Life with Griffin: February 2007

Raise the Red Lantern

Well, just like the Chinese we continued celebrating the New Year. The Chinese New Year is generally celebrated over two weeks. We figured, heck, Griffin's not going to fit into his Chinese Dragon outfit much longer...let's keep the party going! His stylish threads had both the Asians and non-Asians wowed.

We went to the New Year's festivities at The Huntington Library and Gardens. They are in the process of creating a new Chinese Garden which will be amazing when it is is done. Click the link to find out more.

The cast is now off and Griffin enjoyed running around the gardens. He seems to already have moved on from the broken arm. Ah, youth and resilience! He met up with one of his playgroup buddies, Jackson, and they had a blast.

Red Dragons and Snapdragons

Roar!

Come on Dragon follow me

Dragon rider

Red Lanterns decorated the gardens, great atmosphere and photos

All praise the red lantern

Just a quick snack break with buddy, Jackson

Mmmm sharing yummy Cheerios

Chinese New Year Photo Shot

The old saying in Hollywood is "Never act with a kid or a dog, they'll steal the scene." Photographers don't have to worry about that. The big issue is getting them to stay still!

Our Chinese New Year's shoot was inspired by an outfit that my cousins, Rob and Jody, brought back from Vietnam. One of their many adventures viewing eclipses around the world.

Newsflash - Little Man Down

Hi Everybody,

In case you haven't heard, Griffin broke his left forearm about a week and a half ago. It happened Tue Jan 30th. He was getting ready to head out to the park in his "Crocs" when he tripped and fell in the house. We think he tried to break his fall, but had too much speed. He had clean breaks in both the "Radius and Ulna".

I met Jill, Daysi (our Nanny) and Griffin in the hospital ER about an hour after it happened. He seemed to be pretty much his normal self, he wasn't crying and didn't seem to notice any extreme pain. After about 5 hours of going between doctors and X-ray he finally got a cast on his arm. Long gone are the days for plaster casts, he got a cool, blue fiberglass one. The downside is they are hard to sign!

We went back last Tues for follow-up visit and X-ray. Everything seems to be healing great. Because he is so young they are not as concerned about setting the bones perfectly because as he grows the muscles and bones remodel the arm, correcting any misalignment.

He sort of thinks his "Super Blue Arm" is fun to bang on things and it does not seem to be slowing him down a bit.

Camera on the Other Foot

You got to love this day and age of digital cameras. No great expense and immediate gratification. Some cameras are so easy even a 2 year old can shoot pictures.

And that is exactly what the following are. Photos shot at a perspective of a 3 foot high photographer.

However, dad did learn a bit of an expensive lesson. No matter how much you want to encourage your artist son, he is still 2 and will break everything. Our camera no longer has the zoom function. I guess the lens moving in and out was too much of a temptation and Griffin just had to see if he could stop it from moving.

Self portrait "Self Soothing"