ben + erika + makena + emma

Makena quote of the day

2011-02-22T19:31:00.001-08:00

While eating dinner tonight, this is what our little lady said, "my bum hurts me. I guess I have to go potty. Be right back guys." and then she dashed to the bathroom. I dont know if it was the thinking out loud, the full sentences, or just the way she said it, but ben and I laughed so hard (in our quiet, we don't want her to know we are laughing at her, kind of way)! Just thought y'all might appreciate that little gem.

She Rolls!

2011-01-26T16:21:00.000-08:00

Emma has been rolling for a while now, but I finally got some proof on video! Good thing too, because not even Ben has actually seen the roll in action yet.

Sun Peaks

2011-01-23T16:00:00.000-08:00

We spent the last week in Sun Peaks, BC with our good friends Tim and Jessica Reeves, and Grandma Leanna the babysitter. The adults (minus Grandma) had great times snowboarding, sitting in the hot tub, hanging out at the Bottoms (the lodge), and relaxing. Emma started rolling over...finally, and Makena loved making snow angels and sledding. Both girls and Ben were sick most of the trip, but that didn't keep them from having fun...though Emma's cough did keep everyone from sleeping. Here are a few pics:

My new favorite photo of Emma. She was not impressed.

Makena getting the push from daddy.

Working her way down the hill.

A happy finish.

Emma did not appreciate the cold outside quite as much as Makena did. This, her one and only venture outside, only lasted about 4 minutes.

See a resemblance? This is Makena in Sun Peaks at 6 months old. Kinda creepy huh?

In other news: this is what we came home to...one less tree and a lot of wood. Luckily Ben found a guy on craigslist who wanted to take it off our hands, and they are chopping it up and putting it in his truck as we speak.

i'm a noob

2011-01-19T17:57:00.000-08:00

I guess I had the wrong privacy settings on the drummer video. Ooops! It's all fixed now and you can see it here.

dinner with the vandenbii

2011-01-13T21:01:00.000-08:00

A typical dinner in our household:

Emma chewing away at her rubber block

Makena singing her version of "Hosanna in the highest." Her's goes, "Who's Anna in the highway"

christmas time's a comin!

2011-01-13T20:55:00.000-08:00

Christmas time came and went, and here I am finally posting some photos. Makena scored this year in the toy category. Still not sure what to do with some of the new joys filling our house, but boy are they fun!

Showing off their new christmas pjs right after we finished decorating the tree.

Finally! An outfit to match her attitude.

The princess counting her "moneys" with auntie mac.

Nobody puts baby in the corner...or in the basket. This was the only place ben could find to set her down in the playroom.

And for the grand finale...

Thanks "uncle" rob for the new drum set. It's our new favorite toy :)

(The only way we could catch her in action was for Ben to video tape her under the door.)

the nutcracker ballet

2010-12-01T22:27:00.000-08:00

Makena busting a move to the Christmas music...I guess she is feeling better.

our trip to see santa

2010-12-01T22:11:00.000-08:00

Makena was not happy about sitting on Santa's lap, so somehow Ben and I ended up in the picture. My personal favorite part about this photo is the look on Emma's face...all of Makena's crying made her not so sure she wanted to be there. About 10 minutes after this picture was taken, we were eating lunch at uvillage when suddenly the look on Makena's face went blank. After repeatedly asking her if she was ok, we realized that she was completely unresponsive. At first we thought she was choking, but she didn't have a look of distress, just a blank stare. After a couple of minutes she started to turn blue and that is when we started to panic. Ben called 911, an ER nurse who was eating in the restaurant came over to look at her, and we realized she was having a seizure. By the time the EMTs got there she had started to move her hands and make some moaning noises. We took an ambulance to Children's Hospital where they found that she had a very high fever but no other symptoms. It turns out that she was having a febrile seizure, which is a seizure that is the body's defense mechanism to an extremely high fever. Only about 5% of children have these seizures, and of those 5%, about 35% have another one. The good news is that they grow out of them by the time they are seven. So other then completely freaking out her parents, we are thankful that she is just fine.

New blog app

2010-11-09T09:59:00.001-08:00

I know I have failed miserably at updating this the last month or so, but I just got a new app on my phone that will hopefully encourage me to stay more on top of it! I just uploaded a bunch of photos and videos to our computer, so a months worth of posts will be coming shortly, but until then here is a pic of a couple of cute ladybugs!

emma at 4 weeks

2010-09-16T10:59:00.000-07:00

I finally caught a few photos of emma smiling! They are pretty close up and a little blurry, but those smiles usually don't last very long so I was trying to be quick! We have noticed that when Emma is awake and making faces she looks totally different then Makena did as a baby, but you get that girl asleep and expressionless and they look like twins! It's a good thing all our photos are time stamped, or in a few years we might not know who is who. We also think that the third picture in this group looks an awful lot like Grandpa VandenBos...he seems to get all the glory with our children! You may also notice that this girl has some serious acne going on right now! Oh well, it shouldn't last long and then she will have her perfect baby skin back!

first ballet class

2010-09-15T13:05:00.000-07:00

Makena had her first dance class today! It was successful in many ways. Makena did successfully dance, she also successfully ignored almost every instruction the teacher gave her, successfully distracted other children from what they were supposed to be doing, successfully watched herself in the mirror 85% of the time, successfully made me laugh, and successfully convinced me that she needs more structured activities that involve listening to and obeying rules. I couldn't decide which video was the best to include, so I just put them all up. Some are a little long, but have little gems at the end so hang in there for the whole video!

