Posted on by John

This post will sound a little cheezy, sorry.

I’m so proud of Jack.

Our normal evening routine with Jack is to let him eat dinner, then to take a bath and then to wear his bath robe while sitting on the couch with Christine or I while he drinks his cup of milk before bed.

However, that routine changed this past Monday night.

On Monday night, after drinking his milk, Jack asked to take his robe off, so we let him run around naked. While he ran around naked, we kept asking him “Jack, do you need to go potty?” primarily because he’s gone potty on the floor once before, and we’re hoping that he’s learning when he “needs” to go…

To our surprise, on Monday night, he said “yes, potty.” So I picked him up, and walked into the bathroom and sat him on the big toilet.

He sat there, and bent over, and looked at his pee-pee, and you could just tell he was just waiting for pee to start coming out. So I told him to “push a little, Jack.”

He did, and a few minutes later, he was peeing. “Woohoo!” I yelled, as I gave Christine the play by play…

She was pretty proud. I was super extremely proud.

He was done… after one little squirt and about 2 seconds. So, we got up to go wash hands.

And as soon as I’d turned on the water, he needed to go again, so, I sat him back up on the seat. And, this time, he really went.

Man, I was proud. My kid knows how to pee in the potty. Granted he was sitting down, peeing like a girl, but it’s better than peeing in a diaper. Wow. My boy knows how to pee, on command, and I was there to teach him how to do it.

Isn’t being a dad great!

Then, today, Christine called me at work to tell me that Jack told her he needed to potty again today, but this time, instead of going pee-pee on the big toilet, he went poo on the little boy’s potty that we borrowed from Cyndi and Marc…

So there you have it, the latest news from the Engler house. We now know that 3 out of four family members peeing and pooing in the potty. Most of the time at least.

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Posted on by John

So let’s see. I’m in trouble. I’m in trouble because I’ve been very delinquent in updating this website. For that I apologize.

That said, here’s what’s been going on since the last post:

On Thursday, Jack got up, and it happened to be his birthday. He turned two years old, officially.

We took him outside in the backyard and took some photos of him in his dad’s maroon t-shirt again:


Two Years Old


One Year Old

He had fun taking those photos… he didn’t need help standing up this time either 😉

We opened a few gifts from the family on Thursday, just so we didn’t have that many gifts to open at his birthday party we were having on Saturday… can you tell he liked the fire truck:

More photos from the gift opening on Thursday.

That afternoon, around 4:00 or 4:30, friends starting arriving. We were hosting Christine’s family, and Mike Elmquist and Bob Beuerlein for Thanksgiving dinner this year. Mike was in town for Aggie Yell Practice that night, and was a buddy of mine in the Aggie Band years ago. Bob got back in the U.S. after a year in Iraq on Monday, 11/20, and wasn’t very far away (at Ft. Hood.) so we asked him to come join us too.

Christine has prepared most of the side dishes, and Mary and Frank had cooked the turkeys. Mike and Steven brought the desserts.

As soon as we had the table set, I had every one get together so we could take a group photo:

Dinner was amazing. Everyone had a turkey hangover and was in bed by 9 p.m.

On Thursday night, Bob, Mike and I went to Yell Practice on the south lawn of the State Capitol. And cool enough, right before Yell, we were drinking a beer in the bar in my office building, and we ran into Rev, the A&M Mascot, and we got to take a picture of Bob with Rev. Pretty cool:

On Friday morning, 12/24, Greg and I took Patrick and Jack to the t.u. vs. Aggies football game.

Whoop, the Ags beat last year’s National Champs 12 to 7. Greg and Patrick weren’t real happy about the outcome, but we all had a good time going to the game together. Actually, Jack sort of wussed out before the game started (he’s two, what do you expect) and Bob got to go instead of Jack, but again, we all had fun.

Here are some photos from Yell Practice wth Bob and from the game with Greg and Patrick.

A few more random shots:

I have photos from Jack’s Birthday Party on Saturday that I’ll get posted soon, and some movies from the past week or two too… not enough time in the day folks!

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Posted on by John

Last night, I asked Jack to say names of family members, and here’s what we got: Jack-says-Names.mp3.

