Last week, someone at my office received a demo Flip Video Camera from a vendor, asking us to play around with it and see how it works. I was impress at how SMALL the thing is, and it shoots good footage. Rather than using iMovie to import and edit the clips, there's built-in "Flip Share" software that lets users edit and share their movies. While it's not as fancy as iMovie, the video greeting cards are really cool. Below are two samples of movies I took of Jake over the weekend, singing some of his favorite holiday songs.

Just click on the images to view:

 Hard to believe that I completely missed posting something on Jake's birthday. Time just seems to be flying by. Anyway, Jake's birthday was two weeks ago (!). We had a party at Cook Park Rec Center, with about 6 kids and 10 adults. It was fun. Here's a video of the event that I posted to Jake's blog. We made a little iMovie, and Jake provided the narration. Even though he's been 3 for just a few weeks, we can already tell that the "terrible two's" is nothing compared to the 3's. He continues to test his limits, and throws a more serious fit when he doesn't get his way. On the plus side, though, his sense of humor is becoming more sophisticated, and so is his vocabulary. Just today he told Leah to "stop freaking out" which cracked us up to no end. 

On the potty training front, he is just about finished with diapers. The only time he wears them now is at night. And even then, he'll often get up early in the morning, all by himself, and go potty. That's one HUGE weight off our shoulders, not having to deal with poopy diapers anymore. He even insists on sitting on the "big potty" and not the little insert seat we got for him. He likes to put his hands on either side of the bowl and turn around to admire his work while he's pooping. It's quite funny. Matter of fact, everything about Jake's pooping routine strikes me as funny. He'll sit on the toilet, and look at me, but he's not really looking at me, but more "through" me as he goes through his pushing. He begins to breathe more emphatically as I can tell he's trying to squeeze something out, and he gets this look on his face that becomes serious and distracted at the same time. This whole routine amuses the hell out of me!

In other news, Leah's Mom and Larry visited last weekend. They were in town from Thursday to Monday. We went out to eat at this great place on Friday night called Fruition, a tiny little French restaurant on Capitol Hill. The earliest we could reserve a table was at 9:00, so it was a late evening, but a great meal all the same. The rest of the weekend we took turns cooking at home. Joyce and Larry made a seafood pasta on Saturday, and Leah and I made a Moroccan themed dinner of bisteeya and chicken stew. Larry and I golfed at Wellshire on Saturday, and Sunday Leah hung out with Joyce and Larry while Jake and I stayed home and napped.

Leah has been sick for almost 10 days now, coughing and sneezing like crazy. We even had to take turns sleeping downstairs a few nights last week because her coughing continued through the night. She's still not 100%, and neither is Jake. So far, I'm the only one who hasn't gotten sick, and I'm hoping that I won't. 

To keep you updated on my procrastination, there's also some new videos from Halloween on Jake's blog:

• Lord Jacob the Jubilant
• Fun with PhotoBooth

I should really be more consistent posting to this blog. I find myself finding excuses not to write, much like what I do when it comes to going to work out at the gym. I've created a Twitter account, thinking that if I only posted short entries, I'd do it more often, but that hasn't happened either. Not familiar with Twitter? It's a condensed version of blogging, with all posts restricted to 140 characters or less. Here's my lame account so far. The cool thing about it, though, is that you can follow other people's posts, creating a personal network of people who have similar interests. Most of the people I'm following are leading figures in education technology.

Yes, that's the new phrase around here. But it comes with the good news that Jake is finally potty trained. It started with us trying to get him to pee in the potty. He's been pretty good at making it to the toilet while he stands up on a little stool his grandpa made for him, and letting it flow. Getting him to do the pooping in the potty was a little more complicated. We've been using this little "mini-potty" that he'd sit on from time to time, but usually he just went in his diaper. Once Jake started wearing his "Big Boy Undies" he was more open to trying the potty. So one day he announced, "There's something in my butt," to which we rushed him to the little potty, and lo and behold, he made a dookie in the potty, causing all three of us to dance and celebrate like he'd just won an award. In order to continue this behavior, we decided to entice Jakey with a mystery prize for every time he poops in the potty. We bought a bunch of Hot Wheels cars, and wrapped them up to make a big production out of it. Now, every time he poops in the potty, he asks for his present. Jake calls his new collection his "Poop Cars" since he's gotten them for pooping in the potty. It's pretty funny.

And the good news is that now he's starting to sit on the actual toilet to poop, as we attach his mini-seat to the bowl so he doesn't fall in. This makes cleanup SO MUCH easier! All this is happening when he's about one month from his 3rd birthday. I guess that's fairly normal. Our little boy continues to grown up.

