Note to Self

Don't leave your mobile phone in your pants. And if you do, make sure you take it out before you wash the pants in the washing machine. Otherwise, you'll spend all day trying to negotiate a new mobile phone from Verizon - the most painful experience ever.

Back from Vacay & Hair Cut

Back from vacation, and we needed a hair cut to start the fall off right! Supercuts never lets a brother down. Plus the "Baby 'Fro" look is so 2006.

The plane ride to and from SC was pretty uneventful. People are generally pretty patient with Jack, much more patient than I remember being when I travelled before I had kids. I wonder if those Bose noise-cancelling headphones work on tired baby.

Anyway, we brought our laptop on vacation: one, so i could get my office email and not get blindsided with crises on Monday when I returned. Two, so we could show Jack movies on the plane to keep him amused. This was a good plan, he really liked watching Cars and all his favorites. Once he knew he could watch any movie we had - about 8 - he kept ordering me to change it. 15 minutes of Cars, then over to Caillou, then back to Cars, then some Thomas the Train, etc. The only problem is that airline seats get like 1/10th of an inch smaller every month, so it is now about a month away from impossible to use a laptop on an airplane anymore. The guy in front of me reclined the seat and nearly broke the screen off.

Anyway, fun vacation. Special thanks to in-laws for the patience with 7am wakeup 'calls.' If you are ever in Myrtle Beach, I can wholeheartedly recommend the Carolina Opry for all the unintentional comedy that you can handle.

Baby Xanax

Today its raining on our vacation, so we went to the mall to waste time indoors. Here is a picture of the only thing that makes Jack happy when shopping at the mall. For me, the only thing that makes me happy is leaving. I also got a new Red Sox (fitted) cap, because 1. I need to match Jack's and 2. My hair is too long for my old one to fit. Ha.

Sandcastle Destruction!!!

Some people apparently spent hours carefully constructing a city of sand. Jack decided to knock it down - before the tide did.

Myrtle Beach

Day one at the beach was a huge success. Jack loves the beach - the sand and the water. We jumped over the waves coming in, but he was definitely not interested in the water as much as the sand. Here he is with his cousin Sarah. Sharon and Paul are here also for the week from West Virginia. Stayed out for a few hours on the beach, then went in the pool for a few minutes. Jack felt nap time was optional even though mom and dad wanted one.

This is shaping up to be a great vacation for all of us. This afternoon my father- and brother-in-law went to a local sportsbar for Sunday football. The Cardinals won, the Cowboys won (made Daniel happy), and we came home and the Patriots and Red Sox are currently winning.

I have a caffeine-withdrawal headache. No Starbucks, and no sodas since I've been here. Until about 30 minutes ago when I broke down and had one to make the headache pass. Until I just heard Joe Morgan ask (rhetorically) how oh how did the Yankees get Roger Clemens to come out of retirement?

(All The Way to) Myrtle Beach

We're on our way to Myrtle Beach for our vacation this week. Right now we're in the Charlotte, NC airport. Jack has always been very anti-hat, but we went into the Lids store in the terminal and he started saying "Buddy's hat!" I of course picked this one up for him, and he is very proud of it - especially in light of tonight's rout of the Yankees. He was really good on the airplane; we watched a few videos (Cars, of course. And the weird Caillou.), colored, played with our cars. We got him a sheet of lion and tiger stickers, and he stuck every last one of them on a paper. Then he colored the paper. Its a mixed media piece.

Anyway, more to follow from our trip.

Not a Good Idea

Jack's new hobby is to get himself stuck. It doesn't matter where. He just wants to be stuck. Or as he says it, 'I'm ehstuck.' And he doesn't really enjoy it either (see above look on face). Here are the places he has been ehstuck in the past few days:

• Toy bin
• Closet
• Pot
• Cabinet
• Pool box outside

Rocking

Today I realized that as hard as I have rocked, Jack will one day rock much harder than I ever have at Guitar Hero.

Big Boy Bed

We finally bought Jack a regular person bed. Its a twin. We need to get him out of the crib because we're going to let his sister use it, and we don't want him to get jealous that she's sleeping in 'his bed.' So tonight we had the bed delivered, attached it to his new headboard, and put his new sheets on it. I lay down on it and thought 1. I might break it and 2. Did I really sleep in one this size up until I was 18?At first we weren't sure whether he would like it or not, and were kind of scared he might fall out of it - its much farther from the ground than his converted crib was.

