Tyler's Birthday Party, et. al.

We just got back from Tyler's fourth Birthday party.  We had it at 'pump it up'.  We have been there several times before, but never for one of ours.  Tyler had a great time, though we had to take care of a few rough patches when he got hungry.  Lots of running around and bouncing.  Casey had a good time too.  She liked watching people and watching the big bounce houses and watching the walls and everything so much that eventually she just got exhausted and fell asleep on my shoulder.  Very sweet of her.  We had chocolate cake, everyone had a good time, and the whole house except for me is napping now.  I went out and raked leaves.  I think I need to do some gardening this weekend too.  It's spring, which lasts for like 2 weeks here in Texas.  Should take advantage of the outdoors now that its tolerable.

Update on the kids!  Tyler seems to be slowly growing out of his obnoxious phase.  Jess and I were talking and she was lamenting that he was growing out of the 'cute' phase.  He's not going to be three anymore.  I laughed at her.  I hated three!  It was the worst!  Glad for it to be behind us.  Here's to better years to come.  Tyler is also old enough to have proper Legos at this point, which is great for me, cause now I can buy them under the cover of buying them for him (they will not always be for him.

Casey is growing up big, too.  She can cruise with one hand, and is *desperate* to be able to walk like her big brother, has been for months.  She wants in on walking as fast as she can.  She's getting there, too.  Her legs are getting stronger all the time.  I think as soon as she figures out the last bits of her balance, she's be unstoppable.

Casey's first word was MaMa, this is true.  But her *favorite* word, at least for now.  Is Dada.  She is 100% Daddy's girl.  Whenever she sees me she leans out and stretches out her arms so I can pick her up.  There are times when she will let mom get her, but just as often, she turns right back around and tries to get on me.  Which is nice, I didn't get that as much with Tyler, so it's good to have a kid that thinks you are the greatest in the world.  She also has started to babble a bit, and even says, I'm convinced, "Tyler".  Which sounds a lot more like "Da-duuuh".  When Tyler leaves the dinner table, Casey always wants him to come back.  She likes that older brother, and Tyler likes that he has someone that wants to pay attention to him all of the time.  He roughhouses with her a little, but is careful, more or less.  I have to teach him to pay attention to Casey's face and sounds so he knows when to lay off.

I have decided to become a VR developer.  This has meant that in the past few months, I've bought an Oculus Rift dev kit, learned C#, learned Unity, and have been modeling things in Blender.  I am, of course, not *great* at any of these yet, I only get to work on things after everyone else in the house is asleep.  But there was a VR Austin meetup group that I took a little VR music video to and got a lot of positive feedback.  People liked it, simple as it is.  I learned a few nice things, and have ideas for what the next iteration of my music video will be.  My plan is to do this until I either get good enough that people will pay me to make VR music videos for their band (hello, Austin!) or that someone hires me to work on VR stuff instead of defense stuff.  It might work, or it might not, but it feels like I'm *doing* something, and so I don't feel hopeless anymore.

Micro-News!

We got a big fancy TV and moved the 'old' TV upstairs in front of the treadmill.
I've been running a LOT.  My long distance record is 9.5 miles.  I'm considering signing up for a half marathon at some point.  Jess is signed up for a 10K next month, because she has started running long distances too.  Not sure what sparked this, but I have an app called "Zombies, Run" which keeps me well motivated to run more often and run longer when I go.  Able Township needs me!
I'm playing *way* fewer video games now. All my time is spent raising kids, working, programming, running, or catching up with Jessie.  Not much time for anything else.
Jess is a manager now.  She is super important.
We are considering the purchase of additional real estate, but there's a lot of math involved before we know if it will work.
Casey has her 8 front teeth in now.
We will be traveling up to Seattle soon to visit family, that will be nice.
Went to the Austin Rodeo.  Tyler had a great time on all the rides.  Pig race was fun too.  No cowboy hat for me, yet, though.

Till next time,

-N

Telling some Stories

Casey likes to talk now.  It's not babble, which is when your baby starts mimicking the sounds of language.  This is some sort of pre-babble, where she just looks at you right in your face and sticks out her tongue and raspberries you.  Then you raspberry back.  Then she repeats.  This can last up to an hour. Then it transitions to happy shrieking.

Today, I was putting Tyler to sleep.  He grabbed my arm, rolled over and just said.  "Stay, Daddy."  It's been a while since he's done that.

Casey can keep her head up really well now, as well as roll from her front to her back.  We're working on sitting up, but there are two problems.  One is that whenever she gets excited, she likes to straighten out her body.  This means she flings herself onto her back without warning.  The other is that whenever she sits, she kinda leans forward, and forward, and forward, until she's essentially eating her toes.  Then she rolls to her side and then is right back on her back again.  It might be intentional.

I'm running infrequently, but being able to run at all with the kids in the house is a pretty big accomplishment.  Casey sleeps really well, though she can occasionally be hard to put down.  We've taken to cutting off her naps at 4:00, or sometimes earlier.  It means she gets a little loopy in the late afternoon, but she usually perks up when you nibble on her fingers.  Anyway, my 3 mile time is still roughly 45 minutes, which isn't good, but it's faster than when I'm sitting down.  And if the calorie counter is to be believed, it burns a lot of fuel.  (I'm not convinced it is to be fully believed.)

Fran was here last month, and Mom and (eventually) Dad are here this month.  We're going to go to a photo studio and get adorable pictures of everyone taken.  And then we aren't going to share those pictures at all.  We're just going to hoard them and look at them in dark corners where no one else can see.  This is a joke, of course.  Watch out for Christmas presents.

Tyler took some swim classes.  We're not trying to turn him into an Olympian, we just want him to feel comfortable (and safe) around a pool.  He started out pretty nervous, but got better at each class.  By a few times in, he was excited to go.  He's a decent swimmer now, he just keeps popping his head up instead of forward, and when you tell him to jump in the pool, he sits down, turns around, and shuffles in backwards.  Not a bad reflex.

