Some parents hang their kid’s first drawings on their fridge.

I’ve decided I’m going to hang Jack’s first picture here on my vitrual fridge:


Click for larger version

Yesterday, Jack and Christine brought me this first picture. Totally cool… and when we point to the elephant and ask him what sound an elephant makes he puts his arm in the air and goes “brrrrrrr” just like an elephant lifting his trunk and trumpeting.

Kids do the darndest things, don’t they?

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As I read Josh’s recent post about feeling his baby’s kicking for the first time it made me smile and think back to that same feeling I had back then. Congrats Josh.

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Today was an exciting day for Jack. I got up early with him, because Christine was up last night late due to a bad headache.

We got up and played, and read a bunch of books, after breakfast.

After Christine got up, I took a break on the couch, while she watched Jack and cooked him lunch. At some point, I heard a large crash … like a bottle breaking, and then Jack started wailing!

I ran into the kitchen, and Christine was picking up Jack. He was kicking violently and doing one of those silent screams that you know would just be louder than hell if any sound could come out of his mouth…

Turns out, he dropped a soy sauce bottle from the fridge on his big toe. The bottle didn’t break, but it hit him hard enough to break the skin on the tip of his toe and make him bleed a little.

So now, Jack got his first booboo that needed a band-aid.

Jack got to wear a super-manly Curious George band-aid all day:

So while he became a man with his busted lip in October, he’s now graduated into a new class of man-hood.

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Christine and I have really enjoyed the last two weekends at home. It’s been a big change from all of the traveling I did last year for work, and the last two months worth of traveling we did as a family during the holidays.

On the 7th, we took Jack and Wesley to Patterson Park, around the corner. It was a gorgeous clear but crisp cool day, and I was on a mission to take some photos. We did pretty good with the photos, and Jack and Wesley had a blast.

We let Wesley run loose without a leash, and he had a blast playing with the kids from the surrounding neighborhoods that were there with their parents:

We took this photo of Jack while he was climbing up one of the playscapes:

We think that photo is easily the best photo of Jack we’ve had since Marc took the black and white of him in the air almost a year ago.

We also got this photo of Jack swinging. I love the action in this shot:

See more photos of our day at Patterson Park here.

Then, just this past weekend, after playing with Jack and Patton inside (you have to admit Patton is a pretty kitty), I decided to rake the leaves off the front lawn finally. About half-way through putting the leaves into paper bags, Christine and Jack joined me, and Christine took over raking and bagging. So I took Jack, and ran inside to get the camera.

Jack and I had fun walking around the front yard, and in the little red wagon.

And we even got to see the day lillies that are coming up in our neighbors yard:

When the day was all said and done, I’d fertilized the front lawn, watered half of it, and Christine had finished raking 8 bags of leaves and putting them on the curb for pickup later this week:

See all the photos from Saturday the 14th, here.

If you can’t tell, I’m really enjoying this photography thing.

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Jack started walking in December, right after we went to Houston to hang out at the annual Teaff Christmas Party at Debbie and Raymond’s. Christine and I are convinced that he saw all of the other kids walking around, and he decided: “Screw this crawling business, if they’re walking, I’m gonna walk to!” Because on Monday after returning to Austin, he started walking:

Sorry that it’s 8 minutes long, I just couldn’t edit it down any more… enjoy!

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Got this as an email tonight, figured I’d post it here, so you all know where I’m from:

39. I’ll take Shakespeare for 1000, Alex.
38. Duct tape won’t fix that.
37. Lisa Marie was lucky to catch Michael.
36. Come to think of it, I’ll have a Heineken.
35. We don’t keep firearms in this house.
34. Has anybody seen the sideburns trimmer?
33. You can’t feed that to the dog.
32. I thought Graceland was tacky.
31. No kids in the back of the pickup, it’s just not safe.
30. Wrasslin’s fake.
29. Honey, did you mail that donation to Greenpeace ?
28. We’re vegetarians.
27. Do you think my gut is too big?
26. I’ll have grapefruit and grapes instead of biscuits and gravy.
25. Honey, we don’t need another dog.
24. Who’s Richard Petty?
23. Give me the small bag of pork rinds.
22. Too many deer heads detract from the decor.
21. Spittin is such a nasty habit.
20. I just couldn’t find a thing at Walmart today.
19. Trim the fat off that steak.
18. Cappuccino tastes better than espresso.
17. The tires on that truck are too big.
16. I’ll have the arugula and radicchio salad.
15. I’ve got it all on the C drive.
14. Unsweetened tea tastes better.
13. Would you like your salmon poached or broiled?
12. My fiance, Bobbie Jo, is registered at Tiffany’s.
11. I’ve got two cases of Zima for the Super Bowl.
10. Little Debbie snack cakes have too many fat grams.
09. Checkmate.
08. She’s too young to be wearing a bikini.
07. Does the salad bar have bean sprouts?
06. Hey, here’s an episode of “Hee Haw” that we haven’t seen.
05. I don’t have a favorite college team.
04. Be sure to bring my salad dressing on the side.
03. I believe you cooked those green beans too long.
02. Those shorts ought to be a little longer, Darla.
01. Nope, no more for me. I’m drivin tonight.

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Christine came and grabbed me out of the office at 5:00 today, and we headed to Central Park here in Austin (it was 79°) and we had a blast. Here are three choice photos from the day:

A Window on Jack:

Don’t mess with me:

Running down the hill (about to face plant):

See more from the evening here.

Now that Jack is really walking on his own (there’s a movie coming soon, I just haven’t had time to edit it) we figured the park would be lots of fun. And boy, was it!

After playing at the park for an hour and a half or so, we ate dinner at the Central Market Cafe. I had Rustic wood-fired pizza. Christine and Jack had fish, veggies and mashed potatoes. I got to watch the 3rd quarter of the Notre Dame vs. Ohio State game while sitting on the patio with my family.

What a great afternoon!

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Watch this video from Google Video:

redneck urfing

Totally reminds me of something my buddy Josh and I would have done back in highschool. And probably isn’t that different from some of the stuff Brad Patak did in highschool in Ennis to hear his buddies talk.

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