It's all Greek to me

Was our child's first word really "opa?" I think it was. She got all sorts of excited sitting at the table with us while we ate our gyros and falafel, so I yelled out "opa!" And she copied me. Not once, not twice, but three times. So there you have it. Opa.

When babies attack!

The following event is the result of, I believe, some leftover crumbs of chocolate brownie on Aunt Jess's face. Apparently Sofia likes chocolate? I'll let you be the judge. Let me also just add that this video is only the tail end of this incident. The entire thing lasted several minutes, but we were all laughing too hard to even think of documenting it at first.

Marketing madness

I'm in full blown marketing mode. My first session of bellydance classes since having Sofia begins on Tuesday, and I'm feeling the stress of wondering how many people will show up. Therefore, I'm digressing slightly from the purpose of this blog to shamelessly promote my classes.

Here's the promo:



If I have any Alaska readers who are interested, get the rest of the details at my partner's website, www.dancewithaksana.com.

Daddy's girl

Sofia's baby chatter repertoire has vastly increased over the last week, she has now mastered the letter "d," along with a few others. Papa is thrilled to now hear "dadadadada."

Besides documenting her growing "vocabulary," I just need to take a moment for some gloating -- she eats peas. The child eats peas. PEAS. That's a green vegetable. Perhaps she takes after her dad, who prefers a second helping of salad over dessert. Huh. That plus a dog who prefers grapes over steak scraps...what kind of alternate universe am I living in?! I better go eat some fudge...

Can I have some cheese with this whine?

I wasn't going to complain when our refrigerator broke on Christmas Eve. I wasn't even going to complain when the repair guys said they couldn't get to it until Jan. 5.*

HOWEVER. I am going to complain now. I am going to complain that our pipes are frozen and we have no heat in the longest and coldest cold snap of the winter. Consider my complaint filed.

*Just for the record, Johnny successfully did the repair on our refrigerator. He gets major bragging rights for that.

What's more fun than a NYE fire show?

How about a New Year's Eve outdoor fire show on the COLDEST NIGHT OF THE YEAR? I think I can officially call myself a bada$$ after performing for 2 solid hours outside in negative 10 degrees. Super duper!

For the second year in a row, my girls and I were hired to perform at the downtown Fire & Ice New Year's Eve celebration. Last year we were such a hit that this year we got paid more, got a better location, and -- brace yourselves -- we even got our very own warming tent! Talk about moving up in the world. And to top it all off, we even made the front page of paper this morning as the lead color photo. You can see all the photos at www.adn.com, if you're so inclined. Or you can just look at my pictures:

After the show, I met John and Sofia over at Jess and Pete's house. It was there that Bradyn proceeded to school us in electronic Battleship:

Cody worked us with the Wii:

And Sofia once again proved that she's a party animal, staying wide awake and smiley until we drove her home at 11:30 because Mama was more tired than she was:

Happy New Year!