It was my birthday last week!  I got to make a yellow cake.  It was really good, despite the fact that Jessie thought it was dry but who cares about her opinion anyway.  I haven't had any Ice Cream yet.  I'm saving that for later.  I don't eat ice cream as a matter of responsibility now.  Not eating ice cream reminds me that I'm being careful about what I eat.  The last time I had any was during my birthday last year.  I figure once a year is pretty responsible, I'm just going to reserve that splurge for another time.

I still hover around between 202 and 205 on the scale, with 199 always hovering just out of reach.  I'm really hungry, though.

If something big and dramatic happens, I'll try and let you know.

-N

Baby Casey Arrives

I sat waiting in an empty delivery room for what felt like a really long time.  I had all my stuff on, but no baby to go see, yet.  Eventually mom and dad came back from getting breakfast and the nurse came to get me.  Jess was already much of the way open and I sat down behind the screen to chat and keep her occupied.  She made a lot of odd faces; she could feel a lot more of the procedure this time, what with people rooting around in her abdomen for upwards of half an hour.  Jess was doing well, and eventually I got up my courage to look around the screen.

I couldn't see much from my direction, but the entire time the surgical staff was chatting away about whatever was on their minds, clearly so expert at this procedure that we were in quite good hands.  Eventually I saw them reaching in and pulling a baby out.  Casey came out head first, yanked with intensity and care, and was quickly taken to the corner to get checked up.

She was quiet for a little while, but made some cries that were loud enough to ensure us of her vitality.  I went over to check on her and she was squirming and crying a whole bunch and being really cute.  I gave her my fingers to grab, and that seemed to calm her down.  I think she was just really tired.

After a while of alternating between taking pictures, staring at her cute face, and watching Jessie get put back together, we took Casey over to see Jess.  As soon as Casey heard her mom's voice, she opened her eyes.  I made sure they both got good kisses and nuzzles, then held on while the surgery finished.

Jess was reassembled without incident and we rolled back to the room with Baby in mommy's arms.  Jess was in a much better state than after her previous cesarean, very anxious to get a hold of Casey and start breast feeding, and Casey was in the mood too.  She kept searching around with her mouth for something to put in.  She found her hands a few times.

Back at the room the nurses helped us with the first breast feeding, and Casey did really well.  We're still sorting out a few details, especially as Casey is so small, inexperienced, and tired, but things seem to be going pretty well.  It's making Jessie smile.

I took a short nap, got some food at the Cafeteria, and we have spent much of the day sending pictures around to everyone we know of all the cute happenings in our room.  Casey and mom are both doing great.  It's a good day.

-N

T-minus 4 weeks

Casey is, at most, 4 weeks away. Knowing the date like that is odd, but really cool. Especially as Jess is heading back into the unpleasant parts of pregnancy, where you feel really, really big. It's good to have an end date.

Tyler's birthday happened this weekend, and it was a lot of fun for all parties involved. I always like getting lots of stuff for people, and we got to invite a bunch of friends of Tylers (yes, he is old enough to have friends) out to Kiddie Acres, give them a bunch of tickets, feed them lots of food, and everyone had a really great time.

Kiddie Acres is a little fun-park down the street a bit from us. The rides are all out of some old carnival, but for little kids it's a fantastic time. Everything is their size, there are essentially no lines, and they get to go around to do all sorts of stuff. Tyler rode on all the rides and got really excited when people he knew from school showed up. They all ran around and had a blast. Tyler even rode a pony, which was great. A couple of the girls from his class wanted to ride the horses, but got scared when they were close. Then they watched Tyler do it without fuss, and when he was done the moms asked him if it was scary, to try and motivate their daughters. He's so brave.

Right about the time the boys were getting hungry, the pizza came out. We ordered too much, but that's part of the fun. Then we had cake! Pro tip: getting the cake for your 3-year-old's birthday from Whole Foods might be overkill, but they do make a tasty cake. The parents all appreciate it, at least. Then everyone got to run around a bunch, we gave away a bunch of copies of books, and heard a lot of people tell us that they drive by this place all the time and had no idea it was here.

I liked it.

I've been getting poked a lot recently. I got a DTAP booster because Casey is on the way and because other people are stupid about vaccinations, and we brought Tyler along to watch daddy get a shot. Tyler had just gone for his 3-year checkup and no shots for him (Lucky guy) so we thought he would get a kick out of watching daddy go through it. We asked if he wanted to sit on my lap to watch, but that seemed too scary for him. As if being so close might accidentally get some needle in him, too. Anyway, I was very brave, and Tyler got to see the process. He gets a lot of shots at age 4.

Oh, and then the next day I had to go to the lab to give some blood for tests. Yeesh.

Casey has been very mean to Jessie today. She's graduated from big kicks that get Jess right in the lungs to an uncomfortable stretching that makes Jess have to lean over and grimace. I can usually wake her up by talking to her belly. It's a neat trick, but I don't think Jess appreciates it. Jess also often has Tyler jump up on her lap when she's snacking so he can get some of her food. She told me that now she has two kids stealing food from her.

Tyler has moved up a grade! We wanted to get him into his new class as soon as we could, so that he'd be used to it by the time he had to go through a second transition when Casey comes. He's really liking his new class. The first day he came come with a worksheet where he has started tracing letters. He did some pretty good work on the letter 'L'. That afternoon he told us how much he liked Ms. Patty's class. The next day he gave us a worksheet with a bunch of W's on it. They looked really good! We were quite proud of him. After that he asked if he could just stay with Miss Patty all day. The transition period is supposed to last for a week. Tyler made it 2 days. When we came to pick him up today he was playing in the *big kid* playground. They have some raised stepping stones that the kids like to jump between. Tyler was on his knees carefully stepping from stone to stone and chatting with the others. We stood to watch for a while. One of the other kids came up and told Tyler that his parents were here. He got a big smile and ran over and crashed into us. It's nice when he does that.

I ran for 4.25 miles today, and couldn't manage 1.5 miles on Monday. No idea why.

