The Singleys Take Manhattan

NewYorkTrip from Bladford Shingley on Vimeo.

Meg and I had an opportunity to meet with the folks at UncommonGoods to work out a deal for my "Brainy Blocks" (which are now called "Multiblocks" for trademark reasons). They gave us a free trip to NY and put us up in a nice little hotel in Midtown Manhattan. The blocks will be available later this summer, and they look incredible.

We had a great time wandering around the city with our friends the Hamills. We were supposed to fly home on Sunday night, but JetBlue informed us on Saturday night that our flight home was canceled. Fortunately our friends the Heiselts were kind enough to let us crash with them in Brooklyn. I'm glad we had an extra day.

After the first few exhausting days, I wasn't really sold on the place. But after seeing a bit of home life in Brooklyn, I can really see the appeal of living there.

Ladies and gentlemen...The Beatles!

TicketToRide from Bladford Shingley on Vimeo.

Upstaged

Poor Grey tries to sing, but is upstaged by his sister who wants to sing a "prettier version for Grandma Singley." Evidently, Jane thinks "false vibrato and scooping" = pretty. I hope that won't be hard to unlearn. Enjoy.

SingingKids from Bladford Shingley on Vimeo.

PS: Happy Birthday to Grey. He's 2 years old today, and we celebrated by eating lunch at Baja Fresh, which is what I ate in the hospital after he was born.

Millions of Peaches

We have a new favorite band around here after enjoying a live show. It was a lively crowd, for a library anyway, and the kids were entranced. Last week for family night we sat about 10 feet away from Chris Ballew and his band Caspar Babypants. Chris Ballew of the Presidents of the United States of America? you're probably asking yourself. And we're nodding. And his kids music is awesome. and he plays the melodica. And just when you think it couldn't get any better, you see his keyboard player dance (whilst playing) during "Baby Bear." And then, to top it all off, they have some of the funnest music videos around.

So here we are two weeks later, watching Babypants videos on youtube and randomly singing this: "Poor little broken truck--"
just to hear Jane or Grey chime in with:
"ba beep beep!"
"Ran all out of gas" we sing on
"and got stuck," Jane and Grey finish.

more videos here.

Better Late than Never

Christmas2009 from Bladford Shingley on Vimeo.

This video shows some of the highlights from our Christmas trip to California. Most of the footage was shot on our standard definition 5-yr-old handycam, but some of it was shot in HD. This caused some technical dificulties (I got the aspect ratio wrong the first time), and that's why it's almost February and I'm posting a Christmas movie. Anyway, starting next week the Singley's will be brought to you exclusively in HD!

This Summer, Part Two--Camping at Kanaskat-Palmer

The Tent Palace of Singley

Our ward camp outs have become a tradition we look forward to in our house. No matter our intentions, the ward camp out means we will go camping at least once in the summer. We have been every year (three times now) since we moved up here, and it is just fun.
Our tent is ginormous--we could sleep 80 people in there. Just kidding, but it does have two rooms off the main part, and we had to divide our sleeping quarters. Until the kids are bigger, it made sense to have a girls wing and a boys wing. So I cozied up with Jane and slept relatively well while Brad did his best to comfort the overtired Grey. Grey finally figured out how much warmer he would be if he snuggled up with his dad, so I think they managed to get some sleep between Grey's wake-up-and-stand-up-spells.
Brad always helps the kids in the night when we are camping. They always end up bonding when we go out in the woods, and we loved seeing Grey feel closer to Brad after just one night. His kindness might have had something to do with the fact that when we woke up on Saturday I was suddenly older. Or not.
There's not a whole lot more to tell, so now I'll just show you some pictures. Most of our photos from this trip are of Grey for some reason . . .

By the Green River. Brad built the rock tower, which was at least the same height as Grey.



What's that coming down the trail? Should we run away?

It's getting closer . . .

Oh, it's a Grey! Let's take that one home with us.

So where was Jane in all of this?

Josh and Jane

Jane loved the camp out because she got to play with her friends from primary until bedtime and as soon as she woke up. Hence she is missing from a lot of pictures, though I did hang out with her by the river for a while. We threw rocks. Fun. This picture made us raise our eyebrows a bit, but mostly it makes us laugh--look how excited he is to have his arm around Jane? Josh camps with his family a lot and as long as he's good, he gets to whittle with his pocket knife. I just wanted to share that random fact because I love it.
In conclusion, camping is great. It is probably our very favorite ward activity. We get to know people so much more around the campfire when there is lots of chocolate around. And camping on your birthday is not so bad, especially if your children are not eaten by bears.


Grey stars in: "I did it!"

One Minute Movies: Duets

Once in a while Jane does not like Grey to join her improv diva ballads. But Jane does love to sing a little duet with Grey, especially when the two of them are in their beds, not falling asleep.

