Skimpy

Due to ongoing Christmas preparations which have already consumed over 20 waking hours of my time this weekend, (and which are still classified as semi-secret), I really have no time to write this week. I'll catch up next weekend though.

Here's a few pics to hold the junkies over.

And I hope everyone has a great Christmas. (I don't believe in the phrase M***y Christmas)


He's a truck man already.




And pretends to be bilingual.




He's got big ol' teeth...




but it doesn't help him keep the food in his mouth.

We live in Louisiana?

I apologize in advance for the complete lack of creativity in this blog.
I'm sick and waiting for my NyQuil to kick in. (original formula, the stuff you can make meth with)

From what my mom tells me, our home has turned into a battle zone during the day, as Riley and Gabe play "Bumper Walkers" and push each other around and into things.



Anna seems to be showing a inclination toward the automotive repair industry given that she was spotted this week crawling under Riley's walker. I would guess she was fixing damage from his most recent battle with Gabe.





In addition to fixing vehicles, she also like to pretend to drive them. But, like most women I see on the road, she spends most of her time in the mirror. (I keed, I keed)




Riley is steadily expanding his solid food diet, and, judging by his posture and expression, is getting quite cocky about his eating abilities.





He definitely shows better posture when he stands up every time we put him into bed now. But it's usually just a matter of going in and laying him back down two or three or seventeen times before he gets the hint and goes to sleep.


Speaking of solid food, he's eating his first meat this week, and in case you can't guess what it is, here's a visual clue.




Yup, he's eating pulled pork from our friends over at Johnson's Boucaniere. (the boudin shirt was just a red herring)

We ordered a four ounce cup of meat and are giving him a little everyday. He's really tearing it up too. We would both be crushed if he had poor taste in food, but he appears to be on the right track.


We spent about an hour there while he kept everyone laughing with his horribly goofy faces and sounds. He embodies the ultimate in cheesiness, especially with his top two teeth coming in.

Here he is showing his Poppy his mean face.




Which was quickly blasted away with a little tickling.




He repeatedly showed us his cheesy whale call face.





And then, in a moment of absolute awesomeness, he made one of the most horrific faces ever. Keep in mind, this is not a lucky snapshot. He made the face and held it. Such a Goober!




That seems to be about it for the week.
But it feels like I'm missing something.
What could it be?
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Oh yeah!

It snowed here.

That sentence is really hard to type without the expletives needed to reinforce the significance of the statement, but this is a family blog.

On Wednesday afternoon, the weatherfolks predicted light snow overnight, and we, of course, paid no attention.

Everyone was surprised though on Thursday morning when they woke up to find their streets looking like this.




Snow has fallen a few times in the last decade or so, but the last time that I remember any real snow on the ground was in the late 80's.

Judging by what was sitting on our fence, I'd say we got 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch.




My truck had a nice blanket over it.




The flakes were really big and showed up perfectly on Jimmy's coat.



We tried to get a good pic, but, between the lighting conditions at 6 am, and Riley's refusal to be still, this is the best we could do.




Baton Rouge got it even harder than we did. Check out Paul's blog, CookingDaddy.com (linked on the right) for a rundown of BR's climatological freak show.

The End

The Old and The New

Busy week, but I'll try not to waste many words.

When Joan's Mom babysat him last Sunday, she did something magic to his hair, as we discovered when he woke up on Monday.



Even after wetting and brushing, it stayed like that all day, and was still at peak spikiness when I got home to find him and Gabe attacking my mom.




Tuesday, we caught him on the monitor kneeling in his crib.
Just a day or two later, he had learned to pull himself up, and we caught him standing against the rail. He's also started crawling on all fours.

While we don't have any pics of either of those, I do have documentation that he has learned the lazy habit of pulling down his crib bumper instead of lifting his head, when he wants to see out of the bed.



He can stand up for as long as he wants, if he's holding on to something.
I've been trying to teach him how to fall, but look at the kid, even with a diaper on he's got no padding to fall back onto.




Thursday we got to visit our old law school bud Jennifer, her hubby Ryan, and their month old baby, Connor. He's bigger that Riley was, but we were both amazed at how light he felt. In eight months, we've forgotten how small a baby really can be.



As the veteran parents, (snicker, snicker) we entertained all of their questions. Jennifer, like Joan did eight months ago, asked important questions about caring for the child.
Ryan, like I did eight months ago, wanted to know when the kid would get to be fun to play with.
I guess it shows that the characteristic "Fun Dad" genes transcend even the differences between a large, LSU-football playing fireman, and a puny, LSU bashing lawyer.

Friday was not very eventful aside from a terrible meal and terrible service at O'Charleys. While there though, we did catch him sucking on the pacifier, something he hasn't done in months.




