walkers!

This video was shot a couple weeks ago- 9/12/2007. Boys love their walkers! We took them out to the courtyard right in front of our apartment in the center of our complex. It's a big, smooth, contained place for them to walk around and they seemed to enjoy it. Lindsay and their Early Intervention therapist Priscilla were there to help out while I filmed. Since this video was shot they have started taking some steps all by themselves too. Our days of placid immobility- as tenuous as they have been these last few months since the boys have been crawling- are about to become completely extinct!

EPL News

So in an effort to do two important things, namely to stimulate a bit more interest in the blog AND deliver timely news about the greatest football league in the world that unfortunately gets so little coverage (or maybe even none whatsoever) in areas where most of the family lives, I’m going to try a bi-monthly English Premier League report for all the footie fans in the family.

The biggest news this past week was that Chelsea Manager Jose Mourinho has agreed to part ways with the club, apparently by “mutual consent.”

As always, the press had about a hundred different explanations for this kind of breaking news, but the announcement was particularly shocking given Mourinho’s success with the club since he joined in 2004, including two league titles in the first two seasons and an FA cup win last season.

I think some of the main reasons though are that Mourinho has been in disagreement with (corrupt) Russian owner and oligarch Roman Abramovich since the lack of funds to sign new players during last January's transfer window. Others think further disagreement occurred when Michael Ballack and Andriy Shevchenko were brought in at the beginning of the season, reportedly against Mourinho's wishes and one other comment from a former Chelsea player was that "He's a very individual man and he thinks he should be the power at the club." So even though there were other rumours that some of the players on the team betrayed him, I think no matter how you look at this situation, this quote was interesting and maybe not far off the mark:

"If you put someone of that ego, and I say that in a likeable way, in charge and then you tell him you're not quite in charge, then I think it was a recipe for disaster."

Although I’m not a Chelsea fan (I think how can anyone support a club that has been funded primarily from dirty Russian oil money??) and think Mourinho did have a huge ego, I sometimes couldn’t help but admire him for how good he was as a manager and also was intrigued by how intense he sometimes became during some of the games, including some of his celebrations after Chelsea goals. He will probably be missed in the EPL, but then again there are already rumours that he might join another club so we’ll see what happens.

Hi everyone - well Gramps and Nana have been back in the baby business. We got to hang with little Oliver in Aberdeen while mommy and daddy stayed in Mallorca for a couple extra days. Little O was a gracious host - showing us around the North Sea and the castles. Now Gramps and Nana are on their way home after a fabulous stay in Spain and Scotland. We loved every minute of it - especially the flowers and sunshine of Mallorca and the friendly Scots and great Schneid family companionship! Here's photos to prove it!

We're back!

Here's a pic of us back in Scotland. The trip to Mallorca was great, a much needed rest. I loved the lemons the flowers and the beach. Melissa, I thought you'd appreciate the pic with a waiter holding little Oliver, I have chilled out soooo much.

the Jane Austen Book Club Premiere

Yesterday Ian and I partook in a Hollywood tradition- we went to our first semi-big-deal premiere for the movie that the company Ian works for, Sony Pictures Classics, is releasing this weekend. We didn't know exactly what to expect. We showed up on time, which meant we had to wait for about 45min. before they started the movie, and we weren't sure if we were going to be overdressed. Not that we were wearing anything special- I was wearing a dress and Ian had on some slacks and a button-up. Turned out to be just right, although some people were there with jeans. The cast showed up decked to the nines for the most part. It was really fun to get an introduction to the movie from the director herself I guess it's the first movie she's directed although she's been adapting novels for the screen for years (Little Women, Memoirs of a Geisha). After the movie it was kind of weird to see all the cast members milling around. I don't know if I liked it so much because everybody that made it was there or because it's really good. I think it's really good, Ian said every time he looked over at me I had a huge smile on my face: 'extended glee' he called it.
yeay.

Squirrel!

We had a visitor yesterday morning on our patio a deck- a squirrel! I was so excited to see it I called to the boys to come over and take a peek. The squirrel seemed to be pretty friendly and he came up closer to the glass and we got a good look at him. I noticed the boys seemed to be a bit nervous and then I took a closer look at the squirrel- he had gone up on his hindlegs and I was amazed at how huge he was when he did this. He started walking towards the glass door (it looked really creepy when he was on his hind legs actually) and came so close it seriously looked like he was trying to get in!! He seemed to be looking all over the door for a way in. Then I noticed that his left paw looked as if it had been chewed right off of his arm. Suddenly, he didn't look so friendly anymore. I tried to scare him off- (actually, I was pretty nervous now too and glanced over the door to make sure he actually COUldn't get in) but he was practically touching the glass... smiling maliciously. Luckily he got bored and took off after that. Boys watched him leave to the last second.

Adventures in Eating

Let's just say that I'm really glad we have a washer and dryer at our place- the laundry we've got nowadays- oy.

Well everyone, Dad and I are off to Scotland/Mallorca in just a few hours. We're excited to hang out with the Schneiders, especially one wee Schneid. It's interesting that many well traveled Mercer Islanders don't know where Mallorca is. Maybe we'd like to keep it that way!
We'll keep you posted on our adventures and hope you do too!
Love Nana and Gramps

Bumbershoot!

yesterday i got to go to bumbershoot, this huge annual music festival in seattle. there's always a ton of great bands, food, comedy shows, and art. i went with a group of friends this year and we had a blast! we were there from noon to 11 pm. some of my favorite bands we saw were the shins, devotchka, aqueduct, and gym class heroes. i look forward to next year's show!

We are one!

Here are some photos from the boys' birthday party last week. We did a hoedown BBQ held jointly with their buddies Noah Miller and Josh Taylor. It was so much fun!! We had a great turn out and my coconut cupcakes even turned out to be pretty decent fare. We received some wonderful gifts also from our lovely friends in the ward. Way to go boys!