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Sidewalk Violation

Whenever I walk Parker to day care, I usually have at least one other baby with me. And usually I go with all three. One on my back or front, one in the stroller and Parker switches off between walking, running, standing and staring at nothing, and sitting in the sit n stand part of the stroller.

It's a short walk and mostly downhill on the way there, so it is fairly pleasant. Except for a few driveways about a block from the day care. The residents park there cars in the driveways, completely blocking the sidewalk. I have to take my whole swarm of kids and go into the street and then back up onto the sidewalk. Some days I have to do this more than once.

Every time, I curse the cars and tell myself I am going to print up nasty postcards about how lame this is and place them on the cars. But I always forget until I find myself in front of the car.

But two days ago, I came home and called the City of Oakland. Someone answered on the first ring, which is amazing unto itself. I asked if this parking situation was legal and was informed, No, It was not. It is called a Sidewalk Violation. I gave the city block and she informed me that they would patrol it more often now that there was a complaint. I knew nothing would happen, but I still felt good to have done something.

Then yesterday, as I was walking to pick Parker up, I saw one of the cars. I cursed it as I approached it, and then saw the bright green City of Oakland parking ticket on the front dash. Sidewalk Violation! Yay!

The City of Oakland can't seem to stop homocides or homelessness or dead animals on the street, but they sure can jump right on top of the illegal parking situations.

Fun with blankie

Good times in the jumpy things

Oh Great Couch!

Return of the amazing roll over baby

I have an account at YouTube so that I can post videos of the kids on this blog. YouTube tells you how many times each video has been seen, which is sort of fun to see. Most of the videos I've posted have between 15-35 or so views, which sounds about right, given the kind of traffic I'm guessing this blog gets.

So two days ago I got an email from YouTube telling me that someone had commented on "The amazing roll over baby part two" which is of Elizabeth at 8 weeks old:



I have never gotten a YouTube comment before, because the videos are really only promoted through this blog. And when I logged in to read the comment* I was surprised to notice that there were around 250 views for this video. Apparently there are a bunch of insane baby lovers trolling YouTube looking for cuteness. Which is funny, if a little weird.

Then I got another email tonight saying there's another comment** on the video. And now the page views are up to 342. Wondering how it's getting so much traffic, I did a search for "roll over baby" and learned that our sweet Elizabeth comes up #2 out of 525 results. She's apparently a hit. And given the apparently roving bands of crazed baby lovers out there, I predict that this video will continue to get strong traffic.

She is awfully cute, after all.


*jennafk writes: I luv your baby!!!!!!!!!!!!
** kevanddev writes: your baby is so cute!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Vocabulary

Today Parker informed us that he needed to "take a cr*p."

I have no idea where he might have picked this up.

Adorableness

I realize that as the father I have no credibility on the issue, but seriously could these two be any cuter?

Some strollers we own.

We have many strollers. Here's a double umbrella stroller we got from our friends Rachel and Michael, who also have twins.



This is our double snap-n-go. The seats are in Rachel's car. This thing steers like a boat, and is about as heavy.



Here's a single jogging stroller.



And here's the single umbrella stroller we bought in Mexico for about $5. That was the trip where Rachel's morning sickness started.



Here's our sit-n-stand, which can hold one baby (or car seat) and one Parker (either sitting or standing). This is a well used stroller.



Here's the double front and back stroller, another from Rachel and Michael.



Here's the double jogging stroller that we took off of some couple's porch, which you could tell they were happy to see go. This stroller's key feature is that it doesn't fold. And has a torn up tire.



And here's the current workhorse, the double side-by-side.



Thank god we have a garage.

More sitting on the 7th month birthday

Cheerios

They aren't just for eating any more.

Morning Sit Down

Sometimes the family has to come together in the morning to discuss matters of importance. Today was not one of those days, but we still enjoyed a nice sit.

More plastic crap

I went to a twin mom's house the other day. She had a jumperoo. I had not heard of such a thing. It is the same concept as a doorway jumper, but without the doorway. I put Elizabeth in it and she had the best time. Laughing, jumping, squealing. So that night, I googled jumperoo. They cost between $59 and $89 new. So I went on Craigslist and sure enough someone was selling a barely used one for $40 10 minutes away. The next night, I went to pick it up.

Elizabeth thinks it is the best.