A Day in Paradise

Annie lost her first tooth today. She’s been playing with her “wiggle-tooth” for the last few weeks, and has been getting exceedingly anxious to get it out of her mouth.

Today, after my failed attempt to pull it, she disappeared for half an hour, and then re-appeared with a tooth in her hand!

Before

After

Now we are waiting to see what the tooth fairy is going to do about this.

We took the kids out to the park to have a bbq. While we were waiting for everyone to show up, Annie comes up and says

Annie: “I want to play goofball”
Stella: “goofball?”
Annie: “yes, where you have a stick and hit the little ball”
Stella: “You mean mini-golf?”
Annie: “Yes, mini-golf”

Nikon D50/D70 vs Canon Rebel XT Shootout

I’m looking at upgrading my s100 to a digital SLR. I played with Mike’s on Sunday and I am totally sold on getting an upgrade.

Taking these kinds of pictures is worth whatever the cost.

I checked out this review on the difference between the Nikon and Canon low end digital SLRs. The conclusion was somewhat inconclusive:

Both the Nikon D70 and the Canon Digital Rebel XT offer a number of individual advantages when compared side by side. Overall, the Nikon D70 provides the richer feature and function set of the two cameras, while the Digital Rebel XT offers a smaller, lighter 8MP solution, and the benefit of Canon’s latest DIGIC II image processor (faster performance than predecessor Digital Rebel, lower high ISO noise.)

While many potential buyers might be drawn by the 8 megapixel power of the Canon EOS Rebel XT, it is important to remember that resolution is not the end all in terms of image quality. The difference in print quality that the 8MP resolution offers is for all intents and purposes barely noticeable at an 11″ x 14″ print size compared to the same shot taken at 6.1 MP. The advantage of the 8MP resolution sensor lies mainly in the ability to crop an image while preserving more detail.

When comparing the respective standard kit lens packages, the Nikon D70 with the AF-S Nikkor DX 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5G zoom versus the Canon Rebel XT with the Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 II zoom, the Nikon DX 18-70mm offers superior performance with its AF-S motor, brighter f/4.5 aperture at telephoto, ED low dispersion glass to minimize ghosting and flare, metal lens mount, internal focusing and extended focal range coverage up to 70mm. The higher Nikon D70 kit price versus the Canon Rebel XT kit is mainly reflected in the value of the lens.

Which camera to choose is a personal one and depends on a number of factors. All things considered, bottom line is that the Canon EOS Rebel XT and the Nikon D70 digital SLR are both capable of delivering excellent image quality. We recommend looking at what features are the most important to you, and making your decision accordingly. You really can’t go wrong.

Does anyone have any suggestions either way?

We just watched Stuart Little with the girls and now Sid (our pet dwarf hamster) just got an upgrade from being “Sid” to being “Our brother, Sid”.

I need to put up pictures of SidCity2006 but over christmas we expanded his complex, it now consists of his condo (sleeping room, food, and a look out tower with slides), his Studio (360 degree lookout point), his Gym (with his exercise wheel) and then 4 additional rooms with tunnels connecting them all.

We also got a new chest of drawers for the girls so now we also have more space for SidCity, which sits ontop of the girls drawers. He’s so busy running around doing stuff he doesn’t have any time for us any more.

Annie just came home from shopping with Stella and showed me her new shoes. After a minute she ran off and said “I need to put them on so I can feel how they look”.

I corrected her and told her that the term was actually “See how they Feel”. Which when thinking about it, isn’t that much more logical.

Mia has been working on her Germglish. The other day she wanted me to draw a Butterling… there is a constant flow of good stuff, I should record it all.

UtterlyBoring.com: Biblical Laws for Children

Very funny set of “Biblical” laws for children…

My favorites:
Laws When at Table: Sit just as I have told you, and do not lean to one side or the other nor slide down until you are nearly slid away. Heed me; for if you sit like that, your hair will go into the syrup. And now behold, even as I have said, it has come to pass.

and

When you chew your food, keep your mouth closed until you have swallowed, and do not open it to show your brother or your sister what is within; I say to you, do not so, even if your brother or your sister has done the same to you.

On Screaming: Likewise if you receive a portion of fish from which every piece of herbal seasoning has not been scraped off, and the herbal seasoning is loathsome to you and steeped in vileness, again I say, refrain from screaming.

Annie is an Artist
Originally uploaded by aaronwormus.

I guess every parent is flabbergasted by what their kid can do.

Annie loves drawing but when I saw her butterfly, I couldn’t believe that she had done it. Fabulous! It’s better than I can do. I just need to teach her how to use the GIMP now, and I’ll never need to look for another graphics person

Annie can now ride her bike!

