The Boredom Continues

Another month has gone by and our little timesink is starting to getting his second tooth. Savor the news.

Boring Update

Yep, it's been almost a month since I updated this thing and I only find myself doing it because I have nothing else to do. I am trapped at work this weekend and I'm the only one here.

Our little timesink's first tooth has popped in along with the second cold of his life. I guess that's pretty momentus news. His mother and I only wish these two things wouldn't affect his sleep so much. He's been waking up about every two hours for the past two nights and has almost stopped taking naps during the day. No one is getting any real sleep for now and it's starting to make us very grumpy.

Sickness Sucks

There have been no updates in the last week because I've been flat on my back with a vicious cold that has now turned into a sinus infection. I don't get sick very often, but when I do, I make up for lost time. And of course, everybody in the house (including our little timesink) is sick but not as sick as me. I haven't had a cold this bad in a long time. It truly doth suck.

I went to see a rather ditzy doctor on Wednesday (because my usual doctor wasn't available) but she didn't think I had anything more than a cold. Two days later I'm blowing thick, chunky blood out of my nose. Thanks doc. I went to see my usual doctor and he immediately diagnoses my sinus infection and puts me on amoxycillin. Maybe I should go leave the first doctor a big flaming bag of poop on her door step.

Happy 4th

I picked up our little timesink from daycare about two hours ago just so I could play with him and maybe get him to take a long nap. So far it seems to be working. He's been asleep for about an hour and hopefully he'll sleep an hour longer. My plan is that if he takes a long nap then maybe he'll stay awake a little longer and therefore sleep longer over night. It's just a plan and probably a flawed one at that.

Car Work

As odd as it sounds, putting our little timesink into daycare this week has been very helpful (and completely saddening). I would have never been able to get the brakes replaced on my car and the oil changed in both our cars because we have no access to any babysitters right now. Also, our little timesink seems to love his time at the daycare and all the ladies there point out how happy he is. Now I just wish he would learn to sleep more.

Back Together

I picked up our little timesink about an hour ago and he was bright and happy as could be. All his "teachers" said he was a perfect little baby and didn't fuss all day. It also looks like he barely slept and had been awake almost 2.5 hours when I retrieved him from his baby prison. Naturally, he fell sound asleep on the short drive back to our house. I hope he will stay asleep for a few hours so he'll have a normal night. I would hate for a new sleep routine to come out of all this. Namely, one that keeps us both up all night.

But it sure does feel good having my little timesink back in arm's reach. I haven't felt whole all day.

Visiting Hour

Our little timesink looked very happy if a little sleepy when we visited him at his day care. We hope he will get a good long nap in today so he's not a little bear tonight.

I'm so bummed out I can't even play WoW. Sigh....

Sad Day for Mr. Mom

Our little timesink is now in the hands of some very nice strangers at his day care center. It didn't really hit me how much I was going to miss him until I came home from running errands and realized how quiet the house is. His little crib is empty and there are no happy shrieks or the sounds of him pounding on his toys telling me that everything about the world is fine. I miss him and his little bright smile.

This is for the best of the family, right?

No More Rally Baby

The UT onesie that my little timesink was wearing has been thoroughly poopified. UT will just have to win the College World Series on their own.

More Daycare

I visited our timesink's daycare today and got some slightly bad news; his teacher will be on vacation the first week that he will be attending so some "scrub" will be in charge. My wife was not amused.

Sleepy Head

Our little timesink woke up from his 45 minute nap to eat a 5 oz. bottle and then promptly went back to sleep. I did rock him for a little while since he was giving me the "slow blink" and heavy eyelid look. I think he might be storing up some energy to make my afternoon more "interesting."

Growth Spurt?

After being awake for only an hour my little timesink became quite cranky. I assumed he was sleepy but there were none of the usual signs. After trying all different manners of getting him to sleep, the magical swing finally did the trick. However, he only slept for barely an hour and then woke up screamingly hungry.

After feeding him I put him on his play mat and he was fine with it. So I came back to the office to check email (and got a bit wrapped up in it) when I noticed how quiet he had become. When I checked on him he was face down on his tummy and sound asleep with his thumb in his mouth. I checked the time and realized he had only been awake for 30 minutes. I wonder if he's going to be giving me lots of micro-naps to deal with today.

