Eight Is Great (+ Yay Mommy)

Our girl is 2/3 of a year old and getting cuter every day.  She's sweet and funny and scrunches up her nose when she laughs, which is often and heartily.  She loves her brother and is often entertained by her (even when his play can get a little rough), and she's enjoying trying new foods.  She has several teeth coming in and is sort of regressing in her onetime quite nice new sleeping habits (perhaps the two are related?), which makes for some adjusted evening plans, but she makes up for her occasional waking-up-every-time-you-put-her-down by being just adorable.

Pumpkin in the pumpkins.  We had a few good ones in our garden this year!

Wearing BB's old favorite hoodie (and apparently still a favorite, whether it fits or not).

Tinin and Snowy at the Pumpkin Parade.

My little girl.  Thanks for the use of your feet for this jack, Baby.

Ack, standing up.  Time to graduate to the bigger crib (which means you know what for The Boy who currently sleeps in it...).

Always crawling and climbing!  But she doesn't seem to mind getting stuck here.

It's always a good time for a post-bath mirror picture.  I

As per usual, The Wife's great update is here.

Speaking of, I feel like this is a good time to say that The Wife is really doing her thing these days.  She has always been an amazing mom, but now that she's on her own for 85-90% of the kids' waking hours she has really stepped up to the plate.  It's very impressive to me how she keeps the kids entertained and cared for and (mostly) happy and alive, and still manages to get side projects done and make Halloween costumes and running shirt quilts and all manner of things.  I don't think I could do what she does, and she does it while hardly ever getting upset.  I try to do what I can when I'm home, and even when I'm not, but she's carrying this family, and for that I am quite grateful.

We three love our little girl, and we three love our little mommywife!

A Sad English Fish

Halloween 2015!  I totally forgot that it happened, but I wanted to document it quickly.  The Wife had this idea last year that we thought would be the cutest thing ever, and she followed through with great panache when preparation time came (you can read all about the process and see marvelous pictures here).

But we had some fun and cute times this year:

The Pumpkin Patch in Orem is a great time, just the right size for little ones, and free hay rides on select nights!  (Lesson learned: the Pumpkin Parade at the Riverwoods isn't turning out to be the best thing ever anymore, especially for kids this age.)

I dressed in my old favorite to attend my sister's orchestra's awesome Halloween concert (and my getup was appropriate as they played my theme song).  Any excuse to break out the uniform, right?!?

Hee-Haw Farms has also been a big hit the last couple years.  This was a tall[er than it looks in this picture!] stack of hay, where we could see the amazing pumpkin-dropping crane even better.

I'm still new to the in-office work-team culture, so I didn't know what to expect from their talk of the big Halloween fun, but we had a good time and there were hundreds of trick-or-treaters.  Our department even won 2nd place for our Dia de los Muertos-themed decorations.  My contribution was some artistic touches, including the bride and groom's sugar skulls.

On the day-of this year!  Nothing like waiting to the last minute.  This way they were especially fresh when the trick-or-treaters came and for the fun neighborhood block party across the street.

Clockwise, starting at the 6: Tintin, Snowy, Unicorn (geddit?) and Haddockbounding (his name and its origin is the inspiration for the title of this post).  I appreciated that my beard fit in perfectly with the theme this year.

Actual Halloween was a fun time, we were the first trick-or-treaters at my parents' house, which seemed to confuse little Tintin as to why we weren't just letting ourselves in, and it might have thrown off his stride since he wasn't quite as forthcoming in the knocking again for a little while (last year he had no problem whatsoever), but once he found his groove he was excited to knock doors, and then randomly sat down on the sidewalk or rock walls a couple times and was ready to head back home and hang out with the across-the-street neighbor kids whose parents were hosting an outdoor movie/fire pit, for which the weather was just perfect.  The Boy spent several days surrounding Halloween talking about it, so it seems he was much more into the festivities this year, like we thought he would be.  Next year I'm sure he'll be even more!

So it all turned out great, and The Wife's costumes for the little ones were just right, and even if no one really understood who we were (people guessed The Boy was a golfer or a "little Dutch boy" and that Baby was a bunny or a kitty or basically anything but a little white puppy), we knew who we were dressed as, and that if WE saw a family dressed in these costumes we would have thought it was awesome.

