Evening Walks

Ashley and I have found raising a kid (yes, only one) is very cyclical. There seem to be a lot of different phases, and just when we think we have it all sorted out, boom! Everything changes. Auburn (the dog) was simple compared to Bode. She's followed basically the same routine since she came out of her puppy phase--wake up, eat, see Mom and Dad off, nap for awhile, bark at things (hates the UPS truck), get excited when Mom and Dad return, go for a walk, eat, and wait for bed. Next day, same thing--wash, rinse, repeat. Bode definitely doesn't keep to the same schedule for more than a few months.

For instance, since ~February, we would come home from work, change, and go for a walk. Bode would be in his stroller. It took a few trips until we learned to bring a supply of grapes, Cheezits, and juice to keep Bode satisfied. This little routine seemed to work great...until recently (within the past week). Bode has decided he hates the stroller. He screams, yells, and kicks whenever we try to put him in the stroller (and yes, he's about the length where his little kicks are hitting the family jewels). We tried letting him walk. This works for about 3/4 of the way. Of course, he gets easily side-tracked. He'll bark back at dogs that bark at him (very cute). If he sees (or hears) an airplane, he has to stop, point, and say, "Ehprane." When he no longer sees it, he says, "Bye bye." And usually at some point, he'll decide he's done walking. He'll simply sit down and play with some pebbles. If I pick him up, he throws a dangerous tantrum (remember those little kicks), carrying on like Tiger Woods after a bad tee-shot (minus the f-bombs, of course). It's quite a scene--our neighbors found it humorous (jerks).

The other day, Ashley brought a camera on our little outing. Here are some action photos. First, we have Bode in a gunslinger pose. He's checking things out, making sure nothing is amiss. He's kinda like a neighborhood watch.Next, we have Bode walking. You can also see our house in the top left. We had the exterior painted about a month ago--not sure if you can tell the color was slightly changed.
Here's Bode checking out the fire-hydrant. With the barking at dogs and hydrant investigation, we're starting to wonder if he's part canine. Also, Bode's starting to show--he's about four months pregnant :-)At the end of the walk, we take a much needed break, and I impart some of my knowledge about the game of basketball. Bode is absorbing it like a (saturated) sponge.
I've explained he's expected to sign a lucrative NBA contract at age 20 to support his parents' life of leisure. His response? "Ehprane." I think the message didn't get through. Pleasant Thursday.

New Camera

As stated in the previous post, we recently "lost" our camera while on vacation. Of course, Ashley probably thought this was a good thing because she has been bugging me for awhile (since ~2004) that we needed a more modern digital camera. Thus, the silver lining to this little act of thievery is we now have a new Panasonic DMC-TZ5 Lumix (whatever that means).

Ashley spent some time learning how to operate the camera. Here are some practice photos. First, here's me and little guy playing trains.Next, we have a shot of Bode and me surfing the internet. Bode loves the computer. Well, I don't know if it's the computer he loves. Rather, I think he sees us doing something and wants to participate. Anytime Ashley and I are sitting in the office chair, Bode comes over and tries to force his way on our lap. This is fine if we have nothing to do. However, if we are trying to do important things (like write this blog), it can be difficult because Bode likes to mash the keys. You can't tell by the picture, but the keyboard Bode is resting his fingers on isn't hooked up to the computer. Just in front of Bode's keyboard is the real keyboard. Fortunately, he still has the little alligator arms and can't quite reach the real one :-)Finally, we have a shot of Bode in some shades. For awhile, he didn't like wearing the glasses. Today, though, he was walking around (strutting) with them on. I think this was his way of saying, "Daddy, we haven't been swimming in awhile. Chop chop."
Ashley is finishing up some work. As soon as she's done, we're heading to the pool. The weather is decent today--not perfect pool weather, but since it's been hovering in the low 70's for the past 10 days (global warming?), we'll take what we can get. Pleasant week to all.

Summer Vacation and Sleeping Troubles

We recently took a vacation to Texas. I believe the only place hotter than Texas in July is an oven in Saudi Arabia. Temperatures were 103+ every day except the last when it cooled down to 99. Despite the extreme conditions, we had a wonderful time. Allow me to say up front that we have NO pictures because our camera "disappeared" the first day we went to the pool. I'm hoping the relatives email some shots, and if they do, I'll be sure to add them. Thus, until we get a replacement camera, you are stuck with just anecdotes and my feeble descriptions.