Jake is also becoming a big fan of They Might Be Giants. I got him a DVD on eBay called "Here Come the ABC's" which he absolutely LOVES! Check out their website to see some samples. It's also really helping him learn his letters and numbers. And the best part is that the music is catchy and edgy enough that we like listening to it, too.

In other (quickly becoming outdated) news, I posted some pictures I took during the DNC. CLICK HERE to view them.

There's also another new edition to my photo page from a recent trip to the mountains to see the fall colors. CLICK HERE to see them.

My, how time flies! Last entry we were all set to move, with our house under contract. Well, things have changed. Let's recap, along with other events of the past month:

No More Contract: The same day we were about to submit an offer for the 2nd house on our list (Jefferson Ave) we found out that our buyer had his loan denied, forcing him to back out of the contract for our house. Now we are back where we started in April, having to put our home back up for sale, and keeping the place clean every day for the possibility that we'll have a showing. It's been a rollercoaster of ups and downs, going from being in "moving mode" to having to come to grips with the possibility that we're going to have to wait until 2009 to see our house.

Police at Red Rocks: On July 22nd, Leah and I celebrated our 4th anniversary two days early by seeing The Police and Elvis Costello at Red Rocks. The last time we saw a Red Rocks show was when The Dead played there in 2003 (I think it was 2003). It was a GREAT concert! Sting sounded great, and Elvis was good, too, although he only played a 45-minute set with no encore. And unlike the last five times I've seen Elvis, dating back to the 80's in Philly, he didn't wear red shoes. Great concert!

4th Anniversary: Two days after our official anniversary (July 24th) we celebrated a second time by going out to a nice dinner downtown. Leah found this cool restaurant near the Denver Performing Arts Center, downstairs at the Curtis Hotel, called The Corner Office. The place had a very retro atmosphere featuring art deco and a combination of vintage and modern design. The menu was unique, too, with everything from mexican to asian to twists on popular favorites, like lobster mac and cheese. We sipped on martinis and soaked up the atmosphere. Good times!

Flying Daddy Breaks the Bed: Two weekends ago, Jake and I were playing on the bed. I started doing "flying Daddy" where I'd jump on the bed, pretending to crush Jake, only to move my arms and legs out of the way at the last minute. I learned that our bed is not built for flying Daddy tricks, and on my third jump I heard a loud CRACK and wound up breaking the entire side rail of the bed. It was completely shattered, and I was overcome with my own stupidity for thinking that the bed could hold my fat ass. We immediately went to a furniture store and bought a new bed frame. And this time, I got the 5-year warranty, so if something like this happens again (which it WON'T!) we'll be covered for repairs or replacement.

Fun at Lakeside: When Leah was in Cincinnati in late June, Jake and I went to Lakeside Amusement Park. This year Lakeside is celebrating its 100th year. We went a second time in July, when they were having a $1.00 unlimited ride pass for kids under 12. Jake had a great time in KiddieLand. He also had his first official ice cream cone, as I schooled him on the finer points of how to eat a cone without spilling. Here's some photos from our two visits to Lakeside, CLICK HERE to view.

Corel Painter: I just bought some new software for my Mac called Corel Painter Essentials. It has a feature called "Auto Photo Painting" where you can select a photo and let the software autmatically turn it into a painting. I can choose oil painting, watercolor, chalk, colored pencil, and more. CLICK HERE to see some samples I created from some of my favorite photos.

New Bike: Back in early June, right when summer break officially began, I used my "economic stimulus" money to get a new bicycle. After doing lots of research and test riding at various bike shops, I wound up getting a "performance hybrid" from Specialized called a Sirrus Sport. It's got thin tires like a road bike, but with a (lightweight) mountain bike  frame that makes for a quick, smooth ride around town. It feels good to enjoy riding a bike again!

Has it been over a month already? The older we get, the faster time seems to pass. The last entry was when our house was first listed in the market, and I'm happy to say that since then our house is now under contract. We've had an appraisal, inspection, and signed all the necessary papers to have the house ready to be sold. Tomorrow (Tuesday) we are going to take Jake to daycare in the morning, and then our realtor, Leah and myself will look at LOTS of houses. Now that we know we have a buyer, it makes the process of finding a house more real. The three zip codes we're looking at are in 80224, 80231, and 80237.

In Jake news, the "Good Hand" has been one our newest games. What is the goon hand, you ask? If you look in the UrbanDictionary.com, you find the following definition:

Taking a firm grip of the meaty underside of a woman's upper arm, making it easy to muscle her around. Most times uttering "you're making a scene" into the woman's ear.