-N

He's growing up

I am also not blogging very much, and I also have an excuse. I have a two-year-old. I haven't had him for that long, but you'd be surprised how often that excuse comes in handy. “You look tired.” “Well, I have a two-year-old.” “You want to come out to the game?” “No, I have a two-year-old.” “Noel, can you help us with a project?” “Sorry, two-year-old.” “Noel, could you pass the ketchup?” “TWO YEAR OLD.” It's a magic bullet.

We kept Tyler's actual birthday pretty low-key. We took him out to the ice rink, one of his favorite weekend diversions, met up with Natalie and Brian and grant out there, and had a great time. Brian had taken a class in ice skating when he was in college, and then hadn't been on skates in the intervening 10 years, so I was better than him for, like, two minutes, tops. Grant got accustomed to the skating pretty quickly, and between the myriad of adults, we were able to cycle through skating children enough to give our backs a periodic rest. Tyler is getting to where he can stand on his own two feet, though he doesn't cover much ground, and mommy is never more than a few inches away.

After skating, everyone came over for pizza and ice cream cake. Did you know that Tyler doesn't like pepperoni on his pizza? What kind of kid am I raising? He was also able to blow out his own candles, which, when you remember that there aren't very many of them, isn't as wild an accomplishment as it might sound. We got him some random presents, neat shirts, cool toys, a book or two. Kid stuff. He thought it was all pretty great.

Easter also happened. We hid some eggs around the house, stuffed with random small things and fig newtons. Those were a hit. We also went out to the park for the big neighborhood easter egg hunt. Got some candy there, too, and got to see a fire truck up close.

And, then, of course, there was Disney Land.

I am...not a big fan of Disney Land. For the price you pay for the tickets, it seems like there's a surfeit of fun and an overabundance of standing in line. There were some definite highlights, and Tyler is still talking about “Mr Toad Ride.” Recalling how it was “Kinda scary.” and “Flashy lights”. Dumbo, Small world, teacups, all hits, though. Also, instead of heading back to the hotel, Tyler just fell asleep on my shoulder for half an hour while I carried him around. That's the thing you can only really do if you're a dad: that critical combination of comfort, upper body strength, and willingness to put up with a lot of discomfort to get some really good cuddles out of your kid.

Nana and Grandpa were also a lot of fun for Tyler. He got lots of hugs and kisses, many nice pictures, and many many smiles. He was a wonderful model grandson for his elders. He did keep waking up really early, though. Stayed on Texas time. Made it so that we got lots done before his morning nap, though. The second day we went to the Long Beach Aquarium. Tyler got to touch a stingray and see some really pretty birds up close. After that we went to the La Brea Tar pits, which I never did see while I was in LA. But it was pretty great. We also got to see the big squad of people that we started Raytheon working with, most of whom have kids of their own. Some nice family-reunion sized pictures came out of that.

The one tragedy was when Tyler, being a toddler, tripped and smacked his forehead on the chair I was sitting in. It swelled up really spectacularly, but a quick application of ice seemed to do it a lot of good, and the bruise it turned into didn't seem nearly as bad as we thought it was going to be. It's nearly healed up, too.

And in the last bit of Tyler news, some neighbors down the street are moving out, and they asked us if we wanted an extra kid bed. Well the timing worked out great, and after buying a mattress, some spider-man sheets and a Mario Brothers blanket, Tyler is, at this very moment, sleeping in a Big Boy Bed. We also purchased a waterproof mattress cover and a guard rail. Not to keep him from escaping, to keep him from falling out. Kid likes to sleep in corners, and I've definitely found him facing the wrong way in his bed more than once. He's still small enough, for now, that he can sleep sideways in the bed.

The first night in the big boy bed actually went really well. We had been building it up for a while, he got to see us assemble it, and then night came and we put him in bed, tucked him in, and he just waved goodbye and said “goodbye mommy”. Then slept like a log all night. What a good kid.

The only thing I'm up to that is not Tyler-related is REAPERCON! As many of you know, Reaper is a company that makes Miniatures, and I supported a program last year where you preordered a whole bunch of miniatures and got hundres of them for a great price. They're in the process of shipping out now, but last year when I bought into the deal, I decided I should try to see if I actually like painting minatures. I do rather a lot.

The company, named Reaper, has a once-a-year painting convention where there are classes, paints, minatures, board games, and all sorts of fantastic things to do. I have signed up for four classes, amd going to pack up my stuff, and then wednesday evening I drive up to Denton, TX, for 4 days of paining and relaxing, all while Jess takes care of Tyler for me. She's really nice to me.

So, what, is that, 10 paragraphs about Tyler, and one about me? Yeah, that ratio seems about right.

-N

The Exciting Conclusion of the Waffle-Off

You'll need a bit of backstory to get to the thrilling conclusion of this post, and I'm afraid the story goes much farther back than the story is thrilling.  A fine Juneau institution is the Waffle Co., and after enjoying some of their Ham and Cheese waffles while on a visit home from grad school, Matt and I thought we should try to make savory waffles at home. We acquired a little waffle-maker for the project, and some busy school night decided to give this a go.  In my memory, it took a long time.  You add cold ham and cheese to waffles, they take a long time to cook.  If you ask Matt, you would think the waffle-maker destroyed our breakfast-for-dinner optimism, that it ruined more that just one part of an evening, but perhaps our entire faith in waffles.  I actually believed for a long time that Matt didn't like waffles.  Any Sunday morning where waffles might suit me, he would snarl at the waffle-maker, or sigh in disgust, and we would usually skip to pancakes, which he says "are faster." Really, the sting of slow waffles had stung too deep, and that trust was irreparably broken, never to heal.

