Nearly an Official Toddler

As a follow up to the last post, Tyler went in for his checkup at two weeks after the surgery and everything looks just great. His ears seem to be doing really well for him and there's no more sign of infection. Of course, there was rarely any sign of infection before he got the tubes in, but I'm just going to assume that everything is going well.

Tyler is still *technically* in the baby program at Day care, but he has been spending time, along with some of his other classmates, out in the playground with the toddlers. His whole class has become pretty adept walkers, and so they're out there doing all sorts of crazy things with the REALLY old kids. His teacher tells us that all the other babies tend to stay within sight of her, just to be sure to be safe. Tyler, on the other hand, is off and exploring the whole place with no fear at all. Definitely his moms baby.

Here's some other neat things he has done:

-He wears shoes all day now, except for when he is at home. We've even had to abandon some of the smaller shoes: he's grown out of them.

-He likes throwing balls. He has a small whiffle-ball sized one and one only slightly smaller than a Yoga ball. He saw the latter one day at target and we decided to get it for him. He was really excited the whole time at the store. Now he likes to grab one of his balls, run forward, and throw it as hard as he can, all while squeeling.

-MORE TEETH. His bottom left molar is starting to peek through, and if you feel around in there you can feel the top two molars coming in. Because Tyler is the best baby, he's not complaining about this.

-He likes buttons. He is, therefore, obsessed with the remote and with his little baby laptop that we got him. This also makes it difficult for us to skype with people: he's found the power button on my laptop.

-Jess is at Derby tonight, and I just put Tyler down to bed. After a few minutes, I heard the mobile music turn on through the monitor. Yeah, he did that.

I've been doing Judo, still, though a bout of some sort of nasty fever/throat infection kept me out for a week or so. One our old school at the gymnastics academy had to move, the school pretty much split into two, so I tried going to the other one for a while, which is nice because it has more people for me to practice with.

Jess is doing lots of derby and has even signed up for an ice hockey tournament this weekend. She's worried, because worrying is what she does, but she can skate on ice just fine, and it's actually a mixed-skill-level tournament, so she doesn't have to skate against the really good guys, just the other C-level skaters on the other team.

Our cats are fuzzy, adorable, and REALLY into getting attention, especially in the early morning. Gizmo has taken to jumping up on the bed, meowing a bit, and then taking up a sleeping position in my armpit. To each their own, I'm sure it's really warm there.

Diablo 3 is out, and Jess and I are playing together. Yes, it's a video game, but it's something we're doing together, and we're having a lot of fun in the process. We can't do it lots and lots cause, you know, *baby*, but what time we do get together is really nice, both in and out of game.

-N

It’s been a horrible, horrible week.

Last week was great. Really spot on. We went to Vegas last Thursday to hit the dual goals of attending an Ice Hockey tournament and meeting with Tyler’s new second cousin. Both went fantastically. Jessie’s team lost the games, but they played really well and Jess managed to take down a lot of offensive players. When you’re playing on defense, you tend to use metrics other than ‘goals scored’ for personal victories. Tyler even came to watch one of the games, more or less. He really seemed to like watching the hockey, and whenever he got bored I’d go out and walk around the Casino to distract him with bright lights. Oddly enough, you’re not allowed to stop at any of the gambling machines if you’re under 18, which includes if you’re under 1 and being carried by your dad. This means I was allowed to walk through the Casino, but not stop walking. Heh.

Also, Tyler’s little cousin is a big ol’ cutie-face. She isn’t as mobile as Tyler, but she’s nearly as interesting. She likes playing with toys and interacting with you, but she isn’t trying to run a baby marathon while she’s doing it. A nice change. She liked me a lot after she realized I would make raspberry sounds at her and nuzzle her neck with kisses. She was also really interested in Tyler, and spent a lot of time watching him get into messes, no doubt planning future devilish behavior of her own as soon as she could figure out the whole crawling thing.

