Baby

12th July
2011
written by bob

Here is Guilliana waking up first thing in the morning after her usual 12-hr night sleep. As you can imagine, 12 hours of sleep results in one HUGE diaper that needs some serious attention! Listen closely as we ask G-Monkey if she needs her diaper changed in both French & English. Not surprisingly her answer doesn’t change! ;)

10th July
2011
written by bob

G-Monkey sporting her new pigtails.


Recently G-Monkey figured out how to tell mommy & daddy what she wants. It’s clear a the day to her so check her out and let me know when/what you figure she wants!

Turns out…she wanted the cordless phone. Who knew! LOL!

6th June
2011
written by bob

Unfortunately I missed the first part of this conversation when I decided to reach for my phone. (Daddy has to remember his iPhone is more than just a phone and can whip it out as a video recorder at a moment’s notice!) I wanted Katherine it see the funny, silly things that G does when I’m feeding her dinner prior to her getting home at night.

In this particular video, it’s like I’m not even there in room for the first bit despite sitting right in front of her. I would really love to know what she’s thinking and where her little thoughts are taking her.

G chilling in the stroller.

Now at 14 months, you can just see the wheels turning inside her head when we ask her questions. She has a very good understanding of english and knows exactly what we are saying to her. Not only that…BUT we moved here 4 months ago and G-Monkey has spent 8-9hrs a day each week with her Nounou (nanny), Carole. Nounou speaks french to Guilliana all day long and now, she actually understands more french than english! How crazy is that? Guilliana is at the perfect age to learn both languages since she was just beginning to comprehend english prior to our US departure. At her age, she’s a little sponge for all the information she can absorb.

When we ask her “Qu’est-ce qu’une vache dire?”…her response…”Moooooo!” Yep, that’s right, a cow says “Mooo.” Regardless of the language the question is asked for a cow (or vache), her answer is always “Moooo!” Likewise with a cat or dog question, she knows we are asking her the same thing in french and english. It’s amazing watching her go through the changing stages of development and it blows my mind at the same time! I can’t tell is G is speaking French or English…maybe you can decide.

See you soon, friends. Au revoir!



5th June
2011
written by bob

This is just too cute not to post! A few weeks ago before we moved into our new place, I shot this video of Miss G showing us how to dance. We bought her a new audiobook that reads to her and sings songs. It’s her new favorite book! Seriously, how many times can one kid press the same button! Hahaha.



12th April
2011
written by bob

Well…it has been an incredible year! Nothing this year is the same as it was in 2010. Katherine and I have new jobs, live in a new country, reside in a new house…and best of all…have a new addition to our family, Guilliana, our first child! Miss G is now 1 year old! Wow, can you believe it? A lot has changed and it is all very welcomed.

Guilliana turned one this past week, we still can’t believe that she is already a year old. Boy, time really does fly by. We didn’t really have a big party for G but more a family party; we have only lived here in Antibes for 5 weeks and don’t really know anyone yet. On Friday, we both had to work BUT we were sure to get home early and quickly so we could take G to the Carousel in the Square. She just loves riding that. Every time we walk by it, she gets ALL EXCITED and starts giggling, laughing, kicking, and pointing to it! That’s her new thing; pointing to something that she wants and saying, “daaahh”. Well, at least that is our interpretation of what she’s saying. It’s very cute.

We hopped on the Carousel and rode the horse round and round while having her picture taken. Take a look…isn’t she just the cutest little thing?!?!

Mommy with G for her birthday ride.

Saturday was G-Monkey’s day. We took her to the park down by the beach where she gets to slide, pretend drive, run up & down the ramps, and play with a puzzle…all in the same huge piece of playground equipment. After an hour or so of tearing up the playground, we headed over to the beach so G-Monkey could walk/play down by the water. Funny thing…along the walkway we saw a cute elderly couple sitting on a park bench together where both of them had fallen asleep! Off with the shoes and down to the water went G and Mommy. What a great day to hang at the beach for awhile!

After a quick stop at the Intermarché (market) we headed home for birthday cake. We had a local Patisserie make G a strawberry cake. A French cake; however, isn’t like a traditional cake we think of in the US. G’s cake was more like a glazed, single-layer cake with a custard layer below and fresh half strawberries placed all around the edges. Talk about delicious! Mommy & daddy sang “Happy Birthday” and G dug in! She doesn’t believe in using utensils or hands, G goes straight for the cake with her mouth.

Who needs utensils or even hands?


Following cake and a little dinner, it was time for G-Monkey to head to bed. What a day…G plays hard and just continues to go, go, go until the last minute of the day! Once in bed, G was asleep in minutes.

Au revoir! Enjoy the slideshow & we’ll see you soon!



