Tonight Emma went trick-or-treating for the first time. (Technically this is her second Halloween, but last year she couldn’t even walk yet, so we didn’t dress her up.)  She had a blast!  You can see her duck costume here.  She didn’t have any problem with wearing it, and even got lots of extra candy from everyone who thought she was so cute.  She walked quite a long ways too, all the way down our street and back!  And she was good about knocking on the door, saying “trick or treat!”, and saying “thank you” after they gave her candy.

Of course, these things don’t come naturally.  We had to practice saying “trick or treat” first!  The video below shows a little bit of that process.  (We were practicing with toys instead of candy.)

Those of you who don’t follow video game news too closely may not be aware of Heavy Rain.  It’s a game I’ve been following for some time, and every new trailer that is released makes me even more excited about it.  Calling it a “game” is even a bit of a stretch, it truly is more like an interactive movie.  Kind of like a really sophisticated “choose your own adventure” book.  Below is a video that was released this week that gives a really good overview of what the game will be like.  (It was aimed at a Japanese audience, hence the Japanese subtitles, but everything except the game dialog is in English.)  The basic idea is that there are four characters that you control through the course of the game, and they all end up investigating a serial killer (the “origami killer”).  I like the idea (which is discussed in the movie below) that you can’t truly mess up.  No matter what happens, you can keep playing and just deal with the consequences.  Even if all four characters end up getting killed, there is an ending to the story for that situation.

Anyway, the game won’t be finished until sometime next year, so I don’t want to give too much praise to a game just because of a clever concept.  That said, I totally dig the concept.

Also, this video is over nine minutes long.  Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

I have a whole new slew of pictures and video for you to partake of.  I doubled the size of our Summer fun 2009 photo album by adding more random pictures from the summer, starting with Emma in her kiddie pool.

I also added a new album of photos from Labor Day weekend at Williamsburg/Jamestown/Yorktown, totaling fifty-three photos in all.

As for video, I’ll warn you that there is quite a lot here.  Seven and a half minutes of video, if you put it all together.  The last one, alone, is over four minutes.  I group them together for those of you who don’t care about these things.  For those of you who enjoy them, well that just means more to enjoy.

First up is a short clip Stephanie recorded one day of Emma wearing her slippers and playing with a hat.

Next, we have a video of Emma playing the “Where’s Emma?” game behind the curtains at our condo in Williamsburg.  She’s been playing some variation of this game for quite some time, but this is the first time we were fortunate enough to catch it on video.

Next is a video of Emma’s various animal sounds.  She knows more than we got to.  Stephanie walked into the room partway through, and of course Emma found running to her much more interesting than reciting animal sounds with daddy.  From there, Stephanie grabs the camera to record Emma bringing me a book to read with her.

And lastly we have a video that may be surprising to some of you who know how non-athletic I am, but I’m actually trying to teach Emma how to play soccer in this one.  She’s actually quite talented for a seventeen-month-old, I’d say!

It’s time again for some new pictures and videos of Emma.  I added two new albums to the photos page.  First, Emma’s second first-birthday party.  That’s right, Emma got to celebrate her first birthday twice—once with family and then again with friends.  And second, we have a set of photos from our recent trip to Myrtle Beach, which we took in the last week before I started my new job.

Beyond that, I have four new videos for you.  Here is a video from a month and a half ago, showing Emma climbing the stairs.  We happened to catch her descending the stairs properly for the first time while we were recording this video.  Nowadays she can go all the way down the stairs with no problem.

Next, we have a series of scenes in which Stephanie and I try to get Emma to play the drums in Guitar Hero.  We had some success, but I think Stephanie and me end up playing the drums more than Emma does!

Now we get to the afore-mentioned beach trip.  Nothing particularly special about this video, it’s just Emma wandering around on the beach for fifty-nine seconds.  Enjoy!

And to finish this off, we have another demonstration of Emma’s musical inclinations.  We never taught her to dance, but we found that whenever fast music would come on during TV shows or video games, Emma would start dancing.  So I tried to capture it on video, and I was mostly successful.

It’s hard to believe it, but Emma turned a year old on Sunday.  She is now walking like a pro.  There are two new photo albums available: miscellaneous photos of Emma over the last three months, and Emma’s first birthday party.

And if that’s not enough, I’ve got three videos for you.  The first one shows Emma’s progress in learning to walk over the past few months.

Next, we have Emma’s first experience with birthday cake.  She didn’t like it very much!  I’m sure that’ll change over time.

And lastly, we have a video of Emma opening presents.  She got practice at this last Christmas, but now she’s really good at it!

We woke up this morning to find our yard blanketed with an inch or two of snow!  Of course, this meant we needed to take Emma out for her first sledding experience.

I’ve put up a new album of snow photos, which you should certainly check out.  We also took some video of the experience, which I am posting below.  Enjoy!

Just in time for the Thanksgiving holiday here are a few more videos of Emma for everyone to enjoy.  On November 13, exactly two weeks before Thanksgiving, we had started to notice how close Emma was to being able to crawl.  She had learned to get on hands and knees, and she could kind of rock forward and backward.  I predicted that she would be fully mobile by Thanksgiving.  Prediction confirmed.  You can see the progress she made in just eight days in the video below.

And second, we have a rather long video of Emma and yours truly “playing football.”  Which causes her to giggle uncontrollably.

Have a happy Thanksgiving!

This is awesome.

That is all.

I have put up nineteen new images of Emma being cute in Autumn.  Hope you enjoy.

I also have three new videos to share with you.  First, we have Emma trying to figure out how to use a sippy cup for the first time.

Next, we catch Emma on camera during a chatty moment.  She has a lot of these, but she seems to get shy around other people and around the camera, so a lot of you haven’t been able to see this side of her.

Lastly, we have a video of Emma trying to eat an apple.  While she has a few teeth that have broken through the gum line, she’s not quite up to the task of eating an apple.  The other voice you hear in this one is Emma’s Aunt Heather.

Hope you enjoyed!

I haven’t made a post in quite a while (over two weeks).  For those of you who have been eagerly anticipating something deep and moving, I have to apologize, as this post is decidedly meh.

I am sharing a comment on Yes Man, Jim Carrey’s newest movie.  If you haven’t seen the trailer, I’ve conveniently posted it below.

Here’s the thing.  I’ve already seen this movie.  Except last time the guy lied all the time, but now he says “no” all the time.  And last time magic forced him to change his behavior, whereas this time he experiences some kind of enlightenment.  Other than that, I think it’s the same movie as Liar Liar.  While Liar Liar taught us the importance of telling the truth, Yes Man will teach us the importance of giving in to peer pressure.

I think I’ll say “no” to this one.  (See what I did there?  I’m so clever.)