I can't believe I still haven't posted Thanksgiving news!

Thanksgiving came and went and we kicked the holidays into high gear. Not just we the family, but we the entire nation of America. I have started working full time (and over time on weekends, too) to help with the hotel rush.

We've attended a jewish menorah lighting gathering at Caltech - turns out Bronson really likes latkes, a Diwali festival - he also doesn't mind spicy food, and a pastafarians gathering where we prayed to the Flying Spaghetti Monster to bring us good pasta next year - turns out Bronson likes noodles.
OK, no Flying Spaghetti Monster prayers, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Spaghetti_Monster for more info, Matthew's thinking of converting.

Laura and Walter (aka 'The Chileans' ) came over to enjoy a Saturday Thanksgiving dinner with us.


Rhodes scholar in the making...

Anyhow, we've been busy busy and Bronson has been growing so fast I feel we almost missed it! He has 2 girlfriends at park group and is making new buddies every day. He plays with other kids constantly and doesn't need any help walking or exploring. He is doing a lot of talking, telling alot of stories and is happiest when he has a phone - real or pretend- in his hands, pressed up to his ear. He's been getting great advent gifts from Grandma Diane, knows how to open the wrapping, knows that a truck rolls on the ground and makes a 'vroom' sound, and also knows to put the wrapping paper garbage in the garbage can.





We got a nice 6 foot pine Christmas tree - the first we've gotten as a family! It's nicely decorated (on the top half) and looks great. We had fun tying it to the roof and bringing it home, feel like real adults and parents now.





Many amazon.com boxes have been arriving, we've been wrapping the whole thing up without looking inside in the hopes of suprises on Christmas morning "Sweet, a...." , "And look, it's from ..." . Good times. We also received an exciting box from Sabrina and Mike :)


We have sent out all of our gifts and mostly all of our cards, so we really hope they all make it to you before the big day.





My mom and dad are currently driving down the West coast for a visit - they will arrive in Newport beach tomorrow at a time share, and we are heading over once I'm off work to visit for the night. We will visit again at the end of the week for 3 nights and explore Catalina Island and Newport beach area - I'm very excited! Then next weekend they will be joining us in Pasadena for Christmas, through New Years! Unfortunately I have to work 7 - 11am on Christmas day, but that's following a 4 day weekend, so I can't really complain. I'm the only one who likes getting up early anyways, everyone'll just nap until I get home at 11:07 screaming "Merry Christmas!"



Take a second and go to this link, it's a neat animation and for every coin dropped, BC Hydro donates a real 5cent coin to the BC Childrens hospital.

http://wwe5.bchydro.com/2007holiday/

More updates before the big man comes - I hope that everyone (myself included) gets to slow down and enjoy the season. My mantra is - It's not what you cook, it's who you cook it for :)

No, no, no, no Santa! You've got it all wrong - who told you I've been naughty?

Merry Christmas from all the elves in California!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1262457458

Hello.

Taking a page from Jennifer's playbook, I've made an Amazon wishlist as well. This is it:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/2F45TXIG2NC1L

Also, I find this amusing:

http://www.biertijd.com/mediaplayer/?itemid=4262

Enjoy!
Matthew

Alright mom, here it is...

My Christmas wishlist at Amazon.com (with mostly things that we as a family want/need :)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/gift-central/ref=cm_gift_button_gc_lp/002-2603619-2545616 and search for jenn@jenniferbarkerstevenson.com

I love all the toys that Aunty Denise gave me...

Like my puppy dog - now ever time I see a puppy dog I assume that it's mine and point and scream at it so that mom will know that it should be in my sticky hands.

I also love my drum kit and xylophone and shakers, I make lots of music and am in a band with the girls next door.

...Oh yeah

I forgot to mention - Bronson plays lego's now! (Well, Megablocks)

AND..... earlier this week we were at the DMV in Glendale, and who did we see, none other than Slater from Saved by the bell! Star sighting, star sighting. He looked all smug an plastic-y.

Goofy Goober and a trip to the beach

This past week Bronson has really taken off in his walking abilities - he's getting faster and more fearless everyday.

