Xmas morning

Same fan thing.

Old-skool Batmobile.

New art desk! And Spider-Man laptop. One of two laptops.

Daisy got an art desk too. And some Dora tableware.

And some new kids.

Mom loves rocks?

Twins, right down to the shoes. Buster's hoodie is new.

Ready

for Santa. Who is not universally believed in by those pictured.
12/24/08

Domestic goddess

12/23/08

Fire up!

for Christmas! Or anything else you got.
12/21/08

Post production

12/20/08

Saturday

Rehearsing.

Jumping.

Looking cool.
12/20/08

Best girl

Ada.
12/17/08

Downtown

with the leopard girls.

Lori's Diner. They give you

crayons.

And hats. And rifles.

Now it's off to Union Square, where they have a

whoa! Giant Christmas tree!

Which photos like this totally fail to capture. Well, let's go to the Hyatt Regency at the Embarcadero, where they have this cool winter diorama thing in the atrium lobby.

The Lori's Diner hat ties this whole item together, don't you think?
12/13/08

Javier's birthday

Buster made a sign for his friend Javier to take to his sixth birthday party.

In Buster's patented phonetic spelling system, it says, "Happy birthday, Javier. Feliz cumpleaños, Javier. From Buster." And there's a picture of a ninja, labeled "nenju." You kind of have to look for the "u."

At the party. Buster, Javier, Strummer, Griffin and ... we forget. Strummer's cousin?

Daisy organized the animal guests into a class.

Piñata!


Success. Javier or Griffin dealt the fatal blow.
12/12 and 12/13/08

Leopard monster

We have a general leopard infestation. See that little blob of leopard at lower right? That's Daisy leopard.
12/6/08

Stair sliding

Buster's taken up the pastime of sliding on his belly down the stairs, so of course

little sister has to do what big brother does. Buster decided he was going to coach Daisy. So of course, the most important thing is to dress the part. Once in his sweatpants, jersey, baseball cap and whistle, he about killed me when he turned to me and said

Can you sign her in, please?
12/6/08

Smoke Along the Track/Christmas medley

Buster and Daisy share the kitchen -- er, stage, for a joint concert. The intro is as directed by Buster, who you might hear stage-whispering from the next room, in case Dad doesn't get it right.

Grandma

11/29/08

Thanksgiving

Hollywood

Olvera Street

Uncle Dick

Grandpa

Uncle Mark

Big pile o' cousins
11/27/08

Portview Park

With Jennifer and Taye.

Well. By Jennifer and Taye, I mean Jennifer and

T A Y E !

A pensive slider.

A bony climber.

A flying leaper

A smiling key-stealer.

Thinking of you.

Out.
11/22/08

Showtime

11/18/08

School walk-a-thon

The three musketeers: Buster, Michael and Griffin. There are actually about seven musketeers, but they seem to arrange themselves in groups of three a lot.

Here's a new squadron now: Griffin, Michael and Peter. Buster gives some last-minute orders.

This is either some pre-walk stretching or some kind of hula dance led by Maestra Robin, at right. Michael's mom and dad are behind the kids, center. The girl in with the boys is Aukje.

Ms. Harmon, the assistant principal, gets in on the warmups.

And we're off.

Walk-a-thon? Who walks?

"How many laps do I have, Dad?" Fifteen. It would eventually be 22, which was almost four and a half miles. Considering Buster's sponsors were told to expect about five laps, everyone took the news quite well. Buster was deservedly proud of his performance. Daisy only walked a little because she got blisters, but she did busy herself inventing a new sport.

Tetherdaisy.
11/15/08