The theme in this post is: black & white!


To start, I love this series of Sam hamming it up for the camera.





I barely escaped the vicious attack about to unfold here.





Sam is starting to get more comfortable around the camera, even sometimes asking me “take my picture!”. Which is great, because I can start getting shots like this one.





Sam sitting on his throne.





This is what Sam looked like right after coming home from his fancy new haircut. Grease Lightnin’!





Potty training!





The boy in blue.










Love these next couple in the park.










You can see the fascination in Jonny’s face in these photos – nobody has the power to bring that out like Sam does.










Except of course when Sam goes messing with Jonny’s head – then it goes downhill from there.





Jonny really gets a kick out of the camera for some reason. I’m not complaining.





This is Jonny’s equivalent of a Where’s Waldo scene.





The rare, rare photo of both both looking at the camera and actually _hugging_. Amazing!





This is an old one from Halloween – Sam dressed up as Captain America, showing off his guns!





This is my first try at an animated gif. Got a handful of shots of Sam running towards me so I thought it would be fun to animate it. He loves his new Curious George zip-up hoodie from Grandma & Grandpa.

Our red-headed little baby.

Here’s Jonny modeling the lovely quilt made for him by cousin Prima!

Jonny’s favorite comforting pose.

The ever-elusive shot of the two boys together, both looking at the camera.

Story time!

These next few are at the pumpkin patch.

Sammy & Jonny frolicking in the grass in the backyard.

It’s not that rare for Sam to give Jonny kisses, but it’s almost impossible to catch on camera. This was my lucky day.



Look at the smile on Jonny’s face — he absolutely loves watching Sam and is fascinated by everything he does.

I imagine Sam is thinking “see dad, I’m being nice!”

Some of you may remember a certain photoshoot with Sam and an octopus a couple years ago where he showed his full spectrum of emotions…

Well, we decided to bring old Octi back to see how Jonny would react to him.

Well, there you have it. 2 out of 2 children have a love/hate relationship with Octi the Octopus.

This is Jonny’s sleeping position of choice these days. The stick-em-up pose.

Jonny’s really enjoying the new view of the world he gets when he sits in his (formerly Sam’s) bumbo seat.

Sam loves playing in the backyard, riding his bike, running through sprinklers, and playing with the hose spray nozzles. Summertime is definitely here.

No child was harmed in the making of this photo.

A rare photo of mom, Sam, and Jonny all looking at the camera with nobody blinking. This is what I get to come home to every day.

Jonathan is nearing 4 weeks old, and he spends most of his time sleeping.





Every once in a while he’ll take a second to strike a happy pose.





And of course in the next second, the angry pose.





He was very interested in the camera shutter sound — a sound he’ll get used to hearing quite a bit around here.





Meanwhile, Sam’s been spending some quality time in his new favorite chair in his bedroom.





I’m telling you, he *really likes* this chair.





Sam kept slapping this wall with his hand (naturally!), but this was a rare moment where he stood still.





A couple morning shots of Sam in his pajamas






I love these next couple of shots of Sam & mama. So sweet.








Holding back the paparazzo





Look at those curls!





Here I caught Sam staring intently at a water fountain.

We’re happy to announce the arrival of our son Jonathan Brett Antman. He was born at 1:08pm on 3/18/11 weighing in at 7 pounds 2 ounces, and about 20 inches long/tall. Everybody is doing well, the labor was mercifully short, and we couldn’t be happier!

Hope you’re all doing well,
- Reuben, Michelle, Sammy & Jonathan

This was Sam’s Halloween costume. Cute overload. We love this photo so much we ordered a 16×20 canvas print of it to put on the wall.

These next couple bathroom shots were taken at a hotel on a visit to Monterey. Hotel bathroom are usually bright with nice even lighting so I can’t help myself.

I love this photo because I was going for an Austin Powers inspired shot, and it actually worked!

These next couple were taken at “Dennis the Menace” park in Monterey. Sam loved running through the various tunnels, which is a good thing because I love taking photos of him running through tunnels. The park is totally amazing by the way, for anyone who happens to be in Monterey and is looking for a good park to go to.