1st April
2011
written by bob

Just in case you didn’t realize that you could receive our blog posts automatically, well…good news for you, you CAN!

On our homepage, there is an image, to the right of every post. For those who may not know what RSS feeds are here is a quick explanation:

    What is RSS?
    RSS (Rich Site Summary) is a format for delivering regularly changing web content. Many news-related sites, weblogs and other online publishers syndicate their content as an RSS Feed to whoever wants it.

    Why RSS? Benefits and Reasons for using RSS.
    RSS solves a problem for people who regularly use the web. It allows you to easily stay informed by retrieving the latest content from the sites you are interested in. You save time by not needing to visit each site individually. You ensure your privacy, by not needing to join each site’s email newsletter.

Using your favorite RSS reader (Outlook, Apple Mail, Google Reader, etc), add “http://bobandkatherine.com/wordpress/feed” as a new RSS feed. Then…sit back and start enjoying the automatic feed of all new blogs posts we publish!

See…that was simple, wasn’t it? Guilliana says if she can do it, anyone can.

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29th March
2011
written by bob

Well…we have now been living in Antibes for about 3.5 weeks & things are going well. Katherine and I have switched working roles; she goes into the office every day and I work completely remotely. It’s a nice change…but I must admit I do miss the social interaction of fellow co-workers.

Life in France has been an adjustment…one that we were prepared for and welcomed with open arms. First off, everything in Europe is small. Heck, we bought beer at the local market and even they are small! Seriously…about 2-3 swigs and I’m still trying to figure out where the rest of it went. Maybe Guilliana is secretly guzzling it when I’m not looking! (She’s always liked the brown bottle!) Here…have a look…

Does everything have to be smaller? C'mon...

So last weekend we decided to explore a little bit of the area we now live in. With G-Monkey in stroller we hit the French streets (or hallways) in search of a park to play at & some sights to see. We went over by the local farmer’s market right by the sea (Marche Provencal). It was a bit windy that day with a cool breeze coming off the Mediterranean Sea but that didn’t stop us. Heck, it never stops G…she’s always ready to play…and play hard she does! About 10 minutes’ walk from our place there is a park right on the beach. What a great hang out for G-Monkey! The park had a slide, puzzle cylinders, chains, steps, and climbing stuff. Perfect…& G LOVES it! I mean…what’s not to love about being a kid and frequenting the park right at the beach? Damn…I would have loved that as a kid! G’s nounou (French nanny) says that she has been a bit of a bully on the playground; grabbing other kids and not letting go. You see, Guilliana loves other little kids! As soon as she sees them, she wants to go over and touch their face and grab their clothes. Nounou told us that G kept doing this to a little boy last week and he was scared of her. Yep…that’s right G, keep scaring the boys…for another 25 years please!

A view from Antibes of the French Alps

Today the time went ahead an hour. Gee, I haven’t lost an hour of sleep like that in a dozen years! Actually I think I prefer not changing my clock…now that I became used to the non-adjustment while living in Arizona. It was nice. We got Guilliana up and fed…and headed out to locate a fridge for our house. We still have a couple of weeks before our stuff arrives via the shipping company. They tell us it is still on track to arrive on March 31. Then, it takes 4-6 business days to inspect and get through French customs. Sooooo, we are hoping to have it by April 15th especially at the pace some of these French people move! Thus far, to be honest, it kind of feels like we are on vacation since we don’t have ANY of our stuff; well, very few things anyway. I’m looking forward to moving into our new house and getting out of this corporate housing. It’s really not all it’s cracked up to be. Time share is what I would compare it to.

G-Monkey & Mommy collecting rocks at the beach.

We have a couple necessities but not enough. Heck, we don’t even have an oven! Who the heck can cook without an oven? Well, let’s just say that Katherine and I’s (more Katherine) creative ‘Top Chef’ juices have been flowing. We have come up with a few very tasty dishes that we’d definitely repeat! But…an oven would be NICE to have. Anyways…house in 2 weeks…just 2 more weeks…

We were hoping to explore a small, nearby town called Biot this weekend but Saturday was consumed by a “crazy” trip to the gigantic Carrefour Market, similar to Wal-Mart, including all the chaos! Let me assure you doing this with G was no easy task and for future reference…we WON’T be doing it again. Sunday was a much better day…I didn’t have to deal with congested aisle in a store. We took a short drive up to Villeneuve-Loubet and the fridge we looked at was perfect. It was actually bigger that I was…surprisingly! And for 90€ you certainly can’t beat the price. Now…to rent a truck to pick it up. Did I mention things are small here? I’m honestly not sure how people move stuff. Appliances…you are lucky if they fit into an automobile and certainly not a “full-sized” European fridge! I guess I’m going to learn how this all happens in the next couple weeks. On the way back we decided to stop along the beach and hang out around the water with G-Monkey taking pictures before it started to rain. We got some great shots and G loved it. I bet she can’t wait until summer so she can jump right in the ocean. Boy is she going to get a surprise when she realizes the ocean is salt water!

