Sunday naps

Mom was nice enough to let the boys take a nice long Sunday afternoon nap.

First Shots...

The little man had his 2 month old shots today. Kari asked that I go along to the doctors office to provide moral support and, trying to be a good dad, I was happy to oblige.

His reaction to the first shot was a little bit delayed so for a brief moment I thought we were going to get though it all without any screams. I was wrong. But the nurse was quick so just four shots and four short screams later, Landon was in his mom's arms and seemed to already have forgotten the traumatic experience. I still felt pretty bad for the little guy.

Here he is resting after his first run in with the needle.

He got Snoopy band aids but he's too young to appreciate them. I think they are pretty cool though.

Supermom

You hear so many stories about family pets taking a back seat once baby arrives and not getting attention anymore.

There have been some changes around our house but the doggies are still very much a part of the action. This photo shows Kari playing some kind game with Hailie and Bowen. The rules of the game a a bit unclear but apparently it involves running around the house with the over sized tug rope - sometimes chasing and sometimes being chased. I think Bowen is winning but it's hard to tell for sure.

Team Pictures

Some new photos of the Boy's team. We may not have a Beckham in the lineup but it's still a pretty strong squad.

Fire Truck!

I called 911 for the first time in my life today.

Just when it was starting to feel like nothing interesting was happening lately, we woke up this morning to a car fully engulfed in flames near the little park by our house.

It was just after 5am and when I realized (more or less) what was going on and I grabbed my cell phone and ran out side. I called 911 and was shortly assured that a fire truck was on the way. During the call I gave them the cross streets where the car was and then they asked me to describe the car. I didn't think much of it at the time and told them it was an older model Oldsmobile or Cadillac but looking back I'm a bit perplexed by the question. Describe the car? Yeah, well it's the one that's on fire. Yep, uh-hun, the only one on fire. Did the dispatcher think that the fire crew was going to have trouble distinguishing the vehicle with 18 feet of flames and smoke barreling out of it from the other cars on that corner? Strange. But that oddness aside - the fire fighters came quickly and put the blaze out like they do this kind of thing everyday (which I guess they do). No one was in the car and no one was hurt. So it all had a happy ending, I guess.

I returned home to find Kari perparing to evacuate Landon and the dogs. The protective instinct of mom is very strong. And very endearing.

Too bad Landon is not old enough to be into fire trucks yet. My mom and Helen Boyd will tell you that I was a very big fan of fire trucks when I was a youngster. Apparently I had a little trouble pronouncing the "tr" park of the word "truck" and went with an "f" sound instead. Readers at home can sound it out for themselves.

playing make-believe

Here Grandpa is pretending to give LT some beer.
And here it would appear that LT is pretending to be drunk.

We need to think of some better make-believe games.

WFH

Now that L.T. has arrived, I've been working from home one day every other week - (one very nice perk of my job although I must admit that one day *every* week would be even better). Anyway, it's great to get to spend a little more time with the family and, even with a new baby at home, I still get way more work done than I would if I was in the office. I'm sure that says something about the office environment but I'm not trying to be Scott Adams so I'll refrain from further comment.

The first picture shows me laid out on the couch writing technical documentation while Landon sleeps peacefully. I can't remember for sure but there's a pretty good chance that the Golf Channel is on the TV in the background. Granted, at home I don't get to enjoy the 29th floor view of the mountains and LoDo (see below) but this is still much better than the old cubical (at left).

Those of you keeping score at home may have noticed that the shot of my cubical looks like my desk but it couldn't possibly be mine because it's nowhere near messy enough. I can explain - that picture was taken a few years ago on the day we moved into that office space so I hadn't had a chance to apply my signature decorative touch to it. It's a complete dump now.

Self Portrait

I think Kari has used the camera more in the last few weeks than she has in her life.

I guess a baby will do that to you.

Still Little

He's still pretty small but getting bigger. The two photos were taken about 6 weeks apart.

Big Skip & Little Skip

The debate continues about who LT most looks like. Lately Kari has taken to calling him Little Skip (Her brother's nick name in college was Skip but I can't remember the story of why). See the photo here and judge for yourself - the receding hairline (sorry Steve) seems to me like only real resemblance.

Editors Note: after reviewing this post, Kari wanted me to mention these additional similarities:

1 - A laid back personality
2 - A small beer gut
3 - An appreciation of "Party Time"
4 - Loving to eat! (see item #2)

Saving for college

I tried to start a 529 college savings account for LT right after he was born but he needed a social security number so I had to wait until that came in the mail.

Today though, thanks to generous gifts from Kari's parents and my grandmother, I officially started saving for Landon's education. At this rate maybe he'll be able to get an expensive but impractical degree from a small elite (er... ok... elitist) East coast school just like his dad. Or maybe not - I saw an article a while back that estimated the cost of a four year private education to be over $450,000 by the time LT is college age. The figure is absolutely mind numbing - I don't know how else to describe it. Who can afford that? Landon, can you say "scholarship"? OK, so he can't talk yet. I can *say* s-c-h-o-l-a-r-s-h-i-p but I had to use the spell checker to help me write it. Hopefully LT will be smarter than his dad. Or maybe he'll be a better athlete. Or both would be good.

$450K???? YIKES! And what if we have another kid someday? Do they have some sort of buy one get one free deal?

A Smile for Dad?

Maybe. Just maybe there's a smile there. Honestly it's a little hard to tell for sure. I imagine that lots of things will be like this - what's the difference between a intentional babble and an actual word? Or between a walk and a stumble? The distinction can be a fine one.

I include a shot of one of his regular faces for contrast. Also because it's cute.

Mead St.

