Family Update

I really don't care to talk about everything that has happened since my my last entry. Let's just say it's full of fast cars, tuxedos and mob hits.

Currently, Autumn is 13 weeks along with Caleb the Sequel. We don't know if it will be a true sequel...it could be a girl, but we are looking forward to another attempt at parenthood. I guess our first attempt is going alright. You can see from the picture that he is currently training for a job as a dishwasher. I told him to set his sights higher, but he says this is what he really wants to do.

We're going to try a homebirth...which in my mind is like trying to build a rocket in my garage. We do have a midwife...which is like the instruction manual you download from wikipedia. But, wikipedia hasn't failed us yet, so we'll see.

The downside to our new kid is that the timing works out so that I won't be able to attend my geek convention this year. As so many people read my last experience, I know many will be sad to hear this.

I will try to do something nearly as fun close to home...like a spontaneous trip to riverton. We'll see.

ComiCon 2008 (a comic book convention)

Day 1

Californian's are the scariest drivers in the world. You have to morph into a nutjob in order to survive on the free. It felt like Dukes of Hazard minus the jumps and moonshine.

We got in pretty quick and went to a showing of a pilot for the show "Fringe." Fringe combines Frankenstein, X-Files and Three's Company for a perfect blend of mess. The opening scene shows a mutant throw-up on a person because the mutant is motion sick--clever and good.

I also realized I got a free pack of Magic cards. I considered beating up little kids to take theirs and have a massive collection, but: 1) every box of cards was the same, and 2) The kids would have probably beaten me up.

Day 2

Dave (my old roommate) and his brother-in-law came into town to go to the convention with us. We got there early and had a really good parking spot. I stood in line to get Autumn an autograph from the author of Twilight, but, after nearly being stampeded by 13-year old girls, I failed. Dave suggested I yell, "Edward Cullen is a fag." but I wasn't ready to die.

We saw the cast of a show called Big Bang Theory and the girl in the show is attractive in real life. Corey Feldman was signing autographs for Lost Boys: The Tribe, but didn't get one. I wanted to ask him to sign it "Mouth from Goonies." I wonder how he would've taken it.

We ended the day by watching Lost Boys: The Tribe and it really sucks. I got a kick out of the vampires though. They played jokes on each other by gutting the other vampires when they weren't looking. The girl from Day After Tomorrow is in it...and I'll be honest...probably not a great career move for her.

We ate at a pizza and wings place. I guess it had only been open for a couple of days. Our waitress was nice, but the bus boy was a middle aged man who kept staring at us waiting for us to finish with our plates. As soon as we finished with one plate he swooped down and carried it off. I felt almost like I needed to protect my plates from him.

Wierdest thing I saw was: An overweight man dressed as Skeletor. I preferred that to the furry speedo He Man wears though.

Day 3

Why do restaurants put a freaking ice cream scoop of butter on pancakes? In what artery clogged world does that sound good? At least put it on a seperate plate so I can cut it in pieces and it won't get lodged in my heart. The pancakes soak that crap up like a sponge too. Yuck.

I stood in line for a Street Fighter IV preview. Believe it or not this was the first time I felt like a nerd. The japanese guy would speak for for 10 minutes and the translator would go for maybe 30 seconds. Japanese guys must go crazy trying to get their wives to tell them what they're thinking--even if their wife talks it takes a freaking hour to say, "I'm mad at you." They seemed like the coolest people at the whole show and I was said I couldn't understand a thing they said.

We saw Doogie Howser, but apparently that's not his real name and he doesn't like you to call him that. I also saw a women dressed up as the character from a cartoon called Aeon Flux--which means she wasn't dressed up as anything, i.e., no clothes. Guys kept stopping to get their picture with her. It was like kids at Disneyland getting pictures with Snow White...only the kids are hairy, old men and Snow White is a complete slut--otherwise the same thing.

