PLEASE SLEEP!!!

Holy cow, we have entered some weird dimension of crazy baby pretty much every night the past two weeks.

I believe Parker to be part Vampire, in that he is WIDE awake every night around 3-4am. It's insane. He is the most amazing baby all day long. But in the darkness of night, he's up, he's active and he's on the prowl.

The difficulty in the situation is the Little Man has been mobile now for three weeks. This means when he wakes up, he doesn't just cry and look around. When Parker wakes up, he rolls over, gets on all fours, sits up and says "alright world, I'm up and ready to play."

We'll see how it goes tonight. We just had a nice long day at the beach. Parkers first time to play in the sand. He had a great time. We had bought a little pop up tent (aka: a cabana) and set up shop just south of the Santa Monica peer, in what I will call the "family beach."

After a jog through Venice Beach, lunch in the sand, a nap, and dipping our toes in some cold water, Parker had his fill of the sunshine and we headed home.

Let's hope he sleeps through the night. 

Bonus, new videos uploaded, check it out!

Happy Birthday, Mommy!

Our second full day at Snowbird and a fun one it was. Beautiful weather, empty lifts and a fun afternoon taking it easy with mommy and the Little Man.

Overall, the trip has started out wonderfully, except for one minor fracture... literally.

Yesterday afternoon, Chery (Grandma) was taking her very first run now Chickadee, the bunny slope. I slightly out of control kid almost collided with her near the bottom of the lift, so Chery tried to quickly get out of the way, but instead got her skis crossed and ended up falling against a hard-packed snow embankment, hitting her left shoulder "just perfectly." After a ski patrol visit, a trip to the infirmary and a ride down to the hospital in Salt Lake, Mrs. Osburn ended up with a fracture to her shoulder, rendering her left arm useless. One additional note, Chery, like me, is left handed, making this even more frustrating.

Luckily, she doesn't need surgery. Instead, she is keeping her arm wrapped tight for the next 8 weeks, making many simple things difficult (driving, working, and holding her grandson).

One a lighter note, today is Mommy's 29th +2 birthday. We spent the morning on the slopes, followed by an afternoon nap with Parker and a little shopping trip. Jaimie took Hannah, Cole and Ambrea down to the pool to swim, while daddy watched the little man. We had a wonderful birthday dinner of lasagna (thanks Lisa) followed by a cake Richard and Chery picked up on the way back from the hospital. Mmmm, mommy likes chocolate.

About to hit the sack, feel free to comment and wish mommy a happy birthday! As Jaimie just said, "what a perfect day."

Vacation: The Blog

Nothing sneaks up on you quite like a vacation. It's one of those things that you love to do, but you are never really ready or prepared to leave home for a few days, change your surroundings, make sure the house and pets will be ok, etc. Nothing holds more true when you have a seven month old.

It's no longer just annoying when you forget toothpaste (as we did) or not pack enough pairs of underwear (which we've been known to do), it's downright game changing. Forget something you need for a baby and you go into lock-down mode until the item can either be secured or located.

Luckily for us, we didn't forget much of anything for Parker. However, you also learn one more new little item when traveling with a baby. You either (a) bring more stuff or (b) replace the things you would normally put in your suitcase for his things. "I'm sorry, daddy. You can only bring two t-shirts this year because I need my stuffed elephant and Tigger.

So, just to keep everyone in the loop, we flew into Salt Lake City yesterday for our yearly ski trip with Jaimie's family up in Snowbird. Jaimie, Parker and I arrived at the airport yesterday morning and then had a little "camp out" while we waited for the rest to come in from Austin. With ten of us in the shuttle fan, plus luggage, skis and snowboards and a grocery stop on the way up the hill, you could barely see out the windows. But, after a short ride up the Little Cottonwood Canyon, we arrived at the Cliff Lodge in Snowbird.

I know I've said it before, but Parker is an amazing baby to travel with. Besides the flawless airplane trip, the van travel from airport to ski resort take us up to around 7,000ft. In the past, with nephew Cole and niece Hannah were babies, they suffered from altitude sickness as we travelled up the mountain. But, Parker did great and has been enjoying his first day being passed from Grandma to cousin to aunt to uncle then back to Pappa. 

I will be trying to do regular updates from the mountain, so keep a look out. And also, check out the newest photos just posted.

PARKER CAN CRAWL!!!

Yes folks, it's official. Parker is now an "on the move" kinda baby! 

While daddy was in San Diego speaking at a conference, mommy saw Poops crawl across the daycare floor. She cried, another mom cried... all was well.

Mommy called Daddy at lunch to let him know, who was very excited and bragged to a bunch of technology guys (who could care less) about how brilliant his son is. Lucky for daddy, this all happened the same day he was to fly home. EVEN luckier, daddy caught an earlier flight and was able to see Poops crawl across the floor (for the remote control) at home before he went to bed.

Daddy was so excited, that he continued to refer to himself in 3rd person throughout the entire blog. Poor, excited daddy.

OK, so check back and I'll have some photos to add very soon!

New Photos!

Good Weather, Good Friends!

Down for the Count

Good God, what a couple of weeks. I like to think I am pretty good at keeping this blog up to date and current with all that's happening with our Little Man, but the past few weeks have been an absolute whirlwind, and it all started with what we thought was a "first cold."