I was dying to take Sam to the snow (I wanted it more than he did to be sure), so we took a quick overnight trip to Big Trees state park over near Arnold, CA. Michelle indulged me, even though she’s 7 months pregnant and didn’t really need to be schlepping through the snow. We stayed in a little town called Murphys below the snow line and then drove 30 minutes from there to go to the snow. It was beautiful, and Sam loved the snow and sledding. This is a shot of the general area where we ended up sledding.

A rare moment where Sam actually tried to make his own snowball. Most of the time he just asked me to make them for him instead. Who can blame him, it’s much easier to farm out your snowball making to dad.

“Go on the sled again! Go on the sled again” he kept saying.

This is at Dennis the Menace park again, where Sam loved climbing on an old retired full-size train. I assure you he’s not wearing a wig in this photo — his hair was just a little… untamed that day.

Outside at the Monterey Bay Aquarium — he enjoyed this spot more than he did being inside the aquarium.

This was a train exhibit at the Conservatory of Flowers in San Francisco that we went to. They had working model trains going around and around. Sam was in a trance.

He knows that boots & shoes aren’t allowed on the table, and yet, here they are!

If you look closely, you can see that he’s pressing a little button on the door handle of our Prius. This is a little game we play — he knows when I unlock the car with the remote, and then rushes over to lock the doors again before I can open any of the doors.

This was a pretty rare occasion where I picked sam up from school (usually Mom picks him up) and couldn’t resist taking a shot on my iPhone of him sleeping on the little pads they lay out for the kids during naptime.

Here’s another shot of Sam sleeping, this time in his crib.

They had a nifty duck race area where you push your duck down the channel by pumping water.

Trains! Sam’s really loving Thomas the Train these days. He takes his trains everywhere.

He loves riding his scooter, until of course something shiny distracts him and then dad has to carry the scooter for the rest of the walk.

Sam playing in the sand at Serene Lakes.

This blue storage box with wheels is really meant for, you know, storing things but when Sam saw it he yelled “wagon!” and that was that.

Sam trying on some Halloween costume possibilities.  RAWR!

I envy how the world and everything in it is Sam’s playground.

This whole series took place on a hot day when we pulled out the little portable kiddie pool and let Sam go to town with water and a measuring cup.

I just like how his arms are in the same orientation as the robot’s arms on his shirt.

A rare moment where Sam actually stopped moving long enough for me to catch him smiling.

Haircut time!  He was fixated on watching Thomas the Train on a little TV so “Ms. Karen” was able to work her magic.

• “Take it off!” – Repeated in tommy-gun fashion when he wants some item of clothing removed (shirt, shoes, pants, etc.)
• “Get out!” – Repeated in tommy-gun fashion when you are sitting or laying down and he does not want you resting on your laurels.
• “Tunnel!” – Repeated in tommy-gun fashion when he wants you to use your hand to simulate a tunnel so he can push his trains through it.
• “Cereal bar!” – Repeated in tommy-gun fashion (seeing a pattern here?) usually in the car when he wants a….. cereal bar!
• “I like it” – Self explanatory, but this one is a little more rare than the others.
• “Jam!” – Sam has developed strong opinions about what kind of sandwiches he’ll eat.  Hummus sandwiches and Jam sandwiches are two favorites.
• “What happened?” – This usually comes after he’s smashed, banged, or thrown something.  Usually with a tone of innocence.
• “Hold you” – When he wants you to hold him.

Aside from these 2 to 3 word phrases that he’s constantly using, he’s actually starting to string together more complicated sentences as well.  For example he’ll look at his Elmo sippy cup and proclaim that “Elmo is holding a two!” (which, in case you’re wondering, is quite accurate.)

He’s also taken a keen interest in what kinds of cars everyone drives.  We’re constantly pretty amazed that every time he sees a car that is the same make/model as one that some member of the family drives, he’ll enthusiastically identify it as “Grandma car!” or “Mama car!” even if it’s a different color than the one he knows.