Even Sunday morning was pretty good. Tyler did a good job sleeping through the night, except for the one time when all the smoke alarms in the house went off at 4:00 in the morning. We eventually got him back to sleep by playing gently with him on our bed. Very cute. Anyway, we took the extended family out for hamburgers and the cousin was very well behaved. The toys and the distraction of Tyler helped, and her family got to help themselves to delicious hamburgers and shakes.
Then things started to go downhill.

I got the call, then, that Dad was in the hospital getting treated for some severe stomach problems. I had to share the news but at least the prognosis was good. This does, however, mean that I’m now at risk for the same problems in the future. Less than fun.

The flight home was really rough for Tyler. He slept for a while, but then woke up at something like 10:00 his time and when he realized he wasn’t in his usual crib for sleeping he got really cranky. We kept him quiet…mostly…but we were definitely ‘that family’ on this flight. Harsh.

When we got back home, Tigger was looking haggard. So I took him to the Vet in the morning and they determined that he is in the early stages of kidney failure. There is no cure. There’s a treatment which can extend his ‘good life’, but eventually we’re looking at having to say goodbye to a family member of more than 13 years. It’s quite sad, but at least we have some warning and the treatment appears to be working pretty well. We’ll probably get a happy cat for at least a little while longer, and we can let him jump up on counters as much as he wants and eat all the bread and food he wants and generally get away with darn near anything because he’s such a great cat. But at some indeterminate point in the future, we’re going to have to put him down. Which is horrible.

Jess wasn’t immune either. She got in a little fender-scraper (even less damage than a fender-bender. I think I mostly fixed our car with a wet rag) a few days ago and then got a ticket yesterday on her way to derby. She was in a bad mood, quite understandably, but I was able to help out for a little bit.

And then I got the text that Las Vegas Grandma is in the hospital.

And there is a server down at work that means that I can’t work on anything until it gets fixed.

When this week is over, I’m crossing it out on the calendar with a SHARPIE.

-N

Blogging About Something Other than Being Sick

Ha ha, no, just kidding. Viruses for everyone!

I spent the weekend battling off another cold. It's been since nearly Christmas since I've felt normal. With any luck, this cold won't develop into an ear infection again. But it it does, I still have the drops. Also, Tyler had a cough for a few weeks that he transferred over to us. At least we can take cough medicine, no such luck for the baby. Oh, and the antibiotics have as of yet still failed to clear up Tyler's ear infection, though you wouldn't know it by his demeanor. He's on stronger stuff now, and it seems to be working? I guess we won't know until we get him checked out by a professional with an otoscope.

Those of you with Facebook will want to check out Tyler's page in a few minutes. Jess took Tyler off to an exhibit called 'Architects of Air' where there were giant blow-up tents with cool lights inside. Jess took some pictures and video and Tyler had a blast. Really cool looking with all the colored lights. I stayed home. You know, sick.

Another tooth! I forgot to mention that one. The companion to his first top tooth is coming in. (I'm talking about Tyler, just in case anyone is confused about people I might know who are getting new teeth.) Which has led Tyler, for the first time, actually using his teeth to chew food. I've seen him do it! Witness!

In a few weeks we're off to Vegas for a hockey tournament/visit with the Vegas family. I'm sure there will be cute pictures to share with everyone when we are done, and now that we are all experienced with traveling with Tyler, the whole things should be a breeze, comparatively.

Oh, and in case anyone was curious, it wasn't Chicken Pox, so it was probably Hand/foot/Mouth disease. Seriously, there's nothing to discuss that doesn't involve viruses.

-N

Pre X-mas Celebrations

I’ve been hacking away at my to-do list this weekend. Between getting Christmas stuff ready and doing some things with Jessie, it’s been a full couple of days. Here’s the breakdown.

Friday we went to the Ticom Holiday Awards Banquet. We had a nice time, and I got to dress up all fancy in my suit and everything. Jess looked *beautiful* AND she got to go up go stand with all the people who had received Quality Awards. She got one of those because she’s so great and fantastic. Then there was open-bar silliness and the best thing of all, the photobooths were back in effect this year. They snap four pictures of you, and then print out a couple of copies. We took a bunch, and they all came out very nice. Maybe next time I bump into a scanner I’ll get them up on the internet.

