Obama meets Oliver!

Hey, we’re just as excited as everyone else about President Barack Obama’s first trip to Europe as leader of the free world, and the G20 summit thing sounds cool and everything. But the big news in this household is who will be cooking for the Obamas in merry old England.

You guessed it, amigos…our favorite male UK chef, Jamie Oliver, will be doing the honors at this year’s G20 Summit meeting in London. And while the official menu has yet to be announced, rumor is that Oliver is gearing up to serve the President and First Lady a simple meal of Welsh lamb, asparagus and flat bread with a side of English herb (aka wild garlic). Yum…sounds good to me.

And lest you think Oliver will be toiling all alone in that big old kitchen, fear not. Oliver is going to be helped along by a team of his apprentices from his iconic Fifteen Restaurant in London.

For those of you who missed Oliver’s rocking reality series “Jamie’s Kitchen” a couple of years back, Fifteen takes in unemployed, disadvantaged young people from around the country and trains them to be professional chefs. Cool, huh?

No word yet on whether the Obamas will have time to stop by the restaurant proper, but here’s hoping they find some time to chill with Jamie between courses. And though Oliver’s wife, the very pregnant Jules Oliver, will reportedly miss the event as it is taking place on her due date, word on the street is that both she and her husband are huge fans of our new President.

That’s right…even the English loves them some Obama. Rock on, Jamie O!

Greta’s baby nursery featured on Unique-baby-gear.com

OK, first she made a splash on Evite with this adorable pic, but now, barely three weeks into the world our baby girl has made her mark in another way. As of late last week, her nursery was featured on the rocking website Unique-baby-gear.com. Yay!

And not only did the fine folks at Unique Baby Gear ask me to write up a brief description of the products featured in Greta’s nursery, but they also entered our nursery design into their nursery theme design contest! Cool, huh? The award isn’t given out until the end of the year, but first prize is a whopping $200 Amazon gift card, so, we’re keeping our fingers crossed…

If you haven’t explored the website for yourself and have a baby on the way you totally should. Hell, even if you don’t have a baby on the way, the site is pretty fun. There are tons of very cool baby gear ideas. And while you’re there, feel free to comment on our page as part of the contest is based on user comments and we could use the votes, yo!

To read my description of how Christine and I cobbled together the design elements for Greta’s funky baby nursery, click here. And to see more pics like those above, check out our Flickr site here. And if you wanna swing by and see Greta’s room for yourself, come on down to Burbank and we’ll hook you up…

Greta’s Evite page goes live!

OK, I know you’re probably all sick of the baby-centric posts of late, but had to let you know that the Evite image of Greta that my brother Ryan shot a couple of weeks back is now officially live. So, if you’re planning a baby shower, or know anyone who’s planning a baby shower, spread the word, amigos!

To see Greta’s Evite page larger, in all its crazy-cute glory, click here. And thanks again to Ryan for the pic. You seriously rock, hermano!

My first full week on Facebook…

I know I’m pretty much the last person on the planet to join Facebook, but last week, in the midst of new baby madness and with next to no free time to speak of, I joined the Facebook nation. Perfect timing, right?

Well, actually, it kinda is. See, I’d been waiting to hop of the FB train for a while now, and when Christine joined up a few weeks back, and could not stop talking about how fun it was, I knew I was as good as signed up already. So, after spending one full week on Facebook all I can say is, wow, this shit rocks!

Not only have I reconnected with hundreds of old friends (literally, I just hit the 100 friend mark yesterday!) but I have also really loved all the nerdy little trivia challenges and “what blank are you?” type questionnaires. So fun! And I’m not just saying that because the Facebook Gods deemed me worthy of being Jedi Master Yoda on the “which Star Wars character are you?” challenge.

But best of all, Facebook gives me something to do late at night while trying to get Greta to sleep. I don’t know if it’s the sound of the keys typing or whatever, but nothing puts my girl to sleep faster than the sound of Daddy Facebooking…so, hooray for that.

Anyway, if you’re on FB already and we have not hooked up, please seek me out! And if you’re not on Facebook yet, then, hello…what are you waiting for? Seriously, wasting time has never been this fun!

Rockabye Baby CD’s rock!

Christine and I had read about Rockabye Baby CD’s — which are basically lullaby versions of popular rock songs — a while back but it wasn’t until our friend Ginger got us the Coldplay album that we actually heard one in its entirety. And though the concept sounds a bit odd, I gotta tell ya, the music is really amazing…

Since we loved the Coldplay album so much, we quickly ordered two more of the Rockabye Baby CD’s on Amazon.

I picked the Rockabye Baby Radiohead album (which rocks!) and Christine chose Rockabye Baby The Smashing Pumpkins which positively soars. Seriously, the lullaby version of “Tonight, Tonight” left all three of us breathless. Actually, I don’t know if Greta was breathless from the music or from breastfeeding, but either way, she totally digs the tunes.

Radiohead seems to be here favorite right now — I did not coerce her, I swear! — but she loves all three of her Rockabye Baby CD’s so much that it’s practically all we play for her on the iPod.

And aside from sounding truly awesome, and hopefully introducing her to some rocking good jams before she discovers the unspeakable horrors of Miley Cyrus and the JoBros, the music puts her to sleep like nobody’s business…so, yay!