Turns out, Parker ended up with Bronchiolitis, which ends up being a scary little condition for little guys around Parker's age. Lucky for us, Day Care helps to introduce such joys as these, and we began what we thought was a few days of unhappy and sick little baby.

So, little baby ends up being fine, but in turn creates a big baby, as after day two of "cough watch 08", daddy develops some Bronchitis of his own, and ends up out of commission for about a week. Never having something like this before, I go into my normal sick routine of becoming absolutely worthless and quarantined myself to the west end of the sofa. 

Even as Parker continued to get better and flaunt his ability to shake off disease much quicker than his old man, I took stock on the situation and realized one amazing feat of nature... Mommy was unfazed. She didn't get sick, didn't stop moving, didn't slow down. She cleaned around us, cleaned us up, disinfected the house multiple times, administered medicine, took temperatures, and all while working her full time job and keeping up her normal routine... I lay on the sofa, in my pile of used Kleenex and empty water bottles, in utter awe of her.

Fast forward to today, and besides a lingering cough and an amazing ability to produce mucus (I know, gross), I am back on my feet trying to get back into my daddy support mode. It's been slow, but it's also been nice to sleep in my own bed again, play with Parker, hug my wife. 

My one source of comfort in the "baby is sick" department, Parker seems to have his mommy's resilience. This is a blessing that I pray holds up over time. Let's face it, when I'm sick, being the biggest baby in the house really is my job.

First Cold

Well, after six months in the world and 2 months at day care, Little Man has his first cold. It is heart breaking to hear the little guy trying to breath, but instead blowing little snot bubble out of his nose. It's worse when he is trying to sleep, considering how hard it is for him to learn how to breath through his mouth when his nose is stopped up. It has made sleeping at night difficult, as he wakes himself up throughout the night.

What made it tougher, especially on mommy, was that it all started saturday night. This wouldn't usually be a big deal, except daddy left town for business that same night, traveling to Boston on a red eye. Needless to say, after being gone for four nights, daddy owed mommy big time. 

Wednesday night was daddy's turn, and boy mommy was not exaggerating. Little Man and I were up from 1am off and on until 5am. Good times.

Today it's about 80 and sunny. Welcome to Southern California winters. We are going to spend most of the day outside, in the yard, on a blanket. If you are unable to do the same thing in your area, feel free to spend some time looking at the latest pictures from Christmas, New Years and our trip to Chicago to visit our best friends, the Osburns.

D Batteries

It's ridiculous. One of the newest "learnings" of fatherhood is the fact that it's difficult to find a baby toy that doesn't run on batteries. Does it not shock other people that the only way to find a toy made of wood or uses manual "play", you have to go to a specialty store. The notion alone of endless purchases of children's toys makes me consider purchasing stock in Energizer and Duracell.

Little Man has a swing that we have used religiously since birth. I have talked about it on this blog before, even commenting on it's amazing power to sooth the little guy. But, it runs on four D batteries and goes through them like a fat kid goes through french fries. So, i find my self at Target yesterday purchasing 2 12 packs of D batteries. At $12 a pack, this really starts to add up. I start to wonder why they don't build these things with (A) rechargeable batteries or (B) a power cable option. Personally, I think it's a deal the toy companies strike with the battery companies.

Today is the first time I have written since LSU beat Ohio State for the College Football National Championship in one of the weirdest college football seasons I can remember. It would be an understatement to explain how excited I was at the win. Inviting a few friends over to enjoy the game along with me, I spent most of the evenings glued to the TV. Even after my friends left, I went for round two and watched it again. Love the DVR features on TV now.

Also, a big ups to Mr. Kevin Brown, my 2003 National Champion buddy. We spent a good part of the evening on the phone with each other, wondering why we didn't just fork over a bunch of money and go to the game. But all in all, the only regrets of the season were at the tail end of TWO triple overtimes. Not bad at all.

GEAUX Tigers.

LSU-38 Ohio State-24

1st Day Jitters

Mommy had them, Mickey and Boo had them, Daddy was worried about Mommy, but Little Man came through like a champ. Yes, that's right, Parker went to his first day of school yesterday and apparently LOVED it.

In the weeks preceding Day One, Mommy constantly reminded Daddy how nervous she was to put him into an environment where the baby to adult ratio was 3 to 1, as apposed to the 1 baby to 3 adults situation he has been in since birth. She just doesn't want her kid lost in the shuffle, becoming just one of many, losing priority.

Not an issue, as Mr. Parker enjoyed his first day very much. He took several naps, ate a little bit, but most of the time he spent playing and watching the other kids. Jaimie's only real concern was the quantity of food he ate while at daycare, but I reminded her how much he has trouble eating when there is a lot going on around him (the airplane, Christmas morning, etc), so it was pretty normal.

Mommy called Daddy only twice yesterday, which is about 8 times short of how many times I thought she'd call, distraught at passing her one and only off to a stranger. The first call was after she dropped him off in the morning to say she was sad, but was quickly realizing how close she was (refer to a few blogs ago at the map). The second was around lunch when she called to tell me she and Parker were on a walk together, happy as can be. She sounded much more at peace, baby and mommy cruising around her work "neighborhood."

When I got home, Mommy spent 30 minutes bragging to Daddy about how good Little Man was in school and how much everyone loved him. As if Daddy didn't know it already.

So, all in all, Day One was great, Mommy survived, Parker had fun and Daddy didn't have to wipe any tears when he got home. Let's see how Day Two goes... :)