So imagine my surprise, when for my birthday, Matt gave me a waffle-maker.  A very nice waffle maker, the kind that flips over (I don't understand this, but the one at the dorms did this).  Tragically, it was dented, so it was returned to a store that was SOLD OUT of such nice waffle-makers, presumably to people who hadn't been betrayed by them before.  But this started the conversation again.  Didn't we love waffles?  Was it too painful to invite them back into our lives, or could we try to see past the failure of the waffle-makers to the joy that waffles bring?  Matt held firm that the first waffle-maker was "too slow," that better waffle-makers could do the job faster, possibly fluffier and toastier (sins I don't recall from the original waffle incident, but like I said, we seemed to have experienced this differently). Maybe he could love waffles again, but surely there was a better way??

At my second birthday party, at Betty's, I got another new waffle maker.  This was good, because the first present came with 30 lbs of waffle mix (see? he wants to love waffles again).  The new waffle-maker didn't have flipping capacity, but it did have George Foreman on the front, and I instinctively trust his judgement on waffles.  And now we have two waffle-makers.  Not that I am picking favorites, but we thought we should settle the score, once and for all.  Was the old waffle-maker too slow?  Would a new one be faster? Fluffier? Toastier?  We mixed up a batch of waffle-mix, and turned on both waffle-makers for a Waffle-Off- a side-by-side duel of breakfast food.

That brings us up to speed. Are you ready for this? The results of the first official Waffle-Off?

It turns out BOTH waffle-makers take about 3-5 minutes to cook a waffle. BOTH waffle-makers make waffles that are about right for one plate.  However, the key breakthrough of the experiment was making waffles in parallel- you get twice as many waffles in the same amount of time.  Oh joy! The wait was over!  We compared the relative merits of each (the old being slightly toastier, the new being slightly fluffier, both making a fine waffle), and sought the perfect combination of toppings.  There was so much TIME to indulge in peanut butter and applesauce, or applesauce and Strawberry Rhubarb Quince Jam, or plain syrup, or peanut butter and jam... so much TIME to linger on the toasty, fluffy waffles. And it was good to linger, I had missed waffles- their strange geometry being vastly superior to pancakes for capturing toppings. But it was really momentous to see Matt finally taking joy in waffles again, letting go of that old burden and setting aside his grievances to just enjoy breakfast again.

Dad is going to be staying with me this weekend.  Perhaps, if there is time, we will have waffles.

Hey, guys, pictures!

These are going backwards, chronologically, because I'm too lazy to flip them all around.



The family underground. Underground! Inner Space caverns. We'll totally take you there if you come visit.



A very proud daddy and a very messy son.



Tyler spent more time making a mess than eating any of the cake. To me, this means he has more experience with finger paints than candy, which is a pretty good track record, if you ask me.



I don't know if you guys remember, but there's a series of pictures from when Jess and I were first dating and I was meeting the nephews. They're watching me play games and sloooowly crawling over until they can see what cool toys Uncle Noel is playing with. This reminds me of that.






Showing off his walking and playing skills for the whole family.



And, finally, modeling his sexy new Carhartts. Thanks, everyone!

-N

Lots of family over here. And sickness.

Meanwhile, down in Texas, Tyler has turned 1 year old. That's right! This time last year I was staying up from 2 to 6 in the morning, monitoring a baby who couldn't even open his eyes all the way. When you pinched his cheeks *nothing happened*. All he could eat was formula. He didn't sleep through the night. I didn't have to go to work in the morning. It's been a heck of a year, watching this little guy grow up from his larval stage to a fully functional pupal toddler. He's walking a lot, he wants things and has figured out ways to ask for them, he has emotions and desires, he can learn things. He's a lot more fun, now.

And being as he's a toddler, and will be soon tearing around the world with reckless abandon, everyone got him adorable Carhartts overalls. Which are great, because the knees are double-stiched, perfect for all the rowdy activity Tyler will be getting up to as a toddler now.

So we threw a birthday party for him...okay, if we're being honest, the first birthday party really isn't for the kids. Maybe not even the second, either. It's for us. We invited over a bunch of friends, mostly ones with kids, and had cake and made hot dogs and socialized. Tyler was busy nailing the transition from two naps per day to just one, so he was asleep from 12:00 to 2:00 and missed the early parts of his birthday. But never mind, it let me have more time to grill hot dogs.

The cake was, as predicted, my favorite part of the proceedings. We got him his own cake, dropped it on his high chair and let him do whatever he wanted to it. We took video, I'll let you know when we put it up somewhere. Anyway, ht started off a little tentative, but really started to enjoy getting this stuff all over his hands. Jess would feed him little bites here and there to eat, but he seemed less interested in eating, and more in making an *incredible* mess. He was wearing his Carheartts, though, so he was well protected. Then at the end I sat all close to him so he could make adorable messes all over my face too. I was a very proud dad.

We got some nice presents, too. We got him a little kids laptop, which he seems to enjoy a lot more than I thought he would. He gets really into pushing all the buttons and then opening and closing the laptop to hear it make noise.

Also, it's visitor time for us! We had Jessie's sister and her mom (who is still here) visiting us this weekend. Mostly for the birthday, but also because we like them. So we took them out to Innerspace Caverns, a natural cavern formation near us that we actually hadn't been to before. In the grand scheme of all the caverns everywhere it's probably not the greatest you could visit, but it's really neat to explore even just the areas to which they've put trails. Makes me want to maybe come by sometime to try their more extreme expeditions. The ones where you squeeze into tiny spaces. Maybe. We'd have to see. I'm not really shaped for tight spaces.

So after sending sister and her boys home, Tyler and I have been alternating illnesses for a while. He had a fever that hung around for a few days over the weekend, and when we took him into the doctor, she noticed that he had a couple of really bad ear infections. Which is crazy, because *we would never have known*. Seriously, the kid doesn't make a fuss, and I have no idea why. I've had an ear infection recently. It sucks. For some reason, he doesn't feel like making a big deal of it. Anyway, we got him some antibiotics yesterday, and then I went off to Judo, which has been going swimmingly, by the way, and then I got home and...got really sick.

I was pretty fevery last night, and very, very achy. It's died down, thank goodness, but I'm still making sure I'm never more than a few steps away from some painkillers. Which is a bummer, because there are some classes going on at work that I really wanted to take. I'll catch days 2 and 3, but I had to review the day 1 stuff at home. Which turned out not to be too big of a deal, because I knew a lot of it already. Bad time to get sick, though.

So I definitely owe you guys pictures from the party and the caves and the like. I'll let you know when I get those up. Also, this is post #750 on this blog. Numbers, right?

-N

Finally, Rain

None of this '30 minutes of heavy downpour and then nothing' kind of rain. Real rain. It's been precipitating on and off for the past three days. That'll fill up some reservoirs, I'll bet. I worry a little much about water reserves here in Austin. We are a leetle bit close to a dessert, and changing weather patterns could hit us pretty hard. Though clearly before we hit the 'people start dying of thirst' stage I'll probaby hit the 'my lawn is getting pretty dry' stage, so I think I'll have some warning. Regardless, for now, we've got moisture. My roof has been well-tested, my grass is greening up, and the few of my#1 potted plants that don't have holes in the bottom are looking like serious mosquito hazards. I should probably go fix that, but the last time I tried to drill a hole in the bottom of some of those masonry pots I shredded a drill tip pretty well.

Tyler went to a birthday party this weekend. Not his own, clearly. But one of his classmates from school was turning one and we found an invitation in his cubby. As it turns out, they live about 10 minutes of walking away from our house. Which would normally mean we would walk, but instead we drove. I don't know if you heard, but *rain*. Anyway, there was a lot of activity, strange faces and sounds, and occasionally Tyler lost track of a mommy or a daddy and got a little fussy, but on the whole he was a very good guest. The birthday baby was sort of nonplussed by most of the presents, except for the *ball* he got. #1 excitement was definitely reserved for the cake, though. He plowed through that thing. I think the mess is most of the fun. His family had a one-eyed, very fat, incredibly friendly cat, so they seem like nice people, but I didn't see any video game consoles, so I don't really know...

Tyler is a fiend for puffs. He's definitely figured out how chewing works, and he's gotten good enough at it that we no longer have to ration him to one puff at a time for fear of him choking himself with his zeal. We've been trying to teach him some baby sign language for 'more' but at the moment he's eschewing the traditional sign for simply 'slapping the table'. Whatever works, I suppose.

Christmastime is almost upon us, and I've been shopping. Thank heaven for the internet, I don't know how I'd do this mobile Christmas thing without it. Jess is already getting excited about the prospect of staying home next Christmas, though. I'm worried a bit about Tyler on the plane, but I think we're set up to do it just about as well as we can. We'll get him some new toys to keep his attention and keep him dosed up with puffs. If he wants to eat those things for the entire flight and maintain a happy attitude, then he has my blessing.

Sensei mentioned at Judo that he might give me a black belt before Christmas. OH MAN!

-N

Happy Birthday to me

Whenever I write one of these I like to go back to the previous one and read about where we were last time I wrote. Two weeks can be a heck of a long time in baby-years. The biggest change since last time, in fact, has been a big one. Tyler is a day-care baby now. That's right. We got him through a good 5 months of being a home baby thanks to everyone's help with babysitting, but now it's time for him to start learning some other lessons, like how to interact with other babies and how to get sick rather a lot.

The place Tyler is going for school (It's just easier to start thinking of it like that now) is called Bright Horizons, and it's part of a nationwide chain of daycare centers. A few people we work with go there too. It seems really nice, so far. Tyler has gotten along with the new environment surprisingly well...well, not that surprising when you consider that it's Tyler, I guess. But his first day Jess was very much nervous and so we 'happened' to go out to get lunch and it 'happened' to be at a place really close to the day care. We stopped by to see him and he was having a pretty great time, just hanging out on the floor and playing with toys...stuffing them in his mouth, that sort of thing. He was really only mildly interested in us, really, and after we got ourselves some Tyler-cuddling time, we just put him right back down and he went back to playing. We're told he has had a couple of rough mornings so far, but I'm sure with experience, both from Tyler and from the day care staff, they'll learn his cues better and that will smooth out. But considering the abruptness of the change, Tyler seems like he's fitting in quite well.

There's seven other babies in Tyler's class and two teachers. The babies go up to a little over a year old, but after that they become toddlers and graduate up to the next class. There's a lot of cuties in there, but Tyler is, of course, the cutest. Donna is one of the oldest. She has a full head of hair but no teeth, and she likes people a lot. She came up and flirted with me on the first day. One of the days Tyler even took a nap over two hours long. He missed his morning nap, though, so that's to be expected, and he didn't seem to happy about that.

But yeah, so far things have been going great at the day care. Friday we didn't even have to go see him at lunch, and he's always happy and smiley when it's time to pick him up in the afternoon. Also, no sickness, yet, though I'm sure it's just a matter of time with so many babies around.

Solid food has also been going well. He's still mostly just on rice, which he really likes but it is occasionally to slow for a very hungry baby. Today, though, we got him some oats to try. They didn't taste much different than the rice (both like cardboard) but he had some to eat and didn't complain or anything. What a great baby.

Mom Preecs was here to take care of Tyler for his last two weeks at home, and the two of them got along just great. So great, in fact, that mom had plenty of time to cook us a lot of dinners for us and do a couple of sewing projects for Tyler. She made up one of those seven-can stools for him with some really neat fabric we got, and she even made Tyler a 'Gussy' to cuddle with. It's got a cute face and pockets and everything. Also, really nice fabric. I helped find that one, so that's my contribution.

Mom was also here to help my celebrate my birthday weekend! With Fish! We went out to a very fancy fish restaurant (Thanks, Jess!) called Trulucks (pronounced True-lucks, we finally figured out) and had all sorts of fancy ocean delicacies. Including rather a lot of dessert. Mom and I both tried the Tuna, which I hadn't tried in quite a while, and the crab cake which was fantastic. And dad managed to mail me some Dremmel tool stuff for use around the house, no doubt. I already know what my first project is with that. Thanks dad!

