The Move, Version 2.0

I took this one today and thought it was worth sharing. The move has evolved to include a leg raise and morphed into a game of peakaboo. If anyone knows how to make these videos somewhere in between 300 MB (original size) and 2.6MB (compressed size), Im all ears.

Other People's Babies

The Damrons finally came to their senses and returned to Indianapolis. Well, for 36 hours anyway. They even brought their babblin baby, Mara. She talks even more than Sanna did back in the early days. As you can see from the picture, we dont need showers to look our best. Laurin and I just slap on our matching sweatpants and embrace the day.

Here you can see Justin doing his best creepy Captain Morgan impression. Since Ryan had lost his wedding ring he saw the opportunity to swoop in and acquire another wife/baby. Well done, sir.

Clearly Im my mother's son, inheriting her amazing ability to make other people's babies cry at a moments notice.

Erin used her linebacker-like strength to commandeer Mara's bib. It made its way to her mouth shortly after this pic was taken. Luckily there were parents around or it would have been like a scene from Jaws.

And the winner of the funny baby face contest is.......Erin by an ear!

So Much Thanksgiving Fun

We got quite a group together for our Thanksgiving celebration. Thankfully we were able to find a place to board our dogs or it would have been bananas in the Smith house. As you can see in the picture, frozen fruit salad made a guest appearance. That made my day. The meal came in a close second to the wii as the biggest source of fun/joy for the weekend. As I type this, Riley is saying everyone's name who is in the picture.

Granny Smith continued her mastery of making our girls cry. I forget what she did this time, but it worked. She either hit Sanna with something or took her rocks away. Boo, Grandma.

While Sanna was being tortured by Grandma, Riley worked on her dunks. The rim is regulation height if anyone was wondering. All of our jumping practice at home has paid off.

This is how Riley looked toward the end of her first Thanksgiving dinner (she couldnt eat at the real first one). It was a combination of mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce that did the work of hair product.

Before she messed up her hair/outfit, Riley made time to befriend Mimi. The two shared some great times over the weekend. They mostly discussed how annoying Cosmo is.

Random Assortment

Due to the lack of time spent with the babies this week there isnt much to offer. Most of my pictures were actually taken of Erin this weekend. This one is my favorite, but you will probably see more on www.indynucci.blogspot.com soon. She makes almost as many different faces as Riley.

I loaned my camera to our neighbor who shot a picture of our house as he walked over to bring it back. I used the 'color outline' filter to produce this. I thought all the bare trees looked cool. If we had more lights on in our house at the time you would have seen more detail there.

We went over to the Iannucci's for some of Melissa's home cooking, shephard's pie. By home cooking, we mean she heated up a dish her mother sent her home with from Atlanta. Either way, it was thoroughly enjoyed. Riley mostly enjoyed the tupperware.

Our girls caused minimal trouble. No babies were harmed during our one hour visit. We should keep all trips out of the house under an hour in the future to avoid trouble.

Depsite having already eaten dinner, Sanna insisted on sharing her mother's food. It kept her happy, so we agreed.

Zoo, Round Two

Another nice Fall day found us at the zoo to pass the day away. We tried letting the girls walk around more, which was good and bad. Here are some of the highlights.

Everybody was calm and happy with each other for this brief second. I am sure Riley bit Sanna for grabbing her hand too hard shortly after this.

We found another set of twins displaying proper sibling conduct. I think Riley made her 'roar' noise at them despite them not being lions.

Sanna enjoyed a little alone time on the bench.

We stayed close to this guys all day in case any trouble started. There were some questionable characters wandering the zoo that day.

The zoo felt bad the the normal goat/pig petting zoo was closed so they opened the chimp exhibit up to the kids. Waldo was not happy to see us. He wouldnt even look at me for this picture.

Riley thought about climbing into the lion exhibit to see her favorite animals, but I talked her down.

An odd session of interpretive dance broke out on the bench. It was a combination of 'the move' and other odd positions. What was funny was that they were always doing the same thing despite not seeing each other.

Grandma Smith thought it was a good idea to suggest that Riley kiss the penguin for a picture. The combination of Riley's aggressive kisses and the penguin being made of metal resulted in a crying baby. Way to go grandma. I am surprised she didnt knock out any teeth on that metal beak.

Random Pics from My Time as a Single Dad

Laurin thought it would be a good idea to fly to Milwaukee for a couple days, so I was left with our little darlings for 48 hours. It was pretty uneventful. We even made it to the park twice. The only trouble came when I tried to have a conference call at 5PM and our normal babysitter chose to leave us in my time of need. The backup sitter was not welcome according to Sanna. I had to go down to console her during my call. I accidentally took the phone off mute as I picked her up, treating my coworkers and potential customer to the screams of an unhappy toddler.

We even fit in a bath. Note to self, no baths immediately before dinner. Clean hair plus mac n cheese equals sitcky hair and a need for another bath.

Riley was watching the Real Housewives of Orange County. She's such a Vicki. She hates Gretchen.

During bath time, Sanna felt it was appropriate for her to smack her sister in the head a plastic bowl. Riley didnt agree, although she really didnt seem to mind as much as normal.

Our favorite activity during meals is looking for squirrels. They normally hang out on top of the fence behind the window where the girls eat. If only I had a zoom lens I wouldnt have had to crop this one to achieve the proper subject size.

This was actually from before Laurin left. It was pretty cute so I threw it in.

Another Trip to the Park

We decided that we had enough of whining babies who knock over gates and run into corners of walls, so we headed to the park again in search of photo gold. Riley sits still far more than Sanna, so, like Owen, she appears in more photographs. The rest of the winners are in Flickr.

The Many Faces of Riley (and one of Sanna)

Riley thought the best thing to do during a meal of peaches and macaroni was to run her wet, cheesy fingers through her flowing locks. The result is some crazy hair and a full array of facial expressions for your enjoyment. I threw one in of Sanna to not hurt her feelings. She was better behaved a dinner.

Day 2

I have learned that being stuck on our third floor for most of the day does not lend itself to superb photography. Going to the park, on the other hand, is a virtual cornucopia of sweet photo opps. The neighborhood just south of us has a toddler park where we can basically let them free (unless they want to be on the swings the whole time like Sanna). Enjoy. Riley thought that going down the slides backwards on her stomach was the best until Sanna showed her the right way. Riley also learned that trying to walk down a slide leads to uncontrollable acceleration and almost cracking your head open if it wasnt for a quick-handed mother. The rest of the fun is in flickr.

Photo Crazy

In an effort to document the full beauty of our children I invested in a sweet prime lens for portrait/macro work. It is a 50mm f/1.4 lens for all you photogs out there. It allows me to get great detail on our divas while blurring out the background. Here are some shots I have taken in an attempt to figure out what the heck I am doing with a lens that doesnt zoom. You can focus much closer to the subject and take pictures in much lower light thanks to the huge aperture. Enjoy. I promise to get better fast. There are some low res pics in flickr too.

Sanna with her trademark red cheeks. Someday they will go away. We have been told they are a product of teething and drool.

Owen loves being photographed. If he wasnt so lazy he would have moved to get away from my annoyance.

Riley rarely lets go of her Pineault blankie. So, most photos will include it. The camera chose to focus on a part of the blanket I think which made am interesting effect. With the aperture wide open the depth of field/focus is only a couple inches. I have to get better at manually selecting the area of focus.

We both really like this one, but it is actually out of focus. It was one of the first pics taken. I think I may have been too close/not using the right ISO setting.

Owen is much better than Frankie at posing. He sits for a few seconds when you ask him.