2011.12.22 Let there be light, please!

Our backyard gets nearly no sunshine in the coldest days of winter.  Why?  Because our neighbor's yard has lined our common fence with 20+ foot trees and the sunlight can't penetrate these trees.  To make matters worse, two of our trees had overgrown into their yard and in some places taller than even their trees.  In an effort to let in some sunlight, I started cutting down the tops of our trees that had grown into their yard.  After 3.5 hrs of nonstop cutting and probably 500+ lbs of severed tree branches, I managed to cut most of the top of one tree and a little of the 2nd.  The difference in the view is dramatic but we wont know if sunlight will actually shine through until tomorrow.  It'll probably take 2 - 3 weeks to dispose of today's cuttings.  What remains to be cut are the thick trunks which I probably can't really do with a manual saw, so I've ordered a chainsaw for that. 

2011.12.22 When do babies say "no"?

Evan turned 15 months two days ago and is cuter than ever.  In addition to his vocabulary of probably 100 words, Evan has recently started to express himself with gestures. The most prominent gesture is his shaking of the head when expressing "no" or something in the negative.  For example, when looking at pages of a book, I can ask him if "moo moo" (cow) is there.  And he would shake his head emphatically and say "no".  For "yes", he doesn't yet nod his head. Instead, he'll confirm what you ask.  So with the cow example, if he see a cow in the pages, he'll say "moo moo, moo moo" and point to the cow.  Too cute!   If he is unsure of something or curious of what he's seeing, he'll tilt his head sideways and say "hmm?" or "huh?"  With physical and verbal gestures of yes/no, it's now a lot easier to communicate with him.  Like we'll now know if he really wants to eat something, or not..  He'll sometimes even say "bao", meaning he's full, and start taking off his bib to indicate that he's done eating and wants to get off the high chair.  What will he do next??

2011.12.13 Hazard zone?

For some reason, Evan found the word 'zone' very amusing, so he started laughing nonstop, so we took this video after he had already been laughing for about 2 minutes.