Eleven Months and Counting

This week, Bode will turn 11-months old. It was about this time one year ago that we began this little blog. It's turned out better than we expected because 1) it gives family and friends the opportunity to see pictures of the Bode-man frequently (a big plus); 2) I've been able to convert the blog to a .pdf file, which means this blog has become our electronic scrap-book of Bode's first year (also a big plus); and 3) the blog allows me the opportunity to share all my thoughts and insights with you, our dear readers (a plus for me, probably a big minus for you).

Well I'm sure you can guess the mood in the McGuirk household. Auburn was thorougly whipped Thursday night by West Virginia, bringing their record to an unimpressive 4-4. P.U. With upcoming games against Georgia and Alabama, Auburn will be lucky to finish .500. Here's hoping. The mighty Pittsburgh Steelers lost to the Giants, the Buckeyes also lost, the Bengals are in the toilet, and my suggestion to do away with the Congress and give the power of the purse to me has been largely ignored by the masses. Weather is forecast to be in the 30's this week with the possibility of snow. Thus, you're probably guessing we are somewhat depressed. Quite the contrary, we are constantly finding that silver lining in the omnipresent clouds in the Dayton area (although Ashley seems to have more trouble doing that than me).

Here's some good news. A dear friend of ours (Eric Hallam) wrote a children's book, and has asked for some free publicity (note to self: as a man, don't refer to some other dude as "a dear friend." Yes, it's the 00's but calling another guy "a dear friend" just sounds wrong). Knowing the reading audience of our blog is in the tens of millions on a daily basis, he asked that we put out a not-so-discrete advertisement. His book is called Big Dreams, and you can visit his website at Dreamseedbooks.com. Here's a picture of the book's cover--the artwork is really cool and Eric does a great job putting into rhyme what we all dreamed as small kids.Bode had another great week. We continue to thank God, Allah, and anyone else within shouting distance that Bode is not a discriminating eater. Anything we put in front of him quickly disappears. A friend of ours has a son who is over a year old that only eats pureed food. This week, Bode ate spaghetti, Mexican casserole, cheese quesadillas, a grilled ham and cheese sandwich, pancakes, scrambled eggs, and a whole produce store of fruit (bananas, honey-dew, blackberries, carrots, green-beans, apples, oranges, peaches, and strawberries). Here's shot of Bode after he ate...quite the carnage.All that eating requires Bode to do lots of exercise; otherwise, he'll get fat(ter). Here he is doing laps around the house. He hasn't quite walked yet. He's taken two or three steps between support structures but can't quite seem to be able to sustain an upright posture...we think his belly is causing him to topple forward :-) Note also the Nebraska Cornhusker attire. Because of the aforementioned poor performance of Ashley's team, Bode has switched allegiances...note also it appears Bode can only wear one sock at a time. He's this generation's Michael Jackson (oh God, please no!) We also had to rename the dog. Here's a shot of "Nebraska" waiting for some scraps--not sure if you can make out the thin line of drool hanging from her mouth.Bode started doing something really cute today. Ashely was holding him and started breathing real fast in and out of her nose. Bode thought this was hilarious. What was funnier was he would imitate you doing it. Here is a movie.

Not much on tap for tonight. No football on TV--well, I think Tulsa is playing one of the directional Floridas on the ocho (ESPN2--watch Dodgeball if you don't get the joke). I might try to read some. I've put World Without End on hold. I got about 100 pages into it--very good, but I really have to focus on it. I picked up The Eight by Katherine Neville and started reading it and got sucked in. Pretty good story so far--promises to be DaVinci Code-esque on the book cover; we'll see.

Pleasant week to everybody and have a great All Saint's Eve!

Bode the Bully

The other day, Ashley went to day care to pick up Bode. Usually Bode gets very excited to see either of us when we go get him. It's actually quite sweet. He'll see us and sort of laugh/smile. Then, he'll crawl as fast as he can over to us, and pull himself up and stand in front of us. If we don't pick him up then and there, he'll start to wail. Ashley was expecting a similar reaction--she's gotten used to being greeted with such enthusiasm. However, this day was different. Ashley had arrived during snack time. Bode was seated at the little table and chairs with a fig newton in each hand. Bode sort of glared at Mommy, sensing she might try to take away his cookies. He quickly started gnawing on the cookie in one hand, shoving as much as he could into his mouth before moving on to the next. Ashely sort of laughed and proceeded to the sign-out log. She made some small talk with one of the ladies in the room until she heard a kid start screaming. Ashley looked over to see that Bode had finished his cookies, gotten up from the table, and stolen another kid's cookies--he'd taken them right out of the kid's hand. Evidently, the little Bode-man is a cookie freak...I wonder where he gets that from?

Here's a quick movie of Bode doing the assisted-walking thing while listening to some crazy techno music.

