Preparation for Gabe's 30th Birthday

Gabe is working out of his company's Kirkland office, his original office where all of his colleagues are that have helped him to celebrate several birthdays, threw us a gigantic baby shower in advance of Sullivan's birth and also ensure that he has a Christmas gift or two during the holiday season. His department took advantage of him being in the office this week to help "pre-celebrate" his 30th birthday that is coming up on February 9, including putting the flyer pictured above around the office. You might be able to read the conversation bubble if you make the picture bigger, but it says, "I wonder if anyone knows that it's almost my birthday?"

Nice.

Sully Busts a Move

Gabe is out of town this week in Seattle, and I mentioned to him that yesterday during Sully's drop-off at school that Sully really started shaking his groove thing when he was playing with a little plastic bus toy. More specifically, it looked like Sully was air-humping the bus and trying be a bull-rider all at the same time, doing pelvic thrusts toward the bus with one hand in the air. It was awesome.

Gabe noted he really wanted to see it, and -- as luck would have it -- the bus was out to play with again this morning when I dropped Sully off. I took my cell phone in with me to capture the below video. Unfortunately, Sully decided today wasn't bull-riding day and instead was doing more of a low-rider gangsta hump. Regardless, it was still funny. Sully rocks. :)

Baby Rave

Yesterday, Gabe and I took Sully to his first rave. Well, it wasn't really a rave, but I anticipate it's rave-y enough for a 13-month old. We went to an event called "Rock the Cradle" at the Children's Theater in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and they had all of these fun, music-related things for kiddos ages 2-8 to do. Given Sully wasn't even in the age range, technically, he couldn't do everything there, but that was OK.

We spent a lot of time at the Kid's Disco, which had a DJ spinning songs with strobe lights going and kids and their parents dancing and having a good time. It was pretty cool. Sully was a little intimidated by the volume and lights at first, but he never cried. He then did let us put him down on the floor, standing and holding on to our hands, but he just stood there and looked around at the lights and the other kiddos dancing around. Finally, a Gorillaz song came on with a good beat, and he did a little bouncing dance move. But that was it. We'll see how it goes again next year.

We also went to the "Instrument Petting Zoo" where kids were allowed to try playing different instruments like a guitar, tuba, saxophone, drums and others. We found a percussion instrument table and tried to let Sully hit an xylophone a bit, but he was a little too distracted watching the other kids shake the instruments to focus on what he was doing. And after we left the percussion table, we realized that we probably butted in line without knowing it by just walking up to the table and letting Sully try and play. Oops. Nobody seemed to mind, at least (or were just too polite to say anything).

Overall, it was a really good time! Lots of hip kids with their hip parents, and then we were there, too. It will be fun to check out again next year, and not a bad way to spend a January day in Minnesota.

Sandholm Family Redux

Yes, we're still around. Just in case you were wondering.

Things have been a bit hectic this past month; here it is in bullet form. Each bullet deserves its own discussion in its own right, but -- unfortunately we're a little too busy doing, that there hasn't been a lot of time for blogging. No offense to all of you. :) Here's the month rewind:

--Sully's First Birthday. It was great.
--Gabe's Grandma Kragt Passed Away. We went to her funeral in Iowa. She was a great lady and we're so glad she was able to meet and enjoy Sully.
--Christmas. We went to my parents, but later than expected due to a snowstorm.
--Went to Seattle for a Week. Was a great time; celebrated New Year's Day, stayed at the Hennessey's, saw the Haslam family, and had a great weekend at the coast.
--We Moved. My mom and dad came up this past weekend, and Gabe's friends Kyle and Scott helped us move four stock trailer loads of stuff from our rental to our new house. We currently live in chaos. Utter chaos.

And that is the Sandholm family in the past 30-ish days. Oh, and we still have to work. Suppose I should get back at it.