Posting...

Greetings and salutations. How are you? It's a shame that you can't answer, as this is a blog which means I am the only one who gets to say anything. Muah-ha-haaaa. So, sit back and read the stuff I typed while waiting for Starcraft to patch. I mean, which I needed to get onto the internet to share with you.

So, where to begin. I don't remember where I left off the previous post and I can't be bothered looking at the last post. So, here we go... I spent a couple weeks down in Bandera, TX working on my father-in-law's house. I wouldn't say that I'm not in shape enough to be a construction worker, but my blisters had blisters at the end of the first day. They were long weeks, but I did all sorts of fun stuff. Laid wood floors, marked the porch boundaries, built the frame, started learning electrical work. I am now more tan than I have been since childhood. Also, nah I'll save that for my next paragraph.

I'm getting fit! Yup, after becoming a smiley dough-ball, its time to go back to the slimmer more self-assured you, or erm, me. Yes, there were too many commas in that sentence. I have begun walking an hour a day, plus doing the routine body-weight exercises such as pull-ups, sit-ups, push-ups, etc. And I am feeling up(!). I am hungry about four times a day now, which indicates my metabolism is going back up. Yay! Also, my skin issues are receding beneath the UV blasting and better diet, combined with more exercise.


And finally, because I need three paragraphs between my intro and conclusion, I've picked up my Political Philosophy book and started reading again. The first time I read it, I had so much reading material I only read the minimum required to get me through with an A in the course. I don't remember if I got that A or not, but I read enough to have. But that's not the point. The point is, um, that I skipped stuff. Yeah that is what the point was. So I am now going back and reading that said stuff. This week, was the introduction section to the Greek philosophers section. Some dude took an entire lecture, and wrote "intro" on it and shoved it in. It is that immense, but it is also immensely interesting. For example, the agnosticism evident in the humanist Greek philosophers is not due to a believe in the perfection of man, but rather the imperfection. The reasoning is, since we can't see or reason perfectly wie can't reach a perfect conclusion or entity. Pretty interesting stuff. I may "unpack that" as the preachers say at a later date.


So, in conclusion, I am still alive, and hanging out in Hville. It is sometimes rainy, sometimes fun, sometimes zany, hanging out with my hun. Man that rhyme was forced. I almost feel bad enough to apologize and delete it. Almost. I do love bad jokes so. Anyhow, keep on keeping on, and tip your waiter!


~M

Another Post!

Hello Internetz!


My apologies for that awful slang term, but I had cheese for dinner, and "you are what you eat," as it were. Huh-huh. Oh I kill myself. Anyways, on to thoughts.

These people are amazing

A and I have begun watching Whedon's Dollhouse. So far, I have to say its pretty good. On one hand, its the same old brain-washed-people-do-stuff-at-behest-of-shadowy-organization-and-sometimes-it-involves-trysts shtick. I do believe I should get an award for longest hyphenated word of the week. But, there I go diverting again. The genius of the show is how Whedon articulates the idea. Its not HBO-level junk, he comes up with other stuff for the 'dolls' to do. Whether it be hostage negotiations, infiltrating cults, or being genius scientists, if something requires perfection in execution a 'doll' will be imprinted with the necessary skills and sent on the hunt. Its amazing, as usual Whedon balances a huge cast of characters while manipulating a large plot with many layers. I dig it. And the cast! Eliza shows up from Buffy, but blows her old cast-mates away with her acting, and there are plenty of Battlestar: Galactica references! I love it! A pair of the actors from BS:G showed up first episode, and a reference to Olmos being a fatherly ideal. Love it! Anywho, dig the show, if you're reading it you should try it. I love sci-fi, and sci-fantasy. Reality is so much less interesting, there is so much more room for philosophy and so forth in sci-fi.

My attention to charts as represented on a graph

As far as life as a stay-at-home Dad goes, this week was a challenge. It was the weirdest uphill battle i've ever faced. Last week, or week before, I think it was the week before, I mapped out what I needed to get done every week, and divided it by day. Also, I generated a running log of unique projects that needed to get accomplished. This way, i could get everything done and have a sense of progress. This week however, I got virtually nothing accomplished. As I would finish a day, without getting everything done, that nagging petulant voice in my head would point out it would have to be done tomorrow anyways, so why sweat it? As with most other challenges, I think the solution will be a strong bristly moustache and a British-approved stiff upper lip, and marching on anyways. Pip pip, all that. So, hopefully this next week will go better. My work reflects me, therefore it must be done well. No exceptions.

Google says this is what a road trip looks like. Who am I to argue? 

And... I got to go out of town last weekend! I'm sure A will cover that in her post, it was fun. There was laughter, snores. And R got to experience the beach. It amuses me that his first reaction upon hitting the beach front was to attempt to fill the ocean in. That child knows no obstacles. If we can harness that power for good, there will be great things ahead of him in life. If not, there will likely be a movie made about him... Hopefully things will work out for the former.