We got Annie a bike for her birthday, but in the beginning she didn’t really take to it, she would just sit on it stare up in space pedal backwards and ring the bell, not really understanding what the point was.

Thinking that maybe the bike was too big for her, we got her a smaller bike withoug wheels that you just scoot yourself along with, and we’ve been taking her out to the playground with that. She scoots along at about 1km/h always making sure that one foot is on the ground before she lifts the other one off.

After not having used her ‘big bike’ for about 2 months we pulled it out after dinner and pumped up the wheels, and she took off. It was AMAZING watching her ride it so well.

On the way home she kept saying “Mommy is going to be so pwoud”. We most certainly are!

Annie came and asked if she could borrow my “Sharpanetto” today… I quickly scanned my desk wondering what she might be referring to, but couldn’t find anything.

I quickly started offering alternatives: “Scotch tape?”, “Sharpener?”, but she said “No, the sharpenetto” and reached over and grabbed my stapler. I said “You mean the stapler”, “Yes, the stapler” came the quick reply, as if that was what she had been saying all along.

While on the topic. We have a small park ourside our window, and this morning a local church was conducting their service there. Annie said “I want to go to the park, where the Church Circus is”.

Too Cute!

Just thought I’d jot down a few “Annie Antics” before starting work this morning.

Annie has been growing up so fast! She has a mind of her own and it really works! It’s amazing to see how her thought patterns develop. One of the things that she has been really on about the last few weeks is “bad dudes”. I have no idea where she got that term from but she is always on the lookout for “bad dudes”, I think if you are wearing a bicycle helmet you have 90% chance of getting thrown into the “bad dude” category.

A few weeks ago Annie and Stella were walking down the road when two guys came along on their bikes. Just when they got in hearing range she pointed her finger at them and said “look mom, bad dudes” at the top of her voice. Thankfully, they were very amused and stopped to chat.

The last few days Mia has been a bit sick, so after dinner I’ve been taking Annie out for a walk so that Stella could put Mia down early. We usually walk down to the Main (river) which is about 15 minutes away. Annie is a fantastic walker, and really enjoys going down there. They have a boat club by the river, so we watch the people go by in their skulls. I was talking to Annie about the different parts of the boat when these two younger boys came by in their skull. They were obviously beginners and were making a bit of a mess out of it, so I told Annie that “these boys aren’t very good”, to which she promptly replied “Yes, they’re bad dudes and will stop their boat and will come and take Annie away from her daddy”. I seriously don’t know where she comes up with these things.

One of her favorite cartoons has been “Winnie the Pooh on a blustery day”. There’s this part in a song about how Winnie the Pooh had to “rescue his supper”. Yesterday while walking home I said something about supper, and then asked her if she knew what supper was, to which she replied “Yes, supper is Honey”. Very smart kid!

Mia Update coming soon!

So I’m reading the story of Noah’s Ark to Annie out of her bible book, and I get to the part where Noah starts building the Ark. I ask Annie, “What’s an ark?” and she says “It’s a Puzzle”.

We have this big floor puzzle of all the animals in the ark, so I guess that’s what she thought the ark was. A big puzzle.

While on the topic, I bumped into this interesting article on Straight Dope. Nothing new or revelatory, but interesting nonetheless.

OK people you HAVE to hear this, it’s just the cutest thing in the whole wide world!!! Sung by the future diva Miss Andrea Pearl at age 2 years and 7 months!

I made a bunkbed for Annie and Mia, but it’s not complete yet, and I don’t have a ladder for Annie to get up into her top bunk. Today, when I was playing with Mia, Annie came and asked me if I could put her up in her bed. I said “Why don’t you fly up, like Superman?” She said, “Annie, can’t fly like Superman, but…” and then climbed onto Mia’s bed and hung from the slats and said “… Annie can swing like a monkey, a Monkey Superman!”

We watched the tail end of one of the old Superman movies, and she really liked it, to the point where I was worried that she would try flying. Fortunately she has her feet on the ground and understands the difference between herself, monkeys and Superman.

Annie was preparing to leave the table without finishing the food on her plate. Usually I don’t force her to finish everything, but so that I maintain the illusion that I have control of the situation, I make her eat a few more bites before she leaves.

The conversation went like this:
“Daddy, I’m done”
“OK, but first…”
“Annie eats 2 bites”
“OK, Annie, take two more bites and then you can be excused.”
“No Daddy, I already did. I already took two more bites.”

Although it was cute, I think by the time she said it she realized that it wouldn’t work. So she took her two more bites and was off.

Was giving Annie lunch, and she wanted a piece of the grapefruit I was eating. So I obliged her. She took one bite and screwed up her face and said “Daddy, it has sour on it.”.