Saturday I did some shopping for some...stuff for...people. And then in the evening, we went out to a hockey game. AHL, not NFL, so something like semi-pro, but we went out with some of the derby/hockey girls so Jess got to see her friends again and we got to watch some *fast* hockey. I had a good time, but I gotta say: I really don’t like sports fans. Cheering whenever someone gets smashed up into the wall, booing at the other team, cheering whenever a fight broke out. The ‘home’ team was from Dallas, and the ‘away’ team was from Houston, so there wasn’t even any good reason to have regional attachment. It all seemed very tribal and vaguely unsettling. Good skating, though.

Sunday was put up lights day. Actually, I had something else to do first. I wanted to vacuum, because eventually I’m going to want to put a baby on these floors and I want them to be clean. So I vacuumed the whole house and even moved the cat litter to a more out-of-the-way location so as to minimize tracking litter around on my feet. After that, Jess decided she wanted to put up Christmas lights on the trees, and I didn’t *have* to help, but if you think I’m letting my pregnant wife climb ladders unassisted, you’re crazy. So we got some lights and wrapped up all the trees in front of our house. We would have done the house itself, but most of the front of our house is either stone, two stories tall, or both. So we’ll stick with the trees, for now.

-N

Still blogging

I hope no one interpreted the suspenseful lapse in blog updates since Sunday as any indication that this self renewing Mother's Day gift would not be re-gifted again. Of course we'll keep blogging, I just wanted to have something worth blogging about- but everything just pales in comparison to jet-setting across Europe.

While I haven't personally been up to much (Doctor Who re-runs?), the entire rest of the city is at this very moment, wrestling with the now obvious fact that we will not be bringing home the Stanley Cup again this year. And I know what you are thinking- it's May, why is anyone playing ice hockey?? It's only those teams still fighting in the playoffs, which no longer includes Pittsburgh due to this unfortunate loss in Game 7 to the Montreal Canadiens.

Matt and I, non-native to the core, were in Trader Joe's like the last yupppies in the ghost town when the Muzak switched to sports radio broadcast. Our check out guy asked if we were avoiding the game, (nope, just clueless), and said sometimes folks get aggitated to hear the game broadcast everywhere across the city (picture Sidney Crosby's personal propaganda state). But he figures, whatever, just remember what flippin' city you are in. Of course sports are going to be on.

Hockey is really hot this year. Last year's win did a lot for the fan base, but this is also the last year in Mellon Arena, which our avid readers will remember as the location for anything the Penguins ever did ever. Some people even consider it historic. I'll put it to you this way, my undergrad, the loyalest, most optimistic Penguins fan told me with great regret that he had not been to a single game all year. He was thinking about (spending an exorbitant amount of money) going to the final game, and one of our co-workers said "Don't. There is a 50-50 chance of great disappointment."

To which he replied "The way I see it, it's win-win. Either we have a great Game 7, win, and move up in the tournament, or we lose, and I get to see the last game ever played in Mellon Arena."

Sorry, my gender roles are all backwards

I had another pretty busy weekend, lots accomplished, it was just all *girl* stuff.

Jess and I went on a hike on Saturday. There’s a national wildlife reserve up a bit north of us, and we got our camel backs put together (thanks, Sandlin!) and decided to check it out. It was all quite pretty, and we ended up wandering around a bit off the beaten path to check out some really neat vistas. They don’t call this area ‘hill county’ for nothing. I’ll try to put up some pictures later, but I’m pretty tired from everything else.

After we got back from the hike, I tried out an Alton Brown cooking experiment. I’d seen an episode on making pocket pies and had showed it to jessie, who agreed that it looked like the greatest thing since sliced bread So I cooked up a double-batch of pie crust and made a whole big bunch of pocket pies. Most of them were apple pies. It was my first time making apple pie filling, too. Turned out pretty good. I also made some Pizza pocket pies and a couple with chocolate inside. Then I baked some and pan-fried some more. They all turned out delicious, because it’s hard to go wrong with that much shortening and flower, but the baked ones were a lot more uniform. It also took a really long time, though I was cooking a double batch. I ended up with nearly 30 pies. We’ve still got a lot of them, they keep really well.

