The Kelty Yellowstone 6

[ty]

In celebration of Independence Day we went camping with our friends J&K out in the Gila Wilderness of New Mexico. It was very pretty, quite rainy, a bit chilly and altogether beautiful. So refreshing in fact that as we drove home still damp and dirty from the woods JD expressed her desire for a hot chocolate when we got home. "It's 105 degrees at home sweetie, I don't think you'll want a hot chocolate," I reminded her. "Ahhh, good point," she said. " Pull over at the next gas station then."

Unfortunately I have no pictures from our adventure b/c I forgot the camera.

Also also wik, I bought a new tool bag. Super exciting, I know. It's very nice though. Here's a picture sequence.








As Nubby becomes more mobile and happily moves around the house exploring things on occasion he catches our attention by being quiet. Its amazing how more than 45 seconds of silence suddenly becomes such an alert to your sixth sense. Your head comes up and you sniff the air rapidly for the scent of danger. Such as this morning...


Ok, maybe we set that picture up just a bit by taking the cover off the bucket and throwing interesting things into it until he finally peered over the edge. Or maybe not...

We had so much fun camping in fact that as soon as we got home I scoured REI online for family camping tents. Not that I don't Luv our Moss 2-per/4-seas (which has seen us through more than one blizzard safely) and my trusty old North Face Lightspeed Long non-freestanding 2-per/3-seas (from my summer in Boulder), but a baby changes the camping scenario. While online I found quite possibly the best floor-plan ever for a 6 person family tent. Jordanna explained it as "Everybody jump in the air while in your sleeping bag and where you land, you sleep."


Two weeks from tomorrow we pack our lives into a 22 foot Penske and drive East. "Back East" as people Out West say whether or not they're from Back East.

We're Famous! (kind of)

Thanks to our friend Christopher's spectacular photoshop acumen, I give you the Sprayberry Manbaby

New Videos

[ty]

For all of you who have demanded new videos of El Quatro (so named for his 4 prominent teeth).

They grow so fast
[jd]

I had a phone conversation with my god-daughter Sadie last night, which is crazy because the last time I saw her she was 11 months old and crawling through the jungle of a Seattle lawn. It went something like this:

S: Hi
J: Hi sweetie! How are you?
S: Good
J: Did you feed your goats tonight? (they have 100 acres and some livestock east of the Cascades)
S: Yes
J: What is your favorite goat's name?
S: Washing Machine

From now on, I am going to get her to name all my pets.

Missed the Point

One of the pros of parenting is that you no longer suffer from loneliness while you go to the bathroom. Yesterday, while Cayden was keeping me company, he went into the shower and started banging on the glass doors. Since I couldn't exactly jump up and stop him, I was telling him 'no'. While I had absolutely no success at getting him to stop he did learn a new word. By the end of our instructional session, he would touch the glass and emphatically shake his head while saying nooooo.

Longest Plane Ride Ever

Cayden and I just got back from a week with Nana and Pop-Pop. I had a conference at UNC, and I think it is against the rules of human decency to travel within an hour and a half of your parents and not bring them their grandchild. So I packed a laptop, diaper bag, and thirteen month old baby into a tiny airplane seat for 6 hours (on two planes). Who needs to lift weights when you are contantly grabbing/ tickling/ righting/ jiggling a 25 lb kid? Cayden did very well.... for a one year old. But really? Very well still equals CONSTANT INTERVENTION. And those new toys/ books I packed? Useless. The bounce on the tray table game was a big hit though. Especially with the added bonus of being able to smack the unfortunate soul in the seat in front of me on the top of his shiny bald head. Sorry about that. Despite the exhausting plane travel, the trip was a success. Cayden can now say Pop Pop, and has decided he defintely loves his parents. He hasn't said Mama since February, but the day my parents came to get me at my conference (after having him alone for two days), he stood up in his crib, waved bye bye and said Mama. After another two days of being with me at my parents, he started grabbing our hands and walking us to the garage door while saying Dada. Consequently Tyson got the best father's day present ever, a kid who was completely convinced that he is the best, most-desirable father ever. That and a copy of The Great Muppet Caper.

Gozer the Destructor

[ty]

Its certainly no surprise to anyone who knows us that keeping our house "show-ready" has been a bit of a challenge. For awhile JD would stay home for an hour after I brought Nubby to school and clean. On weekends the house has to be clean and ready by Saturday morning Just In Case. All of this is enough of a pain in the ass without Cayden's help. Luckily for us his new trick is emptying a kitchen drawer in the blink of an eye. As the below video will attest, he has a very careful deliberation about it as he goes about his chosen vocation: making a mess.

