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!!!

Catching Up for Lost Time

It's been almost a whole month since I last posted. Fortunately, I have some very good excuses, and also some cute little stories...but I'll get to those as I go. First, the last post was on September 8th. I had planned to post on September 14th--had some really interesting things to say about Auburn's anemic 3-2 win over Mississippi State. The game was so boring, so painful to watch, that even Bode gave up midway through the third quarter.
Fortunately, Auburn was able to eke out a win. Much the same can be said about Auburn's win over Tennessee, but I'm getting ahead of myself...

So like I said, I was planning on posting the Sunday following the Auburn-Mississippi State hockey, err, football game. However, Hurricane Ike intervened. Ashley thought Ohio would be immune to the effects of hurricanes (other than the gas-price gauging that accompanies them nowadays). She was mistaken, because on the 14th of September, a massive wind storm, the remnants of Ike, engulfed the Miami Valley. Sustained winds reached 70+ mph, and I'm sure there had to have been some much stronger gusts. We lost power at 2:30 pm; it did not come back on for ten days (yes, days. Not hours. Days.). We were very lucky in that we didn't suffer any damage to our house. We had a lot of tree limbs down, but nothing hit our house. We had neighbors that lost two huge trees in their back yard. The trees fell onto their back porch--a couple feet to the right and they would have been in serious trouble.

So, how does one cope with no power for ten days? You make due. Initially, it was kind of cute. It was like a camping trip, except with indoor plumbing and soft mattresses. We listened to football games on the radio and since we have a gas stove, we could cook. Obviously the fridge was lost, but we were able to get ice in a cooler so we could have cold drinks. As the week crept on, we started to hear things. Dayton Power and Light (DP&L) gave initial estimates that everyone would have power restored by the weekend (over 300,000 in Dayton alone lost power). This changed to "the end of the weekend" and then to 95% and then 90% of all customers having power by Sunday night. This created a huge problem, because the Auburn-LSU game was on Saturday night at 7:45 pm. "Oh, we'll have power by then," I assured Ashley on Wednesday. Slowly, houses started getting power back until our whole neighborhood had it...except our street. One of our neighbors works for DP&L and said the feeder lines that service our houses are still down. Unfortunately, this equated to only about 50 houses, so we would likely be in that 10% that wouldn't have power back Sunday night. People on our street began to get a little feisty although most were maintaining there sense of humor. Bode seemed immune to the power outage, although he probably did wonder why we were waking him up with a big flash-light in his eyes. The first time waking him up with the flashlight and saying, "You been drinking, son?" was funny. It lost a little bit of its humor on day 5.

The biggest issue (sadly) was the Auburn-LSU game. We couldn't really take Bode to the bar and watch the game. We'd be out until at least 11:30 pm or so, and we didn't want to mess with his sleep schedule. Nor could get someone to watch the little Dude--"Can you come sit in our dark house while Bode sleeps so we can go watch a football game?" didn't really sound like a good way to recruit a sitter. Thus, Ashley was resigned to "watching" the game on the radio. Fortunately, Ashley married someone that really loves her and vowed to move heaven and earth to let her see the game. I saw that our friends a couple streets over had power. We have four or five extension cords in our garage, and our neighbors have a lot of extension cords which weren't being used. I gathered up about 500 feet of cord, trekked through some backyards and across the street, and showed up at Emily's and Tony's with a three-pronged outlet in hand. "We'll only run the TV," I promised. After they finished laughing, they were glad to help, and we were able to see the game, which Auburn lost...so thanks to me, Ashley was able to see her beloved Tigers lose. I guess I shouldn't pat myself on the back too hard, huh?

The Sunday after the Auburn-LSU game (the 21st of September), I left for Pamplona, Spain. I'll document that trip in a future post. Ashley and Bode pressed on without power until Wednesday the 24th and things returned to normal. I got back late on Saturday--managed to see the Auburn-Tennessee game in the airport in Philadelphia. The trip was fine, except I didn't realize Montezuma's brother, Enrique, was from Spain and he's just as evil (which is why I'm writing this Monday morning from home, staying a safe distance from the bathroom at all times.)

Pleasant day.

The Same Bode?

