Celebrate 28 years on December 28th!

Dan is in the process of slogging through his late 20's. On Sunday, December 24th, he will turn 28 years old.

You may wonder why we are not celebrating his birthday on the 24th. This is because we will have people visiting for the holidays. However, said people are arriving in the evening of the 24th (Dad), the morning of the 26th (Robin), and some other time on the 26th (Lee). Don't worry, we will figure out when to pick up Lee at some point before she arrives. We will not leave her at the airport during this crazy holiday travel time, at least, not for very long. In any case, people will be here basically after Dan's birthday, so we selected the 28th as the day to celebrate.

What can you expect at this exciting birthday event? I can promise cake. mmmmmmm... And, unlike my birthday where we mistakenly bought a cake that had icky frosting, Dan's cake will be superior. What does this mean for you? You should join us for the cake eating event.

When: December 28th at 6pm
Where: Our New House in California
RSVP: Please tell us that you are coming, we will give you our address
Other Food: Yes, we will have some sort of dinner food for people who arrive on time
Will: Yes, Will will be there. He will go to bed at about 8pm. We will let you stay past that time, but if you want to play with Will, you will have to come on-time.
What to Bring: Bring Dan a cool Birthday Card. There may be a prize for the geekiest card.

Furniture Disclaimer: We have actually purchased furniture. We selected a very nice green couch with soft, down-filled cushions. We bought some nifty chairs too. They will be delivered in January.

Box Disclaimer: We still have at least 75 boxes of stuff that has not been unpacked. We may not be able to locate important party accessories. So when you see me trying to light candles with our long BBQ matches and serve cake by balancing the pieces on two forks, it is because we haven't located key things among our stuff.

Christmas Tree Disclaimer: We bought a Christmas tree on Sunday. Yup, that's the extent of it. Oh wait, no, we also brought it inside our house on Wednesday. So now it is in our living room. Oh wait, there's more... we also put a tree skirt and presents under it. So, yes, our tree looks like this right now...


While we hope to decorate it, if we don't by Dan's birthday party, perhaps we will involve our guests in this effort.


The Dan of Birthdays Past
What blog post would be complete without reminiscing about similar events of the past?

27 year-old Birthday Dan in Japan - Also celebrating Kay's birthday (2005)

26 year-old Georgia Tech Birthday Dan with Dad and Tim (2004)

24 year-old Birthday Dan (2002)

2 year-old Birthday Dan (1980)

1 year-old Birthday Dan (1979)
-almost as tall as the candle-

0 year-old Birthday Dan (1978)

Unfortunately the picture of Dan and Kevin in the sombreros for Dan's 21st birthday is in one of the 75 remaining boxes in the garage. But at least we have some cute baby birthday pictures.

Come, be a part of the Dan 28 year-old Birthday Dan picture!

P.S.
Happy Late Birthday Kay!
Happy Late Birthday Kevin!

(Note above Christmas Tree picture for proof that we are running a bit late on many things this year, inc luding birthday wishes.)

Our New House

Ok, I've been promising pictures of our new house for a while now.

Here is what it looks like from the road


We also get to do fun things like decorate the house with Christmas lights.

The inside of the house? Hmmm, perhaps that will be revealed once we have fewer boxes in there. Basically it looks like a combination office store and housing goods store exploded, leaving their remains everywhere. Add in a bunch of dirty dishes (because our dishwasher only seems to clean things on the bottom rack), and you've got the idea.

Dan and I are enjoying our new home. Will is also enjoying crawling around the boxes and will taste anything that we leave for him on the floor. However, we have found a way to keep him safely in one place. Turns out he doesn't like grass. So if we put a blanket in the yard, it is like a little island from which he cannot escape. Inside the house though, we must stop him from eating things constantly. Oh, to baby-proof the house!

Christmas Robots

I guess I forgot to mention what to get Dan and myself for Christmas if you feel compelled to send more than a greeting card.

Basically we want robots. Currently Will is playing the role of Roomba by crawling around and sucking up all tiny pieces of paper, foam, plastic, food, etc, that is on our carpet and kitchen floor. We really need to replace Will with something that is built for sucking up various tiny items. If you would like to help us out with our Roomba fund, we are hoping to buy the Roomba Discovery. Ultimately we would like to possibly get the whole gamut of cleaning robots, plus the lawn mower robot, but we are good starting with the Roomba Discovery.

