SkipNikZP

Hello blog, remember us? Its been too long.

2011-12-08T22:07:00.000-06:00

So thats who the Wizard of Oz is....

2010-10-22T23:19:00.007-05:00

We havent posted anything in a while (mostly being busy and running out of room where we keep our online photos - Picasa). I did want to share something I recently found out.

I was in Whole Foods about 4 months ago and was fixing my coffee, I was putting in my soy creamer and overheard these women saying "They should not have soy creamer, its bad for you". Another time I was getting a smoothie for Zoe, it was an Almond Butter, banana and soy milk smoothie. The guy who made it gave it to Zoe, smiled and went to work behind the counter. One of the women he worked with went over and chastised him for giving soy milk to a girl, or any woman for that fact, that it messes with their hormones. I have heard many slanders against soy milk, and always had it in the back of my head that these attacks must be coming from an organization, because some of them seemed downright silly, like this one claiming if your kid drinks soy milk it will turn them gay.

Well, I did a little googling and found the biggest culprit of the misinformation. They are the Weston A. Price Foundation. They promote the consumption of dairy and meat (funded by donations from dairy and meat farms). You can read more about them here:

http://www.care2.com/causes/health-policy/blog/who-is-the-weston-a-price-foundation/

I finally can put a name to the source of the misinformation, for some reason that make me feel a bit better. It makes sense though, if something like soymilk comes along and cuts into your profits, what do you do...scare people into not buying it.

As a side note, one of the big slanders they spread is that by drinking soy you are flooding your body with the female hormone estrogen. Estrogens in soy, phytoestrogens ("phyto" meaning "plant"), have been found to keep our (animal) estrogen levels under control. So if you decide to avoid estrogens by not drinking soy and going with milk, then consider that "Among the routes of human exposure to estrogens, we are mostly concerned about cow's milk, which contains considerable amounts of female sex hormones. Dairy accounts for 60 percent to 80 percent of estrogens consumed. Part of the problem seems to be milk from modern dairy farms, where cows are milked about 300 days a year. For much of that time, the cows are pregnant. The later in pregnancy a cow is, the more hormones appear in her milk.

This quote was taken from an article from Harvard University. So you cant avoid estrogen from drinking cows milk instead of soy, one thing that the Weston A. Price Foundation forgot to mention in their numerous articles denouncing soy milk.

Photos from this summer

2010-07-12T14:42:00.002-05:00

Words!

2010-06-30T23:27:00.005-05:00

Our little Paigey is talking! Here are the words that she uses regularly:

mama - pronounced MAMA!

dada - pronounced daDA

cat - pronounced cat (one of her first words)

yeah - pronounced YEAH!

another (as in "i'd like another cracker") - pronounced nudur

potty - pronounced PAA

ball - pronounced bal

mad - pronounced MAD! and used in the proper context (you go Paige!)

book - pronounced ba

milk - pronounced mil

mud - pronounced mau!

Paige is working on saying her name right now. It begins with Pa and then she experiments with lots of other sounds afterwards.

Zoe's word for everything she wanted to see or do was "dat" used with pointing to an object (like "that"). Paige's word for everything is "MAMA!".

home depot and creek

2010-05-31T23:21:00.000-05:00

Photos from the past week or so

2010-05-29T00:50:00.002-05:00

The new house so far

2010-05-16T22:46:00.003-05:00

Here are some photos from the new house. The photo of Zoe walking on a trail is a nature trail we can walk to. We've been busy planting and slowly getting unpacked.

Zoe's Story

2010-05-03T23:32:00.002-05:00

Zoe asked me to type this story as she told it. It's called "The Doodle Bug Cage Game"

zoe went home one day. and she came across a hat shop and her went inside it. and what did she see in there? a bee! and what did she see under the bee? a fly! and under the fly was a mosquito! and there was a tiger and a rabbit and a bug trainer. and the bug trainer is when they get bugs and put them on the train and takes the bugs for a ride. they went for a hide on a boat. and there's a little tiny doodle bug and it crawled into the ocean and the got it and put in a cage and they bring it home and decided to keep him as a pet. then he decided to eat some leaves. so zoe went out to get some leaves. then zoe put them in a cage and take a nap. but when zoe was about to get into bed she heard the doodle bug said "help, help!" and she looked in the cage and the doodle bug was sick. then she had a glass of water. the end.