Saturday he cruised the aisles of Target, making all the chicks swoon, then had lunch at Johnson's, where he tried bread and a tiny bit of pulled pork. He'll be tearing it up in a few months.






Saturday evening was big because a couple of my cousins threw a surprise 75th birthday party for my Grandma. It was Hollywood themed and even had a Marilyn Monroe impersonator to sing Happy Birthday.






Riley got all dressed up in his preppy sweater vest (which, despite being cute, he is not allowed to wear after he reaches a year old)




He was behaved enough to sit for a picture with all of the other great-grandchildren. (ranging in age from 10 years to two months).




He also confirmed that he really is CAJUN Baby Wallace by putting a serious hurt on a bowl of gumbo.




We got to see some family that we hadn't see in a while, and found out that a cousin that has recently also joined the Cult of the Big Green Egg. A good time was had by all.




After he slept off all of the good times, he was ready for Lafayette's Christmas parade, which was, sadly, way worse than I remember it being in the past.

We went mostly to see the Lafayette High Band, which finished in 12th place at the Bands of America Grand Nationals. That is amazing considering how much more money some of the other bands have and how much more some of the other bands rehearse. 10 years ago we were happy just to be the best in the state, but now they've got national aspirations.




Riley enjoyed playing cowboy in his Poppy's hat and playing with his first cheap plastic beads.





Mostly though, he just sat in the back with his Mommy and Anthill and played one of his favorite games, "Try to Rip Out The Adult's Teeth."






His Uncle Eli had fun by standing in the background and being "That Guy" in the pics.



Switching gears, I know by watching the keyword searches that lead people to this site, that alot of people find it while searching for baby tummy issues.
If you've been lucky enough to figure out your baby's problem, but unlucky enough to find out that it was a dairy allergy, yet you plan to keep nursing, here's a couple of pointers rendered from Joan's research.

Vegan products like Smart Balance Light buttery spread, contain no dairy (regular Smart Balance contains whey, and some other varieties contain sodium caseinate, so be sure to look for the "100% Vegan" logo on the label). There is also a dairy free vegan parmesan cheese called "Parma!", available online. Joan says they aren't bad.

It hurts me deep down inside to allow Vegan products into my home, but I just cancel them out by eating some Johnson's beef jerky while wearing a wool sweater and sitting in a leather chair watching bull-riding on TV.

Also, because observers of Kosher diets can't mix meat and dairy , look for Kosher designations on products. Thing that are classified as "Parve" will not contain any dairy product.
Now you know, and knowing is half the battle.

Adios.

Short Week

Despite being an active week, I really can't think of much to write about.

Having a couple of days off gave me and my buddy a few chances to get out and about.

Thursday morning, we went for a long father-son walk and spent some time watching the cows along the Camellia extension. He brings his tunes along for the ride, so the cows got to hear some good music.






Friday morning we took a bike ride and had breakfast at Sonic. When pulling approximately 40lbs of baby/trailer/diaper bag, you can quickly find out how out of shape you are.






Thursday we made 3 stops at various family functions and he put on his best cuteness show, but needed to rest a little between performances.





not being one to settle for inactivity, he headed down to Erath on Friday where he got to pet a horse and hang out with his great-great-grandmother, who is over 98 years older than he is, and a gaggle of his 2nd cousins.






While we were there, I was almost killed by a snake.
It was, I would estimate, a 12 foot long cross between a black mamba and an anaconda.
It was either that or a two foot long garter snake. But, regardless of those piddly details, I almost set my hand down on it and I'm pretty sure it struck at me. Fortunately, my scream did not sound as girly to third parties as it did to me, but I was beyond paranoid for the rest of the day. Every leaf that blew into me felt like dive bombing pit vipers. I've moved on though, as you can tell.

Saturday evening, we ate with my parents where he was, of course, completely ignored.





Tonight, he was in for even more of a treat when Joan's mom babysat him. Since he was born, we've only made it to Blue Moon once, but tonight a guy that we would usually see at the Blue Moon, Scott H Biram, played an early show in Scott at Bourque's Social Club. We got to see a rockin' trucker-blues-country show from an internationally touring artist in a room not much bigger than a large living room,and we're still getting to bed before 10. It doesn't get much better than that.


And SHB is a great entertainer. Joan was laughing out loud at his witty banter.

Not sure if we've got anything good going on this week, but you'll find out in 7 days if you're nice enough to come back.

Disclaimer: To any of my co-workers who may be coming for the first time after having seen the link in the Winter Newsletter- if you're on a work connection, you're may not be getting the full effect. SF's intranet has recently, on a couple of occasions, blocked flickr.com which is where all of my pics are stored and linked from. Without the pics, this blog is pretty bad. But I promise that if you check it from any other connection, the pics of the cute kid make it all worth a click.