Coincidence?

This morning as Cayden was playing on the back porch, I was sitting in a chair next to him knitting and drinking coffee. Pretty much my idea of heaven. Tyson carries over another chair so he can sit with us and says, "Hey... look at that big fat baby! And my son too!". Cayden looked up at him and busted out laughing. We need to adopt a little girl so that somebody in this family will be on my side.

And the battle continues...

By Popular Demand

Here are some more movies of everyone's favorite demon baby.



Cayden dances for Mommy. You can't hear it, but we are listening to some great bluegrass.


Two stubborn wills collide. Stumpy refuses to leave no matter how loud Cayden is or how often his tail gets yanked. Cayden, in turn, can not be dissuaded from yanking said tail no matter how many times he gets bitten.

Eulogy

I am taking the day off work today because I am good for nothing. My brain and heart are in Atlanta today, with the rest of my family. The Henrys and Jordans are laying to rest my Uncle Hamilton. Hamilton was a remarkable man with a the remarkable combination of a satirical wit and a whimsical sense of humor. He was equally likely to engage people in a political debate as he was to play pranks at the dinner table (like stuffing your hand in your milk glass at the end of grace. thanks for that). But all of these attributes are difficult for me to adequately describe, because I am not a particularly good writer. And they are irrelevant, because they were completely eclipsed by his love for his family, and their love for him. He leaves behind my Aunt Doffy and my three amazing cousins, Hamilton Jr, Kathleen, and Alex. The New York Times wrote a beautiful article about him, it is worth perusing. Goodbye Hamilton, we love you.

Quarantine Update

The Pima Country Health Department's physician reviewed Cayden's symptoms and decided it doesn't sound like Measles. We're free!

Quarantine

A certain little boy I know, not to name names, had a really miserable weekend. He cried and cried and cried, had an intermittent fever, runny nose, gooky eyes, and in general made us rush to the phone to try and find some gypsies to call approximately once an hour. During one particularly strident bout of wailing on Sunday, we were checking to see if he had a nasty diaper and noticed that the bug bites on his arms and legs had become a full blown rash on his torso. Given that Tucson is currently experiencing a Measles outbreak, I decided it was time to call the doctor. The doctor said that his symptoms were a good enough match that I should call the health department. The health department said his symptoms were a good enough match that they wanted to send a rash team to the house to examine him. And so here we are, Nubby and Mommy locked in the house waiting for the men in white coats. When I call in to work, they are so going to think I am making this up.

And the light goes on

[jd]

I am not really sure how we got on the topic, but I was telling my therapist this morning about what Tyson calls my "something shiny" disorder. His theory is that I lose everything because I will notice something as I walk through a room, throw what ever is in my hands over my head, and then when I want my phone four hours later have no idea where it is because that shirt that has been crumpled on the couch for four days needed to be ironed. My therapist nodded her head and said, "You cope with your A.D.D. really well, you should write a book". I stared at her blankly, and then busted out laughing. Suddenly it all made sense. The parent-teacher conferences where year after year the teachers would say, "She's really smart, she just needs to start paying attention in class". My inability to listen to a seminar without knitting. Why I compulsively cook two meals at a time, or burn the one meal I am cooking because I am trying to simultaneously put away laundry. Happily it is currently working in my favor, because I am getting very good at distracting myself away from panic attacks.

In other news, I finally have Frugal Hippy up and running. At least kind of. It is a blog of interesting eco- friendly/ crafty stuff I find, and summarizes a lot of the research Ty and I have done into lower impact living. There are many more pages to add, but check it out! If you have any interest in cloth diapers, that section is completed.

Want it!

[jd] 13 May 2008

Our amazing diaper manufacturer has improved upon their design (see old and busted versus new hotness). Don't get me wrong, I love our diapers and I am glad they are still making them. But the organic cotton calls to me...

Local Baby Walks...

ty [11 may '08]

After many months of pulling himself up and crashing back to Earth on all fours the boy has finally begun to experiment with walking as a means of transport.

If the videos below don't work then these are direct links to them.

Stander

Walker

Last Day of Class

[jd] 6 May 2008

So today was my last formal class, which consisted of a 5 point lab and me telling students their final grades. If they are happy with their grade, they don't need to take the final next week or attend the review. In other words, they are done with class. So I was really surprised when ten minutes into class I only had 5 students in the room. I was contemplating how to restructure the lab when the door opened and a stream of students start coming in. Within another 10 minutes I had 16 students. I am passing back papers when I notice that more than one person is talking about how 'her best friend turns out to be totally in love with her, and she didn't even know she was a lesbian'. Doubting that this was happening in more than one student's personal life, I asked them what they were talking about. Turns out my entire class was sitting in the parking lot glued to their radios, listening to KRQ93.7's Confession Wednesdays. It's just like an NPR moment, only trashier. Apparently on Thursdays they have War of the Roses. I totally need to start listening to this station...

