What does Dylan think about the election??

So, Kathy (who else??) got us these, and Dylan had some fun. What does the 3 year old think about the candidates? He seemed to like Obama ok,...
...but not enough to spare him.
McCain? Looks like an endorsement, but he actually ate some of him yet couldn't stomach finishing him. He's still in a plastic bag in the fridge (morbid?).
Palin? It doesn't look promising for her...
Then this. There's soo much symbolism here. What does this mean??!!
It can't be good based on how he finished up with her.

Biden? Based on the above, he should consider himself lucky we didn't have a cookie for him!

Oregon Day 1

We got to Florence, OR yesterday and had fun today playing on the lake.
Dylan's grandma and grandpa have a trampoline raft anchored out in the cove of the lake they live on, and Dylan and I (Ryan) swam out to it. Dylan had fun jumping till he had no energy, and I had fun watching him.

Dylan and I took the paddle boat out, then came back and picked up mommy for another ride. By this time Dylan actually was so tired he almost fell asleep in the boat.

Meanwhile, Addison enjoyed the cool breeze off the lake all day.

Fire Update

Many of you may have heard the name Rancho Bernardo on the news the last 48 hours. If you know us well enough you know that this is where my family lives and where I went to high school. RB has lost at least 540 homes to the fires, and one of the worst happened in my Aunt's neighborhood. Her house was spared but the two houses next to her, and the house behind her, were burnt to the ground. My Aunt was on ABC World News with Charles Gibson last night, as he was in San Diego covering the fires (she was given 5 minutes to see if her home was standing and grab essentials and he asked her if he could come along for an interview). My parents and grandparents are home from evacuation as of now, and the fires seem to be going elsewhere from Rancho Bernardo.

We still have some friends who are evacuated and whose homes are in danger, as many of the fires are still uncontrolled. Please keep them in your prayers.

Ryan's brother meets Dubya

My brother Matt plays Division I Lacrosse for the Johns Hopkins Blue Jays, who recently won the national championship. Yesterday he and his teammates went to The White House and met the President. No matter what you think of him, its not too often you get to meet the President. Congrats again to the Jays!

This is your brain

Recently, Briana had a CT scan done, and she was able to obtain a copy of the results. I couldn't resist taking a peek at my wife's brain. Here are a few areas of her brain and what she uses them for.

1) Motor cortex. This is the area that she uses to initiate movement, like when she has to chase after a very energetic toddler.
2) Hippocampus. This area is critical for memory, like remembering where, when, and how often her husband needs a back rub.
3) Limbic area. This area is involved in emotion, anger, etc. I think this area is especially active during her fits of road rage, which is easy to have here in L.A. I think it is also active when chasing a toddler, and when husbands ask for back rubs.
4) Ventral tegmental area (VTA). This is the area that produces dopamine, and the area that is the focus of my research. It is the area where feelings of pleasure are started, like when she thinks of things such as her husband or a nice big bowl of ice cream (see below). I think the neurons here are much more active during thoughts about the latter than the former.
5) Nucleus accumbens. This is the area that receives input from the VTA and where cravings and addictions take root. This would apply for her ice cream, which you know - if you've met her - is something you don't get in the way of!

And this is her brain on drugs? Any questions?

Breakfast of Toddlers

You never know what Dylan will and will not eat on any given day. The other morning, his breakfast was this little creation: pop-tart, salami and cheese.

Place cells

Dylan has great place cells. These are neurons in the hippocampus that fire when an animal (or person) is in a specific spatial environment. We've noticed some things recently that have astounded us:

1) Dylan knows when we are close to Taco Bell when we are driving around town, and will say his word for taco, which is "pow-k," (over and over) to indicate his desire for a tasty, nutritious dog-meat taco. Yeah, you know your family is eating WAY too much Taco Bell when your two-year-old can identify the streets around the local drive-thru.

2) He knows when we are even remotely close to a certain tunnel on the 710 freeway here in LA. We sometimes honk the horn when we are going through it, so he yells "beep, beep!" when he senses we are near it.

3) This one is cool. We go for walks in our neighborhood sometimes, and they are often quite long and take us over 2 miles from our house and often end when it is pretty dark out. On our way back, when we are still many blocks away and have several left and right turns to go before we get home, we will be very upset if we turn in any direction away from home.

The other thing he can do, though not exactly a spatial awareness task, is he can recognize any Volkswagen on the road. At first we though he was just recognizing the shape and pattern of the logo on the front of the car, but he can recognize it just by the shapes and contours of the metal (we know this because he has often pointed out a Jetta or Passat - being those are the cars we have - when the logo is covered by another car on the road). When he sees a VW, he declares "a-daddy," indicating for us that there is a daddy-car until we acknowledge this fact for him. It's pretty remarkable.

I'm sure you have gathered by now that this is being written by the resident nerd, err, neuroscientist in the family. Aren't kids amazing!?

Love Thursday

I love my wife and baby. It can't be said in a way more simple or more true! I love being a father and a husband, and I love our life together. Sure there are challenges and unknowns and worries, but I'd rather have my family with me while we go through them than do it alone. Life used to be about so many things, but recently I've found that it is really only about a few things: love, happiness, and togetherness.

Here is my recent favorite picture of the ones I love. Have a happy Love Thursday with the ones you love!

Day with Dad

Yesterday (Saturday) Briana had to work so I had Dylan for the day. We bummed around the house in the morning; he played, ate breakfast. Here's a few pics of him playing with his toy food (from Kathy). These are wood versions of fruit and vegetables with velcro so he can "cut" the food in half with the toy knife that came with the set (don't worry, its blunt and also made of wood).
Later we picked up some lunch and met mommy during her lunch break. We went around the corner to the park for Dylan to play on the playground.

We capped the day with a bubble-bath. I was in the tub with him, but we censored those pictures. I'm sure you won't mind!

San Diego weekend

This weekend we went down to San Diego to see my parents. It was supposed to be our weekend getaway to a hotel, but Briana wasn't feeling well enough to do that. We'll do it in January. But we still went and got to go over and walk on the beach and go X-mas shopping. There were 12-foot waves at La Jolla Shores, which is unusual for there.
See how big those waves were?

I got to snap this pic of my beautiful bride. :)



Dylan had fun getting chauffeured around in his wagon by Grandma and Grandpa. The bumpy road was his favorite and according to Grandma, his pleas were repeatedly for "mah" (which is Dylan for MORE).

Anatomy of a Wake-Up

I (Ryan) grabbed the camera one morning when I heard Dylan make a little sound indicating he was waking up.
He tossed and turned a bit before waking up for good...

Getting up, groggy-like.
Most mornings he wakes up in a good mood, but this time he was a bit ticked.
...still ticked.
After some milk and a clean diaper he was good as new.

Far too long without pictures

My bad. This is Daddy, the guy in charge of the pictures. Sorry for the lack of pics lately. This classic of Dylan from tonight should get things going in the right direction again.

Mr. Banana Grabber

Look, a seagull! Our little guy decided to be a Mr. Banana Grabber the other day. We gave him a banana to feed himself, and he sure enjoyed it.



He absolutely would not let go of it, though, and it turned into a banana smoothie in his fingers.
He had a bit of fun feeding himself some mashed banana, but it was short-lived.
In the end we had to take it away, and he kicked himself for a poor business decision. He never should have given up bananimation rights.

Reference: Arrested Development