The Sartorialist

I'm a big fan of the blog.  This documentary is fascinating; you can watch him as he works.  He really stops and observes people; I think I would be to nervous to stare at someone like that.  He seems to view the world around him as having arrived for his photoshoot; really cool.



I think this little video also really shows how graceful New Yorkers are.  They ignore him and his camera until approached directly, they are distrustful until he shows who he is, and they are stylish, effortless, authentic and gorgeous when photographed.  They are glad to be selected to be photographed, but every single person took it as matter-of-course: no one squealed with delight, no one shyed away.  Not even the construction worker.  You want to take my picture?  But of course you do. Man I love New York.

Sesame Street Reggae

Elijah watched this about 10 times, and we haven't been able to get it out of our heads since. Hey, I do love reggae. And we are introducing him to various styles of music. Right?

The joy of snow.

Last year, Wombat stepped out into the snow, felt the slippery ice under his booties and would go no further.  This year, Wombat discovered that snow needs shoveling, and now he LOVES snow.  He would get home from school or outing each day and yell "I NEED TO CLEAN SNOW!" immediately.  All visitors to our house ended up joining in the shoveling, and for that we are very thankful. :)

He is really good.  A few days ago he helped a neighbor dig out.  No, seriously.  He really did.
He is so good, in fact, that we got him his snow boots, his snow pants and a legitimate shovel.

And he is so good that he can show Daddy how shoveling is supposed to work.


Snow Shoveling Instruction from Olya on Vimeo.

Snow is Wet! from Olya on Vimeo.

Double Shoveling It from Olya on Vimeo.

Please watch this.

And please show this to your old-enough kids.

Make your own space program

This Dad actually built a small craft to go up into stratosphere and take some pictures of the earth to show his son. I assume NASA has contacted him to see how he was able to reduce costs from their millions of dollars to what appears to be just a few hundred bucks. That is one lucky kid. As as aside, someone please remind me to retire well before this kid enters the workforce - or any others like him. I shudder to think there may be more of them. In the olden days, we didn't launch any spacecraft until well into our college years. :)


Homemade Spacecraft from Luke Geissbuhler on Vimeo.

Fly like a Falcon

Wow.

Two cool videos

Even though I gave birth to a kid, and am expecting to have another one soon, I honestly have no clue how these kids come about.  I mean, I logically understand it.  I can recite the process of cell division, specialization, the whole thing, I get it.  But I just don't REALLY get it.  I mean, how can that be? How does something come from what used to be nothing?  It's all just cells dividing, really?  For a while, cells divide, and then you get a little person saying "ffffff-uck teeee-ruck"? WOW. 

I don't get it.  It's like a sci-fi movie plot.  So cool it can't possibly be true.

That's why this video of cell division is so awesome.  It's only zebrafish (no insult to zebrafish), and look how crazy complicated it is!  They were able to capture the first cell divisions for the first time ever.... you can watch the little zebra fish in the making!  And, our babies start out the same way.  Amazing.  It's awesome, but still doesn't make it more believable.



And, of course, when the thing gets built and gets bigger it can do all sorts of cool stuff. Like chasing after butterflies. Oh, and "the thing" happens to be a penguin.



How cool is that?

Christopher Walken reads Poker Face

Priceless.

Coolest toddler video ever

Wanna thrill your toddler boy today?  Show them this climbing excavator video and revel in your parental coolness.  Fast forward to 2:45 for the real action to begin.  (via @kottke)

It would be funny if it didn't make you cry

A message from your friendly developmental psychologist

A year of living biblically.... cool talk.

Fireworks on the National Mall!

We went to see fireworks by the monument this year, braving the rain. Here is a video of the beautiful fireworks, in case you just couldn't make it to the nation's capital for 4th of July this year (how very un-patriotic of you). :)

Hamster with private elevator built of Lego

It's not a Wombat, but it is the same (sort of) rodent family.... :)

Time Management Lecture by Randy Pausch

The PDF of the slides for this lecture is here.

Flipping out

I got a new Flip camera for my birthday (Thank you Mom and Dad!!), and we were playing with it over dinner.... great fun :) Here is some footage of Ingy and Bismarck testing out the new camera.