I don't really expect anything socially-redeeming...

[jd] 6 May 2008

...from all the penis-enlargement junk email I get, but the phrase "unleash your wrath on unsuspecting girls once you've started on this formula" is just disturbing.

Because I'm Smart

29 April 2008 [jd]

I was just looking up the sign for toast. After 25 minutes of hysterical screaming which started with a trip to the high chair, throwing our teethign biscuit across the room (Cayden don't throw food, just shake your head no if you don't want it), scattered prunes, a trip out of hte high chair, repeated requests to be picked up, throwing himself backwards out of Mommy's arms, rolling on the floor crying, and collapsing in a puddle when we OFFERED HIM MILK, Cayden crawled back over to his high chair. I put him in it and tried another teething biscuit, which he rejected again (not throwing it this time). Then it dawned on me. He wanted toast. Not bread. He is a big boy and he wants bread the way Mommy has it, toasted with melted butter. Mmmmmmm butter. After surviving this I had the brilliant idea that I would look up the sign for toast, since he is picking up sign more quickly than spoken language. So I go to the ASLpro site, which is awesome, click on toast and watch the video. Watching the video, I instinctively see the guys lips move and think, "something is wrong, the sound is out".

Something Good is Coming....

[jd] 22 April 2008

You know that feeling you would get when you were a kid and realized Christmas was only a few days away? Or when you were sitting in the house waiting for aunts, uncles, and cousins to arrive, and they were going to be there any minute? I was getting all excited last night and I realized that I get that feeling every day when I am driving to pick up Cayden. Of course it goes away when he collapses in a dejected heap on the floor wailing because I shut the door (can you imagine such a horrifically cruel Mommy?). But, it will be back again tonight.

KUAZ

[ty]

So I'm driving home from work yesterday listening to All Things Considered on our local NPR station KUAZ. They're not a bad public radio station. But they're not really a very good one either. Perhaps I'm spoiled by WGBH and KUOW but when your main news anchor consistently stumbles over the strange and difficult word "Tucson" I'm thinking it might be time to call it quits and turn the equipment over to Christian Life Radio.

Anyway, as per FCC regulations, KUAZ initiated a test of the emergency broadcast system during a break in my All Things Considered program and there's NO NOISE. Nothing. Dead silence for the required 10 seconds. Then they come back on the air with the standard "If this had been a real emergency, the noise you just heard would be followed by...blah...blah...blah".

Yet another reason to get the hell out of Chrysler: If there's actually an emergency we'll be the last to know.

April 18th 2008

[ty]

So its officially been one year since Jordanna, with much patience and profanity, birthed our son Cayden Hoyt Henry Sprayberry. We celebrated his first b-day with a ritual trip to the local pool, his favorite dinner of Annie's mac and cheese, and a phat pumpkin spice muffin from the best desert shop in town, The Epic Cafe. He seemed to enjoy himself throughout the day and appears to have survived his latest bout with his emerging teeth.




In other news, the boy has learned the sign for All Done. We generally use it to indicate when we're done eating, done with a bottle, or wish to get down from somewhere. Thursday JP was over to hang out with JD and as usual he was barely in the house before he scooped up Cayden to give him love. Cayden gave him about 7 seconds of snuggling and then turned to Mommy and carefully signed All Done.

Even MORE Famous

Last week was NPR's guilt drive, and we called in our contribution in the last 2 hours. One of the advantages of giving to public radio in Arizona is that nobody else does, so they will read your name on the radio. Tyson gave them Cayden's name, then came careening into said child's room an hour later going. "Did you hear it? did you hear it? I forgot to get you!". I, of course, did not get to hear Cayden's name. But, I got a call from our friend Kristin less than five minutes later saying she did, which was almost as much fun.

He's Famous!