I'm pretty awesome with them

Other than that, life goes on. I've been playing Starcraft 2 a fair amount, and I must say that I should become a writer. The storyline is beyond weak, 13 years, a canned development team, and this is what I get? I feel like they should apologize. However, the mechanics are right on, even if it looks like Warcraft In Space. But, its fun. I play with some buddies that are spread all over the state, so its cool we get to still do stuff together, and share fun and stuff. A thinks its silly, but i've never pretended to be too serious. I think that's a drag.


Anyhow, I think that's enough writing for today. On a side note, I haven't stated anything political on Bookface, this blog, or my other blog, in ages. Either I have stopped caring, or I'm cynical. I'm not sure which yet.


Until next time,


See you later space cowboy,


~M


It's almost easy

ANOTHER DAY IN POTTY LAND: And Other Such Things

It is absolutely amazing how fast kids learn things, and also how quickly they can forget.

R picked up going number one on the potty super fast, but not so much with number two. Even though he knew he needed to go he could not get to the potty for number two. We would end up with a mess on the floor, and a freaked out toddler. Thankfully, the last week or so he's been getting it down.

This last weekend we went down to Portland, Texas for my cousin's wedding. We got all packed up to leave on Friday, and left without the potty. Uh oh. Robbie is still willing to be in diapers, though. We left Friday and drove 6 hours to the hotel. Saturday morning we woke up, and we all went to North Beach in Corpus Christi. It was R's first time to go to the beach, and he had an absolute blast!

                                                          R digging in the sand

R loved digging in the sand. He would get a scoop of sand, run over to the water, and dump it in. It was like he was trying to fill up the huge ocean. Unfortunately in his little mind he can't grasp just how large the ocean truly is.

This past weekend also fell on Father's Day. My dad and stepmom were gracious enough to let us share a room with them. It was so good to see them, and R absolutely ate up all of the attention they gave him. Robbie even told my dad to sssshhh when my dad was snoring. :)

                                            R and the parentals...I love this photo!

On Sunday we celebrated Father's Day for my dad and for M. While I was out shopping in Corpus I found a shirt for M that says, "Like a Boss," which if you watch SNL you know the song. He loved it! It also looks really good on him :)  We all went out to breakfast, and said our goodbyes. M and I decided to take our time driving back home so we took a detour through Aransas Pass to the ferry over to Port Aransas. We absolutely enjoyed talking to the R about the big boat we were on, and also about all of the animals we saw...mainly birds. Michael and I really enjoyed driving through Port Aransas. It truly is a seaside town where the tourists come in season, and the locals stay in off season. We took a little detour to one of the beaches and spent some time there.

Me & my Booboo!

Getting ready to jump in the water

I got some really good reading time in, and the boys had a blast running and splashing in the water. We all had so much fun, and are already talking about trying to make another trip down there when we can. Sorry it's taken me so long to update, but hopefully I can get back on track with posting!

Welcome to the Jungle!

Hello internetz!


M here, fresh from the front. As this is an equal-opportunity blog, I was given an equal opportunity to write stuff. And, to subject you to it! Muahahahaha! Ahem, anyways, I'm here to regale you with thoughts, anecdotes, witticisms, and maybe even a limerick or two. So anyways, on to the content, and away from the intro!

I've never seen this movie

Once upon a time, about a month ago, I became Mr. Mom. Given how much fun raising R is, we have decided to keep him out of daycare as long as possible. I want him to be big and strong and all that good stuff whenever hes forced to interact with other baby-arians. Its a forced corruption of barbarian, but its the best I got at the moment. Since I'll be starting the education merry-go-round in August, A and I decided she should be the working one, so she can get a performance evaluation or two under her belt before the school year begins. So, I took over the apartment, and she headed out into the private sector. It's been weird, but enjoyable. To help me keep a track of time, I've created a spreadsheet of tasks to be completed over the week. Also, I decided to retake my statistics class over the summer. I dug out my stats book, and will be going back through it over the summer. Wish me luck!

R doesn't like change

R is handling it better, now that a couple weeks have gone by. At first, he was all fun and games while it was just me here, and would become tempermental whenever A got home. He would ask about her while she was gone, and then wanted nothing to do with her whenever she got home. I think he may have taken it personally when we switched roles. Sadly, his grasp of english isn't quite good enough for me to explain the situation to him. But, now that he's accepted he can't play 24/7 when I'm home, and that A is still mommy, he's doing better. Yesterday and today, he's been his normal self, in spite of potty-training. More on that in... wait for it... the next paragraph.

This kid is doing it wrong. 

