I've Been Busy

As much as I'd like to imply that I've been busy raising my son or doing other super-important things, if I'm being realistic, it's been the video games. We have passed through the holiday release season when everyone wants to make sure their games our out so people can buy them for Christmas, and I have more video games than I know what to do with. Literally, I have several video games that I'm sort of playing at random depending on what mood strikes me at the time. I'm sure I'll be playing them for months, considering how long some of these are, reportedly.

Well, not just video games. It's been a busy week at work, too. We did some data collections that I helped out on, and that led to some long days, and mine weren't even the longest. Nothing terribly mentally taxing, fortunately, just writing down numbers and running some lines of code, but it does take some time to get everything lined up, so there was an 11 hour day and a couple of 9.5 hour days last week, which meant that I felt entirely justified just coming home and playing video games until bedtime. And I didn't have nearly the most work, the guy that was in charge of analyzing the data did that. He stayed up till way too late several times and still managed to meet us in the morning for collections. I'd be frustrated that he is younger than me and doing more important stuff, but he does know his signals well. That's probably why we hired him.

My very first thanksgiving in my own home! I'm excited. Jess and I have been considering the menu, and also when we want to have it, being as we are in charge and can do whenever we want. I'm considering just doing it on Saturday, just to get discount turkeys, but then is it still thanksgiving, or just a turkey dinner? Anyway, there's definitely going to be turkey, and stove stop stuffing, and cranberry sauce from a can (you and me, dad!) and rolls and a few other things as well. Also I'm keen on going to Costco just to get an apple pie. We can each have a slice and then give the rest away at work. And Ice cream. Maybe I should make my own again. Yum.

We had a neighborhood get-together party last weekend that went off just great. I made hotdogs and sausages, because they freeze well when you buy too many of them. We met several more neighbors and saw a few old favorites, and everyone thought that Tyler was the cutest baby because they had good taste in babies. I still give credit to Nana for inspiring me to do this, it's been a great hit among the neighbors, especially when I do it in the fall and it's not a billion degrees outside.

So, Tyler, I'm sure that's what you really want to hear about yeah? He's just chugging along, developmentally. He's gotten much better at chewing, though managing the tongue is still a bit of a challenge and he does still choke himself on food a little bit, it's getting better. He's also started clapping, and even cruising a little bit. (That's where he pulls himself up on things and then steps along to the side while keeping balanced with his hands, I didn't realize it had a name until I got a baby of my own.) His crawling is also very impressive, he likes going around the house (with supervision) and getting chased and also looking around corners when he thinks one of his parents will be over there. He's still not a big fan of strangers, but he's manageable as long as parents are within sight.

He's also started liking walking again, and he's way faster at it. We all had a blast a few nights ago when we realized that when I grabbed his hands he'd take off running and bouncing, especially when mommy was right behind, threatening tickles the whole way. That was fun. He's definitely getting a lot more expressive, and expressive in a way that makes me think there's a tiny, emerging personality behind it, as opposed to just the random facial movements I've seen before. Maybe that's just the proud dad talking.

Jess hired a cleaning service to come by the house. When we got back we just wandered around saying 'wow' and looking at how darn clean everything was. Especially down at the floor level where certain family members seem to like to crawl. So we signed up for them to come by monthly. Not enough that we have to stop cleaning after ourselves, but all those tasks that seem to pile up and have to get done 'someday' now just get taken care of. Dusting and cleaning mirrors and the like. Very convenient. We also hired some people to come by and trim up our trees to make them look nice. So now I have people taking care of my lawn, my trees, my cleaning, and even my baby. I just have to hire a cook and someone to do my job for me and I can retire.

-N

Clever title!

Halloween happened last weekend. For the most part, it really just passed Tyler by. We could have gone out and used him to get some candy for me and Jess to eat, but the same could be said for our credit cards, and MasterCard doesn't get fussy when it stays up past it's bedtime.