However, I think the "goon hand" comes from Mafia movies, where the "goons" for the big boss want to escort someone out of a public place without making a scene. The technique is the same as described above, but the gender isn't limited to women, but instead applies to any "goombah" that needs to meet with the Boss. As for Jake, the goon hand has morphed into a game where I chase him around the house with my hand out, trying to get close enough to grab him under the arm, while he squeals with delight. He'll say, "Daddy, give me the goon hand," and I'll make a claw-like motion with my hand and start chasing him. Great fun!

Jake is also developing a very specific taste in music. I love seeing how much he likes listening to music. There's certain bands, however, that really get him going. It started with Nelly Furtado and Fergie when Jake was 1, and now he's into Talking Heads and They Might Be Giants. Leah noticed that every time a Talking Heads song would come on the radio, Jake would begin dancing around and getting down with his bad self. And recently, I've begun singing They Might Be Giants to him on the changing table, Doctor Worm in particular. Once I played the real song on the iPod, we both started singing and dancing all over the house. After many of Jake's "Again! Again!" requests, Doctor Worm and Older are now in heavy rotation in our house. I hope you check out the two links above to see YouTube videos for each song, performed by They Might Be Giants.

There have been so many times that I've wished I had a video camera to capture some of Jake's best moments of pure joy and dancing. However, I also know that the memories will last forever, and how I imagine these moments are often better than the actual moments.

And speaking of moments, Leah got me a great Father's Day present: a photo shoot featuring Jake in his Phillies outfit. Check out PHOTO SHOOT #1 and PHOTO SHOOT #2 to see the full session and large versions I scanned and added some Photoshop effects.

This has been a busy couple of weeks.

Opening Day: It started on April 4th, with tickets to Opening Day. My friends Matthew and Spatz go to Opening Day every year, and when they can remember to get me a ticket, I sometimes get to join them. This year, Spatz remembered me, and since Opening Day fell during my Spring Break, it was a done deal all the way. The buzz around Coors Field was different from years past, since this year the Rockies were beginning the season as the National League Champs. Even though the Rockies lost, it was a good day nonetheless.

Professional Development: In an effort to try to acquire more credits so I can get a pay increase, I signed up for two classes offered through Diane Morrison Consulting. One course was called "Digital Photography" and the other "Writing with Focused Intent. The photography class was a good one, since it helped me learn how to use my digital camera, and become more familiar with its features. Here's a sample of using macros and focus points for a professional-looking result. To view more sample photos I took from this class, CLICK HERE.

Passover: Last weekend Leah and I hosted Passover Seder for 13 of our friends. The crowd consisted of mostly the St. Patty's Dinner folks, plus my friend Fred, Bonnie, and Shelby. Luckily, Fred is a fellow MOT ("member of the tribe") so I wasn't the only Jew in the house. Everyone contributed a kosher for Passover dish to the meal, and a good time was had by all. The wine was flowing, along with the matzoh ball soup, brisket, salad, potato pancakes, spinach-artichoke casserole, mushroom onion kugel, and more. For most of the attendees, this was their first Passover, so it was a new experience and exposure to Jewish tradition. Good times!

Phillies vs Rockies: The Phillies came to town two days later, their only appearance in Denver of the season. This was the first two-game series I can recall, since usually they play 3 or 4 games when a visiting team comes to town. But I was prepared, and made sure I got tickets to both games, even though it meant missing my second week in a row of softball (I was teaching a class for CCSD the week before). Monday night's game I went with Matthew and sat 7 rows behind home plate, thanks to Brian from softball, who manages to save me one of his season tickets for the Phillies, since he knows I want to see them every time they come to Denver. The second night I went with my Dad and Jake, and we sat in Club Level. I got these seats from StubHub, since April weather tends to be cold, and I wanted to make sure Jakey could have a shelter close by if needed. I was so proud riding the train with my son, as we wore matching Phillies jerseys (thanks, Matthew!). It was also a momentous occasion because this was the first time that three generations of Solomons attended a Phillies game together. 
Once the game started, Jake couldn't sit still, and I wound up walking him up and down the stairs from the Club Mezzanine and back to the seats again and again. We left after singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" after Jake wore me out! The good news, though, is that the Phillies came from behind to beat the Rockies in the 9th inning, making it a nice little 2-game sweep.