Bode's hair has gotten quite long, and we think we might have to get it trimmed. I told Ashley I could take him to the base barber, point at my hair, and say, "Put this do on that kid's head." Well Ashley doesn't really want to torture the kid because, for some reason, she really doesn't like my hair cut. There's a place down the street that cuts kid's hair, so we might try that later. Here's a shot of Bode shortly after waking up...he's got kind of a Dr. Emmet Brown (Back to the Future) thing going .Note the tongue sticking out. He seems to be doing this quite a lot, especially when he's thinking. Either that or he's been spending too much time with Dudley and Auburn. The weather is starting to get a little cooler, so Bode is having to abandon his t-shirt, shorts, and bare-feet look for the long-sleeves and pants. Here he is all decked after a nice breakfast of fruit and pancakes-a-la-Daddy. Doesn't his hair look "slick?" Note also the ubiquitous tongue...Here are some book ideas if you're into the reading thing. I finished reading The Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer. It was good--the last book was somewhat disappointing, and I didn't like how it ended. However, these four books held positions 1,2,3, and 5 on USA Today's top selling books of the summer quarter, so the masses seem to enjoy them. I also read Third Degree by Greg Iles (very good). If you are too happy and need to become depressed, Cormac McCarthy will do the trick. I read No Country for Old Men (see the movie if you don't like to read) and also The Road. I guess they're very good from a literary stand point, but, like I said, not real pick-me-ups. I'm currently reading World Without End (good so far) and Ashley is reading The Count of Monte Cristo (a classical masterpiece). If you're really really bored, go here: http://www.opticsinfobase.org. You'll be thrilled :-)

No big plans for today. We'll probably do some work around the house (Ashley wants to take down some wall paper), and then watch the Steelers-Bungles (Bengals) game.

Pleasant Sunday.

Happy (Belated) Fiscal New Year

Ok, ok, yes, I know it’s been two weeks-plus since I’ve posted; I apologize. But believe me, I have plenty of reasons (lame excuses) for not having published anything about the exciting lives of A., J., and B. McGuirk. First, in the most recent post (recent is a relative term), I mentioned that I returned from Spain having brought home “a little reminder” of Europe. Said flu wiped me out for four days. The beauty (horror) of this was Ashley had to travel to Colorado for work for the entire week, so I was charged with taking care of the Bode-man solo. Fortunately, daycare looked after Bode during the days. The only issue was getting Bode there “safely,” and by safely I will simply say that it is always dangerous to travel too far from one’s home port when one has the flu. Fortunately, I was able to get him to and from daycare without any incidents, although I was a tad nervous on one occasion (thank heavens we bought the Beamer, as the Probe wouldn’t have been able to handle the speed…) The evenings were fine, albeit not very productive. Bode and I played and had fun, and as soon as Bode went to bed, I followed immediately thereafter; hence, no blogging that week. Ashley returned on Friday to a messy house and a tired husband. The weekend was fine, except for Auburn’s (the football team) loss to Vanderbilt, the first time they’ve lost to the Commodores in our life-times (I think it was 1958, but I’m too lazy to use google to find out for sure). Following the defeat, I wasn’t my usual happy self, so I couldn’t really blog. Plus, our computer is acting a bit strange—it will simply lock up without warning. CTRL-ALT-DEL does nothing to help, and the only way to solve the problem is to perform a hard shut-down. Thus, anytime we do something on the computer, it is a race to get things done, and we’re constantly saving things as we go just in case something happens. Top all this off with a 3-day trip to Boston (I had a conference), and well, you get the picture.

That being said, blogs should resume on their normal weekly schedule from this point forward. We’re all doing fine, although Ashley is a bit bummed about Auburn losing to Arkansas. She’s just about written off the season and is really getting into the NHL (of course that’s a joke). Bode is doing great. He had a 10-month doctor’s appointment where he weighed in at 23 pounds, 4 ounces. I’m not sure how tall (long) he was, but I do know he’s in the 75th percentile for height and 75th percentile for weight, thus, like his father, he is perfectly proportioned (yes, perfect proportions do involve having a little spare tire around the midsection, so no wise-a*s comments).

A month ago, we had some nine-month old pictures taken, so if you want to see some professional photographs, go to http://www.markgarber.com and click on Portrait Gallery and then Clients. Password is Bode. Ashley had him all duded out in a Sean-John shirt, so he looks pretty slick (except for that hair—gonna have to see a stylist about that). Now for some pictures. First, I’m including a couple shots of me in Pamplona. Here’s me standing in a section where the Running of the Bulls takes place.

I can't imagine running with the bulls. The roads are quite narrow, so if a bull has you in his sights, you are doomed. Next, here’s me at some castle. Not really sure of the history of the castle, but it was quite impressive.

Ok, enough pictures of me. You probably want to see little Bode-man. Here’s the little guy with his best buddy, Auburn. She’s quite tolerant of him, as she lets him crawl all over her. She never gets upset which is good because even though Bode is getting bigger, I don’t think he could yet take on Auburn.

Here’s a shot of Bode rearranging the furniture in the sun room. He loves to push the chairs around. Unfortunately, we live in a house with walls, and when the chair hits the wall, it no longer moves, much to Bode’s displeasure.

We discovered Bode loves ice cream. He will even do what we ask if we bribe him with a lick--we ask him to say, "Da da," and he does, after which he gets a little ice cream. We then say, "Bode, say Ma ma," and he does. Pavlov would be so proud...

Here’s a shot of Bode “mowing the lawn.” I tell him this is great practice for when he's a little older...

Bode is just about walking—every now and then, he’ll realize he’s not holding on to anything and fall down. A couple times we’ve seen him take some steps between objects without holding onto anything, so we imagine he’ll be running around the house on his first birthday, which is only 45 short days away—has it really been that long??

Pleasant day, and Happy Fiscal New Year!!!