Most of Halloween takes place after Tyler went to sleep. We stayed up with him for a little while, saw some neighbors and some kids in costume, then Tyler got sleepy and we brought him in, changed him out of his adorable T-Rex costume, put him in Pjs, and then stayed up for a while longer until enough kids had come by to drain our candy stockpile down to a manageable level, then turned out the lights and went to sleep.

I've been wanting to put on another 'invite the neighbors over to meet each other' party for a while now, and Jess and I traditionally kick the event off by printing out fliers at the beginning of the week announcing the get-together, which then forces us to make sure the event actually happens. We just put out some chips and grilled up some hot dogs and sausages, which are great, because when you buy too many of them you can just throw them in the freezer and use them yourself over the next several months. Clever and convenient. Anyway, we met a few more neighbors, introduced ourselves, and shared some food and some neighborhood news. Nothing too dramatic.

Tyler has started to hit the age where he doesn't like strangers. We heard about it from the day care which let us know that at one point, when both of his regular teachers were out for a break, Tyler got kinda fussy and worried. He was okay when a familiar face came back. I did an experiment with him this weekend, letting a neighbor hold him for a while to see what he would do. He lasted about 15 seconds before he got an adorably cute frowny-face and lurched back to daddy. And even that wasn't quite enough. He needed some mommy cuddles before he really calmed down. But it was really cute, I assure you. So be warned, people who have taken care of Tyler before, he may not be as excited to see you next time. It's not personal, it's just childhood development.

Xmas is coming! Jess and I have made our plans and purchased our tickets, burning all my frequent flier miles in the process (and saving lots of $$$). It will be our first time Traveling, or flying, with Tyler. Best of luck to us! Hopefully he behaves himself on the plane, and hopefully we don't get sexually assaulted by airport security. I wish that was a joke.

This is the 700th post on this blog. Woohoo!

-N

The Case of the Amazing Baby

We've had a few wow moments with Tyler over the past few weeks. For starters, he's started doing crazy stuff when he's on his stomach. He's been able to lift his head for a while, and he's been getting up on his knees and rocking back and forth a lot, which is a pretty normal thing for babies getting ready for crawling, but he's started to get up on all fours and then get up his toes. And then sort of flail his feet around so he's sort of half almost crawling and kinda walking on his toes except his hands never move. He's clearly excited to get moving, but he hasn't yet figured out that the hands need to be involved. Regardless, he's getting a heck of an upper-body workout. More and more of that baby budge is starting to turn into baby muscle!

He's starting to work on his little 'pincer motion' too, where he uses his finger and thumb for delicate tasks. It's clearly a work in progress, but he likes looking at fiddly things and he gets really focused and quiet and goes to work. The thumb and finger still have some coordination to work out between the two but it's really fascinating to watch him work. I caught a glimpse of my future son while he was working with a cute, concentrated face. For some reason I could see a shadow of how he's going to look when he's older. I got a bit of a chill.

We went swimming today, too. Well...it's still not that much swimming, truth be told. He has more fun in the tub. The pool is so new and strange that he spends most of his time, near as I can tell, just trying to figure out where the heck he is. We got some splashy time out of him, but the water was pretty cold, and it isn't a really good idea to keep him out in the sun much, even though we do make him wear a hat and a shirt. Delicate baby skin, you know.

Oh, and I got to take him swimming because I got to stay home today. I took a day off because Aunt Sandlin and Uncle Matt are visiting this week. Tyler has gotten a lot of Aunt time, especially around his cheek area. Matt has gotten to hold him and feed him a few times, too. They're going to spoil that kid rotten, I'm sure.

Tyler has been, as reported, working on Carrots this week. He's getting better, but he's still not a huge fan. Those first few bites are still really rough. We balance it out with some rice or oats, nice and familiar, and eventually he gets into the swing of things. It's way messier, though. We've got peas and sweet potatoes to try next. I imagine it will be much the same story as the carrots. Huge mess, scrunchy face, really cute.