Lucky Seven

Originally written on 16  October
Smoochy is up to seven months!  She's past the halfway mark and well on her way to her first birthday (eep).  But lots of fun things are coming up before then!

As per usual, The Wife posted a great update here, and mine will actually be pretty brief this time.  Baby's doing great, starting to sleep really well at night (*knocks on wood*), eating some solid foods, and laughing hysterically at the antics of her big bro.  As it turns out I didn't take/Instapost all that many pictures of her this month (though I did poach some from her mommy's Insta).

Starting solids!  So far so okay.  She likes some foods better than others.  The faces are priceless though!

Just hanging out while Mommy's off doing Mommy things.

At her ease.

:D :D

Earning her keep at a very young age.

This happened spontaneously.  And then I died.

This may have been spontaneous too.  Mostly it was the best thing ever to see while at work.

These two are always good for inspiration.

O hai.

Om nom nom, thanks Baby Sale.

Little pumpkin starting to get into the spirit of things.

Another month down, and her cuteness is growing exponentially!  And she's well on her way to the next one.

Six Years/Six Months

Wow, I just realized that I didn't even blog about our anniversary...  Maybe that's because we took it easy this year, just spending time with some little one who weren't feeling their best, making and breaking and postponing special plans, and generally being together and hoping for good things for the future.  As I said on Facebook, six years and many highs and occasional lows later, we spent our special day doing chores and switching laundry and sorting through boxes of old stuff, and as we returned home from running errands with two tired and whining kids in the back seat and looked at each other... I realized I wouldn't want it any other way.

Still so in love with this pretty girl.

Next!  A couple weeks ago our little girl hit the big half-year mark (and we finally had our checkup -- thanks, switching of insurance), and she's doing just great.  The Wife's post can be seen here, but in continuing my own series of posts, here are a bunch of pictures:

My girls at the park.

So mobile these days!  She was most determined to reach that book.  And then probably eat it.

Visiting the goats.

Visiting the penguins.

Do you see what I see??  There are definitely two down there now.

I think we (finally) managed to make the baby gate work just in time.  It's been a process.

Aloha wear buddies on Labor Day.  I love that swath of still-dark hair.

There's that swath again!  Mommy kind of has one too.

Checking out Mommy's new look.

Such a scrumptious little duck!

This is the one that was actually Instaposted, because WUT.

I realized that I haven't done drawings of her in months, which was inexcusable.

Oh that little one!  It's getting more and more to the point that I just can't even stand her cuteness for five seconds without smothering her with kisses (did I mention I like to give them by the 20s?  I feel like it's good to overdo it to build up some credit in case I forget sometime).  After being weighed and measured today she's not exactly the tallest six-month-old on the block anymore, but she's still just right at just over 16 pounds.  She wasn't a fan of the doc today, and of course she was none too pleased to get her shots, but she rallied in short order.  I miss seeing her in the mornings and occasionally throughout the day now that I'm working in an actual office (more on that later), but she's always glad to see me when I come home at the end of the workday.

We love our sweet little smooch!  Happy Half, Baby Girl.

(Edit 21 December 2017)

Month the Fifth for Little Miss

Little Missis getting bigger and cuter (if possible!) every day.  She reached five months this week (Wife's update here) and she's doing fine.  She still resists sleep now and then, but her long stretches are getting more common.  She's rolling all over the place (watch out when she's on the couch or the bed) and she's practically up on her hands and knees at times.  She and her brother love to make each other laugh, and we just sit back and watch in amusement the whole time.  Her lovely dark hair is starting to lighten, which is a bit sad, but she'll wear golden locks just as well as her brother did when his started to change.  She is getting very vocal and loves to make funny dinosaur noises and squeal and laugh (and sometimes whine and cry) (but not that often).

Happy little non-sleeper.

"Here, Baby, have a car.  Have ALL the cars."

Running buddies!

Sunday AM

Tummy flying.

Peek-a-boo!

Mommy and her little helper at a local event for Harry's birthday

About to head into the platform.

The sleepiest house-elf (and the littlest Seeker).

