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Crazy Uncle Martin

28 Jul

So I guess it’s official now: I have turned into that person who everyone hates, the one who can’t stop taking pictures of his adorable niece and then sharing them with anyone who’ll look. But really, just look at that picture I’ve posted above. Can you blame me? This kid is beyond cute.

I was in New York this weekend to hang out with Abby and the rest of the family. Now that she’s 12 weeks old, Abby is showing signs of a personality, not just sleeping and eating, like she was doing the last time I visited. So of course, my camera was working overtime — much to Abby’s parents’ chagrin. One day, my niece will forgive me for being such a shutterbug. And Mitzi and Jason will be thankful to have so many great shots of their daughter. Until then, I’ll keep looking at these pictures, showing them off to my friends and all you readers, and I’ll be thinking of when my next chance to see Abby will be. Hopefully it won’t be too long from now.

Click here to see my photo album from this weekend.

Waah Waah Waah

3 Jul

A small favor to ask of all the mothers, helpers, and others who may be wheeling around babies and other young’uns: If your child is crying — and not just crying but wailing — and you’re about to get on a crowded T during rush hour, please think twice.

Don’t be like the woman who wheeled a crying baby onto the B line this morning and did nothing to quiet the kid down as we rode all the way down Comm Ave. Continue reading →

Oh, Baby

16 Jun

Oh, to be a baby. All my niece Abby does is sleep, eat, and be, ahem, babied and pampered by her parents, grandparents, Uncle Martin, and other family and friends. When she’s unhappy and she starts to cry, people run to make her feel better. She’s showered with gifts. Every day people tell her how adorable she is.

I have to say: it’s a good life. And I wish I got to spend more time enjoying it than just a day or so this past weekend. Continue reading →

Happy One-Week Birthday, Abby!

11 May

My new niece, Abby, spent her one-week birthday weekend much like she spent the rest of her first week of existence: sleeping and eating (and apparently, crying in the middle of the night too). She also met some cousins, modeled some adorable outfits, and of course, posed for many, many pictures, which you can see if you click here. I just can’t get over how cute and perfect and fun and little and awesome this girl is. She’s my niece, my sister’s daughter, my parents’ granddaughter. Wow. It’s still amazing to think about that. Have I mentioned yet how cool it is to have a niece? I’m still on a high. (If you’d also like to see Mitzi and Jason’s pictures from week one, click here.)

Tasty Tunes

11 May

I bought Abby her first CD last week: Snacktime by Barenaked Ladies. It’s the band’s first full-length CD for children, but I bought a copy of my own as well, and I have to say, listening to it while driving down to NY on Saturday made the trip so much more enjoyable. If you’re a longtime fan of the band like I am, you likely miss the novelty and fun that marked their earlier albums, particularly Gordon. Well, that sense of whimsy is all over Snacktime. There’s a song called “Popcorn” that’s basically a solid minute of the word “pop” over and over. The song “Crazy ABCs” is a typical alphabet song, except the lyrics start out like this: “A is for Aisle, B is for Bdellium, C is for Czar” and continue in similar fashion, with none of the words cited sounding like they begin with their first letter. Many of the 24 songs are two minutes in length or shorter, and nearly all are about things kids can get into, like “Vegetable Town,” “Bad Day,” and “Allergies,” which lists all the things a child can possibly be allergic to (bees, dust, wheat, etc.). Most songs work on multiple levels, like the best of the Disney movies do. For example, one of my favorite tracks is simply called “Eraser,” and it celebrates what that thing can do. Toward the middle of the song, there’s a break in the upbeat tune, and Steven Page sings, in his most deadpan serious style, the following lyric: “If I wrote you a letter, but I made an error, I could fix it … and make it better.” It’s humor that may go over most kids’ heads, but if you’re a parent (or a childless adult), you’ll appreciate it. As children’s music goes, this is the kind that doesn’t grate or annoy. Snacktime is fun, tuneful, and, um, tasty. It’s also one of my favorite BNL albums. I can’t wait till Abby hears Snacktime and enjoys it on her own. Until then, I know her parents will love it. And so will I.

Welcome to the World, Abigail Jordan!

