Not sure what this means or where it came from. Over coffee (and after about 7 hours of Xmas music) Della gave the above statement. Beach boys Xmas? The 8bit Xmas? Something inspired it.
Somehow, it became May 5th (well, yesterday if we want to be specific). It’s still raining quite a bit … So that legend that it stops on May 1st isn’t true.
In the last many weeks …. Della slipped in the tub and visited the emergency room (we’re more hurt than she was), Josh rejoined the world of independent production / design and Ginger has accepted a 3rd grade teaching position for next year.
What we’re rolling on these days …
Ginger and I are contemplating a quick vacation somewhere. Whether that’s on an airplane or to the coast around here … not sure.
xo. J
No Comply Ollie Kickflip.
We spent the morning skateboarding. I think we need to tighten up the trucks though.
As of 2/25/09 Della does not have a cast. Ask her where it is? ‘Its in Eddie’s Garbage’.
We went in ten days earlier to get it off and found that the break hadn’t healed enough. We could have taken her home, but we (g, j, eddie the cast guy and an orthopedic doctor) all agreed you can’t stop a 2 year old from having a party. So after the new xrays we headed back to the casting room for a new cast.
‘Hey Dell, how about a pink cast this time?’ … ‘No pink, no blue, no cast, no’. She really knew what was up and didn’t want it.
Fast forward and we’re taking new xrays and everything seems good to go. Dell wasn’t psyched on the cast saw (at all) and was pretty tense as the cast was cut off. Across from us, a little 4 year old with a broken elbow got incredibly quiet and serious. Hopefully he made it through his casting ok.
Della was a really good kid while she had the cast on. By the end she was running in it (yes, they said that’s ok). I can’t say we’d be doing the same.
The slide looked choice. It was new, steep and had this REI ‘climb me’ look going for it (the new trend in kids playtoys at the park). Because the slide was too steep, I rode down with her like I have a million times. At the bottom of the slide she erupted in tears. At the time we thought it was fear, but quickly noticed she wouldn’t walk on her leg. After heading home, many calls to a consulting nurse …. we’re going to roll with the idea that it’s a bad sprain. Keep her off it, ice it, wrap it and let her watch the Muppet show nonstop.
Sunday came and she still wasn’t walking at all. In the wild, toddlers never stop moving … ever. So this was pretty strange. After a 5 hour visit to the doctor on a holiday the Xray showed that Della had a Spiral fracture of her right tibia (the shin). Toddler bones are a little different than adult bones, they bend. So on that ride down the slide Della probably caught her foot on the side and twisted her ankle which made the tibia break. The break is pretty clean, she didn’t walk on it at all. So recovery time will be about a month or so. She already picked the hot pink cast … it’s being put on Thursday.
Guilt. Can’t avoid parental guilt. Especially when there’s no one really to blame. I’m going to call the school up and let them know the new REI style slide probably should have a warning about going down doubles. In the meantime, give D your best thoughts! I’m going to bet she’ll start getting stir crfazy pretty soon.
A bit of a welcome surprise arrived at the end of the week. Snow, and lots of it. We’re thinking it might be the most snow we’ve seen stick around since the mid 90′s. For you east coasters and midwest types … yes, we know that you have seen it before. But! Our city has a bad habit of not having much gear to get rid of the snow. So what happens? Bomb those hills. Yes that’s right, days and days of unsalted and completely packed roads for sledding.
Della digs the snow for sure. We’re having some xmas moments over here with hot chocolate, christmas music and falling snow. She’s all over it. I (J) made the poor decision to sled down a steep hill with Dell. When we hit the bottom of the hill a huge burst of powder went into her eyes. For 2 days it was ‘No sled, snow will get in my eyes’ … Then she’d run away.
A crazy storm came in last night with another 7″s of snow. For our new round of snow outside, Della was way more game for sledding. We got our friends Guerren and Kat over here for the nice 3 block drop of roads. Everything was roped off with caution tape so the cars didn’t come through.
There’s apparently more coming tonight. As long as the power doesn’t go out, we’re psyched.
Della was a fairy for Halloween. She spent the day (and many before and after) wearing this costume everywhere. Sometimes with the wings, sometimes without.
This year she got the whole ‘trick or treat’ concept. We ended up at a park and all around our block. People were very generous to her trick-or-treat bag (shaped like a cat btw).
This is probably the last year we will be able to get away with her candy vanishing. She didn’t eat anything except for the granola bar.
Our second stop after a cabin on Lake Quinalt was camping on the Pacific near Long Beach (WA, not LBC). Della accomplished something new and exciting … becoming completely filthy for 3 days straight. Very impressive, she doesn’t usually like to get too dirty. Here she is helping set up the tent.
