She's a Pinball Wizard

Uncle Doug goes swimming

Last year we all went to the beach, and Uncle Doug didn't join the kids and I in a swim. This year when we went to the beach he had on his nifty swim trunks, but assured us he "wasn't going in". But maybe...
I'm not sure what I was saying, but I'm sure it was friendly and encouraging.

Next thing Nate knew is that his Uncle Doug was landing next to him in a big splash. A very dramatic entry! There would have been more pictures of his entry, but the camera woman was looking in the opposite direction.
Immediately, Uncle Doug is regretting his dramatic entry.
I'm telling him, "once you can breathe again, its not so bad. Seriously."
Soon all was right and the kids and the uncles were splashing away.

Another first for Drew: A day at the beach

All 10 of us went to the beach today because Monday is supposed to be unpleasant weather wise. Dawn was being negative about the whole thing, but we all ignored her and we had a fun time anyways. The picture shows her moping on the beach next to Drew and Abby. It was a very hot and bright day, but in his car carrier with some blankets on top of him kept him nice and cool. He slept the whole time, so you could say he was relaxed.

NOTE: Actually I might have been the one who was a grump, I can't really remember it too clearly now. But I'm pretty sure it wasn't Dawn. The picture just works though.

We ride at Dawn!

Drew loves going for rides with Aunt Dawn. Dawn has been wonderfully helpful with Drew, and has inspired Erika and I to actually go out with Drew rather than sitting around the house. We've gone to a science center, Target today and wrapped it up with a trip to chucky cheese. Prior to Dawn's visit we've been... basically no where.

Too cute for words...

405 Down

405 pages down out of 759. I'm determined not to have the ending of the Harry Potter series be spoiled by anything. Too much information is floating around out there. I know the ending will be on the radio, some TV clip, message board, sister, ect. So I'm getting it out of the way as fast as possible. A big thanks goes out to my beautiful and understanding wife as she watched me read all day long. In between helping with Drew, of course. Back to reading!

UPDATE: I finished Sunday about 4pm. Roughly 25 hours. It was very good, what you would expect from a Harry Potter book.

Hi Laurie!!

5 Weeks

Happy 5 Weeks Drew!!!

I honestly can say I don't remember any of it. I remember today, but will struggle to remember yesterday. Last week? Forget about it.

He's had his one month 'weight check'. Weighed in at 10lbs 8oz. After the amount he's ate in the past couple of days, I would say he's a lot closer to 11 now. I know I sound like a broken record, but there are good days and rough days. Mainly the evenings, but he tends to settle down for bedtime.

He's not smiling yet, at least not for me. I've seen the occassional 'gas grins', but nothing by itself. Erika sees them, but then again, she's Mom. I can't compete with what mom provides. When he comes to appreciate an immature man-boy that will play with him, and holds the title 'Dad', thats when I'll come into my own.

Erika has a crop on Saturday. More 1 on 1 time with the boy. Its always scary. Hopefully the weather is nice and I can take him for an hour walk, so he'll sleep for another two.

Here are some misc pictures from the past week or so:

HELP! WE'RE TRAPPED!!

Its 10pm. Drew last slept around 2:30pm. Since then he's been gassy and upset and hungry and upset and hungry... so about 15 minutes ago my beautiful and talented wife finally was able to get him to sleep in his crib. We are now both in the office (next door to nursery) and we are afraid to breath too loud. Normally he's a pretty solid sleep, but just tonight we are a bit gun-shy.

My name is Dave, and I play video games.

I keep my hobby of video games to myself. There is a stigma associated with playing video games, even though the video game industry is bigger than the movie industry and will soon pass the music industry in the amount of dollars that changes hand. And just about everyone plays video games in some fashion or another. My Mom plays word games, my Dad plays the Cruel card game (2Billion games and counting, Go Dad Go!) , my sister is an Animal Crossing expert on the Nintendo DS. Even Erika occasionally plays a game of Bejeweled or Mah Jong. I have a good job, I own a house, I have a wife, and I play video games.

Ok, now that I've defended my hobby that really doesn't need defending, I'm going to make a very nerdy post, and you will all need to forgive me. This won't happen very often.

I typically play my games on a XBox 360 or a very nice computer.

So here is my dilemma. Its a very exciting dilemma, but a dilemma none the less. This is a bumper crop year for exciting quality games for the Xbox and PC. For those of you don't know, hundreds of video games come out every year, most of them are crap.

Here is a list of games that come out before the end of the year (in no particular order).
Madden 08
Tiger Woods 08
Bioshock
Halo3
GTA 4
Call of Duty 4
Assassins Creed
Ace Combat 6
Mass Effect
NHL 08
Mercenaries 2
The Simpsons
Halflife 2: Orange box
Hellgate: London

Now these are just games I want. I usually don't buy a game unless I know its going to be good (normally I rent), and all of these games fit the category GOOD. Now do you see my problem? Its two fold, not only do all these games cost lots and lots of money (about $60 each) I don't have the time anymore to play all these games. So now I'm looking for donations to help me out, and babysitters to watch my child. Volunteers only please.