Then today, Jess and I switch genders. She went off and played some sports then came back to watch the big hockey game. I did some sewing.

Big thank you to Nana for teaching me how to use a sewing machine, I got a lot of use out of it today. We bought some curtains that we liked but that were the wrong size or configuration for our bedroom or bathroom. We were just going to get them altered, but the cost for the alterations was almost as much as it would have cost for us to just buy a new sewing machine. So we did. (Sew we did. Ha!)

Jess set it up and read through the manual, and then I did again today to learn a few extra skills, like threading bobbins and the like, and learning about all the completely bonkers stitches our machine can do. Then I did some measuring and put together some pretty nice stitches, if I do say so myself.

So yeah, pies and curtains for me, hockey and hiking for Jessie. I need to go, I dunno, build a deck, or something.

Micro news: The birds have returned to our backyard, with the inclusion of our new, covered bird feeder. We’re going through a lot of birdseed. I blame the squirrels, but they’re cute too. I’m going to try and work on the yard next weekend, I think it’s finally warm enough to start planting, and maybe even turning on the sprinklers. Exciting news at work, there is a new project starting up that I get to be a big part of. Not the technical lead guy, but one of the primary workers. I’ve worked my way through the first of my old music textbooks. I want to try a simple composition, either in SATB or piano style, and then go onto book 2.

-N

My weekend project

During the tourney last week, Jess had me at all the games with the camcorder. I told her that if they won, I'd put together a big highlight movie of all the footage. And they did! So I spent a lot of yesterday cutting this together and I thought I'd share it with all of you. I'm pretty proud of it.

Movie 1: The games

Here's part 2, the award ceremony and blooper reel.

Movie 2: Awards and Bloopers

I'd put them on the page, but they look better on their own page. And you can watch in full screen if you want. Enjoy.

-N

Sick Champion

The tournament for our Vegas Weekend is over, and Jess did great. There were four teams in her division, and they went 3 Wins-0 Losses during the preliminary round, and Jess played some excellent defense, especially considering that she had the flu.

I'm not sure where, but Jess had been feeling a little down all weekend, and Saturday night her throat was all scratchy from 'cheering too much' and she was tired. Well the next morning she still felt bad, but Motrin and Red bull got her through her early morning game. After that, though, it became obvious she wasn't just tired, she was sick. Her body kicked on the fever and she felt super, super cold. I piled the blankets on and gave her as much hug-based body heat as I could, but she was just miserable. I took her temperature as high as 101 degrees. (Fahrenheit, for you scientific types).

So the championship game came around and Jess couldn't skate, but she at least made it to watch the game and cheer on her team. Bundled up in coats and blankets, we watched as the team pulled out a victory, 1-0. The Hot Flashes won their division! Jess was all happy because she got to be in the victory pictures and hold the trophy, and they even gave her her own plaque! It's super-cool. (Is the 'award' type of plaque spelled differently? Plack?) Also I had told Jess that if they won the championship I would cut together all the footage I recorded into a neat video and post it up on the internet. And I will.

So Jess hung out in the locker room with her pals and did some victory cheers, and then we came home and Jess conked out, thankfully. Her fever has gone down and she's sleeping as I type this, but soon I'll get her up and start packing for the flight home. We fly at noon and tomorrow we have the contractors come by, so I'm going to clean up a little and get a room ready to keep the cats away from the workers.

Also of note to the family: I got the DVD of pictures from Xmas, and they're fantastic. I copied them all to my computer and left the DVD down here with the Vegas Family for them to enjoy.

Worth One Picture

I wanted to do this blog post with pictures, but I keep being busy at home, so I will replace said pictures with 1000 words. I hear there’s an equivalency there.

Further adventures in home ownership!

Project 1: Killing my lawn.

So I’ve noticed that when you put a brick down on the lawn and wait for a little while, when you come back the place under the brick is just dirt. I’ve also noticed that the grass we have in our lawn is a non-native type, and it is therefore pretty hard to keep it alive during hot, dry summers. So I’m trying to kill my lawn, in stages, and replace the grass with something native and easier to manage. The first step is, of course, killing it.