Kraftwerk: The day after the Phillies series, Leah and I met up with Matthew and Spatz at the Filmore Auditiorium downtown to see one of my favorite bands from the 80's: Kraftwerk. Being the nerd that I am, I bought tickets to this show the day they went on sale, even though it was only 3/4 sold out the night of the show, and Matthew and Spatz wound up getting free tickets while I paid almost $100 for ours. Oh well, it was worth it, especially when considering that Kraftwerk is only playing FOUR dates in the United States. Check out their website, it's pretty cool.

FOR SALE: Finally, the biggest news of the month is that our house is now officially for sale. We signed the papers on Friday, and have had four showings over the weekend. We have been working hard to keep the house looking "show-ready" at all times. We've taken down all personal photos, painted, and moved out a bunch of furniture into storage, which really makes the house look nice. CLICK HERE to view the official listing or take a VIRTUAL TOUR. With a little power of positive thinking and visualization of ideal circumstances, we hope to be in a new house by the 4th of July.

During the week of my Spring Break, March 31-April 4, Jake contracted some kind of stomach virus at daycare. One of the other kids was sick earlier this week, and it caught up to Jake by Wednesday night. He threw up several times, starting at 8:00 PM, and it didn't let up until early Friday morning. It lasted a little longer than the usual 24 hours, so Leah took him to the doctor on Friday afternoon, where she told us it's a case of mild dehydration, and it's not that serious. Whew!

The poor little guy was groggy all day Thursday, dry heaving and not being able to keep anything down, even the pedialyte drinks we were trying to give him to stay hydrated. By Friday morning, he showed signs of improvement, starting to make more "false alarm" trips to the bathroom instead of the real thing. Jake began overdramatizing his sickness to the fullest. He'd whisper his needs as if he was too pooped to talk, and his declarations of, "Gotta throw up again," were heard more often, with less results.

These photos feature two of these false alarm trips. The pose, however, is one that immediately makes me think that this is merely the first of MANY trips like this to the toilet Jake will make during his life. Brings back some fond memories I have of getting sick myself, both as a child and as an adult, and for different reasons!

It's been a busy couple of days. First, my brother Bob came for a brief visit on his way home from a medical conference in Portland. He stopped in Denver on Wednesday and Thursday, and left Friday morning. He spend Wednesday night with us, and Thursday night with Mom and Dad in Boulder. Bob and I skied on Thursday afternoon at Eldora, the closest ski area to Boulder. The last time we skied together I was 12 years old, when we skied at this tiny place called Bell Mountain in New Jersey. Bob had never skied in Colorado before. We had a half-day pass, so we were on the slopes from 1:00-3:30. I then dropped him off in Boulder, and I came back to Denver in time to play softball Thursday night in North Jeffco. We lost 23-0, and it was obvious that the guys were all a little rusty after not playing for four months.

Meanwhile, while Bob was out riding his Brompton Bike (see photo), Jake and I were doing "tricks" on the bed, like we do every day. He was trying to step on my face, and his foot slipped and he slammed into the headboard behind me. I knew from the THUMP that it was serious. I immediately grabbed him as he began to wail. And then the blood started flowing...and flowing. I took him to the bathroom and Leah got him some towels, which quickly turned red. When we were able to calm him down enough to look at his wound, a nice little gash was visible. Luckily, brother Bob is a doctor, and when he returned from his bike ride, he told us he's going to either need a stitch or two, or maybe some dermabond to help close the wound. After Leah calmed down, she took Jake to Children's Hospital emergency room while Bob and I headed to Eldora. Jake handled the whole experience surprisingly well, and told us, "I feel better now" after the first 10-15 minutes of getting wounded. He was a trooper at the hospital, too, Leah said, and he thanked the doctors for helping his boo-boo. Instead of stitches, he got some dermabond, which needs to stay on his face for 10 days until the cut closes. We can't wet his face for 3-4 days while the bond does its thing.



Now that the incident is over, we're all relieved that he recovered so quicky, and he's very proud of his boo-boo. He was showing everyone at daycare on Friday, telling them, "I fell off the bed!" Here's a photo, and a link to my Flickr account where you can see more images of Jake's first war wound.

P.S. I found a FREE tool that allows users to upload their photos from iPhoto to Flickr: FFXporter. Try it out, it's easy!

Little Mr. Jake is growing up so FAST! He's a walking, talking, machine these days! Leah and I have been noticing how our baby translators are finely tuned and can make sense of the many words and phrases Jake's been uttering.  Here are a few of my favorites, with phonetic spelling included to most closely resemble how Jake says them:

1) Mobby-do-it: This is an easy one. He's trying to say, "Let me do it" but it often gets clumped in with other phrases. For example, "Mobby-up" or "Mobby feed cats", stuff like that. It just sounds so damn CUTE when Jake says it!

