Taken in the back yard, in the 15 minute window that a toddler gives you before they are over sitting quietly. The trick? tie a DVD player to a ladder directly behind the camera and have it looping Mickey Mouse Club House…
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Taking on a complete bathroom remodel? I guess ignorance is bliss because I didn’t know I couldn’t do it, so I did it. And it worked! 4 days, ground up remodel of the downstairs bath, new everything, floors, moulding, toilet, drywall, paint, vanity, counter, sink, faucets, lights, mirror, cabinet it’s all new. Came out pretty good too!
More to come from this session just need to find the time to edit some pics!!!
I’m not sure how an innocent wine tasting turned into a casting for America’s Next Top Model, I guess drinks and sunshine do tend to have that effect girls?
Here’s some pics I took of Brytni towards the end of 2011. I’m looking forward to shooting with her again this month. These came out pretty well but I know we can do better since we were pretty short on time we had to be quick. These shots came out of about 15 minutes of shooting. I’d like to see what we can come up with with a little more latitude and planning!
The New Year is here and 2012 promises to be an exciting year for the Novak family. We had a great holiday season, it was so much fun this year because Bella really gets it now. She gets Santa, the decorations, gift giving etc… It made everything about the holidays that much more magical to see it through her eyes and live a little vicariously.
So what is Bella up to these days?
Size: Bella is 2yrs 3 months, about 34-35″ and maybe 32-33ish lbs. She’s very tall for her age bracket so her looks are deceiving, most people think she’s pretty close to 3. I think pretty soon amusement parks are going to start trying to charge us but we’re milking it for all it’s worth.
Mobility:Bella has mastered (for the most part) the art of movement and is on to jumping and hopping like a frog. She likes to imitate animals (animal walk and monkey body) and will crawl around on all fours and meow like a kitty or moo like a cow. She also likes to dance and is always asking for music, anything with a good beat. She’s a pro at the play park now. She’s mastered the regular slide and has moved onto the twisty one. She even goes down “superman style” head first, hands out laughing all the way. She’s over the baby swing, she’s a little wobbly on the big girl swing but its coming along. she’s still working out when to kick her legs to get the motion going but I expect she’ll be flying (lets hope not literally) in no time.
Santa brought Bella a scooter for Christmas and she’s actually doing really well with the kicking part, she gets a little too brave and tries to go fast and usually eats it, but she’s tough and shakes it off.
Sounds:Bella really loves to sing and has learned a lot of songs, Doe a Deer from Sound of Music, ABCs, Frere Jacques, You are my sunshine and even some Rhianna, Katy Perry and Bruno Mars pop songs. She was all over xmas tunes this year and cranked out some moving renditions of Frosty and Jingle Bells. She is almost never quiet so if she’s not singing, she’s talking, laughing or “reading” which is just her talking while looking at a book.
She puts together fairly complicated sentences, like “No mama all done no more yogurt” and if you read that with attitude then you read it right. You might also hear her say something like “Oh nana (Peanut the cat) you bite, shes a bad kitty”. She is also in this really great place where she’s not just parroting anymore. She is assimilating everything she’s learned and putting her own personality into it. For instance she’ll sing a song like ABC but she’ll change the words to Da-Da-Ma-ma you go sleep. Its cute to see her showing her personality so much. She loves to laugh and like to make jokes and be silly which is totally me and Phia as kids. Its weird how much of that is hard wired, she’s just a silly funny adorable little girl.
Bella is constantly learning about the world around her. She amazes me when she puts two and two together, like we were in the car today when she announced “that’s a dog!” then saw a couple more and said “that’s one-two-three dogs!”.
We recently went to Disneyland and as you might know Phia’s niece is a face character there named Fawn the Fairy, Bella met Fawn but wasn’t fooled. The day after Bella and I were recapping what we did at Disneyland and this is how the conversation went.
D: “What else did you do at Disneyland? You saw fairies, remember? You saw Fawn Fairy.”
B: ” That’s not her name!”
D: ” Yeah. Remember? You saw Tinkerbell and Fawn.”
B: ” Tinkerbell, Fawn, and Brytni.”
Its hard to get one past her.
Entertainment:Bella still and maybe always will love Yo Gabba Gabba. She’s neurotically obsessed with Mickey Mouse Club House though lately and will watch them over and over. Phia and I have to have interventions and stop her because she’ll just say “I want nother mickey!”. Phia had to write her a letter… “your addiction to Mickey Mouse Club House has negatively effected me in the following ways…Will you accept help?”…”nother Mickey” umm that’s a no.
She’s finally getting pretty into watching full movies, which has been cool. She loves Tangled and is getting into the Disney catalog, Bambi, The Little Mermaid, Lion King, Pinocchio (which for some reason she call’s Dopey??) etc.. That of course excites my Disney super freak wife to no end.
Travels:We take Bella to the local fun spots that SD has to offer like the Zoo, Sea World and the Wild Animal Park. But recently we hit the BIG one. Of course I’m talking about Disneyland. She was such a good girl, she had a blast and rode Casey Jr, the carousel, Dumbo, the big train, Pinocchio, the Tea Cups and ran wild all over Toon Town. Last time we were there she was really freaked when she saw Mickey. She was like “Oh damn, I didn’t know he was THAT big??? he’s a mouse…right?”. This time she was just really excited to see all the characters and and lights (it was still xmas time there).
I can’t be thankful enough for how wonderful Bella is. She’s only 2 and I am already more proud of her than I am of anything I’ve ever done in my own life. Some time’s we’ll look at each other and just crack up without saying a word. I think the truest measure of a man is how well he cares for his daughter, I hope that I can live up to all my potential because she deserves nothing less all I can give.
Here are some recent videos of Bella, she’s a big girl doing big girl things in 2012…
and some pics
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When I was a kid I was bouncing off the walls hyper. Sometimes I would just start yelling or running because the energy was coursing through me. Now I see that Bella just might have the same genes as me.
Occasionally fans of music are treated to a free unexpected concert. One thinks of the Beatles in London, or maybe U2 in downtown LA filming the Where The Streets Have No Name video. Today it was Bella in our living room.
She has been known to sing, but rarely does she throw out an acoustic jam, complete with acoustic guitar. She is a generous musician, however she’s a demanding one, you’ll see at one point I try to sing along. She’s having none of it, she promptly asks me to let her do the singing. Luckily security didn’t throw me out.
Setlist: Frere Jacques, Un-named Original Composition, ABC’s, Frere Jacques (Reprise)
Meet Bobby the Bobot!
I came home the other day with a portable AC unit for Bella’s room and I said Bella this is for you. When I pulled it out of the box she said “Bella’s bobot!! Bobot!!” and then as she does these days when she see’s a robot she said in a low mechanical voice “I am a bobot”. She was thoroughly excited. We explained to her that this bobot was for her room and will keep her cool. She loves it, we even named him Robby the bobot. Robby and his cousin R2 are keeping both our rooms manageable during these summer months!