Jessie's birday present to me was that I got to go to whole foods and buy WHATEVER I WANTED. Which, let me tell you, is a heck of a lot of fun, though not cheap. So I put together a list of a few random things I wanted to cook, most of them from Alton Brown episodes, and picked up all the ingredients. I've made about half of my menu already:

1) Cheesy Italian Meatball Casserole – Frozen for future eating
2) Pastitsio Casserole – Lots of parts, but really fun to make. Also frozen already
3) Avocado Ice Cream – I'll let you know how it turns out.

The rest get made later today or tomorrow:

4) Fudge – Yum!
5) Grill Pizza – Double-yum. I'll make several types.
6) Stuffed Tilapia with cheese sauce. (Jess is letting me make fish for dinner!)

So that's what I do for fun on Birthdays. Way better than pub crawling. At least, for me.

Later today we're going down the street to the neighbors to hang out with Grant and get him used to strangers a little bit more. I also want to use the opportunity to see if Tyler likes playing in their jumper. His legs are getting stronger and stronger, though he still needs more practice sitting up on his own.

-N

And the rest of the birthday

We spent most of the rest of Saturday just lounging around. Jessie’s stomach-vicinity has been giving her trouble lately, and so far the best medicine has been cuddling with her husband, which is me. Not that I mind, particularly. It’s a great excuse to relax, though I’ve been trying to work on some more music and it’s hard to compose while “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre” plays in the background.

So Sunday, my actual birthday, for anyone keeping track, we mostly just wanted to get out and accomplish stuff. And accomplish we did. We went to Target to pick up some random clothes, Frys to pick up a new Router, and a sport store to pick up a swim shirt so that I can go swimming in the outdoor pool without burning myself clean off. And for birthday dinner...or...more lunch, really, we went out to McCormick & Smicks. Fish! Delicious fish for me! Jess even ordered some shrimp! (It’s working! It’s slow, but it’s working!)

Then Sunday evening was relax-time again. Mostly cuddling on the couch and watching a really, really odd Korean movie called “The Good, The Bad, and the Weird”. Very cool. And on Monday we DID MORE STUFF! Mostly around the house this time. I fixed a few pickets in our fence, setup our new router, hung posters and fixed up some more of our shelves so they won’t fall over if, say, a child were to try and climb on it. It’s a good motivator, impending fatherhood. I’ll either have to get this stuff done now or later...and later I’ll have a baby to deal with, too! Good grief, get those shelves up!

We’ve started a little reorganization around the house, too. We moved our activity shelf out of the guest bedroom and that place looks *empty* now. We’ll probably get some more stuff in there for our incoming guests. TV or something, or some more storage options. We’ll have a lot of use for that room in the future. We put the activity shelf in our ‘office’, so we can go access it without disturbing guests, and there’s every likelihood that the office will turn into the play room before too long. At the moment it just houses stuff and a lot of empty space. Plus it’s nearby the main action of the living room and kitchen. So when I drill those shelves into wall studs, you had best be sure those suckers are solid.

-N

The Old Man and the Concert

This weekend I turn 30. That’s years, people. It feels...pretty much the same as 29 did. Plus it’ll be convenient shorthand for me to remember about how old our first kid is. My age minus 30, about. No specific festivities, but we do tend to spread celebration around, so I get a birthday in stages over the course of about a week, which is nice for me.

Thursday was sort of my ‘Birthday at Work (observed)’ day because Jess made me cupcakes the day before. Cupcakes are the way to go when there’s just two of you for the cake-based celebration. There’s no way for two people to eat an *entire* cake, and so you either have to stuff yourself with cake for days (tempting, but I’m trying to keep slim) or bring leftover cake to work, which is always nice, but cupcakes are pre-measured for your convenience, and very easy to distribute since we got our cupcake carrier. So I gave away cupcakes at work and got a lot of ‘happy birthdays’ for our trouble. I also ate several of them myself. Cupcakes are delicious.

Jess then organized a ‘Nerf fight’ for me. I’ve been buying and distributing Nerf guns around the office for a few years now, and there’s now enough of them that we can get a pretty good firefight going if we all show up at the same time. Jess ambushed me in my office and I retaliated with my ridiculous Nerf Machine Gun. Fun was had by all. Then my officemate got me a couple more nerf guns the next day. They’re clear! I’m hoping to get to home depot this weekend to buy some LEDs so I can make a *glowing Nerf gun*. I think home depot sells random electronic components. Where else would I go. Radio shack? Have you seen that place recently?

Friday, also ‘for my birthday’ but realistically just because the timing worked out, I got to see Rodrigo y Gabriella in concert. A blast! The wait was pretty rough, unfortunately. We got there at 7 and there was an opening act at 8:30, the concert proper didn’t start until 9:30, which is a lot of time to stand on your feet. My long-suffering wife decided to just go hang out in the back where she could sit, but I stayed up pretty close to the action for the whole concert. They were a blast to listen to. I’m not sure how they mic the guitars but every time they gave their instruments a smack it resounded through the subwoofers for a serious kick. They did a bunch of songs I’ve heard from their albums, though they tended to have neat variations in the performance. High energy and lots of fun, though I think I’ve burned Jessie out on concerts for a while. Between the close quarters, tired legs, big crowds, and smoke, tobacco and...otherwise, she was pretty worn out at the end of the night.

We got home before midnight and got to wake up early, though, to head out to the Velloway again, a paved loop in southern Austin that’s only open to bikers and skaters. Jess hung out and exercised with her derby girls while I rode around on my bike. 13 miles for me, 7 for Jess. Not bad for the start of the weekend. We stopped at a place called Moonies that we’d been meaning to try out. They’re up by us and they do a *great* hamburger and really good chicken burger, too. They may have displaced Hutts as my second favorite hamburger spot in Austin. They’re certainly closer to the house. I could walk if I want to.

Later, for my birthday again, heh, I’m going to head out to McCormick and Shmicks. I get fish on my birthday. Then we’re going to stop at Whole Foods and check out some of those pastries that always look so pretty in the display cases.

-N

Weekend Report

I know it's early in the weekend yet, but you guys deserve some blog posting.