As for me, I've been playing some video games in my spare time, but I think I need to get back into the studio to make some more music. There's a few more songs from Actraiser I'd like to cover, and someone made the excellent suggestion of writing a theme song for our work. I'm thinking of making it a little bit like the old Mickey Mouse Club theme. Very upbeat and saccharine. That could be a fun project.

Jess and I are both slacking on exercise a bit. Jess has a better excuse in that her normal Derby stuff has been interrupted by places loosing their rink time and other valid excuses. I was sick last week, but I missed Judo this week because Sandlin and Jessie told Tyler to be cute so I could stay home. He did, and so I did too. And I ended up making Ice cream too. Came out great, especially with strawberries. Yum.

Sandlin has been spoiling us with food. She made us Carnitas yesterday with so many fixins you'd think we were at a restaurant. Jess says she likes Sandlin's cooking better now. So I'll just have to make sure I fix that quite promptly...somehow. There were Kebabs, too. I grilled them with some corn that came out very well. She's also made us some chicken stock that she also turned into Chicken and Orzo soup, and Chilli, and a few other things too. She's a machine in the kitchen. She bought us some smoked salt that seems really good, but you have to store it extra-tight or it makes the whole pantry smell like a BBQ.

Jess gets back from work soon and then we're going to get some burgers with friends of Sandlin's that live in Austin. More people to meet! Oh, that reminds me. Some neighbors around the corner are either moving in or moving out. Either way, we'll probably have some new neighbors to meet quite soon.

-N

Hungry!

Yesterday was Tyler's first shot at solid foods. Yes, we recorded it. As is traditional, we started him with 'rice cereal.' I used to think that this meant Rice Crispies, or something, and the way that all the books talked about how it was supposed to 'thicken the milk' was seriously confusing until I found the stuff that they're really talking about. It's just a rice powder, reminds me of cream of wheat, actually. Yes, I tried some first. Tastes like cardboard.

The first bite was great. Jess put it in his mouth and he just got this really confused look on his face. It took him a few tries to figure out how 'swallowing' worked, but after several more spoonfulls he seemed to get the hang of it. He got so excited he would get a mouthful of cereal and then raspberry it all over the table. Super cute, though, so we let him pass. I got to feed him some, and so did Mom/Grandma/Nana Preecs. He was very excited about the whole prospect, and occasionally chomped on the spoon with a little bit too much enthusiasm, getting it a leeeeetle bit too far back in his mouth. He also wanted to be in control of the spoon which, let's face it, is even more complicated than a bottle, and he's still only mediocre at holding that in place.

I also finally got a look at his first tooth. I've been feeling it for a while, but it's hard to really get a good look in his mouth when there's so much tongue and lip action going on. But it's definitely there. A little white spot on his bottom gums, on his right side, I think. Considering how grumpy babies can get when they're teething, he's been abnormally great. He still sleeps through the night, barring the occasional unintentional belly flip or other wake-up event. He usually goes to sleep right afterwords, though.

Our neighbors with the slightly older baby came over yesterday. He hasn't had much contact with people outside of the family, and we're trying to get him acclimatized to us so he can hang out and we can babysit him. He did a little better last time than the first time we tried, he did a lot more crawling around and exploring. Also, it's cute to see what Tyler might look like at that age. Much more control, and many more teeth.

-N

Short one

I’m back at work now, striving away to find something productive to do. Jess has been the best mother in the world, taking care of Tyler not only all night but also all day. I do my best when I get home, but I can’t always manage the energy to do all that I’d like, which is to do everything and let Jess get some rest. I do what I can, though.

I like our neighborhood more and more. We have lots of people dropping by to say hi and check up on the baby. Our neighbors down the street with the boy around Tyler’s age have come by a few times just to say hi, and it’s nice to think we have neighbors that might just come by and check on us, maybe come have dinner with us sometime. It makes me feel like I’m in a real place. I want to have another neighborhood BBQ . Maybe this time indoors, though. It was pretty hot last time.

Um...actually, I’m just pretty tired, and Tyler is asleep, so I’ll cut this one short. Goodnight.

