Ugh!

I was sorting through lil'daddy's clothes today, packing away what he has outgrown. It seems that he has actually OUTGROWN some of his underwear without ever wearing them for any length of time. Potty training is not going well.....

More reason to rejoice!!

Two of our dearest friends are now engaged. I'll call them Pookie & Barbadar. I've known each of them for most of my life, having met Pookie in second grade and Barbadar in seventh grade. Big Daddy has also become very close to them over the years and they are loved very much by us and by our families.

We wish P & B many blessings and all the happiness in the world as they prepare for married life. Congratulations !!!

Merry Christmas to all..

Wishing all a most blessed Christmas, one with peace, joy & Christ's Love. I pray that the Almighty comes to our hearts in just as real a way as He arrived at the stable one blessed day in Bethlehem.

A very Merry first Christmas also to a brand new little one.. Baby M. He is all but five weeks old and is already full of wonder and joy.

More Sono Picts (finally)!

I finally scanned them. They should just give you your sonogram pictures digitally at this point! In fact, they should give you some video as well! We had a detailed sonogram this time so we got to watch our boy twist and turn all around for at least half an hour.

The last set of pictures were profiles, 'George Washington shots'. The tell tale shot for determining sex, I call the 'Tidy-bowl shot'. (Imagine a shot looking up from inside a toilet bowl) I, as the technician was getting in place for the tidy bowl shot, picked out gender immediately. The technician seemed impressed while I, on the other hand, couldn't figure how anyone could miss the cushy tushie, chubby legs and well, er..., other largely disproportionate body parts!? (Healthy, normal but seemingly disproportionate. not in a bad way!)

The following sono shots I have termed the 'Alien shots'. They're straight-on shots with the baby looking directly at you. Of course, if I were a technician I could never infer that someone's baby looked like an alien. I think daddies have that privilege!

The bunchies (warning, a bit crude)

Zero luck with potty training. Well, not quite zero, but not much at all. Boy is still in diapers/pullups. He doesn't like them, but he refuses to leave his room without one on. Reason he doesn't like them is because they get all "bunchy" in his jeans.

Today he tells me his solution for the bunchies (yes, aka a diaper wedgie). He tells me that when he makes gas, the bunchies come out (that's right, he blows it out his.....) . When he doesn't have any gas to make, he has to wiggle or pull out the bunchy. I guess gas is a handy thing to have sometimes!!

A bit of a crude post, but Big Daddy and I were hysterical recounting this!

It's a boy!

We found out last week, Baby Boy, May 08. Thanks be to God for blessing us again with His life..

The Giving Tree

I'm sure I read this book as a child but when I rediscovered it, some time around lil'daddy's birth, I couldn't recall any lucid memories of it. After Counting Blessings and I read it, we both decided that we would not actively expose the boy to it. I guess we weren't sure it's appropriateness for our young boy and decided to take a cautious approach. At the time, I didn't think I'd feel comfortable reading the story to him. -reading about the insatiable leech of a boy and the selfless tree that allows itself to be completely consumed. Neither was a model I wanted the boy to emulate.

I don't want to totally bash the story because I, in fact, like it. I just couldn't understand why it seemed to be lauded as such a great children's book. When considering the book for child consumption there is just something about the exaggeration of the underlying 'truth' of using others and being used up that doesn't seem toddler-age appropriate. Today, lil'daddy saw the "The Giving Tree" on the shelf at Border Books.

We typically go to a book store a couple times a week to peruse the children's section and see what's new. We take a few books, sit down, read them, put them back, find a couple more, sit, read and so forth. Today, lil'daddy included "The Giving Tree" as one of our books to read. He read it front to back on his own as I watched his reaction. As the tree began to loose it's branches and trunk, lil'daddy's reading became more and more pensive. His facial expression was becoming more and more quizzical. His body began to lean away from the book. I thought he was not going to want to finish but he kept reading through the remaining pages. At the end, I quietly awaited his reaction. Looking a little disturbed, he calmly tells me, "I don't like that book." When I asked him why, on cue he replies, "because the tree was happy... but not really".

That was almost a direct quote from the book. I don't think I could have answered my own question so succinctly. I don't think I could have wanted him to answer differently either. My boy continues to amaze me!

Lil'g'tar hero update!

The boy is on a roll. Today, he beat me in face off mode again. I actually kept inching my score close to his, occasionally getting ahead by a couple hundred points. I seriously think he might've been noticing the score and trying harder to best me!

In Guitar Hero II, lil'g'tar hero (a.k.a lil'daddy) has a new overall high score. Hitting 31% of the notes, with a 6 note streak (including a few chords), the boy managed to score 12,251 on the song "X-stream" in easy mode.

The boy has also spent all my band's money in career mode on guitars and outfits! He wanted me to go to an ATM so he can buy another guitar. He also thinks Lars needs another outfit! Anyone know what you have to do in the game to unlock Lars outfit so it can be purchased? Big daddy has to go on tour to support his boy's spending habit. Know I know how those rock stars end up going bankrupt and having to come out of retirement... ...They have kids! :)

Pretty soon I'm going to have to get him a Score Hero account and sign him up in a peewee league!

Rock On lil'daddy!

Lil'daddy Rocks!

I'm sure we've mentioned how lil'daddy has taken a liking to the musical Playstation games... He knows quite a repertoire of music from the Singstar series of Karaoke games. Strolling through the Best Buy music aisle, he can and has recognized many of the CD covers and recalled their artists. Tonight's post is not about Singstar and the boys vocal abilities. No.

Tonight's post is about how he rocks on Guitar Hero! Yesterday his biggest thrill was when he beat me in faceoff mode (I might have been taking it easy on him). Today he spent a good portion of his video game time in practice mode. At this point he navigates the menus and knows how to set up the game on his own, so I went inside to fix him a snack. After coming back in the room, I see him practicing a song. After a few seconds watching the screen, I see a chord scroll down. In this case, it was a 2 note chord. (hold 2 fret buttons & strike strum bar) Before I could ask, "What? Do you have it on medium?" The boy strikes the chord and even fully sustains it out! - ah... I shut up and let him play.

After his pratice, he wants me to play with him. He sets up the song and chooses characters, guitars, etc. We face off playing "I Ran" by Flock of Seagulls. Me on Hard and him on Easy. He's having a good time. I'm having a good time. I hear him picking up some notes where I'm missing! I hear him pulling on the wah-wah bar during sustains! The end results pop up. He scores 7,843!!! (His previous high score on any song had been around 3,000.) In case you forgot he's only 3 years old!

He's hitting the notes, He can hit Chords. He likes the wah-wah. Lil'daddy ROCKS! I hope to get some video up real soon too because he has rock star moves as well!