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!!!