These are new words I can say!

Mama
Dada
Quack-Quack (as in what does a duck say?)
John
Happy
Down
Water
Tickle-tickle
Poo-poo
Yeah
Hi
Takedown (don't ask)
Up
Socks
Nina (as in Nina and Star from Sprout's Good Night Show)
Thank You
Nuk
Kitty Cat
Dog
Pop

This from the guy who developmentally is supposed to have FOUR words at this point.

Merry Christmas from John B. McLovin

Mondegreens!

God Bless Wikipedia. I love mondegreens.

My favorite of the group:

From The Beatles Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds:

"The girl with keliedoscope eyes"
Misinterpreted as:
"The girl with colitis goes by"

Hilariously, the word "Mondegreen" is itself a mondegreen. As in Lady Mondegreen misheard as "Laid him on the green."

I Am Legend

This is one of my favorite books, and I've heard good and bad things about this movie. It LOOKS cool, but it has to be way more than just cool to live up to possibly one of the two or three best horror fiction books ever written. George Romero used this book as inspiration for Night of the Living Dead, so I'm a little wary when I see tons of CG and Will Smith onscreen.

Christmas

Not sure how much joy I should express in this, but aside from going out to Toys R Us for John, I did my Christmas shopping entirely online this year. Does anyone really go out and blitz the stores in an economy like this? Bleh... the thought makes me shiver.

Bright Eyes

In the place of "Fight Test", I added "Bowl of Oranges" by Bright Eyes, which is another suitably excellent tune.

I bring tidings of Great Joy

On this day a child was born in a manger of the virgin Mary in Bethlehem. He was visited by three wise Kings and one… giant chicken.

New Music

Mmmmm....

Irritatingly, ProjectPlaylist couldn't come up with a good version of The Flaming Lips' "Fight Test" for you, but rest assured it's a kick-ass song.

Oh, and "Rico Suave" goes out to my sister, who called me and we listened to this song and laughed our asses off together. 1991 repreSENT!

Some fun recent pictures of us...

These are some photos that didn't really have a theme but I felt like I wanted to put up.

John helping Daddy with laundry. And by helping I mean in general discovering the laundry that wasn't folded to his exacting standards and UNfolding it so Daddy could try again. And again.

John is starting to develop a very distinguished set of facial features. It happens so slowly that I feel like maybe everyone sees it but me, but I'm really starting to notice what he'll look like as a kid and not just a baby.

This was a nice shot that we took to try and get something for a Christmas card. Frustratingly, the weather decided to cooperate not at all and was too dark for a natural photo. Still, it does show off Beth's rockin' new short hairstyle and my beard.

John helping me play Morrowind (or some other various computer task).

Mountain man

Oh, and incidentally, I have a beard now.

Hey, I'm 1!!

John Brand here again! I just have to tell you about what happened to me this weekend. Mommy and Daddy took me to this place called Hackney's in somewhere called Glenview and we had an awesome party for me! I didn't know it until everyone started singing, but apparently it was my birthday! Yay! I'm 1!!!

I didn't realize this, but I overheard Daddy and Mommy talking about all the wild hospital experiences they went through a year ago, like Mommy waking Daddy up at 4AM with contractions after I was several days late coming, and how the nurses woke Daddy and Mommy up at all hours, and how Daddy went to the store and bought a duffel bag full of wine (10 bottles at least) and dragged them clanking past the hospital security desk to give to all the people that had helped them out during our stay. Then we all came home in one big carload and I was bundled and swaddled and basically buried in blankets like a pink little eskimo. I was so tiny I needed a hat on pretty much all the time, even when I slept, and my first cool tricks were to open my eyes the first five minutes of being born and get my drool on when Daddy was holding me. What a lot can happen in a year!

Here's me with my "Smash Cake". Why do they call it a "smash" cake? SMASH! SMASH! SMASH!




Oh, and thanks everybody for the terrific birthday presents! I've already read every book twice, gotten some food on all the new clothes, played with the toys, and toweled off with the rad Duck towel that Dr. VanWesten and his wife Lucy bought me. Thanks guys!