Blog Tease

This time I really have an excuse. I have been having some serious problems with my computer, and we may have to take it and bury it in the backyard. I have narrowed the problem to either a ravishing virus or a failing hard drive. Either way, we may be on life support for a little while. Don't worry though. I do have all of those cute baby pictures backed up. I will try to get them posted on here sometime soon. As for the immediate future, I do have a few Christmas pictures on the laptop that my mother took. I will try to get those up in the next few days.

Team Leach

I meant to get this up yesterday, but you know how that goes. In spite of this Leach situation, Ethan and I were still rooting for Tech. This is the best picture I could get. Thank you to my cousin Rob for the outfit. Congratulations Red Raiders!

The Year We Make Contact

I was thinking this morning that they should make baby straightjackets. This would keep the child from putting his hands in his mouth while you are trying to feed him. Maybe a good solid pair of handcuffs would work. Christmas came and went this year. Due to the freak snow storm, it took Callie an extra day to get here. I don't think anyone was as excited to see Abilene as she was. Ethan got more gifts than anyone, but he seemed more interested in the wrapping paper than anything else. Next Christmas will probably be different. No offense to anyone else who bought me anything, but one of my favorite gifts this year was the Kindle. I haven't had as much time to play with it as I would like, but I think it is going to be awesome. I also bought myself the new Tom Petty Live Anthology which is amazing. We are having Christmas with Tiffany's family next weekend, so I will update you on how that goes. As for the new year, everyone in this house was in bed shortly after 11 last night. Tiffany had to work early today, and Ethan and I have a big day of doing nothing that we had to get rested for. The black eyed peas are in the crock pot. It has been a crazy 12 months. The time has just flown by, which is really a weird expression. I guess time is moving at the same rate that it always has been. We have at least a couple of trips planned for this year. I will let you know all about them when we get closer.

Happy Happy Joy Joy

For some reason unbeknownst to me, Ethan woke up at 3:30 this morning. He has been eating a lot the last few days. Tiffany thinks he is going through a growth spurt. Who knows? The good news is that it is Friday. I have the next three days off, then I work three and have four more off. I think it is going to be a good week. I don't think I have talked much about food on this blog. Ethan has been eating cereal for about two months, and we have been feeding him some vegetables for about half of that time. All in all this seems to be going well. I told him that it was perfectly acceptable not to like sweet potatoes. Everyone knows they are nasty. At least the baby food version doesn't include marshmallows. I think his favorite vegetable so far is squash, and peas seem to be his least favorite. He isn't spitting anything out, but we have had some interesting looks with a few things. I don't think he will be a picky eater though. Maybe it's too early to tell. Everything at daycare seems to be going well. I think they like him better than all of the other kids, but I could just be reading into what they tell me. Sunday night we went to see Bowling for Soup here in town. They are one of the most fun bands to see live, and we always have a good time. Our good friends Erin and Josh kept Ethan for us. They said he was good, and I don't think they were even lying about it. I guess that pretty much brings us up to date. Depending on how things go around here, you may not hear from me again until after Christmas. If that's the case, everyone have a good holiday.

Conjuntivitis

Apparently three weeks is forever in blog time. I am thinking of hiring a professional blogger. Otherwise my readers may have to be satisfied with the current frequency of my posts, which admittedly hasn't been very often. Maybe after the holidays are over it will be better. First up are the pictures. I know it is the reason that the majority of you read this. We have a shot of Ethan in his Thanksgiving outfit. As I am typing this, I am having trouble uploading this pictures, so it is possible that I am describing pictures that aren't there. Next we have one of him in his chair eating dinner. Lastly, we have a shot of him learning how to write his own blog.

Thanksgiving was a lot of fun this year. We had all of Tiffany's immediate family here. We all ate way too much food, which I think is generally what you are supposed to do this time of year. The following week my parents were here for a couple of days. We took the opportunity to pass the child off and go out alone for a change. We had tickets to see The Ten Tenors at the civic center. I was pretty sure I was going to hate it before we went in, but we left pleasantly surprised. It certainly didn't hurt that they did a medley of 80s rock hits right there at the end. Last week kicked off with a bang. Ethan contracted pink eye, which is probably the first of many childhood diseases. I guess that is one of the luxuries of daycare. At least we are building an immune system. We have been putting drops in his eyes for almost a week, but his eyes were pretty well cleared up after the first day. He only had to miss one day of daycare, which meant I only got to miss half a day of work. We will hope for something a little longer lasting the next time I need some time off. Speaking of time off, I am going to stop here and feed the baby. If you're lucky, I will finish this later.

H1N1

It has been three weeks since my last confession. Contrary to what some people think, I do have other things to do besides this blog. I have an actual job, where I spend the majority of my time. Then there is this kid situation. Who knew that babies couldn't take care of themselves? Because it has been so long, I'm sure I have forgotten everything that has happened. I don't even remember where I left with the last blog. I guess I could go back and read, but I prefer to just wing it. These aren't the most recent pictures, but I thought they were good ones. I don't think I have mentioned daycare before. Daycare is going great. This is his fourth week, and I think he is starting to like them better than he likes us. We just leave him on our way to work, and they take care of him all day. I think it's a pretty good arrangement. I will probably have to sell some of my organs on the black market to pay for this, but nothing is too good for my child. Every day they tell us how great he is, and every day we just agree with them. On to more current news, I have been deathly ill for the last two days. Maybe that is a slight exaggeration, but there were a couple of times that I wished I was dead. Between myself and the internet, I have decided that it was the dreaded swine flu. I do feel better today, but I am still taking it easy. On top of all that, Tiffany thinks she has a sinus infection. In spite of all that, Ethan appears to be totally healthy. It must be all those immunity building germs from daycare. Thanksgiving is almost here, and we are looking forward to Tiffany's family being here. If anyone out there doesn't have a place to go, come eat turkey with us. I'll even let you watch the baby.

Of Mice and Men

Here is a little Halloween tale for you. Like the good parents we are, we had every intention of taking Ethan trick or treating. By the time Tiffany got home from work Ethan had eaten, we loaded up the car and decided we needed to eat as well. We made a quick stop at Betty Rose's for some barbecue before heading to our first stop. With Ethan dressed in his little skeleton outfit, we drove to my Aunt Vicki's house. We got out and went to the door. We went inside to visit for about 15 minutes before we headed for our next stop. We loaded back into the car, turned the key, and nothing. Not a creature was stirring. Uncle Carl went to get the battery charger to try and give us some juice. After a few minutes and the battery still showing no signs of life, we made a new plan. By the way, this was all going on sometime after dark. I borrowed Vicki's car, drove to Wal-Mart, and bought a new battery. Carl and I spent the next half hour or so changing the thing out. New cars are not like old cars. The clever people at General Motors have devised a plan that makes it almost impossible to do things yourself so they can charge some ridiculous fee. There's this crazy protective case around the battery with a giant metal bar holding the whole thing down. There are five bolts of varying sizes uniquely positioned around the battery with enough space around them that Ethan could probably almost get his hands into when he was first born. Did I mention that is was dark outside? We did get it done though. At that point, Ethan was hungry, Tiffany was tired, and I was filthy. The good news is that we have another costume. Tiffany is determined to use it, so we may just show up at your house looking for candy on another day.