First and foremost: Auburn won on Saturday. It was a ho-hum game against Southern Mississippi, although Auburn did play much better than last week. The offense piled up yards, and the contest wasn't ever in doubt. The final score was 27-13, but Auburn fumbled twice in the first quarter inside the opponents 10-yard line. Hopefully they learn to wipe the grease off their hands before playing. Bode was, as expected, thrilled with the outcome.This week, Auburn has an SEC game against Mississippi State, a team they (horrifically) lost to last season. I think Auburn will be a heavy favorite going into the game; let's keep our fingers crossed.

I was going through some old pictures of Bode. Well, old isn't really the right word since he is only 9-months. What surprised me is that Bode doesn't really look like the original Bode we brought home from the hospital. You be the judge. First, here he is when he's about three weeks old.Now here's a shot of him before the Auburn game on Saturday, nine months later.
Is this really the same kid? Obviously he's grown some--probably tripled in weight--mostly in his head and gut-- and gotten a little longer (I can't really say "taller" until he's standing on his own). He also has a lot more hair, and his face is starting to develop its own unique features. He still has that "baby look" (although he's lost that new baby smell), but he also has some features and expressions that are unique to him. He's definitely a little person with his own personality rather than just some little creature that gurgles and cries every so often (although he was crying last night at 0400...little guy is starting to become rather attached to Mommy).

Well, nothing else exciting to report. We had a lazy weekend--lots of football (Go Steelers!!) intermixed with trying to entertain Bode. In our (little) spare time, we read some. Ashley is reading Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith and I'm (embarrassingly) reading the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer. For those that don't know, her books are hot sellers in the "teenage girl" category, so I have to act like I'm buying them for my daughter when I go to the store... They are a good story and easy to read especially if you have to stop every other line to say, "Bode, put that down." The little dude is getting into everything.

Pleasant week to you all.

Playing With a Traveling Bode-Man

Happy Labor Day Eve to everyone. Hopefully you've all been good so the saint of the working class (aka the Obama Ticket) brings everyone who contributes the bare minimum to society their government-provided entitlement...

But enough with politics (although I must say I do agree with the voters who picked Sarah Palin as the nation's hottest governor--check her out in a bikini in Governor's Fancy on pg. 34!!!). What a busy weekend we've had. Nana and Granddad (aka Ashley's parents aka my in-laws) arrived Friday afternoon. Bode quickly proceeded to show them how mobile he has become.
Of course, all that moving around makes a little guy tired, so Bode needed to take a nap. Evidently his crib was occupied, so Granddad's lap had to make due...
I'm sure everyone knows Saturday marked the start of the college football season. Yes, I know there were games on Thursday and Friday, but let's face it: the season does not begin until Auburn has played their first game. Unfortunately, Auburn didn't play until 7:00 pm on Saturday. Therefore, we had some time on our hands. There was a big festival going on at a local high-school. It's called "Alterfest," because the name of the school is Alter High School. I thought it would be a typical (lame) school festival. I was dead wrong. This event is HUGE. There were rides, tons of food, bands, big screen tv's, tons of beer (sort of surprising since Alter is a Catholic school) and real-no-kidding gambling. Theoretically, you could get on a hot streak and make it so the event lost money. What was the coolest was the visit from the Budweiser horses. Here are some photographs--check out that horse's a*s in that one picture.
The horses are very large. I put in a shot with a guy standing real close to them to give you a sense of scale. I'm an (un)impressive 5'9" tall, and I come up to the horses' tails. I certainly wouldn't want to get in the way of a Cyldesdale (although I do think Auburn could take on Bud, the dog...)

After Alterfest, we anxiously awaited the start of the Auburn game. Thankfully, Auburn won the game against Lousiana-Monroe (no jokes about the opponent), although, and I'm quoting Ashley here, "They played like fussing spit!" (Yes, I cleaned it up some). Still, a W is a W, and do note Auburn is an undefeated 2-0 in the Bode-era (he was here when Auburn won their bowl game on New Year's Eve).

