Stop, collaborate and listen...

I hate people who eat with chopsticks. I don't mean Asian people, I mean other people who learn to eat with chopsticks later in life because they're always going to Asian restaurants. You know who I'm talking about - the people who have that smug, self-satisfied look on their face the whole time: "I've traveled extensively throughout Asia... I'm very familiar with your ways, Master Chen... I'll just be going with the chopsticks. And let me take the liberty of ordering for our party: we'll have the mooshoo hock chin chaooooo...' I'm very sophisticated, I'm a world-traveler. I think I mentioned that earlier..."

The real question is whether there's an American restaurant in downtown Beijing where the locals get to pat themselves on the back for eating with Silverware: "Ooooohhh, I go with the fork... I'm a real world traveler..."

Anyway, the reason you're all here: pics of little Miss Brookers.

Here's Brookers in front of our tree.

Brittiny and I at the Hospital's yearly Christmas dinner at the Omni hotel in New Hay Hay. We had a good time there -- there was a dance floor, so Brooklyn ran around for three hours with the other kids. She was really tired when we finally left the party... I just noticed that I use the red-eye correction in Adobe Photoshop and it makes us look creepy.

Here are my two precious ladies. Brooklyn was a sweetheart all night, playing with all the kids and shaking her groove thang on the dance floor. Her dancing is hilarious, but already way, way better than Dad's moves. We bought Brookers this red Christmas dress for the w/end's Christmas parties... She looked really cute.

Nephews Jake, Jaxen and Gerrett. Definitely they're up to something...

Here's McKenlyn Eustachias Povey, Brooklyn's newest cousin. Okay, so I made up the Eustachias part b/c I don't know if she has a middle name and I woke up with pressure in my ears. She's looking good, though, and a LOT like her older brother, Jaxen.

Greg Giraldo is hilarious...

Not a ton of new stuff going on in our lives. Have posted some Halloween pics below, along with recent shots of Brookers

Swing and a miss...

Just thought I'd take a second to post a picture of the fair miss Brooklyn. This is her on an impromptu blind date - the male baby pictured is Matthew Stoneman. He met Brooklyn at a summer beach party in Milford, CT. The setup didn't go so well. Brooklyn was more interested in getting back into the cold Atlantic Ocean and Matt had just dropped a stinker in his diaper.

Based on a True Story...

#1 - The great news is that Pops has his new liver. The surgery went well, but did last 12 hours, which was longer than expected. Dad is sitting in bed now 4 days removed from the transplantation. He's recovering nicely. Right now I'm just sitting here listening to him snore (imagine semi-trucks hitting their engine breaks down a steep canyon highway).

#2 - I'll post a few new pics of Brooklyn below. She had her 1st Birthday on August 22nd and was cute as can be for the trip out to Utah. But don't take my word for it, just look at the pics below. She's cute beans if you ask me. Wow, an entire year since my wife awoke me from peaceful slumber with "THE BABY'S COMING!!!" Being somewhat familiar with Wifey's "M.O.", I ought have realized that she meant bidness: Brooklyn was born in the hallway about 9 minutes later.

#3 - So what's the deal with Hollywood "reality" movies? You know what I mean, those mini-series or movies that the producer's want you to believe actually happened as portrayed. I remember when I was a kid Kevin Larson and I used to argue about this exact issue all the time. Our favorite discussion centered around Bloodsport, featuring Jean Claude Van Damme as Frank Dux, some euro-trash martial arts expert. In one fight scene Frank's American buddy gets on the receiving end of an open can of whoop-ace. I told Kevster that I thought it convenient that Dux' buddy got wailed on by the same guy that he ends up fighting in the championship. Kev insisted that this obviously was how the fights had actually gone, since at the beginning of the movie the storyline noted that the movie was "Based on a true story."

Well, this small argument that Kevster and I had years ago continued to haunt me throughout my formative years. The issue is: what duty does Hollywood owe those whose lives are affected by the simple tagline: "Based on a true story?" Was Erin Brockovich a hottie? Did Donnie Brasco help dispose of rival mafia members? Was Seabiscuit a horse, or did owner Charles Howard just tape a bunch of cats together? This troubling uncertainty drove me to pay special attention to claims of reality in the otherwise phony world. I ended up making the following diagnosis:

Based on a True Story (BOATS): These words mean that the story is completely made-up. I could sneeze out a green booger resembling the amorphous apparition from Ghostbusters ("Slimer") and amend the screenplay to be BOATS. Such stories represent the upper limit on the exercise of poetic license.