First thing they did: Makena had me fooled into thinking she was going to listen to the teacher.

And then it begins...

What you can't see in this video is everyone else doing exactly what they are supposed to!

I had to stop this video when makena started trying to "clean-up" the other kids mats

The closest she got to participating...

Fast forward to half-way through, and then watch makena jump!

Makena at the end of this clip: "man do I look good"

In the end, the teacher said that it might be helpful if I participate next week to try to get makena to get involved in what the rest of the class is doing. Looks like I will be taking dance too!

the dancing queen

2010-09-11T13:52:00.000-07:00

Our little flower girl danced the night away at Tim and Jessica's wedding this weekend. She danced for about 2 hours straight in the freezing cold with no shoes or sweater on. She loved those groomsmen and felt right at home being in the center of their dance circle. Her main moves included sitting on the floor and shakin it, hands on the floor and shakin it, clapping and shakin it, and well...just about any way she could manage to shake that little bum of hers!

Now, as far as her actual job as the flower girl...she ran down the aisle yelling "daddy" and didn't throw a single flower...but at least she wasn't crying the whole way like at the rehearsal!

The wedding was beautiful and so much fun, and we were so glad to get to be a part of celebrating the marriage of such good friends. Jess was very beautiful and Tim very handsome (even if he did have something stuck in his eye causing his "eyes to water"), but I am lame and don't have any pics of the bride and groom.

I tried to get some sweet videos of her shakin it, but I only had the regular camera and it was pretty dark, so these will have to do. And sorry they are sideways, I don't have the energy to figure out how to fix them...

Makena gets the whole fam on the dance floor (yes, emma is in there somewhere). Aren't we cute in our matching yellow outfits?

edited photoshoot

2010-09-11T13:46:00.000-07:00

Click Here for all of the edited versions of Mac's photo shoot. Thanks again sis!!

backyard photo shoot

2010-08-29T15:14:00.001-07:00

Auntie Mac came over for a quick photo shoot the night before she left to go back to New York. Though they are not edited yet (Mac will be very angry at me for showing these pre-edits) here is a little sneak preview. Once she is done editing them they won't even look like the same pics, but seeing how she just went back to school, I don't plan on getting the edited ones anytime soon! Emma was a fairly good model, even though it was not very warm outside. Makena, on the other hand, was NOT excited about having her picture taken. The rest of the photos are on picasa but I have to warn you that these are the good, the bad, and the ugly. There are a few that prove just how NOT photogenic ben and I are!

Finally!!! Here are some photos...

2010-08-29T13:48:00.000-07:00

We finally got our usb cable in the mail, so here are some of our favorite photos from emma's first week of life. Things are still going pretty well.

Makena has gotten a little more used to the idea of sharing her daddy, emma decided to only wake up every 3 hours last night (rather then every 1 1/2), and we've even made it to another wedding! Ben went back to work on Thursday, so the girls and I got to have our first outing on our own. It was very successful, other than not finding anything I needed at Target (and lots of things I didn't need).

Next week's adventures include emma's first youth group, first mini-vacation to Port Townsend, and another wedding!

To see a few more photos, check out our picasa album:http://picasaweb.google.com/bvandenbos/TheLifeOfEmmaMaeWeek1?authkey=Gv1sRgCLGintq12pfOogE&feat=directlink

Welcome Emma Mae!

2010-08-24T10:50:00.000-07:00

First, let me apologize for the huge blog fail! Would you believe me if I said we've been busy? The other slight problem is that we lost the usb cord to the camera so have been unable to upload photos (good timing). But a new one is in the mail, and we should be in business soon! Until then, here are a few photos taken from our phone.

And now to introduce Emma Mae VandenBos! Emma was born August 18th at 9:15am, she weighed 8lbs 2 oz and was 19.5 in. She is an incredibly healthy, beautiful and laid back baby. I am very thankful that labor and delivery went so much more smoothly then with Makena...only about 7 hrs of labor and 20 minutes of pushing before she came into the world. She came so fast we actually had to wait for the doctor, and 2 pushes after the doctor arrived she was born! I guess it helps being 4 cm dilated before labor even begins.

So far it looks like all hope of having a child that looks like me is lost. Emma looks so similar to Makena as a baby, and even has a very similar disposition so far. Ben just keeps saying it's his strong Dutch genes...no breeding them out!