Sparrow in the hands of Zoe

2010-04-26T19:43:00.004-05:00

I was driving back home from picking up dinner this afternoon, going down a busy street (Guadalupe) during rush hour, with Zoe and Paige in the back. I was at a stoplight and I saw a small bird rolling around on the road, flapping around. The light turned green and cars started going, the bird rolled right in front of my car. I put on my hazards, got out and picked up the young sparrow in my right hand. I got back in the car and drove with my left hand. The bird was in shock for about 5 minutes. I called Nikki and asked her to meet me in front of the house with a cat carrier so we could put the sparrow in it. As I was coming down the street I noticed the sparrows look changed, it closed its beak, and her eyes became more alert and she started looking around. I arrived home and got out of the car. We all sat in the front yard and looked at the sparrow in my hand. Zoe asked to hold her so I gently placed the sparrow in her hands. I asked Nikki where the camera was. Zoe held the sparrow for about a minute when all of the sudden the sparrow flew off quickly into the sky. Nikki and I let out a visceral "Yay!" Zoe started to cry. We asked her what was wrong, she said "I wanted to keep her". We explained how it was a very good thing that the sparrow was ok and able to be free again. It took her a little bit but she understood. Now she is happy that she was able to hold a wild bird in her hand and watch it take off.

On a side note, I think people dont stop in traffic sometimes if they see and injured animal because they feel other people will get mad because they are being inconvenienced by having to pause for a minute. When I got out of the car and was coming back with the bird in my hand I glanced at the driver behind me. He was a middle aged bearded man, he looked at me and nodded with approval. I am very happy I stopped.

Photo of Paige taken on her 1st birthday!

2010-04-07T20:46:00.001-05:00

Happy Birthday Paige!!!!! 1 year old!! We Love You!!!

2010-04-07T00:01:00.002-05:00

Spring Photos

2010-04-04T16:23:00.005-05:00

Hare Krishnas having fun at SXSW

2010-03-21T11:09:00.000-05:00

Zoe's Story

2010-03-15T22:41:00.002-05:00

I'm magic.

You can't see me.

I disappeared.

I went into a flower and turned into a bee.

I went far, far away to New York City and there are lots of flowers there.

...pause...

I sipped nectar from an orange flower.

I'm back.

Happy Birthday Nikki!!!!

2010-03-15T16:46:00.002-05:00

We love you very much! Skip, Zoe, Paige, Miro and Sophie

Zoe chooses 'none of the above'

2010-03-10T08:56:00.004-06:00

I'm so proud of my Zoe. We have been giving her Hobson's Choice to get her to do things and about a week ago she said she didn't want to do either of the choices. Our smart girl is able to see past the framed choices and see she has other options. There are many adults who fall for Hobson's Choice, albeit more complicated ones, but still..very proud she can see past it. It makes things a bit harder for us, but its a good thing!

Paige (future Cirque Du Soleil performer)

2010-03-10T08:55:00.000-06:00

Springtime!

2010-03-09T17:00:00.001-06:00

Zoe the flower

2010-03-05T22:26:00.001-06:00

Zoe is a daisy in the photo. I picked her and brought her home and put her in a vase with some water (aka a bathtub).

Paige making lizard noises

2010-03-02T21:25:00.003-06:00

2010-02-28T22:29:00.004-06:00

Paige is a girl on the move. Just after turning 9 months she figured out that she could crawl from room to room. There's be no stopping her since then. She's also a climber. She can climb onto the bed, up on chairs, and attempts to climb the dresser and highchair but Skip and I sure spoil sports. And 2 days ago she learned to get off the bed on her own! She'll walk if you hold her hand, but she's happy to cruise around the room holding on to furniture or to do what we call her crawl run.

Paige has a few words. She says "mama", "dada", and we think that her name for Zoe is "baba". She has tried to say "cat" a couple of times but it comes out "caw". She signs "milk", "more", her own version of "all done", and waves hello and goodbye.

Her favorite activities include:

- banging on the mirror and laughing

- jumping on the bed with Zoe

- standing in the rocking chair and rocking

- trying to lick our kitten Sophie

Favorite foods:

- Chuy's Tex-Mex

- strawberries

- bagels

- crackers

- olives

Paige squishes up her nose when she smiles. Oh, and now she tells Zoe "no". Being a second child is so different than being a first.

Snow in Austin today

2010-02-23T19:53:00.000-06:00

Zoe

2010-02-15T22:20:00.004-06:00

Zoe has been expanding her vocabulary. Here are a few quotes from today:

Paige puts USB cable in her mouth.

Me: Not for your mouth, Paige.

Zoe to me: Paige put that in her mouth intentionally.