A little while back (like 8 months ago) Cayden did some modeling for a friend's organic baby store, www.tinybirdsorganics.com. I was just ordering some diaper liners and looking at sale items when I found him modeling one of our favorite nightgowns. I had previously found his legs (the blue and brown striped ones), but realized that only a mother would notice or care about that, which is why this post didn't come earlier : )

Birthday Parties and Other Milestones

joint effort [6 april '08]

Cayden's birthday isn't for another couple weeks, but we wanted to have a joint picnic/ party with his friend Ian who is a month older. When Ty's Dad booked a trip to come visit halfway between the two birthdays, it seemed like too good an opportunity to pass up. So Saturday afternoon we headed to Children's Memorial Park for a low-key picnic with some friends. The weather was gorgeous. In another month it will be too hot to go outside, so we are enjoying all the sunshine while we can. All in all Cayden had a fantastic time. Ian suffered a bit though, as Cayden expresses his affection by grabbing, pulling, and shaking the object of his affection vigorously. Cayden really likes Ian.

We rounded off the weekend by going with Grandpa Spray and Ellen to the Fourth Ave Street fair, which was occupied by a couple thousand people that had the same idea.

In other news, after 11 1/2 months our son has discovered his penis. This had made diaper changes far more entertaining, as it is very difficult to affix a diaper on the child if he won't let go of his penis.

Do these babies look drastically different or is it because one of them is mine?

To greet this dog Cayden grabbed him, threw him on the ground, and then looked very surprised that the dog seemed upset.

Cayden attempting to greet Ian.

Big Nate is very very big compared with the B-Day boys.

Ian's father Jamie teaching Ian CPR on a unresponsive dog.

Nubby Update

ty [2 April '08]

It's official. Nubs has learned to use sign language to communicate with us. He has only mastered one sign so far and I'll give you one hint as to what it is...


That's right. "More food please."

He is currently working on "All done". His present method of communicating that concept is to grab double handfuls of food and paste them to any wall unfortunate enough to be close to him. In the queue right after All Done is Want, Dirty and Water. Although I guess we could combine all of them into Cholera and be done with it.

There are very few people who care that I managed to cleanly mount this pull cord into a kitchen fan using only my wits and a trained iguana but dammit, it took me 3 hours start to end.

Unfortunately Cayden doesn't always enjoy his dinner. You'd think this would stop him from eating it. Nope. It simply leads to him crying as he continues to stuff his face. Very serious determination. Although I give him lots of crap for eating constantly and weighing 16% more than his friend who is a month older I am actually pretty pleased with his eating and his weight. According to the literature he'll be staying roughly the same size for the next year-ish as he focuses all of his caloric stash on biting mommy and attacking the dishwasher (his ultimate nemesis).


As we've been painting the house the last couple of weeks we've discovered that sticking a bunch of tape on the child is funny. To us.

A conversation with Tyson after ten hours of painting the house...

t: did we put on the...
j:.... what?
t: did we do the laundry?
j: what laundry?
t: the, uh.. towel laundry? (gesticulates at the floor) the foot-towel laundry!
j: foot-towels? do you mean rugs? no i didn't wash our rugs.

Cayden tells Mommy ALL about cheerios:

Planes and Fences

[ty] 9 March '08

So lots of Exciting Stuff has been happening lately. Chief among these is that instead of having 12 months to finish remodeling our house we had 6 weeks. Yay! Luckily we have amazing friends who've been all too happy to turn their "lets visit Ty&JD&Nubby" vacations into "can I stop drywalling now, my back really hurts" vacations.

Steve and Paula came to visit and we tore up and moved a fence section. Nubby decided that Paula's lap is his new favorite lap and refused to leave it even to poo.

www.sprayberries.com/febandmarch08/febandmarch08.html

Lallo came to visit and we hung crown molding, fixed the window, and geeked out on all the planes here in the desert. Well, technically Lallo geeked out on the typography while I geeked out on the planes.

www.sprayberries.com/lallofeb/lallofeb.html

Who knew I would agree with Geraldo Rivera on something?

http://www.npr.org/blogs/news/2008/03/geraldo_rivera_takes_on_antiim_1.html

The award for funniest article title goes to.....

"Eco-friendly kangaroo farts"

New Favorite Lap

jd [26 Feb 2008]

Paula and Steve just left this morning after a long-weekend visit of beer drinking, fence mending, and baby cuddling. They were unaware that we planned on putting them to work, but took it like champs. Not only that, but with the four of us brainstorming the project we came up with a plan to fix the old fence instead of replacing half of it, which saved us about 300$. Ty and Steve rented a two-man auger and filled our yard with holes last friday. The majority of those holes become homes to fence posts, cactuses and trees, but a couple were just for fun. Cayden spent some serious time bonding with Auntie Paula, and after twenty-four hours decided she was his new favorite lap. Saturday morning he crawled over to her, tried to pull up on her legs, then just held out his arms to be picked up. The idea that somebody was willing to hold him all the time was just too exciting for words. To be posted later: pics of the "new" fence and construction madness, along with a bonus video of our three legged cat trying to attack a stray dog.

