Such a long, long time to be gone

Apologies for another long gap between posts, but as John Lennon said, life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.

As some of you know, within the past several weeks I just started shooting my first documentary film, "Make 'Em Laugh," about the craft and art of telling a joke.  Nearly every spare moment I have has been spent handling the logistics of setting up shoots and interviews, the planning and permissions that go into these shoots, the shoots themselves, and digitizing and logging the footage.  (And let's face it, I had soooo much spare time to begin with!)

So I want to take everyone back to Halloween, and our somewhat successful efforts to have the Dudes suit up for the big night.  We thought that dressing up Aidan and Brendan as two peas in a pod was a cute idea, and while Brendan seemed to enjoy himself, Aidan was less than thrilled.

Happy Anniversary G.C. and Grandpa

We had a fun night out to celebrate Cathy and Paul's 40th wedding anniversary.  Big thanks to Uncle Scott who served as photographer for the evening.

Park, pt. 2

We love the park

We've also been taking regular excursions to the park, over at Guy Mason.  From swinging on the swings, to sliding down the slides, the Dudes always have a ball at the park.  (I'm hoping to post some video from the park later this week...)

And finally...pumpkins!

And more photos...

More Photos from Homestead Farm

We took a lot of photos.  Here are some more...

(By the way, if anyone out there knows how to upload a huge batch of photos and set them as a slideshow, give me a shout.)

Apple and Punkin' Pickin'!

We took a wonderful day trip today out to Homestead Farm to pick apples and pumpkins.  What a wonderful treasure to have discovered not all that far from Washington!  The Dudes had a great time running (though these days they still look like drunken sailors when they walk.  They're good walkers, but stability still seems a little ways off...) all around, seeing farm animals, playing in the apple orchard and pounding on pumpkins in the pumpkin patch.  It was really a fun, fun day.

News & GLAMOUR!

Sorry to have been absent so long, but it has been a chaotic time for the Clan Jacobs.  You see, we're having two bathrooms renovated at the same time.  The story of how we got to this point isn't all that interesting, but the upshot is that we're living with Paul and Cathy for the next several weeks and Internet access is a bit limited.  

But to tide everyone over, I wanted to share this photo taken by Christine's cousin Catie during her shopping trip to get sunglasses.  There's Cool Man Aidan, looking laid back and suave, and there's our Resident Ham Brendan, who looks like he could be related to Elton John.  Enjoy!

Hangin' with Jackson

We spent a lovely afternoon today with Juliana, an old friend of Christine's from ASL, and her little boy, Jackson.  She and her husband, John, are in the Foreign Service and currently stationed in India, so it was nice to see them and catch up a bit.  And of course, the boys had a fun time playing and...swimming!  It looks like Jackson was also initiated into one of the gangs.  (I have no idea which one.  You'll have to ask Aidan or Brendan, though every time I ask about the gangs, they tell me it's secret, etc.  Go figure.)  Here are a few photos of their visit and a quick video clip of their dip in the pool.

We're walking!!!

Right in the middle of their birthday party, Aidan decided to take his first steps!!!  And, of course, I didn't have the camera running at the time.  But here is some footage of Brendan taking some steps with the help of Aunt Karen, and Aidan walking just a day or so later.

Eating avocado

You would have thought that a blog which finds its inspiration in Aidan and Brendan's love of avocado would have shown them eating it some time ago.  You would have been wrong.  So here it is.  Finally.

You say it's your birthday, well it's my birthday too, yeah!

The Dudes turned one year old on July 15.  We had a wonderful party with parents, grandparents, cousins, uncles...er'ryone.  Needless to say, the highlight of the day was the boys blowing out the candles on their first birthday cake (Thank you Max and Marsha, it was AMAZING!), and then digging in to some ice cream.  Take a look.

The Clubhouse

Very few people know, but Aidan and Brendan have already been accepted into two very small, very selective clubs: the Cheerio Pants Gang and the Oatmeal Face Gang.  Membership tends to vary depending on who was messier at breakfast each morning.  Also, the gangs are bitter rivals, so it can make for some very interesting exchanges.  Here's a sneak peak at a recent club meeting.

Searchin' fer the Turlet

It really shouldn't come as much of a surprise, given their parents, that Aidan and Brendan are two funny and sometimes peculiar little dudes.  Every night when we bring them upstairs for a bath, not only do we have to be sure the gate at the top of the stairs is secured, we also have to be sure that all of the toilet seats are down, lest they stick their hands in the bowl and then put them in their mouths.  Still, that hasn't stopped our intrepid explorers...

We Scream, You Scream...

We all scream for ICE CREAM!!!  On our afternoon walk today we stopped into our favorite ice cream parlor in the whole city, if not the whole world, Max's Best. Ostensibly, we were just stopping in to order the cakes for the boys' party next weekend.  But, as you know, things just happen when we go to Max's, and Marsha treated the boys to a sneak preview of what they are going to taste at their party. (Oh, and did I mention that Christine and I had milkshakes for lunch?  Yum!)

Meeting Oliver

The big first meeting between Oliver, Aidan, and Brendan was a smashing (or squeezing) success.  Either way, you know it just had to be recorded for posterity:

The Tunnel

When they met, Oliver gave his cousins a present: this nylon tunnel from Ikea that they could crawl through.  At first, neither Aidan nor Brendan would go in it.  Instead, and you have to admit this is pretty wily, they would crawl around it!  But when they finally took the plunge, as it were, a new favorite toy was found, making for hours of fun.  Take a look:

A Night in the Life

We're on a pretty tight nighttime routine when it comes to The Dudes.  One of us picks them up from daycare and brings them home where we play for a while until dinner.  After dinner, it's time for bath, bottle, and bed.  Here's a glimpse into some of that:

A few words about this blog

As many of you know, I am famously and virulently anti-blog. On the whole, I think many of them aren't worth the paper they are printed on (pun intended.). So why blog about Aidan and Brendan? Three reasons: First, compiling photos, writing captions, posting, and sending them out was a little more than my still-sleep deprived brain could handle. Second, with props to Beth Osborne and her beautiful daughter Ellis, I saw where a blog was a wonderful way to keep people up to date about their lives and it was done in a funny, tender, and thoughtful way that I hope to emulate. Third, and finally, as a filmmaker, it hit me one day that filming The Dudes was a great way to practice shooting, editing, etc. -- a creative outlet for me.

As for the title of this blog, Two Avocados, perhaps a few words of explanation are in order. As Aidan and Brendan have made the transition to solid foods, we have discovered that these guys LOVE avocado. There are some nights where they will pitch a fit at dinner when they don't get any or when Christine and I don't feed it to them fast enough. It's pretty wild. The title has a mix of funny, bizarre, and mysterious that I kind of like. Besides, Christine wouldn't let me call it Irish Jews.