1 Month, 1 Day

Today, things went fantastic. Its amazing the difference a day can make. He found sleep several times today, and we discovered something called BlissWater that seemed to help his tummy pains out. He was giddy with Grammie holding him after we gave him the BlissWater. I think he just felt better overall. As a result of feeling better, he's been sleeping a very long time. Erika and I may pay for this when he wakes bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at 1am this morning, but a day like today was worth it. We went for a walk, we did a little tummy time. Hung out with Grammie on the porch. Doesn't get much better than that. And he's ALMOST starting to smile. WOOHOO! Oh,and I got more pampers. I hate huggies. I never thought there would be a day when I had a preference in diapers.

There will be good days, there will be bad days.

1 Month

Its getting harder as we go along. He doesn't sleep nearly as much as he used to, and when a one month doesn't sleep in our experience, he either wants to eat, or is complaining about not eating, or complaining about gas pains from eating. Once in a while we get an alert, not fussy baby that we can almost play with which is fun. So its not quite what I expected, and Erika and I aren't what I would call 'natural' parents. Don't get me wrong, Erika is doing wonderful with all the constant feedings, and I must say I'm a pretty good burper/diaper changer (except with huggies, its a disaster when I use huggies). You just don't realize, or at least I didn't, the grind day to day with a new baby is. And I'm not sure if we have an 'easy' baby or a 'difficult' one. Probably somewhere in the middle.

I don't mean to sound like I'm complaining, because he is still our little angel, and we are very lucky to have such a healthy and vigerous little guy. We're just tired.

Buddies

Drew was fussy (aka hungry) so I was walking him around trying to take his mind off eating. I walked out on the porch and Mobes was sleeping on his side. I gently leaned drew against Mobes' tummy. Drew loved it, he fell asleep almost instantly. At first I was hovering in case Mobey decided to bolt, but he just put his head back down and continued to sleep. This went on about 5 min and then Erika got the camera.

3 Weeks

It's amazing that its only been 3 weeks since Drew came into our life.

On one hand, it feels like 3 months. Everyday we don't know what to expect from him. Some days he sleeps most of the day, waking only to feed. Other days he's fussy and fidgety, doesn't seem to want to sleep at all and the only thing that prevents him from blowing out a lung from crying is to feed (thankfully these days are pretty rare).

On the other hand, we can't believe how fast he's growing. Almost too fast. Outfits that were swimming on him when he was first brought home, actually come close to fitting him now.

Erika is doing an amazing job as a Mom. He is a challenge to keep fed, and she is staying on top of it. I don't envy her, its a relentless and thankless job. Drew is thankful, he just doesn't show it yet. Other than that drunk look in his eyes when he is done. Erika has been sleeping on the recliner since she's been home, and every night she goes to bed with Drew in her lap. If he doesn't sleep, she doesn't sleep. Hopefully we'll get her sleeping in her own bed in a week or two. Bottom line is she is doing great, and Drew is never happier than when he is in her arms.

Here he is chill'n out during his first bath given to him by Mom and Erika. My Mom has been a wonderful help to Erika and I. She's been over about twice a week to help out. She's great with Drew, and its wonderful to have another pair of hands to hold him. Drew ALWAYS falls asleep when Grammie holds him. My Mom and Erika actually went to the mall together for Erika's first time out since Drew's birth.

Pics

Dave 8 - Chipmunks 0

Chipmunks. So cute and furry. They tore up my wife's garden, and as a result 5 of them have lost their lives. I didn't start this war, but I will finish it. The chipmunks have ate dozens of bulbs, several hostas and I don't know the names of all the other plants that have been destroyed. This not only makes my wife unhappy, this means we need to spend more money to replace these plants. And I won't mention the damage done to the bird feeders, and the quantity of birdseed ate.

So I finally got to a point where we needed to take action. I ordered a couple of Havaheart traps, but Mom shared with me the 'right way' to get'em. A bucket of water, and some seed. You fill the bucket half full, put some seed in the bucket, then just wait for the curious bugger to go after the seed. They drown. Now, I don't find this funny, and I don't like killing anything, and I wish I could just talk to the chipmunks and ask them to leave I would. But I never leaned chipmunk in school. I took Latin. Semper Ubi Sub Ubi!

I'm not a complete heathen. I've relocated 3 chipmunks to the other side of the river using the havaheart trap. There are a total of 8 less chipmunks in the area around the house. Hopefully, this will make a difference.

The chipmunk explosion this years isn't just happening to us, but its across the north east. Hopefully next year Erika's garden will rebound next year and me and the chipmunks will have a truce.

Awwwww....