Sunday, July 17, 2005
A rare weekend post. Tomorrow is the day the plumbers/electrical people come to hopefully repair our sewer problems for good. It’s only supposed to be 90, so going with out A/C won’t suck at all. Thankfully, I found a sitter so I can stay here and monitor the work while M. chills in climate-controlled nirvana. Here’s a running diary of my morning with M. Friday. 4:45: M. cries. Wake up and check her.
Thursday, July 14, 2005
Goodbye: Formula. M. had her final two ounces of Similac yesterday. We’ve been giving her 50/50 bottles of formula and milk since we returned from KC. The last can of formula is gone and she’s on the cow full-time now. She doesn’t seem to have noticed the switch at all. As an added bonus, we’re only using a bottle before bed now. She gets a sippy cup the rest of the day.
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
I made it to the 8th inning in last night’s MLB All-Star game, which I believe is the latest I’ve made it in 4-5 years. See, it’s not just fatherhood that slows you down! My man DTS posted some thoughts about the All-Star game yesterday. Perhaps it’s the difference between growing up in St. Louis and Kansas City, because I always loved the All-Star break. Maybe Cards fans were always comfortable with knowing people nationally understood what St.
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
“An infernal, murderous pace.” “Vinokourov is about to pop.” “What we’re seeing is a man destroying all of his competitors.” “Lance Armstrong is an angry, angry man.” I don’t know what I enjoy more about watching OLN’s coverage of the Tour de France. Lance Armstrong’s sublime performance or the pitch-perfect comments the announcers use to describe what is happening. Today was the second snapshot moment for Lance in this year’s tour.
Monday, July 11, 2005
There’s nothing like the feeling of coming home after a vacation. You get to sleep in your own bed, control the food in the refrigerator, don’t have to be polite to people anymore. Yet there’s also the sense of malaise that kicks in. After all, you’ve probably been looking forward to the trip for several months and now it has come and gone. I must say, our daughter did phenomenally well on the trip.
Friday, July 1, 2005
The only good thing about having another sewer line backup is the fact the plumber who was scheduled to pay us a visit between 5-7 got bogged down on his early job. When the emergency replacement finally showed up at 8:30, we had earned a $300 credit on our bill. For those of you who aren’t homeowners and have never had to pay for a plumber to do more than fix a leaky faucet, yes, we still dropped some money even after the credit.
Thursday, June 30, 2005
Is there a scientific/mathematical term for the change in a baby’s level of steadiness and propensity to make sudden movements as they get closer to dangerous objects? For example, M’s ability to remain stationary while holding onto something gets progressively worse the closer she gets to the sharp corner of a coffee table or to our brick fireplace. She is also much more likely to squat down or stand from a kneeling position quickly when she’s directly next to something she can bang her head on than if she’s just sitting in the middle of the room grasping a toy.
Thursday, June 23, 2005
In our cul-de-sac, there are several families that have teenage boys. Most of them are really good kids; super polite and friendly and respectful of their neighbors. Of course, the oldest just turned 15 so there’s plenty of time for that to change. One of our next door neighbors is a 14 year old who just finished 8th grade this spring. When we moved in, he was kind of a small guy with thick, wavy hair.
Tuesday, June 21, 2005
Here’s your biweekly update on the doings of M.. She’s really taken to her walker. She’ll crawl over to it, pull herself up, and if it’s parked against something, <span style=“text-decoration:line-through;">look for you to come help her turn it around</span>. Since writing that Sunday, she’s learned how to slowly and carefully pivot it until her path is unobstructed. Then, she’s off! She speeds away, laughing and yelling, pleased with herself to no end.
Sunday, June 19, 2005
Funny how many of my buddies are like me: celebrating their first Father’s Day as a dad. I hope you all have something fun planned. As for me, S. is working today, so it may just be M. and I hitting the mall for awhile. I’m secretly hoping S. put some money in M.’s pocket and she’ll be getting her daddy a PowerBook if we go into the Apple Store. I won’t hold my breath, though.
