2½ Years Old

September 24, 2011 By: erik Category: Offspring, Videos

2.5 Years Old Video (thumbnail)Two and a half years ago, just after the 2009 vernal equinox, my daughter, Nora, was born. It was quite exciting. She’s come quite a ways since then. Just last week, I heard her mother ask her how old she was in Spanish, and Nora responded “dos años y medio”. So immediately I set upon teaching her to say “two and a half” in English. It wasn’t easy, as she simply refused to even attempt the phrase for several days. But eventually I prevailed, just in time for her half-birthday. Marga had to work today (Nora also learned to say, “Today is Saturday!” today), so we didn’t have our traditional birthday hamburger feast.
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Happy Birthday, Grandpa!

May 19, 2011 By: erik Category: Family, Offspring, Videos

Happy Birthday, Grandpa (video thumbnail)I spent a good part of my morning today trying to get my daughter to say “Happy birthday, Grandpa”. For the longest time, when I told her to say “happy”, she would shake her head and say “No!” It was appropriate, then, that my eventual success came by way of using behavior modification techniques my father taught me. I told her that if she wouldn’t say “happy”, then I would walk away and ignore her. I did this once, coming back a minute later to ask if she’d like to say “happy” and make me stay. She did, and I heaped praise on her. To add the second word, I had to temporarily abandon her once more in punishment. When I came back, she was happy to say the entire phrase to keep me in the room. I assume this is how Steven Spielberg directs his films, too.
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Abuelo's 90th Birthday Bash

June 17, 2010 By: erik Category: Family, Partying, Photos

Abuelo with SparklerOn June 12, 2010, shortly before the United States faced off against England in their first World Cup match of the second decade of the third millennium, we had a party to celebrate the ninetieth birthday of my third grandfather. It was a lovely meal with good friends and family followed by a balloon-popping event, some gifts, and cake. A good time was had by all, even if Nora did manage to receive more gifts than the birthday boy.
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Birthday Photos

October 31, 2007 By: erik Category: Family, Partying, Photos, Spain

We’re back from our honeymoon! We’ve got plenty of wedding and honeymoon photos to share, but first we’ve got to get some of the pre-wedding family visit / birthday photos out of the way. My father has written up a much better explanation of events than my blurred memory could give you, so I won’t do much explaining here, and share his story soon.
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