Week in Review 9-29-08

Time flies when you've got far more things to do than the time allotted.

Since last Sunday my arm has healed. This is good, since Parker has now injured Mindy's in the same manner.

At work, the man who fell from the building passed away on Tuesday night. He was pronounced brain-dead within two days of the fall. I found out today that he left a pregnant wife and two children. That has been stressful for all involved.

On a happy note, we went to Phoenix for the weekend. We met up with Mindy's parents, Greg & Tate, and her Uncle Mike and Aunts Jean & Jan. Lacey showed up for a day having enjoyed one of those EFY/Osmond/Hyperdork singing family concerts. I think I'd rather sit through a safety class.

We drove up Thursday morning. That afternoon we went to an art gallery where Jeff has a couple of pieces. We then went to the McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park in Scottsdale. Most of the old railroad cars were closed, but there was a model railroad (2-2.5 foot gauge) that we rode on. Cole loved it. When the ride was over he cried. There were a couple of neat playgrounds in this park as well. He had a great time and wore himself out. One of the slides was made of rollers. It was a vast improvement over the slow plastic injury-attorney slides that kids are subjected to these days. It also keeps anyone from climbing up the slide. Speaking of those lousy plastic slides, when did those become the norm? There are several major flaws in the whole plastic slide thing. First, the static charge that you subject your child to when you pick them up after going down one of the plastic slides is enough to leave small burn marks on their skin. Second, they have a top speed of 0.1 mph. Third, when your kid puts his shoe on the slide as he goes down it, the sole catches (I almost spelled catch with a 'k', that would have given Maryanne something to comment on) and flips the child's leg back. What kind of fun is that. I miss the good old days of the big slide and little slide at the park. It seemed like the big slide was 7' or more tall. I know for a fact that it was made of metal and that by the time you got to the bottom, you had to have a good exit strategy to not land on your rear end 2-3' from the end of the slide. Now it is a good run if you make it to the bottom and your toes hang off.

Enough of that. After the park we went back to the condo and went swimming. Cole enjoyed that. On Friday we went swimming and then went to the Phoenix Children's Museum. What a great place. They have an old school building which has been converted and added on to. It reminded me a lot of the old elementary school buildings in New York. Cole and Tate (our nephew) had a blast there. I had a really good time as well. There were a lot of fun things to do, and watching Cole is always a large part of the fun. After it closed we wandered for a bit trying to stay cool before going to the baseball game. There were fireworks afterward which didn't bother either of the boys. On Saturday I went on the tour of Chase field and Mindy hung out with her mom and sister. We went to the Saturday game as well. Cole didn't manage as well the second night. He dumped water all over himself and looked like he'd wet his pants, and he walked funny because it was icewater and his shorts were cold on his legs. Mindy tried taking him to the play area (yes, the stadium has a play area, it also has a retractable roof, AC, a pool behind the centerfield wall, a restaurant overlooking the field from way up high in left field, and a luxury box that is an extension of the dugout). The play area didn't work out, so when Mindy brought Cole back I took him and he ran two complete laps of the main concourse. I missed the D'backs comeback, but Cole needed the exercise. We drove home Saturday after the game. I was reminded to never exit the highway at Broadway in an unfamiliar place. At 8:30 on a Saturday night the area was absolutely deserted and the clerk at the gas station looked like he'd had a few encounters with Sherriff Joe Arpaio, and there was a guard standing inside the store as well. Getting back to Broadway; every place I've been where there was a road named 'Broadway' it was a place to avoid after dark, and maybe even during the day (San Diego, Tucson, and Phoenix are all the same-- Las Vegas only has the other street name that seems to follow this same rule 'MLK'). We fueled up and drove home, happy to leave Broadway and I-10 in Phoenix.

In other news, Parker has started to army crawl. Last night he crawled across the room to get to Cole's trains. Cole kept trying to move his trains away from Parker, but Parker would just move again and grab the train as Cole pulled it past him.

We've started asking Cole what sounds things make. He interprets Jack's meow as more of a lion's roar, and when asked what Mom says, his reply was "stop!"

The boys switched car seats last week. Cole is now in his 5-point booster and Parker is in the rear-facing configuration of the one Cole had been in. Both boys had outgrown their chairs. Parker's shoulders are so wide we almost had to push him into his seat, a far cry from the pile of blankets we had to push in around him to make him fit snugly when we first brought him home.

Well, I've bored you all enough. If you're lucky I'll get some pictures posted this week. As it is, in order to go to bed, I must fold laundry. And to think that we all wanted to be grown-ups.

Pictures to go with the last few posts

So the last few posts have been hastily typed without the most recent pictures downloaded from the camera. Here are some photos.


Parker in the laundry basket. His hair is finally beginning to grow and it is dark red and lays (corrected to 'lies' thanks to Maryanne's correction) flat against his head unlike his brother's which sticks out perpendicular to the scalp. Parker is also an emotional boy. He tends to be vocally happy or vocally upset. There really isn't a middle-ground. He is always excited to see me and loves to play with his brother's toys. Have I mentioned that he is a moose and is growing like mad? He tried to peel the skin off my bicep earlier today. I thought I was going to cry because it hurt so much and he wouldn't let go and I didn't want to pull on his arm because he's got a bear-trap grip and tends to only hold on tighter when pulled.



Cole loves playing with the trains. I build the track and then he plays with it for a couple of hours before we can't stand the noise of the electric motors in the trains and then we put them away. Parker loves to sit in the middle and watch.


These are some pictures of the boys eating the ice cream cones we got for Parker's six-month birthday. The mark next to Cole's left eye is from sneaking up behind the rocking whale at the playground and getting whacked by the whale.





