Yep, Leina is standing on her own now. She’s been practicing with chairs, sofas and any large objects she can find (including Mom & Dad). But yesterday, much to Chrissie’s surprise, she decided to up and stand on her own. She’s getting better at it and quicker everyday so we decided to get it on video now – while there’s still some suspense to it happening. If standing is like crawling a week from now this will be old hat.

(Click the image for the 3.5 Mb video)

Just in case you weren’t convinced of her cuteness here’s a couple more videos of Leina playing “touch” and dancing to Old MacDonald

(Playing Touch – 6.9 Mb)

(Dancing – 3.9 Mb)

(Dancing some more – 7.0 Mb)

For the rest of her video’s check out Leina’s Video Page.

Here is one of the latest examples of the munchkin’s crawling activities caught on video. I’m putting her on the floor in the family room and she promptly starts to crawl out of the room past all over her toys and clutter. She constantly does this so we’ve coined it “threading the needle.” In part II she continues heading for the dog’s water dish – her favorite destination – until stopped by her disgusted parents. To show you how much she loves Artie’s water bowl we’ve included the now infamous “don’t touch” video. In which it’s difficult to tell if Leina really wants to play with the water or aggravate Chrissie.

Threading the Needle pt. I (1:06 ~7.5Mb)

Threading the Needle pt. II (0:26 ~2.9Mb)

Don’t Touch (1:20 ~9.1Mb)

Well it’s less than a month to go before our anniversary so it’s about time I started figuring out the ‘perfect’ present to give my wonderful wife. Now, in the past, my gift choices have not been up to par – some would say down-right awful. There’s no need to go into detail but suffice it to say I learned a very valuable lesson one Christmas: never buy something that can later be used as a blunt implement.

This year it is our 5th anniversary and since that is a considerable number of years – all of them wonderful – I thought I’d look up the ‘official’ theme for the gift. Since 50 years is gold, 25 years silver, 10 years tin I thought 5 years must be something good like zinc or bronze. Low-and-behold my surprise when I found out from ivillage that it was wood! Imagine, a whole anniversary dedicated to my favorite material. I don’t know who the genius is who came up with these themes but I’d like to shake his hand – and it definitely must have been a guy, no woman would have chosen tin after 10 years. Here is a suggestion list from ivillage for possible wood-themed gifts:

– Bonsai plant
– Weekend away in a log cabin
– Wood plaque engraved with words of love
– Take a walk in the woods
– Photo of you or of the two of you in a wooden frame
– New fence or decking
– Wooden furniture
– Wood sculpture or carvings

Now my personal choice would be a truck load of freshly cut Western Red Cedar or a couple of new 4’x8′ sheets of 3/4″ birch plywood instead of new decking or a wood sculpture but to each his own. While I’m sure my lovely bride would be enthralled with a beautiful headshot of me in a nice wood frame, wait ’til she sees what I’m dreaming up. This is going to be the best anniversary present yet.

But, if my present fails to live up to expectations there’s always next year: iron. I’m sure Chrissie would want a couple of new wings for my tablesaw by then.

Of course what goes around comes around, look at the goodies she has coming once we have 3+ decades of bliss under our belt:

– Thirty-fifth: coral or jade
– Fortieth: rubies
– Forty-fifth: sapphires
– Fiftieth: gold
– Fifty-fifth: emeralds
– Sixtieth: diamonds

Somethings are worth waiting for aren’t they?

Well, the long day of the move is over. We’ve all survived – but barely. Leina did great. After the 1st run was loaded and while Josh and I unloaded at the new house Leina took a long first nap. So long infact that by the time Josh and I got back to the old house all our friends were there just waiting around for her to wake up! After sleepy head woke to find her living room missing we all packed up the second load while Leina was passed from aunt to aunt to grandpa who took her back for a fun filled day at grandma and grandpa Mac’s place.

Many thanks to all our friends who helped out with the move. Including Natalie who is 8 months pregnant with baby Kyle!

Special thanks to Lance and Tommy who took apart Leina’s crib and re-assembled it in her new room. That crib is not easy to work with!

Super-duper thanks to sherpa-Josh and Kat who worked late into the night getting the last load finished. Without them Leina wouldn’t have had her cheerios this morning and I wouldn’t have gotten my bandsaw moved for many weeks! Thanks a lot you guys!

All in all the move went very well. But we have too darn much stuff. Where did all this stuff come from? I tell you, I don’t know how many boxes marked, “crafts” I moved but it was mountain load.

Now all that remains is getting the odds and ends from the old place and cleaning it up for Suzy, Dan, Daniel and Sammy’s visit next month!

For now we’ll keep on movin’

For those on high bandwidth lines, we proudly (and we do mean proudly) present the 1st video of our baby sitting up. This is not technically the 1st time she pushed herself up from her belly to her bottom but it is one of the first few times. She’s actually improved the process significantly and can now do it in the blink of an eye, rather than the 25 sec. in the video.

The 2 links are:

Leina’s warm up, encouragement from mom, then sit-up (6.6Mb 1 min.)

Leina’s celebration, cool down, and victory dance (6.2Mb 1 min.)

Enjoy

Well, Leina turned 10 months old on Monday and to celebrate – as we always do – we took her Pooh Pic. I’m used to how big she is now but all the new mannerisms and the little personality she’s become is incredible. What a joy.

Click on the pic to see all the Pooh Pics to date: