Our Little Fish

We spent Saturday in Kokomo with my family to celebrate Father's Day and my dad's birthday. With this heat, we decided a trip to the pool would be a good plan for the day. All four boys loved it (and the adults were not complaining), and Zach and I figured out that we have a little fish in our Bennett...he absolutely loved the pool.

This is the same baby who screamed through nearly every bath we gave him for the first four months.

Two peas in a pod.

Memaw and her boys playing in the children's pool.

Papaw and the boys after dessert...Cooper was still catching up on sleep from all the swimming earlier that day.


P.S. CONGRATULATIONS to the newly ENGAGED couple!! Bennett is pictured below with his Auntie Whitney and her fiance, Eric. We are looking forward to toasting their happy news this Friday.

RIP MJ

Last night Hoosier born music icon Michael Jackson died.

In honor of Michael, Bennett requested that Mommy wear a glove all day and moonwalk whenever she carried him around the house. She did not oblige.

On a more serious note,

What I knew about him from the media did not have me impressed, but I did respect him as a musician. He was my generation's Elvis or the Beatles.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-ybMr05ks4

How often did this happen to Paula Abdul, Boy George, Bono or Eminem? I am sure it did happen, but this was an everyday thing for Michael. Even when he was not on tour or producing new music he was still popular in the public eye.

Trouble

Literally, this is after leaving the room for not even 2 minutes. It started as a neat stack just under the chair.

All of his toys and reaching the computer was his only goal. Finally I just sat him in front of it for a brief moment...he was so proud.

Hey Mommy

Hey, Mommy guess what? I have learned some new tricks while you are away.

Tricks like;

- How to sleep through tornado sirens
- How to roll off my changing table
- How to pee through my diaper and wet the bed. (I am 2 for 2 so far)

Isn't that great?>

In regards to that last point it has become evident that Daddy is definitely a short time fix. His diaper changing abilities do not last through the night. He is more like a Dennis Eckersley or Lee Smith type reliever rather than the Warren Spahn complete game type.

Sincerely,

Bennett

P.S .

Only Daddy is be able to fit bedwetting, tornados and Warren Spahn into a single story and post.

I Am In Charge- A Sign That The Apocalypse Is Upon Us

If it has been a bit since you have been to this blog you may have missed a few posts. I would be remiss if I did not recommend that you visit the post below this entitled "Special Visitors." Abby's grandparents visited us last week and we got to enjoy a special dinner and some visitation time in addition to a baseball game saturday morning. Also I had an old college friend of mine in town who came over for dinner with his wife and one year old son.

You may have also seen the post entitled "T-Minus 44 hours." Well it is here and away we go.

Holy Crap, I never thought I would feel this way again. It is like I am about to take a high school final or have my first kiss. Today at work I looked at the clock and it read 2:57 and I went into an absolute panic. Only about 2 hours until I am in charge of our son, Bennett. I/we (Bennett and I are toast). Thoughts and questions raced through my head….
How will I eat?
How will I change myself?
How will I go to the bathroom?
How will I shower?
Will I need to buy a wig to replace the increased hair-loss that I will surely suffer this weekend? If yes, what color of hair should I go for? (I have always wondered if it is true that redheads are treated differently.)
Who is going to take Fenny outside?
What if the Kristen is late?
What is the square root of 17?
Yes, that is right, about a million questions flew through my head in one fail-safe swoop and left me dumbfounded.
And finally I thought to myself, “How does Abby do it? She is great and superhuman." Then I think of her sister, Amy, with three small boys of her own and I think to myself, "Abby is superhuman and Amy is just plain nuts."

For of those who did not know Abby has decided to go off galavanting to Las Vegas to drink, gamble, go clubbing and partake in numerous other acts of debauchery and I am home playing Mr. Mom.
I left work a little early to take her to the airport. We said our goodbyes and Bennett and I were off onto I-465 on our way home. Upon arrival at home I fed Bennett, ate dinner and then we took the dog for a leisurely evening stroll. Home in time to play awhile and then a bottle. Change the diaper, put on pajamas, place Bennett in sleepsack, read some books and put him to bed. Then I went out to the kitchen, cleaned up, went back to help Bennett fall asleep, continued cleaning up and sat down here to post this entry all by 9:00PM. If you can not tell I am kind of proud of myself. And I am entering all of this here not just for a blog post, but more to serve as a diary that I can look back on in the years to come and laugh. This is only day one and tomorrow I get a brief respite when our summer nanny, Kristen, comes to take over while I go to work. Just in case anything is to happen to me I know Abby will be glad that I have posted her directions to Kristen and I so that just about anyone can read them and pick up where we left off without missing a beat or in this case feeding/diaper change.

On a side note I am pretty sure Abby purposely left out one of the most random dishes we own just to see if I would actually put it away and also to see if I actually knew where it was to go. Well joke is on you Abby. I know exactly where this dish belongs..... Right on top of the oven in plain sight of everyone. And that is where I have placed it for you to see upon your safe arrival home.

Not sure if and when you(Abby) are reading this, but know that Bennett and I spoke about you our entire walk and we blew kisses to you as he went to bed. Take care and we will see you soon.

Editor's Note: Directions that Abby left have been removed and replaced with Bennett's bath pictures from a couple nights ago.

Special Visitors

Last week my grandfather, Bennett's great-papaw, came to Indy to visit with us...what a treat! We enjoyed time with them Wednesday afternoon at our home before heading to Broad Ripple for pizza and ice cream. You can check my sister's blog for more pictures.

great papaw Quinnette.

On Friday night, we enjoyed visiting with two of Zach's Sigma Nu fraternity brothers and their families. Chris and Lindsay Barr were visiting from California with their newly turned one-year-old son, Cooper, and Ben and Gianna Mohrman and their 9-month old daughter, Marah.

Capturing all three in the photo...not easy. Cooper is escaping this one.

This was the best I could do...no one looking at the camera, but they all made it in! We had an excellent time catching up and the little ones did great. Thanks to the Barr's and Mohrman's. We look forward to seeing you again soon!

T-Minus 44 Hours

Stay Tuned...

Digital Conversions, Barack Obama and the Coupons

Tonight at midnight marks the switch from analog to digital television. This switch should not affect people with cable or satellite television, but if you rely on over-the-air transmission signals to get your television channels you will no longer receive a signal to your televisions. I know most of you are thinking, "How can the Fords, who love music and sports, not have cable or a satellite? That would mean they can not watch ESPN, MTV, VH1, MTV2, VH1 Classic, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN Classic, BET or any other of the sports channels." Well my friends that is not the problem. The problem lies with our dog, Fenway. You see Fenny is spoiled. Since we can not trust her to roam the house freely while we are away she is sequestered into a 6x8 foot chateau in our basement. We feel sorry for her so she is provided a television to watch. And since we can not trust her with a remote control she has no way to change the channel. Thus, we decided that she did not need to have access to cable. So when we put Fenny in her chateau she is afforded the luxury of channel 8 (our local CBS affiliate). To tell you the truth that is the only station that we can get in our basement without plugging into cable. Last year when we heard about the conversion to digital television it suddenly donned on us that Fenny would lose access to her entertainment. I applied for one of the coupons that would enable us to buy the conversion box at a much discounted price. I received the coupon and put it away until the time came closer for the conversion. As the February conversion date approached I fished out the coupon and went to Best Buy to purchase the box. As I was checking out the teller told me that they could not honor the coupon because it was expired. I had never looked at the coupon very closely and never would have thought it would have an expiration date. Frustrated I left the store and broke the terrible news to Fenny. I tried to re-apply for the coupon, but was told only one order per household. No problem, I ordered some for my parents household. Problem was the government only earmarked a certain amount of funds to go towards these coupons and that amount had already been met so they were no longer issuing the coupons. Then Barry Obama, Fenny's new hero, stepped in and ordered a delay on the television conversion until the public had more time to prepare.
Well, as I type this blog entry it is the eve of the conversion and there is no emergency delay in sight. Seeing this would be the case I once again had to break the bad news to Fenny. Only this time I was not going to be the "fallguy" so I blamed it on Mommy. Just for posterity I videotaped part of it and have posted it here for any that care to watch. Just remember to first pause/mute the music on the right side bar before playing the video in order to get sound.

Tough Noggin

Quick update: As paranoid parents we made a quick trip to the doctor this morning to confirm that Bennett is recovering fine from his tumble onto the kitchen floor (see post below, if you have not already done so). The truth is, they are pretty durable and we know this was just the first of many tumbles he will take throughout life - but that does not make it any less scary. We are very thankful to have this healthy little guy in our lives and this weekend was a reminder not to take any of that for granted. Thanks to everyone for checkin-in!!

How A Doctor's Statement Reaffirms My Need For A Man-Cave

TO hear video be sure to pause the music on the right side-bar.

New Dad's need to realize that "you" are just there. You are not the focal point. You are not the one the child wants to see in the morning or evening. You are simply the substitute. Mommy needs a break, enter Daddy to hold and play for a brief time. Your child can take you for short spans, but be sure to have Mommy ready to sub back in at first cry or whimper. Such is the life for Dads. When Abby and Bennett are together he has so much fun. She can make him laugh hysterically and smile ear-to-ear. When I try to replicate that it does not really go over so well. So imagine how excited I was when I was finally able to get Bennett to laugh. As you can see in the video he is having a grand old time. Well that move has become my signature move. It is all I can do to get him to laugh and cackle. So I do it on repeat and repeat and repeat. He loves it. And so do I. Yesterday I heard that familiar call and in I came suited up, ready to play Daddy and give Mommy a brief break. Bennett and I played for a bit, but as usual he was not that into it. So I decided to go to my signature move. It was going great and Bennett was starting to laugh. After a few seconds of this he started to wiggle around as I raised him toward the ceiling. I began to lose my grip and Bennett started his first sky-dive. Thankfully, I am blessed with enough athletic prowess that I was able to keep my hands on him and cushion the fall. Unfortunately, the majority of the cushion from the fall came from his head on the kitchen floor. Immediate silence and a death look from Mom followed. I am usually calm, cool and collected, but in this instance it was as if air raid sirens were going off and I was naked. I could not even think or move to dial the doctor's office. In comes super-hero Mom. She helps find calm in the eye of the storm, even though later she admitted to uncontrollably shaking in fear. I was able to get the doctor's office and nurse on the phone immediately (I actually could not speak at first b/c I fully anticipated an answering service on a Saturday morning). I handed the phone to Mom and she went through a litany of questions with the doctor and nurse. Questions ranged from;
How far did he fall?
Did he cry immediately?
How are his pupils?
Do you have a basement?
The nurse said that it was good that we had a basement because the hardness of the floors above are minimized. Thus, why I and every man needs his man-cave.
Dads' you are not the one your child longs for when he/she wakes and goes to sleep. You are better off retreating to your man-cave and doing "man things" while your child is comforted by the one he/she desires. Then when the time comes and you are in charge be glad that you have a man-cave so when you drop your child on his/her head the fall is not quite as hard.

(Editor's Note: As of this posting Bennett is fine. We were instructed to keep a close eye on Bennett and look for a few different symptoms. It has been more than 24 hours and we have not seen any of the warnings signs. We are thankful for just a scare and hard fall.)

How many boys does it take to change a diaper?

Zach loves convincing Camden and Carson to help him change diapers....poor Bennett.