While we were all pretending to be other things...

Zoe: Daddy is a concept.

Now she couldn't expand on what she meant by that, but it was the first time she's experimented with that word.

I told Zoe that I saw a tree out of the corner of my eye and at first I thought it was a person. She replied: You just realized that it was a tree?

Zoe also invented a friend named Gwendoline who has brown hair, pink eyes and likes to "knock things over."

Happy Sisters

2010-02-15T17:24:00.003-06:00

Sophie and Miro

2010-02-15T17:22:00.001-06:00

Happy Valentines Day!

2010-02-13T21:40:00.001-06:00

Chinese for lunch

2010-02-13T21:30:00.003-06:00

My little artist

2010-01-22T12:26:00.001-06:00

Zoe drew this for me on my birthday. Its a picture of me, Skip.

Sisters

2010-01-11T18:09:00.002-06:00

Are there any dolphins in the river? I love that!

2010-01-08T18:58:00.000-06:00

The woods, fire, yumminess and caterpillars.

2010-01-08T15:23:00.008-06:00

The first photo is at Turkey Creek. Zoe jokingly told the tree to move off the path.

We went to Austin's first night celebration, I took a good photo of swirling fire in a tall tube. They also had a fun parade (my batteries ran out on the camera). There were swings under large oaks at night, and the seats of the swings lit up different colors. You can see them here.

Paige is really enjoying trying new foods and feeding herself. We let her go to town sometimes and make as big of a mess as she wants.

We found a caterpillar today outside who was not going to make it in the freezing temperatures we are currently having. She was curled up in a ball in the driveway. We brought her inside, and after about 30mins she started crawling around. Zoe named her Ice because we found her outside in cold. We are hoping she turns into a moth or butterfly! We will let her back outside after the cold weather.

Zilker Trail

2009-12-26T19:58:00.001-06:00

Miro watching doves have breakfast on Christmas Morning

2009-12-25T08:33:00.001-06:00

Barton Creek Greenbelt

2009-12-21T21:12:00.000-06:00

Napoleon - We Love You and Miss You

2009-12-20T20:34:00.011-06:00

Napoleon passed away this past Wednesday, the 16th. She was an amazing cat and loved member of our family. She was born in the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia in 1998. Napoleon and Miro were found at the same time (Miro may be her mother). Here are some of the things we remember about her:

She was always good, she never misbehaved. She would even correct Miro if Miro did something she knew we wouldn't like. (e.g., Miro was scratching the couch one time and Napoleon ran up and slapped her on the butt.)

She would sweep crumbs of food under the food bowls to clean up after eating.

She had a very loud, deep healthy purr. The most unique I ever heard.

She used to cross her front paws, very lady like, sometimes when sitting on a chair.

She loved drinking water out of a glass.

When she was a kitten, she would stare at her reflection in the oven or mirror for 30 minutes or more. Sometimes she would stare so long that she would cry and we would have to move her somewhere else.

The reason she was named Napoleon is the vet first thought she was a boy, it wasn't until we brought her back to the vet that they discovered she was a girl.

When we had parakeets Napoleon would stand right under the cage and wait for a feather to drop, then she would jump up and eat it before it touched the ground. We think she was trying to eat them one feather at a time.

When Napoleon would sleep she would sometime lay partially on her back and curl up her front paws towards her face.

She was gentle and patient.

She was a very dignified being, anyone who ever met her could agree to that.

Art, food and hikes in the deep dark woods

2009-12-19T21:05:00.002-06:00

Zoe and Paige - Cuties

2009-12-19T20:55:00.003-06:00

The top photo is Zoe at 7 months, and the bottom is Paige at 8 months.

Lights and Fog

2009-12-17T22:47:00.002-06:00

We went to the Zilker Park Trail of Lights tonight. Its much smaller this year, which I like. Its much more manageable with 2 kids. I also took a photo of steam fog over Barton Springs.

Austin at Night

2009-12-16T23:12:00.001-06:00

Happy Hanukkah

2009-12-16T23:09:00.002-06:00

Cold weather and walking trees

2009-12-07T10:39:00.003-06:00

It was a chilly weekend, in the low 50s upper 40s. We went to the park for a bit. The last photo is of a guy dressed up in a realistic tree costume on the corner, he would hold still then say something in a deep voice when you walked by. He would walk around a bit too. It was really cool, even though it was scaring kids a little. I think he said to Zoe, "You remind me of a sprouting elm tree I once knew." Zoe whispered to me, "Ive never seen a talking tree before". I explained it to her it was a guy in a costume, then she thought it was pretty funny.