(That's right, L&W, we're still squeezing him into his Chile shirt :)

On Friday night Matthew and I went out on a date - we'd gotten Neko Case tickets for the Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown L.A. Here's a picture of the famous Frank Gehry landmark. Neko was great - in general I try not to like her because Matthew has a huge cruch on her and she's really beautiful, but seriously, her voice is the most amazing voice ever and she played the concert barefoot, so I couldn't help but be won over. Even if it is technically country. The sound quality in the hall is wonderful and we had orchestra view seats, so we were right behind and above her (3rd row up). The hall is big but felt small and intimate - I look forward to attending more concerts there. Class, all the way.



On saturday we went to Hermosa beach with Aimee's friend Dan for a JPL volleyball tournament. Dad dug a big hole, Bronson practiced sand walking and climbing out of big holes, mom played 3 awesome hours of beach volleyball (in November!) and Aimee emersed herself in the beachiness of it all.







On Sunday Aimee and I took Bronson to the mall in Arcadia - which is all decorated for Christmas, and forced him to shop with us. He got his first pair of crocs and he LOVES them. When he's not wearing them he brings them to me and holds out his foot. He also likes to chew on them and wear them on his hands. We got his feet measured and he's size 5 (extra-wide), but his crocs are size 4 with room to spare.







Well, Thanksgiving is Thursday so I have a nice 4 day weekend. Next monday I start working full time through the holiday season, so that'll be a big change in our household, but we've plotted out our meals and I hope to be finished my Christmas shopping before then. I know it's early but when you have no time after work and must send things out to Canada, you've really got to work in advance.







Bronson is such a funny kid. He loves the quilted potholders my grandma made me, he won't let me use them to carry hot items, instead he thinks they're little blanket pillows for him and lays his head down on them on the floor. He has a big blue sand bucket named Thomas and he likes to put it over his head. We had the girls next door over for an afternoon last week and they were coloring - so now he likes to color with crayons on paper. Even when we go to restaurants he's coloring on paper. He also is obsessed with airplanes, when he hears one, he looks up and points at it, then makes you look too, by nudging you. If he can hear it but not see it, he gets confused. Last week he looked up and saw the stars for the first time (that I've noticed), he pointed and said "Oooh oooh ooh". Dad is so proud :)

Let's play - baby!

The Look

Bronson has this new look that he's giving. At first it was for Aunty Aimee, then he gave it to dad and I, then we started noticing that he'd glare at us when we weren't looking at him, and smile when we looked over, and lately he's even been giving it away to strangers. (But they still say - Oh he's so cute!)

Batman and Robin, Universal Studios, Zoo day and Harvesting Olives

Well, Let's start at the beginning;

Friday the 26th of October - Caltech family picnic, Free food and helium balloons kept us all happy. Oh, and of course the Disney Princesses were in attendance!!!

Later this night we head to the Astronomy dept Halloween party dressed as Batman Characters in the costumes I made (I'm especially proud of Aimee's which I sewed from scrtch without a pattern- Batman, Robin, Cat woman and Poison Ivy (we won 1st place in the halloween costume contest, too :)

Laura and Walter (aka "The Chileans") came as Dora and Diego.

We all had a good night in our own respective ways. The next morning Matthew awakes to discover that his hand is, well, paralyzed. I google the condition and find he has 'Saturday Night palsy', he passed out with his arm over the back of a chair and has damaged the nerves in his arm. He will have to wait while they repair themselves before he regains use of his right hand. 5 hours later, the doctor at the clinic hands us a print out of THE EXACT web article I'd read about Saturday Night palsy and declares his diagnosis. Ahhh, good times at the clinic. Actually, it was pretty fun because our friends Laura and Walter were there - Laura fell off her bike on the way home from the party last night and has fractured her foot. So maybe she didn't enjoy the clinic wait as we did, but it was nice to laugh at Matthew. This was a Pasadena clinic, not even a Caltech clinic, so meeting them there was pretty odd.




Matthew's hand is doing better everyday, but not nearly completely functional yet. He wears a splint and has sworn off drinking. He can do (and does) 1/2 a thumbs up. He's in no pain at all, just can't really type or write, or do the dishes or bathe Bronson.

But seriously, he's taking this well and laughing it off. We expect a full recovery in a week or two.









