Los Angeles: VES Awards Night

While Maya is person that most people are wondering about when they read the blog, there are occasions when her parents do something slightly interesting or, at least, slightly fancy. On this night, Todd and I were very excited to be going to the Visual Effects Society (VES) Awards for the second time. This year, Todd (together with three of his co-workers) was nominated for Best Compositing in a Feature Film for his work on Avatar. The awards represented a rare chance for us to dress up fancy and take advantage of some free babysitting.

This guy is sorta good at compositing.

This is about as fancy as we get.

Good luck kiss.

The venue...it was televised on some random cable channel.

Jim Cameron receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Last time, Todd got to hold up his shiny trophy after winning for Transformers. This year, Todd and his fellow nominees, Beth D'Amato, Eddie Pasquarello, and Jay Cooper settled for water pitchers after the award went to District 9. Lookin' good!

While Todd didn't win this year, we were very excited to be a part of such a special event. I am very proud of the great work that Todd continues to do in his field. It's exciting to see that work celebrated by the very people who inspired him to become a visual effects artist in the first place.

Los Angeles: Maya's New Parent Training Service

Maya offers up her parental training services to soon-to-be parents every time her daddy is nominated for a VES award (twice so far). Two years ago, Maya trained Sam and Jess before Maddie was born with great success. This time, we left Maya to test the skills of Allen and Annabelle (6 months pregnant). We are proud to say they made it through the training with flying colors.

Daddy schools Allen on storytime the night before.

Annabelle and Allen, slightly nervous but determined, with Maya on the big night. Thanks for babysitting!

Los Angeles: Maya's First LA Boyfriend

Maya had a great day in LA living it up in the Valley. We went to Paty's for breakfast followed by a trip to Burbank playground with the Kender/Page. See more pix here. The kiddies had a great time playing together, but there was a surprising development when Maya made quick friends with a little boy named Cooper. Before we knew it, Maya had a new boyfriend. This does not bode well for the teenage years.

Maya's amazing rope hanging ability attracts the interest of Cooper.

After some seriously fun play together, Maya is literally swept off her feet when Cooper hugs her goodbye.