I also learned that the best marketing ploy ever, if you're handing out fliers, is to have 18 year-old models or strippers hand them out. People always take those fliers. I'm going to pitch that to my marketing professor and see what he says.

I also saw Kevin Smith, Judd Apatow, Frank Miller and the guy who did the Watchmen do a panel. They were talking about how it was okay to be geeks. First, I thought, "I wonder if these people get sick of the panelists point out that they're complete losers," but then I realized, "What a minute...they're talking to me too!"

We saw Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long something and it was pretty dang funny.

Realizations

Actors may look tall on TV, but they are SHORT. It makes me wonder if the munchkins from the Wizard of OZ could fit on a teaspoon.

The 125,000 at ComiCon were the nicest, most considerate people in the world. Dave said it was because they grew up thinking that if someone bumped into them they were about to get their butt kicked. Makes sense.

Nine months later...

Alright...My life has been drastically affected by the troubles in Britney Spears's life, but now, since that water is under the bridge, I can fill everyone in on my little guy. (Although, a picture will have to come later today.)

Caleb has mastered the art of climbing on things, but is still working on the "getting down" part of his kung fu. He gets a new bump or bruise every day from his explorations. He really enjoys playing by himself, but likes to wrestle with me and Autumn too.

He is also starting to understand a lot more. He's shown, by his actions, that he knows what we're talking about. It's fun. I'll post some pics tonight.

Sitting up

It's been a while since my last update. Between school and being sick I really seemed to get sidetracked.

Caleb can sit up by himself. He takes some dives occasionally, but he's much better at holding himself up. Autumn has been babysitting Porter, Forrest's little boy, and they seem to get along alright. I don't think Caleb understands the concept of other kids, but he's interested in anything that moves and can be slobbered on.

He hates have his nose sucked out. I'm not a big fan of that either, but sometimes we have to do it. It's even hard for me to watch Autumn do it.

He loves his mom more every day. Tonight while she was getting his bath ready he tried to dive out of my arms into hers. I really don't mind that he loves her more than me. It's a small price to pay to not have to change diapers very often.

Caleb's appointment

I was sick today, so it's taken a while to post something new. Yesterday was Caleb's sixth month old check up. He had to get a couple shots, but he handled it much better than his last shots. He is now 28 1/2 inches and 16 lbs 7 11/2 oz. He's still 95th percentile in height, but is losing ground in the weight category. I have been secretly adding muscle builder formula to his rice cereal though, so that should be solved soon.

Linz and Ben let us borrow Hope's jumperoo until she is old enough. It is one of the only contraptions that can keep him bound for any length of time. The picture is of him trying to grab the blue frog thing on it. We've been using the swing we have to feed him and he has gotten good at biting down on the spoon to get the food off. He doesn't get as messy as they do in the movies yet. We'll see.

He had a rough couple of nights. We're not sure why, but his sleep schedule got really out of whack. He seems like he's getting back to normal now.

Real Food...Finally.

Today we started giving Caleb solids. It was his first experience. He was pretty excited. He even dove for the spoon a couple of times. Once he had it in his mouth he acted like he didn't know what he should do.

He finally swallowed most of the whole grain, organic rice cereal (which is more than i could have done) and he seemed pretty happy with himself. Tomorrow were going to move up a level and try Stauffer's French Bread Pizza and see how he handles it.

Autumn's sister decided to move out, so Caleb will finally get his own room. It was an interesting experience having her live here. I hope she got something good out of it. I think we both did.

Feelin' Good

Caleb is finally feeling better. We woke up this morning to lots of talking, sqeeling and laughing. It's good to have him back.

We visited Grandma Bosley again, and after his typical initial crying fit, mom tricked him into sitting on her lap while she read a story.

Autumn says that she went to have some pictures made of him and he was serious the whole time. So, it doesn't look like we're going to get some of the cool smiles that we get on his home pictures. I think they'll still turn out fine.

The BYU game was fun. I did get a couple of good stories out of it. BYU beat Arizona 20-7, but it wasn't as close as the score.