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| Who has the biggest mouth contest. |
Lance had his 4 month check up. He's still the cutest baby they've ever seen. He is 15 pounds, 27 inches long, holding up his head like a champ, grabbing for toys, googling all the time, and as Dr. Bolden said, "he never stops moving!" That's our boy.
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| Prince Julian the Great. |
We celebrated Papa Leighton's 39th birthday. We continued the Miller family tradition with a wonderful "cakewalk". The cakewalk was invented by Cousin Oliver Miller, here is his story.
The "real" cakewalk actually goes back to slavery days in the US. There were various get-togethers and celebrations called prize-walks, or chalk-line walks, or walk-arounds. Sometimes these were dances and sometimes they were "styling" contests in which couples walked or marched around a room or down a line and the couple that were best-dressed, or who walked or marched the most stylishly, or who could walk with a pail of water on their head without spilling any, won the contest. Maybe there was a prize, maybe there wasn't. If they happened to be competing for a cake it was a cakewalk.
Oliver wanted something more exciting at birthday parties than just singing and eating a cake. He wanted dancing to be involved. He was thinking about the soul train double line where people dance their way down the middle--something that gets everyone to participate. He also wanted the birthday boy/girl to be sitting in a throne being the center of attention and to have the cake actually presented to them by folks moving in style.
Hence the "cakewalk" which isn't a cakewalk in the historical sense, but brings to mind and plays off of a long vanished African-American tradition. Basically the idea is for everyone to participate and show off, for the birthday boy/girl to get to be the center of attention for more then just the little birthday song, and a way to get everyone dancing.
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Oliver picked the music. The old-timey first song is a perfect one for getting everyone up-- macking, styling, vogueing, marching, boogying, shuffling, walking or as the Jamaican's say "shake leg". The second song is Stevie Wonder's Happy Birthday, which continues the African-American theme.
Cousin Oliver, you are brilliant! It's my new favorite birthday tradition. Having all of our friends and family dance for us at the party is pretty much the best thing ever. I'm working on a highlights video.
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| Cousin Donald asked, "Is being pregnant a prerequisite to being your friend?" |
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| Naima and Maura |
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| The birthday boy with Cousin Judy. |
Aunt Yuki got Lance a duck costume for Halloween. We decided he could be Leighton's Rubber Ducky. We continued celebrating new BB-Ford Family traditions with our "Halloween Burn". We moved all of the cars out of the driveway, Leighton pulled the fire pit up front with some chairs, and we had a campfire right there in the front yard. We ate a delicious dinner of BBQ'd rotisserie chicken and roasted vegetables with a side of Halloween candy, we sipped cousin Bob Marr's Zinfandel, and frightened all the little children.
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Rubber Ducky, you're the one,
You make bathtime lots of fun! |
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| Yukitaka finally meets Lance. |
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| Josh and Satchel get to meet LJ at the Cal game. |
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| Karl cuddling his babies. |
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| Sam and Leighton got into their singing at MacKenzie's Karaoke birthday. |
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| Eleanor and Lance. So glad she's moved back home! |
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