Makena loves her new baby sister. She wakes up in the morning asking for "mommy, daddy, baby sister." When we ask her what baby sister's name is she answers, "emma baby." She loves to "hold" her, kiss her, and pretty much be involved in everything we do with her. The only thing she doesn't like is when daddy holds emma! In fact, the quote of the week was when Ben and Makena were sitting on the couch one morning and Ben said to Makena, "baby emma looks sad, should we go pick her up?" Makena responded "no baby up, makena up!"

Emma is not quite a week old, but she has already been on many outings! We have gone to two doctors appointments, to Target, out to lunch, out for breakfast, to the swimming pool (Ben and Makena swam while Emma and I watched), and even to a wedding! She is very easy to take out and about since she tends to sleep All the time (except for at night when she decides to get all gassy..and yes I know that's a made up word). So far having two children is an amazing and wonderful experience, and Ben and I are having lots of fun, though I have to admit, we are a little tired!

Still no baby...

2010-08-14T11:04:00.000-07:00

Well, my due date has come and gone, and baby is yet to make an appearance. I guess this just means she will be taking after the Nielsen side of the family...always fashionably late! Hey, maybe this one will even look like me! It's probably a good thing that she hasn't decided to pop out the last couple of days though, as Ben has been sick with a fever. I would prefer that Ben is able to be there when his daughter is born!

I have been keeping myself distracted by having lots of fun with Makena the last couple of days. We've been to the pool, the park, the farmer's market, had picnics in the backyard and mommy even got some much needed gardening done yesterday!

i'm taking over

2010-08-07T23:29:00.000-07:00

It's official...I'm taking over this blog! Just to make it more dramatic I thought I'd add a nice feminine background for a while, but I make no promises that it will last (unfortunately ben still has full permissions). So please look forward to more frequent, more grammatically correct, and hopefully more interesting posts from the female half of the household (wait...the females are more like 4/5 of the household)! And hopefully we will also be able to post some baby news soon!!

Gas Works

2010-07-13T22:31:00.000-07:00

Mackenzie busted out her new lens and shot some family pics of us at Gas Works last weekend.

New Photos!

2010-07-09T20:33:00.000-07:00

On picasa...

1 month and counting

2010-07-07T08:30:00.001-07:00

One month left until Baby #2 comes. Technically 5 weeks, but we're pushing for her being a little early. We've got one more ultrasound next week which could bump up the due date.

Makena parted ways with her changing table and crib this weekend and helped me get it ready for baby sister. We've got the new baby's room (and most of the garage) roughly organized now. No car in the garage yet, but significant progress has been made :).

Pictures of Makena and the new house are forthcoming.

Makena walking!

2009-09-28T21:04:00.000-07:00

Makena started walking by herself this week. Here's a video.

Some Makena videos

2009-09-11T19:56:00.000-07:00

I put a couple more videos of Makena up on youtube. Blog about them, too.

The first one of her in the box was completely unassisted. She pulled the box down, emptied it, tipped it over, and got in it. Hilarious.

House is sold

2009-08-08T14:01:00.001-07:00

We're free and clear of the Sand Point Way house. Feels good.

I put up some more photos of Makena on picasa.

Finally, more pics.

2009-04-07T19:39:00.001-07:00

I got the Montana pics on picasa and some of Makena around the house.

http://picasaweb.google.com/bvandenbos/MontanaAndStuff#

First time playing in the grass

2009-04-07T09:11:00.000-07:00

...and it wasn't too bad.

I get a little ink on the Avvo Blog

2009-02-02T09:13:00.000-08:00

I finally got unlazy and wrote a blog entry for Avvo. Prepare to be bored:

Are Q&A sites slowly eroding the natrual language search problem?

Sitting, Screaming, and Squeaking

2009-01-26T20:48:00.000-08:00

Makena sitting up by herself and hiccuping

Makena laughing and screaming with mommy.

Makena sucking on a block and making funny squeaking noises

And here is a bunch of pictures. Mackenzie took her camera to Sun Peaks and documented every waking second. And yes, we're super into ourselves, as you can tell from the sheer quantity of pictures, which I'm sad to say, are only a small fraction of the total number of exposures we have from that trip. I'm a little self conscience about the whole thing. It's all Mackenzie's fault :) ... and Makena's for being so dang cute.

http://picasaweb.google.com/bvandenbos/SunPeaks#

Baby humor

2009-01-10T10:44:00.001-08:00

I've discovered that it typically takes repeating something 3 times for a baby to find it hilarious. Take toe "nibbling" for instance. The baby thought process goes something like this:

Nibble nibble nibble... "What just happened there?"
Nibble nibble nibble... "Hmm... do that again, I am intrigued."
Nibble nibble nibble... "Oh, I see what you're gettig at. That's quite hilarious. Bravo."

(this post doubles as a test blogging from my phone, so the formatting may not be quite right)

Snow Pics!

2008-12-21T13:15:00.000-08:00

http://picasaweb.google.com/bvandenbos/MakenaSSnowPics#

More Pics!

2008-12-05T22:35:00.000-08:00

Uploaded a few more photos.

November

2008-12-01T20:25:00.000-08:00

Apparently we've been busy because I haven't had time to post in a while.

Let me explain... no there is too much. Let me sum up.