On Sunday we went to Universal Studios for the day - all 4 of us. Bronson thought it was strange but as long as he was cuddling with mom on the rides and during the shows, he was happy enough to be there. It was alot of fun - we did the tram tour which showed us where the geniuses from Reveille write scripts for the 2nd best show ever "The Office" (2nd to 'Arrested Development') and we saw King Kong and lots of special effects and filming areas. Aimee and I did the Jurassic Park ride (yay!), we saw a couple shows and Matthew and Aimee experienced "The intense heat" of Backdraft. We also met many characters, all of whom Bronson was afraid of.









Last Friday (the 2nd) we had the First Annual Olive Harvest at Caltech! It was great, we spent a few hours picking olives and then we went to a really yummy (free) Harvest Dinner and ate our fill. When you pick olives off a tree they are not edible, however they were constantly serving prepared olives and olive oil in all it's various forms (i.e. dessert was Citrus Olive Oil cake with Olive Oil sorbet - which pretty much tastes as it sounds - I came home and got myself some good old fashioned chocolate).




Aimee did alot of picking (oooh, look how high she was mom!) and Bronson did alot of goofing off with our friends Thomas and Elizabeth (and their mom) who were also there.









AND THEN, yesterday Matthew had his first Glee Club performance for Caltech parent's day - I snuck in to watch him, they were pretty good. We then took the kid and the sister to the LA Zoo where we saw assorted wildlife doing wild things. Bronson reacted much differently this time than the last - he really noticed the animals this time and pointed and hooted at them all. After the zoo we invited the astro board game group (which Matthew started) over for a few games. Played some board games and then went crashed after a busy day.

Bronson baby walks!!!

Aunty Aimee and Baby Bronson

So, you may be wondering - are the fires raging along the Southern California coastline affecting us? Well, not too much. The air is heavy and the sky is smoky (elevated smoke), which just seems like heavy fog & pollution. At Ultimate practice today there was some ash falling onto the field and we avoided too much runing due to poor air quality. People say they can really smell the smoke, but I don't think they grew up in parts where people are constantly burning shrub in the backyard.... so I don't smell it. The air just feels heavy and warm, and the sun is red/pink and the moon is tinted red.

Whew....

It has been a busy busy BUSY October - I have had job interview after job interview, Matthew is now TAing an undergrad course that requires him to teach 2 lessons a week and Bronson is... well, Bronson still is not walking. But imagine how much busier it would've been had he been walking!

Matthew is busy at school working away, building a little electrical engineering lab in the basement of the Astro building for his radio astronomy research.

I've had several job offers and settled on the one I wanted all along - Guest Relations Coordinator at the Athenaeum (the private club on campus). The club houses events, a hotel and a few restaurants. I work on the hotel portion. The job includes benefits (yay medical!!!) and is 8am to 12 noon on weekdays which leaves me plenty of time to spend with my Bronson bear! Currently as I train I'm working 8 hour days and I'm pretty tired!

Aimee has arrived and been thrown into the realm of Bronson caring - poor girl has a 12 hour day with him tomorrow, as I have Ultimate team practice after work, and Matthew has a squash class in the afternoon.


Bronson is SO CLOSE to walking, he does a few steps every day, but only upon encouragement, he's so much more comfortable crawling, so he says "Why bother?"

We had a nice visit from Grandma Diane and [Great] Aunty Denise last week. They were here for 4 days and we hit every store within a 15 mile radius. Bronson LOVED having them here - he even stopped napping to spend more time with them.

Below is Aimees little room that we built into Bronson's room. Yes, she's half in the closet.

2 weekends ago there was a big Art Expo at the Pasadena Convention centre. I attended for the AMAZING art deals, and to take a class on marketing my work. I also participated in a competition they held - Top Artist. It was similar to 'Top Chef'. 5 contestants, 1 easel, 2 brushes and a tube of white paint; a second tube of mystery colour that we chose blindly (mine turned out to be ultramarine blue yay!), we had 10 minutes to paint an intricate fruit basket still life they'd arranged. After 10 minutes, the judges chose 3 people to stay. I made it through round one. Round 2 they gave us an extra brush, a tube of burnt umber and a hand held mirror. We had 5 minutes to paint a self portrait. After 5 minutes the judges spoke to each of our works and deemed us 1st, 2nd and 3rd..... I won FIRST!

It was pretty great - I painted with my fingers and actually did a pretty good self portrait. I won 400$ worth of art supplies, books and a free class at the Expo. I really enjoyed it and the prize is awesome! So, anyhow, it was a good time for me.