Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Calli's First Christmas

Busy, busy, busy. That's where I've been. By the look of my Blog Updates Page, that's where a lot of people have been. Not to say that it's been totally quiet, but I haven't cornered the market on being kept from the computer

I had the Tuesday before Christmas off work, but it was a far cry from a day off! Cleaning, dusting, vacuuming, laundry, etc, etc. Then I had Christmas Eve, Christmas, and Boxing day off. Christmas Eve, we had family over (hers & mine) for H'ors D'oeuvres/dinner, which meant more touch-up cleaning & prep. Christmas was present-opening, then to her family's for dinner. Then Boxing day, another wonderful dinner at my family's. I must say, the vittles are what I look forward to the most!

Today is my first real day off in over a week, just me and my two beautiful girls!

The best part of the holidays, by a country mile, came on Christmas Eve. After everyone had gone home, Andrea & I we talking to Calli, and she giggled! I was a quick "Ah-ha-ha," but it surely counts as a laugh! It was our Christmas Miracle, and it made our Christmas more special than anything we could have planned

And how was Calli's first Christmas? Allow me th summerize:
Family Members: "Oooh, she looks adorable in that!"
Us: "Hurry up and get your pictures before she spits-up on it!"

Yeah, it was a photo-op, plain and simple. All the activity really tired her out, too. I would have thought that being held by a half-dozen family members would be no different than being held by just Andrea & I, but all the fresh stimulus sure took it's toll!

Hope you all had a great Christmas!

Saturday, December 19, 2009

1 and 1/2 sided Conversations

A couple weeks ago, Andrea had some friends over, and one was schooled in Early Childhood Education. One thing that really stuck with me was how children develop better when their parents talk to them as infants. On one hand, it seems a little silly, when they don’t have the mental equipment to understand. But I’m starting to see reactions. She’s smiling a lot more now. She’ll “talk” back to us, even! It’s freakin’ crazy, watching her mind develop!
She’s winding-up for her 3-month growth-spurt (she’s officially 3 months on Monday). We’ve seen this sign before: she’s eating like she’s preparing to hibernate!

In other news, I finally registered on FaceBook. I actually registered awhile ago, but didn’t do anything with it. I thought I was the last one to register with Face Book, but apparently not.

Asking a couple of friends, they aren’t there. I guess the main reason I’ve been hesitating is that there are people I don’t necessarily want to get back in touch with. You may remember me writing about how I was really religious in high school (I enjoyed my adolescence throughout my 20’s). Already, one of my high school friends ‘Friended’ me. He’s currently a pastor in Michigan, working as a pastor, and has expressed some very conservative views. I guess I didn’t want to explain why I’m not in that head-space anymore. When I say it like that, it sounds a little cowardly. Well, there it is.

I must say, quite the time-sink! If I let it, it could eat up hours of my day, and I’d never see them go! But I’m not there for the games, as I’ve got enough on my plate already. So if you’re there, look me up!

That’s about the end of my news. Thanks for the comments on the last post! I love a good yarn! One I heard in a movie was “I’m the back-end of Snufflufagus” (Sesame Street). Dammit, I wish I’d used it!

Enjoy some pictures!





Friday, December 18, 2009

Spinning Yarns

About a month ago, I heard that 30% of what’s written in Blogs is fabrication. Either I’m only reading that 30%, or these authors are really uninspired.

Now, when I told you that in labor, my wife was in active labor for two hours, and really pushing for about 35 minutes, I can see it if that sounded a little far-fetched. If you don’t believe that that’s how it happened, no sweat off of my brow.

Other than that, there’s no reason to doubt me. I can assure you that I can be more clever if I wanted to spin yarns. Such as:

“When Calli was born, the umbilical cord was wrapped around her ankle, and she bungied out of my wife, to bounce back up into the doctor’s arms.”

“I’m spending Christmas in Jamaica with Jimmy Page”

“I played a Jawa in Return of the Jedi.”

"I’m really Kurt Cobain, and I faked my death to throw-off the media”

See? Good, tall tales! But I believe that of all the Blogs you read, very few of them seem phony!

I work with a guy who does this in real life. Really, he’s a Sho Ren priest, he’s done Black Ops for the CIA, and has a family in the US that he can’t visit because 9/11 tightened up the border security. I don’t talk to him much anymore, because of a BS allergy.

Tall tales are a lot of fun, and I tell them often, but when people say “Really?” I say “No, not really.” A good example is when I 10-year-old lad comes through my line at work, I say “When the ladies ask, tell them you broke that rescuing puppies & orphans from a fire.” One of the mothers actually came back and said that her boy was telling that story!

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Pardon my Absence...

So, it’s been awhile since I’ve posted, and here’s why: life happens.

It’s always a busy season, but my hours don’t really change. My darling child, however, has been sleeping later, so I’m not up at 6AM. This sounds like a good thing, but it means that I don’t have the familiar routine: get up, heat a bottle & brew coffee. Half-hour feeding, with either TV or Podcast, then about an hour reading Blogs, then write while Andrea sleeps. Win-Win.

Another glitch was after a power-surge. Our computer seized on a black screen and said “Reboot error. System halted.” It was a scary time, believe you me! That is until my much-more computer literate wife applied the tech-equivalent of “Abracadabra;” Ctrl-Alt-Delete. Hopefully, I can remember for next time!

With Cali sleeping later, my wonderful wife will take the morning feed, because she’s up anyway, and has some bra-pressure to relieve. Honestly, it’s been nice to sleep, but I miss this, so here I am. Sorry if you’ve been missing my comments, but there’s my reasons.

We watched the GI Joe move last week. If you were never a fan of the comics or cartoons, and you don’t have to pay for it, it’s not too bad. I was chin-deep in the comics as a kid, so it drove me right-fucking-snaky to see the story bastardised! Were the producers not aware that many of the viewers would be long-time fans, who would see the holes in their story? It seemed to be a good action story, aimed at 15-year-olds, with a well-known name attached for marketing. Lose the GI Joe name, and it would have been much more enjoyable.

But enough of the movie rant. Tonight, Kuma & I are going to a buddy’s place, and it promises to be good times! He owns an RV Park that’s closed for the season, so my pooch gets a rare opportunity to run free! He’ll sleep for days!

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Date Night

Yay, Date Night! Last night, we went out on our second Date since Callie arrived, and it was great! First, we went Mini Golfing. We hadn’t been in years, and it was a lot of fun. The place had a black-light, glow-in-the-dark motif, with pop music, that I normally would have found irritating-as-shit, but last night it suited our mood nicely. We had nice little boogie-breaks between puts. Being 4:30 on a Tuesday, it was quiet there – there was one other couple that we never saw. The patron of the place warned us that there were security cameras, and winked. No kinky shenanigans here!

Then after a lovely dinner at Boston Pizza, where we discussed the parenting challenges we were expecting, we went to my workplace for a few things. When people asked, “Where’s the baby?” I’d look wide-eyed at Andrea and say, “Oh SHIT!” I’m confident enough in my parenting that a good child-neglect joke can be funny on occasion!

By the time we got home, she was well into her “Active” time. Whether she’s fussy or not, she’s wide-awake, and wants to be entertained. So now we have the riddle of how to entertain a 10-week-old. Well, we just make up songs, hold her up by her armpits, or swing her on our arms, with her head on an elbow. She’s a little young for Baby Einstein just yet.

Any other infant-amusing ideas?