Happy New Year, amigos!

Here’s hoping everyone had a safe and healthy Christmas and that when the ball drops tonight at midnight you are eating and drinking something fantastic with someone you truly love. Hell, you ain’t even gotta love them that much if the food is good…know what I’m saying?

Anyway, in the true spirit of the season, wanted to share Greta’s latest Evite photo adventure with you. Uncle Ryan shot this pic a couple weeks back and if you click here, you can use it as an Evite tonight! So, have at it all you last minute party planners, and remember, even if you don’t use Greta’s baby new year Evite this time, there’s always next year. Happy New Year, amigos!

Monday Morning Mommy Movies at the Americana!

With the 2009 award-season already in full swing and the movies Christine and I have seen this fall essentially boiled down to two — “Precious” and “The Road”, which we are seeing tonight — we were both thrilled to learn that the super cool Pacific Theaters at The Americana in Glendale are now offering Monday Morning Mommy Movies!

The rules are pretty simple. Every Monday at 11:00AM, parents of any gender — I guess Daddy and Me Mondays didn’t have the same ring to it! — can bring their babies/toddlers and any older kids they want, to see a new release movie in an actual theater (!) without the fear of bothering other viewers. I mean, when the seats are packed with screaming babies, who’s gonna complain, right?

Needless to say, as soon as we heard about it, Christine and I were hooked. The problem is the movies they have been picking kinda sucked. Yes, the theater picks the movies. And honestly, that is my only complaint with the program. I mean, ain’t nobody going to see a movie on Monday morning EXCEPT sleep-deprived parents of young children, so, why not let us have the run of the joint for that first showing? Kinda stupid if you ask me.

Anyway, when the Michael Jackson documentary “This Is It” hit theaters a couple of weeks back — and more importantly, was selected as a Mommy and Me movie! — Christine and I packed Greta in the car and headed to the Americana. We sat in the fourth or fifth row back with our friends Chris and Jess and their new baby girl, Lily, and lemme tell ya, we had a blast!

Sure we were surrounded by strollers and diaper bags and shit, but, since most of the parents were sitting on the floor in the handicapped section behind us, we pretty much had the entire row to ourselves. Greta got to crawl around the seats a little, Christine and Jess could spread out to nurse, it was the next best thing to watching a movie at home.

And best of all, the movie itself rocked! The music, the dancing, the sheer enormity of the staging, the King of Pop in fighting form…there wasn’t a slow moment in the entire movie and more than anything, it makes you realize how freaking awesome that concert would have been. Wow, so sad…

Anyway, the girls seemed to dig the movie, with Greta even grooving a bit to “Wanna be Starting Something” — which I played into the ground this summer on our iPod! — and the older kids were seriously rocking out. There was one little African-American kid with this gigantic Afro who was dancing up and down the aisles the whole movie…it was so awesome!

So, kudos to Pacific Theaters for starting up such a cool program to begin with. And lest you think the Americana is the only place to see a Monday Morning Mommy Movie, think again. The screenings are held at Pacific Theaters all across the Southland, so, check it out!

Oh yeah, and if you wanna spread out on the floor with your wee one, I recommend you get there really early because those “seats” were snapped up by 10:30. At least that’s what Chris and Jess told us when we rolled in at 11:05…

Happy Halloween, amigos!

With a pre-Halloween party last weekend, tons of candy-giving-out on tap for this weekend and Christine gearing up to make some of her traditionally-badass Halloween cupcakes, this week has pretty much flown by. So, in case I miss the opportunity to tell you all on the actual date…Happy Halloween, amigos!

And in honor of Greta’s first Halloween on the planet I decided to share this hilarious video I shot of her a couple weeks back at our local Target.

Though she laughed and smiled at most of the ghoulie stuff on display, as you can see, the poor thing did not know what to make of that creepy witch. Yikes…I hope she fares better with those spooky laughing Santas come Christmas!

Greetings from Planet Greta…

After talking about it for months, Christine and I are very pleased to announce that today is the official launch of our first-ever Make.See.Eat.Do spinoff blog, Planet Greta. Hooray!

A photo/video blog dedicated to all things great about our daughter Greta (I know, biased much?), Planet Greta won’t feature traditional blog posts or our usual sparkling wit and wisdom, but it will be so loaded with cute-ass pictures and videos that you’ll hardly notice. Seriously, wading through all the cuteness here will take hours…even if you’re not one of her grandparents!

And best of all, since it is strictly a photo/video blog, Planet Greta will be super easy to update — something that we’ve found to be very important in the last few months! –which means you’ll be getting up-to-the-minute, front row seats to all the Greta action pretty much as it unfolds. Yay!

So, fasten your seatbelts, ready your RSS feeds and bookmarks, and click on over to http://planetgreta.wordpress.com today!

Greta’s first protest rally…

She may have missed the Writer’s Strike of 2007-2008, but Greta got to stick it to the man anyway this week at her first official protest rally! That’s right, amigos, our little red-shirted cutie joined Mommy and Daddy at the “Hole in the Heart of Hollywood” rally in support of saving the beleaguered Motion Picture and Television Hospital in Woodland Hills.

