Happy Birthday, Patty!

Thirty-three years ago today, the woman who is so much to so many of us was born. There is not a more selfless and hard working woman on this planet. The world in which I (Matt) operate revolves smoothly because of her. The son that we have is the person he is because of her. The life that we live is in no small part due to her. We love her. We love her very much.

Happy birthday!

Knotty Birds

Please visit Patty and Rebecca's new web site, Knotty Birds!

We're Number Two! We're Number Two!

We had the annual (but our first) MINI scavenger hunt today, and it took us all over metro Atlanta. We went to Marietta, Buckhead, Midtown, Downtown, Cabbagetown, Little Five Points, Virginia Highlands, and back up to Marietta - all in 3 hours and 7 minutes (we were docked 10 points for the 7 minutes). Some of the items were scavenged, and some things we just needed in photos. Here are most of the photos we took. We came in SECOND PLACE! WOOHOO! We chose a $50 gift certificate toward work we need done on Otto as our prize.

A funny story about the one with #17: We were supposed to find a French landmark at Atlantic Station, and I (P) thought I'd heard that they put a little Eiffel Tower in there, so we drove around for about 15 minutes looking for La Tour D'Eiffel and couldn't figure out why it wasn't next to the Arc de Triumphe. Duh. The Arc de Triumphe, as in the gigantic French landmark? Well, thankfully M read the clue again and realized they didn't specify which landmark, so we took our photo and moved on.

Can you find the paramedic and the fireman in these photos? Can you find Gabriel wearing naughty clothing? Yep, we got in trouble in a few places, but we got second place!

But the best part of the day was that we got to see our friends Cindy (with child), Tim, and Dryden again. It's been far too long, and we had a great time with them!

Best Buds

G and Christopher got to spend a little time together today. After playgroup, we hung around the park, and then we went to C's house for lunch, playtime, and a movie. Here's some video:

What G is saying: "I'm sorry I didn't bring my computer for you to play with."

Also, do you hear anything funny in this one?

Monkeys Everywhere!

A local inflatable gym asked me if I would come up with a monkey toy to sell there, because a monkey is their logo. That's why I made the doll and finger puppet. As I'm trying to come up with the perfect monkey, I'm creating several prototypes. I think the finger puppet will be the way to go, but here's another one I made up just to see what it would look like.

I also visited my LYS (local yarn shop) to see what good yarn was all about and to seek inspiration. I want to try knitting again, because I really want to be good at knitting and crocheting, both. Well, I came home with a great project. As it is going to be part of Erica's and Raul's baby trousseau, I can not post here what it will be; I can, however, give a hint:

In other news, Gabriel wrote his own name today, unguided. I was in the kitchen and told him to write something on great-grandma's card so she would know whom it is from (surprise, Grandma Kranz, you are getting a card... just act surprised when you get it), and when I came back into the dining/craft room, he had written his own name! I have taken a photo and will post after she has gotten her card so I don't totally ruin the surprise, but I really wanted to share because this is a Big Deal for us!

Another G moment today: yesterday, I had found him in the bathroom dipping his hand into the toilet water (after he peed) because he had to "wash [his] belly," so today when he took too long in the bathroom I yelled up the stairs to check on him.
Me: "I just wanted to make sure you weren't drinking out of the toilet or something."
G: "Oh, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy. I would never do that."