The Hand

This was my first opportunity to touch her. She had been crying up a storm in the first few minutes after her birth. It felt good to provide her with what appeared to be a bit of comfort.

First Few Moments

Our little girl's first few moments outside the womb had to be a bit shocking...bright lights, maybe 20 degrees cooler and a bit of rough handling.

Tuesday

It's Sunday morning. On Tuesday at 0730, or shortly thereafter, our little girl will make her first appearance outside of the womb. I can hardly wait to see her!
The next year will be very interesting. Much of our current life will be changing. I'm a little nervous knowing that what has become comfortable and patterned about our lives will no longer be. We'll need to find another pillow on this bed of life to lay our heads upon. In the end, I know it will be a better pillow.

It's been a little over a year since the last post. Soon LBJ will be two years old. Everyone says it, and it sounds so cliche', but time sure flies. I'll be posting some new pictures of the little monster soon...this little guy that is speaking what sound like complete sentences but nobody has an idea of what he's trying to say. He'll repeat himself over and over again to no avail. I'm anxious for the day to come when I can understand every word he says but, on the other hand, I know full well that it's vitally important to enjoy his frustrated communications now knowing that he's in the middle of another stage that we'll recall fondly some day.

This afternoon's wind blew quite a few of the blossoms off of our ornamental cherry trees. In a strange way it felt like Fall had come around again. On a couple of occasions I found myself wanting to find a football game on the radio.

The neighbor's backyard pond is once again host to a zillion frogs...zillions of frogs that drown out the crickets, sirens, thoughts and heartburn the night is known to be synonymous with...that is not the case here. Nope, not the case at all.

Our boy has experienced yet another spike in his cold. Hopefully he'll get over this one soon.

First Steps

One before the other.  He's tried to do it a million times.  It all came together this afternoon...guess there's a lot more of these to come.

Little Buddha Tries Modern Porridge

Little Buddha has enjoyed his first bowl of porridge just like Goldilocks did all those years ago. He appears to still be working through baby bears bowl.

First Evidence of Little Buddha's Ability to Crawl

He's been laboring to get to this point. We think he's got his eyes fixed on the prize of standing up. He tends to use his crawl to get to a place where he might be able to work himself into an upright position. We've watched him suffer through several significant head bumps.

A quarterback for a pro football team went for the store brand of Cheerios. When he realized he could save $.39 he was ecstatic. The savings went towards the purchase of a Hostess cherry pie. He was surprised at how small the pies seemed compared to what he expected. Haven't we all had this experience with Hostess products?

First Day of Sitting Up

They didn't say anything when we picked him up at day care. When we got him home and went about the business of making dinner we spotted him sitting up in the middle of the living room floor. Quite a surprise indeed.

I think it was Albert Einstein that said "whoa" when first he sat upon a horse.

Early Video

"Old video" of DAE taken at the hospital before he was released.

DAE

More photos will be available soon. Mom and the new guy are doing alright. Should be released tomorrow (5/4)

Tarmo

We watched him yawn a few times. For a moment he had both hands and a foot in front of his face as if he did not want us to see what he looked like.
I've tried putting my foot in front of my face a couple of times since we saw him do it. I've found that I'm not able to perform such a stunt.

Tomato

Tomato soup.
Grilled tuna sandwich.
Glass of water.
Dinner.
Snow on the porch since last Wednesday.
I missed the comet that some said showed so prominently this past week.
Despite efforts to spot it myself.
Saw venus up high around sunset on Friday.
The comet too low on the horizon.
Obscured by trees.
It's Sunday night.
Caught in the middle of the end of last week
and the beginning of next week.

Heavy wind and rains a coming. Desk lamp flickering with each letter I pound. Radio muffled by the floor between us...you get the picture.

Far from here, or maybe not, the world rages with noise and confusion. Confusion swims in a bottle of tequila in the cabinet above the fridge.

It's pointless to go on typing this way.

Jack is driving me crazy with his demands for attention as I tend to this message. I took a small rock from his mouth. Now he's acting like it's a tremendous injustice for me to have done such a thing. We really struggle some times.