Sleep Fighter

Our little timesink hasn't put up that big of a struggle against taking a nap in a long time. Not even the magical, always-working swing worked this time. I had to resort to taking him outside and letting the breeze hit his face to calm him down. Of course, I normally do that but for some reason this time I forgot to do it before trying to put him to sleep. The lesson has been learned.

Prince of the Sleepers

Two and a half hours and counting. When our little timesink puts his mind to it, he can really sleep. Now if he would only consistently do this every night his daddy might be a little bit less grumpy in the morning.

Princely Slumber

Our little timesink must have been worn out from his first exposure to his day care because he's now been asleep for almost three hours. I hear some finger slurping so I know it won't be long before he's demanding his princely feast.

The day care was exactly as I expected: loud and a bit chaotic. At least it was clean and bright and the teachers were attentive to the rest of the kids. I think our timesink will be okay there but I'm still nervous about turning him over to a bunch of strangers.

On Our Way

The little timesink is finally awake and ready to go. I'll give a report on the day care as soon as I can.

My Mistake

I thought my little timesink was waking up but apparently he's decided to take a pass on today. I guess we'll head over to his day care whenever he decides to rise from his princely slumber.

Big Day

Our little timesink is just waking up from a short nap. Little does he know but he'll soon be whisked away to meet his new teachers at his day care. It saddens me to have to put the little tiger in the care of strangers but in these modern times, the mortgage comes first.

Nice Nap

Neither the cat nor my little timesink woke me up and I was able to sleep for almost two more hours this morning. My wife says I should learn to sleep like the dead like she does. If I did that, we'd have to rely on the cat to feed our little timesink and everybody knows cats can't chanage diapers or hold bottles. It's that whole lack of thumbs thing I think.

Sweet Fancy Moses

Dirty diapers are disgusting.

Mommy Dearest

Won't you please come home?

Sleep Plateau

The peak of one hour must have been an anomaly because it hasn't been matched since. We're back to 30-45 minutes if I'm lucky. Do they ever grow out of this?

And He's Up

At least in his longest nap of the day (one hour) I was able to accomplish my three goals for today: eat, bathe, and brush my teeth. Too bad it's only 12:45 because this daddy already wants a drink. So, when is mommy coming home?

My Mistake

Nope, that second nap lasted only 30 minutes. It's gonna be a long day for daddy.

Down Again

The first nap last barely 45 minutes so here's hoping my little timesink will sleep longer this time so his daddy can get a little rest too.

Tough Sleeper

After 45 minutes of angrily fighting sleep, my little timesink has decided to sleep for only an hour. Was it really worth all that struggle little man?

Still Sleeping

When our little timesink puts his mind to it, he can really sleep. His normal bedtime is around 8:30p but he decided to take a nap at 7:30 and wake up at 8:30 last night. When he finally went to sleep at 9:45 we were all relieved. I heard him stirring about an hour ago but then he went back to sleep. But now that he's coming up on 11 hours of sleep, I'm starting to wonder how insanely hungry he's going to be when he gets up. And his diaper; ugh, I don't want to know what condition it's in.

Behold the Garlic

The harvest was plentiful but the bulbs were a bit on the small side. I didn't count how many individual bulbs we pulled up but there were quite a few.

They completely filled up a paper bag if that counts for anything.

And the rest of the garden jungle continues unabated. Those are green beans in the front, tomatoes to the side and peppers in the back. We picked one "Early Girl" tomato yesterday.

And on the other side of the yard there are zucchini, yellow squash, cucumbers, okra, onions, and the dying snap peas. The cucumbers always wilt during the heat of the day.

Woke Up Happy

I think anyone would be happy after sleeping eight hours then waking up to eat and then going right back to sleep for another 3.5 hours. My little timesink knows how to store up on the sleep. I just hope this doesn't ruin the rest of his usual nap schedule.

Quickies

And my little timesink continues to give us his power nap experience. At least he had a solid two hour nap this morning. Otherwise, he would be one cranky little dynamo tonight.

Up And Atom

I guess I should get used to these little 45 minute power naps from my timesink but I won't be upset if he decides to start sleeping longer.