Went to Toronto, came home. Makena's schedule got out of whack, so we didn't sleep much. We went to Mt. Baker Chalet. Makena got sick, and we didn't sleep for much. Makena got better. We went to Mom and Dad's for thanksgiving. We came home and now Makena seems to have forgotten how to sleep altogether. So, now we're more or less not sleeping at all. Looks like we're getting pay back for an easy-going first 4 months. Doh.

Makena started rolling over and is absolutely obsessed with kitties. She can't stop staring at the Hun. So far, her direct interaction with the Hun has been strictly limited, but she has pet her successfully. The Hun has been on her best behavior. Mak was also very interested in Cookie at Mom and Dad's. It's pretty funny to watch.

Makena joins the jetset

2008-10-26T17:13:00.000-07:00

I must admit I was worried about having a 4-5 hour flight to toronto with Makena, but she did great. She slept for probably 3.5 hours off and on. She only fussed for 10-15 minutes which was quickly overcome by pacing the aisle a few times. To be fair, Air Canada also made it a bit easier because they have a few more inches of leg room and on demand movies and TV for each person (awesome).

Makena walks on to the Husky Basketball team

2008-10-24T10:46:00.000-07:00

Ok, not really, but here are her updated 4mo stats:

Length: 97th percentile
Weight: 70th percentile
Head size: 30th percentile (pea head!)

Makena meets Anna Lynn

2008-10-18T21:35:00.000-07:00

Last night at 11:30ish PM Anna Lynn Millikan was born. Why is this significant? Well, Anna is Makena's new best friend, though they might not know it yet. Here's the proof:

Sharing iTunes Library (and iPhoto) between local users on a Mac (OS X)

2008-10-15T11:14:00.000-07:00

As any married man knows, you need to have separate accounts on your home computers. I'm fairly picky about how my computer is organized and I don't let people messing with it (hmmm... maybe an only-child thing).

At the same time, it's important to be able to share media (particularly music) between accounts for ease of use. If I buy and song on iTunes, Erika should be able to listen to it easily from her account and vice versa. The same with photos.

To that end, I went on a mission configuring the macbook to do exactly this. Here are my findings:

For iTunes:

User A is the iTunes master (ie: the one who actually has the music)
User B is the iTunes slave (ie: the one who will be sharing the music)

Create a new user group call "music" (you can do this from the Account system preferences window). Add User A and User B to the "music" group.

Go to User A's home directory in Finder.

Navigate to /Users/<user_b>/Music/

Set the permissions on iTunes to include read & write access for the "music" group (you can do this via "Get Info" or from the terminal with 'chmod -R g+rw iTunes'.

Next, create an alias to iTunes by hitting Apple-l (lowercase l). That will create a file called "iTunes alias". (NOTE: you must be an admin to do this)

Now log out and log back in as User B

Remove User B's iTunes directory (/Users/<user_b>/Music/iTunes

Now copy the "iTunes alias" file from User A's Music directory to User B's music directory.

Rename the file to just "iTunes". This will fool iTunes into thinking it's library lives in the normal, default location for User B.

Fire up iTunes as User B. The library should be exactly the same as from User A's perspective. Any changes made by User A will be reflected in User B's view and the other way around. This includes purchased music - no authorization required.

For iPhoto:

The process is effectively exactly the same, except instead of using the iTunes directory, you use iPhoto (in Pictures).

59 degrees and dropping

2008-10-09T19:33:00.000-07:00

Welp, 13 hours until the furnace gets installed. Which is good because I don't know if I can handle another night by myself in here. It reminds me of living in 1100 before we decided to turn the heat on... except I don't have a space heater (other than the Hun).

Busted Furnace

2008-10-08T16:03:00.000-07:00

It was 61 degrees in the house this morning, which makes for a cold transition out of the shower. Erika and Makena have been living at her mom's for the week since the furnace gave out on Sunday. It could be the thermostat, could be the furnace. Either way we were planning on replacing the old oil furnace with an electric one in November, so this just bumps up our time table (hurray).

Rich is coming over to help me run a couple 240 lines to power this sucker tomorrow. Should be good times. (Don't worry mom, he knows what he's going). The new furnace gets installed on Friday, so I only have two more freezing nights alone with the Hun. I might wimp out and head over the Leanna's tonight though...

Dear Discovery Channel

2008-09-25T21:50:00.000-07:00

Where did you go wrong? When I was young you perked my interest with quirky animals, spectacular glaciers and an endless universe. Now you are plagued with "reality". The worlds deadliest most explosive dirty robots is inspiring no one but future frat boys and over sensationalized couch potatoes. For shame.

Was it the Eco Challenge that corrupted you? Or was it the taste of network TV ratings that pressured you to degrade? Perhaps a single digit channel number was something you were never meant to have.

Alas, it is to public broadcasting that I must return. PBS, perhaps I will pledge money to you next year.

Q: If everyone passes the buck (loan), who ends up with it?

2008-09-21T21:16:00.001-07:00

A: The taxpayer.

Ok... one more...