-N

My simulation is taking too long to run…

So I’ll write.

It’s been a mostly normal week, all told. Things are beginning to shift now that we can openly talk about being future-parents, but for the most part the big changes are still months away. We make little plans here and there, reading magazines about being new parents, things we can and shouldn’t do, but the whole thing still seems abstract and unreal for now. I’m sure that’ll change when I’ve got my own little one that I *can’t ever give away*.

The best thing for Jessie’s pregnancy pains, many and varied as they are, has actually turned out to be exercise. Whenever she feels down, if she goes out skating, or out to derby or hockey, she always feels far and away improved when she gets done. Of course, exercise is usually the last thing you want to do when you feel bad, but the results speak for themselves. The downside is that it’s summer here. Really summer. And that means that just going out and running for exercise is pretty much out of the question unless it’s so early in the morning that the sun has not successfully blistered the earth to unbearable temperatures, or so late at night that we risk having to run in the dark.

I’m working on music again, which is nice. I’ve lowered my standards of what is acceptable in my music, which is actually really useful, because it allows me to produce more stuff. It’s okay if it doesn’t rock me to my very core. If it sounds good, it’s good enough. And since I’m actually creating things, I’m getting better at the production. And with any luck, someday I’ll actually be good at it. Strange, I know.

Also, hoping to try another neighborhood get-together soon. This time I’ll hold it indoors and serve Ice cream or something else cold, as opposed to outside and grilling. It gets hot. I like meeting my neighbors, especially the ones with kids, and especially the ones with new babies. We can steal their clothes once their baby grows up, which I’m told happens pretty fast.
Hey, it’s done! Back to work.

Oh, but one other thing real quick. Remember that little frog from when we were de-swamping the area next to our house? The one we relocated to the front of the house near the garden? Yeah, we saw him again. Still there. Good for him.

-N

More modern News

A few more notes, just while Jess finishes up some more playing in rock band, about stuff that's been happening, you know, recently.

1) We took off this Friday to go tubing with people at work, a tradition three years at this point. There were slightly fewer of us, and it was a little overcast, but that just made it easier to organize and less likely for us to get sunburned as far as I am concerned. Good times.

2) Inspired by Nana, we had a local neighborhood get-together grill. We didn't get *everyone* showing up, but we did get to meet and re-meet some neighbors, and we did get to see a lot of them when we handed out our little 'announcement fliers', though we had to convince some people, first, that we weren't there to tell them about the latest issue of The Watchtower.

The grill went off pretty well, although I made *way* too many hamburgers. Turns out grilling is pretty easy, I'm getting halfway accomplished at it. Lots of fun, lots of food, really hot, and we got a lot of 'thank yous' for organizing it. Next time, we may have to try Ice-cream, or maybe just have it indoors. It was pretty toasty.

Also, Rock band three has been announced, with the following upgrades:

a) A real keyboard
b) Upgraded Drums
c) Upgraded guitar
and, most importantly:
d) A version called 'pro mode' where you are pretty much playing the real guitar, drum, and keyboard parts. I could be learning how to play the keyboard! And the drums better (they'll have cymbals on them now) and the pro guitar, which is optional, has a button for every string and every fret now, and six strings to strum. How's that for realistic? I'm excited.

3) Jess and I are seriously considering joining the new century with sexy new smart phones, but being a good nerd I'm researching the possibilities. As in previous tech revolutions, the hardware is getting outdated every couple of months, but considering we're upgrading from really, really old phones, pretty much anything is acceptable.

4) Jess is still playing...what else...

5) We're trying to plan our vacation time for the rest of the year, which is pretty limited being as we burned pretty much all of it in Europe. We get more every month, though, so we're trying to figure out when we can go see Jessie's family, which we haven't seen for a really long time.

And that's about it. We've got a few more days of Europe and then we're done. It's been a pretty big writing project, and I'm *still* way behind Sandlin on the post count. Heh.

-N