10/25/03 Owen's been walking a few steps for a couple of weeks, starting at 10 months old!  Watching his older brothers has saved him 5 months.  The first movie is taken in the morning, with just a few steps.   And by the next one, taken in the evening of the same day,  he's mastered it!  (Both clips are about 1 Mbyte).

10/16/03 The big boys' third birthday!  Pix soon, but first this: while still 2, Eli got his first press.  Click on this thumbnail to see his mention at bottom right of page:

9/30/03 A great summer.  Towards the end we made more trips to the Portland condo (the ones of Owen are all taken there), Hurricane Ridge with both big boys, and another trip to Canada with Eli to see Bob and Sylvia.  More coming.

7/16/03 Whole family's trip to Cannon Beach-- a logistical nightmare!  Here's a short movie of Max and Eli running around on the wide, misty beach on the last morning (1 Mbyte):

And a pic of the WHOLE family, Carl and Laura and their kids, and Kim's (our nanny) daughter Anna.  Taken by Kim (>1 Mbyte, sorry, I'll reduce it soon, but it's full quality if anyone wants that):

7/04/03 Max's trip to Boston and Banff last week!  A 6 night trip, with an international leg!   More to come, but here're the first few images:  (note, some error is preventing these pics from coming out small enough...to be fixed).

4/20/03 Eli's trip to Boston!  He got to see his grandparents, his aunt, trains, the Childrens' Museum--  and to spend time one-on-one with Dad.  He asked a lot of good questions on the trip, including during the night approach into Logan, "Daddy, are we landing on the water?"  From left to right: Eli sleeping on the flight there; with Grandma; with Aunt Wendy (who was immediately at his level); three generations of Richmond Y-chromosomes; and Eli in Copley Square with moon and Hancock Tower in background.

Owen is growing fast, VERY fast.  He's literally off the chart in height and weight for four months (19 lbs).   Here's one with Daddy down at the beach and then in his saucer.

And a couple from Bard and Julie's trip to Maui in March, just the two of us.  The whale and its baby swam directly under our zodiac, a huge thrill.  Dinner, alone!

2/24/03 Funny movie of Max divulging his age (it's a windows media-monopoly 9 file, so you might have to download the update to the player, which is exactly what they want, sorry).  (If it doesn't work, try this one, which is WMA-8 and smaller).

And here's a good still of our older guys (now 28 months old):

A happy Owen in his bouncy:       He fills up that bouncy more than his brothers did after a year!  He's vocalizing a lot now, lots of cooing and yelling while inhaling (a trick I myself didn't learn until much later).

1/30/02 More pictures soon, been very busy around here.  In the meantime, here's Max's first phone message, left for his Mommy during his trip to San Diego this month with Daddy (788Kbytes).  Eli enjoyed being king of the house (except for Owen) while Max and Daddy were gone, so our fears that these just 26-month-old identical twins would be lonely without each other were proven baseless...as a matter of fact, they really liked it, although they were happy to see each other, and held hands briefly on the way back from the airport (very cute).  Owen is at 13 lbs or so, 90th percentile for his age at two months.  At this rate, he'll be taller than Daddy next year, but I still won't give him the keys to my car, no way.   We're suffering through bad viri here, collecting countless germs from pre-school, babysitters, brothers, and playgrounds.  We can only hope that Owen's immune system benefits from practice.

12/03/02 Can't resist this one:

11/29/02 Owen has arrived!  Owen Sagan Richmond was born 5:05am 11/23/02 at 7.5oz and 21" in length.  Julie had started labor at 9pm the previous evening, 3 days ahead of the scheduled C-section.  Owen wanted out.  He came into the world hardly crying, prompting us to ask the nurses whether he was breathing, whereupon he let out one or two yells.  He has remained mellow and happy, being a very good baby and an excellent eater.  As of this writing, he's almost back to birth weight (all babies lose a little the first week), which is about double what Eli and Max's was.  Julie was a star, enduring a very long C-section and no sleep.  Here are the first few pix.  Click on them for bigger size.  Left to right, Owen at a few hours, Owen on the second day, Owen's older brother (by 25 months) Eli holding Owen at home, and Owen's Dad holding Owen in Julie's hospital room.  Max has also held Owen, and both brothers so far seem proud they have a new brother.  There are many pictures of Julie,  not been deemed suitable for publishing by the censor...but she looks very beautiful.  

8/20/02  Finally something new on this site!  The following little videos were all in August in Portland, which appears to have better parks and places to bring kids than Seattle, like the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry.   Each video is about a megabyte of mpg, so as usual, don't use a modem.  Hover over each with the mouse to get an explanation before clicking.

6/16/02 Twenty months old!  I feel great on this Fathers' Day, for a lot of reasons, especially these two.  Click on the first on the left for a 2.8Mbyte movie of them watching a video of themselves, then dancing to one.  The next two pix are the guys after a particularly hard workout: Max on bike, Eli with weights. :)

4/27/02 Been busy, haven't updated in a while, but here're a few things, starting with a movie of Max on bongos, then Eli and Max, blooming with boo-boos from their rough and tumble lives.  (Sorry the pic files are a little large).  They're 18 months old.

3/25/02 This clip is a little late (it's from December), but it's fun:  Eli "playing" piano.  It's about 500K bytes and opens fast if you have windows media player.  To the right of that, some cute bath pix from February.   Note Eli politely suppressing a belch in the second.

3/10/02 A few shots after a Portland trip to see Peter, Grace and Jody, Laura's kids.  Left to right:  Jody and Grace; Eli and Max at the playground near Carl & Laura's house; and two shots from our kitchen.