Today we went down to Mason, Ohio (20 miles south, near Cincinnati). There was a professional beach volleyball tournament being held. For those that watched the Olympics, the names Misty May-Treanor, Kerri Walsh, Phil Dalhouser, and Todd Rogers probably mean something to you (for those that don't know, they were the gold-medalists in women's and men's beach volleyball respectively). We were able to see the semi-final matches for each of these teams. I was able to take lots of pictures. For some reason, I took a lot more pictures of the women's game than the men's...
I remember watching the Olympics thinking, "Those sure are some short uniforms the ladies wear," but after watching them play, I realize how important it is for the ladies to be in the proper beach volleyball attire. Anyways, we had fun in the sun at the tournament. Surprisingly, the team of May and Walsh lost in the event finals, breaking their 100+ match winning streak.

A quick movie. Ever want to see a rottweiler in full-attack mode? Here's a movie of Auburn trying to attack a toy ball.

The obvious question is, "How did you find out Auburn reacted like that? Do you, Jeff, spend a lot of time sitting in your hallway idly throwing the ball against the wall? No wonder that novel isn't yet written..." Actually, one evening Bode crawled into the hallway. I rolled the ball to him and he started giggling. I bounced it off the wall and he started laughing. The more the ball bounced, the harder he laughed. He even found it funny when Auburn came charging into the hallway barking at said ball. It certainly is amazing what tickles a baby's fancy...

Tomorrow (Monday), we will probably go to a parade just up the street and relax. JoAnne and Frank are staying until Tuesday, so Bode gets one more day of hanging out with Nana and Granddad, not to mention Mommy and Daddy get one more day of an extra set of hands helping to entertain our rapidly growing boy :-)

Pleasant Labor Day to all.

Summer Time Fun

Another good week in the life of Bode McGuirk...until this morning. But I'll get to that shortly. The work week passed as usual with nothing of note happening. Friday came, and we lived it up, going out to dinner at a local Italian eatery. Bode does real well in restaurants, provided we bring his favorite toys so he can entertain himself. We got home around 8 pm, and were then in bed before 9. Fortunately God invented the DVR so we could watch the Olympics in the morning :-) Bode was kind enough to sleep in until 7 am or so, meaning we got close to ten uninterrupted hours of sleep. Yes!!!

We decided we wanted to do something fun on Saturday; however, there was also work to be done around the house. Thus, we said we would each do one chore and then we would go out and whoop it up. Ashley decided to do some touch-up painting in the kitchen while I busted out the chain saw and sledge hammer. We had a tree taken down a couple weeks ago (it was dead) and wanted to use the wood this winter. The only thing that makes one feel more manly than cutting wood with a chain saw is then splitting it with the sledge. I worked for close to three hours and made one huge pile of fire wood--I almost took a picture of it to show you all, but I thought that might be a bit cheesy. Yessiree, I was feeling pretty good about myself--manly indeed...until this morning when I woke up. It felt like I had been in a terrible car accident after which a team of Clydesdales stomped on my back. Do they have to make those sledge hammers so heavy? I also didn't think my hand would be so sore from just squeezing the saw's trigger. In the immortal words of Toby Keith, "I ain't as good as I once was..."

Ok, back to Saturday. After our work and before the soreness kicked in, we went to the pool. Once again, we had the best time. The second we put Bode in the water, he was smiling and splashing. He even crawled around in it--we had to make sure he didn't tump over every now and then. Otherwise, he just loved it. Here are some action photos. First, we have Bode and Mommy hanging out.
Next, we have me and Bode playing. The life guard asked me to not release Bode when I was throwing him, which reduced Bode's enjoyment somewhat, but he still had a great time.
After playing in the pool, we needed to relax in the shade. Bode was thirsty and needed some juice from his sippy cup. He does quite well drinking on his own. Daycare doesn't even give him bottles anymore...
Today started off much like yesterday. Bode slept in, and we wanted to have some fun. Before that, we decided I would go to the grocery store and get our weekly supplies. While there, the cell phone rang. "Jeffy, can you get some band-aids." "Sure, why?" "I cut Bode's finger...really bad." Mommy was cutting Bode's finger nails when she took some skin off. Needless to say, Bode was not happy--crying and screaming, and there was blood. It's nothing major--just a nick, but I'm sure it was quite traumatic to the little guy (not to mention Ashley). But, after he got his breakfast, he seemed to be fine and back in his usual good spirits. We're seeing if he'll take a nap, and then we're heading up to one of the local parks that is having a sea food festival. Hopefully we can get some good eats. Pleasant Sunday to all.