Friday, June 17, 2005
Since I buzzed my hair last week, the sized Red Sox hat I got for Christmas no longer fits correctly. I look more like a six year old with his first t-ball cap pulled down over his ears than an almost 34-year-old sporting a well fitted cap. (Somewhere in there is a lesson about hopping on sports bandwagons.) I wanted to go to the gift shop at Fenway to look at another hat while we were in Boston, but we didn’t have enough time to pop in.
Friday, June 10, 2005
This getting up between 5:00 and 6:00 most mornings is getting me down. It seems like everywhere I look in the house, there are Cheerios on the floor. Oh, wait. There really are Cheerios everywhere in the house. I guess I’m fine then. Never mind. Now Playing: <strong>Super Disco Breakin'</strong> from the album “Hello Nasty” by <a href=“http://www.google.com/search?q=%22The%20Beastie%20Boys%22">The Beastie Boys</a>
Thursday, June 9, 2005
It remains hot and sticky in Indy, the first extended heat wave since we moved here almost two years ago (two years next week, as a matter of fact). Yesterday, one of the local weather people said it was sultry. Can you really use the word sultry to describe conditions in a place like Indy, Detroit, Boston, etc? Am I the only one who thinks of being on an island somewhere, sipping run & fruit drinks out of condensation-covered glasses while local music and tropical breezes gently drift through the night?
Thursday, June 9, 2005
Early in my sophomore year of college, I got the bright idea to buy some hair clippers so I could cut my own hair and save $12 a month. $12 a month would buy you three Pizza Shuttle pizzas in Lawrence, KS, so that was a serious savings. I pulled out the clippers, put what I thought was the longest guard on them, and started “trimming” in the center of my head.
Monday, June 6, 2005
No one ever said that life with a baby wasn’t going to be exciting. Friday night, we were sitting in the living room visiting with two sisters-in-law. M. was taking turns playing with a remote control and one of our cordless phones. Right around 8:00, we got a call that the caller ID listed as from the City of Carmel. Thinking it was some kind of sales call associated with the up-coming Carmelfest, we let it ring through.
Tuesday, May 31, 2005
Rather than give you 2500 words on our trip, I’ll force myself to share the highlights via bullet points for brevity’s sake. The weather, as I alluded to earlier, sucked. We didn't expect 85 and sunny each day, but this was nothing close to Chamber of Commerce weather. Luckily, I had some good books with me. M. did phenomenally during our travels. She largely slept on both flights and our 90 minute drives between Boston and the Cape.
Saturday, May 28, 2005
Nothing like spending a week in Cape Cod during the worst May Nor’easter the area has experienced in nearly 40 years. Torrential rains, 50+ MPH winds, temps 15-20 degrees below normal. And believe it or not, I had a great week. Arrived home safe, sound, and tired late Friday night, still buzzing from our tour of Fenway Park Friday afternoon. Pulling my thoughts together over the holiday weekend and I’ll have a recap of the week ready when most of my regular readers are returning to work next week.
Monday, May 16, 2005
We’ve entered another rather unfortunate phase of M. waking up in the middle of the night. Sure, we might be going to bed between 9-10 each night, but waking to yelling and screaming at 2:30 AM still sucks. Last night, M. was in rare form, though. I got up with M. the first time at around 2:30. She had twisted her body into a weird angle, kicked off her blanket, and lost her binky.
Friday, May 13, 2005
I’m referring to my wife and myself. This is what roughly two weeks of 5:00 AM wake-up calls can do to you: We had dinner with some friends last night. I had three beers and S. knocked back 2 1/2 glasses of wine. We got home about 8:45. We were in bed at 9:01, asleep shortly afterwards. Kids suck the life out of you some days. M’s grin when she wakes up in the morning and sees us for the first time makes all the lameness completely worth it.
Tuesday, May 10, 2005
There’s no easy way to say this so I’ll just come right out and say it: until recently, my daughter had no balls to play with. I’ve failed in my responsibility as a parent in allowing her to reach eight months of age before I made sure she had some balls to play with. On a trip to Target a month or so ago, however, I found a package of four whiffle balls for 99 cents.
