Feliz anniversario!

Today is Aunt Piu's birthday -- Cristina is 18 years old!


DSCF0832 from album 071224-Christmas Eve at Chez Biziza


A more recent photo, with another special lady:


In other developments:

• Lil' Genghis put two words together -- "want" and "not" -- in Portuguese. She's learning.
  
• She's growing -- 3 inches, about 7 centimeters (in metric), in 3 months (13 weeks metric). She's about 15 months old now. 95th percentile height, 50th percentile weight. Grandpa John says that at 24 months she'll be half her adult height. At this point, she's already going to be taller than Grandma Biziza.

This is probably a rather inappropriate place to say this, but George Carlin died. Here's some of his profanity-ridden, filthy, hilarious thoughts on death:

Don't mess with Texas

Lil' Genghis and mom came back from Texas last week, after a nice visit with Uncle Johnny, Aunt Bea and Aunt Bruna. dad thought his little lady had grown a _lot_, even though they were gone just a week. It's amazing how fast Lil' Genghis is growing -- and it's hard to believe the running, quasi-independent lady who joined dad for Father's Day today wasn't really doing much moving at all a year ago. Strange, how time flies.

Anyway, we have some pictures from Texas and a local park:

IMG_0335 from album 080531-Wellesley park, end of Bouncer



IMG_0339 from album 080531-Wellesley park, end of Bouncer


Lil' Genghis knows she outgrew her bouncer, but she's not sure what to do about it:

IMG_0349 from album 080531-Wellesley park, end of Bouncer





IMG_0363 from album 080603 Suze and Bebel trip to Texas

Heh ... Dude ... Heh ... Yeah. Dude.


IMG_0357 from album 080603 Suze and Bebel trip to Texas

It's hard not to have a good time in the Disney store. =)


IMG_0390 from album 080603 Suze and Bebel trip to Texas

Look at this action shot! It's just like the Brazil team falling back to Earth after barely missing another World Cup win. Er. Wait.


IMG_0393 from album 080603 Suze and Bebel trip to Texas

Isabella's dental work -- not quality, but at a price you can afford.



IMG_0405 from album 080603 Suze and Bebel trip to Texas

Aunt Bruna just hanging out.


IMG_0427 from album 080603 Suze and Bebel trip to Texas

Aunt Bea just didn't want to let go. =)



IMG_0435 from album 080603 Suze and Bebel trip to Texas

The trip ended too early for everyone except dad, boydog and girldog.

A blast of a video

This one is posted just for Uncle Rodrigo. Buddy -- if you click on the main image, it'll bring you to the page. From there, you can make the video appear as full screen. Do it. Get -really- close to the screen, so you have little peripheral vision unfilled by the screen. Then hit play.

This'll give you a chance to see the kind of fun that your goddaughter has. Don't you feel better? =)

Photo blast

mom and Lil' Genghis have been spending some quality time with Uncle Johnny, Aunt Bea and Aunt Bruna. No word on any pole dancing, but the little lady really seems to dig the pool ... and the stairs, we hear, which scares dad.

In the sort of timeliness that you've come to expect, we're posting some pictures that are just over a month old, and some that are "only" a couple weeks old. dad had to do this in a room that's at least in the upper 80s and very humid, so don't say we don't do nuttin' for you. Was that a triple or quadruple negative? Hrm.

Anyway, mom had Lil' Genghis chilling on her Exersaucer on the back porch when it wasn't quite so hot (It's 306.5 degrees in the metric system today.) Let's take a look:


IMG_0255 from album 080507-Isabella on Exersaucer, porch, dogs



IMG_0252 from album 080507-Isabella on Exersaucer, porch, dogs



IMG_0241 from album 080507-Isabella on Exersaucer, porch, dogs



IMG_0234 from album 080507-Isabella on Exersaucer, porch, dogs



IMG_0235 from album 080507-Isabella on Exersaucer, porch, dogs


dad really likes this one:

IMG_0323 from album 080524-Memorial Day weekend


but Lil' Genghis got some -really- good quality time alone with mom on a walking path, like this:

IMG_0301 from album 080524-Memorial Day weekend


See how happy she looks?


IMG_0297 from album 080524-Memorial Day weekend


There was also a great playground:

IMG_0281 from album 080524-Memorial Day weekend



IMG_0282 from album 080524-Memorial Day weekend


We've got some movies from there, too, but we're still trying to sort 'em out for yas. =)

Helping others

We'd mentioned this before and no one took a stab at it; time to ask again.

One of Uncle Rodrigo's rare acts of humanity was to introduce us to Kiva.org, which lets ordinary folks make microloans to businessfolk in developing countries.

At this point, 485 businesses are seeking money. We've got $250 back from earlier loans (no defaults!) so, to cover Kiva's 10-percent overhead, we can make 9 loans of $25, or a smaller number of larger loans.

Why not flip through and make us some suggestions? It's actually kind of fun to figure out who is likely to succeed and help them get there. Realize, of course, a 6-month loan may ultimately do more good (because of later reinvestments) than an 18-month loan.

So far, we've helped:

Melecio Peñafiel, an Ecuadorean tailor;

Wilson Morocho, a furniture maker in Ecuador;

Umid Ismoilov, a Tajik vegetable trader;

Muhabat Muratova, a bedding saleswoman in Tajikistan;

and Mavjuda Juraeva, a Tajik woman who bought an inventory of children's clothes.

Who's next? Please help.