Things to watch for:Grey's first jump (& his excitement about it); the notes they hit and hold out together.

One Minute Movies: The Boy and the Sea

Low tide (they called it a minus tide, actually) at Seahurst Park fell conveniently on the day that we dropped Whitney + nephews off at the airport. The park proved a perfect distraction from missing family.
Watch for the geoduck squirt (pronounced gooey-duck, a la Meesa in the video). I'm glad we saw it squirt instead of its face.

Birthday Dance

D_A_N_C_E from Bladford Shingley on Vimeo.

One Minute Movies: What are you Eating?

Grey loves paper. I don't know how many times we've had to take it away from his crinkling, crunching hands. But he doesn't just love the sounds paper can make. Grey loves to eat it. He'll hold a sheet in both hands and sink his teeth into it, pulling away with a nice bite of white printer paper. Yummy.
Of course we don't really want to encourage this behavior: what would the other kids say at school if he literally started eating his homework? But we don't mind commemorating the quirk on film.
And yes, it has come in handy to train Grey to show us what's in his mouth when we ask what he's eating. Thanks for asking.




Also, we love how Grey says "Hey Guys" at the beginning.

Someday

Someday her hair will be down her back and she will go to school, away from me for half the day. She will love learning and playing and making school friends.
Someday he will talk in full sentences and climb out of his crib and climb on top of the fridge (hopefully not that last one).
It's hard to imagine how different life will be in one, two years. Children change so quickly, fading through phases seamlessly. I'm excited to see their joy and excitement and growth, but sad that they can't stay like this forever:
Playing pretend, with narration from Bad Guy.
Running across the room to tickle Grey.
Singing all day long, from Mr. Rogers to Santa Claus is Coming to Town to There Was an Old Lady who Swallowed a Fly
Writing L's and J's with so much excitement
Drawing heads with stick arms and legs (no torso)
Riding her horse around, playing Mulan or Lisa (from the Australian show "Saddle Club")
Dancing and talking about "nymnastics"
Never getting enough peek a boo or pat-a-cake
Sneaking into the nursery to read books by himself
Growling in response to the blender or mixer
Taking big strides across the room to give us hugs
licks=kisses
"mamamamamama"
shaking his fist wildly to sign "milk"
giggling freely at his sisters antics and tickles.

This is three seconds from our dinner table. The camera ran out of space just as I started taking this, but I ended up liking the editing job.

Happy Birthday Grey!

It seems like yesterday that we were bringing this little guy home from the hospital. At the same time, I don't really remember life without him. Here are a few videos of Grey over the past year. Enjoy.






BabyGrey from Bladford Shingley on Vimeo.




TeenyLittleSuperGrey from Bladford Shingley on Vimeo.


Refugio2008 from Bladford Shingley on Vimeo.


GreyWalks from Bladford Shingley on Vimeo.

One Minute Movies: Under the Sink

Ah yes, the children. From our previous posts you may be wondering if we still have them. January was one of those months where when we actually did have breaks from the kids (Jane no longer naps! boo), we didn't quite feel like rushing off to blog about the kids. Apologies to all who do not have this "problem" with Jane and Grey--we miss you too.Hopefully this movie helps you feel a little closer.

I cleaned out under the sink after a mysterious puddle appeared. What kid doesn't love to play under the sink?



no little brothers were harmed in the making of this film.

Lortab Movie Reviews

LortabMovieReviews from Bladford Shingley on Vimeo.

I had tongue surgery on Friday. I had a little venous malformation in my tongue that had to be removed. My voice sounds ridiculous, so I thought I'd document it. Why can't I ever get sick when there are good movies at Redbox?

Christmas Vacation – Part 1

Christmas2008_Part1 from Bladford Shingley on Vimeo.

Grey Walks

GreyWalks from Bladford Shingley on Vimeo.

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Jane is no longer satisfied with her usual bedtime songs. They need to be a bit more dramatic than "twinkle twinkle." Lately we've been singing "Tomorrow" from Annie. She pretends to cry as we sing "when I'm stuck with a day that's gray and lonely", and then cheers up and sticks out her chin before belting out the chorus. Here's another favorite that we were lucky to catch after dinner. My memory card ran out at the end, so sorry for the abrupt ending.


JaneSinging from Bladford Shingley on Vimeo.

One Minute Movies: Under the Table

Meanwhile, there's a good, nutritious meal on the table...

One Minute Movies: After Dinner

Here's my new attempt to add more home movies to the blog. These are short movies taken on our still camera with minimal to no editing. Hopefully someday very soon there will be more crafty additions. Baby steps, right?


The kids after dinner and a normal day.

Dodger Blue

My Great Aunt Ronnie is a long-time season ticket holder at Dodger stadium. She has incredible seats. You can see her to the left of the umpire if you watch on tv (she's usually wearing something shiny and blue). Jane and Grey were instant Dodger fans.