2) Doin' Daddy bidness: Many months ago, when Jake was first starting to eat at the kitchen table without his high chair, he wanted to climb up on my chair. I remember saying to him, "What? You trying to get in my business, mister?!?" Ever since, when Jake is done eating at his chair, he'll declare, "Do Daddy bidness" and walk to my side of the table and up on my lap and to see what I'm eating. Mommy gets 'da bidness' too. It's gotten to the point where we both are just waiting for Jake to get in our business after dinner.

3) Princeth: This is Jake's way to say "Princess" and it gets used any time he's wearing a special robe or funny hat, or necklace. He'll see a lady with a hair accessory, point, and say, "Look! A princeth!" He doesn't quite have the S's and TH's down yet, much to our amusement. When we went to the NY Deli on Christmas Day, the waitress had ribbons in her hair. Jake said she looked like a princess, and from then on she was smitten. She brought him a special cookie, some extra goodies, and generally made Jake feel like a king.

4) What's dat?: Ah, the eternal question being asked by toddlers everywhere. Jake just loves to ask this question, or he'll say, "Lookadis!" and hold something up that he just pulled out of a drawer or bag. He wants to know it all and wants to know it NOW!

5) Dat's a old dude: This morning, Jake was giving me 'da bidness' as I was reading the sports section of the paper, and pointed to a picture. I beat him to it, and asked him, "What's dat?" Without missing a beat, he says, "Dat's a old dude!" I think I said that one time when we were reading the newspaper and looking at some old politician. Guess it stuck!

Funny how the older we get, the faster time seems to pass. Another year has gone by already??? Hard to believe. I've been off for the past two weeks, and tomorrow it's back to work in 2008. This year was much more mellow than last year, when we had back-to-back blizzards right around Christmas. Leah's sister Jona stayed with us, and was unable to fly out out town due to the snow.
Luckily, this year cabin fever was nowhere to be found. It was nice to wake up Christmas morning to snow falling. Apparently, this was the first "White Christmas" we've had in Denver for over 60 years. Sure, there was LOTS more snow on the ground last year, but it wasn't snowing on Christmas Day. This year, it snowed all day, about 8''-10" total. Nice!

Once I returned from London, things continued to remain busy. The day after I got back we celebrated Halloween. This was Jake's first Halloween to include door-to-door trick-or-treating. He was supposed to be an iPod for Halloween, but when Leah took him to a Denver Parks and Rec function on Friday, Jake wanted nothing to do with his costume. He kept tearing at it and trying to pull it off. So Leah made the executive decision to get a different costume, a dragon, which made Jake MUCH happier.
He was hysterical when we went trick-or-treating! He'd walk up to a house, knock on the door, and I'd whisper the words in his ear, "Trick or Treat" and he'd hold out his bucket for candy. Then, as soon as he'd walk away from the house, he'd reach in and open the candy that he just got.  Here's a movie from Halloween to give you more details, and here's some photos, too. He's the perfect age to really get into the holiday. and it didn't stop after we got home, because our doorbell kept ringing, and Jake would run to the door to help pass out candy. He'd be watching TV, and the doorbell would ring, and he'd jump off the bed and make a beeline straight for the door. Quite funny!

I was lucky enough to have a few days of Fall Break left, so I could recover from the jet lag and ease back into work mode. Speaking of work, I got some good news from the class we're collaborating with in Australia, They are doing a film festival down there, and I agreed to work with a teacher here in the states to submit a movie to their project. They have been looking to invite schools outside their country, so it provided a good opportunity to do some international collaboration. Here's the wiki page that includes our movies. The film "Fashion" won 2nd place in the festival! Way to go!

The following weekend was all about Jake's 2nd birthday. Since November 12th fell on a Monday this year, we did our celebrating on Sunday instead. We got Jake a little Radio Flyer Tricycle, which he just loved! Leah's Dad and Joyce came over for brunch in the morning, where we shared presents and  Dairy Queen ice cream cake.

My parents stopped by in the evening for pizza at Chuck E. Cheese. This was our first visit to Chuck's, and it was a little too much stimulation for Jake. He could not sit still, was rather whiny, and kept running around the place like a madman. He couldn't stay in one place, and wanted to do everything, even though he was too small for many of the games and stuff. I could tell my Dad was over the place shortly after we arrived, which I can understand. It was a very noisy, busy place, with kids running around everywhere. But they toughed it out and stayed for about 45 minutes before heading back to Boulder. We stayed a little longer, and by the time we left our ears were ringing and we were exhausted! Luckily, so was Mr. Jake.

