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.

Bronson is a big Goof

Well, it rained a few days ago. It was very exciting. Saturday morn we awoke to rain still falling - I felt very nostalgic for my rainy hometown. We woke early - or, rather, Bronson woke me early, so we made pancakes, then woke up dad who had to spend the weekend studying for his big Qualifying exams on Monday. Then B and I went and played outside, dad took some pics. Bronson has had this raincoat for nearly his whole life, he finally got to use it! In the afternoon we braved the crazy roads and Bronson and I drove the 3 blocks to Michaels where everyone was vying for the spots closest to the entrance. Silly California people. Though, to be honest, we ran to the door :)

Just like that, the weather is back to warm, and sunny of course. Today we had to use air conditioning again. Too bad, I really like a bit of wind coming in the windows, it makes it smell and feel like camping. That and not having to work, I guess :)

So, Matthew passed his Qual exam - yay! - which means that he gets to stay here and finish his PhD, if he'd failed, they would have given him a master's degree and kicked him back to Canada. He'd get a job working in the private sector, and we'd have been rich. But instead, we'll continue on here for another 4 years and, well, be poor.

Speaking of, we have decided not to trip anywhere this December, also because I will have a job and who knows if I can get time off. I am VERY excited to relay the news, however, that hearing this my parents have managed to finangle a road trip down for Christmas!!!!!!!!! SO - it's a California Christmas for the Barkers this year (except for Jess et al, though you're more than welcome to come down, but I do not know if ou could get the time). I am really excited to finally get to host a Christmas at my home, I feel like a real mom now :)

Some of you may be saying - but wait, what about the elusive Aimee? And others may be saying - Who is Aimee? Aimee is my "little" sister, and I am pleased to announce, she will be coming for an extended visit beginning mid-October, to be a California chick and take care of Bronson while Matt and I work. Bronson would be so excited if he knew, but, well, right now we're focusing on teaching animal sounds (He can associate a cow image with Moo, just in time for Grandma Diane's pending visit). B is going to have a load of fun with his aunty, he's loved her ever since she used to play guitar to him while he was in the womb - he would dance and kick to it. In a good way.

This week Bronson learnt another new talent - he takes off his pants himself. Here is a picture, he likes to drape them around his shoulders like a cape. He's done it with tight pants and loose ones, and I watched him once, standing next to the fridge, removing one leg at a time. He's so smart, and so goofy.

After eating lunch, Bronson had to lose his shirt because it was too messy, I put him on the ground and he crawled over to the screen door to yell babble at the girl fixing her bike across the way, she looked at him, saw he was shirtless and got a little too embarassed to acknowledge the baby, I laughed and took pictures, kids are funny. Note how well Matthew's patio garden is doing, we are getting bell peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers right now!

Here's a short video to demonstrate how Bronson is a goof.

So what did you do today?

Well, Bronson went to Caltech to see a bunch of scale models of NASA space instruments. The '50 years in space' celebration is going on at Caltech, including a big conference and some public outreach exhibits. The scale models were neat, there were telescopes of all different types, and some planet mobiles, like a life sized model of the Mars rover (see B and Matt in front of it, below) It was pretty neat, especially the rover, as it really worked and was roving around on it's wheels over rocks and in circles and such.

This afternoon we went to the South Pasadena Farmer's Market - this is where I buy all of our fruit and veggies. Bronson found a leaf and brought it over to show me.

In other news, Bronson took first steps yesterday, his record was 5 in a row. However, he would not show dad and has yet to take any more today.

Here is a baby Bronson short, for your viewing pleasure.

The Camera aka "NO, crazy baby, no!"

(an actual time sequence of events)

Oh Mom, I am soo cute. I will pose and you must take a snapshot of this moment.

Yes, I will obtain this camera device and keep it as my own!

Mom, you were too quick for me that time, may I please have the camera?


Gimme gimme gimme, I want to chew on the shiny thing, and rip off the cord.

NO, crazy baby, no!

"WWWwhhhhhhyyyyyyyyy????"

Is it because you're afraid that I will chew on it? Because you're probably right.

You win this round mom.

Life in California

Life has been pretty good for us down here - every evening I apply to new jobs instead of updating the blog, Bronson is now sleeping through the night, Matthew is preparing for his big Qual exam on the 24th and I've made myself a studio space to paint in every Saturday.

(the head scratch is from a tumble into a hedge while strolling with his walker)

We're starting to stick to somewhat of a daily schedule since it helps B to sleep in the evenings and eventually he'll need a daycare schedule: walk dad to work, play around at Caltech (tues and wed go to playgroup at the park), pick dad up and walk home for lunch, nap, after nap we do something fun like go swimming at the Caltech pool, or go to Huntington, or Kidspace to play (or do our grocery shopping), then we either meet dad at work to walk home @ 6 or we play at home until dad gets home, then dinner, bath, feed from mom, bedtime (@7:30!!!).

It's working out pretty well.



As for food Bronson is starting to really take to solids, we're down to 3/4 mom meals a day, and if I'm not around, that's easily replaced by a solids meal from dad. He really likes pizza, we discovered, so I make him little pita bread, sauce and cheese pizzas for lunch. We have that and apple slices and boogie to the Bronson soundtrack I've created off of iTunes which consists of some songs from Curious George, a few Ernie classics and some spongebob squarepants ditties. He seems more interested in eating when he's slightly distracted by music.




He now waves hello and goodbye, and sometimes when we walk on campus he'll spend the whole time waving at everybody and they of course wave back, and at first I kept asking Matt "who's that" and he kept saying "I have no idea"... He also likes to share, he likes to pick up toys and hand them off to someone. He further enjoys looking at the computer when I'm on it, since my background is a pic of him, he likes to see it, and any music that plays he wants to see what's going on... makes it hard to get anything done when he's awake.



Yesterday his friend Julian came over with his parents to play in the pool. We met them several months ago at a Caltech family picnic and Julian and Bronson seemed to get along right off the bat - turns out they still do :)

Sorry it's so dark - but this is a good one!

The Grandpa Tim outfit

The heat wave that sent us consistently into triple digit temps for the past 7 days or so ended yesterday. Thank goodness. We always felt horrible stealing the fan from Bronson's room for ourselves so that we could sleep :)

Here is Bronson in his Grandpa Tim outfit that he got for his birthday.

He even has his own parrot!

Here are a couple Bronson videos showing off his groovy moves. They're rather uneventful vids, but if you want to see what he's like in his quiet play-by-himself moments, here it is.

A Very Happy Birthday for Bronson!

Yesterday was Bronson's First Birthday! He woke up to streamers and balloons everywhere.

He enjoyed presents in the morning, and a party in the afternoon. ~ 12 people were at his party, however I didn't get any crowd pics - you'll see the one baby in attendance, Jesse, who is 3 weeks older than B.

The Presents

(He loves to sit with Ernie on his Spiderman couch and read books. He especially likes it when the couch is folded out to a bed)


The Pinata

The Cake

It was a nice day by all accounts. Someone had too much cake and punch, though and got rather grumpy in the evening due to a sore tummy. It wasn't Bronson.