For those of you who might be unaware of the situation, the MPTF Hospital has been a Hollywood institution since the 1940’s and a place where elderly actors, directors, writers and other film industry veterans can retire among their peers. Set on a sprawling campus in Woodland Hills, the home is now in danger of disappearing forever sometime very soon.

The bigwigs at the Motion Picture and Television Fund are crying poor and saying that in today’s economic climate, they just don’t have the money to keep the home open. But the problem with that claim is that when the families and supporters of keeping the home open approached the MPTF about starting up some possible fundraising efforts, the board declared that no amount of money could keep the home open. Huh?

If the problem is money and you won’t let anyone from arguably one of the most creative communities in the world help you raise it, then what is really going on here? My guess is that the MPTF has already sold the land — which they own outright, by the way! — to some developer and therefore has no real intest in keeping the home open.

But no matter what the back-all shenanigans are here, the situation for the folks still living in the home is dire to say the least. Of the dozens of residents who have already been “removed” from the home, 18 have died within a matter of weeks due to something called “transfer trauma”. WTF, man?!!

These people paid their dues, worked for years in “the biz”, prepaid for their care and are entitled to live out their golden years with their peers. I don’t pretend to know all the details on this one, but what I do know is that if there is a way to keep this place open then we need to do it! If for no other reason than because it is the right thing to do.

I mean, seriously, the motto on the sign out front says it all “Taking Care of Our Own”! So, come on, guys, let’s put the greed aside for a change and get back to the business of doing just that.

For more information on what you can do to help save the home, please visit SavingTheLivesOfOurOwn.org. And to see more pics from Greta’s first protest rally, including many more shots of the celebrity guest speakers, John “Dukes of Hazzard” Schneider and Frances “Titanic” Fisher, click here.

And in the meantime, que viva los viejos a la casa de MPTF!

Our brand-new Saturn Vue!

Seeing as Saturn’s greedy, ass-backwards parent company, GM, is filing for bankruptcy this morning, I figured now would be the perfect time to blog about our new car. Yep, even though their future is uncertain at best, we decided to stick with the car company that we’ve known and loved for the past thirteen years and bought ourselves another Saturn.

Only this time, we’ve upsized a bit and gone totally green! The 2009 Green Line Saturn Vue isn’t just one of the highest-rated hybrid SUV’s on the road, but it also sexy as all get-out. Heated leather seats, sunroof, OnStar, XM Radio, you name it, and this baby’s got it. And did I mention that it’s a hybrid?

Our salesman at Galpin told us that he has several customers who average 500 miles on a single 18 gallon tank of gas. And while that might not sound impressive for a smaller car like our 2004 Saturn Ion, for a mid-sized SUV, that is downright amazing!

Cooler still is the little green “Eco” light that turns on every time you’re driving on hybrid power. I swear to God, it’s like a freaking video game: “Keep it in the green, keep it in the green!” Awesome! And best of all, the thing rides like a dream and is so roomy and comfortable that even my tall-ass brother swims in the backseat…and that’s with Greta’s carseat taking up the middle seat!

I’m sure some folks think we’re crazy for buying a new car from a company on the skids, but Christine and I both really love everything that Saturn used to stand for. In their free-donuts-in-every-waiting-room glory days, Saturn was like this cool little cult…all about hip, smartly-appointed, American-built small cars that got great gas mileage and didn’t cost an arm and a leg to buy.

So, even though the clowns at GM have done everything they can to destroy all that was great and forward-thinking about the company over the last few years, we decided to support the dream that began when that first Saturn rolled off the assembly line in Spring Hill, Tennessee in 1990, by buying what just might be the last Vue running.

And no matter what eventually becomes of the Saturn brand, our little girl will grow up in the backseat of a rocking hybrid with a bullet-proof warrantee for parts and services for at least seven years…so, que viva los Saturns!

UPDATE: 31-Cent Scoop Night @ Baskin Robbins (2009)

OK, I don’t know if it was the cold weather or this crazy Swine Flu mania, but for some reason, there was virtually no line to speak of at this year’s 31-Cent Scoop Night at our local Baskin Robbins. And we went to the “good” Baskin Robbins on Victory this time too. Crazy, huh?

All I know is that the smaller crowds made it that much easier for myself and our friend Mike to sneak back inside for round two while his wife Patty and our other friend Elyse waited outside with Christine and Greta. Yee-haw!

Oh yeah, and this year, the scoops were way bigger than last time too…so, thank you, Baskin Robbins for another awesome adventure in cheap ice cream. You guys seriously rock!

Greta’s first Earth Day

Although we didn’t do anything nearly as “green” as we did last year on Earth Day, Christine and I did make sure Greta looked the part yesterday in her rocking green onesie from Old Navy. Yep, earthy brown pants too…if we could keep anything on her feet for more than a few minutes I woulda hooked her up with some crunchy baby Birkenstocks to complete the lil’ hippie ensemble!

Anyway, hope you all had an awesome Earth Day 2009 and have lots of other eco-friendly good deeds planned for the rest of Earth Week. We’re not planting any trees or anything, but we hardly used our new air conditioner at all today, so I say that totally counts!

Enjoy the pics…and, once again, happy Earth Day, amigos!

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!

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!