Julian's Nativity Play

Check out the movies of Julian's nativity play. Some of the later ones are fun when he sings "Hallelujah"! Enjoy.
Movie1
Movie2
Movie3
Movie4
Movie5
Movie6
Movie7
Movie8

T'was the Month Before Christmas

Ho ho ho.

Cookies and milk bellies


Mr. and Mrs. Claus

Santa needs a rest

Might as well be December. We're in the spirit. We may well burn out before Christmas actually comes but what the heck, let the carols ring. We've booked an Amtrak train to take us from Colorado to California on Christmas Day. Riding the train through the snowy Rockies. Can't wait. Julian wanted to know if Santa could land the sleigh on a moving train. I told him Santa could do anything. We've got a Sleeper car lined up, we'll bring some lights to decorate the train and The Polar Express to watch on the laptop. Gotta have things to look forward to. Otherwise November has been full of sickness and a lot of work.

I was shopping for groceries when I saw a couple of Santa outfits for 7 bucks each. How do you like Santa's little helpers? Ho ho ho. Merry Christmas everyone and to all a Happy New Year. Hope the holiday bug also bites you this year.

Date Nights: Kids Look Great

Date nights were always about just getting the kids out of the house so Amanda could have a break. They've become something phenomenal, just saying Date Night to the kids makes them go bonkers. So I dragged my tired bones from work last Tuesday and was reminded that it was Date Night. Julian was wearing a yellow shirt and a navy sports jacket with gold colored cuffs. I just couldn't believe how good he looked, how sharp and smart. I was proud to be his daddy. Maya was wearing a nice pink sweater shirt and looked radiant. They couldn't wait to get out of the house. We went down the street to get some Italian food. Candle lit dinner, romantic restaurant, great Italian food. Man I love Date Nights.

Heaven Dance

We've been sick and travelling so haven't had a chance to post. In the meantime Baba Dora has come (gave Amanda and I a break and sent us off to Trieste and Venice, Italy), and gone home today. Maya is wearing a Snow White dress every day and Julian is playing and dancing nicely with Maya, as the video shows. Over and out...gotta get some sleep. Hope you enjoy the videos.

Sorry folks...

END OF DIAPER DAYS APPROACHING !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

YAHOO, YIPPEE, WAHOO, YEAH BOY, MAN OH MAN OH MAN!!!!!!!!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.
Can you believe it, 5 years and hundreds of thousands of millions of diapers later, the DIAPER DAYS ARE COMING TO A CLOSE. I know the picture may seem kinda of gross to you, but can you believe how happy we were that after weeks of trying the potty thing with Maya and feeling like she might be wearing diapers along with Amanda and I in our old age, it finally happened. I was at work, and Maya called to say, "Dada, I made a big poop! And we took a picture". So there you go. Gross, but all I've gotta say is, change a few gazillion diapers and you'll know EXACTLY HOW WE FEEL. YAHOO, YIPPEE, WAHOO, YEAH BOY, MAN OH MAN OH MAN!!!!!!!!!! KEEP ON POOPING IN THE POTTY MAYA! Don't worry, we'll take the picture down with the next post (and frame it!).

Quoc turns 15 AGAIN

Our friend Quoc, who the kids really like, probably because he's a goofball turned...well I'm not really sure how old he is. We wanted to let Maya pick him out a ballerina cake at ASDA but although the stores in the UK are open longer than in Germany (and say things like "open 24 hours") they still close at 4pm on Sunday!?!? So we found Quoc a nice pizza cake. Just like any good birthday cake, someone had already sampled it before Quoc had a chance to blow out (1/3) of his candles. Happy birthday Quoc!

Back by Popular Demand: Wedding Photos

I've resurrected our old webpage. Cecilia and Amanda look great, as do everyone else. Remember how young we all looked back then. Have fun: http://www.staff.ncl.ac.uk/chris.petkov/personal
Seems appropriate on the kids' blogsite since without this special day they would have been born out of wedlock and I'd be confused as to whether to introduce Amanda as my 'significant other', 'partner', 'the lady I had kids with', etc. Marriage simplifies a lot. For a lot of reasons, I'm glad we did it. You'll see at least two if you look around this blogsite.

...You Smell Like a Monkey...

Funny Kids, Disappearing Whisky, Ballerina Cake and Mad Wind

Can't believe I've let 2 months go by since the last post. Let me see...a house move and 4 conferences in 4 weeks. Busy as a dad with two kids. We've also had Anna and Eric visit and now my dad is visiting us. Anyhow on with the stories. A couple of days ago we're sitting at the table eating dinner when Amanda tells Julian that he needs to finish his dinner. He tells her basically no, but in this way: "Well, mamma, but dadda says that kids can do anything they want. So the kids want ice-cream". We kind of looked at each other smiling at how clever he was. Yes I had told him that kids can do anything but it was under a completely different context. I'll now drop some cute pictures through here as I tell you a couple of more stories so that you can forgive me for not writing on here sooner.

