Tiki Tacky

I continue my attempts to turn this blog into a restaurant review site. However, no one has paid me anything yet and I haven't even gotten any free food. Heck, I haven't even gotten any better service.

Fear not though - I will persevere.

We went with Sarah, Eric and little Joss to the Tiki Bar in Dillon over the weekend. The food is nothing special but OK for bar food. The beer I had was very good but served in a tiny little plastic disposable cup. The prices are high for what you get. The service was horrible at best. But the company was good and the view is spectacular. I suppose the later two items are really the only reason anyone goes there anyway and that seems to be good enough to pack the place (at least anytime I've gone).

Note the picture of Sarah and Joss to see an example of a highly skilled mother doing what she described as "multitasking."

The picture below must be some kind of optical illusion because Joss looks a lot smaller than LT. However, she is actually *huge* by comparison.

1st night(s)

LT slept in his room in his crib at night for the first time recently. Pictured here are Kari and Hailie settling in to sleep on the floor next to him. I'd like to make some joke about Kari overdoing the parenting but unfortunately I can't because it would be a bit hypocritical. You see, I also slept on the floor that night in that tinny space between Hailie and Kari. And it's not the first time I've don't something like this - the picture below was taken of me the first night we brought Hailie home as a puppy.


Some of the more astute readers out there might be wondering where Bowen was during the family sleepover in the nursery. Well, apparently he's the only one in the family with any real sense. He was sleeping peacefully by himself on the soft queen bed in the guest room.

The College Fund

I have no doubt that my parents fully intended to contribute to LT's college fund. But it wasn't until they read the post about setting up his 529 that they actually took some action. My dad called the day after that post to ask if it was OK to make the check out directly to Landon.

Behold the power of the internet. You put something online and the next day people are giving you money. I can sort of see why people went so crazy in the late 90's.

Maybe it's not too late to cash in on the internet bubble after all. You see some websites (charities, wikipedia, and things like that) that have PayPal donation links prominently displayed to make giving to the cause easy.



I'll have to look into this approach to fund LT's college (you blog readers are all generous and rich philanthropists right?). It sure seems a lot easier than *actually* budgeting and saving...

The Lump

LT has earned the nickname "the lump" from some of the other moms on the play dates.

That's him in the top left corner asleep while all the other babies are actively doing baby stuff. I guess the nickname is well deserved.

First Bike Ride!

Last weekend I put together the bike trailer (easy) and the infant adapter sling (not easy). So this weekend we were ready to test it out at Wash Park. We made it around four times with only one short stop for a little baby burp.

A nice gentlemen passed us at one point and noticed that Kari was pulling the trailer and asked, "how'd you let him [referring to me] get out of pulling that thing?" I'm going to guess that guy doesn't read this blog but just in case he does I've got a message for him - I've got a good thing going here so please please don't ruin it for me!

Kari keeps apologizing for the fact that our rides are slower and shorter than they used to be now the LT is here (and when she was pregnant). The truth is, however, that while I do enjoy riding I've never been much for long rides, or fast rides, or hard rides, or rides with big hills so slower and shorter is just fine by me.

Fast Food Nation

I almost forgot to post these scandalous pictures taken in the airport on our way home from our trip to California and Disneyland.

These are actual photos of Kari eating McDonald's. Notice how she tries to hide her face from the camera. For those that don't know - she never eats fast food. The only exception I can think of is the week long Taco Bell cravings she had during pregnancy but we can blame that on hormones.

In Kari's defense it was just breakfast (why do we think that breakfast is better than the other meals? I don't know but it seems a commonly held belief). And not too long after these pictures were taken she accidentally* dropped it on the floor and she did not invoke the five second rule.

* Was it really an accident? Or was it some kind of subconscious shame reflex? Only the Hamburglar knows for sure...

Happy Kid

t2c

"Toes to cheeks" is the name of the new game that Kari and Landon recently invented. They even let me play sometimes. The rules of the game are pretty simple - you take LT's little feet and touch his toes to his cheeks. Then he bursts out laughing with a huge smile on his face.

I'm glad he likes the game and it's a good thing he's so flexible. I think if I were to touch my toes to my cheeks, I'd probably end up in the hospital.

Correction: Who dressed who?

Our fact checking department (my wife) found an error in the Aug. 15th posting "Who dressed who?" Apparently the back story of the buttons was not from when Kari was teaching preschool but rather when Kari was in preschool. And she didn't observe kids wearing the buttons so much as she wore the button herself.

The author regrets any confusion or defamation of character the aforementioned error may have caused. However, due to budgetary constraints, no additional effort will be made in the future to prevent this sort of error from occurring.

My Brother

Any bar that sells Girl Scout Cookies nearly year round and gives babies t-shirts is alright in my book. The beer, fries and greasy cheeseburgers don't hurt either.

Zach and family joined us at Brother's Bar the other night and Landon wore his t-shirt for the first time in public (no, it's not the same as wearing the band's t-shirt to a concert - it's cool 'cause he's a baby!).

Zach even got a shirt of his own! Unfortunately it's about twelve sizes too big. Maybe it'll fit Albert...

Who dressed who?

When Kari taught preschool she said kids would occasionally wear buttons that say "I dressed myself today!" And the buttons were usually accompanied by a particularly interesting or creative outfit (to put it nicely). I don't think I can describe the purpose of the buttons any better than those directly responsible their marketing. I found this product description online:

“Allow your children to proudly proclaim, 'I dressed myself today!' (And reassure the world that you did not choose that outfit!)”