Potty-training is exhausting. I think its tougher on me then it is on him. There is nothing quite like standing over a two-year-old, trying to outwhit him and lug him over to the potty before he leaks all over the carpet. Now I'm getting ahead of myself. We decided to try the "Naked Weekend" potty training method. Basically, R wears no pants or diapers for a weekend. Friday, we stay inside and run him to the potty whenever he starts leaking. Saturday, we go out in the afternoon for an hour after a successful potty-tastical operation, and Sunday we go out in the morning as well as afternoon. I have never seen R melt down like when I wouldn't put a diaper on him. He was tripping, he cried, stood on his toes and tied his legs together in knots, and begged to be held at all times. It was afternoon before he was comfortable running around, and he wouldn't sit on anything but the toilet. I imagine the carpet affected his delicate sensibilities. By afternoon, he'd actually told me he needed "poddy," and hadn't had an accident in hours. Saturday, no accidents! He still gets pretty excited about diapers for naptime and nighttime. With that said, he wants out of the diaper as soon as he wakes up.


Anyhow, I've reached the end of the traditional format, intro paragraph-three main points-conclusion paragraph, so its about time to make like Eminem and rap it up. huh huh. Had to sneak that in there. If you've made it this far, I apologize for the awful puns and promise to behave better next time. Well, thanks for paying attention to my blogerization of life, and see you next time!


~ M
"...I'm a hungry man"

Potty Land: Day 1

Here we are waist deep into potty training. Surprisingly doing pretty well for the first day.

Had a few accidents, but for the majority of the day he went in his toilet.

So. Tired.

Adventures Into Potty Land

This weekend marks the beginning of our adventures in training our toddler to go on the potty.

Oh. Boy.

M and I are having mixed emotions about starting this little endeavor, but to tell you the truth R is ready to start. Here lately he has started hiding when he needs to go, which is one of the big signs. So, to get him really interested in going we have had his little potty sitting out. Every once in a while he will get really interested and want to sit on it. Then starts the whole process of talking about how he has to take his pants and diaper off to sit on the potty. When we talk about that he also wants to take off his shirt. Here's a little snippet of what our conversations tend to go:

"Okay, Boo Boo, it's time to go potty."
"Potty? Otay."
"Pull your pants down, take your diaper off, and sit down on the potty."
"Down. Shirt off?"
"No, keep your shirt on. It can stay on to potty."
"Shirt off. Off!"
"No, baby. Just keep your shirt on and potty"

5-10 seconds pass.

"Done!"
"Did you go teetee?"
"No."

Hopefully, we can get past all of this 'no' business, and get on with the actual learning to go in the potty. On Friday we will be going to get his big boy undies, his poo poo rewards, and sticker sheet to track his potty times.
 
   *Note to non-parents: If this grosses you out, I apologize. At some point in your life when you have a      toddler you will know the joys of potty training.

This weekend will probably dubbed "The Naked Weekend" for Robbie. He will be going diaper-less for three days so that we can get started on this. Wish us luck, keep us in your prayers this weekend, and if you have any recommendations please send them our way!

The First Few Weeks

So, we've been here almost a month, and I feel so awful that we really haven't updated anyone or anything on how the move went. From what we've seen of Huntsville we really like it. It is definitely a small town which has been great for our gas! One thing we really like about living here is that we actually have a reason to go outside. There are several parks that have some cute playgrounds. One has a pond for feeding ducks and watching turtles. Several days out of the week we go to the splash pad to let Robbie play in the water. Also, another nice thing about living here is that we are situated right next to the National Park. Last Saturday we all went hiking, and R did a 1/2 mile all by himself! It was beautiful and so nice to be close to nature.

It's funny and also spectacular to witness how much R has grown and changed since we've lived here. Everyday he learns something new! While we were hiking we showed Robbie the pine cones that were laying on the ground. We explained to/showed him that the pine cones grow on the big trees way up in the sky. Eventually, the pine cones fall to the ground. The whole hike he would pick up a pine cone, reach up to the sky, and then let it fall. Our other big thing we are about to start is potty training. *cue scary music* We have been constantly asking him if he wants to sit on the potty. Sometimes he does and others he doesn't. I think we are just about ready to really start on the actual training. It would be nice to get him trained before he starts school this fall.

Our little apartment complex is pretty cute and very quiet. We got a nice little 2 bedroom 2 bath that has a dining room and a fire place. It's definitely smaller than our last place, but it works for us! Today Michael unpacked the last box! Pictures to come soon!

So, for those of our friends who don't know why we moved to Huntsville I will give a little rundown. This fall M will be starting the graduate program in Clinical Psychology at Sam Houston State University. We are all so proud and extremely excited by this! So, to get us down here I needed to find a job. Well, within 2 weeks of coming down, looking, applying, and interviewing I had gotten a job! Three weeks later we found ourselves relocating to Huntsville and starting this new chapter of our lives.

I hope to stay posting regularly about our little adventures, and hopefully with the help of M I can! Look for more from me or from M.