At this point Parker's cone was gone and he was not pleased.

September 18, 2008

This is probably going to quite random.

We moved to the 3-br apartment last weekend. We started on Thurdsday night and were moved in sufficiently to sleep here Friday night and by Saturday night were pretty much done moving in and moving all our satuff over here. We walked what seemed like many miles and made endless trips up the stairs. The new place is nice and the views are even better than at the last one--those who have been here this may find this hard to believe, but it is true.

Parker went to the doctor last week to have his kidney looked at. He had an enlarged kidney in-utero, and it continues to be enlarged. They've ruled out the worst of the possibilities, and he is going in next week for an additional test. I got to watch Cole (at work with me) during that doctor trip and in the space of two hours he colored, drank syrup like it was water and took a swig of one of my co-worker's coffee when I had my back turned. One of the guys I work with said Cole came walking back into our office with a coffee cup in his hand, a mouthful of the stuff and a look of disgust on his face, after which he forced the gulp and downed the stuff.

We stood a building last week at work and this week started standing the precast parking deck. We get about 20 trucks a day with one or two pieces on each. It looks like Macy's is trying to open a Flying J in their parking lot. On a sad note, we had a concrete worker fall off the second floor of the building this morning as he was finishing up the slab that was poured last night. He landed on his head and is in rough shape.

I think I mentioned it in a post a few months ago, but we saw Roger Clyne & the Peacemakers in concert at the end of July. I found six of their CDs on Amazon for a total of $60 including shipping. I saw the previous incarnation of the band The Refreshments in '96, and got a couple of their CDs about seven years ago. It is good clean rock. We're really enjoying the CDs. They are an independent band and well worth the $10-25 per ticket that their shows typically cost. Check them out at http://www.azpeacemakers.com where you can listen to some of their songs.

Parker is rolling all over the place and hurting because his teeth are coming in. Cole has learned to say "No" and to open doors. That has been a lot of fun. He is also learning to say "daddy". This evening Mindy needed my help and called "Andrew" and Cole hollered "daddy". It was really cute. Every day when I get home from work and take off my helmet he wants to put it on. Today I got out my old one out so we each had one on--he thought that was great.

This week in Butlers

We haven't done anything really exciting in the last week. It looks like we'll be moving this weekend. I'm excited to get the boys in their own rooms, and Mindy is really looking forward to that. I'm excited to get it over with. Moving is a pain. The turn-over date continues to move. I'm beginning to wonder if Ledcor is responsible for this apartment getting prepared. They've painted and installed new carpet.

Cole has started a new routine. He wants to be read to for a few minutes and then go to his room. I then have to lay on the floor for a few minutes while he relaxes. Then I get up and leave. He sings and talks practices new sounds, and wiggles around. This continues for 20-30 minutes before he falls asleep. It is really cute.

Parker had an ice cream cone for his 6-month birthday. The next day he refused his formula. He now knows there is better stuff out there than his lousy formula. He has started eating a lot of the baby food. He really likes the bananas. He will eat an entire container of the stuff-- one is supposed to last for two meals. It helps him to sleep better at night.

We don't know what time he would wake up, because since he stopped waking up at 5am to eat and spending the rest of the night in our bed (by 5am I am up for the day), Cole has been climbing into the crib in the morning. They both think that is a great activity and laugh and giggle at one another.

We'll be adding photos of the ice cream eating and a few other things.

Parker is now rolling to wherever he wants to go. He'll roll all the way across the living room. He's really proud of himself. He still doesn't have any teeth, but he is spending a lot of time with his hand in his mouth.

I spent last Thursday and Friday (4th & 5th) in Las Vegas for meetings. They put us in the Green Valley Ranch. It was really nice. I walked over to the District and ate at a seafood restaurant for dinner. On the way back to my room I saw a sign for Blues every Thursday night in one of the bars in the casino. I wandered over to the place and watched John Lee Hooker Jr. for about a 1/2 hour. It was pretty cool. The trip was productive and it was good to get away from the mayhem of the jobsite.
I grabbed lunch in the airport on Friday thinking my flight was at 1:30. I headed for the gate at 12:50 and wondered why there was a big line of people waiting to get on the plane. It turned out my flight was at 1:10. I made the flight. I took a cab home from the airport. Thank goodness the company was paying that bill. It cost $83 to get home from the airport. I don't think I'll do that again. Cole and Parker were both really excited to see me. Mindy was mildly excited to have me home and Jack bit my leg.

It is raining right now. I love the rain here. It rarely rains during the day, so I can ride to work and be dry. When it rains, the lightening is great and it pours. By morning everything is dry and the air is clean.

New Posts

There are ten new posts below. Sorry it has been so long. Enjoy. We'll try to post more updates before Veteran's Day.

Tucson Children's Museum

I wrote about this in an earlier post. Here are some photos. There would have been a lot more, but the battery died. Watch Cole's facial expressions.

Brothers

Parker Eating

Parker has started eating solids. He really enjoys them. He has yet to learn to get his tongue out of the way, so the first step with each bite is to use the spoon as a tongue-depressor.

Random pictures of our boys

Parker in the Bumbo. What an incredible invention.

Sleeping boys

Enjoy.

August 7. Cole after a long day.

8-27-08 - One minute he was jumping and the next thing I knew he was out.

08-29-08 - I was home alone with the boys, feeding Cole his dinner and Parker fell asleep. He always wakes up when you move him, so I did what I had to. Cole was tied down in his chair so he wasn't going to knock the chair over. He slept like that for about 40 minutes.