Emma's 1st Birthday Party

Grandpa John, Sam, Henry and I traveled up to Reedsburg today to attend Emma Casey's first birthday party. Lots of fun!

Sam enjoyed playing with Emma's older sister, Madelyn, who is 4.
PHOTOS: Emma's Party

Thoughts on 'The Tree of Life'

There is something profound going on in "The Tree of Life" that can be summed up, ironically, in the audience's gut reaction. The crowd that experienced the movie with me yesterday didn't seem to know what it was getting itself into, and by the end, there were more than a few puzzled expressions. I count myself as being quite a bit confused, too, and the puzzlement was the key: Any amount of past filmgoing cannot prepare someone for what director Terrence Malick achieves, a spiritual and human statement that cuts a wholly original path.

This is a movie unabashedly about faith and family, yet it hardly panders to the more poiticized version of Faith and Family that have so cluttered our public discourse. And I can envision two opposing sides mistakenly warring for the soul of the movie, one side saying that Malick should have spent more time developing his philosophical themes rather than wasting his time on 1950s nostalgia, while the other side argues that he should have cut out all that cosmic crap and just focused on the story of this one family. But humans cannot divorce themselves from eternity any more than eternity could give up on humans, and this to me is the beauty of the movie. There is a common thread running through us all, from the beginning of time to the end, something that Malick invokes as the parallel pull of Nature and Grace. And nowhere is this tension as vivid as in the mind of a child.

I admit that being a father to two young boys is a large part of why I was moved by the movie. And this weekend, being a thousand miles away from the two of them made my heart ache even more watching these boys onscreen grow and stumble and learn and wonder. How hard it must be for parents to ever feel they've done enough! And so, perhaps, I instinctively knew that Brad Pitt's role as the father, though strict, wouldn't completely turn into one of those horror dads that we've been conditioned to expect in movies. Yet I was never quite sure what would happen to his oldest son, and this was most unsettling. How do we ever know?

To say that we have faith is not the most precise answer, and yet undeniably true. Faith in God? Faith in Jesus? Faith in any number of other deities that humans have at one point in our history worshiped and wondered at? Perhaps. But as someone who has grappled with such questions for a long time and not always found reliable answers, I find faith in knowing that our inablity to know all the answers doesn't mean that they aren't out there. And that the best we can do is jump in that river and run through that field and throw that stone and climb that tree, like a child would.

And love. "The only way to be happy is to love," the mother says late in the movie. "Without love, your life will flash by."

It's still too early to feel confident that I've pinned "The Tree of Life" down, if it ever can be pinned down. And every moviegoer undoubtedly will come to the movie with unique preconceptions that will alter what is taken from it, if anything. I didn't take the time to ask what the folks who saw it with me thought, though on my way out I passed by three people who I can only assume had just gotten out of the screening, and they were holding each other in a family embrace. Such an odd sight, and yet so understandable. And I longed all the more to be close to my own family.

Henry Vilas Zoo

We visited the Henry Vilas Zoo in Madison today. The Wangs joined us for part of the day, too!
Sam loved the flamingos, the goats and the giraffes. He was not a fan of the train and the carousel. It was a fun-filled day!
Photos: Henry Vilas Zoo

Hello, Wisconsin!

Greetings blog readers! The boys and I are in Wisconsin, visiting Grandma and Grandpa. A few weeks ago, I decided to make a trip west. Call me crazy, but the boys and I rented a car and drove to Ohio on Monday this week, meeting my parents. We stayed in Elyria, Ohio overnight and drove the rest of the way together. The trip was long, very long....

On Wednesday, we visited Prairie du Chien. Michael Douglas, the curator of the Villa Louis, hosted a small ceremony for us to plant a tree in honor of the Bittner/Adney families and the connection to the Villa over several decades.

That afternoon/evening, however, Sam came down with a high fever. By Thursday afternoon, the fever was gone. We were suppose to travel to Oregon, Ill., to visit Great Grandma J, Uncle David and Aunt Sue, but a sick little boy prevented us from doing so.

We've been hanging out in Platteville and plan to take the boys up to Madison tomorrow to visit the zoo and BratFest.

Unfortunately, I left my camera up in Prairie along with my jacket, so we are going to have to rely on photos by Grandpa.

Some highlights:

Yesterday, Henry finally discovered that he could suck on his toes. There is video! Also, Grandma and Grandpa bought Sammy some rain gear. Sam loves umbrellas and now he has his own.

Here are a few photos and a video: Boys in Platteville

Parade and Park

Despite a rainy start, we had a fun day outside Sunday. While Sam was napping and Dave was mopping, Henry and I took in the annual Norwegian parade down 5th Avenue near our house. In our neighborhood, Bay Ridge, there are many people of Norwegian decent as well as other Scandinavian folks. And on this day, the Norwegians were celebrating Norwegian Constitution Day, which is May 17. This was Henry's first parade.

After Sam woke, we went to the park. The hardest part about going to the park is leaving. Sam always throws a tantrum as we try to get him back into the stroller. Enjoy the photos:
Parade&Park

Sam Feeds Henry

Henry Starts Solids

Henry is 5 months old today, and we decided to start solids. What was on the menu? Well, Henry had his first taste of oatmeal. He seemed to enjoy it, but he's not sure what to do with his tongue. He did eat it all up!

Guitar...

Dave bought a guitar. He thinks we are going to be the next Van Trapp Family. (No, we don't plan to have seven kids.) But he wants to start the Paulsen Family Music Hour. I suggested we play in the subway for money to pay for the kids' college educations.
Here is Sam with the guitar, a basic Fender. Notice, also, Sam's new super short haircut, which I think makes him look more like Dave.