To sample some of the super cool Rockabye Baby music for yourself, visit their crazy-cute site here. And if you’re looking for a cool baby shower gift, look no further…because these CD’s kick some serious ass!

Greta’s first photoshoot

Sorry for being away for so long, but rearing a newborn baby is hard, yo. Sure, she’s cute and cuddly and smells all new and yummy and everything, but wow, I’ve never been so flipping tired in my life. Seriously, this makes 12-14 hour days on a movie set look positively restful!

So when my brother Ryan called last week and said he wanted to come over and take some professional pics of Greta to use as possible baby shower invites for his ongoing gig at Evite, Christine and I pretty much melted on the spot. Not because the pictures would be cool to have — which they so are! — but mostly because it meant Ryan would be taking the wee one off our hands so we could, you guessed it, sleep. Yay!

As you can see, the pictures turned out great, and just like everyone else in this family, Greta is a total hambone in front of a camera. No crying, no screaming, just straight-up vamping all the way. Seriously, if Ryan had a wind machine, she’d probably stand up and start vogueing. It was insane…

And best of all, Evite actually bought one of Ryan’s Greta pics to use on their site! Cool, huh? I don’t mean to sound like a total stage parent or anything, but our cute-ass daughter is going places, baby! I’m thinking she might score her first magazine cover by the end of the month…

To see the pic Evite bought, click here, and in the meantime, enjoy the glory that is Greta’s first photoshoot!

Happy Birthday Greta Bronwyn!

Yep, it’s official, Christine and I became parents yesterday afternoon at 2:14PM with the birth of our sweet little baby girl, Greta Bronwyn. Yay!

Our due date was Sunday, the 8th, and we had already made plans with our doctor to have labor induced on Monday night at 7:30PM, giving us one more full day to prepare for her arrival, but I guess Greta had other plans!

Christine’s water broke at 4:15AM and despite running around like a bunch of lunatics right after it happened — yes, amigos, some things really are like the movies! — Christine, her mom, Marge, and I managed to be at the hospital and in a labor and delivery room with our official paparazzi team, Ryan and Laura, in tow well before 5:00AM. Impressive, huh?

And though we filled that room to capacity with our team of still and video cameras, iPods and laptops, I gotta say, I wouldn’t have had it any other way. So, thanks guys for helping cheer Christine on throughout the day. You guys rocked!

As you can imagine, we have hundreds of pics and videos of everything that went down yesterday afternoon, but for now, wanted to share my favorite pic with y’all. This was taken just a couple minutes after Greta was born at 2:14PM. She weighed 7.6 pounds and measured 20 1/4 inches long at birth, and we’re already completely in love with her…so, happy birthday Greta!

Oh, and you know what’s even cooler? March 9th is Barbie’s birthday as well. Hooray! All those crazy “X-Files” , “Elvis” and “Harley Davidson” Barbies in Greta’s bedroom will finally pay off!

Baby Rules 101

With the baby due in just three short days — of course, that’s if she doesn’t take after her father and show up late to everything — Christine and I have been going kinda crazy the past couple of days. Sure, the car seat is securely in place, all her little bitty clothes are washed, sorted by size, and ready to be worn, and our hospital bag has been packed and sitting by the door for days.

But, like all parents, we recently started to wonder if we were really ready for her to get here. I mean, despite all our preparations, would we really know what to do with her when she arrives?

So, you can imagine our relief when our friend Wan e-mailed us the handy baby rules instructions shown here. Created by the clever folks at Wry Baby (who’s stuff Christine has been selling in her store for years) the manual has been a real life saver this week. I mean, who knew you couldn’t give a baby coffee and a big old Turkey leg? We sure didn’t!

So, as we leave you now to study up on more top-secret baby rules, enjoy the pics. And thanks again to Wan for the advice…you are a real life saver, chica!

Mike White on “The Amazing Race”

Longtime fans already know this, but if you’re not watching “The Amazing Race” this season, here’s one more reason to watch…Mike-freaking-White! Yep, the man who wrote “Chuck & Buck”, “The Good Girl”, “School of Rock”, “Nacho Libre” and wrote and directed last year’s “The Year of the Dog” is now racing around the world with his gay Evangelical Christian father, Mel. Cool, huh?

Not only is White one of my favorite screenwriters, but he is also a very fine actor. Watching him hold his own with blowhards like Jack Black and Sarah Silverman in “Rock” is proof enough that the dude can act, but if you really wanna see his mad thespian skills at their finest, rent “The Good Girl” and “Chuck & Buck”.

White’s crazy-Christian store security guard in “The Good Girl” kills me every time…he’s awesome. And his creepy-funny stalker in “Chuck & Buck” will haunt you for days. Seriously, the dude is scary and hilarious, often at the same time.

And now, he’s teamed up with his equally-funny father, Mel, on one of our favorite shows ever. Even cooler is the news that as of last week, Mike and Mel were in first place on the race! Yay! Keep on trucking, guys, the screenwriters, and um, gay Evangelical Christians, of the world are rooting for ya!

Still going strong in its 14th season, “The Amazing Race” airs Sunday nights at 8:00PM, so, check it out. And if you haven’t seen any of White’s movies of TV shows — he also wrote for “Freaks and Geeks” and created the short-lived prime time soap “Pasadena” — for yourself, then, get thee to Netflicks, amigos…the dude is hilarious!