Light from darkness

dad is feeling a little bit guilty about that last rant, and Lil' Genghis' hometown football team just got spanked in the last minute. Here, we say football to mean, er, football, not soccer. The New England Patriots lost to the New York Jets in this year's Super Bowl.

So let's find some light from the dark times. Among our Dear Readers are at least three big football fans:

Uncle Eddie, who was born in Buffalo and generally roots for anyone except the Patriots ... or more precisely, anyone playing the Patriots ... has plenty of reason to be happy.

Aunt Lelia, whose time served in Indianapolis made her loyal to the Colts, might be smiling because the Patriots were widely expected to face the Colts, who were ousted earlier in the playoffs.

Aunt Leeanne. This one's a little tougher, because God knows she's about the biggest Patriots fan on the planet ... even though a majority of her soul seems to be devoted to the Red Sox. We're not quite sure how one person can fit in such local patriotism (bah-dum) in a single human body, but, it is what it is. Clearly, as a Patriots fan, Leeanne has reason to be crushed. Yet ... the Patriots are led by Tom Brady, whom Leeanne has been stalking for years. Brady knocked up one woman -- to her regret, not Leeanne -- and then went on to date Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bündchen. Now, let's think about this for a minute. That woman's Brazilian, so she probably likes the wrong kind of football even more than she likes the right kind of soccer. Her boyfriend can't even make MVP. Maybe this will help cripple the relationship, making Tom Brady potentially more likely to go back on the market, and thus increasing somewhat Aunt Leeanne's chances of catching him unprepared and unescorted when she begins his enslavement.

See? Light from darkness. Sure, it involves slavery for purposes too nefarious to discuss on a baby blog, but it's all about the positive spin.

Did we mention there's a presidential election coming around in a couple days? =) Yep. Spin.

In the third year already?!?

It's hard to believe that two years and two days ago we were given Lil' Genghis and trying to figure out how everything worked. Now she's seemingly self-sufficient, capable of getting into her own bed, sort of brushing her own teeth, eating and drinking, trying to climb out a window that never got a safety grate, all that. =)

So a whole bunch* of friends and family -- and friendly family -- stopped by today to spend some time with our little future world leader. She got some neat gifts, sure 'nuff -- but seemed to enjoy the people more than anyone. For the record, party participants included**: Grandpa John, Uncle James and Aunt Mary, Aunt Liana, Aunt Jan, Aunt Linda, Uncle Josh, Aunt Rebecca, Aunt Cathy, Cousin J.D., Aunt Sussen, Cousin Rafic, Aunt Marina, Uncle Eddie, Aunt Amanda, Aunt Sara, Aunt Ann, Aunt Leeanne, Uncle Bill, mom, dad, and Lil' Genghis. A heckuva party, we tell ya, a heckuva party!






DSCF3568 from album 090315-Bel birthday via several She looked so innocent, before the sugar ...


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DSCF3622 from album 090315-Bel birthday via several Aunt Leeanne insists that isn't a typo of "BC" ... Dunno. But check this out:

On the thumbnail, doesn't it almost look like "MIT"? And BU and MIT are so close together ... HRM!


DSCF3628 from album 090315-Bel birthday via several Coolest. Eyes. Ever.


DSCF3634 from album 090315-Bel birthday via several Birthday with Dora *and* Diego. Doesn't get better than that!


DSCF3639 from album 090315-Bel birthday via several One last kiss from Grandpa John, who spent a week with his favoritist little granddaughter ...


DSCF3646 from album 090315-Bel birthday via several It's just -so- fun to hang out the window while Uncle Eddie clings to my feet!


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P1050608 from album 090315-Bel birthday via several Uncle Josh donates art to the birthday bash.


P1050613 from album 090315-Bel birthday via several Boots is dropping in for a while ...


P1050618 from album 090315-Bel birthday via several Yeah, a heckvua bash -- and this is after Uncle Jim and Aunt Mary volunteered to schlep Grandpa John to the airport!


P1050626 from album 090315-Bel birthday via several Another advertisement for protective window grates, with Aunt Leeanne rushing behind the scenes to hold Cousin J.D.'s feet ....

And a good time was had by all! =)



* Scientific term. Means roughly twice a (half a bunch).
** God, I hope I don't miss anyone.

She likes lasagna and gravity

Click here for more on the title of this post ..


Lil' Genghis is getting more access to table food, and she really likes a lot of this stuff. Witness this adventure last night with lasagna:


mom told dad to send a picture like that to Aunt Leeanne. Aunt Leeanne, no fan of baby-food pictures, physically covered her computer screen so she wouldn't look at that. Whoops.

In our photo gallery, we also posted a whole series of pictures of Lil' Genghis enjoying gravity as mom tosses her around. There are also some videos -- mom reading "Mr. Brown Can Moo ... Can You?", and the little one knocking down the biggest pile of stackers you've seen lately.