Inspired by Real Life Events (IBRLE): These productions are also not at all reliable, but they're at least better than BOATS above. Just to have an idea, the Exorcist was an IBRLE film. In this film a possessed 12 year old girl levitates, spits up green bile and then votes for Howard Dean as a write-in candidate in '04 presidential election. Very fishy. I took the liberty of calling the book's writer, William Peter Blatty, to confirm the reality of the depicted events. After a lengthy interrogation Bill admitted to me that his book was actually based on a ferocious weiner dog that had terrorized him throughout childhood. Oh, and the levitation bit was taken from a Michael Jackson concert where Bill first witnessed a perfectly executed moonwalk.

A True-Life Story (TLS): Okay, these are the most reliable. For an example, see Hotel Rwanda or Mr. Belvedere. In these shows the director makes an effort to preserve the legitimacy of the storyline. IE, the real Mr. Belvedere actually did wear sweater vests every day and speak with a mild British accent.

Okay, now pics of Baby Brooklyn... enjoy...

Stay off the sidewalks, because that's where Brooklyn is taking her new hoot ride...

Here's Brooklyn opening presents at the Epperson abode. She snuggled all her presents - especially her clothes.

Here is Brooklyn with her first Birthday cake. We had a Birthday cake in Sandy. Brooklyn mostly just ate the chocolate frosting globs off the cake...

Here's Brooklyn with her second cake. The poor girl, after two days of cake, thought that this was her new diet. Sorry Brookers...

Long time no post...

Yeah, we're a bit behind the times. A lot of stuff has happened since our last post. Brittiny is a doctor. I'm a lawyer. Brooklyn is a cutie-pants. And now, here are some pics...

Here's a great pic of Popadopalous and Brookers. I don't know what they see over there, but man, it must be good!

Here's Uncle Doug enjoying some time with Elizabeth. As I sorted through my pics from Kellie's wedding I realized two things pretty quickly: one, for being able to walk pretty well Bits sure spends a lot of time being toted around. And two, Uncle Doug is a class-A baby-hog.

Here are Sosie and Hannah. I don't know what they're doing, but it appears to be feminist.

Here's the beautiful bride + a beautiful baby. Kellie, you were a beautiful bride...

Here's me planting a kiss on miss Kellie. I guess she's Mrs. Redman now, actually...

"What you gonna do with all that junk, all that junk inside your diaper?"...

Yeah, nothing like a little Black Eyed Peas to get y'all going... now on to the East Coast Epperson updates:

• Brittiny and li'l Brookers are flying out to Utah for 2 weeks beginning the first of May. Brittiny is excited to see the fams, nephews, neice and take a few hikes outdoors. Dad is excited b/c he'll be able to avoid 3 hrs on the road each day as he stays in a friend's Apartment in Stamford, about 500 yards from the office.
• Dad, Mom and Brooklyn will fly out to Utah again for one week to see Miss Kellie tie the knot with Sir Joseph. And the question on everyone's mind: will Kellie wear a shanga (see the white clogging slip kellie wore with every outfit for two years in the mid-'80's) underneath her wedding dress?
• Brooklyn is now fluent in both zrrbert and gibberish. If you don't know what zrrbert sounds like, the language is a close cousin of the sound horses make when they fart.
• Brittiny starts her internship year June 12th. She's excited. She wants a better grasp on medicine. She's pumped for gradumacation.

Okay, so that's pretty much all for an update.... now the pics o'Brooklyn (How much o'Keefe is in this movie anyway...?)

Here's a picture of Brooklyn wrapped in a blanky. What (we think) makes this pic so funny is that she wouldn't look @ the camera b/c Baby Einstein was playing.

Screaming Henry is getting so cute and big. Here he and Brooklyn are enjoying a date in the living room.

Mom and Brookers enjoyed a beautiful afternoon in Central Park. Here you can see them on the Great Lawn. What's so great about it? Scott's Turfbuilder, that's what...

Brooklyn is a great multi-tasker already. She can laugh in your face while filling her diaper. In fact, I think that's why she's laughing to begin with.

Eensy weensy spider...

New pics of our favorite little girl (no, not Raven Simone):

By far, the two best looking women on the planet (though one of them has binky-rash)...

Brooklyn likes to play football w/Daddy

"Hi guys... like my pigtails?"

My favority thing to do is dress brooklyn in her pink jogging suit and walk aimlessly around the mall or Target.

Now I'm Prune Tracy...