Picking blackberries

<3 br="">

We do so love our little one!  I love all the steps along the way, but this is where they really start to get to my favorite stage, I must say.

Alpine Days 2015

Last Saturday was the Alpine Days 5K.  I haven't done this one in a couple of years, but it's a favorite because it's nice and inexpensive, and it's close (now closer than ever) and it's a fun course.  Well, apparently starting last year they changed the course, but I actually think I liked it even better than the one before.  I don't know if it's because the last organized run I did was much longer, but these three miles just seemed to fly by, even with the gradual but steady uphill for the first half.

Anyway, they upped their game this year in other ways too, like offering shirts for the first time (and nice ones too!) for a few dollars more.  They still don't have the best post-race treats ever, and the awards take WAY too long to hand out (you don't have to wait in between every single person and shake their hand and get their life story before going on with the other placements in the same division), and I still think they'll be just fine if they start at 7:30 or even 8 -- it was a nice morning but the sun didn't even come up until we were all well and finished, and I could even see my breath! -- but all in all I like it just fine.

We had a good family turnout this year, just a bunch of guys and Mom this time.  I did all right -- 23:00, about 7:23/mile, placed 5th in my division.  I don't know what it is about running, sometimes it's amazing and I feel like I'm flying and sometimes I feel like I'm dragging my buck-seventy-eight through mud.  I don't know how else to explain that my pace seemed (and was) so much better when I ran 13 miles a month ago than it was when I ran 3 miles a few days ago.

Anyway, enough of that, it was fun and here's the group!  Yay for inexpensive, fun races.

The kids did the Toddler Trot after, which was fun and resulted in ribbons and lollipops all around.

Lessons Learned From a Shattered Phone

(Happy 5 months to Baby!  But first, from last Friday...)

I will tell you, I fought the smartphone revolution heartily and well.  My old flip phone (which I had to eventually relent to get even that) was working just fine, and I liked my service (i.e. family plan...), and as a phone it was all I really needed.  All the texts I wrote to and received from The Wife while we were dating long-distance were on there, and it meant a little something to me, scratches and all.  But then, plans were changing, its camera, such as it was, was lacking, the idea of being able to look things up on the go started to sound really appealing, and in general I figured it was time to grow up and get off my dad's cell phone plan.  I really didn't want to become one of Those People who are always staring at their phones, especially when we had a little one on the way, but I was sure we would be able to use them judiciously.  We switched to some starter phones, which were amazing to us, but which after a couple years started to show signs of aging.  But the real jump to a more legit smartphone was switching to a completely new service.  I could go on and on about the things I like about RepublicWireless (and just one on about the things I don't quite love), but for the price it can't be beat.  The only catch was that you have to buy their phones.  Fine, no problem, we were probably due for an upgrade anyway.  Flash forward about half a year after that magical Christmas morning, full of shiny new phones in stylish protective cases that take much better pictures and have much more reliable internet features and much bigger hard drive space...

One busy morning, my phone disappeared.  We looked everywhere, I tried every possible method of locating your phone (you would think in emergencies this would be easier these days), I seemed to remember putting it on the roof of the car and thought maybe it had fallen off when The Wife went to the store later that afternoon but had no luck driving up and down the road searching, I worried it was going to die and then it wouldn't even be heard ringing (if I hadn't left it on silent...)... And then when The Wife went on her run the next morning, she found this:

Major street cred at least?

So.

Here are some lessons learned from a shattered phone.

• First things first, DON'T PUT YOUR PHONE ON THE ROOF OF YOUR CAR.

• Second things second, if you DO put your phone on the roof of your car, don't forget about it and leave it there all day.

• Third things third, wear shorts with pockets, especially if you're going out and about.  Seriously, this whole thing would have been avoided if I had had pockets and somewhere to put my phone when I came home and immediately started to doing yard work.

• If you find a shattered phone, plug it in and see if it still works.  If it does (like mine did), hurray, you will probably be able to get all your pictures and such off of it!  Especially if (like mine did) it has a removable SD card.

• That screen really does have sharp little pieces and cracks.  It might not have been able to cut me, but it sure felt like it would.  Street cred, pffft.  I'd take a nice shiny screen any day.

