "How does it make you feel for me to turn 40?"

Happy 10-month birthday, Monkey!

Our little monkeydoodle is 10 months old today. To celebrate, he ate two big servings of pureed peaches and grew two more teeth, only not the top two we were expecting, but one on each side of those, like little fangs.

Ella is a big girl now, she goes on the toilet without a potty seat! Now if only she would take herself to the bathroom at night instead of calling for Dada one or more times at night.

9 months old!

Our little monkey is 9 months old today!

Ella Sleeping and Felix Signing

Last week, Ella came home from school and seemed a little sleepy, so she just leaned her head on the couch and dozed off. She slept there for awhile before we coaxed her into bed.

The other day Ella said she wanted the "Heigh-ho" movie. That puzzled us, but then we figured out that she had had seen "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" at school. She told us that Snow White had been woken up from her eternal slumber by the "Heigh-hos".

Felix has been signing more signs - last time I mentioned how he's signing "more", and now he's doing it all the time. He does "more" when he wants more food, "more" when he wants something to happen more (such as Ella jumping on the bed, which makes him laugh hysterically), and "more" cats walking in front of him. He also does more along with blowing a raspberry with his mouth when he wants me to blow raspberries on his stomach. He also does "milk" when he wants to nurse, squeezing his hand like milking a cow. Yesterday he slapped the top of his leg, the sign for "diaper", and sure enough his diaper was wet.

Felix is also starting to say a few words. He says "da da da da" sometimes when he sees me, he "Aaay" for Ella, and says "Kee" when he sees a cat (specifically Toots) for kitty.

Felix can pick up Cheerios with his hand put them in his mouth. We think he's left handed, since he does nearly everything with that hand.

A couple of weeks ago, Felix accompanied Nicki to work because his school was closed, and he was quite popular with the ladies. And his mama, of course.

Felix's Talents

Couple more things to add of what our clever little boy can do. He is now sitting up by himself unassisted for short periods of time. And he plays Peekaboo - takes whatever is handy - a towel, wash cloth, article of clothing and covers his face up with it. Then he pulls it away with a big smile! He also likes it when we cover our faces up and he pulls the item off. He had the giggles in the car today when Ella was making him laugh. Wish I could post the sound of that but I did record it on my cell phone so I can hear it again.

Stretch and Bounce

Ella takes advantage of her small size and toddler's flexiblity to do something like this, which looks painful and probably would be for you and I. For her, it's a way to relax believe it or not. She was doing this while she was lounging in front of the TV.

Ella seems to be learning a lot at her new school. She can count from 1 to 20, but always skips the number 15. We thought it was just unique mistake to her as she masters her numbers, but apparently it's very common for toddlers to skip this number. How did we find this out? On Sesame Street the number of the day was 15, and they had song about "the number 15, don't forget me," so it's common enough that the millions of kids who watch the program can relate. It's very curious, and I've been trying to do some research into why this is, but have so far have had no luck.

Felix is bouncing in his chair he got from his Oma lala. He loves it.



Felix just turned 8 months today. We think he has started to sign a bit - this morning I was holding him and feeding him O's cereal, and when he had finished one he clapped his hands together until I put another one in his mouth, close to the sign for "more". Usually the sign is either pointing one finger to the palm of your hand, or putting the thumb and fingers together on both hands, then touching the ends of the fingers, but he's got it pretty close. We've caught him doing it a few times, especially when he's eating. If he really is signing, that would be pretty advanced. Most kids don't start until between 10 and 14 months.

Guess the food

Felix just started eating, so he's been wearing a lot of it. Now it's time to play GUESS THAT FOOD. Let's see if you can figure it out.




And here's just a nice picture of my wife and children, just so you know what I'm thankful for on this day, our wedding anniversary.

7 months

Well as you can see by the picture below posted last month, Felix is now eating food. He started on sweet potato then moved on to yogurt. Then he got pureed fruits - prunes, peaches, pears and apple. All were a big hit. Since it is his 7 month birthday today, he got some mashed egg yolk in his creamy yogurt with flax seed oil mixture (Ella eats the white, doesn't like the yolk which she calls the seed). Also very delicious. Jim will post the pictures of Felix with various foods all over his face. He ALMOST has a tooth! He can roll onto his side and all the way over onto his tummy too.

Our beautiful nephew, Ella & Felix's cousin, Emile is ONE year old today! Happy Birthday, have a wonderful day, wish we could be there to celebrate with you.

Visit to Granny's House

Last weekend, all of us took a trip out to Palm Desert to visit Granny (my Mom), and Jeanne (Nicki's Oma), who came from Florida to visit her daughter Lynne. Felix got his first dip in the pool, and Ella even got her feet wet, which is unusual for her, since she wouldn't go near a pool before. Felix didn't know what to think of it. It wasn't like he was home in his nice warm bathtub, which he loves to get in.



Ella loves my Mom's dogs, especially Jasper, who loves to play with Ella.



In the end, we have a hard time getting Ella to leave, since she loves her Granny so much. She especially loves when Granny takes her for a ride in a golf cart, since she can get in a car without being strapped into a car seat and can act like a big girl.



We went out to lunch with Jeanne, and she took Felix to Toys R Us to get him a bouncer. We set it up at home and he loved it (I'm sure we'll have pictures in a later post).

Ella the Photographer

Ella has started to get the hang of taking pictures with our digital camera, and has graduated from being a shutterbug to a real photographer. When she first started doing it she was trying to act like a fashion photographer, swinging the camera around and acting like she was taking pictures, saying "Yeah, baby. Give it to me." Maybe I made up that last part. But they usually turned out like this one:



Now she actually takes the time to stop and frame the picture, which is pretty advanced for a three year-old. She practices all the time with her Disney princess camera, which doesn't actually take pictures, but which makes a snapping noise and says, "You look wonderful." Ella repeats this saying when she takes pictures with the real camera.



That one she got the framing right, but out of focus. You can't ask too much from a little girl. However, then she does things like this:



I was very impressed that she could take a picture that well. And then, well, little girls will be little girls.



As you can tell, her doll Baby Polish is more important to her than her mother (that's who's holding her).

My uncle Marshall and aunt Melanie came to visit recently, bringing with them my cousin Janet's daughter Alexa. My uncle is Mom's brother, and I used to play with his daughter and son David when I was a kid, since I was only a couple of years older than they were. Alexa and Ella seemed to be having a good time together as well, so a Dennis family tradition continues.

Felix laughs

4 months old!

Felix is four months old today! He had a check-up with Dr. Jena and is doing great. His current stats are: weight 17 lbs 5 oz (7.85 kg) length 26 inches (66 cm). Unfortunately he still has the tail end of a cough and now has a little ear infection but this doesn't seem to affect his mood at all; he is as easy-going and happy as usual mostly. He is starting to teethe, and we can see little white toothbuds in his gums, with lots of drool to match. He has an adorable chuckle-laugh, which is often directed at his big sister. Here are some more pictures of Felix and Ella and their dear Opa, who sadly has now gone back home to Holland.

Ella is ready to go to the park:


If you look closely, you can see Felix's outline inside Mama's wrap: