Which one does she belong too?

So here's some baby picture's of Celeste and Brad (don't ask which twin he is, he doesn't even know). Which one does little Brooklyn look like?

Home Again, Home Again

Well we are proud parents. Yes we are. We can't get enough of this special little baby. We were finally released from the hospital today, and it was so fun to dress little Brooklyn up and bring her home. We had a dickens of a time putting in the car seat tight enough, but I think we managed.

Brooklyn

Ok, you got me. I know we just posted a few days ago, but this is just an excuse to show more pics! If you click on the picture above, it will lead you to more! (I know, I know, we like to show her off.)

Clara Brooklyn Baillio

The anticipation is over! Celeste had her C-section on May 9th, and it went swimmingly. We now have a healthy 6 lb 15 ounce baby girl! We have decided to name her Clara Brooklyn. She is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.


Celeste and I took some photos on the evening of the 8th. It was our last moment together as 2 individuals. We were looking through our camera after taking some pictures of Brooklyn, and they were still there. I showed it to Celeste and said, "Can you believe that was us just 2 days ago. Just the 2 of us. And now we're 3! I wouldn't ever want to go back!" Needless to say, we are thrilled with this gorgeous little baby.

Celeste is recovering just fine. She got up today and walked around the halls a bit. She'll do that a couple more times before the day is through. She is a fast healer. So things are great. Thanks to everyone that sent their prayers and love in our behalf. If Celeste does SUPER well recovering, she might be released tomorrow. Otherwise we'll be home on Saturday.

Drop us a line. We love hearing from all of you!

Thar she blows

Celeste is getting bigger, and that baby is ready to come. Celeste is already 1cm dilated and we thought the baby was breach due to the ultrasound. However, we learned that she just moves around a lot. So we were relieved. Here's a great face shot of the baby!

Easter

So we had another fun 2 weeks. My birthday party one week, and our friends visiting the second week. And we have pictures to prove it!

For my birthday this year we went over to a friend's house and played Guitar Hero II and talked and ate a lot of food. It was really fun, in that young-married-couple sort of way. I'll tell you something about Guitar Hero. Red Octane definitely found a gold mine with that one. Everywhere I go (and Guitar Hero comes along) it is contagious. My first experience with it was from a theater friend in Provo. She told me about it and I thought it sounded weirdy. But then I played it and it was totally wicked-sweet and Celeste gave it to me for Christmas. Then I brought it home for Christmas. Now my Dad went out and purchased a PS2 and picked himself out a guitar. My twin brother traded in his DS for the PS2 and this beloved game. Now guess what happened a few days after the Guitar Hero birthday party? Yep, that's right. My friend starts inquiring about the price of a PS2. It's a beautiful thing, that Guitar Hero.


With all the recent activity in the movie industry around the comic book scene, I find myself wandering the pages of wikipedia.org and marvel.com catching up on the last 10 years of events I missed out on by growing up (that dang puberty!). In conjunction with this recent fascination with everything Marvel, I bought some new comic books for my birthday and got a great new video game too! I heard about this new series written by Neil Gaiman that thrust the major players of the Marvel universe into the year 1602. It got great reviews so I purchased it. I also picked up Marvel Fairytales, which takes X-Men characters and amalgamates them with traditional folk-lores and fairy-tales. And of course, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance is a 4-player, cooperative, action videogame based on the Marvel universe. The main attraction is that Celeste is willing to play it with me! As you can tell, I was really excited by that one.



So the birthday was good. And even better was a visit from our friends Joseph and Melinda Draschil! They came down Easter weekend and we just chilled for 3 days. I felt like we were supposed to do something dramatic and exciting for their visit, but we didn't. We just relaxed...as if it hasn't even been 7 months since we've seen each other. They did accompany us to our Primary Easter activity, and that was pretty fun. I'm getting so excited about being a parent!




As always, we couldn't just pass the time idly by with Guitar Hero in the house. So although we didn't go to some fantastic show, or peruse the mighty halls of a museum, we did have an awfully fun jam session!

Spring Break

Celeste and I just got finished with Spring Break...and what a break it was! It was so nice to take a load off, relax and go out on the town for a change. With Celeste due in less than 2 months, we fully appreciate these last opportunities to play.

Mom and Dad drove up here from TX and we had a leisurely Wednesday afternoon in Champaign. We ate at Crackerbarrel, saw Ghost Rider, and toured the campus. It was really nice to have someone else from the family actually visit the campus. We spend so much time there. It is our stomping ground, and it somehow feels that when your family sees where you work, they somehow understand more about what your daily experiences are like. That's why I wish I could have visited Austin and Sarah in Seattle. It's supposed to be beautiful country, it's the home of REI, and it would have been great to see where their lives unfolded for the last couple of years.



Well, on with Spring Break. We spent Thursday in Chicago at Navy Pier. That was a really fun destination. We ate this really good BBQ for lunch, and then just strolled around the pier. I love the whole imagery/lifestyle of living on the water in a city. It just has this desirable quality for me. It was the same in Venice as it was on the pier, and later in the week in New Jersey. There's just something remarkable about living right on the water, and all around you there are big buildings, high rises, and tiny, crowded streets. Celeste and I saw a marionette Macbeth production at the Shakespeare Theatre. It was really fun. You would think that real, flesh-and-blood actors would do the play better, but puppetry is such a unique medium for storytelling, that it truly was an enjoyably experience. And besides, when else can you get through Macbeth in only 90 minutes! :) It was great because the puppeteers were Italians, so the theater cast great American actors to do the voices. What a great gig that would be. Trained in acting and the arts, and you get to just sit and read for 90 minutes. Sign me up!

Friday, Saturday and Sunday we spent in New York City (and New Jersey). We stayed at this great hotel right on the Jersey side of the Hudson. It was great. A ferry took us from the hotel dock to the NY Waterway terminal where complimentary shuttles dropped you off in different parts of Manhattan. "Our destination?" you ask. "The Theater District, of course!" Friday night, Celeste, Dad and I saw Spelling Bee. Celeste even tried to be one of the audience members that get to go on stage, but she wasn't selected. The show was really funny. Saturday afternoon Mom, Celeste, Ryan, and I ate lunch at the Met and spent some time there checking out the art. It was a really relaxing afternoon, and then that night we saw Hairspray. We were really nervous because we wanted to get the raffle tickets. They're only $25 a ticket and you sit on the front row!! That's a great deal. I'd much rather have "limited view" front row tickets than crappy balcony tickets. Well Dad and I both got our names drawn so we got our tickets and had a marvelous time. It was so fun to see Dad and Mom and the musical. They absolutely loved it!

Anyway, that about wraps up our Spring Break. It was so great to see Mom and Dad again. It was wonderful to have the resources and the time off to actually see some plays/musicals again. It was just an entertaining and enjoyable week that really hit the spot after a bitterly cold winter in Illinois!

Spring Fever!

Well it is 45 Degrees here, the sun the shinning, and we are walking around without a coat! Nothing feels better than the sun warming your back as you eat your lunch outside, smelling the muddy, brown, dead grass, without the ugly black snow. We are in heaven, and have caught the spring fever!!!! And here are a few reasons why.......

March 19-24:
Spring Break! We won't be partying in California or anything, but will will be partying with Dad and Mom Baillio!

March 29th:
Baby Shower! Maybe we can add to the our "baby shelf". All we have to our name right now is one pack of diapers and baby towel.

April 5-8:
Joseph and Melinda are coming visit our humble abode! We going to hang out in Chicago, and try to see a few shows.

May 4th:
Last day of work for Celeste and of course....Spiderman 3!!!!!!!!!!
(We all know that we are obsessed with Spiderman these days. Venom? Sandman? Green Goblin? Cool black costume? How can you go wrong?)


May 13th:
Ummm. Do I even have to make you guess??
Baby Girl Baillio Due!!!

May 17th-20th:
Mom Barrand, and hopefully Danica coming to see the baby. (Hopefully we will have it by then.)

(Add just a few more things to add to the excitement)

July 13th:
Harry Potter- Order of the Phoenix

And last but not least.....

July 21st:
Final installment of the Harry Potter Series!!! Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows


Well there you go, a few reasons for the spring fever.

Preg-nancy pantsy

So I know everyone else we know doesn't think Celeste is actually pregnant. Most people think she's just letting herself go a little. Her co-workers even forget most of the time, especially when she wears maternity clothes. Only if she wears a tighter fitting shirt do they realize, "Oh hey, that one's pregnant!", and "When did that happen!?". So to prove that she really is pregnant, here are some photos!

