Hey, R2

I think I shared before that Santa brought the boys an R2D2 robot for Christmas.

He's activated by voice command.

It's a little tricky.

Here are some of our attempts.

All day, I hear, "Hey, R2!"

He's a cute little bugger though.

Thanks for all your well wishes yesterday.
The interview went well, and I got the job!
woohoo!!

Magic Whistles from Peru

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Now on to the Magic Peruvian Whistles.


My little sister, The Bug, recently went to Peru/Bolivia with her husband,
and she brought back souvenirs for my boys.

These are special little bird whistles that they found while traveling by bus from Cuzco to Lake Titicaca in Peru. An old lady with no teeth was selling them alongside some ancient Incan ruins.

I want to visit Peru.
I love to plan trips everywhere.

Oops, did that slip out?

Anyway,

Donny chose the Eagle whistle.

And Remy chose the Toucan whistle.

When you first blow, it sounds like a regular whistle.

High pitch, annoying as heck.

And, then, my sister told them to fill the whistle with water.

And, wouldn't you know it, the noise changed.

Big time.

They no longer sounded anything like normal whistles,
but instead sounded just like birds.

All the noises in this video that sound like birds...are really coming from these whistles.

I kid you not.

Isn't that amazing?

Apparently these whistles date back to the days of the Incas.
They are now hand-formed in villages near Cuzco,
and then fired in traditional pits made out of stone, straw and wood.
After that, they are hand painted.



The Eagle.


The Toucan.



Those Incans were bloody brilliant!

I'm totally baffled by how they work.




And then, of course, my boys have to dump out the water when they're done.

And make the horrible high pitch whistle again.

Peruvian water whistles are way cool.

It's OK to make fun of your relatives on the Internet, right?

If I go missing or undergo a "mysterious" accident, you know who did it.

It's the relatives in these short clips.

Relatives who may or may not have had a little too much holiday cheer...and are playing with a new iPhone that is supposed to recognize the tune and name that song if you hum or sing to it...

A theory that was tested over and over and over again.
Much to the delight of a certain blogger.

It's OK to make fun of your relatives on the Internet, right?

Annie & The Cracker

Here's the video I tried to post yesterday. Annie always cocks her head when we say the word "go." Just so you know...we torment her a little with it. Just a little.

Fun With Annie - Camera Critters

Our sweet Annie loves to go swimming, and you can see the joy on her face.

And, here's a short clip (22 seconds) of me messin' with Annie, feeding her a cracker and getting her to cock her head at the word "go."

Feel free to join Sunday's Camera Critters meme with a picture of any critter you might find willing to model for you. hehe

Dog-gone funny.

Our sweet Annie has very good manners. She knows how to sit, to shake and to lie down. She LOVES to go for car rides and gets very excited when she sees us putting on our shoes or if she hears the word "go." She will cock her head when she hears that word. So, here she is, sitting, shaking and cocking her head when I saw the word "go." (Also, we were dog-sitting my mother's lab, Seamus, who makes a brief appearance.

Houston, we have some audio confirmation of a Texas accent...or do we?

Ok, I sound totally stupid, hadn't planned on sharing this, but VBF wants to hear if I have a Texas accent. I don't! At least, I don't think it's very strong compared to others I know...but surely, having been born and raised in the Lone Star State, I have some accent...you be the judge!

Donny is my older son talking, and Remy is the six year helplessly giggling like a maniac throughout the entire clip. This is from our outing last weekend where Annie went diving for sticks...before she went for the really big ones. lol

Enjoy! This is my first video upload...so be gentle. :o)