http://family.raining.net One day we find ourselves no longer a couple, but a family ~ and life changes forever... Sun, 08 Nov 2009 07:02:44 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en OK - so in 2004, a blog was one of the better (and easier) ways of regularly sharing posts and pictures. Back then, Facebook was still just getting started and was limited to a few college campuses. My how things have changed. One has to admit, though, that the last ... http://family.raining.net/2009/11/giving-in-to-change/ We received a video from another one of the parents at the holiday celebration - you can see Andrew's show-off moves for yourself. http://family.raining.net/2009/01/show-off/ And now the waiting game begins... (counting down the days to 9/2/09) http://family.raining.net/2009/01/its_official/ It's nice when kids learn to entertain themselves (in this case, with the help of a computer). http://family.raining.net/2009/01/self-entertainment/ Apparently Andrew is not quite over the holidays yet. He made this holiday card this weekend... (yes, that's a purple star on top of the tree - his way of saying he wants one for next year...) Translation: The card shows Andrew's Christmas Party, with a tree, flying ornaments, gifts, and Andrew, ... http://family.raining.net/2009/01/holiday-card/ What a difference a haircut makes! Andrew is looking a lot more mischievous with his "Q-tip" haircut. http://family.raining.net/2009/01/q-tip/ Andrew's fascination with letters continues. We found one of his doodle pads laying around the house this afternoon. If you can't read his bubble letters, they say (from left to right, top to bottom): Andrew, Jakob, Michael, Andrew, Mama, Dada, Mama. (There's also a non-bubble letter mama that's crossed out). We ... http://family.raining.net/2009/01/bubble-letters/ After more than a year of thinking about it, we've finally made the shift from Blogger to Wordpress. For now, the blog is using a template that maintains consistency with the look-and-feel of the Blogger site. However, this change will give us a lot more control over the blog, and ... http://family.raining.net/2009/01/big-change/ For the seventh year running, we spent New Year's eve in downtown Denver. It's become quite a mini-tradition. This year, we decided to try the new Sheraton hotel in Denver (formerly the Adam's Mark) instead of the Westin. Word to the wise... stick to the Westin. The only advantage of ... http://family.raining.net/2009/01/happy-2009/ Andrew surveys his bounty. You'll notice that he got two books from mom and dad... a Tag reader (Kung Fu Panda) and My First Dictionary. You might think it's strange that a three year old would like a dictionary, but in fact he's fascinated with the words. His favorite activity is to sit down and read through ... http://family.raining.net/2008/12/the-big-day-2/ Andrew's youngest cousin is here! Austin was born to Arnold and Peggy on 12/23 - and everyone's doing well! http://family.raining.net/2008/12/cousin-austin/ We had Christmas dinner with the Chungs this year. It's fun to see that every year, there are more kids! The kids have to be taken care of before the adults think about eating.   Andrew is not afraid to stuff his face.   After dinner, there's nothing better than an ice cream cone! By the ... http://family.raining.net/2008/12/christmas-dinner/ Recently, Andrew has been wanting to do everything by himself, from turning off the lights, to serving his own food, and climbing into the car seat. When he wants to do something, he'll say "I want to be the helper!" He makes his point clear with the above Play-doh creation. On ... http://family.raining.net/2008/12/our-little-helper/ Each year, Andrew's daycare holds a holiday celebration. No, it's not called a Christmas celebration, but there are trees, reindeer headbands, and songs about Santa. Go figure. The show started earlier than usual this year, and unfortunately, neither of us made it to see Andrew's performance. We were told that he ... http://family.raining.net/2008/12/holiday-celebration/ Around here, Christmas was always one of those holidays for sleeping in and overeating. We've never had much of a celebration, and certainly never bothered to put up a Christmas tree. But, with a little one, it's a little bit harder to ignore the both the traditions and the consumerism. ... http://family.raining.net/2008/11/first-christmast-tree/ When people asked me what Andrew was going to be this Halloween, I told them "a monkey." Most people responded by saying something to the effect of "isn't he a monkey everyday?" I suppose so... but this Halloween, he had the costume and the requisite banana to complete the illusion. Truth be ... http://family.raining.net/2008/10/andrew-the-monkey/ We went on our first cruise as a family this summer - a seven day trip around the western Carribbean. Late August is the middle of hurricane season, but we lucked out and steamed out of Miami just ahead of tropical storm Fey. However, the weather did make us reverse ... http://family.raining.net/2008/09/first-cruise/ Evidence of a couple of things - Andrew's future potential at being a crossword/Scrabble champion, and the fact that he's been hanging out at the mall too much. http://family.raining.net/2008/08/letters-and-words2/ We had a company retreat up in the mountains - the second year we've done so. Afterwards, it was only fitting to spend some personal time enjoying a bit of Colorado history. We stayed the weekend at the very old historic Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, the inspiration and setting ... http://family.raining.net/2008/08/haunted-hotel/ This video was taken at night after Andrew's bath. Earlier in the morning, before he went to school, I had written out "Andrew is cute" on his little magnet board. He looked at that for maybe 30 seconds in the morning, and managed to remember it all day. He spelled ... http://family.raining.net/2008/06/andrew-is-cute/ Andrew has been on somewhat of a "learning" spurt lately. Although he's been reciting the alphabet for some time now, he recently has showed a whole lot of interest in reading and writing. He has been constantly asking how to spell words, and recently he wrote the entire alphabet (upper ... http://family.raining.net/2008/05/letters-and-words/ http://family.raining.net/2008/05/shapes-and-colors/ http://family.raining.net/2008/04/andrew-the-frog/ Andrew turns three years old today. It's been quite a thrill - he's growing, learning, and becoming a big boy (kind of). His 36 month check-up stats still show he's small in some ways.See the updated charts (use the tabs on the bottom of the new window to switch charts). http://family.raining.net/2008/04/the-big-03/ Do you know about the Bedazzler? Andrew decides that he really doesn't need to pay the $19.95 for in order to enjoy "the fashion craze of the season." He just busts out the sticker book! http://family.raining.net/2008/03/be-dazzled/ Despite our best efforts at making things safe for Andrew, he apparently is not happy with the fact that we let him "ride" without protecting his head. Tonight, he finally figured out what he needed to do. He was riding around the house, happily yelling "Helmet, helmet, helmet..." http://family.raining.net/2008/03/safety-first/ I'm nuts about photography. The latest skill I'm trying to learn is studio lighting... and having a oblivious willing model makes it more interesting than shooting thin air all the time. Having a distraction prop also helps to keep the model interested in staying put long enough to snap a ... http://family.raining.net/2008/02/andrew-the-carpenter/ We spent a long weekend in LA, close to Chinese New Year. It's the first time Andrew's spent any time in California... he seemed to enjoy the trip, but after a few days of hotel living and not seeing his friends or playing with his usual toys, he ended up ... http://family.raining.net/2008/02/los-angeles-trip/ Andrew attended his first "cultural" event recently. OK... it wasn't really a cultural event, but the Disney Live stage show was held at the Denver Opera House... does that count?Andrew had a blast seeing all his favorite characters on stage, including the Little Einsteins (kinda freaky when real adults dress ... http://family.raining.net/2008/01/disney-live/ Whenever we take Andrew out shopping, he inevitably runs around the store and we end up chasing after him rather than getting any shopping done. Well, it seems like there's a small parenting trick that I had not learned until now - the kid-friendly shopping cart. I was amazed that ... http://family.raining.net/2007/12/the-shopping-cart/