Taking Off the Training Wheels

Teaching your child how to ride a bike is supposed to be one of those classic parent-child moments, like your child's first steps or their first lost tooth. On Saturday, we went to the church parking lot with the camera, ready to capture that special moment.

Well, Day 1 turned out to be more frustrating than rewarding, as Miriam didn't make much progress. Thankfully, despite the lack of progress, she was still excited and wanted to keep trying after her parents had exhausted themselves from running behind her.

We figured this might take awhile, so Tammy took the kids to the church on Monday and didn't even bother to take the camera. Miriam started to show some minor progress immediately, but her final break through came while Tammy had her back turned talking to another mother who was at the church for a minute. Miriam got tired of waiting and figured out how to start all by herself. The end video is of Miriam showing off for Dad in the street in front of our house.

You can't have a bicycle video without a medley of songs from Queen.



Our apologies for the bumpy footage that was taken while running alongside Miriam.

How to Entertain a 17 month old

The first clip is of Eliza giving the couch a "zerbert". (If you don't do it to another person, is it still a zerbert, or just a farting noise?)

The rest of the movie is Eliza playing with water bottles, while Miriam gets her first bike riding lesson in the church parking lot. Not a lot of action, but we find it entertaining nonetheless.

Commentary is provided by Henry.

Alvin's Song

Alvin wrote the first draft of this song one morning after a rough day of seminary, about 9 months ago. It has undergone lots of little revisions since it was first performed at a pair of family reunions in Nov./Dec. We've already received one good suggestion for the song, and we welcome more. However, with the posting of this video, we are probably done revising until:
1. We find someone to sing it who can really sing. (Alvin became nauseous from hearing his own voice so much in the making of this video.)
2. We find someone to write and play some orchestral back-up.
3. We find a studio to professionally record it.




Thanks for all of you that have contributed directly or have offered your encouragement. If you have not already received it, a copy of the music is available upon request. Please feel free to pass the song along and use it wherever it is appropriate. We only ask that you tell us if you use it, so we can have the satisfaction of knowing that our work was appreciated.

Cleaning Magic

This video was taken while we were visiting friends in Lexington, MA. The kids seem to have picked up some magical skills during our visit to Salem, MA. The editing was done for us by the fabulous Cami Jones, mother of the great actors Bryn and Calvin. The premiere viewing was held on July 2 in MA before debuting here in MD on the lucky 7/7. The promoting of high profile movies, like this one, is hard work.

The Great Outdoors

We just got back from a little trip across multiple states. Can you guess where we've been? Our newsletter will have all of the details this next week. (If you're not a subscriber and want to be, let us know.)

My favorite part about this video is the song. You may recognize the tune, but the words were rewritten for a performance on Sesame Street.

An Unedited Snapshot (er, Snapvideo?)

Here's a little clip of what happens when Mom is on the phone (and Dad is upstairs putting Eliza to bed). Is it like this at your house too?



Things to note:

1) Miriam's independent creativity.
2) Henry's "flip a switch" ability to go from grumpy to happy to grumpy again in 15 seconds.
3) The utter inability of two children to resolve their own problems.


Tammy was more than aware that an argument was taking place while she was on the phone since she tried to walk away from it 3 times and it kept following her into new rooms pleading for a mediator. But when she finally got off the phone, she gave the kids a little talking to about their bad phone manners and then refused to listen to their problem or help solve it.

You can imagine our delight when we discovered this gem tonight as we were downloading things from the camera card onto the computer. What a treasure to be watched over and over!

Tammy has a theory that her cell phone must transmit some sort of electromagnetic pulses (or some other scientific something) to the neurons of our children causing them to mutate into angry monster children while the cell phone is in use.

Soccer Star

Selected highlights from Miriam's first soccer season. Unfortunately, we weren't videotaping when Miriam scored either of her two goals this year.