So imagine how proud I felt the other day when I picked out Landon's outfit for the day and got him all dressed myself only to have Kari see him and proclaim that we needed some buttons that said, "My dad dressed me today!"

I didn't think his outfit was *that* bad but no pictures were taken so as to ensure that no evidence exists (the one shown here is of him in his good "party" outfit).

Why we were in Cali

We went for a family reunion (Kari's dad's family for the most part) and it gave us a great opportunity to show off LT to everyone.


Mom and baby hanging out on the couch in our condo.

Landon and his cousin Nicholas.

Magic Kingdom

Two months old might be bit young to really appreciate all that Disneyland has to offer. Here's how we spent much of our time at "The Happiest Place on Earth." We were all happy and had a good time but I don't think it had much to do with all the rides and silly characters.

if a tree falls in a forest...

If a baby goes swimming but his dad isn't there to take pictures and the baby sleeps though it, did the baby really go swimming?

I'm going to skip the philosophizing and just say no. That way I can pretend that these pictures, taken at the world famous Disneyland hotel pool, are from LT's *first* time swimming (he did go a couple weeks ago but I wasn't there and Kari tells me he actually did sleep though the whole thing).

How far we've come already

Everyone always jokes about how the new baby doesn't come with an owner's manual. It's a funny joke but there's some truth to it - one of the most important things we'll ever do in life, raising a child, and we have to figure out how to do an awful lot of it on our own. I still feel like I have no idea what I'm doing and am just making most of it up as I go along. I don't expect that feeling to go away anytime soon (18+ years) and I have no doubt that it's a universal feeling among parents.

Occasionally, however, little things happen that allow us a moment to appreciate how much we have learned about parenting already. I had one of those moments while in California over the weekend, pictured below, when I got to watch Steve and Madeleine try and get Landon dressed.
I can dress a baby. I wouldn't have considered that a skill that you have to learn but it undoubtedly is. Watching Steve and Mad stumble and bumble their way though it for nearly 25 minutes proved that to me.

In their defense, they weren't going for a time record and there were no points for style. Steve's criteria for success was modest - that the baby got dressed and that the baby didn't cry.

Success!

First Flight

Here are a few photos from Landon's first airplane flight. I was terrified of being "that guy" on the plane with the crying baby the whole flight. I now have much more empathy for all the parents of crying babies I've been quietly mad at on flights in the past. But despite my fears, I wasn't "that guy" and Landon did very well on both flights - slept though most of it and only let out a few little sounds to let us know he was hungry.

Apparently this is the so called "honeymoon period" for traveling and I shouldn't be so surprised that he was easy. I guess around a year things get quite a bit more difficult. I can't wait...

We're back!

My apologies for the temporary shortage of new posts lately - we just got back from a family reunion (my baby's momma's side) in California. Sadly, being on the road has kept me from regaling the world* on a daily basis with my witty** and insightful*** tales of Landon's life and how they really are a microcosm**** of the greater struggles we all face in life*****.

And yes, I know that I could have posted from my cell phone while in CA but I have a hard enough time writing (and spelling) on a full keyboard let alone on a tinny little phone keypad. And I don't know the ttyl, imho, bff, l8r language that kids today are using.

Anyway, sorry for the recent outage. I'll try and make up for lost time soon.

* And by "regaling the world," what I really mean is "forcing my mindless ranting on my immediate family and a few random friends who are too polite to tell me to just shut up."

**/*** I hope those words make me sound smart. What makes me sound somewhat less smart is the fact that it took me several minutes to figure out how to spell "witty" (turns out there is no 'h') using all the tools modern technology can offer.

**** Another one of them "smart" words. Hooray for me!

***** Or maybe I just write dumb stories and put too many pictures of my baby on the web. It's more or less the same thing, right?

College Sunday

Steve and Madeleine (Kari's little brother and his wife) recently moved back to Denver from DC. Last Sunday we took LT to visit them in the house they are renting over on our side of town.

I had a strange feeling like I was back in college again. It was very humid for Denver and maybe that great feeling of sweating without doing anything reminded me of late summer in good ol' western Mass. The mid day visit to a house with boxes and furniture everywhere reminded me of those first few days back at college as well. And maybe the good old fashion elitist school pissing match I'd gotten into with Travis on Friday at work just put me in the college frame of mind*.

* For the record, Travis attended Columbia for his *second* bachelors degree and that's the school he was claiming in our lively discussion. Trying to compare a university to a small liberal arts college makes the argument about which school is better all the more fun but even more pointless. Before Columbia he went to LSU for his first bachelors and he also got a Law degree there. The details are a bit unclear but, knowing Travis, I can only assume he isn't practicing law because he got disbarred for some sort of unethical conduct.

Rubbin' Elbows

I almost feel like a member of the Denver elite this morning. Almost. On my way to work/workout I stopped by The Market for a little coffee (ok a lot of coffee) and I ran into the Perry Evans, the CEO of Local Matters and former founder of MapQuest. After that I went and worked out with Mayor John Hickenlooper. Well maybe I didn't work out *with* him but he was in the gym at the same time which is almost the same thing. Almost.

I didn't take any pictures for the blog because that might have exposed my true trailer trash roots. I'm actually one generation removed from being legitimate trailer trash (my dad was the real deal) but it's still in my blood. I wonder how many generations it takes to get the trash out of the blood line completely? Maybe Landon has a chance...

A picture of LT with the other side of the family shown here for good measure.