4 May

I’m beyond happy to introduce you all to my beautiful new niece:

Abigail Jordan Davis
Born Sunday, May 4, 2008 at 2:22 a.m.
6lb 12oz
19 inches

It was a wild weekend, to say the least. Continue reading →

Pregnant Pause

13 Apr

In the category of Pleasant Comedies, you can add Baby Mama. It’s a better than average film, with some decent laughs — none of which come close to, say, Forgetting Sarah Marshall — that’s never quite as good as you want it to be. That’s because the script isn’t as sharp as it should be; unfortunately, it strands stars Tina Fey and Amy Poehler in Mediocre Land. We’ve definitely seen them better on “Weekend Update” back on Saturday Night Live.

Baby Mama is the story of Kate (Fey), a successful single woman who has decided that after years of putting her career first, she now wants a baby. Learning that she is unable to conceive, Kate hires Angie (Poehler), a working-class woman of questionable morals, to be her surrogate. This seems like a setup that could let Fey make fun of celebrity adoptions and career women and other timely subjects. If she had written the script, maybe she would have. But instead, writer/director Michael McCullers aims his arrows at subjects like Jamba Juice and Whole Foods–like stores, and they don’t really stick. Fey and Poehler have real chemistry and are generally enjoyable to watch — more so than Steve Martin, who looks embarrassed in an unbilled role as Kate’s boss — but they almost look pained to be put in such lame situations. Hopefully these two will get the chance to star in a Fey-written comedy in the future. (That is, another Fey-written comedy — both appeared in Mean Girls.) For now, their Baby Mama only rates a B– from me.

The Cautionary Whale

3 Dec

If you enjoyed the raunchy unplanned-pregnancy comedy Knocked Up earlier this year but wished it was a little bit sweeter, then Juno is the movie for you.

It’s the very funny story of a sardonic high school girl (Ellen Page) in Minnesota who gets bored, has sex with her awkward best friend (Michael Cera), and then finds herself pregnant. (Oops!)

Not ready to deal with being a mother (and an adult), Juno decides to give the baby to a seemingly perfect couple (Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner) she finds in, of all places, the Pennysaver.

Alright, so maybe that summary does a disservice to the movie.

In actuality, Juno is one of those quirky little films that packs in a lot of laughs and a lot of heart, and announces the arrival of an original new voice and a great young actress (it’s sort of like this year’s Little Miss Sunshine). That’s the hype you’ll be hearing from now until the Oscars, but it’s actually true and well-deserved.

The writer is Diablo Cody (a former stripper making her screenwriting debut here), and she has crafted a screenplay that is so packed with laughs and strong characters that it reminded me of Napoleon Dynamite in that every other line is quotable and hysterical.

And Ellen Page (who was in, among other things, the third X-Men movie) plays Juno confidently, but as the character begins to learn more about herself and the people around her, she becomes more and more endearing. I’m sure we all can remember a person from high school who acted like and thought they had everything all figured out, but really was very unsure of him/herself. That’s Juno, and Page captures all of that uncertainty in a star-making performance.

Both women will be Oscar-nominated for sure.

Of course, there are other folks in this movie, and it’s worth noting that my girl, Jennifer Garner, also acquits herself quite well. She and Bateman (reteaming again after The Kingdom) are at first the perfect adoptive parents — so perfect they’re quite scary — but as with Juno, beneath the surface they are not what they seem.

Michael Cera is more awkward here than he was in Superbad — just check out those shorts — but he, too, is sweet and endearing. And Rainn Wilson (from The Office) makes a brief appearance early on and utters what will likely be the film’s most quoted line, “That’s one doodle that can’t be undid, homeskillet.”

I suppose it’d be wrong to overlook director Jason Reitman’s work here because a good screenplay is only half or a third of what makes a movie great. But Juno‘s screenplay is so good, so quotable, so original, so funny, so winning, so clever, and so dominant here that it’s impossible to really notice anything else. It’s that tandem of great words and a perfectly-cast actress that makes Junoa real must-see.

I’m giving it an A–.

She Ain’t Heavy, She’s My Sister

20 Nov

At last it can be revealed … I’m going to be an uncle!

That’s right, my sister is pregnant and expecting her first (of what I hope will be many) child(ren) sometime in late May.

As you might imagine, I’m real excited about this news. Sure, it’s great for Mitzi and Jason, and my parents and his parents, blah blah blah, but don’t forget, this is my blog, where everything is all about me, so I’m going to tell you that no one’s as excited as I am.

Holy crap, I can’t wait to be an uncle. An actual, born-in-the-family uncle — as opposed to the “uncle” of my friends’ kids. Continue reading →

It’s a Miracle

12 Feb

Two of my friends are due to give birth this week. One of them is having twins. Which means that by week’s end, there will be three more little babies in the world. Life’s amazing, ain’t it?

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