I think by leaving all electronics at home we saw some fairly amazing sights. 2 young deer wading in the surf with us for over 30 minutes (no obvious reason why). A flock (seriously) of hawks combing the trees. Family of otters hanging out on the logs around our cabin. Oh yeh, Deer flies … as of this trip if D has any injuries she blames them on ‘Flies’. ‘No Dad, Flies’. Deer flies are ruthless, I don’t know where they hide closer to the city, but I don’t want to know.
Dell’s 2nd birthday is nearing – 8/8/8.
The works below are not for sale. Best known as Della’s ‘line’ and ‘ball’ phase. This was an era of her career where she focused a lot of energy on the concept ‘ball’. That everything looks like a ball … fruits cut in half, circles on the ground in chalk, the sun, the moon. All balls.
“Balls, Me “. Ink on paper. 061708.
“dog, balls”. Ink on paper. 061808.
PS. We know there hasn’t been much up here since (!) January. There will be some back pictures from the months and a few stories too.
Impressive.
Below you’ll find Della pulling a ‘Cliffhanger’ move. Lately her growing pains have resulted in a) a cranky della and b) a Della that figured out how to climb out her crib. As of typing this, she hasn’t really attempted to try it in the last few days. But the first day was hilarious and crazy. We hear her regular angry/sad-i-don’t-want-to-sleep cry and the next thing we know we’re standing in the doorway watching her hang by two hands from her crib.
A quick leg over, some arm pulling and …. on the floor.
She didn’t hurt herself. But, it’s another one of those baby moments that hit you when you thought you had FINALLY gotten the hang of it. heh. We went into the room over 20 times that night to stop her from jumping out. Of course, we couldn’t resist a few photos to remember the night. Eventually she stopped … lets hope the padding below the crib right now doesn’t need to be used!
In other news, Della loved Christmas and was really sad to see the tree leave. When we packed away the ornaments and lights, she opened the box and (while crying) tried to put them all back on.
Apologies for any news or photos in the last month(s). We’ve been enjoying the holidays, working hard, visiting the snow. We’ll post some of that below this post over the next week or so.
Christmas morning. It snowed (really!). Which is pretty rare around here … especially on a holiday. Della had so many gifts we had to ration them out over a few days after xmas. She got a barrel of monkeys, a train, some balls, a mr potato head, books, clothes. The list goes on. It’s been nice to have a lot of time off together.
Oh and she got this. A winnie the pooh train that sings songs, makes noises, beeps, whirs and says ‘buzz like a bee won’t you’. It’s sort of like a giant greeting card filled with endless fun. Della loves it … her grandparents in Alaska gave it to her … we think they might hate us. But, she really does love it – and we promise we aren’t hiding it in the closet.
We’ve all been a bit busy with the holidays coming up. A much needed 2 weeks for Ginger and 1.5 for myself.
My time has been spent finishing up some design and work on a beautiful Tunisian film called ‘Bab’Aziz – The Prince Who Contemplated His Soul’.
Here’s the poster for the theatrical release (look for it in March). Inspired by the desert, folk tale atmosphere and colors …
Here’s a link to the trailer: http://youtube.com/watch?v=IPYjenA3VFg (There’s a higher res (80megs) quicktime here: http://typecastfilms.com/babaziz).
The video came from SD materials, the titles were created as 1920×1080 HD 24fps sequences. The video was edited and exported as TIF sequences. The audio is a mix of the film soundtrack, soundscapes and backgrounds in the film + dialog. Thefinal version was upconverted and transferred to 35mm. This director’s (Nacer Khemir) work was really enjoyable to explore.
The film is so beautiful and involved (kids, adults, scholars) – hopefully it brings in the American audiences! Look for the trailer in cinemas now. Bab’Aziz is part of a trilogy – I’m working on the other 2 films for a DVD release in the next month or two.
-j
Our friend Guerren just returned from Kyoto with a backpack from Osaka for D. It’s Totoro for those wondering. Keeper of the forest, friends of all children – the good stuff. Yes, Della is walking 100% now. She still drops down old school and crawls … but not often. Each day she gets a bit better at it … running is even on the horizon.
Autumn is finally here. Rain, the sun goes down earlier. G and I just celebrated our 8 year anniversary (12 if you count them all). October is here and we’re looking forward to some sledding with D, Snowboarding and enjoying the leaves falling.
Della is in love with balloons and Spain thinks they’re pretty alright as well. The picture below sort of sums of the chaos on any given day – calm and amazing at the exact same time.
I (J) have been working from home a few days a week. It’s pretty crazy in one day to be doing some design work or formatting a motion sequence for HD and the next thing you know a baby and dog are attacking a orange balloon. hah. G is sharing a classroom at an elementary school nearby and we’re sharing the ‘at home’ time with Dell. Super fun and super crazy at the exact same time. We’ve been looking into care for Della on these days … it’s a lengthy and exhausting adventure. Who would you have care for your baby? Is it too much, is it too far, do you even like the few you’ve found with openings.
More pictures to come when time allows … much love from Camp/Warren.
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