Thursday, May 5, 2005
We watched this incredibly powerful, moving movie last night. Don Cheadle is truly amazing. My long-time readers know that I have a certain sensitivity about what happened in Rwanda in the mid-90s. I won’t rehash the rant I’ve shared before, partially because you’ve heard it in the past and also because there is another book about the genocide in my To Read pile. I highly recommend the movie to everyone. It’s disturbing, but without requiring graphic footage of the mass murders to achieve that end.
Monday, April 25, 2005
M’s nine-month check up was Monday. She measured in as follows: 20 lbs., 6 ounces, 75th percentile 26.5 inches, 25th percentile 90th percentile on head size Still need to get the girl to lengthen out. The pediatrician I share a mortgage with tells me you can estimate a person’s adult height by doubling their height when they are two. So not time to panic yet. And her mom did quite well for herself in life despite barely getting past five feet in case M.
Sunday, April 24, 2005
Friday afternoon was a little intense. One of S’s med school friends was in town and he stopped by with his girlfriend, who is originally from Nebraska. They were preparing to leave around 5:00 and as we opened the door to let them out, pea-sized hail starts falling. They decided to wait out the hail, so we went back inside and continued to talk. A couple minutes later, I thought I heard something and shushed everyone.
Thursday, April 21, 2005
Or maybe in this case, it should be nerds, since I proudly call myself a geek at times. Anyway, Celebration III, the George Lucas-backed Star Wars convention, is in town. 25,000 nerds, most dressed as their favorite Star Wars character, have descended on downtown Indianapolis. Never have I been so proud to live in the suburbs. Listen, like most males (and some females) of my generation, Star Wars had a profound effect on me.
Wednesday, April 20, 2005
Things will continue to be a little slower than usual here for the next couple weeks. I’m working diligently on my final project for school, and expect the next week to be extremely busy for that alone. Immediately after I submit my project, I’ll start working on my formal application for graduate school, so I’m pulling together some information for that already. Finally, we’re having some work done around the house this week, so I’m spending some of the time I’m usually stuck to the computer outside consulting with people to make sure the right things are accomplished.
Sunday, April 17, 2005
Friday: Tooth number 3 pushed its way through the gums. She also ate her first ever macaroni and cheese while her parents ate at a local barbecue joint, then some ice cream with dessert. Saturday: First time in a real swing. There’s a cool little park close to our house called Carmelot (get it Carmel + Camelot?) that we walked M. over to. They have two swings that you can securely place a little one into, so we dropped her in and started swinging away.
Tuesday, April 12, 2005
My wife called one of her coworkers this morning. The phone was picked up by a boy that’s not quite three years old. “Hi, what’s your name?” “S., is this Mitchell?” “Hi, I miss you!” “I miss you too.” “I’m playing my Nemo game, can you come over and play it with me?” “Not today but maybe some other time. Is your mommy home?” “Yes.” He then sat the phone down next to him and continued to play without calling his mom.
Friday, April 8, 2005
Kids have it made. Examples: today, we took M. to the library and then to a baby clothes store. She got carried around by her parents the entire time. Sales ladies flirted with her. When we got home, she got to sit in her exersaucer, eat, and poop all at the same time. After a new diaper, she sat on my lap in front of the TV for about ten minutes until her eyelids got heavy, her head tipped forward, and she fell asleep.
Monday, April 4, 2005
I slept what seemed to be about 90% of the weekend. That may sound like great fun to many of you, but this wasn’t leisurely, comfortable sleep. This was sleep because my body couldn’t stay awake. There were many factors that could have caused this: M. continued to teeth last week, with the added burden of fighting her first cold. She was up anywhere from 1-3 hours every night last week, in addition to just needing someone to come find her binky an additional 4-5 times a night.
Friday, April 1, 2005
My alma mater jumping the Nike ship for Adidas, errr, adidas? How does this affect the lifetime contract I signed with Nike when I was seven? Would Nike not adhere to the new blue rules at KU? Is it just a crazy coincidence that a few weeks ago I actually tried on a few pairs of adidas that didn’t look too horrible? (To be honest, I’ve been shopping for some new running shoes as my current Nikes are tearing my feet up.