Can't take your eyes off him for a second

[jd] 14 Feb 2008

So I went to pick up Cayden on Tuesday afternoon, and when I walked in he was sitting behind a woman kneeling and giving her son antibiotics from a syringe. Cayden was chugging a bottle and when he saw me, he gave a huge grin and pulled the bottle out. I thought to myself, "that doesn't look like his bottle", just as the woman turned, saw Cayden and exclaimed "Oh my god that is another baby's breast milk". There's not really anything clever I can say to make this story funnier than it is, so I'm not even going to try.

A dream come true

[jd] 12 Feb 2008

Last week when I picked Cayden up at daycare, his lunch was still in the fridge. He has officially begun refusing 'baby' food. He only wants finger food, with the exception of yogurt and applesauce. He has apparently been trying to steal all the older baby's foods for a while. One of the home made baby food sites I frequent has a whole page talking about how to get your baby to take more textured foods. This apparently will not be an issue for us. As we are moving into this new phase, I realized that we can ALL EAT THE SAME FOOD. Why this excites me so much I don't know. But for several nights in a row, we have all sat down to the same dinner (vegi-chilli, potato and mustard green casserole, beets & turnips & polenta tonight!). Life is awesome. I can eat dinner with my kid and I got a real job.

A Discerning Palate

[jd] 2 Feb 2008

I have discovered that if my laptop is all the way back on our little Ikea coffee table, I can type without Nubs being able to reach the keys. He likes to stand next to me while I am kneeling and typing and bang away on the table. I was working and noticed that the banging had stopped. So I looked at him just in time to see him carefully pull a piece of old tissue off the wad in his hand, put it in his mouth, chew and swallow. Curry? Yum. Old snotty tissue? Yum.

Homeward Bound

[jd] 31 January 2008

So I had an interview for a grown-up job (biology professor) last week in Allentown, PA, about 90 minutes from where I grew up. I loved the department. During the 1 1/2 days I spent there, it was really easy to envision myself working there, being productive, and being happy. Apparently they felt the same way, because they offered me a job on Monday! We have had to make decisions on a really short time scale, because they also really liked their second choice and wanted to be able to make an offer to that person if I turned it down. Happily Tyson has reconciled himself to, and is even excited about, the idea of living in Pennsylvania. So, I have informally accepted and provided nothing bizarre happens we are moving to Allentown this summer! The amount we have to do before then is STAGGERING. So, if you were planning on visiting us in Tucson and feel like painting a house, or putting up some crown moulding this is your chance! Likewise, if you have a hankering to learn how to do multi-unit extracellular recordings, I have plently of experiments that need doing : )

In other news, drool-meister G has popped his second tooth. I discovered this when he bit my finger yesterday and left 2 painful indentations instead of one. To all you new parents, your fingers may seem like a convenient portable teething toy, but this is a BAD HABIT to get into.

I think they've been here before

[jd] 23 Jan 2007

As I hit the brakes to avoid broad-siding the white mini van that has just cut me off, I notice that it has a bright blue side door.

Nubby's First Oxygen Tent

[ty] 17 Jan '08

Over the course of the last 7 months we've become relatively accustomed to the variety of nasty excretions produced by our son because he's in daycare. He's young and building a healthy immune system doesn't come without a cost. In many respects we consider this a boon. Better chickenpox as a child than shingles as an adult for instance. So we thought nothing of it as his most recent cough turned wheezy and he became more lethargic and needy. That is, until Jordanna checked on him as she was coming to bed the other night and his breathing was strange enough that she brought him into bed with us.

Despite the fact that it was 1:30 in the morning his breathing was so strange that we lay awake listening to him discussing whether or not we were being paranoid. Eventually I decided we were not paranoid, his respiratory functions were not ok (64 breaths a minute), and we needed to take him to Urgent Care. So we loaded him into the car and tore off for UMC. Ironically I drove to the hospital very very quickly not because he was in dire straits but because we thought Urgent Care closed at 3am (it actually closes at 1am) and the difference in co-pay is significant.

Upon our arrival they rushed us into care (if you ever need to fast-track through admission write "respiratory difficulty" on your intake sheet), checked him out, and agreed that his respiration was labored and the O2 levels in his blood were too low. They put him on some oxygen and admitted him. Even sitting in a hospital and knowing that he was basically fine seeing my 9 month old son with oxygen tubes in his nose was difficult. I can't even imagine what our friend, whose child has had multiple surgeries, must go through.