This ultrasound photo was taken yesterday. It's my first view of "baby". I saw two arms, five fingers (didn't get to see much of "baby's" other side), two legs, a spine, a heart beat, a nose, eye sockets and a significant degree of stubborness. Jumping jacks, toe touches, dancing and all other forms of movement could not seem to get this child to move for some additional angles.

Speaking of move, this was a very moving experience for me. This first sighting brought some of the reality of what's going on to mind. We are so excited!

Jack has given up on his efforts to get the little rock back. I can be stubborn too. He's sleeping at my feet. I'll make up for his frustrations with a trip to Ross Park this morning. Uh oh! he looked up at me when I typed the word "park". I guess I've let the cat out of the bag.

Earthquake!!

We suffered an earthquake about 130AM last night. I woke up, well kind of, and felt the rolling of the bed and then listened to the house shake like it had been broadsided by a big bear or something.

There were aftershocks while I was riding to work. I didn't feel any of them but now think I know why I fell off my bike three times on the way in.

Despite the drama we are alright. The only real damage being a drained watch battery, cracks on our backsides and a bunch of dirty dishes in the sink...but, as I said, we are alright.

Jack was up and barking for the aftershocks. So were the other dogs in the neighborhood. I felt the urge to bark myself but I was too busy getting myself picked up off the road. Crazy times indeed.

Fishing

Today...an eight hour trip way out there. The fish simply weren't biting. I'm guessing it's either something they just don't do on Sundays or we just didn't serve up the right buffet. One among the six of us unfortunately bowed at the tail of the boat and offered his morning breakfast (and likely anything left from several meals before that)as bait. It didn't work. I also gave up my breakfast (taco seasoning seasoned ground beef, cheese and a flour tortilla) as bait as well but it didn't work either.
I walked away from the deal with a heap of photos of the islands, water and anything other than that that appeared to be of interest at the time.
It has rained very brieflyl and lightly on several occasions during our stay but today we had our first significiant cloud burst. It all happened around 1500 this afternoon. I half expected Noah's ark to be the last thing to fall from the sky as it seemed the storm of biblical proportions might have been just that times two...two of every thing that ever ascended to the sky anyway.
On this trip I've filled in many of the holes created by my overburdened memory about just what happened to the Donner party. Revisiting the story was just as horrific as I remember it being the last time I gave it a thought.

Wednesday

It's Wednesday morning. I can hear a spotted dove in the near distance. The winds which, at times over the past several days, have pushed the window curtains to a near perpendicular position are relatively calm. The tide is out so the rocky shore is exposed. A couple of days ago this is where we spotted a tiger moray eel in less than a foot of water.

We've spent a lot of time snorkeling off nearby beaches. We even took a tour of some of the best snorkeling spots in the area. The coral reef stands out in my mind as the high point so far. I can hardly believe how beautiful the fish have been.

The sun has yet to make an appearance but it won't be long. Our noisey next door neighbors just left for their day's adventure - their departure accentuated by a loud slam of their door. Those still sawing logs at 0545 surely have a range of things they'd probably like to say right now.

I can't figure out why after all the years of schooling I've had, that I was not aware that Captain James Kirk...I mean Cook!..was murdered here in a dispute over a stolen row boat.

Bulbs

Every day several of a multitude of bulbs find their way to blue sky. We planted so many so late in January that we weren't really sure we'd see any of them come around. So far this year's weather has been relatively moderate and wet...apparently favorable enough conditions to grow a seed in a slab of concrete.

Venus

Venus is shining like a big wally in the morning southeastern sky these days. Take a look at it for yourself...you'll see.

We painted the Morrison Room burnt sienna. It looks great. The likeness of "Morrison" will be framed by some nice floor molding likely painted black or something.

I'm expecting a heavy frost this morning, just like yesterday. All of the bulb plants better be able to handle it. Flowers, though I'm not a sissy, are important to me. There should be lots of color out there starting in the next few weeks. The ornamental cherry trees are already blooming and there are a few others out there that'll soon officially come out of their winter blahs.

Last month's heavy (and I do mean heavy) rains overtaxed our driveway drain. Water was on the verge of coming in the house via the garage door. It's likely that a root is blocking the underground drain pipe that leads to the road on the south end. I, unless you want to, will be digging for gold this spring.

Not much else to report. Gonna make it to the dog park this morning. Jack has got to run so the ball is gonna fly.