If you listen to the mp3 file, listen to these names in this order:

  • Uncle Mike
  • Papa
  • Uncle Steven
  • Uncle Evan
  • Uncle Raymond
  • Momo
  • Nana
  • Debbie
  • Aunt Peggy (sounds more like P-Aggie)
  • Uncle Mike (we were in the hallway where there’s a photo of Mike and Steven, hence the repetition of these two names)
  • Uncle Steven (ditto)
  • Aunt Shadel
  • Ella
  • Cousin Ella
  • Grayson

Cute, huh?

Then tonight, while I was editing those names, Grayson started cooing to his mommy. It was pretty adorable, especially because we think his first “coo” was so lound and unexpected that it actually scared him into making the second “coo” sound.

BTW, if you want an MP3 of Jack saying your name, just leave a comment and Paypal me $3, and you can use that MP3 as a custom ringtone on your polyphonic phone. I always knew I wanted to be in the ringtone business….

update: 11/21/2006: I just listended to the MP3 this morning, and it’s funny to me how hard it is to understand Jack still, if you don’t know his language… To clarify: He says “uncle” as if he’s saying “Buncle”. He says “Peggy” and “Shadel” all wrong, but he’s definitely saying those two names. He says Evan, Mike, Steven, Raymond, Debbie, Momo, Nana, and Papa pretty well. We’ll keep trying… He’ll be able to talk by age 5, that’s the only promise I’m making at this point. Up next, colors and numbers.

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Posted on by John

This past weekend marked the last home game of Jack’s first Aggie Football season. And it was a good season… not because of what happened on the field, but because of the joy I experienced taking my son to football games… the same football games I used to go to as a kid with my friends and family.

I really enjoyed the games this year, because I got to spend a good amount of time with two men in my life that mean a lot to me: Bussy and Jack.

We really had a good time, and I’m looking forward to doing it all again next year if we can.

This past weekend, we also got to see Will Ketchen, one of my buddies that recently got out of the Army and is now attending MBA school. Jack enjoyed hanging out with Will:

Jack also enjoyed hanging out with Bussy. There are a few more photos of them enjoying the day in this photo gallery from this past weekend.

Gig ‘Em Aggies! (Yes, Jack knows how to say that and much more)

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Posted on by John

Halloween came and went this year, and it was Jack’s second halloween, and Grayson and Maly’s first.

They were all so cute.

Jack was a race car driver and Maly was a Purple Dinosaur:

Grayson was a baby frankenstein:

Maly and Grayson were really just along for the ride, but I think Jack sort of got what we were doing by the second or third house. Here’s a photo of Jack getting his first piece of candy on his own during Halloween:

The funny thing is that after getting a piece of candy from the neighbors, he actually went inside their house almost like he thought we were just going over for a visit. And since they don’t have kids, I think he figured out we weren’t there to visit when he realized they didn’t have any toys out 😉

Like I said, Jack really seemed to have fun:

And Josh, Elise, Christine and I also had fun taking the kids out for Halloween.

Here’s the rest of the photos from the night.

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Posted on by John

I went to New York City for a trade show this past week. It was a good show, but lots of work.

On Tuesday night, I took a few clients out to dinner, so that we could get to know each other. We went to the Rockefeller Center Cafe, which is down on the same level as famous ice skating rink down there.

As soon as we got into the restaurant and sat down, someone said “Hey, Britney’s out skating on the ice!”

And sure enough, right there, outside our window was Britney Spears, skating with her body guards, some guy (not her husband K-Fed), and a bunch of normal people just enjoying the evening.

So, one of my colleagues at the table went and snapped a few photos. Heh, she was acting like a teenage girl, actually, and went nuts that Britney was there.

She got up, went outside and took more photos.

I looked around to order some water, or a bottle of wine, and I realized that no one in the restaurant was eating or drinking. All of the waiters were standing and pointing and looking. It was pretty comical.

Here are the photos that we got of Britney. Some are good, some are dark, but they’re my proof that Britney Spears was 10 feet from me, ice skating…

Heh. Now I feel like a teenage girl for posting this story.

