Well it has been forever since I posted, but I can't think of anything else more memorable to post about than this:

Jason Bruce was born today (3/17/2010) at 1427. He weighed 7 pounds 8 ounces and was 19 inches long. Diane and he are both doing well.

Miscellany and Mischief

With mobility comes mischief. Here is a collection of recent Ashley photos documenting her exploits. I keep telling Ashley to be careful. Diane says she is always underfoot, just like having a dog again. As you may recall, we no longer have a dog.


























We have arrived at that point where she will no longer hold still for a diaper change. Every time the diaper comes off she bolts and has to be wrestled into a new diaper and clothes.

If we could just get her to put it in instead of taking it out it would be so much better.

But she has arrived at the stage where she will give those cute little open-mouthed slobbery baby kisses. That may just save her from Gil's fate.

Learning to Ski

With all of the snow around I decided that I would teach the kids to ski this year. The first time I took just Jonathan. They had about 6 inches of new, wet snow. Jonathan liked the bunny hill, but was no fan of the regular hill as it was much steeper and he couldn't turn because the snow was so deep.

The next time we went I took both Jonathan and Aubrey. We actually went on both Friday and Saturday that time. The great thing about Shichinohe is that it is close and cheap. I can be there in 45 minutes and a two hour pass for the rope tow on the bunny hill is only 200 yen ($2.00) for the kids and 400 yen ($4.00) for me. This time the snow was better. Jonathan started to get the hang of making turns and Aubrey could get up the rope tow by herself and got her balance. She fell on her turns, but was able to go across the hill without falling.

Sock Monkey Love

It has been a while since I took this picture, but I am just now getting around to posting it, or anything else for that matter.

For Christmas, my mother gave Ashley a sock monkey because I had one when I was a baby. We put it in the crib for Ashley to sleep with. One night I we went in to check on her and this is what we saw.

Ashley Meets Isaac...Newton

As you can see from the last post Ashley is now mobile. She does not like to be left alone, but if it is her idea then it's OK. While we were "celebrating" the holiday by cleaning upstairs Di was in the bedroom and I had taken something downstairs. Ashley decided to explore the hallway and found the stairs--and gravity, and thus she became acquainted with Sir Isaac Newton. Fortunately for Ashley there are only three steps to the landing, so nothing was seriously injured, except for maybe her pride.

Interesting factoids for the day. Did you know that Sir Isaac Newton was the Master of the Mint and established the gold standard in England from where is spread through the rest of the world? The United States was the last country to abandon the gold standard in 1971.

Mobility 2.1

I shot a shorter video of Ashley to see if that would work and it looks like it did. As you can see she is getting much more proficient with the locomotion--which is not without its down side.

We celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. Day exactly the way my father taught us to celebrate all holidays--we worked around the house. I promised the kids that if they helped us clean really well that I would take them out to dinner at their favorite restaurant. They did a great job, so we went out to eat. After we got home I put Ashley on the floor while Jonathan and Aubrey were getting ready for bed. She proceeded to open the coffee table drawer and scatter the coasters on the newly cleaned floor. I should have known it wouldn't last, but I didn't expect the first mess to be made by one so young.

Mobility 2.0

Ashley has been getting around by rolling and squirming for a little while now, but we are entering a new phase. She has started the army crawl and is making tentative steps toward regular crawling. She gets up on all fours and rocks back and forth. Sometimes she even lifts up a hand and puts it down in front of the other and then drags both feet behind her. Full speed can't be too far behind.

I had a video to post, but it won't upload. I will have to try again later.