Wakefulness

The first nap lasted exactly three hours and that was followed by more than three hours of awake time. Since I just put my little timesink down again, I can only hope he stays asleep for at least two hours so he will be able to go to bed at his normal time. I think this dad is in for more fun with the boy in the coming month.

Sleeping Soundly

I guess all those waking hours this morning caught up to my little timesink since he's been asleep for 2.5 hours now. It would have shown intelligence on my part if I had taken a nap too but the siren call of my video games is too strong to resist.

Mixed Bag

Our little timesink went to bed as usual at 8:30 but then decided he needed a snack at 11:30. He's now decided that waking up at 3 am is a darn good time for everyone's day to start. He's playing with his little toys and squealing up a storm. I could use some sleep. I miss those seven to ten days when he slept for nine hours straight. Seems like it was just two months ago. Maybe it was; it's hard to count when you're this tired.

Weekend Update

Quite a bit was accomplished around the old homestead and this time it was mostly based around my other timesink, gardening. I did try something new: churning my own butter. Of course, I didn't spend a day sweating over a wooden tub full of cream. No, I let the old mixer do the work. One quart of cream churned for just a couple of minutes produced almost a pound of butter and a few cups of buttermilk (which makes some darn good pancakes). Trust me, I'll be doing it again. My wife thinks I'm turning seriously "crunchy." See the results below:

And on the gardening front, the first garlic was picked.

And not pictured are the four quarts of spicy dill pickles that we canned. Those should be great in about a month. So, I'll leave you with a random picture of my cucumber plants. They have grown considerably since this picture was taken.

Good Start

My little timesink played on the floor by himself for nearly 90 minutes before he started yelling for food. And now he's back in his bouncy chair playing some more. I hope he stays this happy for the rest of the day. Cross your fingers.

Wide Awake

Two and a half hours and counting. It's about to become a new record for our little timesink. Normally he will drop off for a quick 10 minute nap before he gets his second wind but apparently that's not happening this time. He's been in a very happy "go" mode this whole time. Perhaps he'll let me eat breakfast eventually.

Another Quiet Day

My little timesink has had another picture perfect day: eat, sleep, and poop on everything in sight.

What A Day

Yesterday turned out to be our little timesink's first experience with a fever and boy was he cranky. The little tiger was very unhappy all day long and when he wasn't crying was taking power naps. My mother, god bless her, had her hands full while I was out shopping. But hey, at least she got to hold him all day long.

Today seems to be going much better. He's very alert, smiling, and playful. I suppose the combination of vaccinations and teething are what set him off on the road to Crankyville.

Dad's Day Out

I might get to leave the house for a few hours today if my parents would ever show up to babysit for me. I suppose I should be happy that I can get them even once a week since so many people have no support at all except day care facilities.

Quiet Day

It's always nice when my little timesink has a good day. He hardly fussed when going down for a nap and he was always smiling while playing. Of course he ended it by getting another round of immunizations but I prefer to overlook that.

Good Monday

My little timesink is having a great day which means his daddy is too. He's played, eat, and done all his usual business and then fallen asleep with minimal fussiness. So far he's had one 2.5 hour nap and another two hour nap. Hopefully this means the happy times will continue.

A New Week

Monday got off to an early start but not as early as it could have. Our little timesink decided to sleep from 8:30p to about 4:30a. It didn't do me any good because I was awake at 1:30, 2:30, and 3:20a waiting for him to request his morning feeding. Hopefully he'll have a good day since he slept in.

Tired Screamer

Our little timesink has been up almost three hours and shows no signs of slowing down. Obviously he's tired because he's putting on quite a fussy show but he refuses to sleep. I think the last weapon I have, the stroller, is going to have to be used.

Milestone

Our little timesink rolled over. Well, he needed a little help because his arm was trapped under him but he essentially did it on his own. I guess I should start saving up for his first car now....

A New Day

The timesink is awake and playing. So, when does the crankiness fairy show up? Hopefully after nana and papaw arrive.

Anti-Sleep

Forty minutes of screaming followed by a 30 minute nap is how determined my little timesink is to not sleep. Naturally, no bottle was ready for him when he woke up and he is currently screaming his head off for something to eat.

Update: Still no DVR for daddy and the bottle just wasn't good enough for the timesink.

Play Play Play

I've learned that's the timesink's motto. I suppose that could be followed with eat, poop, and sleep but not necessarily in that order.