Funny things Zoe has said recently

2009-12-04T21:00:00.000-06:00

I (Skip) was in the living room with Zoe and Paige. Paige was making a lot of noise while Zoe was trying to watch one of her videos. Zoe asked if I could put Paige in the other room and then come back and sit with her. I told I need to be in the same room with Paige. The she asked if I could put Paige in the exersaucer (a big toy Paige sits in a plays by herself, only last for about 10 minutes or so). I told Zoe Paige had already been in the exersaucer and probably wouldn't want to go back in. Then she asked, "Can you put her back inside Mommy?"

Recently Paige has started crawling, and almost every time she crawls straight for Zoe. The other day Zoe was drawing and Paige started crawling towards her with a big smile on her face.

Zoe-"Paige is scary".

Mommy "Why is Paige scary?"

Zoe-"Because she is moving around"

Zoe doesn't like to talk on the phone. Recently Nikki's mom asked to talked to Zoe, Zoe got on the phone and said rather quickly, "Hello, Mommy has a cold sore..goodbye" and handed the phone back to Nikki.

Me: Zoe , would you like some soup?

Zoe: No, I'm too happy to eat soup.

Sophie in the Christmas Tree

2009-11-29T22:35:00.000-06:00

Early Saturday morning at the park

2009-11-28T10:45:00.003-06:00

In good company

2009-11-27T19:42:00.005-06:00

Being a vegetarian is not new. A lot of people in history practiced vegetarianism at one time or another in their lives. Some just for a while, some stayed with it their whole lives.

In addition to some of our good friends who are veggies, like Angie and James, Catherine-Eugene and family, Kara-Eliot and family, Giana-Todd and family, Annalisa and family, Bobby and family (who is vegan), and Im sure Ive missed a few...here is just some of the famous people who at one time or another were vegetarians (for a longer list go here):

Leonardo da Vinci, artist and inventor

Thomas Edison, inventor

Albert Einstein, physicist

Ben Franklin, American statesman, philosopher and scientist

Mahatma Gandhi, Indian independence leader

Jerry Garcia, musician, member of Grateful Dead

Bob Marley, musician

Sir Isaac Newton, physicist

Plato, philosopher

Pythagoras, Greek philosopher

Socrates, Greek philosopher

Dr. Spock, author and pediatrician

Henry David Thoreau, writer

Leo Tolstoy, author

Vincent Van Gogh, painter

Voltaire, French writer

HG Wells, author

Steve Jobs - CEO of Apple

John Coltrane - jazz musician

Paul McCartney of The Beatles

Saint Francis of Assisi - patron saint of animals

and these are possible based on quotes about vegetarianism:

Charles Darwin, author and scientist

Mark Twain - author

Abraham Lincoln - US president

Vegetarian

2009-11-27T07:00:00.000-06:00

Today is our 10 years anniversary of being a vegetarian. The last time I ate any animal was at my mom's house on Thanksgiving in 1999. I stopped cold turkey (I know, bad joke) the day after that.

I remember getting lots of questions such as, "Dont you miss eating meat?" "You don't even eat fish?" and so on (the answer to both of those is no by the way). I would always love to answer any questions anyone had but have always made it a point not to be a missionary about it. The easiest answer I could give would simply be, "I don't eat anything you have to kill".

I can say it was a great decision for Nikki and I. I feel healthier and cleaner inside than I ever did eating meat. Now we have 2 girls who we are raising as vegetarians and this gives them extra thought to what they are eating, teaching them compassion and empathy in the process.

So happy anniversary and congratulations to Nikki and myself, 10 years meat free!

Thanksgiving

2009-11-26T22:24:00.003-06:00

Today we had a wonderful thanksgiving feast prepared by Nikki. It included Quorn Veg-Turkey Roast with cranberry-blueberry topping, broccoli, pears and raisins, mashed yams with cinnamon, pecan and pumpkin pies. Thank you Nikki!

Afterwards we went to Zilker and climbed around on what we call "Zoe's boulder", because she is the one who found it.

Photos from Zilker Park

2009-11-25T17:19:00.002-06:00

Photos of Fall

2009-11-21T21:53:00.000-06:00

The Capitol Building

2009-11-20T13:39:00.004-06:00

Zoe and I visited the Capitol Building here in Austin the other day. Zoe likes all the statues inside. On the way out we collected acorns in the grass for a while.

