It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood

The Princess and I set off for the park this morning, we heard an unusual bird call. I scanned the trees and directly in front of us was a hawk that had killed a bird and had it pinned down to a treebranch. I whipped out my trusty cell phone for a pic, and you can see a faint outline of the hawk in the tree. The unusual call was a bird that was not happy the hawk chose it's spouse/parent/friend for breakfast. We made sure not to get too close, watched a minute and went on our way to the park.

Upon our return about a half hour later the hawk was finishing breakfast and had left a great mess of feathers for the neighbors. The unhappy bird was still berating the hawk with great fervor.

A beautiful day, indeed!

Ten Ten Ten

Princess Katy, Mommy and The Toddfather invite you to join them for Change is Good. CLICK HERE for all the details on this great event to help abused and neglected children in Dallas county.

Summer Reading

8 M O B I G

Two-thirds a year old! The Princess pulled herself up to stand for the first time yesterday morning, and repeated her trick for Mommy and the video camera last night. The Toddfather had conflicting emotions of pride and fear that life as he knew it is close to over. Princess Katy, Beary, and Funny Bunny played for the camera to commemmorate eight great months - click here to see the online album.

The New Global Revolution in Sport

Fed up with World Cup hullaballoo, these two young-uns, barely half a year old, invented a new sport on a hot Sunday afternoon in 2010. It's Ducktussle. It can be played with two or four people of any age and gender. I'm sure canines would willingly join in, and I caution that canine participants may not adhere to the Rules of Fair Ducktussle Play.

This is the ultimate sport for our soft, fair world today, because Ducktussle doesn't have a winner. The objective of Ducktussle is to learn sharing. There are no winners or losers. Play is strictly limited to a fake, stuffed duck - using a real duck would be cruel and messy. Emotions such as crying, taunting and feigning injury may occur, and are strongly discouraged in the Rules of Fair Ducktussle Play. Tussle on!

Thursday Afternoon Camera Experiment

Babies are a great excuse to take out photographic equipment and play. Speaking of play, yesterday, the US played their best game yet in the Cup. Keep it up boys!

Father's Day

The Toddfather has been enjoying the World Cup as he has done since 94. Most matches aren't worth watching. I think US has a good chance to advance if they don't allow a goal in the first fifteen minutes of the game tomorrow morning. Maybe a win will light a fire in the team that will send them further than they have ever been in the Cup. That would be a pleasant surprise - I'm not counting on it. Argentina, Spain and Portugal will go a long way. I have my money on Messi and Maradona. The Argentines have been the most consistent through group play of all three, and just sealed the win over Greece with a goal by a 36 year-old.

The Princess' Noni and Papa visited for a long Father's day weekend, and everyone had a wonderful time. We continue to visit the pool to shake our finger at the nasty summer heat. Toddfather geeked out at the Nordstrom men's sale and continues to break in the new camera with great vigor. PK is about to advance to the full-on supersonic crawling method and can sit up on her own with ease. She loves to laugh and 'h-h-h-hyperventilates' when she is excited as you will see in the video.