Our Worst Fears Realized

Worse than my little timesink being eaten by dingos. Worse than being eaten by fire ants. The DVR has died! All our shows and movies are gone. So many dead little bits and bytes. Sniff... I hardly got to know them.

Hell's Bells

I'm on the phone with AT&T Uverse support because the DVR has decided to stop responding. I need my TV!

Update: AT&T support has me doing a disaster recovery on the DVR which might mean we will lose all our recorded shows. However, this is the last ditch attempt to fix the box before they will replace it. If they do, we lose all our shows anyway. Grrr....

Got 'Er Done

I was finally able to finish mowing the backyard after nearly a week thanks to my little timesink taking a nice long nap. Now if only he had an on/off switch when I want to play some video games or get some extra sleep, that would be nice.

It's That Time Again

It's been feeding time at the zoo for the last hour and I can only wonder what the rest of the insomniacs and wild beasts are up to.

Short Nap

Apparently my little timesink thought 2:40 am would be the perfect time to wake up today. And it wasn't any little "wake up and eat" time either. No, he stayed up until 5:30 am. Once I got him back to sleep it was only a short three hour nap and he was right back up again. Sigh....

Early Riser

Early to bed and early to rise makes my little timesink hungry and playful. So, how long does this last? Anybody? Bueller?

New Record

My little timesink has decided that 15 minutes of sleep is perfectly acceptable as a nap. As his father, I completely disagree since that doesn't leave me any time to do anything. Perhaps I can slip a little vodka in his next bottle....

Get Some Sleep

These 35 minute power naps my little timesink takes are going to wear me out since I haven't figured out how to do anything one-handed while holding him. Aren't difficult situations called "enriching?" Phooey!

Action Kid

Apparently my little timesink has decided that action movies are for him. While I would have started him on something a little more visceral like "Terminator" or "Die Hard" he has chosen to fixate on "Speed."

Make Up Your Mind

My little timesink can't decide if he wants to sleep for 45 minutes or three hours until he's actually in the crib so today he settled for an hour and then went right back to running a marathon while lying on his back.

Gully Washer

We're still in a drought but you wouldn't know it from the constant down pours we keep receiving. At least my little timesink manages to sleep through it all. I don't know how I would be able to manage a howling infant while wondering if my roof is going to blow off or the pounding hail is pulverizing my garden (again).

Freedom

My parents came in to give me a little break and allow me to go shopping. I wanted to stop for a quick pint on the way home but I had a trunk full of raw meat and milk. Darn responsibility.

Made It

I have survived the first day of being Mr. Mom without setting fire to myself, the house, the cat, or my little timesink. Only eleven weeks and six days to go. Wish me luck.

Home Alone

The official Mr. Mom time has started. I have no female support. It's just me and the timesink now.

Free from Work

Today is the first official day of my leave of absence. It got off to a great start because my favorite timesink decided to sleep in and I was able to get some much needed video game playing done.

More Ruination

I really think Mother Nature is out to get my garden. Monday night the temperature got down to 32 degrees and that promptly killed half my tomato plants, all my cantaloupe, and finished off the "ichiban" variety of eggplants. Amazingly, all the tiny pea, squash, and okra sprouts were unharmed. I suppose that shows how sensitive to cold my warm weather tomatoes and cantaloupes really are.

My favorite little timesink Jacob continues to be unimpressed by his Dad's efforts at gardening.

Serious Amateur

I shudder to think what will happen if my gardening mania ever decides it wants to stop being a diversionary timesink and become a professional one. I think this guy has taken that step.

http://tinyfarmblog.com/

Potential Ruination

A large set of fast moving storms rolled through the area at around four AM. I could hear the driving wind and small hailstones beating against the bedroom window. Since it was dark when I left for work I have not been able to assess any damage on the garden. If there were any smashed plants it will have been almost a week since the last hail storm flattened them.

And to think I spent two hours yesterday re-planting my green beans and trying to modify the soil to make it more palatable to the beans. I "fluffed up" the soil with a bag of organic soil after I discovered several sprouted beans that looked like they were unable to push up through our heavy clay soil. Unfortunately, after the heavy rain last night I have no idea if my efforts were even worth it. I will cross my fingers.