2008-09-16T20:43:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I'm bathing in the kitchen. So what?

Misc Photos

2008-09-16T20:19:00.000-07:00

Family hike at Heather Meadows.

It's raining... time to cover up

The resemblance is scary...

Sam and Makena... yeah, that's pretty cute. Hands where I can see them, Sam.

Drill, drill, drill? Really?

2008-09-15T14:33:00.001-07:00

There seems to be this misconception that drilling for more oil will miraculously fix our current economic crisis (trying really hard not to place blame...). You don't just wake up one day, decide to drill, and tomorrow have 20% more crude. It takes a many years, even decades to see the return on a drilling investment (as a nation), an investment that yields absolutely no technological advances in the way of sustainable energy. So, instead of investing in renewable energy now, we are supposed to invest in oil so that in 10-20 years we'll be worse off than we are now? This rattles every fiscally conservative born in my body... not to mention the environmentalist ones...

I want to remove our dependency on foreign oil as much as the next man, but replacing it with a dependency on our own (limited) supply doesn't solve the problem, it just delays it, and at a huge cost to future generations.

More over, it *might* be nice to save some of that petroleum for things other than fuel. Plastics and many other vital products require oil as well. We might not want to burn it all.

Man, my political to baby post ratio is on the rise... more light hearted stuff to come...

Quote of the Day

2008-09-11T15:55:00.000-07:00

We've all heard this quote:

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Today I heard an awesome adaptation to suit the current administration:

Any sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice.

Nice.

Makena's 2mo Doctor's Apt!

2008-09-06T18:47:00.000-07:00

She's perfectly healthy, but the vaccines she got today did not make her very happy. In fact, the screaming was something to behold, not to mention the shade of red she turned.

Here are her stats:

Head size 50th percentile

Weight 90th percentile at 12lbs 9oz

Length 95th percentile at 24.25 inches

Well, at least we know she's getting enough to eat ;).

Why are we so concerned with winning the war?

2008-09-04T15:05:00.000-07:00

The GOP is boasting that their candidate(s) won't stand for the US losing a war and that the Dems have a "defeatist" attitude towards Iraq. To that I say, and? Who's keeping score of war wins and losses anyways? Is there some kind of prize later that I'm not aware of? Do presidents get bonuses for declaring "mission accomplished"? This is not a football game! What's going on here? Am I going crazy? Do they not even have to talk about why we're still at war despite being less safe now than we were when we started this insanity? Is there no accountability in this country? No, let's just ignore injustice, chant "U-S-A", and all will be well. We've become a nation of war mongering Frat boys.

Do you know how much alternative energy and healthcare you can buy for 2 trillion dollars? Well, I can't tell you because we burned all that money in Iraq.

I might be oversimplifying things, but I see is 80K in US debt per household, 10s of thousands of bodies in Iraq and no end in sight. This has to stop, it's madness.

Super-senior discount at Baker

2008-09-02T15:52:00.000-07:00

John McCain, you're in luck:

http://www.mtbaker.us/prices_pre_passes.php

I love the internet...

2008-08-21T15:35:00.001-07:00

I just saw an ad for a Christian dating website that claimed it had "Certified Christian" singles. I wonder how the certification process works...

More snoring...

2008-08-18T18:32:00.000-07:00

Too hot for clothes...

iPhone on T-Mobile T-Zones

2008-08-16T08:02:00.001-07:00

<preface>
All credit for the hard work here goes to syasses and the iphone dev team and my friend sachin who sold me his old 1st gen iphone for cheap. I just wanted to aggregate all the steps in one place and share my experience. I linked to sources where applicable.
</preface>

This documents my experience from start to finish of unlocking, jailbreaking, and proxying a 1st Gen 2.0 iPhone to work with the T-Mobile T-Zones dataplan (the $5.99/mo one). I figured there should be one page that has all the steps from start to finish.

0) Buy an iPhone (1st gen, not 3G).

1) Unlock and jailbreak phone. One app will do this all for you, but you need access to a mac. Download it here: http://blog.iphone-dev.org/post/42931306/pwnagetool-2-0-1

Follow the instruction here: http://www.iclarified.com/entry/index.php?enid=1557

There are instruction out there on how to do this on win32, but I haven't tried them.

2) Here's how to sign up for the cheapest T-Mobile data plan (T-Zones - $5.99/mo)

Goto my.t-mobile.com.
Login.
Under the "My Account" menu click on "Change Services".
Scroll down to "Web & Application" and select "T-MobileWeb".
Then click "Change services" at the bottom and step through all their confirmation pages.
Now, this can take up to 24 hours to take effect. You can continue following the rest of the steps, but if it doesn't work right away, try waiting 24 hours.