Happy birthday, of course, to all people whose births took place over the last week. We're glad to have you around. We've had some new happenings around here, too. Yesterday (friday night) we went out to a new Snow Cone shop being opened by a couple of girls at roller derby. We had a few: all quite good, so if any of you ever happen to be in the east side of Austin in search of cold treats, check out Ice Queens. They've got *flavor*. Jess met with a bunch of roller chicks and then skated around for exercise and to pass out fliers. And then she had some snow cone afterwards. I hung out with some of the girls I know from hockey, and then red my book for a while and wandered around the neighborhood a bit with my phone looking for interesting locales. I almost bought a Po' Boy at a shop across the street, but I'm trying to munch less. There was also a store that sold electronic music gear: synthesizers and the like. As if I need more gear.

Let me tell you something about hummingbirds. We've got our feeder up and full and we've been getting a pretty good run of little buzzers coming in and having their fill. They are, of course, very territorial, and we've been having a quite good time watching them swoop up, eat, and then get dive-bombed by one of their rivals. I couldn't quite tell you what kind they are, though I've been looking at backs and throats in an attempt to identify them. I tell you what, though. Nagano has been *enthralled*. Every once in a while he'll spot one and just stare with his huge eyes or make adorable little cackling sounds while pretending he is a vicious hunter.

Jess let me cook salmon for dinner, and it came out pretty good. We got some wild salmon from whole foods (I don't trust the farmed stuff they sell at the regular supermarket) and covered it with brown sugar. I also took a section for experiments: a little bit with BBQ sauce and a little with gingersnaps: inspired by an Alton Brown Ham Glaze recipe. The cooking went pretty well, though I did have some flameups and the board didn't smoke quite as much as I had hoped. I was pleased, however, that I'd saved a bunch of money by just going off to Lowes and buying my own darn cedar board and then cutting off a plank of the appropriate size. First use of my fancy battery-powered circular saw, too. Thanks dad!

Anyway, the food? Pretty spectacular, Jess ate some and seemed to enjoy herself. The Brown sugar went best, though it didn't quite caramelize and get all smokey like I had hoped. Practice practice, I suppose. The BBQ sauce was pretty bland and tasted like, well, bbq sauce and salmon. Which isn't bad, but the other flavors were better. The gingersnaps were actually pretty well received. Right off the grill they gave a nice crunch and good flavor. Unfortunately as leftovers the cookie crumbs got all soggy. Less good. I got to cook salmon, though. Hurrah!

I may come back later and post some random pictures, but our camera is currently on the fritz. Love to all!

-N

It's my birthday!

I'm not normally someone who needs the all out attention on my birthday, but this year I considered taking the day off. Mostly because I thought I might be able to leverage the birthday excuse into finally getting some rest, but work has become such a habit these days.

I went for a birthday donut with one of the people I was in Madison with. A new Dunkin Donuts opened up just a few blocks from work that is obviously going to change the meeting food landscape. My awesome coworkers brought in a cheesecake that we ate this afternoon- but just as I was digging in, Dr. Rockstar's tech came down to tell me the freezer will all my expensive reagents was failing. PANIC. Actually, it's no big deal- they have space for all my overflow, and all these reagents gets frozen and thawed a couple times with no problem. At least someone caught it quickly.

After work I am going to catch a drink with a friend, and then Matt and I are going to go for Ethiopian food. Maybe if I haven't made a pig of myself (unlikely, considering the awesomeness of Ethiopian food), we'll go to the Razzyfresh. All in all- good day.

Birthday Bash!

Matt and I are this weekend in Spokane, enjoying a boisterous weekend with the grandparents. Seriously- these two wear me out! I've been collecting some great stories from Papa (did you know he crossed the Panama Canal in his Navy years? Or that the men in his family had all been coal miners? This is why he never thought he'd have a 92nd birthday), and made some valiant efforts in Nana's garden. Matt has been the ultimate Mr. Fix-it, which he LOVES- He's installed new doorbells, showerhead, fixed a bathroom fan, destroyed a hornet's nest and done all the other 'Tall Person' work.

Nana and Papa of course make this more than worthwhile- they invited Matt's mom to join us for the weekend, and we celebrated an early birthday for Matt on Saturday. Sunday, of course, was Papa's big day, and when asked he was going to celebrate he said "Well. I am going to read the paper. I am going to take a nap. We've got dinner plans later, and then I'll watch the Sunday Mystery." Needless to say, his birthday plans went off without a hitch. More updates later- I just wanted to brag about what great time we were having!

Gone Runnin'

Today Jess and I went out to get some exercise along Brushy Creek Trail We didn't go along the whole thing, but my estimates put my run at approximately 2.5 miles out, and then the same back again. I wasn't always running, to be fair, but that is a definite distance record for me, so I'm proud. Now Jess and I are resting off our morning exercise after having some delicious lunch. I made some homemade bread and we made grilled cheese sandwiches on our brand new...grittle! Thanks so much Sandlin! We've already gotten a couple of uses out of it, once for breakfast, which was great because you can make a massive dose of pancakes, all at once, and then agian for grilled cheese. It warms up really quickly and you can easily control the temperature, which is very nice.

The the parents, we also got your other present in the mail, a pair of kitchen shears. They're really nice, and the two blades unhinge from each other for easy dishwasher cleaning. Thanks so much again!

The arcade was really neat. It was Buzzing, full of people, a lot of competition going on. Most of the games were competitive fighting games, which is great because it fosters a sense of community in your arcade when you meet up with people, play with them, and actually get to see their face. I played a bunch and then Jess and I came home to relax.

Oh, and the fish was great, too.

-N

Is my birthday!

Yesterday, Jess made me cupcakes, orange cake with buttercream frosting. Really good. I had about four myself and gave away the rest to people at work. Protip: If you need help from someone, offer them a cupcake. They will never refuse. I got a surprising amount of work done yesterday, thanks to cupcakes.