So I went out and bought a big tarp. It’s currently sitting over a patch of lawn in the backyard that is, already, pretty dead. I’m hoping it will get reduced to just dirt so I can get a bunch of seeds and give them a good watering to see how well the new grass will work out. I’ll keep everyone posted.

Project 2: New bathroom!

So after much soul (read: contractor) searching, Jess and I settled upon a contracting company to redo our bathroom shower. Our current shower is just a one-person stall with a tub next to it and a big ol’ closet that we don’t use on the other side of it. And Jess and I like to shower together. That’s right. I said it. I like seeing my wife naked. *What of it?* Also we go exercising together a lot and often need to shower at the same time anyway. So we’re getting the contractor to come by, tear out the closet and the old shower and give us a new shower that is much larger and has two shower heads. Premium!

Well the price was right and the company seems competent and dedicated, so we’re hoping for the best. They cover all the costs except for tile and the valves (and the glass, but that's later), which are aesthetic things that are probably best left to the customer. So over the past few weeks I’ve learned more about tiles and shower valves than I ever thought I would.

The tile is relatively easy. We went to a place called ‘The Tile Guy’ and looked that their selection of tiles, all of which were a lot less expensive than we would have thought. We weren’t sure which kind we wanted, though, so the guy at the store just let us pluck some tile off the walls and take it home to see which we liked best. Very kind of them. Calculating how many we would need, what with extras for waste and edging and the like, was a bit taxing, but I think we’ve figured it out.

Valves were more odd. For one, Home Depot had *nothing*. I even asked. Just some pipes and replacement handles. Lowes had many more, but nothing in the configuration we (initially) wanted. We were going to have one temperature spot and then a ‘transfer valve’ to put it out to one shower, the other shower, or both. We figured out a better scheme where we would have one temperature valve and two volume control valves so we could turn each head on or off as we saw fit. Well as it turns out that configuration, just with the valves and the handles, was going to run us $700. We could have gone around the corner and bought a couple of full shower sets for like $80 each, but for some reason ordering the parts individually was going to run us a lot higher.

Well I was feeling a little down about that until I went home. Ah, internet. Now that I knew what it was I wanted to buy, It was trivial to find it for much cheaper online. Dramatically so. We decided to change our minds again and just put in two separate shower systems, with temperature and pressure controls on each, and finding and purchasing those valves was a snap, and much cheaper than it would have been at Lowes. (Yes, dad, I’ve already told the contractors, they know.) So now I’m pretty much a professional when it comes to shower valves. Go ahead. Ask me anything.

Project 3: Hockey in Vegas (not a real home project)

Tomorrow (Thursday) Jess and I take off for Sin City once again, for her annual “Hockey tournament and meet up with old hockey friends from LA” gathering. Also it’s nice to visit some of my extended family out there, too. It’s always good fun. I know a lot of them, I get to come to the games, and Its always nice to have a long weekend. I’ll put up pictures as appropriate.

Also…I’m quitting Wing Tsun. I haven’t told my Sifu (teacher) yet, but I will tonight, and I’m pretty sure he doesn’t read this. It’s a few things, but it’s mostly that Wing Tsun is not providing the challenge, or the exercise, that I want out of my martial arts. It’s all cool in practice, and it has its perks, but the main thing you’re trying to train is your sensitivity. Literally the ability of your arms to sense *very* subtle change and respond accordingly. It’s interesting and fun at times, but that’s not really what I want. I want to sweat, I want to hit things. I need a different kind of challenge. There have been other things, too, but Jess helped me decide on this, and so it’s back to the internet to search for another style to try. I’m hoping to find Judo somewhere. I need to learn how to fall. *That’s* a useful day-to-day skill.