Whatever you decide to do, please try to avoid sending us any boxes. Why? Because in about a week we will have 100 boxes at our house. Yes! 100 boxes! The movers will be dropping off our stuff from Virginia. It is unlikely that by Christmas we will make much of a dent in this mountain of stuff. If you would like to get us something other than a contribution to the Roomba fund, please send a small envelope with a gift card to a store that a new home owner might appreciate. We prefer Home Depot or Bed Bath and Beyond. We have to buy things like a ladder, roof sealant, washcloths, sheets, etc.

No more stuff in boxes!
If in doubt, send a greeting card, just be sure to get our new address.

All I Want For Christmas...

As you can tell, Will already has his 2 front teeth. The bottom ones appeared in September. His top 2 front teeth grew in last week. A fun time was had by all. If there is anything worse than "Snakes on a Plane," it is "Baby Growing Teeth on a Plane."

In any case, Will doesn't really need any new toys. He has a bunch. But, if you feel compelled to buy toys, he is very excited about new things for minutes at a time. Here are some ideas:

• GeoTrax Train - Currently he only has the basic set and the Rainbow Bridge.
• Clothes - The boy keeps growing. He can wear anything that is 12 months and up.
  
• Bibs - The boy keeps eating. Perhaps this has something to do with the growing.
• Shoes - While he can't walk quite yet, he does a lot of standing. Socks are too slippery on some floor surfaces. Plus, every time I put socks on him, he sees it as a challenge to beat his previous record of amount of time it takes to remove the socks and chew on them.
• Leap Frog stuff - He has the Learning Playground and loves it.
  
• Drum - Will likes to hit surfaces to make sounds.
• Wooden Toys - We love these because they are really neat. In addition to blocks, Will's walker is wooden, he has a wooden fish from Oregon, and his high chair is made of wood. It's our decorating theme. Instead of bright colorful plastic, we are going with natural and painted wood. We hope to build Will a neat wooden toy box sometime soon.
• Baby proofing items. Ok, these will actually prevent Will from playing with stuff, but trust us, he will appreciate it later when he doesn't slam his fingers in the low kitchen drawer again. We currently don't have a single baby-proofing item. I'm sure we will get some soon.
  
• College Savings - Yes, you can contribute to Will's future education. It's the gift that says, "No, I didn't get you a toy. But you could buy a Calculus book... in the year 2023!" Act now while Will still doesn't realize what exactly is going on with all of the tangible presents.
  
• Large hooded bath towel or robe - Will is getting big, did I mention that? His current towels are inadequate. We must keep the damp baby warm after bathtime.
  
• More ideas to be added later to this post as I think of them.
  

Here are some anti-ideas. That is, Will has tons of some items, and while he enjoys them, doesn't need any extras.

• Stuffed Animals - He has many cuddly animals including a lamb, a llama, and a puppy. He has interesting animals such as a Dr. Seuss sneetch. And, he has an entire giant plastic tub of animals coming from Virginia that Dan and I have collected over the years.
• Blankets - Will has lots of neat blankets that he enjoys snuggling with. However, we are good for now since the house doesn't get that cold during the Southern California winters.
• Hiking Boots - Oddly, Will has 2 pairs of hiking boots. They are a little big, but will fit his feet soon.
• Blocks - We bought Will a walker that also had storage for 40 blocks. Additionally, we are getting a bunch more blocks that Dan used to play with when he was a kid. Ok, maybe you can't have too many blocks. Maybe this is in the wrong category.

So if you happen to send Will a present, make sure that it comes in a cool box. Will still thinks boxes are "golden brown and delicious." Wrapping paper is optional, but if you do send a wrapped present, we will put it under our tree and fight daily to prevent Will from eating it before Christmas. We hope to get a tree in 2 weeks when our tree stand and ornaments arrive from Virginia. Until then, here is a picture of us in front of the Hines' tree with our wiggly baby.

Wiggly Will - Concentrating on trying to escape and eat the tree