2/16/02  Today Eli and Max's two new cousins were born-- twins Peter and Grace, to Julie's sister Laura and her husband Carl.  Yes, another set of twins!  People ask if it runs in Julie's family.  Identicals aren't genetic.  And there was no history of fraternals... but there is now!

Our guys are getting past two weeks of a miserable stomach flu.  These shots are "before"-- they're skinnier now.  Their routine in the morning below now includes changing their diapers while they hold their own bottles and watch the news.  It's an assembly-line operation.  Carl and Laura will be necessarily employing the same techniques, especially with their toddler Jody needing attention as well.

1/12/02  Pix from the family's Maui trip-- the first big trip for the whole family.  Each row from left to right:  Julie holds Eli in the surf and when we tried to remove him, he screamed; Max heads off, leaving a sand trail; Eli contemplates the shorebreak after encountering some sand; Bard hikes Haleakala crater, down into the clouds in the crater at 7000'; and another crater shot (there really were all those colors in there).  Then the two guys in their hotel stroller; and Eli eating most of the breakfast buffet.  The boys learned a lot in Maui: how to eat at the table and look at girls at the same time; how to run into the surf, scaring their parents; and most important, how to have one nap per day and sleep all night in the same room.

12/19/01 A nice movie of Julie and Max, where Julie makes Max laugh and vice versa.  Eli looks on. It's very compressed: well less than a megabyte, but over a minute long.  Click to run.

12/16/01 The boyz are 14 months old now, and are great fun.  They make us laugh all the time.  Here, inside this "embedded" media player are two very compressed videos: Max following a direct order; and the guys walking.  Both are selectable with the "next selection" transport controls.  Next to that is a rare sight on this web page: both parents relaxed.  It was taken in Sedona at the first anniversary of Bard's 50th birthday.

12/03/01 For the technology buffs, here's a nice shot from Bard's studio onto the Sound, using a webcam hooked to a regular videocamera with telephoto.  If you click on it,   you can configure live updates.   I thought of aiming a webcam at  the babies,  but they felt it violated their privacy and in any case was not edible.

11/25/01and 11/15/01 An early morning with Max and his Dad: I had a webcam set up, and we played in front of it.  Windows media format, very small amount of bytes.   Next, Eli says "Dada" in this little movie that starts with Max eating with his whole face and ends with Max just delighted; mpeg format.  Right of those, Max takes a few steps (both are trying it lately); Eli pointing frequently, uses the same finger to very carefully change the channel or turn the TV off and on; and lastly,  Eli the percussionist.   (Note: look further below for a new movie below on 8/26/01, the Richmonds' visit).

10/31/01 One year ago the boys came home.  Wow.  For Halloween we put them in their wetsuits.  Dad felt an unexpected surge of pride to see his sons dressed for windsurfing action.  But instead of going out on sailboards,  they surfed the crowd of kids and adults at the Magnolia Halloween festival.  Below, wetsuit shots (Eli with socks, Max diving into books); Julie and Eli encounter an interesting guy in the crowd; and whole family with Anna, daughter of Kim, our Nanny, both of whom accompanied us.  The last box on the right is a 2 min movie, mpeg, 15Mbytes, careful (set whatever player you use to buffer 5 sec at a time and it'll start playing while still downloading).  Or instead click here  for a 3Mbyte Quicktime that's not bad.

10/19/01  The boys are one year old, and the world is much changed.  Happily, they know nothing about it, and are having a great time.  On the left is a video of Eli actually moving to a beat-- it seems unlikely, but he's done it over and over again.  After that some pix of the boys and their parents on their bday, 10/16.

9/05/01 A couple of B&W's of how the guys love to climb car seats, and various others (barbarian at the gate, Cain strikes Able, a new opening, and hatmen):

A set of pix by Diane Hamlin for Eli and Max's parents' anniversary: click here and here for some bath butts, or a swing session:

8/26/01 Videos, click to see the mpegs-- Eli drumming, Max in his first Boxster, and a great interaction between them.  The first two download fast, but the last one is a Windows Media File, which might require you to download software to play it.

The Richmonds came to visit.  Here's one of Max comforting his Grandad (Dad was a little nervous-- first time feeding a baby in at least 50 years).  And next to that a movie of Wendy dancing for Eli and his reaction to it (watch out, lots of bytes, mpeg format).  

7/21/01 The Boyz are having a great summer.  Some new videos (mpegs unless noted):

Rattling the Cage   Eli bobs against the gate and Max gets up close.   Windows Media File.

How can you laugh?  Eli belly laughs when I hit myself on the head.

Camping In, or Boyz in the Hood  The only place to park the boys on the hard floors in a rented house in Hood River a few weeks ago.  Diane Hamlin, the doula we had when the boys first came home, helps out.

3019 From the Air  Another Win Media File.  A neat view of our house from the air (Cessna 172).

6/21/01  "We're hungry!" video.  Feed us now.  Some stills: Max loves his head scratch, and Eli sleeping on the eating job (no, we don't keep them in their high chairs) :

6/10/01 Some videos of the guys.  These are little mpegs that download fast but with low quality.  The first is of Eli singing in total tiredness just before bedtime, TV news in the background.  

In the second, Max makes a beeline for some wires he hasn't seen before, with Eli making noises nearby.  The strange Donald Duck sounds at the end are me, trying to divert Max from his quest. 

6/05/01 The B&W's, left to right: Max sees self; Max cries; a great one of Eli with his "I'm cool" expression; and lastly Max is delighted in his bath!

Here are some great pix Bob Delf took of all of us.

Click here for pictures and text from before 6/01/01 (also includes the narrative of the pregnancy).

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