3) You should have Cydia installed after Pwnage pwned your phone. Which is great because there just happens to be an app that handles all the t-mobile hacks for your

Open Cydia from the home screen.
Hit "Section" in the lower menu.
Scroll down to "Tweaks".
Scroll down to "TZones Hack".
Select and install it.
When it's done, restart the iphone (hold down power + home for 8 second).
Once it comes up, goto Settings > General > Network > Cellular Data (used to be label EDGE). In the APN field you should see "wap.voicestream.com". Username and password should be blank.
To test your connection disable wifi (Settings > Wifi > Wifi Off) and open up Safari. You should be able to hit pages. If you have Gmail configured w/ IMAP, it should also work as should Google Maps. YouTube does NOT work, unfortunately, so you'll have to save the videos for when your're on wifi.

4) Speed test. Make sure you're not on wifi. Here are some to try:

http://www.iphonespeedtest.com/
http://i.dslr.net/tinyspeedtest.html
http://testmyiphone.com/speedtest

6) Done. It's not the fastest connection in the world. It's sort of bursty, but it's enough to check mail, etc. And, hey.. it's only $5.99.

Back to work for mommy

2008-08-12T10:59:00.001-07:00

Today was the first day Erika left Makena with someone else (for more than an hour). She had to go back to work. Apparently 6 weeks has gone by already.

Little Giggle

2008-08-10T17:03:00.000-07:00

Dad.. you're embarrassing me.. seriously.. stop it.

More fun with baby...

2008-08-02T22:09:00.000-07:00

Also some new pics on picasa

First Smile

2008-07-24T12:53:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday, Erika claimed that Makena smiled at her (legitimately... not just a pooping smile). I didn't believe her. But, yesterday when I was holding her after I got home from work, she definitely smiled. It didn't last longer enough to get a picture, so we'll see if we can get one tonight.

New Pics

2008-07-19T18:43:00.000-07:00

http://picasaweb.google.com/bvandenbos/MakenaSFirstSummer

Snoring

2008-07-19T18:34:00.001-07:00

You'll have to turn up your speakers pretty loud. Yet another trait she gets from Grandpa Roland.

Meta-Reality TV

2008-07-06T14:14:00.000-07:00

As if one layer of "reality" wasn't enough...

I just saw a commercial for Design Star which is a reality show about picking out a host for another reality show about home design. This is what I've feared. Up until now, all reality shows were non-recursive, thus limiting the total possible number of shows to the total number of "reasonable" (read: sellable) topics, which is some finite (albeit large) number. At some point, we would simply run out of "reasonable" topics for reality TV and it would slowly burn out. Now, someone (HGTV) has demonstrated the plausibility of meta-reality TV (reality TV about reality TV) and in doing so has created an infinite number of possible realty shows for every given "reasonable" topic. Now we're going to see a reality show for picking the new judge on American Idol, and then after that, a show about picking the host for the show about picking the judge for American Idol. Then possibly a show about picking a producer for the show about the host for the show about the judge of American Idol.

I just died a little on the inside and I think I can hear Donald Trump and Rupert Murdoch giving each other high-fives.

Back to work tomorrow

2008-07-06T14:09:00.000-07:00

Welp, time to face reality - time to fuse old life with new life.

Gulp.

Arms Up Game

2008-07-02T17:40:00.000-07:00

Day 4 of Fatherdom - The Range Test

2008-06-29T14:53:00.000-07:00

Pee range on baby girls, though not fully tested, is at least 1 meter. In test case #001, stream was intercepted by the dresser. Suspected full range to be 2+ meters, but as yet unconfirmed.

Notes for test #002: a cool breeze and a quick removal from containment seems to increase triggering probability and projectile velocity. Interruption during a depositing event also appears to increase triggering probability.

Baby!

2008-06-27T14:05:00.000-07:00

Welp... after 19 hours of labor, Makena Grace was brought into the world. She was 8 lbs even, 20 1/2 inches long. Mommy and baby are doing just fine. We hope to be home this evening. I'll get some super cute pic up here pretty soon, but here's one I took w/ my phone for now.

Still No Baby

2008-06-23T20:49:00.001-07:00

Despite a walk around Green Lake (and then some)... baby count is still at zero.

No Baby Yet.

2008-06-14T21:31:00.000-07:00

Unless a lot happens in the next 24 hours, it looks like I'm going to have wait another year for my first Father's Day.

Roommate

2008-06-09T20:05:00.000-07:00

Allison, one of the Youth Department's summer interns, moved in today. She's living in our basement for the summer (until August). We figured having a baby wasn't quite enough, so we decided we'd have someone we've never met move in, too.

Allison goes to WSU and is from Pullman (yes, apparently can actually be from Pullman). She'll basically be doing Erika's job at the church while Erika is on maturity leave.

Gates Law

2008-05-29T10:30:00.000-07:00

The saviness of any PC user is inversely proportional to the number of icons in his/her system tray.

The riches of this world are fleeting

2008-05-28T11:54:00.000-07:00

Last night our house was broken into (burgled, if you will). Fortunately neither of us were home, they didn't do too much damage and they didn't take anything that isn't easily replaced. They got a couple TVs, XBox, my guitar (grrr...), DVDs, laptop, etc... Not the most pleasant experience, but it could have been worse.