And today is my birthday proper. I've already had a few packages show up, and a very nice card from some very caring grandparents. Thanks so much, Nana and Papa, you make very excellent elders. Hugs and kisses!

Today Jess has some sort of 'mystery errand' planned for me, which should be fun, but I'm mostly just happy that she likes me enough to do stuff like that for me on my birthday. She likes me a lot, I think. The kitties have also gotten in on the action, cuddling and meowing adorably this morning while we were trying to sleep.

And in the evening, I get fish and video games! I'm going to met up with some friends at McCormick and Schmick for some delicious fish fare (especially nice when I can be sure of its origins) and then we're going out to a place called Arcade UFO. Arcades have been a dying breed in America ever since home consoles and PCs became popular and it was just easier and cheaper to play your games at home. Some people still keep them going, though, and Arcade UFO was opened recently by arcade enthusiasts just a few years ago. I'll go patronize them with a couple buckets of quarters. For old times sakes.

-N

Matt's Not That Old, Really

As many of our readers know, Matt is turning 30 this year. What many of you may not know, is that he may not actually make it that far. Not normally one for personal drama, I am beginning to suspect Matt may turn 29 for the rest of his life. And it is so much more than not owning up to how long ago Sept 14, 1979 was- this goes much deeper. It started out with some expected whimpering about not being ready to be old, but has become steeped itself in pity long enough to become a whole new beast. To deal with the emotional cavern that this birthday brings, he splits his time on both sides by acting in a binary fashion between 40 ("we ought to save this money for a down payment on a house") and 20 ("I am gonna celebrate with a Month of Beer Challenge"). Well, trinary- there is also complete denial.

My current challenge, is to plan an appropriate celebration for a guy who is wavering between not having a birthday, having a birthday where he is incredibly old, and one where he will never grow up. Imagine a sort of Mad Hatter's Party for Methuselah in Neverland theme- and if you can, be explicit in details, I am at a loss. In recent years, we have had several friends turn 30, generally there was cake, good friends and an absence of dentures, AARP members or Reader's Digest toasts. I would have thought that seeing this happen gracefully on so many occasions would help Matt transition, but I underestimated how tense he is about this whole birthday thing. It is surprising, really. Matt at his core hasn't changed since I met him, and I have a hard time imagining him being anyone but the laid back, logical, quiet fun loving geek I know today. Maybe he knows something I don't.

For those who are interested, I am assembling a birthday list I can send your way. If it isn't in your inbox tonight, and you want it, just say so.

Vignettes of my birthday

It has been a pretty wild week around Casa Seguin. Most of this revolves around lab politics and scientific maneuvering that Matt informs me is too boring to dominate my social interactions. I appreciate having someone around to remind me what fun looks like. Instead, I'll share with you some of the highlights of celebrating my birthday, but imagine them set to a background of work related tension and sleep deprivation.
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My birthday was Tuesday. At work that morning, a colorful bouquet and chocolates and balloon was delivered to my desk, complements of Matt. I think he must have learned something from Dad- there is no where to hide such a thing, so it sat out where even people walking down the hall felt compelled to pop their heads in and wish me a happy birthday.

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That evening, Matt drove me and a couple co-workers to Kennywood, Pittsburgh's own amusement park. We rode roller coasters, and antique rides, stuffed ourselves with corndogs and funnel cake and ice cream, and stayed until the fireworks display. It was Italy Day at the park, which meant everyone stayed to see a ~20 min fireworks display at the end of the night. I told you Pittsburghers love their fireworks. I screamed myself hoarse, laughed until I had a bellyache and smiled until my teeth were tired.

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The next day, the gifted wife of a co-worker brought in the birthday cake we've been joking about for nearly a year. The piece centered around a Chocolate Moose, filled with a chocolate mousse. Yeah, Moose Mousse! But it gets better- it the moose was nuzzled into a yellow cake base that also held a spice cake Igloo, the whole affair swaddled in arctic marzipan. Can you believe this?? I told her this was exactly what birthday cakes look like back home, and I was pretty grateful to have a friend here who would go to the effort to recreate the traditional Alaskan birthday for me.

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Remember that balloon that Matt had delivered? I untied it from the vase, and let it drift around in the fans that are a constant in the summer weather. I like to picture what happens next from the perspective of the cat. Another one of those smarmy ribbons is sneaking around the house- this time completely defying gravity- it doesn't quite touch the ground. After a few attempt to get the ribbon to accede to gravity by throttling, he decides to kidnap it. He grabs the ribbon (and balloon) in his mouth and run across the house with it- only to be stopped when the balloon hits a ceiling fan- spooking his hair straight and giving the balloon a chance to flee. The balloon has been moving all over the house when we aren't looking- I don't think fans are involved.

Birthday Lists!

So mothers day has come and gone, and that means one thing: "It's birthday season!" So I'm calling it out right now, unless your name is 'Noel' or perhaps even 'Kelsey', a little bit, your birthday is rapidly approaching and no one has any idea what to get you. So let's see some lists people! What gardening equipment do you need? What tools do you not have? What organic spice mixes whet your palette?

Tis' friday! (I misspelled "it's", there, and decided to go with it.) Jess and I are going to a Beer Tasting party at the house of one of the people that came to our housewarming party last week. I'll let you know if I discover anything delicious.

My plan is mostly to relax this weekend. I got pretty tired out (and maybe a little sick?) on Thursday, so I've mostly been taking it easy and trying to catch up on sleep, which has worked pretty well so far. I've been playing Dwarf Fortress, still, and another new game I've discovered called Free Realms. It's online, requires a small download, and it's completely free. You play in a world with a bunch of other players, but as far as I can tell, there's really no reason to interact with other players. There's a lot of different games to play in there too, so you may find something you enjoy, either beating up bad guys (totally optional) or cart racing or puzzle games or cooking minigames. Odd stuff, but well worth the price of admission (Once again: free.)

Sorry I haven't posted up any movies or pictures, I'm sorting through old stuff to try and clean up some hard drive space. It will appear eventually, I'm sure.

-N