We stayed in the hospital for a day and a half as they waited to see if his oxygen levels dropped again. Turns out he has RSV (a respiratory virus) and an ear infection. They were all very nice and provided us with a great deal of disposable crap. We were discharged this afternoon and Nubby has been happily eating and hydrating all day.

On the bright side he learned to hold his own bottle while in the hospital.

Here he is showing how he proudly holds his own beverage. Now he refuses to let us hold any bottles for him. Damn kids.

This is the very cool device they use to measure his blood oxygen saturation. As far as I can tell it's a light/doppler thing going on. But it just tapes onto his foot and thats it. Very nice and easy for a baby.

Mommy with her "I slept in this chair" sassy hair.

One of the nurses walked in, saw him like this, and said "Well, you're not a very sick baby now are you?"

Green Mountain Trail

[ty] 14 Jan '08

The only redeeming feature of living in the desert is...the desert. Specifically the high desert. So finally, after months of procrastination, we got the family together and headed up into the foothills for some hiking.

Our good friends (J&K) came along for the fun and it was pretty sweet to see the girls hiking with the kids strapped to their back. In the finest tradition of indigenous peoples everywhere we sent one male ahead with the dog as scout, put the women and children in the middle, and left one male to bring up the rear. We encountered nothing more dangerous than some icy rocks and random pokey plants but you never know.

Ever the gentleman. I, on the other hand, was ready with the camera to record any mishaps.

Due to perspective issues Roland appears to be the size of a hairy juvenile Rhinoceros.

You can see the drastic color change in the sky a little here. We were probably at around 6500 ft elevation and directly overhead it was a deep deep azure that you can see in a few of the other shots.

As you can see, Nubby wasn't really too happy about the situation.

The Pacific NW version of a Burro.

A good photo of JD and K. Note the completely unconscious babies.

The Parents Who Cried Tooth

[jd] 8 January 2007

Well, it finally happened. We had our suspicions that Cayden was teething when he was sent home from daycare last week with a mild fever and no symptoms of being actually ill. Then he cried from 3pm until bedtime on Sunday, only stopping if I let him chew on a dried apple ring. This is the only chewy teething device he shows an interest in, which is unfortunate. Dried apple rings have a lovely spongy yet firm texture and a pleasant taste. All the qualities of an excellent teether, until it gets soft enough to break or the baby gets so excited he sucks the whole thing into his mouth and down his throat. Which means it is a great teether, if a parent is staring at you with an anti-choking device (i.e. my finger) at the ready THE ENTIRE TIME. Despite the relatively unpleasant experience of having me stick my finger down his throat to extricate apple chunks, Cayden happily chewed away for over an hour. Despite all these symptoms, Sunday night there was still no tooth. Apparently he got all his angst about the process out that day though, because he was thoroughly cheerful Monday and Tuesday. I thought we had yet again mistakenly assumed his crankiness meant teething, and it was only by accident that I discovered his brandy-new tooth last night (he was complaining about the car seat and I was shoving my knuckle into his mouth so it made funny noises when he cries, because that usually stops him crying). Another milestone of childhood achieved, which is exciting and sad all at once. I love watching him change so rapidly, but it is a little bittersweet to think that in no time he will be bumming 20$ and the car keys off me.

Never let it be said Orono didn't treat us well...

[ty] 6 Jan '08

Ok, I apologize for the conspicuous lack of update regarding our trip and various associated excitement in Maine. Truth be told, I made up all of the highlights involved in the last post. All of Jordanna's toes are intact, nobody fell through the ice and I stayed safely inside all of the vehicles. I apologize if anyone was unduly alarmed. In my defense I had earlier that day been involved in mortal combat with a Black Bear, eaten a bad piece of Puffer fish and lost around $7000 on Jai-Alai.

We had a wonderful time in Maine. It was the first large scale Henry/Fremouw/Sprayberry/Benson X-mas and there was no shortage of wonderful grandparents, sledding, good beer, hockey, good wine, oblong pizzas, good cheese, crying children, laughing children, hurt children and love. Clarissa and Thane opened up their home to an veritable invasion of people and in return I stole Clarissa's favorite winter hat and invited our friends up to crash the party. They took it like champs and we will forever be grateful and hope to return the favor as soon as we get to a domicile larger than a conjugal visit cabin.

Also in the "You Rule" catagory: The Walshies hauled their asses all the way up to Maine to hang out with us for 48 hrs. Considering that it would have been FAR easier for them to stay in the comfort of their own home and not drive 6 hours into Canadian territory and back we were very very touched by their presence and the wonderful bounty of beer, cheese, chocolate, whiskey, bourbon, vodka, wine and schnapps that they gifted us. For the record, Abby Rose was amazing with all the younger kids and a ball to hang out with. Plus she's about 6ft tall and is the proud recipient of both Kevin and Erin's gift for sarcasm.