Vacation Truckster

2009-11-14T15:42:00.002-06:00

One of the cars used in the movie Vacation was in front of Wholefoods this morning for a promotion. It was fun to see it in person.

Photos of my cuties playing

2009-11-10T16:19:00.002-06:00

Happy Halloween!

2009-10-31T22:20:00.001-05:00

Dia da los Muertos

2009-10-30T20:50:00.000-05:00

Cool Fall Morning at Zilker Park

2009-10-22T20:13:00.001-05:00

Pics from Westcave Preserve

2009-10-18T01:12:00.000-05:00

Early morning walks and peacocks

2009-10-16T22:30:00.000-05:00

Paige's 6 Month Check Up

2009-10-13T23:21:00.004-05:00

All is well. In the past 6 weeks, Paige has gained a pound and a half and grown an inch and a half. This week Skip taught her how to give high 5s.

Sophie and Silly Squirrel

2009-10-13T16:03:00.003-05:00

Sophie checking out Silly Squirrel (named by Zoe) having some lunch from the bird feeder.

Sweet Berry Farm

2009-10-11T10:26:00.001-05:00

Photos from Sweet Berry Farm in Marble Falls, TX

Wild Basin Wilderness Preserve

2009-09-26T18:06:00.002-05:00

Paige has her first non-mommy milk meal

2009-09-25T20:04:00.004-05:00

Paige had her first bite of food yesterday. She had some avocado. She didnt know what to think at some moments, but she gave it overall a "thumbs up". She was very excited to finally be eating.

No more diapers for Zoe!

2009-09-18T00:10:00.003-05:00

Zoe is officially potty trained! For a party we celebrated at Amy's Ice Cream, met some cousins, ate some sprinkles, did some woodsy walking. We are very proud of our girl, she is growing up.

Flowers and Butterflies

2009-09-17T20:24:00.006-05:00

We went to the Zilker Botanical Gardens this afternoon. These are 2 good flower photos. Zoe had fun chasing butterflies.

Some recent photos

2009-09-07T10:32:00.002-05:00

The animal you see swimming in the lake is a beaver.

Sunshine during a rain shower

Early morning on a trail

Hiking Walnut Creek

2009-09-05T15:29:00.002-05:00

We went hiking in Walnut Creek park. Very nice trails, a lot of Ashe Junipers, and some of the trails go right beside rather steep drop offs down into the valley where the creek is (the creek is mostly dry). Very nice walk in the woods.

Afternoon exploring Bull Creek

2009-09-02T16:52:00.002-05:00

Early morning Austin

2009-09-01T11:03:00.001-05:00

Here are a couple of photos of the Austin skyline at dawn.

Some photos from this morning

2009-08-30T12:19:00.001-05:00

Looking for shells at Emma Long Park

2009-08-29T19:29:00.000-05:00

Video of Paige

2009-08-29T19:23:00.000-05:00

Paige's 4 Month Check Up

2009-08-27T21:47:00.001-05:00

Paige had her 4 month check up today. It went very well. She's now 13#7 and 25" tall.

She had her first shot today. We decided to do DTaP first. I was expecting her to be very upset. The nurse gave her the shot while she was lying on the table. She didn't seem to notice anything at first, then she got a bit of a concerned look on her face and started kicking her legs. Then she noticed the awesome sound that the paper cover made when she kicked and got very excited that she could make it make noise. I picked her up and offered her milk, but the nurse was taking the paper off the table at the same time, and Paige just wanted to see the paper being crumpled up. So first shot - no crying, no nursing, no nothing. That's not what I expected. You go girl.

Pic of Paige

2009-08-25T20:59:00.005-05:00

Bee Sting

2009-08-12T18:16:00.001-05:00

Zoe had her first bee sting this morning at preschool. Now we know she is not allergic. She handled the whole incident amazingly well.

Zoe's 3rd Birtday Party

2009-08-09T13:49:00.001-05:00

This is video from about a month ago. We had Zoe's 3rd birthday party at a park here in Austin.

More Summer Photos

2009-08-09T13:03:00.001-05:00

Zoe and a Red-Tailed Hawk

2009-08-09T11:54:00.004-05:00

This is a photo from the Nature Center here in Austin about 6 months ago. This red-tailed hawk was very loud when she made her calls. It was a great experience to see one that close.

Bugs, sand and other yummy stuff

2009-07-24T09:25:00.003-05:00

Nikki, Zoe and Paige went to Toy -Joy here in Austin last week to get some vegan ice-cream. Zoe wanted sprinkles and the lady behind the counter warned that they are not vegan or vegetarian.