• Try not to let that blinking notification light and occasional ding from a phone with an obviously working phone but obviously not working screen get to you.

• If you have a protective cover, it will only go so far.  (Then again, apparently not all covers are created equal?)  This thing didn't have a chance, considering the entire back popped off along with the cover when it was, I can only presume, run over several times before finally making its way safely to the gravelly side of the road.

• When you get your replacement phone, turn off USB debugging and install lost phone recovery apps right away.  This will save you such grief, believe you me.

• Speaking of grief, if you haven't turned off USB debugging or installed lost phone recovery apps, you will still be able to get a lot of your contacts and such from some of your online accounts, but I'm sorry to tell you that, at least for the time being, your texts will be long gone (this does matter to me since I communicate with my family and The Wife so much this way, and now at least seven months' worth of that communication is lost... ah well, fresh start?).

It should be noted that if you figure out after hours of searching that such a thing cannot be done, it's probably best to give up the search, or at least moderate the time you spend on it.  All it will do is make you more frustrated and have the same result, and who needs that?

Incidentally, if anyone ever figured out how to transfer texts without having turned off USB debugging or installed lost phone recovery apps, do let me know?

• It's not a terrible idea to look on eBay for used/refurbished phones, but buy with care and don't be too hasty (luckily mine allowed me to cancel my order the next day when I found a more reputable option), and you can always check with your retailer for specials or deals:

• If you are a RW customer, you may have the option of buying a lower-priced replacement phone from their B-Stock supply, which are phones that are possibly refurbished or new returned for whatever reason but unable to be sold as "New", but are still in working order.

• Sometimes if you get a replacement phone, it will also not work...

• If your replacement phone doesn't work, try not to spend hours trying to figure it out.  In my case I guess it must have been the proximity sensor or something, because every time I tried to make or answer a call the screen instantly went black.  The call was still in operation, but you were unable to use the keypad or even hang up, and the only way to get the screen back would be if the person on the other end hung up (which made for some awkward scrambling after leaving a message).  I found that if I plugged headphones in the screen would come back on, since the proximity sensor is no longer in use, but then would go black again when I took the headphones out, and then if I turned on the speaker and took out the headphones it was fine, but if I turned the speaker off it was black again... It was most vexing.

• If your replacement phone doesn't work, you can try to take it apart and make it somehow magically work, but don't get too frustrated if it doesn't work.  Most of them time you need very specific and very unique tools for such an operation, surely by design.  I had dreams that this would work out, but no.

• If your phone doesn't work AS A PHONE, you need to get a new phone.

Third time's the charm??

• It's a bummer to lose info and pictures (I luckily didn't lose any of those at least), but there are worse things.  And most of that stuff actually does transfer pretty quickly and easily, especially if both phones are at least functional.

• In the end, it's just a thing.  We use and even need things these days, especially if it's our line of communication to friends and family and work, but there are ways to get your things working again, even if it takes (heaven forbid) a week or two.  Try not to let it occupy your thoughts too much.

And, most importantly:

• If you start to even joke that you're trying not to feel like an amputee now that your phone is not constantly on your person for a few days... it's time to detach.  I mean, I'd been meaning to disconnect a little more lately, I'd just have preferred it had been on my terms, all things considered.  Still, the fact that I was so cranky about a phone was a good reminder.  I've been happy to leave it in another room for long stretches at a time so I can concentrate on other things (until I need to grab it and take that picture while the toddler and the infant are being so cute together!).

So I learned a lot from this experience.  At the moment my third RW phone seems to be working just fine, though there is the slightest speck of broken pixel/ding in the screen at some level which lets out just the tiniest little sparkle when the screen is lit up.  I thought about trying to fix it or get the thing replaced again, but:

• If you're on your third phone in half a year and discover the tiniest blemish, embrace it.  I like to think of it as a remnant of some kind, just a hint of its dearly departed father's and grandfather's respective and varied fates.  Like a reminder to its owner of what happened, and really, if this extremely minor version of a shattered, unusable screen is what I'm left with, I'll take it.

It's almost like it has a little scar from its very infancy.

I call it Harry.