My birthday

This post is mostly for myself, so I can remember how special my birthday was this year. So Feb 26th was my birthday. More so than any other year, I really felt cared about this year on that day. I just had many people do thoughtful things for me. All of my family members contancted me that day, like usual, but old friends also wished me a happy birthday (e.g. Craig Thulin, Marco Antonio, etc.). In addition, the undergrads that work for me also signed a card and put some really thoughtful comments in it. One of them (Paul) also baked a whole bunch of cupcakes for me. The best part of the day, though was the afternoon/evening, when Maria surprised me by taking me out to go roller blading in Pacific Beach. We also ended up playing with Anabelle in a little park near there. It was a lot of fun.
We then dropped Anabelle off a friend's house and then went out to eat. After picking Anabelle up, we had a little cake, which Anabelle loved helping to blow out the candles and eat. All in all, it was a great day!

Maria and I have finally succumbed.... thanks to the National Science Foundation

Over the past few years, Maria and I have scoffed at all of the people shutting themselves out from everyone else by putting those hideous white iPod plugs in their ears. Even when I won an iPod nano 2 years ago at a scientific conference, I immediately sold it, saying "my PDA does the same and more, and we need the money anyways to pay for diapers!" (I won it right before Anabelle was born). Well, I got some funding from the National Science Foundation that provides me a small amount of money to buy supplies, equipment, books, or anything pertaining to my research. Well, with one of my purchases we got a $150 gift certificate for use at the online Dell computers store. However, almost anything of interest to us at the store costs much more than that (e.g. computer monitors (>$200), a canon rebel camera (>$500), etc.). Then we noticed their little menu of mp3 players, and we started thinking... Maria goes to the gym 3-5 times each week and she'd love to listen to music and/or audiobooks during her workouts... In addition, I have a program that takes text from the internet and generates an audio file, as if someone was reading it to you, and so in my nerdiness I was thinking "I could take scientific journal articles, online textbooks, and books from LDS library and listen to them while biking to school, watching Mulan and Toy Story 2 with Anabelle (for the 10^nth time), or while washing the endless pile of dishes in our sink!" So we blew the $150 on two mp3 players. Maria wanted one with which she could look at pictures, so she got the Creative Zen V plus, while I got a bare-bones Creative Zen Stone. We love them, but Anabelle has felt left out. She keeps saying "Mine iPod! Mine!", even after we keep telling her that they are not iPods, rather less trendy and more reasonably priced and more versatile mp3 players! I'm surprised that she is almost 2 and still can't tell the difference between an iPod and a Creative Zen mp3 player! If she keeps up at this rate, she'll never fit in with the cool kids.

Anabelle, Tori and me playing SingStar...

There's a karaoke game for the playstation, that's kind of like Dance Dance Revolution. At Bennett and Jen's place tonight we all rocked out to songs by Erasure, Cindi Lauper, RunDMC, Madonna and Starship. Anabelle especially loved sucking on the mic and occasionally singing "row row row your boat" or "rain rain go away." Maria, as usual, "couldn't sing" but still managed to get a higher score than anyone else, while I just caused everyone else pain. For that reason, you may wish to shield the ears of any youthful listeners to protect their hearing.

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for the Valentines Day Gift!!

When we checked the mail tonight, Anabelle was excited to see a package. She made sure we knew it was hers by pointing at it and saying "Bababelle's!" I helped her open up the package, and when Anabelle saw a small, but very nicely wrapped gift inside, she went nuts. She told me that the envelope with a card was mine (and insisted on it even after I showed her that it had her name on it... kids... jump to conclusions before even reading first) and began to open the Valentine's day gift sent by Grandma and Grandpa (even though it was Feb 10th today... I guess she didn't want to wait four more days). It was a really cute book on family love. We read it together as a family and had a great evening. Thanks Mom and Dad!

What did you do on Feb 9, 2008?

Well, it was a warm day here, so we went swimming (outside) as a family. Anabelle saw the other kids putting their faces in the water and blowing, so she kept trying it, eventhough it was always followed up by choking, hacking, and gasping for air. She eventually gave up, fortunately.

If you visit our blog often, you probably get tired of us showing off our beach...

Here's another beach pic. After watching President Hinckley's funeral online, we decided to have a morning together as a family. We went to this great crepes place right next to the kayack launching point at La Jolla shores. Maria and I got the most delicious crepes to go, and then we walked down to the beach and ate them on the sand (not directly on the sand... we had them on plates... however, anabelle felt like mine could use some sand, so she took care of that). Maria and I also ate most of Anabelle's crepe since she was more interested in the beach. After eating, Anabelle and I went to go chase waves. Maria tried to join us. As she walked towards us, I watched in horror as a swarm of crepe-thirsty seagulls dove down from the sky and tore apart our lunch. Fortunately, we'd finished the crepes, so they only got the plates and some crumbs....

Gabe and the Banana at the Beach

At Anabelle's bathtime the other day, Maria casually said "Oh, Nate, be sure to wash her hair well... we went to the beach today." I too am starting to get jealous of all of the fun things Maria and Anabelle are doing on a regular basis. In addition, I've noticed that Anabelle has been spending a little too much time with this Gabe kid... and call me paranoid, but I think he's looking at her a little too much. I think I need to sit the two of them down for a little chat and to remind them that they can't date for another 14 years.

Don't ask...

Every now and again I download the pictures from our camera and come across a picture that makes me say "What???" Well, I've learned to just not ask. Here's a picture that I came across yesterday. Anabelle has a bunch of foam squares that have letters and numbers cut into them. As you can see here, somehow Anabelle learned to wear them. When I turned to Maria to ask about it, she laughed and then went back to reading... no response... hmmm....