Nikki: "How can sprinkles not be vegetarian?"

Lady behind counter: “The shiny coating is called shellac, which is made of bugs, and the red ones get their coloring from another type of smashed up bug".

Yummy!

http://webecoist.com/2009/05/08/10-weird-and-gross-ingredients-in-processed-food/

Zoe Photos

2009-07-23T22:59:00.003-05:00

Our friend Valarie recently took some great photos of Zoe for her photography portfolio. You can visit her site at www.valarielcampbell.com

Sisters

2009-07-20T09:53:00.003-05:00

I love these photos. The last photo, the look on Paige's face is even funnier when you know that Zoe took her arm and said lovingly "I'm going to eat you up".

My NYC girl

2009-07-16T21:45:00.006-05:00

This is Skip, Im off to NYC for the weekend to try out for a reality show, should be interesting. Nikki and the girls are staying here in Austin.

It will be kind of hard being there without Nikki. I have so many memories of various places in NYC that are strongly associated with Nikki, where we worked, places we hung out together, places we acted silly together, our restaurants, places we took Zoe as a baby.

Nikki made a lot of really good friends in NY, she fit in NYC better than any place we have ever lived. She knows her way around the subway system like a pro, and she can walk through a condensed crowd like a fish moves in water. When we had Nikki's 30th birthday party at Gobos in the Village last year, I was amazed at how many friends she had, the whole table was full of her buddies, when they sang happy birthday the restaurant became quite the song was so loud. The reason I’m saying all this is that it will be strange being in NYC this weekend without her, because Nikki is more of a New Yorker than I could ever dream of being, and all those places I see in the city that I associate with her, the memories will come back and she wont be there to share them with ( I guess I can always call her though).

Peak-a-Boo

2009-07-09T22:23:00.001-05:00

Photos from the summer so far.

2009-07-05T22:48:00.000-05:00

Happy Anniversary and Birthday

2009-07-04T07:25:00.017-05:00

This July 2nd was our 9 year anniversary. Things I remember about our wedding day was Nikki bouncing up and down, how beautiful she was in her dress, all the friends and family we talked to that day. I remember when we both drank from the wine glass, how funny it was when Nikki took a little sip and handed me a full glass of wine to down in front of everyone. It was a day full of excitement and happiness. Nikki and I have done a lot of amazing things, been a lot of places and had a lot of wonderful experiences in the past 9 years, and I’m looking forward to the next 9 as well. I can say that the 3 best experiences of my life have been the day I married Nikki, and watching my 2 daughters be born.

We went to an early dinner at Mothers Vegetarian Restaurant to celebrate.

On July 3rd we had another big celebration, Zoe turned 3! We let Zoe pick out where she wanted to go for lunch, and it was no surprise, she said, "I want to go to Chuys". Chuys is a great Tex-Mex place here in Austin, and its Zoes favorite place to eat. Zoe opened up some presents and had some cupcakes from Wholefoods. We are extremely proud of our little rock star Zoe.

Its about 7:30 am as I write this blog. I was up at 5 this morning and took a sleeping Paige (in her car seat) to Barton Springs to swim. It was great. There was only about 5 people swimming (Barton Springs is really large swimming area). It was still night, the stars were still in the sky, the sun was turning the horizon a lighter shade of blue, the cold water straight from inside the Earth was very cold, and bats were flying overhead. Paige slept in her car seat while I swam around for a while. Im going to try to do that more often, it was a great way to start the day.

Paige is doing great. She is getting bigger, smiling, talking to us, and taking everything in. She has the sweetest voice and very deep, beautiful eyes.

This morning we have a tricycle parade to go to, should be fun. We are going to try and keep the kiddos up to see fireworks tonight, we will see how that goes. And tomorrow is Zoe's birthday party! Tomorrow night we are going on a bat cruise.

Sophie is fitting right in with the other cats. I have seen her playing with Miro many times now, and laying close to Napoleon on the couch. She is a funny girl with lots of energy, and I love the way she makes Zoe giggle.

I'll be in Dallas next weekend to pick up my artwork from my solo show at Northlake, and I have an opening reception to attend at Dahlia Woods, its a group show with 11 other artists.

In a couple of weeks I will be heading up to my old stomping grounds of NYC for the weekend. Im trying out for a reality TV show. Should be an interesting experience! Hopefully while Im up there I can meet up with some friends I haven’t seen in a while.

