1. FREE.
2. Little or no wait. There’s no snaking line full of screaming, antsy children. You wait with a few other parents and in five minutes or so, it’s your turn.
3. You get a free 4 x 6 print. They take four or five pics, and you pick your own.
4. They also email you a copy.
5. Amazingly, they do not use your e-mail address to spam you with ads for Bering’s. Or if they do, Google’s spam filter is killing them softly and silently.

So anyway, you may remember last year’s horrifying / hilarious Santa shot, with Patrick seeming to cry and point, “J’accuse!”

Hilarious.

This year he was a bit more sanguine about the whole thing. Pleased, even. He even told Santa he wanted a fireman hat for Christmas. I think he’s much more likely get what he wants when he can relax a bit. Not sure about Santa though. He looks like a cry for help.

We should also note that we’ve been updating our Flickr a bit more often these days. Including adding a few shots to our much beloved (by us) photo set, Patrick’s Greatest Hits. I think two of the more recent ones deserve brief explanation.

Earlier in 2011, our friend Bev Caplan fell in love with Patrick and “his Stryper hair.” So much so that she vowed to make Patrick a Stryper Halloween costume. Specifically, Patrick would embody the blonde bomber, Stryper’s drumer, Robert Sweet. We sorta thought Bev would forget, but she actually kept reminding us about it. So on Halloween, her black and yellow dream came true. The best photo we have (above) is the one Bev took herself with her Android phone. But there are quite a few more on our Flickr, here and here.

You might have noticed my supporting costume, but I cannot take credit for owning a vintage Stryper tee. It actually belongs to Bev’s husband and all around legend, Ty Mahany. I don’t have time to tell you how awesome these two people are, but you can see the photographic evidence. Thanks to Ty and Bev for the best Halloween memory ever.

When we went to Sea World, I took a ton of photos, but none were as good as this that one Jordan’s sister took. Is he looking at sharks? Rays? Those fish that look like Nemo? I dunno. We were too busy looking at Patrick and Gage as they had the time of their lives.

Last, but certainly not least, you should head over to Framed By Fletcher. We had Jonathan Fletcher take a ton of photos with us and Patrick in Hermann Park, and he’s put up 15 of the best shots on his blog. He just posted these this evening, so Jordan and I haven’t even seen all the photos, but we’re very happy with how these pics turned out. Patrick was so patient and happy as we walked all around the park taking photos for an hour and a half.

We can’t speak for him, but we think it was worth it.

Now, usually, when Ponch does it, he puts something on top of his head to mimic the Lemur King’s headdress. So that will help explain what Patrick’s trying to do here:

Apologies for not having video of Ponch doing his version.

P.S., photos from Patrick’s birthday are now up here. The week-long adventure included a nice family party, a trip to build-a-bear, and a trip to Sea World that Patrick still can’t stop talking about, nearly a month later.

When I was a kid, maybe 13 or 14, my dad got it in his head that he wanted me and my brother to see Shaft. No, you would not normally confuse my dad with being a fan of Blaxploitation flix. Nor was he particularly keen to let us kids watch the entire movie.

But he was giddy to share with us one of the prime musical pleasures from his early adulthood, the still-amazing theme song and score by Isaac Hayes. So my dad went to Randall’s, rented the movie  (remember VHS?), and let us watch the opening credits. Then he shut it off, figuring correctly that was as much as young teenagers probably needed to see.

Like pay phones and stamped letters, the idea of renting a video cassette just to see a movie clip seems archaic. If YouTube had been around, my dad could have saved $2 and just posted the video to my Facebook. Like so:

I thought about this the other day, when I introduced the wonders of YouTube to my own young son. Patrick LOVES the Spider-Man shirt I bought at Old Navy. He saw it in the closet the other day, and I started singing to him the old 60s theme song. But only the part I could remember from the Simpson’s movie.

So together, we both sat down in front of the computer and looked up the “spiderman theme song”.

First hit was a bingo:

Now when I saw the Shaft clip, I was confused, “I guess that was okay.” Only later in life did I realize how awesome Isaac Hayes could be, and it took a bunch of Quentin Tarantino and South Park to get me there.

Patrick has no such ambivalence about Spider-man. And he doesn’t need a cultural introduction to appreciate a costumed dude who swings around the city fighting crime. He’s in love. Every time we watch it, he simply asks, “Again?” So we watch it four or five times at a sitting. I’ve tried to get him into other YouTube videos, including the campy credits for Batman. But he’s not interested in watching other shows or cartoons or animal videos. He just wants Spider-man.