We went with Anna and Eric to Glasgow a couple of weeks ago for a visit, including to the yearly Whisky festival. Eric and I paid our 25 pound entrance fee kind of reluctant to see that much monkey go, but then we found a bottle of 200 pound 23 or so year old Whisky (Glen Ellen in case anybody really wants to send me a birthday present). We tried it and nearly dropped at the spot at how good it was. Then the entrance fee wasn't so bad. So we went around the corner to try some other stuff (including a terrible 4 year old whisky: the company must be in dire straights) but really we just wanted the owner of the Glen Ellen to forget us long enough so that we could come back and have some more. So we managed to sucker him into giving us another shot. Then we tried to figure out what the heck else we could do. Eric decided to ask the owner of Glen Ellen exactly that question so he said rhetorically: "Really, what does one drink after having a Glen Ellen". The man took some serious offence and said, in a very Scottish accent, "Look here man, I cannot give you any more, you're gonna have to go somewhere else". Eric thought he should clarify the rhetoric behind his question and said, "No really, I don't want any more I'm just wondering what else in the world I can have now that I've had the Glen Ellen". No surprise the owner repeated that "You're gonna have to go somewhere else, this is my last bottle".

Anyhow, I splurged and bought a couple of bottles of Whisky and Eric bought me a couple of more and then I found myself with a pretty nice collection...that is until my Dad visited. Today I found myself after a couple of nights of my Dad visiting with a nearly empty Ardbeg (45 pound bottle of my favorite smoke in a bottle) and basically vapors of the Glen Morey (25 pounds) and with one half of one of the three bottles that Eric gave me left. I can imagine if Eric is reading this his mouth has dropped by now. So I told my dad the story about Eric and the Glen Ellen man. He kind of liked the story until I told him that I've hidden all of what was left of my Whisky and that he had to go somewhere else for his Whisky. He promised me a new bottle and I said, "Uh huh."

I am reminded that this is a blog about our kids so I'll say... Julian, if you're reading this and you're old enough to drink Whisky and can afford to own a bottle, don't worry about me drinking it. Worry if your Grandfather can reach it.

Ok, thanks for letting me go on with that tirade. I feel better now.

Yesterday was my birthday and I took Maya and my dad to the store to get me a birthday cake. We got to the cakes and Maya decided she was going to choose one for me. After failing to convince her to get me a fudge something toffee or rather chocolatey something she chose a Princess Ballerina cake. Of course it was Pink. Here is what it looked like. I quickly saw that I had not choice in the matter, but at least I was determined to put 36 freeking candles on that sucker. So Julian, Maya and I put those darn candles on the cake, lit it, sang happy birthday and blew them all out together. In the fleeting moment we had before the little cake went into thermo-nuclear meltdown I made a fleeting wish that I can't tell you about of course but that it involves family and mushy stuff. Why is this important you ask?

Well today we got up and had a post-birtday breakfast of Mekici (Bulgarian dounuts) then we headed out to the North Sea because the forecast was WIND and that's all I wanted for my birthday: another chance to fight with the North Sea. I should have been more careful since the wind was gusty and blowing out to sea but I got a good start and got into a plane which was a blast. Bailed on the turn, rested and then tried to come back. Did some more fast surfing on the way back but burned myself up so I couldn't come back. Tried swimming with the gear back since I didn't have the strength to sail again, but then ditched the sail and tried paddling the board back. Seemed like I was going nowhere since the wind and waves were pushing me out to sea and I was sure that I wouldn't be around to see another birthday. Fortunately the Coast Guard had been called and came to rescue me and grant me my birthday wish only one day after I had made it. So I've been kissing Amanda, Maya and Julian (not dad because he's wiped out my Whisky collection) and hugging them more often than usual. I know I can sail better than than when I was younger (many other things I was better able to do when I was younger) but I still find that I have to have a healthy level of respect for Mother Nature and be smarter about the sailing. Yet, I suppose if you don't push yourself to the limits then you just won't know where they are. So I'll see if Dad can get me a coast guard radio rather than a bottle of whisky before he leaves.

Who Can Marry?

Obviously our kids are too young to know about marriage, but they've heard about it and to them it seems like something you do to show people you love them. So Julian and Maya said they wanted to get married. Julian put on a wonderful jacket and clip on tie that he got from his friend Evilo in Colorado and Maya threw on a veil we had lying around. They looked too sweet to tell them the details so we didn't bother. We'll leave politicians to worry about who's allowed to marry. We're just happy the kids already know about love as the foundation of marriage and that they remind us about what's at the core of things when you look beyond the details.

Ice Cream in the Yard

Sleeping at Ikea

Tuesday as some of you may already know is my date night with the kids. This time we went to Ikea to pick up something for work and to have some fun. We stopped by the kids section to play and ate swedish meatballs and Jello at the Ikea restaurant. Then we went back to play some more and the kids loved the children's beds section. So much that they both picked their favorite beds to lie down in and sleep. It was so funny to see them sleeping in the Ikea beds I was just rolling when people would go by and do a double take before they realized oh, wait we're in a department store not in some kids' bedroom. Funny as all heck, then we ran all around Ikea, I got my item for work and they passed out on the drive home. Man I love date nights. We always manage to have some fun no matter what we do. Maya and Julian are simply adorable.