Excited Parents

Bared to the world

Proud as punch

More Motion Fun

The new batch of videos are an implementation of Potential Fields. This sort of planning algorithm pretends everything in the world is like an electric charge. The goal attracts the robot with a certain force, and all obstacles repel the robot. Hopefully this gets the robot from its starting point, to the goal.

uav
more uav

This is one of my classmates videos...he's got really good ones.
Becker uav

Spider-Man

We've been totally addicted to a TV show. It has consumed our lives over the last week. I know it's shameful. But it's such a delight to watch. You're probably thinking, "that darned 24 bug". Or "I know, Lost is a good show, huh!". But you'd be wrong. We're addicted to a cartoon. Spider-Man Animated Series...we love you! (a special thanks to Dave, who provided us with the episodes for Christmas)

It is a riveting show. So much more exciting than most normal TV dramas. You have real characters with real problems. Spider-Man is always plagued by his self-doubts. Things never work out for the best, even though he has good intentions. His love life is always in a whirl. Friends and colleagues are always getting in trouble. New enemies are constantly causing trouble, and old enemies are always brewing new schemes.



There are lots of potential movie appearances too. Dr. Conners is the professor that introduces Peter to Dr. Octavius. In the comics, and cartoon he becomes The Lizard. He messes around with genetic codes, hoping to integrate reptile DNA in humans so we can regrow limbs, etc. His experiments go awry when he tests it on himself. Also we will be sure to see Eddie Brock become Venom at the conclusion of Movie 3. The Vulture would be a cool foe as well. He is an old guy that has a competing company with Osbourne. He creates anti-gravity wings and uses them to get revenge on Osbourne who wants to take over his company. Cool stuff.

The cartoon has had tons of crossovers with other Marvel characters too. The Kingpin lives in NYC. He is a central foe in the cartoon. Maybe we could see a Daredevil/Spiderman crossover!

The cartoon was one of the most successful animated series that ever aired on Fox. And for good reason!

Snowed In

We got snow! And plenty of it. It doesn't hold a candle to Dever's mess in December, but it was enough to close down school and work for TWO days! We were pretty happy because we needed the rest to get better, and get caught up with stuff.

The forecast on Tuesday morning was 19 degress with 95% humidity, and 31 mph winds with gusts at 40 mph. Wind chill made it 0 degrees. It was a crazy day.

Nerdy Science Stuff

So I'm taking a Motion Planning class right now and our homeworks are all really fun. We get to animate simple shapes and pretend they're robots and see them avoid collisions with obstacles. Cool huh!

The first homework assignment was an implementation of what is referred to as a BUG ALGORITHM. It assumes that the "robot" is like a little ant. And we restrict the ant's movement to the 2-D world (it can't climb over obstacles). So, it has really simple and ultimately stupid approaches to reach a goal and avoid obstacles in the process.

Watch this video and enjoy!
BUG This is an .avi file formatted for windows. It should work for most of you. In case it doesn't...

another encoding
different encoding

Keep on Tapping

Even though Celeste and I have chosen to abstain from doing any more plays and musicals for a while, it doesn't mean we're out for the count. A local high school has recruited us to teach them some tap moves! So every Thursday we go to the high school and spend an hour teaching basic tap. It is SO FUN! I forgot how much fun it was to tap. It's been too long since I've put on the tap shoes. It's also great to be teaching tap to others. The world should be drowned in a cacophany of clicks and clacks. Anyone that knows anything about tap should teach their neighbor. I bet the world would be a much happier place!

So after we teach the classes, we're going to choreograph the title song of their school musical, Anything Goes. So that's going to be an adventure as well.

Well, here's a simple shout out to TAP!

Christmas Picture

For those, who don't know, every year in the Barrand family we do a "themed" picture. Here's 2006 for ya. If you need me to spell it out for you: We are cannibal's eating misssionaries. .....What exactly is Brad feeling right now?
Why did I marry into this family?
Or
I look really hot in animal skins!

Baby Girl

Between the legs shot- Notice anything missing?

So we found out today that we are having an active baby girl! It was a really fun experience to see her punching and moving. We were hoping for a boy, so now we're adjusting our thinking and getting hyped for all the girl stuff. And first things first: the names! Here is a list of names we are thinking about for our girl.

Parker
Clara
Kate
Avery
Brooklyn
Amelie
Eleanor
Adele
Violet
Eliza

Vote on what you think!

Side View -she is rubbing her eye on the far side

Front View- Peek-A-Boo! (both hands covering her eyes)

Side View- She has her hand in her mouth, biting her nails? Just like Mom!