And since rewinding is painless and instant and free, I don’t mind indulging his newest first love.

He takes every opportunity to climb up on my chair and bash away at the keyboard.

This morning he even brought his own “starter laptop” out, and placed it on my desk in front of my somewhat more realistic PC.

It was pretty cute.

You might also guess that Patrick’s at the adorable age where he’s talking and learning new words about every 90 minutes. This is an exciting and head-scratching time for us. Because as wonderful as it is, we can’t always understand what he’s trying to say.

Or worse. We know perfectly well what he’s saying, but he’s trying to say something completely different. Witness his struggles with the word “computer.”

This happened a few days ago. Fortunately for me, Jordan has (correctly) assumed that this is an adorable mispronunciation.

That’s me at the top of a brand new Creative Playthings slide.

Today, courtesy of the Daddytypes blog, I came across a web site hawking a vintage 1950s model (not a replica). The price? $1700.

Not sure what my parents spent on ours, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t $1700. Even adjusting for inflation, that would have been pretty steep. I’m thinking somewhere between $30 and $50 bucks. This page from the 1979 Sears Wishbook backs me up with a similar model priced at $29.95.

Ah, nostalgia.

I can only afford the pictures.

…And why so many Asian-American kids succeed so spectacularly relative to their western peers. The reason according to Amy Chua (a Yale law professor and certified Chinese mom) is a fundamental schism in how parents approach their kids’ self esteem:

What Chinese parents understand is that nothing is fun until you’re good at it. To get good at anything you have to work, and children on their own never want to work, which is why it is crucial to override their preferences. This often requires fortitude on the part of the parents because the child will resist; things are always hardest at the beginning, which is where Western parents tend to give up. But if done properly, the Chinese strategy produces a virtuous circle. Tenacious practice, practice, practice is crucial for excellence; rote repetition is underrated in America. Once a child starts to excel at something—whether it’s math, piano, pitching or ballet—he or she gets praise, admiration and satisfaction. This builds confidence and makes the once not-fun activity fun. This in turn makes it easier for the parent to get the child to work even more.

But this, as Chua makes clear, isn’t something you can bottle and sell to American parents, because you’d have to overcome two competing paradigms:

1. Parents are wary of overly criticizing their kids or working them to death. American parents want well-rounded kids who “do their best.”
2. Not only does Chua’s “Chinese” method require their kids to work hard; the parents have to work hard, too. Because forcing your kid to study hard and practice piano is an exhausting commitment most parents aren’t willing to make.

There’s a caveat to that last bit that Chua elides. Many American parents are willing to drive their kids hard on one hobby or one goal. But it’s usually sports.

Unlike Chua, I’m not going to suggest her method of parenting is superior. But if you’ve ever wanted your kid to be the valedictorian, and a piano prodigy, and a law professor, you probably should read this article and take it to heart.  Even if you’re planning on coaching your kid to baseball or volleyball excess/success, it’s a good read for a different take on parenting.

Mama (photo by Helen Montoya)

Dada

Hank-dog

Apple

Ball

Moo

Choo-Choo

Guitar

Santa (he loves this ornament, too)

Bye-Bye

I can’t even tell you how we got from this…

…to this.

Or from brown to blond.

Or from tiny to tall.

But I can show you.

If you’re reading this, please know how thankful we are that you’re a part of our lives and part of Patrick’s.

To our friends, thanks for excusing our endless fascination with, and our blabbering on about, our awesome kid. For you pals who have recently had your own kids, we’re pleased that you’re just as excited and insufferable as we are.

To our family, who are new grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts, and uncles, you have been instrumental in making year one a pretty incredible experience. A lot of times, and especially at 3 in the morning, we’ve wished you were here to share this magic with us.  As it is, you’ve given us all kinds of support, with your time, your money, your hugs, your being there. We’ll take you any time of day or year, when you can spare a moment and  hang out with this kid.

He’s sleeping through the night now. He’s dancing to the Stones. He can’t get enough of hanging upside down. His hair is getting HUGE. Patrick is starting to happen.

As always, the full set is available on Flickr.

Now, one of our favorite blogs, Cake Wrecks, documents how this great idea can go sadly, horribly wrong. Here’s but an example of the horrors you’ll find when you click the link.