On Wednesday this week, Leah and I got a babysitter and went out for a special event. You see, it was 10 years ago that we first met at a club called 9th Ave. West. We had that dancing chemistry right away, and the rest, as they say, was history. This was during the height of the swing dance craze, and 9th Ave. West was the place to be. We used to go there every week, sometimes more, to dance and hang out with our friends. But swing dance quickly faded, and salsa became the hot new thing. After three years, 9th Ave. West became LaRumba, and our dancing days quickly came to an end. But on Wednesday, to celebrate the 10th anniversary of 9th Ave. West, the owners of LaRumba turned back the clock for a one-night-only event and transformed the club back to swing. We saw LOTS of our old friends from back in the day. Our friend Kurt and Tim were the DJ's, and they played all our old favorite dance songs. It was like going back in time, and it always feels so good to dance with Leah. We definitely "fit" together on the dance floor, and in life. The entire night, we found ourselves smiling and reminiscing about the good ol' days. Here's a photo from when a group of us were asked to put on a swing dancing exhibition for  corporate event, circa 1997.

It's getting harder and harder to keep up with posting here. Don't know if it's because I'm too busy or too lazy. In either case, I'll try to catch up on what's been happening.

Baseball: Rockies Fever, or "Rocktober" is upon us. Our little Rockies have been won an amazing 21 of their last 22 games, winning the wild card in a one-game playoff, and sweeping both the Phillies and Diamondbacks to make it to the World Series. Game 7 between the Red Sox and Indians is going on as I write this, and it looks like Boston will come from being down 3-1 to win the ALCS.

I went to Game 4 on Monday night of the NLCS, and witnessed something for the first time in my life: a team clinching a World Series birth. It was quite an amazing evening. The game didn't start until 8:20 p.m., which is 10:30 p.m. Eastern Time. A bit late, to say the least. The Rockies scored 6 runs in the 5th inning, and that was enough to hang on through an 8th inning rally by the D-Backs to win it. We stayed for the trophy presentations and MVP awards, so I didn't get home until 1:00 a.m. that night. But it was WORTH IT! These past 2 months have been absolutely amazing, watching the Rockies put together an unprecedented winning streak to end the regular season, and continue into the post season.

The disappointing part, for me, is the fact that I'm going to miss games 2-5 because I'm leaving for London on Thursday. That means I'll miss all three Denver games. Part of me hopes the Rockies just sweep their way through the Series, but another part of me wishes I'll make it home in time to see Games 6 and/or 7, if necessary.

BIrthdays: Leah and I celebrated our birthdays last week. Mine was Oct. 14 and Leah's was Oct. 18. Leah's Mom and Larry visited from Cincinnati this weekend. We went out for a nice dinner at Zengo, and it was fabulous! That same night we made it to the Soiled Dove to catch Los Straightjackets with special guest Big Sandy. We saw a bunch of people we used to hang with at 9th Ave. West. It was like a little reunion of the whole rockabilly scene of the late 90's. Great band, great tunes, great time!

The rest of the weekend was spend doing more eating and drinking with Leah's mom and Larry Friday-Sunday, and then out to dinner with her Dad and Joyce Sunday night. I'm stuffed!

And now it's going to be a short week as I prepare for my trip to see brother Mark, Madi, and Zelda. I leave Thursday evening, take the red-eye flight for 9 hours, and arrive in London Friday at noon. I hope my body can handle the change in time zones. I hope so.

I'm going to try to do some blogging while I'm there, but it's going to depend on whether I'll have access to Mark or Madi's computer.

More: Took Jake to 4-Mile Park last weekend for the Pumpkin Festival. Here's some photos we took while we were there. Jake is just growing and talking like crazy. It's been fun watching him acquire new language and take on a little personality of his own.

Other cool stuff going on with work: I've been working with a teacher in Australia on a wiki, and also helping her with a project she's doing called the Lantern Film Festival. I've been working with a teacher at Summit, and we created three movies for submission to the Australian Film Festival. The kids REALLY got into the movie-making process, and their movies turned out quite good. They're very excited about the prospect of showing their movies to kids on the other side of the world. Here's the link to view our student movies.

One of the greatest things about parenthood is being entertained by your own child. For example, Jake has gotten quite good at saying sounds on cue, such as "What's a cat say?" (meow) "A dog?" (woof) "An elephant?" (pfffftt!) and so on. But the best part is when I get to ask him, "And what does HOMER say?" and right on cue I get a D'OH!. It cracks me up every time!