Christmas fun

From Christmas 2006

So our Christmas break was just the best thing ever. When will we ever have the same opportunity again? Never! We left Illinois on Dec 18th and we didn't get back until Jan 7th. That is like 20 days! It was practically as long as our Europe trip (but at 1/10 the cost!) Needless to say, we had a blast and we loved being around family. Famiy is just great. It's not always harmonious because there are new members joining the family left and right, and eveyone is moving in different directions, and things are always changing (but hey, it wasn't always harmonious 10 years ago either!) But it's always fun, and always filled with love. And that makes for a perfectly relaxing Christmas vacation.

This year we got a digital camera for christmas, so we caught up with you "real" bloggers. Now we can point and shoot and upload. And just in time too, since Celeste will be having a baby in just 4 short months....or is it long months?

Too bad we didn't have it in Texas with my family. We didn't nab any sweet shots of the fam. But we did get some in Colorado.

From Christmas 2006

From Christmas 2006

By far my most favorite gift this Christmas was Guitar Hero II. It was a spectacular success at my house, and did pretty well in Colorado too. Parents even joined the ranks of excited gamers waiting their turns. And it was well worth the extra effort to drag the guitars along with us on 3 different flights to share the happiness with others.

My favorite thing we did during the trip was our day in Fredericksburg, TX. It is a quaint little German-town in TX. On main street, there are tons of shops and restaurants and it was fun to wander along in beautiful weather and just enjoy the day. Plus the town has an interesting tie-in with the Mormon settlers in TX. The Germans of Fredericksburg were tradesmen and craftsmen and didn't really know how to be farmers. Luckily some Mormon settlers came in and had a mill and helped the townspeople a lot. So that makes the town even cooler.

And finally, my favorite game of the break was Empire Builders the Europe version. It is a phenomenal game about carrying goods from city to city to earn money. First one to $250 million wins! It's so creative too. You each have to build train tracks, and the game board is basically a big connect-the-dot, and you each have a crayon to do just that...connect dots to build your railroads. Each dot costs a certain amount so you have to balance where you pick up goods, where you drop them off, how much money it costs to build the tracks, and how much money you get at delivery. It's really fun! And I have to boast just a tad...Celeste's Dad is a master at the game. He practically wins every single time he plays. I've never won before (we played the America version last year). And I won this trip! Let me tell you, that is no small feat against Dad Barrand.

Firefly

So we finally caught up with the world and watched the short-lived but extraordinary series called Firefly. It was one of our favorite television series yet. I'll tell you why...

There are 2 main models for television "dramas". One is the Star Trek model. In this format, each episode presents a conflict, and by the end of the episode, that conflict is resolved. The characters are dynamic throughout the series because each new experience helps them grow and change, but they are without "secrets". The audience knows and enjoys them from the get-go. The second model is the Lost model. In Lost, the characters each have a back-story that is secretive and unknown. Each episode we learn more about them, but never enough to know the character. And meanwhile, the plot meanders along without too many concrete conflicts, or a meaningful direction. It's more about the people than the plot.

Many shows follow along these lines and try to combine elements of both and blur the lines of distinction. But there you have it.

Firefly is our favorite because we like the Star Trek model more, and this series follows this model very well. However, it also has a few underlying secrets (River and Shepherd and Reavers) that make the story that much more enjoyable. So we give it two thumbs up. It's just a shame that it got cancelled after only one season.

Atleast we got the Serenity movie to reveal some of those tantalizing secrets.

Fun Urinetown Pictures!

Act One Finale
Mr.Cladwell

Don't be the Bunny!

Take him away!
Act One Finale
Laughter and Gladness!
Run Freedom Run!
Look at the Sky!

Always it's been Urinetown!

So Urinetown has opened to the public and we had a great first performance. I think it is notable to mention that the first time we had the whole cast at a full rehearsal was last dress, the night before the show went up! Ha ha ha! Yeah, crazy I know.

Here are some pics from the local paper. Tiny town so they don't archive all their articles on the web, so no easy web access. Just enjoy these fuzzy, hard-to-read pics!
The article describes us thus:
The romantic leads are a married couple: Brad and Celeste Baillio. The handsome Brad is a doctoral candidate at the UI in computer engineering; he has appeared in four shows. His tall, slim blond wife estimates she has appeared in 60 shows.

No joke! This is actually in the article. Click on the pic and see for yourself.
Anyways, we have loved the experience and are so grateful to have had this last opportunity before the baby comes to act together and to play opposite one another in this most excellent show!