Enjoy the slideshow. Au revoir, mon ami!



Anyone interested in the full album of pics for these days, follow the pics below.

Views & the Beach Park Visting the Beach

25th February
2011
written by bob

Guilliana is just itching to get into the Information Technology world; so much so that she’s already decided to start giving mommy a hand with her duties at work. G is blazing fast and puts daddy to shame from a perspective of how much (and how quick) she gets “everything” completed! Watch her send out email and faxes…check her out in action! That keyboard is about to light on fire!

2nd February
2011
written by bob

Well…Katherine and I knew this day would come. We find it both a blessing and a curse but obviously inevitable. Miss Guilliana decided she has had enough futz-ing around and this past weekend showed us that she is ready to walk – on her own!

Guilliana has never had any patience for that crawling shenanigans, she just refused to do it and has been walking around for the past 2 months holding onto our hands. Next to getting married & Guilliana’s birth, this is one of the proudest moments of my life. It is truly amazing to watch G grow up and learn the various “skills” she will need throughout the rest of her life. Katherine and I are truly blessed (I’m sure most parents feel the same)!

We took Miss G-Monkey out for a lakeside walk at Tempe Beach Park this past weekend and found a nice “green” patch of grass to play in. I don’t think “antsy-pants” could have stayed in her stroller much longer. So we got out and walked around holding onto mommy and daddy’s hand, one-handed even! Walking never gets boring for G, she is ALWAYS ready to get up and GO! Since the ground was soft and lush, we decided to see if Guilliana could walk between Katherine and I. Heck, what’s the worst that could happen even if she fell, it was a soft landing as opposed to the hardwood floors in the condo.

So without further adieu, I give you the amazing G-Monkey…

We are so in trouble…

16th January
2011
written by bob

Yes I know…I said that I was going to be better about blogging more often. Ummmm, yeah well…that isn’t going to happen overnight…BUT I’m working on it. I promise.

Today was a great day for weather in Tempe! Local temps must have hit about 70-75 degrees and sunny all around. I love winter in the desert! Katherine, Guilliana, & I decided to go out for a nice long walk today and enjoy this great weather. We put Guilliana in her backpack and enjoyed a stroll through the neighborhood & downtown Tempe along Mill Ave, a place we haven’t been in quite a few weeks.

Mommy & Guilliana

How CUTE am I?

We found a new Candy Shop that had some retro candy that Katherine and I haven’t seen since our childhood. While there, the owner of the store gave Guilliana a purple balloon. She wasn’t too sure what to think of it at first but then warmed up to it.

From the Candy store, we cruised over to Tempe Beach Park on our way home. As we approached the park, Guilliana became increasingly giddy while playing her balloon. She a good hold of it close to the mouth of the balloon. I reached back over my shoulder and gave the balloon a couple of swats. Guilliana started to giggle hysterically! The more I swatted her balloon, the more she laughed uncontrollably. It was so adorable and only made Katherine and I laugh just as much. Katherine captured this quick video before our fun and games ceased. Have a look.

So we recently purchased an iPad so that I could start developing apps on it through our company. I also figured that I should try out publishing a blog post from the new iPad using the iPad WordPress app and see how the iPad stands up on its own (compared to a laptop). Thus far I have to say that I’m quite impressed. Typing on the iPad seems very easy especially for someone with bigger hands and an on-screen keyboard. Very nice. The WordPress app is pretty simple but that’s okay in my book since it’s not hard to figure out how to use. Simplicity is better in this case.

Ok…now for the not so good. iPad WordPress could certainly stand to improve. In landscape mode, word wrap doesn’t seem to always wrap where it should. Oddly, there are instances where it wraps after the right margin of the screen essentially leaving a word or two in an unviewable area. The second and more important issue (bug) is the one when you accidentally touch another blogin your side posts. What happens here is, unless you have saved your work, the blog changes to the selected post and you lose all of your current work. I speak from experience on this as this is the second time I have written this post! Lastly, upon one attempt to save my post, WordPress crashed and I lost a few changes but nothing major like my earlier accident. I think that WordPress should really ask you if you would like to save prior to navigating away from your current post. This would have saved me!

In conclusion, while simplicity is good & easy, I rate WordPress a “generous” 3 out of 5 based on the fact that the bad out-weighs the good in this case. I would like to give it a better rating but I think that will have to to wait until the next bug-fix update when I rate that version.

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