Jake is getting to the phase where we can ask him to repeat any word, and he'll give it a try. I've taken advantage of this by getting him to say some of my favorite Yiddish words. First we have polkes which are thighs., or drumsticks to be exact. This is a word I wasn't very familiar with until after Jake was born. He's always had such cute little polkes, and now I get to hear him say it out loud, in his cute little toddler voice.

Next is tokhes, or tushy as some might say. I've loved squeezing that little tokhes of his ever since he was born. The buns of Jake are beautyful! I'm still working on punim, shmutz, and pippick. Need a definition? The online Yiddish dictionary is a great resource. I've used it here for spelling, since I've rarely seen these words in print, only spoken. That's a weird little revelation I just had.

Yep, Jake has been a lot of fun these days. He loves being naked, and doing the "naked march" into the bathroom when it's time for his bath. And now, he can say "naked" and knows it's coming. Sometimes he starts saying "naked-naked-naked" when we're changing him, and doesn't want to have clothes on him. Leah and I just LOVE it! 

We've also discovered Jake's favorite song, "Maneater" by Nelly Furtado. He hears it, and starts moving and grooving all around the house. He's got some pretty slick moves for an 18-month old. We'll play other songs on the iPod, but Maneater is the only one that really gets him going. Then top that off with the occasional NAKED Maneater dance, and it doesn't get much better than that!

Pure joy, I tell ya, pure joy.

This was Jake's 2nd Easter, but the first one where he actually understood what's going on. Last year, he was pretty much a blob, being only 4-5 months old. Now, though, he's able to grasp the concept of looking for eggs and putting them in his basket. Kudos to Leah for buying Jake a way-cool baseball basket. It's PERFECT!

Even though the weekend was cold and snowy, we managed to have a good time. We had planned to go to Harvard Gulch Rec Center for an Easter egg hunt, and thought it might be cancelled. But they moved the whole thing indoors. There were two rooms for hunting: one for ages 3 and under, and one age 4+. When the doors to the gym opened, it was a mad scramble to find eggs and candy scattered around. Jake filled his basket with eggs, and quickly picked up on the idea of looking for eggs.

The next day was Easter Sunday...more snow! We wound up hiding eggs around the house, which was fun all the same. I get such a kick out of seeing Jakey get all excited while he searches for hidden treasures. I was "kvelling" from head to toe in the knowledge that we were doing something for the very first time, and beginning a lifelong tradition. I'm sure we'll have many more years of egg-hunting fun, and that someday Jake will do the same for his children. And so a tradition is born.

Here's a YouTube iMovie of Jake hunting for eggs

This has been a busy month, and I've fallen behind on my journal entries. So here's a quick run-down of all that's been going on:

New Car - At the beginning of the month, I finally got myself a new car. I've been looking at Acuras and Volvos for the past year. My old Honda Accord was over 10 years old. It's the only car Leah has ever seen me drive. After saving money for a downpayment, I test drove some cars over Christmas Break, and talked to AAA's car broker service to avoid dealing directly with slimy salesmen. It was an easy transaction, and I wound up with the exact type of car I was looking for: 2006 Acura TL with Navigation System and 10,800 miles. Sweet ride! CLICK HERE to go to Acura's website and learn more about the TL.

Jake's First Haircut - Last weekend Jake got his first haircut. I've been admiring his curls for quite some time, and hated to see them go. However, he was getting to the point where his hair was knotting and getting difficult to control. You can see the movie about it HERE, or view PHOTOS of the event, too.

St. Patty's Day - Once again, we hosted the Donelan annual St. Patty's Day dinner. We had ten people over to help us feast on boiled meats and veggies, drink, and read limericks. It was good to see two couples who missed the last few years, Tim and Holly, and Vanessa and Bob. Matthew brought his girlfriend Judy this year, which made for a good limerick topic. Everyone came through and brought limericks to share, and I have been archiving everyone's contributions for the past few years. Here's LAST YEAR'S LIMERICKS that I posted. And here's this year's entries:

Spring Break is almost over...sigh. And yesterday was a snowy day here in Denver, so what better way to pass the time than to work on some iMovies of Baby Jake. I finished a DVD that has several clips, and posted Jake's first haircut to both YouTube and my iWeb site.
CLICK HERE for iWeb. The sound is a little low, but you should still be able to hear the soundtrack, which comes from our favorite Bugs Bunny episode.

