As of today my sabbatical is officially at an end and I will be returning to the office on Monday, April 3rd.

Spending time with Michelle and Aidan these past nine weeks has been a tremendous gift. From Aidan's first days with us to attending Michelle's Gymboree classes, I've definitely cherished every minute of it. As good as it can be, I've learned too that handling the day-to-day affairs of raising kids can be a real challenge. For this, I am ever more appreciative of the sacrifice and hard work that Josie puts forth for our babies and our household each day.

Beyond the day-to-day goodness, I also had time to leisurely catch-up on some reading, movies, gardening, home projects, and, best of all, some songwriting. But this really wasn't my objective. The objective of my sabbatical was to "chill" and relax, and I most certainly did so.

I've even come to appreciate my job more as a result and I am actually looking forward to going back to work.

I know I will always look back on these past nine weeks very fondly. The bonding and time spent with my family will always be priceless to me. And honestly, when it is all said and done, it's the only thing that will ever really matter to me in this life anyway.

Michelle and I spent the day at Disneyland today. This was her second visit to "the happiest place on earth". She's been patiently and anxiously awaiting this visit since her first one back in October.

We arrived to Disneyland at around 9AM and quickly found our way to the line to see the ever-popular Cinderella. Afterwards, we tried out a few rides including the Dumbo ride, Storybook Land, and It's a Small World. We then headed off to Toontown to visit Mickey and Minnie Mouse. Michelle was especially fond of Minnie's house and the various appliances and furnishings in it.

After lunch, we visited Sleeping Beauty (Princess Aurora) and rode the Peter Pan and Pinnochio rides. After Pinnochio, we embarked for the Aladdin live action show where Michelle had a chance to sit near the front in a special kid's area.

After dinner we sat down for the parade, improved upon since our last visit, for which Michelle displayed a great deal of excitement towards. All in all, it was another wonderful Disney day with great weather, another satisfied Michelle and a worn-out Dad. ;-)

Click the photo for the 79 photos of our day...

Congratulations to Yadira on the successful deployment of her first blog.

Welcome aboard, Dren! We're looking forward to all the updates.

Lots of new Flickr updates including Michelle's playdate at Jacob's house, Aidan's new hair-do, Michelle helping with the gardening, and the Millan kids enjoying some quality time together.

Aidan is waking up once or twice a night and is napping often during the day. In between, he makes time to play, eat, and have his pampers changed. Aidan is a calm and peaceful soul.

He prefers for us to walk when carrying him as opposed to sitting down. He's a very curious baby and loves to look at picture frames and through windows. He loves music, even my "piano playing", and finds it to be very soothing. More than anything, he loves his mom's voice and presence.

We're very blessed to have yet another bright and fun baby.

What an amazing show! Front row! About two feet away from the ice.

Michelle was in absolute awe of the show which consisted of all of her favorite Disney princesses. To Michelle's surprise, Sebastian the crab approached to greet her during one of the numbers and one of Ursula's eels even touched Michelle. If that wasn't cool enough, Snow White caught sight of Michelle's dress and waved to her on two separate occasions during the show.

Disney put together a great medley of performances for the first act consisting of the characters, songs and stories from Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, Sleeping Beauty, Mulan, Beauty and the Beast, and Snow White. Cinderella's story made up most of the second act which was then followed by grand finale that included all of the princesses. Michelle made certain to leap out of her chair during the finale to dance along with the princesses.

After the performance, Michelle shook hands with Snow White, Prince Charming, Ariel, Aladdin, Jasmine, and Aurora. Disney definitely knows how to put on a great show!

Last October, Flickr added a new photo prints option to their wonderful photo sharing service. With two adorable kids at home I've been snapping photos and uploading them to my Flickr account every few days. This week I had a chance to give Flickr's photo prints service a try.

Flickr's interface and ordering process in comparison to services I've tried in the past was a breeze. I've never been completely happy with the tedious and time-consuming upload options provided by some of the other photo print services. With Flickr, because all of our favorite pictures were already cropped, color-balanced, and uploaded, choosing prints became a very smooth and convenient process.

Selecting the prints I wanted was as easy as browsing through our photos, clicking upon the 'Order Prints' button, and selecting a print size and quantity.



Once I was finished selecting photos to have printed, I clicked on my cart icon to finalize my order. From this point I then verified my order list and made the choice between picking up my photos at the local Target store or having the photos mailed to me. Since Josie was going to visit her mom the following day we opted for the Target pick-up option.

Arriving at Target's photo processing center, I was promptly greeted by one of their clerks who politely pulled up my order. The clerk even took the time to ask me how I enjoyed the service. She noted that most of the bugs in the process had been worked out and that customers were generally very pleased with the service. In my case, I couldn't agree more.

Overall, I was very satisfied with Flickr's photo prints service. The process was quick, reliable and fun. The price was right and, most of all, the quality of the prints were excellent. I will definitely be using their service again very soon.

Michelle had her hair cut today.

Michelle and Mom baked an apple pie. It was delicious!

Aidan and Dad collaborate on some new songs...

...with 28 new pictures.

Michelle teaches Aidan how to play ball... along with 30 new pictures...

Aidan had his first monthly physical today. He is one ounce shy of 10 pounds and now measures 22 1/4 inches tall. Dr. Dimen was very pleased with his progressed.

Josie also gave him his first full bath today.