Here's a link to the pics:

http://picasaweb.google.com/bvandenbos/TheBreakIn

Tim gets a new roommate for the weekend

2008-05-22T21:54:00.000-07:00

Since we're going to be out of town for the weekend, Tim graciously took the Hun in. The poor fool...

The Religious Debate

2008-05-20T09:02:00.001-07:00

Brian sent me this last night. He also warned me that I was raised Calvinist (implying that I was predestined (so to speak) to preference DOS/Windows).

http://www.themodernword.com/eco/eco_mac_vs_pc.html

He may be more right than he knows. I just recently switched to linux (a free, open-source, operating system for those of you that have no idea what this post is about). Linux is clearly even more Calvinist than DOS in that there are no clear steps and it is not an easy struggle :). However, at its core it's a Lutheran Reformist in that it emphasizes free, open access to the source [of salvation].

March Madness @ Avvo

2008-03-21T14:45:00.001-07:00

So, no matter how much I might complain about stress at Avvo... it must not be all bad.

Mazama

2008-03-18T11:48:00.000-07:00

Erika and I took a couple days off and went to Aunt Cindy and Uncle Jim(bo)'s "cabin" in Mazama (10 miles west of Winthrop). We just hung out, read books, went snow shoeing, and watched a couple movies. A good time was had by all. Here's some pics.

(for the complete gallery)

No, this squirrel is not fake.

yay snowshoeing

mountain.

This Old House - Episode #1

2008-03-11T20:24:00.000-07:00

So, Tim, David, and Kristin came over on Saturday and we tore down an old wall in the basement and re-sheetrocked it. Fortunately David knows what he is doing and showed me and Tim what to do. We started by ripping down some of the old ceiling tiles and dry wall. I've got a couple scabs on my knuckles from punching through it. Hey, it's not very often that I get to punch through drywall. Gotta take advantage of it when I can.

7 hours, 4 sheets of rock, 70 feet of spacer boards, 1.5 pizzas, 4 beers, several pounds of mud, 2 garage cans of junk, 1 shop vac filled with dust, and 2 trips to Home Depot later there was a wall where there wasn't one before. Booyah. Fine, there was a wall there before, but it wasn't as cool.

Next week's episode: installing trim.

Screwing in the rock.

Me fitting the corner piece.

one piece hung.

That is is one good looking end.

Get that wall!

Down to the studs...

Whoops. Looks like we left 3 of the studs out. Nice.

The Hun discovers TV

2008-03-05T09:03:00.000-08:00

So, I was watching that Planet Earth special on DVD last night and the Hun was sitting on my lap intently watching the screen. Then she got up and this happened:

I apologize for the sideways video and poor contrast, I took it with my phone.

It's Tax Season

2008-02-26T12:34:00.000-08:00

Seattle Tax Lawyers in case you get yourself into trouble

Sy Snootles is pregnant?

2008-02-25T08:48:00.001-08:00

Last night while she was attempting to get comfortable on the couch (which is apparently getting more difficult by the day for her) Erika informed me that she finally figured out who she feels like when she looks in the mirror. Sy Snootles from Return of the Jedi (you know, the singer in Jabba's palace with the long mouth). I'm not going to lie, I was particularly proud of her obscure star wars reference.

Note: the use of the original Sy Snootties (not the new CG one) was deliberate.

Car Accident

2008-02-07T09:55:00.000-08:00

Erika was in a minor car accident last night. Erika was waiting at the stop light when one car hit another that turned left in front of it at almost full speed. That car slid into Erika's car (the honda) and knocked it back a bit. Erika is fine as are the other two people involved. The cops came and issued the lady who turned left a ticket, so the insurance issues should be pretty straightforward. She'll be going to the doctor to have the baby checked out. She's felt the baby move since the accident, so we're not too worried. The jolt wasn't bad enough to bruise her, but her back is a bit sore. The car has some superficial damage to the front, but nothing major. It was a close call.

Felt the baby move for the first time.

2008-02-07T09:54:00.000-08:00

And all it took was a little Abbey Road.

Baby Consumption

2008-02-05T09:38:00.001-08:00

With the advent of trendy baby rearing, each consumer decision we make could potentially be the one that makes us the dreaded uncool parents. The prospect of having to use purchases for many years and for multiple children only compounds the importance of each decision. Furthermore, for the father, any lack of opinion or display of indecisiveness is immediately translated as indifference towards the baby's future and well being (which is not good).

The entire experience (though it's just begun) has been a little shocking. Then it occurred to me: this is a lot like getting married! There's almost a year of anticipation, your relationship with your wife undergoes constant role-changes as it is redefined, you take a bit of a backseat in most baby-related decisions, your wife spends more time on the phone with her mother (bless her heart), and (the most disturbing part) your life is fraught with consumer choices. What crib bedding color combination best expresses our taste as a couple? Which alphabet card set is cutest? Do we want a bassinet or a sidecrib?

I'm still struggling with the basics: What's a bassinet? You need a special car seat for infants? We need how many different types of strollers? Why do we need a travel crib? How old does she have to be before she can play with Legos? Someone just said "breastpump"... quick, run to the next room, cover your ears and hum.