Below please find a couple of photos that will tell an abbreviated version of our trip to the great frozen North. Actually its just some good photos of our kid and our nephews. What can I say.

For some reason he looks like a frog to me in this picture.
I think it's the hands.

Nephews all hyped up on x-mas will do anything Uncle Tyson asks them to.

I rarely intend to take these kinds of photos but I like it when it happens.

Nubby.

PS - in theory i have now posted two movies taken today of nubby. the one is of him doing battle with a hairband, the other is purely for the audio of us flushing his sinuses per our doctor's orders (drowning the baby).

Netipot

Hairband

In Maine...

[ty] The Day After Xmas, '07

We're here in Maine with Jordanna's sister and her family, my parents, and Jordanna's parents.  So far all has gone well and the children have been excellent.  We'll post some more extensive stories of the Frozen Lake Incident, how JD lost part of her toe, and The Time Tyson Fell Out of the Bus on the Highway Even Though We Weren't Moving Very Fast.

For now here are some pictures to tide everybody over.

Never mind.  Blogger doesn't want to upload the images.

Nubby's First Tournament

[ty] 16 Dec '07

We hosted a JV wrestling tournament at my school this weekend and the usual plan for such a day is I abandon my wife to fare as she may with Nubbs till I return in the evening. Unfortunately JD became DEATHLY ill Friday and could barely crawl to the bathroom to avoid wetting herself.

So on Saturday morning I brewed myself an extra serving of coffee, threw Nubby and the Wife in the car at 7:30, dropped JD off at Urgent Care on my way North and got on the horn to my wrestling managers to meet me at the school for babysitting duty.

Now before you all castigate me mercilessly for slowing down to 20 and kicking my comatose wife to the curb of the hospital entrance let me say that I will NOT bring Nubby into a hospital unless he is in severe need of medical attention. I read last week that antibiotic resistant strains of Staph infections killed more people in hospitals in 2005 than HIV/AIDS. The last time we took him to Urgent Care he picked up a Snot-Cough that lasted for 2 weeks. Nuff said.

Anyway, despite the fact that they don't get paid for their managing duties both of my awesome girls took my early morning call, warmed up their cars in the sub-freezing Tucson morning and met me at the school to watch my kid all day. For no less than 9 hours they fed my kid, put him down for naps, changed his diapers, kept him occupied, and STILL kept score for both mats throughout the entire tournament. They rule and I will be buying them Starbucks cards on my way to school this week.

My freshman holds him Very Carefully...

Our JV team

Babysitter Numero Uno

This ref loved Nubby and would come hold him whenever he wasn't on the mat

Babysitter numero dos

Just because I won't let him at my boobs...

[jd] 11 December

After another drop in my weight and a week of pumping blue-tinged milk that had literally 1 drop of fat per bottle, we decided to officially wean the Nub. He has been on formula for a little over a week, and I am only nursing him at night. In the past week we have seen a slight decrease in his desire for solid food, and a ravenous excitement about the bottle. Rather than refusing formula (as soome breastfed babies do), he is doing super well on it. However, his willingness to abandon the boobs for eating purposes has not diminished his desire for boobs AT ALL. When I pick him up now there is a 50/50 chance he will pull open the neck of my shirt, open his mouth and rub it back and forth on my chest while making 'ahhh baa baa' sounds. This is both funny and heartbreaking. But mostly funny.

An Uncanny Ability to Talk Anybody into Anything

[jd] 10 December 2007

Have you ever found yourself doign something completely ridiculous, that you would really rather not be doing, at the behest of a cajoling and laughing Tyson? (see exhibit A) Those of you who have know EXACTLY what I am talking about. Well, you are not alone. Tonight Roland came over for some love. After some good snuggles and pets, Ty grabbed the side of his face, placed his mouth over the dog's nose and blew. After the dog's lips fluttered about from this abuse, he shoved his head into Tyson's lap for more pets.

The Knitting Monster

[jd] 8 Dec 2007

I was passing out in my chair at 8:30, and yet here I am writing a blog post at 12:05 am. Why? Because if I just knit 6 more rows, I'll be finished with this neckband.

T-Giving at Civano

[ty] 24 Nov 07

For t-giving this year we headed over to Jeff and David's house for a small gathering. Just the 4.2 of us. Here are some pics detailing our warm and mellow day.