On to the photos.  We took a short trip to Santa Cruz and while we were walking around on the Boardwalk, we hopped into a photo booth at the video arcade.  After scanning the two strips, here’s what we ended up with. Sam is wearing his shades that we bought him so he would stop demanding (and breaking) ours.

Here are a few other highlights from the Santa Cruz trip.

Sam trying out his new shades:

Sam having his very first ice cream cone!

We took sam to a play-place called Studio Grow:

Sam & mom after swimming:

A few shots of Sam & dad in the playroom:

Sam absolutely loves his cars:

A few miscellaneous shots:

Sam went to a birthday party for a friend of his at a man-made lake in Walnut Creek and had a great time:

And last but not least, here’s Sam showing his patriotic pride on the 4th of July, holding hands with a neighbor of ours.

Here are a few Picasaweb albums with more photos to go along with the events shown above. Just hit the play button on any of them to start viewing.

Santa Cruz:







4th of July parade in our neighborhood:







Nathan’s birthday party at the lake in Walnut Creek, CA:

These first couple of photos are from a while back when Brad, Julie, and Max were visiting for the holidays last December. Sam & Max took a bath together, and they had all kinds of fun.

As you’ll see later on in the photos, Sam’s hair is much longer now than it was when this photo below was taken.

Sam napping with his bear that he loves to pieces. Soon we’ll need to start grooming a backup bear — this one has had a pretty hard life so far, what with being dragged around everywhere he goes and having random bits of food pushed into his face when Sam tries to feed him.

I took this photo mainly to chronicle the increasingly curly hair that Sam is growing in the back of his head. We can’t really get enough of the curls.

And this one is mainly to highlight the amazingly long eyelashes this boy has.

Sam’s toothy smile, hamming it up for the camera. When he sees me setting up for a photo, he now excitedly screams “camera!”. We’ll see how long that lasts. :)

More happy Sam, making my job easy behind the camera.

The confusion you see on Sam’s face is from seeing my arm stretching with the camera to try to get us both in the photo. I was only partially successful, as you can see.

This is Sam’s new igloo tent that he loves to hang out in and read books whenever he sees fit.

One of Sam’s new passions — playing with Play Doh!

Did I say ‘playing’? I meant ‘eating’. I had to stop him from taking a huge bite out of it right after this photo.

Happy eating Cheerios, as always.

A rare shot of Sam & Dad having some lunch at a cafe. Michelle did the honors on this one.

We were at the Lindsay Wildlife museum which had a little fake child-sized house, so this is Sam peering over the edge of the white picket fence (looking at a stuffed baby deer).

Swings! He loves the swings.

Crawling through a big plastic tube at the park.

Action shot down the slide!

Another one of Sam’s new passions (obsessions?) – drinking from water fountains. Thirst is irrelevant. If he sees one, he must drink.

We went to Easter brunch with some good friends of ours, and this was Sam’s outfit for the day. We were surprised that he didn’t give us much trouble when dressing him – we had prepared ourselves for a big battle.

Sam riding his Radio Flyer trike that he loves.

Lately he loves running around the house after bath time with his towel “cape”. It’s like a daily ritual that goes something like this: Mom/Dad pull Sam out of the bath tub, Sam screams “cape!” and hangs his towel over his head, and runs out the door before we have the chance to dress him.

One of the few times that Sam stayed perfectly still for the camera.

When we put Sam on the bouncy cow structure at the park, Sam, unprompted, started singing “Old MacDonald” while bouncing back and forth.

Sam takes a short breather away from the sun inside one of the play structures at the park.

The first sledding run didn’t go so well… both Sam and mom got splashed in the face by snow at pretty high speed which led to a temporarily unhappy Sammy.

Mom doing some consoling while Sam recovers…








Almost back to normal…








Here’s Sam, flanked on either side by his sledding companions








Sam and mom, happy again after their traumatic ride








A rare shot of the three of us








Also rare, a shot of Sam and dad.








A brief respite, enjoying the whitewashed view.