After plugging My Brother's Bar a few days ago I feel compelled to give a little air time to Mead Street which is another of my favorite places and located right in our 'hood. They've got great food for a bar and, like Brother's, a small but excellent selection of beer on tap. Steve, Kari's brother, says they need a hoppy beer on tap but in my book any place that has Smithwicks , Newcastle & Guinness doesn't need to make any changes.

If I keep up like this, this blog might turn into a restaurant review site. Hrm... I wonder if I could make a living that way? At least maybe just get some good free stuff - hey, Mead St. where's the tee shirt for LT? He got one from Brother's...

Anyway, LT's grandparents (Kari's side) took us all to dinner at Mead St. last night. Grandpa Bill made sure that Landon was right next to him the whole time.

Little Swimmer

We went to Kari's parent's yesterday so we could use the pool. LT was going to to attempt his first swim and Kari got him all ready in a diaper wrapped in a special swimming diaper under his cute little swim trunks (quite an ordeal). But then Grandpa offered (insisted might be a better word) to watch him while we went to the pool and LT feel sound asleep anyway.

LT slept surprisingly well in the double diapers and a swim trunks - maybe we should put him in that for the nights...

Hangin' with Grandma

My mom was down in Denver yesterday and apparently she was a big help with LT and Kari got to have a little extra 'mama only time.'

It's really nice that we have family (both sets of grandparents) nearby and that they have been so helpful with the little guy.

"My Brother's Bar"

My Brother's Bar is allegedly the oldest bar in Denver. I don't know how true that is but I do know that it is one of the best bars in Denver. It has wonderful greasy cheeseburgers (although they are occasionally hit and miss on the quality) and a small but excellent selection of beer. My parents used to take me there when I was in high school. Kari and I went there often before we were married and still do. Kari didn't have too many preggo cravings but she did crave a Brother's cheeseburger many times and, as it turns out, so did Renee**. So we had quite a few preggo double dates at Brothers with Renee and Mike leading up to the arrival of the babies.

Now that the smoking ban is in place in Denver, Brother's is actually a pretty good place to have dinner and bring the baby in the bucket. That is what we did on Friday night and, given the extent of our patronage over the years, it only seems fitting that one of the staff (maybe even the brother himself????) gave us a tee-shirt for LT. Pretty cool if you ask me!

The shirt is a little big for him right now but I just had to put it on and take a few picts.

** For those that don't know - Kari and Renee used to work together. She and her husband Mike had their daughter, Sofi, in the same hospital on the same day that we had Landon. Sofi is on the left in the shot of the four babies in their buckets at the play date.

World (Google) Famous

If you do a Google search for "Landon Tanner Campbell", LT's birth announcement is the first result that comes up.

You must include the quotes in the search. Just a few days ago you didn't need them but apparently fame is fleeting. But it's still kind of cool, if you ask me.

Mom and Baby

Kari tells me she is really happy as a stay at home mom raising Landon.

Landon seems like he is a very happy baby.

As a new father, I'm not always sure what I'm doing or what my role is supposed to be. But if Kari is happy and Landon is happy, I can't be screwing up too much.

Part II of Play Date Part III

It just occurred to me that most of the babies on the play dates don't have a passport and haven't even applied for one yet.

I don't want to become a modern day McCarthy but as the saying goes, "just because you're paranoid it doesn't mean they're not out to get you."

Play Date Part III

Welcome to part three in our series on the play date in contemporary society.

As promised, dads were allowed to join in the ritual this time but only myself and Mia's father, Steve, had the courage to attend (fine, fine, so maybe it was business travel and golf that kept the other fathers away but lack of courage is much more dramatic sounding).

Unfortunately I have little to report as the event was much less scandalous that I had expected. True, there was some mommy style gossiping and there was some wine consumed. However, as you can see from the photos the babies are right in the mix and while too young to really *play* with one another yet, their every need was being attended to by their moms.

Now my suspicions have been raised. Could it be that this whole "dads too" play date was just an elaborate scheme to throw us off the scent and hide the real truth about play dates?

Stay tuned...

Not a Terrorist

Landon is 1 foot 9 inches tall. Well, that's what his passport application says anyway - we haven't actually measured him lately.

Landon is not a terrorist. Well, I guess we'll find out for sure in 12+ weeks when they finish processing the passport application but I'm pretty sure he's not. Although he did punch me in the face last night... but he doesn't hit very hard and I don't think he knew what he was doing. So damage wasn't done and there was no malicious intent.

I wish I had a copy of the actual passport photos to share but the post office snatched them with the application. One of the requirements for a passport photo is that the subject's eyes must be open. Seems reasonable until you think about it in the context of a four week old baby - sometimes they just don't want to wake up. Kari got the pictures taken at Walgreen's and she said that she had to keep dipping LT's foot into the drink cooler to get him to wake up. I'm almost sorry I wasn't there to witness it. Almost.

Dad, WTF?

Nearly all of the close up pictures of Landon have been taken without a flash - even inside. My trusty little (and now pretty old) Canon A510 provides a surprising number of manual controls for a "point and shoot" model. I set the film speed to 400 (although I must admit I am a bit perplexed by the concept of film speed in a digi) , open the aperture up as far as it'll go, and turn the flash off. I'm not going to quite my day job or anything but I do consider the results to be pretty good for a rank amateur with outdated low(er) end equipment.

Having said all that, I do occasionally forget to check my settings before I shoot - which was the case in this shot. In the image shown here, L.T. looks clearly perturbed by the huge flash right in his face.

Sorry buddy.

Another BBQ for LT

Bumbo chairs, solid foods and *almost* walking. Dinner with the Ward's and Faz's gave us a little peak into what our future has in store.

LT & J-Faz