Saturday, November 24, 2007

Allie & the Farting Santa

The charming and beautiful Susan unpacked the Christmas decorations last night after Allie was down. We we're so happy when we found the Farting Santa we unwrapped at a Yankee Swap office gift exchange either last year or the year before, I don't remember.

But while you all are out there getting Baby Einstein learning toys and trinkets tainted with lead-laced Chinese paint, we'll be giving Allie some real-life-lessons.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Got My Girls

Q: What does a man need to do to make himself feel inferior, dis-respected, and misunderstood?

A: Surround himself with a bunch of females.

I am always totally surrounded by females whenever I'm around family members. There's my sister Jennifer, the charming and beautiful Susan, the center of my universe Allie, my nieces Megan and Ambir, and now, Charity.


I can't wait for Christmas to get here. My son will arrive and strengthen the male numbers here. But until then, the only male ally I have is my niece Megan's fiance Jed (who, by the way, is the nephew of a high school buddy of mine; this is a small town). But, conveniently, he's at work a lot leaving me to fend for my self amongst all this estrogen.

This will be the first time since 1989 that I will spend the holidays with my sister and her girls.

I'm ecstatic to have Charity here. The charming and beautiful Susan and her had a mother/daughter day.

Friday, November 16, 2007

Crackin' Up

Whenever I don't blog for a few days, one of you is so kind to email me and hold my feet to the fire. It's funny how a few days of no activity on the internet is like an eternity. While one human year is seven dog years, one dog year is seven internet years. So, one human year is like forty-nine internet years. So not posting for 4 human days is like not posting for 196 internet days.

Get it?

Keep up.

Soooooo... everything is okay. We're really happy. And to prove it, here are some pictures snapped this week...


This is Allie in jeans. She knows she looks cool.


"Food is great!" Allie is finally on board with eating. Sometimes, we have to get creative and energetic. She sometimes needs to be entertained while eating. (see next frame)


Entertaining babies is right down my alley. Kids see me for who I am. Allie gets me. Allie is the most forgiving and understanding person in my and the charming and beautiful Susan's universe.


While I was busy not blogging, I was having a bunch of fun.

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Soup Face


Allie has been doing great the past couple of days. Thanks for your prayers. She's gotten a reprieve from the teething pain and has been flat out chowing down. I've been careful to keep my fingers away from her mouth so I don't lose any digits.


She changes loyalties without notice or any kind of regularity. One day she's my baby. Then she's the charming and beautiful Susan's baby for a week. I don't know what it's going to take to buy her loyalty so that she's always on my side. But she's definitely figured out how to keep me under her thumb. That's where I live.

Lentil soup is Allie Soup Du Jour. Everything the charming and beautiful Susan sets before her is devoured in short order. I've been the one feeding her the past couple of days so I wear a good amount of what Allie eats. She likes to spit. I've decided not to teach her that spitting is bad because I'm having so much fun spitting back.

This is the soup Susan is whipping up for Allie in a bullet. We give her regular food but we puree it.

Thursday, November 08, 2007

Working on that Six Pack


If you think Allie was unhappy about this picture, you are assuming correctly. What young lady likes the world to see her in her diaper first thing in the morning before she has a chance to take a shower and put her make-up on? Allie is no exception.


What we are looking at is a little sore where Allie's mic-key button used to reside. We are amazed at how quickly this hole has closed up and disappearing. I thought that she was going to have two belly buttons. Or that her belly button was going to have a "mini me" in the vicinity.


Here's what's cool: Allie loves to lay on her belly now. We can leave her relaxing on her front side for longer than we can on her back. The next step for her is learning how to turn herself over. That gets a little frustrating for her. She wants to move and do so much, but she is still so limited.

I have no doubt that the daily prayers of all our friends are what is helping Allie progress and heal. One other request you can pray for is that she'll get through this teething phase quickly. I know its a normal part of life for a growing baby, but in Allie's case where she needs so much attention and her mood and attitude contribute so much to her learning and recovery, teething has been a bit of a set-back.

Monday, November 05, 2007

Avocado Face


I know this looks a lot like the bowl of guacamole on the Chili's starters menu, but it's really Allie's face covered in smashed avocados. That's why you don't see any chips.


Allie is teething and refused to eat today. That's not helpful when she is supposed to be putting on weight. One of you emailed me one time when I wrote about her need to pack on some pounds and suggested we feed her avocado. I love avocados. But the charming and beautiful Susan doesn't. That's her only shortcoming. But there's a weird truth we all seem to live by; we think that whatever we don't like, nobody should like. I, of course, thought Allie would love avocado. But my wife had her doubts. Allie is hard to please when it comes to the eating department. But Allie surprised us all (not me) and chowed down that green fruit of the gods.


That bit of avocado was the only solid food Allie ate today. Except some cookie. Nothing beats a cookie.


The poor kid is teething and that's part of her finickiness problem. But the good news is that Charlene Nurse Superior weighed Allie today and she had gained 8 ounces today. That's cool because she's been losing weight over the past month. And Charlene Nurse Superior was none too happy 'bout that. But today, Allie is back on track.

Thanks to all of you that were praying.

By the way, that's not the charming and beautiful Susan's hairy hand. Her hands are delicate and dainty.

Sunday, November 04, 2007

this kid's gotta eat

This kid can be such a booger. We really need her to eat, but she gives us such a hard time. We really need you guys to pray because I tried to bribe Allie with a dollar bill to get her to chow down and she wouldn't bite (no pun intended). Then I tried a ten and no deal. She scoffed at me when I flashed a twenty. I asked her if she'd take a check and she laughed for a second and then started crying again. That's when I snapped this photo.

I didn't offer her my credit card. I'm holding off on that for as long as I can.

So pray that her appetite would increase.