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Posted on by John

I took my laptop into the shop this week, and forgot to get all the photos I took between when Grayson was born and Monday off of it, so I haven’t posted a lot of photos from the hospital and the ride home, and the first week at home, so here are some photos from this past week:

  • Christine and Jack playing outside – These came out pretty good… Jack was crying because I took something away from him he should haven’t, so Christine got down and started playing with him. That tear wouldn’t drop off his cheek, but I thought it was cute.
  • Jack’s Train – look through the series… Jack loves his train, but you can see that it only takes him about 5 minutes of playing with it to want to tear the track apart, only to rebuild it. This kid’s going to go into demolition, I think.
  • Heidi and Phyllis come to visit – Our good friends Heidi and Phyllis, who I’ve worked with in at least two different companies, came to visit us this week on Thursday. Grayson got along well with both of them 😉
  • Kids Playing – Heidi’s kids, Norah and Mason, and Jack were playing in the neighbor’s front Yard. They played chase, with each falling on their own, and then the next one falling and finally the third, just to get up and do it all again!
  • Grayson and Wesley on the couch. We have some of Jack like this when Jack was tiny.
  • Jack, my little Cub – I bought this hat for Jack last summer when I worked for 24/7 Real Media and my boss, Robert Hess, took us all out to a Cubs game as a team building thing. Great game, and great hat… Jack can just now get away with wearing it. I think I’ll buy Jack a St. Louis Cardinals hat next time I go visit them.
  • Jack taking photos of his little brother. Jack shared his truck with Grayson, and then started taking photos. It was the cutest thing. If you look closely, you’ll notice that when Jack takes a photo of someone, he’s actually taking a photo of his nose (he holds the camera so that it faces him, not his subject, but we’re not picky around here 😉 ).

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Posted on by John

This week has been really great for Christine, Jack, Grayson and I. Especially for me.

I’ve gotten to bond with Grayson and Jack and I’m really thankful that I work for a company that’s supportive of family and understands how important family is to me.

Ok, that out of the way.

I thought you might want to hear how Jack says “baby brother” so here it is:

Click to download the MP3 of Jack saying “Baby Brother”.

Heh, who do you think he sounds like?

And since I had a few minutes, here’s a video of Jack and Grayson on the dining room table:

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Posted on by John

Last week was heaven. Thanks in large part to Nana and Papa.

Christine and Grayson came home from the hospital on Monday, October 16th around 3:00. Michael, Christine brother that flew in from New Orleans on Saturday after Grayson was born, drove our car up to the hospital for us, came up to the room and helped us pack ourselves out, and then drove the other car home.

Grayson was soooo small in the car seat, but he was too cute too. Christine sat in the back seat with him and sang to him as we drove the 10 or 12 blocks from the hospital to the house.

When we got home, Frank and Mary were there to greet us with Wesley and Patton.

Once we were home, we quickly settled into a routine. The routine with Grayson is a little different than it was with Jack. Mainly because we now get to play with Jack where we used to take naps 😉

Actually, Mary was a huge help with the baby the first week. Christine remarked on Sunday how she realized as Mary and Frank were leaving that she didn’t even really change a diaper for that first week. Mary pretty much took over taking care of Grayson and Jack while Christine healed, and I went to work for that first week.

Frank was in charge of helping out around the house with little handywork projects, and cooking. He also was in charge of helping me smoke the cigars we got to celebrate Grayson’s arrival.

Jack was in charge of being cute, and helping take care of his “baby brother”. He’s doing pretty good at it too.

Grayson was responsible for telling us when he was hungry, wet, poopy or tired. He was also respondible for sleeping as long as possible between being hungry, wet, poopy or tired. We gave him his first bath, and had his first doctor’s appointment.

I got to sleep a full night of sleep every night that first week, and Christine got plenty of sleep too. All thanks to Mary.

Then, on Sunday Mary and Frank went home to Dallas.

On Sunday night, Christine and I had to finally start learning how to be real parents to two kids at the same time.

Sunday night and Monday weren’t too bad. Christine and I took turns sleeping through the night, though, I think I got plenty of sleep. Christine woke me up at 8 or so, saying she’d been up since 5 a.m. So, I took Jack outside around 9 a.m. to play while Christine and Grayson slept.

At 10:00, Heidi, our neighbor, brought her twins Mason and Norah over to play in the sandbox. I realized I’d locked myself out of the house, so we all went over to their house to play. Jack had a blast playing with the kids, and we let Christine get some good rest.