Hanging out with his good buddy Kai (don’t be alarmed – we didn’t send them down the hill alone, this is purely a photo-op)








The last of the snow shots.








It didn’t take long for Sam to realize that he loves french fries.








Back at home, I managed to grab a shot of him smiling into the camera (he now points and screams “ca-meh-ra” when he sees me aiming my camera at him.)








He loves his trains…








…almost as much as he loves his books.








But let’s not forget Elmo.














Last but not least: Sam’s first day at daycare, carrying his lunch box!

But he’s mostly a cheerful, happy boy…

who loves playing with his socks more than wearing them.

He loves to bring you things he finds on the floor (in this case, a leaf)…

He had all kinds of fun at his cousin Drew’s birthday party:

We went to the San Francisco zoo, and Sam ended up being one of the main attractions for some of the tourists:

A few closeups…

(if you can’t view the video in your email program, just click here instead:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjpnqjVL1LA)

P.S. You’ll notice a recurring theme throughout these photos: Sam’s snack-trap filled with Cheerios that he never leaves home without, and always has in hand. Only a crazy person would attempt to pry it from his hands.

As anyone with small children knows, this is what happens when you let them go wild in the bathroom:





…and of course the inevitable paper stuck on foot

I love this series of mom & Sam:























A few more miscellaneous shots…

And as a little bonus, here are some photos that I’ve been taking lately with the camera on my iPhone, which I’ve been enjoying using:

Sam’s toybox seemed like a great place to hang out for a while.

“Aerial” view of Sam’s play area.  I stood on a stool and held the tripod as high as I could and used the remote trigger to take the shot.

Sam is a voracious “reater” these days.  :)

Sam and dad sharing a quiet moment.  The reason it’s quiet is because Sam is busy chewing on the zipper of my jacket.







These are some family shots we took with the tripod and remote trigger, since it’s rare that all 3 of us appear in photos.

Sam laughing from Reuben Antman on Vimeo.

He’s really digging his giraffe chew toy “Sophie”.

Mirrors are an endless source of entertainment.

Sam on the swing at the park.  Texture added for stylistic effect.

In case there is any doubt about whose eyes Sam has inherited, the photos make it quite clear.  :)

I’ve said it before and i’ll say it again:  he’s feisty!   It’s quite a sight to see him flopping around like a fish out of water on the changing table when you try to change/dress him.   He’s old enough to use his exersaucer now, which he really likes because it gives him some additional freedom of movement.  He’s not crawling yet, but he’s rolling over a lot and rotating on his tummy.  He also loves being sung or whistled to (fortunately for me, even bad singing is appreciated), and he’s quite the chatterbox — a man standing near us in Home Depot said (after listening to Sam’s chatter for a while), “did he just say ‘ooh-la-la’?”

Looking forward to all the excitement and new milestones that 2009 will bring.

Sam is really enjoying his exersaucer these days.

Check out those fancy shoes….

It joins the ranks of his other nicknames, some of which are (but not limited to): McScreamy, The Feisty, and Sir Stompalot.

Sam had his first visit to the park playground to try out the swings.  Project “Swing-The-Feisty” was a big success.  Take a look below.

At first we didn’t quite have his arms in the right place…

But once we freed him up a bit, he really started to get into it.

I predict many visits to the swings in our future. :)

Big smiles all around in spite of the chilly weather.

Here are some shots of Sam hanging out in our hotel room bed.

I love this photo.  I can’t really explain why, but it makes me laugh every time I see it.

Mom and I spend a lot of time trying to get these kinds of smiles.  You might say we’re addicts.

A rare appearance by dad! The camera was dangerously teetering on the edge of the bed for these next two.

Sam is definitely starting to prefer being on his tummy.  It allows him to get a better lay of the land.

As you can see, there’s no shortage of drool. Now if I could just find a way to harness drool as a power source, I’d be a rich man.

Sam loves sitting in his Bumbo seat, which helps train him to sit upright.

…but then his joy turned to skepticism.

A few more cute shots of Sam.

…And just so you don’t think that every photo I post has to be black & white or moody looking, here are some bright colored crowd pleasers.