The videos are huge. One of these days, we'll get the time to edit them into a short, coherent format. Not today.

---

Tech update to the tech update:
Uncle Rodrigo found a bug in our photo gallery, but we haven't been able to track it down. Please let us know if you have a problem.

Aunt Selle said she's having problems seeing our YouTube videos. Dad posted the link to the latest version of the Flash plug-in. Bad idea. Apparently folks all over are having problems with the newest version locking up after a few seconds; One way to fix it is here, though it requires you to use an older version that doesn't work on all sites and has security problems. Yayyyyy technology.

Lotsa photos!

Yeah, we could blog lotsa stuff for you to read, but we realize you guys don't even want the abbreviated version. You're just in it for the photos. It's true -- you don't even care that we can give you Uncle Rodrigo's PIN number for his ATM card. Fine. Be that way.

So, anyway, we gotta blog a bit just to say that Aunt(ie) Leeanne showed up to hang out with Lil' Genghis, which woulda been bloggable enough. But the other visitor was her dad, Great-Uncle Bill, who delighted in taking pictures of the little lady.

So, without further ado, the two real gems are from him:




(The photo includes our daughter and his)


dad shot the next couple, which feature Bellinha in her play gym and Aunt Leeanne coming to torture her. Or play with her. Something.




And mom took a photo or two amid all the bunch of videos she's been posting on YouTube:


To get all of Lil' Genghis' posted videos, subscribe to the YouTube channels of thatnewguyhi and tunana1.

Burpday

Well, we'd both meant to write more about her birthday party a couple weeks ago, but let's just get the pictures up. =)

We'll start with one just for Aunt Leeanne:

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(Uncle Eddie seems to approve, no?)


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(Uncle Josh took this one through a balloon! How cool is that?)


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Yeah, it got a little crowded. =)


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Chewie's head isn't where it seems to be. Wow.


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A confidential talk?


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Chewie tried getting a new, er, girlfriend. Yikes. There was a -lot- of growling trying to get that away ...


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Some day, Cousin J.D. is going to make a heckuva vampire for Halloween. Right, Aunt Rebecca?


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Grandpa John continues a fine family tradition ...


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New photos before a new year

Yes, folks, we're looking forward to Lil' Genghis' third calendar year here on Planet Earth, where two Children of Abraham have settled a petty land dispute in a holy land and even would-be political hacks improve their success by standing up for what's right. Well, not really. Anyway, there's more for Lil' Genghis: Future World Leader to clean up.

But she's still in her innocent childhood stage. She's had an awful amount of fun lately, including a trip Sunday to see Disney on Ice. It was fun watching her.

So, the photos:

DSCF2956 from album 081219-Genghis doing stuff some time

Fastest bottle in the West!


DSCF2929 from album 081219-Genghis doing stuff some time

Do you remember the last time you enjoyed a shower this much?


DSCF2919 from album 081219-Genghis doing stuff some time

Painting Christmas colors, and wanting to share the fun!


DSCF2891 from album 081219-Genghis doing stuff some time

Thomas the Tank Engine the Ballerina!


DSCF2909 from album 081219-Genghis doing stuff some time

Checking out the new bouncy house!


DSCF2870 from album 081219-Genghis doing stuff some time

Waving to Aunt Leeanne!


DSCF2965 from album 081220-Bel Sasha snow, Jan Linda cookiefest

SNOW! YES! IT'S HAPPY TIME!


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Three women! Who-hoo!



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Love makes the cold warmer, eh?


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Ooh, cuddle time ...


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So thoughtful.


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Daddy, the Sudetenland is that way!


DSCF3050 from album 081224-Christmas Eve with Duda Ligia Humberto

Yes, the snow, a few days before Christmas, piled up to the window of a Toyota.


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"Pssst!" said Uncle Humberto. "I think Sasha wants food!"


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Lil' Genghis shares a light-up necklace with Uncle Eddie.



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Mmmm!


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Girls LOVE a good listener.


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Cousin Oliver brought some badly needed canine masculinity to the Christmas party.


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But of course Brother Chewie is pretty darned masculine.


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Uncle Eddie is happy to share his son's first Christmas.


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...... Not happy .....


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... HAPPY! These pictures were taken back-to-back.


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Uncle Humberto and Aunt Ligia check out the Christmas Eve spread, most of which she slaved over. Good, good, good stuff, we tell ya ...


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In wine, there is truth. Here, we see Aunt Ligia is one of the nicest and happiest people ...


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Cousin Oliver checks out the presents.

Presents, you said?

Presents, we agreed.

Of course, any kid is prone to get diverted from the real toys for a box, or something else that can be entertaining ...

DSCF3106 from album 081224-Christmas Eve with Duda Ligia Humberto



DSCF3108 from album 081224-Christmas Eve with Duda Ligia Humberto


More to come!