We found two chickens deep in a philosophical discussion so we grabbed them real quick
and stuffed them into the the grill. They were delicious.

Just to get some perspective on how much JP hasn't grown. Organic baby in organic cotton on an organic cork floor.


Who knew that with a little adjustment his new carrier can double as a highchair? Now we do.


Never let it be said that JP and David do not set an aesthetically pleasing, if a bit sparse, table.


Yummy yummy in our tummy.


He continues to get cuter as time goes on.

Bonus Nubby Shots!!

On laundry day he gets to wear whatever is clean and will be warm enough for the surprisingly chilly November mornings.

Who needs parents when you have a box of hand-me-down toys?


Nubby and Gaspar celebrate another Pats victory.

Dedication

[jd] 21 November 2007

About a month ago we ran out of corn-based bags for our countertop composter. This is a brilliant invention that keeps the compost collection in your kitchen from being smelly and producing flies, which means that with this brilliant invention my husband actually lets me compost (his fly tolerance is lower than mine because I work in a building with fly researchers and am fairly innured to the little buggers). Since then we have only been composting when there is a project that produces a lot of food waste, which goes in a bowl on the counter and I empty it out before it causes havoc. At least I intend to empty it out. Saturday night Ruben and Anna taught us how to make chille rellenos, which produced an entire bowl of hot pepper skins, hot pepper seeds and egg shells. Despite my best intentions, I completely forgot to empty the bowl and Tyson put it outside on the porch two nights ago. Can you see where this is going? That's right, Roland is so dedicated in his quest for extra food that he ate the compost: all the skins, all the seeds and about half of the egg shells. WTF?

Time to Child-Proof

This morning Nubby squirmed over to the battery charger that was plugged into the wall, reached up, popped a battery out and put it in his mouth.

Whiskey Tango in the Desert

[ty] 17 Nov 07

We figured as long as we're stuck in the desert we might as well enjoy some of the fringe of society benefits. So today we drove out North of the city to some BLM (Bureau of Land Management) property to shoot some guns.

We went with a couple of our good friends who have so many dogs that they should probably have a kennel license. One of the nice things about hanging out with a bunch of scientists is that as an occupational hazard they have to drive deep into the hinterland for fieldwork. So we ended up way out in the desert having some fun.

A little instruction goes a long way

Nothin' but desert

That's my new (and by new I mean used) Mossberg 500. Pretty much the simplest, pump action, 12 gauge shotgun you can buy. Clearly it has an aftermarket pistol grip and adjustable stock for a slightly more tactical feel. I haven't named it yet.

Overall we had a great time and all 4 of us left feeling like we had pitched 8 1/2 innings at Fenway.

The myth of solid-food poo

[jd] 16 November 2007

Everybody who I knew prior to having a baby told me how awful poo was after the baby started solid food. Every book harps on this point. How innocuous breastmilk poo is, and how horrifically stinky the solid-food poo is. How nast diaper duty will be. Now that Cayden is chowing down on a regular basis (he has doubled his consumption of food), his poop is a whole new ball game. A super, fantastic, life-is-so-much-easier ball game. All those people telling you that solid-food poo is bad? Those people use disposable diapers, and their diaper pails stink. For cloth diapering folks, this is the best advance ever! Everything sticks together, stays on the diaper liner and peels right into the toilet. For all you folks fearing the cloth diapering step... it is really and truely the secret to a non-stinky house (plus it will safe you 2k over a couple years). Not to mention the easy distinction between farting and pooping now. If you didn't hear anything and his face is dark red, it's not gas.

This time it's not my fault

[jd] 13 November 2007

Back when I was a naive, irresponsible mother of a 6 week old baby, I ate a bagel while nursing my son. This may seem innocent, but it was not a plain bagel. It was a poppy-seed bagel. And what happens when you eat poppy-seed bagels? A fine dusting of poppy seeds coats the immediate vicinity. If your fragile 6 week old baby is in that vicinity, there is a decent chance they will get a poppy seed in their eye. This is gauranteed to make you feel like a GOOD MOM, and you and your spouse will spend the next twenty minutes looking over your shoulder for CPS agents while playing with q-tips, saline, and a screaming child during the seed extraction. Needless to say I started covering the kid up with a napkin while I ate.

Cayden, however, did not seem to take home any life lessons from this experience. This morning while I was nursing him, I noticed a globby white piece of rice in his eye and an image flashed through my head. An image of Cayden at dinner last night. After getting a handful of peas and rice & quinoa cereal, he realized he was tired and rubbed his eyes. Many many times. Because, once they have green eyebrows you are laughing too hard to try and stop them from doing it again.