My Black Thumb

Along with too much time spent digging up deeply rooted weeds, I managed to get two sets of onions in the ground yesterday (purple and yellow granex -- Vidalia variety). My green beans and okra continue to frustrate me. Why won't they sprout? Grr! I will have to solve that issue today by replanting all of them.

Darn Beans

I planted five short rows of green beans (bush variety) and a grand total of six beans have sprouted. I can only assume that either I planted them too deep (or they were smashed flat by the hail storm) or that I received a bad batch of beans but I'm almost certainly going to have to replant again.

So why won't mine do this:

http://www.burpee.com/product/id/100891.do?KickerID=100404&KICKER

Yesterday, Linda and I and our favorite timesink had some family portraits taken. It will be another two weeks before we get our copies so Linda have plenty of time to pick out the perfect frame.

Rain rain rain...

It keeps pouring down rain here. I think Mother Nature doesn't want the soil to dry out enough so I can re-plant all the tomatoes the hailstorm on Wednesday caused. Either that or she's just being capricious as usual.

Milestone

My favorite timesink slept for six hours straight last night! That's monumental with an eight-week old child. Perhaps he's turned a corner and his parents can finally start enjoying late mornings on weekends again.

I won't hold my breath.

Disciples Are Good

It's nice having a follower. Hi Linda.

In other news, it looks like Central Texas is getting some very much needed rain. I shouldn't have to spend much time on my garden this week beyond planting my onion sets. That will leave me plenty of time for my favorite timesink, Jacob.

Busy

We spent all of Saturday turning over the garden soil and yanking weeds. I've got a nice sunburn on my back to prove it. Hopefully all those little plants will be worth it.

Sunday we drove up to Temple to attend my niece's fourth birthday party (dinosaur themed). She's quite the energetic little girl who only knows two speeds: stop and go.

Put all that together with raising a two-month old and I'm ready for another weekend.

Thriving

Everybody at home is doing well after Jacob's first round of shots and I planted multiple rows of okra, peas, yellow straightneck squash, green squash (supposedly a small, more prolific variety of zucchini), and cucumbers. Today we'll be putting in some tomatoes, herbs, and green beans.

All my timesinks are finally starting to live up to their names. There's just not enough daylight to spend enough time with all of them.

Green Beer for All

Happy St. Patrick's day! Linda and I spent the afternoon at the pediatrician getting Jacob his two month check up and the first round of shots. My little Korean tiger has almost doubled his birth weight in two months. The doctor said babies don't normally do that until their fifth or sixth month.

I celebrated my little linebacker's accomplishment with many pints of Guinness and Harp's. All is right with the world now.

The Grind Continues

And another work week begins. This time it's only for a the incredibly long time of six days. If you count the half-day I'll work on Tuesday then I guess it's really only five and a half days. At least I'll have my two favorite timesinks to come home to every day.

Go With Throttle Up

Is there anything more inspiring than watching that little space plane riding a controlled explosion into space? Someday I'm going to watch a shuttle launch in person. I suppose I better get my act together since NASA will be shutting down the Shuttle program very soon.

Day After

Linda and I got to enjoy an entertaining evening at "Spamalot" in UT's Bass Concert hall last night. We enjoyed a light lunch before the matinee showing before fighting traffic on MoPac and paying an exorbitant ten dollars to park on campus. It might possibly have been last December since we had a date together so it was very much called for. A break from one timesink is always welcome.

Unfortunately I had to go and ruin our quiet evening together by spending today at work. Working on weekends and holidays should be outlawed.

Bonus

Central Texas (the Austin are specifically) is finally getting some much needed rain. We've been under an exceptional drought (I keep thinking we'll get upgraded to ludicrous drought some day) warning for so long that most yards and plants are just green memories. This burst of rain and colder weather can only help out my garden once I get around to planting it.

And my other little timesink, Jacob, has started sleeping for three hours at a time in just the last few days. Hooray for small miracles.

Arterial glue

Chili and cheese almost make up for all the lost time.

Productive day

I've been up since around 8:20 this morning and so far I've managed to play one hour of World of Warcraft, eat breakfast, and get a haircut. It is currently 4:20 in the afternoon. Baby-raising is a serious timesink.

Hello, world

Hopefully I'll find time away from my biggest timesinks of baby-raising and gardening to fill in some of the blanks for you.