Zoe and Sophie

2009-06-27T22:55:00.002-05:00

Zoe really loves her new pet Sophie. She has been cleaning out the litter box and picking her up when she can. Miro has started playing with Sophie as well.

Yard Sale

2009-06-27T22:52:00.003-05:00

Nikki hosted her first yard sale a couple of days ago! Went well considering the 114 heat index.

Happy Father's Day

2009-06-22T11:23:00.000-05:00

Dallas and other stuff

2009-06-20T15:06:00.013-05:00

We just got back from Dallas this week. We went there for a solo art exibition Skip is having at North Lake College in Irving. We saw friends and family.

This is Skip's parents dog named Angel

Zoe running in front of Mammaw and Pappaws house (Skip's parents)

Paige

Zoe having fun

I think Zoe wasnt interested in taking any more photos at this point

Paige and Great Bubbie

Zoe having fun at her daddy's art reception

Our friends Sheedeh and Angie

The family

Angie, James, Nikki and Zoe

Also Skip finished a new artwork titled The Young Poet Rumi you can see on his art blog, and Zoe finished up her installation Tweedle Bug House which you can see on her art blog. She named it herself and for anyone who has visited is in the past several months will know, has been working on it for a while (its right in the path leading to our front door).

We took Sophie to the vet for her checkup, she is doing great. Our littlest family member has grown from a tiny one pound to 2.6 lbs. The Vet thinks she's about 9 weeks old now. We're going to introduce her to Miro and Napoleon over the next couple of days.

We are planning Zoe birthday 3rd birthday party right now. Wow, our little girl is 3!

Balinese Monkey Dance

2009-06-11T09:10:00.004-05:00

I just watched the documentary Baraka, and this scene showing the Balinese Monkey Dance called the Kecak is one of my favorite scenes...

Zoe's New Art Blog!

2009-06-06T17:37:00.002-05:00

We set up an art blog to post Zoe's artwork, check it out!

http://zoesartwork.blogspot.com/

Photos galore!

2009-06-04T09:12:00.002-05:00

I posted this album a while back but since then Ive added a bunch of photos.

Introducing Sophie!

2009-05-30T21:13:00.004-05:00

So we all get up this morning and are on our way to Wholefoods downtown for some breakfast. I turn the corner on Lamar, and get up to about 40mph right behind a tan Ford pickup truck. All of the sudden I see the passenger door of this pickup truck open and out flies a small kitten, rolls about 15 times and lands on the sidewalk. The kitten instantly starts running and hides under some U-Hauls (at a U-Haul parking lot). My first reaction was to chase down the people in that truck and head butt them in the nose as hard as I could, but common sense quickly took over and Nikki and I realized we needed to help the kitten. We pulled over and Nikki finally caught this very fast calico kitten after about 15 minutes. It first looked as if her front leg was dislocated or broken, so we went down Lamar to the first veterinarian we came to (photo of Nikki and Sophie at the vets waiting room to the right). Nikki and I instantly wanted to keep this wonderful little kitten, so I asked Zoe what we should name the kitten. Zoe thought about it, smiled and whispered, "Sophie". The very nice and gentle vet took a look at her, said she was perfectly healthy, joked that she used up about 4 of her 9 lives this morning, no broken legs.

Sophie was covered in fleas and dirt. She is also bone skinny. We took her home, gave her some recommended kitten food, which she devoured. It made me so happy and sad at the same time to see her eat so vigorously. You could tell she had not eaten in days. We are going to keep her separated from our other 2 cats until the fleas are gone. I know Miro and Napoleon (Miro especially) will love being mommies to Sophie. We are happy to have her in the family!

Paige holding her head up

2009-05-29T12:08:00.000-05:00

One Month

2009-05-27T20:30:00.002-05:00

This is my letter to my two girls one month after they had been sisters. I meant to post this when Paige turned one month old. We've been a bit busy and sleep deprived since then :) I'm still working on posting Paige's birth story. Stay tuned and please excuse the typos...

Paige - you're 4 weeks old! You're doing a great job adjusting to this strange and wonderful world. I wanted to write a few words down about your first month on the outside before my memory melts everything together into one big blob. When you were a day old Daddy and I were amazed by how alert you were. You made direct eye contact with us. Your eyes are intense. You're look seemed to ask "Where am I and what the hell is going on?" I think that you must have come from some place this is very different from this world. You nursed like a pro right off the start, and about every hour until my milk came in. Then you got the "milk drunk" baby thing.