We first went to a resort called Lost Pines just outside of Austin. It had a nice pool, lazy river, and smores served every night at 8-ish (all diets were suspended for the duration of the trip). The first night was rather troublesome. Every time Bode lay down, he screamed, and loudly at that. The only time he wouldn't scream was in the stroller. And since we were concerned about the neighboring rooms, Bode and I spent some quality time from 12-2 am and then again from 4-7 am strolling around the hotel grounds. At least the temperature had fallen to the mid-80's, and we did see some armadillo and a couple skunk. Later that morning as I napped, Ashley took Bode to a local clinic. Diagosis: ear infection. Fortunately, the medicine seemed to work and he was able to sleep that night, expect he wouldn't sleep in the crib. Therefore, for the duration of the trip, Bode slept in the big bed between Ashley and me which he loved (more on this later).

After a few days of R&R at Lost Pines, we headed to San Antonio with a slight detour to Austin to see Ashley's Uncle Bud. The entire crew had lunch. Note the entire crew consisted of Ashley's parents, her Aunt Patti and Uncle Dwight, her cousin Penny and her family Milton (husband) and kids (Chelsea, Cricket, Callie, and Josh), Josh's girlfriend, and Ashley's brother Dave and his wife, Kathy, and their two kids, Teddy and Charlie. We stayed at another resort in San Antonio just across the street from Sea World. There was another pool with lazy river, and more smores. We lounged at the pool and spent a day at Sea World. Bode really liked the sea lion show (he thought they were big dogs). We also saw the Orca show, but stayed away from the splash zone :-) The grandparents watched Bode for a little while enabling Ashley and me to go on one of the big water rides. And what trip to San Antonio isn't complete without a trip to the Riverwalk for some Mexican food.

Bode seemed to like spending time in the swimming pools, and also enjoyed playing with his cousins. Unfortunately, the sleeping in the bed has caused some trouble since we've come home. He no longer likes his crib. Before we went on vacation, we could put him in his crib, and he'd be asleep in five minutes. Now he's learned there's stuff going on outside his room, so everytime we try to get him to go to sleep, he screams, and screams, and screams some more. Usually at night he'll scream for ~1 hour and then nod off. Occasionally he'll be up in the middle of the night screaming. And the naps seem to have gone the way of the dodo. Yesterday (Saturday), when we put him down for a nap he screamed for 90 minutes before we gave up. We had hoped the lack of nap would make him sleepy at night. No such luck. And today (Sunday), we're again trying for a nap. We put him in the crib at 1:15. It is now 2:55 and he's still shouting. The annoying thing is daycare has said Bode still naps great. Hopefully it's just a (short) phase.

Ashley is out shopping. Hopefully she gets us a new camera because I just reread the post. Damn this thing is boring without pictures :-) Pleasant week to all.

Swim, Swam, Swum

Bode finished his first swimming class. For the past four weeks, we've been going to swim-lessons every Monday and Wednesday. The instructor said, "Bode did great...for his age," which is a lot like the young guys at working telling me, "You're pretty fast...for an old guy."

Today, Bode received his "Certificate of Participation," which is sort of like, "Everyone Gets a Trophy" day. The certificate was a pseudo-report card. There were nine items, and Bode got six pluses and three minuses. The optimist would say, "He passed the majority of the skills." The pessimist would say, "Thirty-three percent failure? Even Shaq doesn't miss that many from the line." Bode wasn't very fond of being put on his back. He was fine in our arms or on his tummy. But the second you tried to put him on his back, he'd go stiff as a board and start crying like a soccer player who's just been slide-tackled and expected a foul. Nor did he blow bubbles in the water. He'd put his face close to the water and then lick it. Maybe he's been watching Auburn a bit too closely...

Now for some pictures. First, here's Bode and me just starting out. It was rather cold today--high was 70 at best. Somehow I got to the be the one to swim today (Ashley swam on Monday; it was in the 90's).
Next, we have Bode working on the front-float. Looks like Daddy was off his game because Bode's face isn't supposed to be in the water...Here is Bode using the styrofoam dumbbell. He could float on his own if he was positioned right, but he usually found it more fun to pick up the dumbbell, upon which all floating benefits would be lost and he'd sink.Here we are hanging out on the wall. Yes, that is a nice line of snot going from his nose to his mouth. Yum.Bode never would jump into the pool, but he would sit on the edge and fall in. He loved this and would do it over and over and over...Finally, here's me and the little orca at the end of the lesson.Bode loves the water. He's so wound up when we leave the pool. He's running and humming and whooting. Fortunately, this usually wears him out so come bed time, he's out like a rock. Sadly, the lessons also wear me out. It's going on 8:30, and I'm off to bed. Pleasant evening.