Well, not a whole heckuva lot to report from Connecticut. Life chugs along whether we really pay attention or not. Brittiny is nearing the end of her research project. She has been extracting DNA/RNA from a human placental cell line and studying the effects of cigarette mutagens on a particular jean (Jordache, I think) involved in fetal development and growth.

The real news is that the Backstreet Boys are back together. I saw them perform at halftime of the Probowl in Hawaii. Man, they've never looked like bigger tools. I can't believe my sister Kellie used to be crushing on Nick Carter.

Okay, okay... so that's all faux-news. The real news -as relayed by the new pics above - is thatBrooklyn is now eating a lot of normal food. When I say "normal", I mean normal in the sense that her peas are unrecognizable as such and her jar of turkey looks like humus and smells like a fart. Oh, and when I say that our Brookers is "eating" this normal food, I use that term in the loosest sense as well. Brooklyn usually ends up wearing about 1/3 of what we slip into her agape mouth, as her excessive drool tends to act like a lubricant on her tongue -- imagine vaseline on a Crocodile Mile (c'mon, you guys remember what a Crocodile mile is?!) -- making food retention difficult. Still, she manages to actually eat some of the solids. Oh, that's another thing, these foods can't be called "solids". Let's just say the wise man did NOT build his house upon Gerber's strained squash and carrots.

Anyway, Brooklyn has newfound energy due to her dietary evolution. This has led her to become more vocal. She's also growing stronger and bigger by the day, though not as strong as our Neighbor, Screaming Henry. He could probably be described as a miniature Incredible Hulk, which I guess makes him just a normal hulk, or whatever... Tauna (Henry's mom) actually brought him over to deliver Brooklyn's Valentine's Day gift this last week. Henry brought a cute little outfit that Brookers will love. The card he wrote had something about "16 years from now, when your dad lets you date, look me up." Dad doesn't want to think about the day when the rest of the male population finds Brooklyn beautiful, too...

Brooklyn Loves Golf....

So the biggest news that we have is that Brooklyn is a huge fan of the PGA Tour. This does Daddy, Grandpa and Aaron very proud. She's watching Tiger in a playoff with Joe Mary Olazabal. Right now Tiger is bellying up for a chance at a 4th Buick Championship. Oh! He yanked it left! Well, he's human.

Actually, we have some bigger news. This last week we introduced Brooklyn to rice cereal:

Brooklyn: Well, hello rice cereal. How are you today?

Rice Cereal: Oh, I'm just fine, Brookers. Are you ready to mix me with formula and eat up?

Brooklyn: Well, actually I'm considering just pushing you around with my tongue, then maybe sticking the rest of you up my nose. You down with that, Rice Cereal?

Since Brooklyn has begun eating solids her diaper bombs have gone from backyard sparkler to Bikini Atoll. Seriously, she didn't blast for a whole day then unloaded about 4 quarts into a 1/2 quart capacity diaper. When we shimmied her out of her first layer of clothes it was like pulling apart a bologna mustard sandwich. We had to throw her clothes inthe incinerator. Oh, and thanks for the warning on this one, Mom and Dad. Really, bang up job preparing the troops for battle. ;)

I'm posting some new pics of Brooklyn below. Enjoy...

Brooklyn's Nursery...

Brooklyn's Nursery... Shelf: Ikea. Picture Frames: Ikea. Crib: by Buffy, from Utah.

Brooklyn introduced to solid foods... I mean, my hoodie drawstrings.

This is Tauna and Screaming Henry. He's not much of a screamer anymore, and is a very charming baby. He kinda likes Brooklyn and allows her to play big monkey, little monkey w/his eyebrows.

Whurd...

Well, we're back to CT after our week trip to Utah. The trip was nice. It was wonderful to see everyone and especially to get to see our nephews and nieces. Oh, and it was nice to see all you older people, too. Our flight out of SLC was oversold, so we got shuffled from United onto a Delta flight. The flight was direct to Hartford, which was great. Brooklyn was an angel on the flight, too. Our luggage was still on our original flight, tho, so we had to wait for our luggage. Plus I couldn't find our car in the long term lot. There are fetchin' 6 long term lots plus our car was covered in 10 inches of snow. Brittiny doesn't know this, but I spent like 20 minutes with the Shuttle guy trying to find our car. I was getting really nervous until I saw Delicate Arch peeking out from behind the snow.


Hey guys, check out my new tennies!


"No Officer, I swear... only two glasses of milk... honest."

"Okay, you got me... 3 glasses of milk, but I'm totally sober."