You've had some problems with gas and maybe some other tummy troubles. Your cry is quite strong and intense. It breaks my heart when you cry and I don't know how to make you feel better. The crying seems to be getting better especially at night. I'm hoping that your digestive system is maturing and won't bother you as much any more. I also suspect that you're sensitive to cow's milk like I am, so I'm cutting it out of my diet for awhile to see if that helps you (Update - it's made a world of difference. At this point, I'm making it official that you're allergic or at least sensitive to cow's milk).

The past couple of weeks I've been watching you discover that you can control your hands. I'm sure this must be quite the wondrous find, similar to if I'd discovered that I could levitate. While I'm changing your diaper you try to grab hold of the stuffed animal duck that Zoe bought you before you were born and the ring toy. You've hit them a couple of times but today (5/5/09) while you were in the bassinet you grabbed the rings and didn't let go. I'm very proud of you little one.

Big sister Zoe, I'm so proud of you, too. You have adapted to life with a newborn faster than I had expected. After Paige was born you were very sensitive to her cries, and understandably so. All of the sudden our quiet house was filled with what seemed like nonstop screaming. After a week or so of getting used to the sound and with the help of Daddy and I explaining that Paige's crying is her way of communicating, you aren't as upset by it anymore. I think you're having the hardest time with Paige not being able to interact. You want to play with her and all she does is eat, sleep and cry. I think you thought that she would be able to do more. Well, soon enough she'll be laughing and smiling and playing peek-a-boo with you (although I'm sure it's forever to you right now). You've also been a big help and doing more things on your own.

I think you're enjoying having more "Zoe time". Of course, I'm sure its been difficult that Daddy and I are spending so much time with Paige. You're doing a great job. Daddy and I both love you very much.

Spider

2009-05-24T14:40:00.002-05:00

Zoe caught her 2nd spider today all by herself . We put them outside. Im sooooo proud of her. ~Skip

The changing US population

2009-05-24T07:21:00.006-05:00

Interesting article on the top 10 cities in the US that people are relocating to. All but 1 (Denver) are in the South and Southwest. Austin is #2. A lot of people in Austin really don’t want it to grow anymore, I can actually understand that. Austin has a certain charm about it that it might lose if it became too big. I heard (I think on NPR) that Texas is projected to be the state with the largest population, larger than NY or CA, by the year 2040. The funny part is I remember in college I had a professor that predicted 2 things about the future of the US (this was in the early 90s), that people would mostly telecommute for their jobs and the South/Southwest would be the new large population centers of the country by the middle of the 21 century. When I read this article (and heard the same day on the radio that Houston is getting ready to overtake Chicago as the nation’s 3rd largest city) it resurfaced to my memory what one of my professors had said so many years ago in college.

Here is a funny story on The Onion about this also.

My sports days

2009-05-12T11:49:00.006-05:00

For those of you who know me now, it may be a surprise to know that I used to be really into sports (I know nothing of whats going on now in sports). Football, baseball and karate were my favorites. Below are 2 photos, one of me on my pee-wee football team in Ocean Springs, Mississippi called the Dolphins. I love playing defence. The other is of me playing baseball on a little leauge team in Honolulu, Hawaii. I forget the name of the team. I always played catcher. I spent several yeas in Karate and earned my black belt by the time I was 10 yeas old. Something happened around middle school and I just lost all interests in sports, (also cars, trucks, planes and other boy related things). Nikki says we beginning to develop our own individual personalities around that time, that makes sense to me.

Paige and Zoe

2009-05-12T11:42:00.003-05:00

My 6th grade class photo

2009-05-03T17:15:00.002-05:00

This is my 6th grade class photo from Mokulele Elementry in Honolulu, Hawaii

Some of Skip's favorite quotes

2009-05-03T13:52:00.002-05:00

Be careful when you fight the monsters, lest you become one.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Every generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it.

George Orwell

If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all.

Noam Chomsky

All children are artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.

Pablo Picasso

The real truth of the matter is that a financial element in the large centers has owned the government since the days of andrew jackson

Fanklin D Roosevelt 1933

There are three social classes in America: upper middle class, middle class, and lower middle class.

Judith Martin

Any fool can make a rule, and any fool will mind it.

Henry David Thoreau

Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn't.

Erica Jong

Insanity in individuals is something rare - but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.

Friedrich Nietzsche

It is hard enough to remember my opinions, without also remembering my reasons for them!

Friedrich Nietzsche

The moral progress of a nation and its greatness should be judged by the way it treats its animals.

Mahatma Gandhi

Respect yourself and others will respect you.

Confucius