Part of why I love my job so much is the interdependence we share as instructional technology coaches and coordinators. I love sharing cool resources with others, like ComicLife. This little piece of software has been adopted by our entire district, and is getting used from elementary all the way through high school. Between my colleagues in Cherry Creek and my UCD Masters cohort, I'm developing a 'personal network' of resources and new ideas.

Just last week, fellow coach CIndy Loehr showed me this website called FD's Flickr Toys, a FREE online digital image manipulator. It allows users to take their Flickr photos, or upload a photo from their computer, and create some really cool products. Everything from billboards to movie posters to trading cards can be done with just a few clicks of the mouse and entering some text. The potential for this tool is HUGE for schools. I can see students creating custom book covers, "Me" magazines, and anything else related to what students are studying. I spent the weekend playing around with some of the tools at FD's, to give some examples of the professional-looking products I created.
And of course, it gave me an excuse to share more pictures of SPOONY J!
CLICK HERE to see more from this series.

It was a good weekend of doing family stuff. We took Jake to a local Rec Center in Lowry. It's a new building, and their pool is really nice! It's got a kiddie section with fountains, tipping buckets, and other watery gadgets. There's also a really big water slide, about 30 ft. high. I took Jake down several times, and he was into it.

Sunday was a walk around the Cook Park, grocery shopping, and walking around the backyard. By the end of the day, little Spoony J was tired and dirty. After his bath, he came downstairs, and his hair was in rare form! Usually he gets a tuft of curls just in the back of his head, but tonight it went straight up the top of his melon, and up a few extra inches, too!

It was a sight to behold, that's for sure. So I thought I'd make a ComicLife to celebrate the event. ENJOY!

Yes, our little boy is becoming a SPONGE! He's starting to repeat things we say to him,  as well as figuring out how to solve the little problems that he encounters. It's pretty damn cute! For example, he has this Baby Tad toy that says things when he pushes buttons. On his left hand, it says, "Time for night-night" and this morning we watched Jake push the button, listen to the phrase, and in a soft voice repeat "Night-night." And that's just the tip of the learning iceberg! He knows what we're saying to him by using the sign language we've been teaching him, or he'll repeat what we say in sign to tell us if that's what he wants.

When it's time for bed, we'll say, "Jakey, are you tired?" and he'll put his hands over his ears, which is his way of saying yes, or he'll shake his head NO if he's not ready for bed. As for eating, he can tell us if he wants more, a cookie, a drink, or if he's done, all with hand signals. It's amazing how much he's able to do for not having any language development yet.

But the language is really starting to appear, even if he can't quite say the words correctly. Here's a good story from my childhood to highlight this: my grandfather (Zayda) used to babysit for us boys, and when he'd take us to the bathroom to pee, he'd stand behind us and make this "Psshh-psshh-psshh" sound to help get the pee flowing. I've been doing with Jake when he watches me go to the bathroom. Lo and behold, just last night he started doing the "Pssh-pssh-pssh" sound as soon as I stood at the toilet, without me even doing it first!

That boy is really absorbing everything we're doing, whether we realize it or not, and now all those brain synapses are starting to manifest iitself in his behavior. It's a sight to behold.

Leah left for Paris on Tuesday to help her sister celebrate her 40th birthday. She's meeting her Mom and Larry there, and then the four of them are going to Barcelona for the weekend. This is the first time Leah has been away from Jake since he was born. She was missing him before she even left. But thanks to the wonders of technology, and the flattening of our world, we were able to do a video chat a few times, and talk on the phone.

This is also the first time I've been alone with Jake for this long. Seven days! The first four days went well. Luckily, he's not sick and coughing like he was a few weeks ago. He woke up in the middle of the night the first night we were alone together, but he's been sleeping better since. It's a bit hectic in the evenings not having Leah around, and I find myself with little time to cook for myself. I wind up eating a lot faster, trying to squeeze in cooking while Jake is in his highchair eating his own dinner.

Overall, though, things have gone really smoothly. So far so good. Today we're heading to Boulder to visit the grandparents, and tomorrow it's off to Evergreen to visit Fred and then stop by my friend Brook's house to watch some of the Super Bowl. I like hanging out with Spoony J, especially when he's this healthy and happy. We're having a good time together. I've started doing some "tricks" that my dad used to do with me when I was little. I lay on my back, make Jake face my feet standing up, and I grab his feet and push him upwards, sticking up my leg to give him something to hold onto, just in case. His balance is really good, though, and he can usually stand up on his own without assistance. Maybe when we go to Boulder today Dad can remember some other acrobatics we used to do.