Around noon, Christine and Grayson joined us all for lunch at Heidi’s (Heidi cooked us all some mean grilled cheese sandwiches and apple slices).

Then Jack took a nap. I took a phone call for work, and then took the MacBookPro into the Apple Store for repairs. When I got home, Jack was waking up, and we headed back out in the front yard to play. Norah and Mason joined us again, and the kids played chase in another neighbor’s front yard, until it was dinner time.

Marc and Rowan came over for dinner on Monday night, because Marc had to pick Cyndi and their baby daughter up at the airport. I cooked a hearty pot of Macaroni and Cheese and some hotdogs and broccoli. Ummmm… so healthy!

Last night, Jack went down a little late at 8:45 p.m. (he was a little wound up after playing with Rowan) and then Grayson woke up around 10:30 to eat. Then the poor guy ate a little, pooped a little, burped a little, and then did it all again… until 1:30 in the morning. I finally got him to sleep around 2:30 a.m. after walking around the house with him for an hour on my shoulder. Once I had him asleep I was worried that he’d wake up again if I put him in the basinet, so we fell asleep on the couch, and the whole house slept until 6 a.m. this morning.

Christine got up and took over for me for a couple of hours, and then I helped her get Jack out to door to school.

I’m going to take another nap now.

It’s funny… we’ve done this before, but now we’re learning how to do it again, differently.

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Posted on by John

On Saturday morning, at 5:57 a.m. Christine gave birth to our newest son:


Grayson Garman Engler

Grayson weighed 9 pounds at birth and was 21 inches long. He has a full head of dark hair and dark dark blue eyes.

Christine was awesome during the labor and delivery. She really did a great job, and I’m very proud of her.

We spent Saturday resting and visiting with family and friends, and Saturday night resting. We got upgraded to the suite at St. David’s. If you ever have a baby there, and get the chance to get into the suite… totally take advantage of it.

I got to sleep on a full sized pull-out couch, and we have plenty of room for visiting friends and family.

On Sunday, we rested more, and visited more family and friends…

Grayson is adorable (no, I’m not biased) and we all think that at first he didn’t look anything like Jack when Jack was born, but I’m starting to see resemblances as Grayson turns a day old, and now a day and a half.

He’s also got a very healthy appetite and is a much better eater than Jack was right at birth. Within 30 minutes of being born, the kid was already on mom’s breast trying to eat something. I think it too Jack a few hours to get around to trying to eat.


Thanks everyone for the well wishes. We’re all doing great.

More photos here.

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Posted on by John

So… Things haven’t changed all that much.

We’re still waiting on a baby at this point. But the location has changed. We’re at the hospital now and have been since midnight. (It’s 4 am as I type this)

Will post an update when we know something.

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Posted on by John

Christine, Jack and I took some family photos last night. You can see them here.

I had no idea how hard it is to take photos with a good camera on a timer. Ugh… we’ll have to practice that more.

The good thing was that Jack really enjoyed taking the photos.

We made it a game.

I had the camera on a tripod, and we (Jack and I) would get the camera ready to shoot, then we’d push the button, run to Christine, sit, and then all say “Cheeeeeese” until the flash went off… then run back to the back of the camera, look at the photo, move something here, tweak something there, then push the button again… and run back to Christine.

He thought it was hilarious, and was a great sport about the photos.

All said, we spent about 2 hours taking photos in the living room on Monday night.

(And yes, we’re still waiting on Jack’s little brother to come along.)

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Posted on by John

It’s Sunday night, and Christine and I are still waiting on a baby.

Jack’s little brother isn’t due until next Monday (10/16) but we were both pretty sure that he was going to make an appearance last weekend… nope, we’re still waiting. I think now that I’ve decided to stop traveling, the little guy has decided to hunker down for a few more weeks and stay cozy…

So, let’s see.

Since our last post, a lot has happened. A lot.

I flew to Santa Barabara, CA, again, for work. I was out there for three days. It wasn’t nearly as pretty this time due to the fact that there was a blazing fire a few miles east of us. The westerly winds kept us covered in soot for the entire three days I was out there. But it was good for business.

Then that weekend, it was Peggy’s birthday. She came to visit the lakehouse with Debbie and Raymond, and then stopped by the house to visit Jack on her way home. They had a blast playing in Jack’s room and reading books. Here are some photos from her trip up.