Also, I’m losing weight! This whole ‘eating less’ thing seems to be working out for me. Jess tells me she can even tell the difference. When I got back from Xmas break I weighed 230 lbs. I’m currently around 215 most of the time. And I haven’t been that hungry, much, either. I just have to treat food a little differently and it seems like my body will take care of the rest. I want to go running, again, too. I want to see if it feels any different with the equivalent of a young toddler of weight off my knees.

So, yes, that’s the big news, and I’ve clocked in at just over a thousand words so far. There you go. Enjoy my wall of text, peace and hugs to all.

-N

A gaggle of furniture

Two weekends ago Jess and I were in Vegas for a Hockey tournament. Good times all around, though her team didn't do super-great. The point is really to go there and meet up with all of her old hockey friends from LA, and that's what we did. I also got to see Vegas family and check out their new house. I took a bunch of pictures of the place, but chances are that if you wanted to see them, I've sent them to you already.

From Vegas Tourney 09

The week after the tournament, though, we were TIRED. All during the work week Jess and I were both just sleepy all day and it was pretty hard to get going in the morning. So for the weekend, we decided to take some time, relax, and unwind a little from a long week.

Which is why we spent five hours on Saturday in Ikea.

No, I don't know why, but it was pretty restful anyway. We woke up LATE on Saturday, went running (Jess is now faster on her feet than I am) and then decided to go see if we could get some more of our furniture situation worked out. We knew we liked a bedroom set that we saw at Ikea, so we were going to see if they had all the pieces available for purchase (they were out the last time we went.) We went there and lo-and-behold they did! So, before anyone else could steal our *precious*, bought our entire master bedroom. And all for about the same price that we had seen *just a bed* at other locations. Man that store is fun.

From Our New House

Unfortunately, there was no way we were going to be able to get all that stuff home in my little car-sized car, but Ikea delivers! So we set up a delivery for the next day and dropped off all our boxes of furniture off with them. They'll deliver anything in a box to your location, up to 600 lbs worth of stuff. (Over that is just an additional charge). And after we got all that set up…we went through the whole store again! Well there was more on our list than just the bedroom, and since we were there and all…

So two shelves, two dining tables, and a bunch of extras later, we had our living room, breakfast nook, and library all furnished up too! Getting things accomplished is restful! Unfortunately, the tables weren't going to fit in my car either. (By the way, ever bought two dining tables at the same time before? Yeah, me neither. Weird.) So we went back to the delivery center and added the two tables to our delivery. Total weight: 599 lbs. High five!

So the rest of our Saturday consisted of bringing back what furniture did fit in the car, assembling it, and then re-doing all our TV stuff to take advantage of our new, organized system. And it all worked out great. Having all the consoles right next to the TV and the receiver (and our net hub) meant that most of the connections could be made right there. Very nice! And now all of our DVDs and game have a place, and they are in that place, and there are no more unnecessary boxes in our living room. *Room complete!* (Except that we need some end tables and a coffee table, but it's pretty good for now!)

And the next day, the rest of the furniture arrived. Ten boxes worth. Well Jess and I spent the entire afternoon with screwdrivers in one hand and Allen wrenches in the other (and the occasional hammer, thanks dad) putting together a whole lot of stuff. And you best believe we got it all done! Every last piece assembled and ready for the delivery of our mattress in a couple of days to make our master bedroom *functional!* And my hands and wrists were sore enough the next day to offer proof of exactly how much stuff that was. I even got to put up my big, stumpy candles that we got just for the bedroom. Yay!

Short news! I tested for my next 'level' in Wing Tsun. We don't do belts, but at this point I get to attend the advanced class and start learning the Chi Sau drill, which is the real bread and butter of the art. Jess has an eye appointment and I a teeth appointment this week. Our new bed is King size, hopefully enough for us and two kitties to all lay on together. We've been watching action movies in High-Def with our awesome new sound system and MAN is that nice. There is an awesome park down the street from our house that Jess and I have been running to. It's got one of those nature walk/activity stop things, so we run for a few hundred feet and then do pushups or leg lifts or whatever else the signs tell us to do. Good exercise, but the jog home at the end is *rough*.

Movies maybe coming later, I've pegged tonight for playing video games! I'm an adult, I get to do that if I want!

-N