Sadly we said goodbye to Laura today who went back to France. We'll miss her. It was really nice to have her visit us from Paris and to bring our future cousin "Bob". ;-)

Baby Hedge Sparrows and Pizza

Our neighbor Finn and I found a bird's nest with 3 blue eggs a few days ago when we were cutting the bushes with scissors (don't ask). A few days after that the chicks had hatched and we now have 3 very cute Hedge Sparrows who will raise their heads to feed when Julian or Maya make a bit of noise. Tonight I wanted to check on them and Maya decided to bring a big slice of pizza we were having to feed them. She was so excited I didn't want to tell her that we wouldn't be able to feed them the pizza. They look a bit like this picture, but they're in our back yard bush.

Windsurfing on grass

You can tell that I miss a few weeks on blogging and then catch up. Recently our friend Jenny suckered me into taking a kitesurfing lesson with her. It was a blast so I asked people on Facebook whether to dedicate to kitesurfing or upgrade my windsurfing gear. Lots of folks said "kitesurfing all the way" but I guess you can tell what I did by these pictures of me and kids setting up the windsurfers in the back yard. I only have Ebay to blame but how can you refuse a perfectly good board for 20 POUNDS ! Enjoy the pictures of surfing on the grass with the kids.

For you reading this, you have a standing invitation to join me on the English coast for windsurfing (free lessons). I've got two fully loaded boards, lots of different sails and the only thing you would need is a wetsuit (I only have one at this point).

The Girl with Red Shoes

Maya has the cutes shoes I've ever seen. The overalls aren't bad either. Thank goodness for Amanda and their grandparents to get them great clothes. Here are some pictures of the kids in the car.

Eating with Cows

Tuesday nights Amanda goes to aerobics and I get to go on a date with my favorite kiddies, Julian and Maya. Last time we went to a big open grassy area called the "Moor" which I cross to get to work each day on my bike. The cool thing about the Moor is that there are usually a bunch of cows around. So it's fun for me if they're on the path to work to slap some cow bottoms to clear the way. Moo.

So we packed a dinner a couple of Tuesdays ago and walked through the grass to the cows. Then we sat in between a bunch of them and ate our dinner. The kids loved it. They keep talking about "eating with cows".

Here are some pictures of us on the Moor looking for the cows and some others of the kids around the river...our other favorite date spot.

Mountfield Primary School's Fun Run

Julian's school Mountfield Primary did a Fun Run yesterday afternoon to raise money to buy books for their library. I emailed colleagues and friends to ask for contributions. I asked people to give a few pence for him running one lap and that if he ran more than that I would pay the amount people contributed for each subsequent lap. I was excited for my boy. Fortunately for me and my wallet the school stopped the kids at one lap. As you'll see in the video the run was a lot of fun, except maybe for one kid that gets trampled during the stampede. Also Julian didn't know he was only doing one lap so he was holding himself back a bit too much. Enjoy the pictures and thank you for your support.

Here's the lineup before the start. Julian is wearing the green shirt.

And they're off.

Maya has a message for you !

Mother in Law

Evidence that you can love your mother in law. All it takes is spending 4 solid months with her before the true bond forms:

Spring in Newcastle - Sun Makes One Loopy

We went to the National Railway Museum in York. Julian had a great time.


Playing with water in the back yard on a very sunny day.

Ice cream on the beach.

Not quite sure what's going on here.

Maya sneaking up on Julian. It's awesome when they play well together.

You get one of these with each visit (not the child!).

This is what Lance Armstrong must feel like when he rides up Mont Ventoux.

Yes,Of Course!

"Yes, of course!" is Julian's favorite phrase right now. He was telling me that when he gets older that he would be as tall as me. I told him that he would probably be taller than me. In response he said, "Yes of course!" He likes to say this at least a few times a day.

I also talk to Julian about listening to his tummy and not eating too much if he isn't hungry and also respecting Maya's wishes if she doesn't want to be hugged or wants to be along. So today Julian says that if his mouth or tummy says no, you have to respect them.

The other day Maya told me that she saw my bobo. I gave her a puzzled look, trying to figure out what she was talking about. She pointed to my elbow, so she calls my elbow a bobo. Kinda cute!

Maya was talking about how she wanted to see Katie, Sean, Daniel, and Mitch, and eat
popodams and rice. This may sound like a normal conversation, but actually it is a question from school where you have to say what doesn't belong in this sentence. I told her that we actually would not see Mitch, as Mitch is Leo's dadda and he lives in Germany. Maya then says, "Oh ya, I know this."

Maya is usually a cute, sweet girl, but some days she doesn't have a long enoug

Part IV: Missing Julian

We miss Julian so this is how we're passing the time while he's in Colorado.

Julian showing Dada how to pee pee and potty.


Three generations of Petkov men.


Colorado cowboy.


Dapper man.


Next president of IP Automation.