Friends and Coupons

Family Update

2009-01-13T20:12:00.000-08:00

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)

2008-07-29T14:05:00.000-07:00

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...

2008-06-27T09:53:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-17T17:45:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-05T16:28:00.000-07:00

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.

2007-09-03T17:11:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-02T17:39:00.000-07:00

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.

Trash Talk

2007-08-31T17:38:00.000-07:00

Is it trash talking someone when you simply tell a friend something that person has done, and the act is so stupid that the someone looks like an idiot? Just wondering.

Caleb is feeling much better. He's nearly back to his old self. He's getting pretty darn good at sitting up, but still can't figure out how to roll from his stomach to his back. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

This morning it sounded like he was humming, or trying to sing, like his mom does. It was pretty cute. His hair is getting a little longer and darker, but you still probably can't see it on the pics. He'll have a while before he stops looking like Mr. Clean.

On the Mend

2007-08-30T22:39:00.000-07:00

Caleb is finally starting to feel better. He is still pretty chilled, but he did sit up for a little while and he smiled and laughed at me a couple of times. I can't say that I was scared, but it was concerning to see his personality change like that. While he still was a good kid...he preferred to hang out by himself and ignore the group.

We got some new books for him. We got lots of touchy feely book with puppies. I think if he can get some of the yanking reactions out with books, Maggie will have an easier time.

Autumn and I are considering taking him up the Y one afternoon. It'll be interesting to see if he likes it. I think we'll take him on a walk to Bridal Veil first...as a test run.

Sick as a Dog

2007-08-29T17:58:00.000-07:00

Caleb is being pretty lethargic today. He's just been kickin' it in the bed and lookin' around. He has laughed a couple of times, but you can tell he's struggling. He's got a good temperment even when he's sick, Autumn says.

We gave him cool water to drink for the first time yesterday. You could tell he thought it was wierd but he drank it. I'm upgrading him to Dr. Pepper tomorrow unless he gets more of his energy back. He's looking forward to having family come to visit him.

School is going well for me. I learn at least one thing a day that my work is doing wrong. It's sad when your managers have the communicative ability as a belch. I took a career test. It's supposed to tell you what your high and low career matches are. Mortgage officer was a "Very Low Match."

I have tickets to the BYU Arizona game. I'm sure I'll get a good story out of that.

From Autumn

2007-08-29T13:10:00.000-07:00

Yes, it's true about the happy scream and it's so cute! He will crunch all up and tighten his arms around me like he's giving me a hug and he's so happy that we are on our way out of the bedroom to some new adventure (i.e. changing his diaper, etc). Let's see, what else can I add about Caleb's evnetful life. I clipped his fingernails yesterday. He tolerates this well, but does get impatient towards the end. Today, we went for a couple of walks. I took him out with Maggie for our leisurely stroll, then right after, we went for a 20 minute walk that was my workout. That was a bit more bouncy for him, since I was going at a brisk pace. And, we went out again this afternoon to deliver some books to people in our neighborhood. On the way, my mom was driving by in her car and she saw us, so she stopped and we visited. It got progressively hotter during the walk and Caleb was in his jammies. My mom and I decided to take them off, so he could cool off, and it seemed to help. He went from being in a dazed stupor to being a little more lively. He had a hard time getting down for his nap. I wonder if his brains got a little fried. Well, that's about it. I think we're getting close to his "poopy diaper day" as I like to call it, when the floodgates lift and he cleans himself out a few times! He's been rather grunty and gassy, if ya know what I mean.

Happy Scream

2007-08-27T10:45:00.000-07:00

Caleb has a tendency to let out a happy scream in the morning when Autumn comes to pick him up. It's really hard to explain. It's not quite a laugh, and it's not quite a scream, but something in the middle. He really loves his mom and she seems to be the one person who can calm him pretty quickly if she wants to.

He doesn't get cranky except when he is tired--or if he is getting ready to get a bath and he gets a little cold before he gets in. He's definitely a momma's boy.

Caleb is getting pretty decent at sitting up. His bouncy chair has become a restraining device--and a poor one at that. I think I need to get a jumper to keep him in one place. He has a tendency to try to dive off the bouncy chair to get a toy, the carpet, or Maggie.

He is really bald still, but that's no schocker. Stay tuned for tomorrow's installment. I'm posting a picture of him going after Maggie.

Caleb vs. Grandma Bosley

2007-08-26T20:30:00.000-07:00

I don't know what it is about my mom that makes Caleb cry. I think he's the only kid ever that seems to cry when he is around mom. I tried telling him to suck it up so that he can get spoiled--he's never going to get the goods until he can start being a normal baby and cuddling up to grandma.

We didn't cry when Grandma Williams held us I'm sure, and she would threaten us with switches. Maybe that's what Caleb needs, some tough love.

Anyway, Caleb is making good progress on rolling onto his stomach. As a matter of fact, he's mastered it. However, he can't really get the rolling onto the back concept. I told him we're not going to be there his whole life every time he needs to be rolled over, but he just looks at me like he doesn't know what I'm saying (Maggie gives me that look a lot come to think of it). I'm really disrespected in my own home.

Autumn got her haircut and she looks super hot. I'm not sure she realizes how strange looking I am, but I'm not going to tell her. She seems to be under the illusion that I'm at least bearable.