When it was time for bedtime, there was the usual fuss. He got up, like he always does, and opened the door and came to let us know he wasn't ready to be in bed. I scooped him up and put him back into bed. He has real sheets now, so I tucked him in and sat on the side of the bed and sang his favorite bedtime song. He fell almost immediately to sleep.

We went in later to check on him, and he looked pretty small in the big new bed.

He's growing up - slowly - and there is absolutely nothing I can do to stop it. I think this is the first official non-baby thing he has done. Got kind of sad about it. But now the new nursery room has a crib, changing table, is painted light green, and is looking like another baby's room. Got kind of happy about it.

Anyway, there are a few new videos up on YouTube. More fun at the water park, and Jack's adventures with Suzanne's hand lotion.

We're Back (The Park)

The park! We can actually go now, as long as its before 9am. Currently 84 degrees, but 105 later today. Jack loves our park; he loves being outside. That's the hardest thing about living here in the summer: your choices of outside activities are basically 'go swimming,' which we have done plenty of. What this equates to is a lot of walking around the mall, and a lot of Desert Ridge kids' fountain. Of course, those of you elsewhere probably have to contend with snow all winter...so we're even.

Now that it is cooling off - at least in the mornings -we can go back to our normal park-going routine of putting sand in a bucket and climbing all over the jungle gym. The guy is a maniac on the climbing wall.

Opening Day

Yesterday was the opening day of the fall mom's Bible study classes at our church, Scottsdale Bible Church. I have been going to these classes since Jack was 3 months old, Tuesday mornings from 9 to 11:30. This semester we are doing the book "She's Gonna Blow." More on that later.

Nursery is provided for the kids. The very first day, back in January of '06, I could not bring myself to part with Jack, so I brought him into class with me and held him while he squirmed and cried. A lady came up to me and said "you have to trust." I think what she meant is "you have to get that noisy kid out of here." So from that day forward, I started "trusting" the workers with my baby boy. That is, until they no longer trusted him! During the next semester of class, when Jack was around 1 year old, he started a new habit...biting. I have come to realize after many, many bites, that Jack is smarter than I give him credit for. He doesn't like overcrowded, chaotic places (like the nursery) and a sure-fire way to get out immediately is to simply walk over to an unsuspecting child and bite down, hard. Mommy is always called, we quickly leave, and go do something more fun!

Anyway, after being kicked out of the nursery for a few months (not to mention the gym, some people's houses, and other play areas), we are back! Thankfully Jack was a perfect angel yesterday. In fact, the teacher said he "has a wonderful personality!" Hopefully his shady past is behind him now.

Practice Today

So after practice today I had lunch with Scott (Wesley Brown). I've talked with him lots of times about other things, but we actually had the opportunity to talk about the music business - publishing and songwriting rights. Its really interesting to get his viewpoint about the whole Nashville scene. He's written lots of songs, but unfortunately doesn't get paid for many of them. Memo to self: retain publishing rights on all hit songs I write.

Potbelly Pig

In case you're wondering, this picture is of Jack feeding a saltine cracker to a huge potbellied pig. (his name is Gilbert). Last week, we went out to a place called Spur Cross Ranch up north of Cave Creek. They have lots of horses, goats, a miniature cow, and emus (I was calling them ostriches, but Diane the ranch hand made fun of me). Jack absolutely loves this place. Its on the way to Pop Pop's (my father) house. So this pig is seriously 100 lbs, and is much bigger than Jack is. If I saw a pig bigger than me, I would probably run screaming for the hills. But Jack is a much braver person than me when it comes to pigs. Diane asked him if he wanted to feed the piggy a cracker. I was thinking a small pygmy pig or something. She leads him over to inside the house and the pig is just laying on its side relaxing in the air conditioning. Jack got a cracker and just walked over to the pig and gave it to him. Hilarious.

Daddy's At Work

Every time Suzanne and Jack are out on weekdays, and Jack strikes up a conversation with a stranger, he tells them "Daddy's at work." Just to let them know where I am. In case they're interested.

So he and Suzanne stopped by my office last week on their way to playgroup. He pointed out the fundamental flaw in Thomson's office babyproofing policy (that there is no office babyproofing policy) by opening up all my desk drawers and getting into the golf balls in my coworker's office. This morning I found another golf ball under my desk. I am pretty sure he is welcome back though. He had a long conversation with Stacy - my boss - and let her know a few things about planes, balls, garbage trucks, Daddy's work and doggies. Stacy, being a mother of two herself, was quick to agree with all his points.

Jack's New Best Friend

So we live outside of town far enough that we actually see a lot of wildlife. Coyotes, Javelinas (wild pigs), roadrunners, and about a million rabbits. We have a friendly rabbit family that lives in our backyard.

We also have a nearly-two year old boy, so we have a family of balls in our yard. Basketball, tennis balls, footballs, etc.

The bunnies basically have zero fear of us, since they see us outside every day. Today the bunny strayed close to the basketball and Jack noticed. I was at work at the time, but Suzanne did the play-by-play to me while on AIM:

suzieholl76 (3:45:22 PM): haha we are outside& there is a bunny in the grass

suzieholl76 (3:45:25 PM): buddy is freaking out

suzieholl76 (3:45:27 PM): he is talking to it

suzieholl76 (3:45:37 PM): saying "bunnyyyyyyyy"

suzieholl76 (3:45:43 PM): "bunny kick basketball"

suzieholl76 (3:45:57 PM): he sees that the basketball is close to the bunny and he wants the bunny to kick the basketball to him

suzieholl76 (3:45:59 PM): hahahaaaaa

suzieholl76 (3:46:43 PM): now he is saying "bunny....airplane sky" and pointing to the plane so the bunny can see

suzieholl76 (3:46:47 PM): he has made a new friend

It will be a sad day when I have to fill in the holes in the fence with concrete to prevent the bunnies from burrowing around our air conditioner. Maybe he can make new friends with the lizards.

Pop Corn

We went in the pool when I got home today. In the middle of the summer we always complain about the water temperature; with ambient air temp around 112 it gets to be about 93 degrees in the water during July or so. Now the water's starting to cool down - brr, 89! - and we're sad because it means the pool will only be warm for a few more weeks. We've used the pool almost every day this summer, and Jack is getting some pretty bold moves for a 21 month old. He does the wall cling, and will jump off the big step in the shallow end into Suzanne or my arms. I hope he remembers how much he loves the pool this summer when we go in next summer.

Now, Suzanne is making popcorn for Jack and I. When I tell Jack "Mommy's making popcorn!" he goes and gets a blanket and spreads it on the ground in the living room for us to all sit on. Its fun to have these family moments, especially since he TOTALLY FREAKS OUT for simple things like eating popcorn.

They Were Daddy's Shoes First

Those of you that know Suzanne and I well know that we have the same brand preference when it comes to casual footwear. Our year-round shoe of choice is Rainbow. Every year when we go to California to visit my mother and friends we stop in the factory in San Clemente to get a new pair of sandals.

Today, Suzanne was browsing their website to see what other sandals they had. Jack came to see what she was looking at, pointed at the screen, and said "Mommy's shoes!"

I feel bad for him, he has to wear inferior-in-every-way Crocs. I guess we have to get him some Rainbow's so he can wear the same shoes as Mom and Dad.

First Post

So this is the inaugural post to our blog. I bet that most people decide they're going to start a blog, then they wait and wait until something interesting enough happens that they think people will read it. And then, inevitably, nothing interesting happens. So I'll just start...

I am writing this from my office, just back from lunch. I am supposed to be finding a way to incorporate the entire history of insider trades from Canada and the UK into our research reports, but have been falling short on technical answers from our feed group in New York.

Suzanne and Jack went to Desert Ridge today to play in the fountain. They stayed for two hours.

From personal experience, I can tell you he is generally not interested in the fountain for two minutes, let alone two hours. He usually tries to make a run for the toy store that is frustratingly located within toddler sprinting distance.

Maybe today he realizes that the toy store will be there in the fall, but the fountain will be too cold to play in. Or maybe today he realizes that he is the true Toddler King of the fountain, and the shovel he holds is a scepter to rule his subjects that have sworn him fealty. Maybe.