For future fathers out there, I make one suggestion: the tactics you used to negotiate the build-up to your wedding will translate well to the first pregnancy. You need to employ such phrases as "well, which one do you like best?" followed by "yeah... me, too" and "I think that this will go well with that" rather than "I don't care, you decide". In fact don't ever say that. The worst possible design suggestion is always better than not caring. In fact bad suggestions introduce the possibility of being excluded from future decorating decisions and maybe even future shopping trips. Also, take the amount of money you think this will cost you and double it (triple it if you're really clueless). Once you can accept that, things will go much smoother.

Think back to your wedding - you're along for the ride on this one. Just make the least amount of waves possible. No matter how tired you are of shopping, keep your mouth shut because your wife always carries the trump card - she's the one giving birth.

Oh boy - it's a girl!!!

2008-01-30T18:30:00.001-08:00

We just had our 18 week ultrasound. At first glance, everything seems fine, but we won't get the final results from the radiologist for a few days. BUT, we did find out the it's a girl!!! (though, come on, we're not really that surprised ;) ).

Here's a profile shot from the ultrasound and you can see the hands. A second after this was taken she waved at us.

I can safely say that watching her swim around was one of the most awe-inspiring moments of my life. We could see her bones, heart, kidneys, brain, feet, hands, and face. Her head is 15 cm around.

Over the last couple weeks Erika has been able to feel her moving, mostly in the morning. She's developed enough now to be able to hear what's going on outside the womb.

Baby at 8 Weeks

2008-01-30T18:27:00.001-08:00

This was the post I promised months ago. Baby's first ultrasound.

16 weeks and counting

2008-01-16T09:54:00.000-08:00

We had another doctor's apt yesterday. Everything seems fine. I got to hear the babies heart beat for the first time. That was pretty amazing. Erika is feeling much better and getting some of her energy back. She's still taking it pretty easy, but has started swimming again.

A few more weeks and we'll go in for another ultrasound. Yes, we are going to find out the gender.

The Royal Throne

2007-12-10T11:19:00.000-08:00

This is one of the stalls in the men's restroom at our new office space and possibly the largest single stall in a public restroom I have ever seen. I attached a video because pictures would not suffice. Sorry about the quality, I had to record it w/ my phone. Yes, there is a latter halfway in that goes to some sort of crawl space.

New Office

2007-12-10T09:53:00.000-08:00

Here's some pictures of Avvo's new office space on 3rd & Pine in downtown Seattle. Yes, that is a trampoline in one of the pics. The street "activity" at our new location is slightly different than pioneer square. Our old game was "watch the crazy guy". Now we play "spot the drug deal" or "Jay-walkicketing" (which is the name we gave to the act of writing someone a Jay-Walking ticket).

First snow

2007-12-01T15:25:00.000-08:00

First snow at the new house.

Chichen Itza

2007-11-28T18:13:00.000-08:00

Overall I was pretty impressed with the ruins. According to my knowledgeable Mayan tour guide Santos, the pyramids at Chichen Itza are just a few of 3000 on the Yucatan. That seems like a staggering number to me. All the ruins at this site were built between 400 and 1200 AD. This is me in front of the Kukulkan Pyramid (yes, I took this myself). Unfortunately they don't let tourists climb on the ruins anymore because some people decided it would be a good idea to graffiti them. That was pretty disappointing. If you stand about 30 yards in front of the stair case and clap your hands you hear a delayed echo that sounds like a bullet ricocheting. Supposedly it sounds exactly like the call of a bird from the area that the Mayans considered a messenger to the gods. When the sun sets on vernal and autumnal equinoxes, the edges of the temple create several triangles of sunlight that hit the side of the adjacent staircase. At the base of the stair case there is a serpents head which, combined with the sun light, creates a serpent that "slithers" down the side of the temple twice a year. Pretty cool. Most (or maybe all) of the buildings we visited had a special orientation. The common orientation involved the corners of the east and west staircases lining up with sunrise and sunset on the winter and summer solstices.

I would have to say the best part was seeing the court where they played the "Mayan game" (for lack of a better name). I remember learning about it in middle school and thinking how it made no sense that they sacrificed the winners. The structure at the far end of the field is where the king sat during the game (top photo). If you stand exactly in the middle and clap your hands you hear 7 echoes, which is supposed to have some significance. I'm not totally sold. When Santos did it I swear I heard 8. The little loop (bottom photo) is where they have to get the 6 pound rubber ball (don't ask me how they know it was 6 pounds) without using their hands or feet. It stands about 20 feet high. Seems impossible to me. Santos said that they still play this game (no sacrificing though).

Here's a couple more pictures. This is the natural well where they threw some of their sacrifices (gold, silver, bones, people).

This is the wall where they placed the heads of the winners of the game.

This was their observatory. This was the one ruin we were allowed to walk on.

All in all, it was definitely worth the two and half hour bus ride from Cancun.

Cancun in 24 hours

2007-11-16T16:14:00.000-08:00

Sweetness.

6:20 am departure... getting up at 3:30... not so sweet.