Althea, Bryan, Andrew, and Sylvia
Andrew loves Terry’s iPhone.
Several months ago, Terry started sharing YouTube videos with Andrew. They watched (the somewhat questionable) Trunk Monkey. Terry has downloaded dozens of silly or crazy apps onto his iPhone for Andrew to play with. But their favorite. Their very favorite of all was the YouTube video of Godzilla. I’ve copied it below so you can have this wonderful movie in your life too.
I haven’t mentioned much about Andrew’s all-consuming obsession – Godzilla. Back in April, Terry brought over a boxed set of five monster DVDs. Since that time, my young son has been able to think of little else. He wakes up, crawls into bed, and sleepily says, “Good morning, Mommy Mothra.” As he falls alseep at night, it’s hard to get him to stop talking about, “What if the laavee sprayed Godzilla with webby stuff and then Godzilla went into the ocean?”
The names of these crazy monsters flow off his tongue as easily as the names of family members. Kumunga. Mothra. Manilla. Gamera. Rodan. Mechagodzilla. Manda. The “laavee” (Mothra larvae). Gorosaurus. He spends a lot of time considering who would be which monsters. “If I was Godzilla, Sylvie would be Rodan, you could be Mothra, Daddy would be Gamera…”
Michael, Lisa, and Joe just departed our house after a fun and laughter-filled evening that we dubbed Beer Fest. When Joe got home from Sri Lanka last week, he mentioned to Bryan that he’d like to try some beers. Now that he’s 21, he wanted to see if he could find a beer he likes (since in general, he – like me – thinks that beer tastes disgusting). Bryan got right to work, and this evening, we tried 12 kinds of beer. Bryan even made up a rating sheet for each of us as well as a write-up describing each type of beer.
So what are our favorites, you ask? Here they are:
Sylvia is very aware of airplanes these days. Very aware. And we have a remarkable number of airplanes pass over our house. I remember this from when Andrew was her age. As these little people become able to share information, suddenly they notice – and point out – so many things that I would never have seen.
So every hour or so, Sylvie runs over to me, somewhat anxiously calling, “MaaMAA Maaa MA!” She is holding her finger to her ear (the sign for “hear”). She hears an airplane. She’s excited and a little worried and usually wants to climb on my lap while I share with her that I too hear the airplane. If we’re outside we look for it. If we’re inside, we point out the window together. Once the noise has passed, she climbs down and resumes her activities.
So sweet, so fleeting. These days of early communication and discovery are really wonderful.
My boy’s friends are turning four! Wyatt’s birthday was May 12, and we had a fun day at the zoo celebrating (photos in the gallery). On Monday this week, Eli turned four, and we had a fun time playing at a park in Monona. There were four boys in capes zipping around, climbing, throwing things in the lake, eating ice cream, jumping, and generally having a great time. Photos are in the gallery.
It’s amazing to look at the big, beautiful, amazing boys that they are and to remember how sweet and little and babyish they used to be. See here or here for examples!
I’ve decided to turn my passion for photography into a bit more than a hobby. Starting in June, I’ll be launching Althea Dotzour Photography. I’ll be specializing in natural light portrait photography of children and families. I’ve gotten a lot of experience photographing kids, and I just love capturing their individual personalities in an image.
I feel excited and a little nervous to be starting this new endeavor. In the next weeks, I’ll be developing a website, picking a printing lab, deciding on a pricing structure, and polishing my business plan. That said, I will start scheduling photo shoots in June, so if you’re interested, let me know! (My business calendar is available online.)
For a sampling from my portfolio, click here!
I’ve uploaded some new pictures to the gallery. 
You’ll find:
Enjoy!
Happy first wedding anniversary to my dear, sweet, beautiful sister and her wonderful husband!
Hard to believe that your wedding was a year ago. What a wonderful day!
So glad we got to spend May 24th together again this year. We love you guys!
Today’s Carpe Diem party was a lot of fun! Photos are in the photo gallery. The weather cooperated nicely, and it was great to see some friends and family we don’t get to see enough. If you couldn’t make it this year, don’t fret! We intend to make this an annual Saturday of Memorial Day weekend event. So pencil it in for May 29, 2010. Michael and Lisa will bring wedding pictures 🙂
I was thinking about our title for the party…Carpe Diem. Seize the day. My mom was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer four years ago on Memorial Day weekend. One year later, we celebrated with our first Carpe Diem party. Mom had beaten many, many odds and had had a successful surgery at Mayo Clinic. She was feeling well, and that party offered a great opportunity to celebrate and to thank some of the many people who had come to our family’s aid after her diagnosis. I liked the name Carpe Diem. It’s a bit of a family motto.
It’s been nice to be home again this week. I do love our home! And May, sweet beautiful May. How do I love thee? There are singing birds, flowers, warm weather, cool evenings, some soft rains, lots of gardening and basking in the sun. It’s got to be my favorite month. But don’t tell October.
We’ve kept busy since getting home on Tuesday.