I went to New York City for two days for work. I attended some advertising conferences and trade shows, and spent some time in the New York office. Good trip, but sad too. While I was in New York, Christine called me to tell me Josh’s Dad was in the hospital and it didn’t look good. I spoke to Josh for maybe 5 minutes. We didn’t say many words to each other, but we communicated what needed to be said.

Then, when I got home from New York, I’d learned that David had passed away. Their loss is our loss. I can’t bring myself to write more about David passing right now… it’s still too painful for me. I still don’t know what to say about the event, because I want to say it all, but there are too many raw emotions behind my totally inadequate words. I attended the funeral that weekend. Alan Hillboldt and I drove down to Bellville together. Josh wrote about his loss here. David was a great man and we’ll miss him dearly.

This week was pretty mundane, but not. On Sunday night around 7 p.m., I came down with a fever… that lasted until Tuesday morning at 7 a.m. Ugh. I haven’t been laid up in bed sick like that for a long time. I still have a sore-throat. Christine thought she might be in early labor on two days this week. I took Jack to school and picked him up from school on Thursday, because we thought that might be the day. It was nice to see Jack’s teacher and the other parents, but it wasn’t the day. I did get a nice yellow parking ticket though for my troubles.

This weekend, we played with the neighbors a lot, and finished our power-nesting kick. The baby’s nursery is finally ready. The bedding is set, the walls are decorated with appropriate baby stuff. There’s a new shelf on the wall with stuffed animals. Christine has probably washed 50 loads of baby clothes in the past two weeks, and well, I sort of helped.

Like I said, we’re just waiting on a baby.

In the meantime, here are some photos from the past couple of weeks for you:

  • Jack and Wesley – playing in the backyard. Yes, I know the grass is very long. You should see it today!
  • Jack and Peggy – Playing and reading books.
  • NYC – a few photos from the drive to the airport… I really didn’t have time to go out taking photos like I wanted to.
  • Raymond, Debbie and the kids – from an evening out for dinner with the Munks.
  • Water in the Yard – Jack playing with the water hose in the front yard.
  • Fingerpainting – kind of says it all doesn’t it?
  • Nora and Mason – Nora and Mason came over this morning to play.
  • Walking Faces – Faces of Jack and one of him walking with his hands in his pockets (a recent discovery)
  • Neighbors – Jack, Dylan, Nora and Mason playing at Dylan’s house. Jack took a ride in the bike carrier with Dylan too, thanks to Herbert.

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Posted on by John

So, I’ve postd a video every day this week, and I figured I should treat you all to something really special today.

Here are five photo galleries I haven’t linked to yet:

  • Jack Playing – photos from this week, of Jack and his mom playing (they were “camping” in Jack’s room in a home-made fort, and then Jack was “taking photos” with his camera, and then playing with cars).
  • Furniture by Stan – Cyndi’s uncle refinished some antique furniture that my mom gave us a while ago. The furniture looks awesome now, and all the drawers work perfectly now mom! Now our guests (and the new baby) will have a place to put their clothes when they come visit.
  • Aggie Jack – the photos from our weekend Aggieland trip.
  • Jack by Erin – Erin took some photos of Jack with her mom, sister, Chrstine and I after church on 8/27. Too fun!
  • In the Sandbox – just some photos of Jack in the sandbox one afternoon.
  • Ben and Jack at Serranos – After church one day, we met Murphy and Amanda at Serranos by accident. We ate inside while Murphy and Amanda (and their guests) watched Jack and Ben, then we came outside and watched the boys while they ate. The boys had sooo much fun playing together.
  • Levy Party – Lori and Herbert threw a party for the kids one weekend afternoon. Lots of water splashing and playing outside.
  • Lakehouse Swimming – We went to visit Debbie and Raymond on August 19th, and I took these photos outside around the pool. Jack just loved swimming this summer!

And, here’s the double whammy… another video for today:

Have a good weekend folks! (We’ll be nesting!)

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Posted on by John

Jack and I play “Get You” at least once a week. Once day last month, I held the camera while chasing him. Gotta love it:

(No animals or children were seriously harmed in the filming of this movie.)

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