tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20014476154432259612024-03-13T07:12:17.131-05:00Baby Wallace Blogbwallacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10526874860461455422noreply@blogger.comBlogger186125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2001447615443225961.post-85068593737038839232012-01-23T18:51:00.007-06:002012-01-23T20:39:21.221-06:00Number 2 Makes Number 1So, I did it. I managed to go six months without writing about our kids.<br />I blame them.<br />There's just not room in the schedule to sit down for 2 hours on a Sunday and write something worth reading. (especially when you did almost the same thing three years earlier while balancing only half of the responsibilities)<br /><br />I also blame Paul, because he always has his camera out when here, so we don't take as many pics, which were always my cheatsheet to blogging.<br /><br />So there it is. The fault for this blog lying dormant lies with everyone but me.<br /><br />But I'll make up for their negligence now, by giving you a rundown of where we stand.<br /><br />First off, as of about 12 hours ago (my time), Avery is officially one year old. Of course, plenty of things have happened in her life since my last post, but I'll, fittingly, procrastinate those to another day.<br /><br />This weekend, we had a little birthday party for her. I say little relative to Riley's first, which was a crawfish boil for 75 people. <br /><br />This was a much more manageable pizza for 30-something, but she liked the more intimate crowd.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/6752086477/" title="DSC_5866 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7001/6752086477_0cc1b7b281_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="DSC_5866" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />Since Joan has been bitten by the Pinterest and baking bugs, she made the cupcakes and cakes that looked pretty good. (Well, at least temporarily)<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/6752085649/" title="DSC_5821 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7002/6752085649_1acc4641a2_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="DSC_5821" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/6752087173/" title="DSC_5876 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7147/6752087173_4d84c498cb_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="DSC_5876" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/6752084823/" title="DSC_5804 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7009/6752084823_6aca912954_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="DSC_5804" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />But eventually, the time came for the goods to meet their demise. After Riley helped to blow out the candles, Avery suited up and gave it her best shot.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/6752091213/" title="DSC_5977 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7167/6752091213_4ed83121e3_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="DSC_5977" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/6752090419/" title="DSC_5963 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7014/6752090419_97e46a3444_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="DSC_5963" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/6752091901/" title="DSC_5987 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7145/6752091901_bddbf0cee4_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="DSC_5987" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/6752092799/" title="DSC_6021 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7024/6752092799_d6a92aec91_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="DSC_6021" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/6752093603/" title="DSC_6075 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7141/6752093603_4dca3ddc85_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="DSC_6075" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/6752094537/" title="DSC_6096 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7154/6752094537_4333edf218_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="DSC_6096" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />She actually destroyed most of one cake (notice "destroyed," not "ate")<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/6752095389/" title="DSC_6140 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7032/6752095389_b8a93f628a_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="DSC_6140" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/6752096249/" title="DSC_6152 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7158/6752096249_685e85511c_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="DSC_6152" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />Then a quick pose with her spoils before heading off for a quick bath.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/6752097031/" title="DSC_6187 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7169/6752097031_551948bd84_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="DSC_6187" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />While she did that, the bigger kids enjoyed the new (to us) trampoline<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/6752088261/" title="DSC_5926 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7147/6752088261_d251dc77f3_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="DSC_5926" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/6752089651/" title="DSC_5954 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7147/6752089651_e03af1b160_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="DSC_5954" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />and the biggest kids enjoyed one of their own, failing to master a kids' ride on toy.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/6752229079/" title="DSC_5952 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7030/6752229079_78b1026ecd_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="DSC_5952" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/6752230785/" title="DSC_5953 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7009/6752230785_d1987cd206_z.jpg" width="640" height="421" alt="DSC_5953" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/6752277219/" title="DSC_5953 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7023/6752277219_4fb52bbf0d_z.jpg" width="558" height="367" alt="DSC_5953" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />Then it was time to fill our house with more things we don't have room for. (We're not ungrateful, just full after a bountiful Christmas) <br /><br />But Avery will surely appreciate all of the thoughtful gifts. (or at least the chance to unwrap them.)<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/6752097959/" title="DSC_6190 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7002/6752097959_18bcc4ee6f_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="DSC_6190" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/6752098731/" title="DSC_6235 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7162/6752098731_e0fa11746d_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="DSC_6235" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />Of note, a couple of friends got her some baby Toms. I didn't know they made them, but they're pretty cool. And now some kid in a third world country will get a pair of shoes, that he'll hopefully put to better use than she will. (she refuses to walk.)<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/6752099507/" title="DSC_6245 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7031/6752099507_db86cee8d3_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="DSC_6245" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />and, to give her motivation to get her figure in check before the summer, she got her first two piece. (Cajuns colors of course)<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/6752100571/" title="DSC_6253 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7025/6752100571_a60ee74c3c_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="DSC_6253" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />To make up for our failure to adequately document both kids' aging, we headed out for studio photos on Sunday. While the process could have gone smoother with Avery, Riley was very cooperative and we got some good shots (mostly because there was no one scheduled immediately after us.)<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/6752080473/" title="HiRes_0888215500404 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7142/6752080473_42939d748f_z.jpg" width="480" height="640" alt="HiRes_0888215500404" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/6752079715/" title="HiRes_0888215500396 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7004/6752079715_954e60b97b_z.jpg" width="480" height="640" alt="HiRes_0888215500396" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/6752077633/" title="HiRes_0888215500289 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7029/6752077633_071007afef_z.jpg" width="480" height="640" alt="HiRes_0888215500289" /></a><br /><p><br /></p><p>eventually, she calmed down and her cuteness made brief appearances.<br /></p><p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/6752555731/" title="HiRes_0888215500487 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7164/6752555731_56f4fb6a52_z.jpg" width="480" height="640" alt="HiRes_0888215500487" /></a></p><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/6752082341/" title="HiRes_0888215500529 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7158/6752082341_f88469e773_z.jpg" width="480" height="640" alt="HiRes_0888215500529" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/6752076927/" title="HiRes_0888215500222 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7024/6752076927_0cf5c3ed52_z.jpg" width="480" height="640" alt="HiRes_0888215500222" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/6752075531/" title="HiRes_0888215500131 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7031/6752075531_87fd1681d2_z.jpg" width="480" height="640" alt="HiRes_0888215500131" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/6752074883/" title="HiRes_0888215500115 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7143/6752074883_831c8fa839_z.jpg" width="640" height="480" alt="HiRes_0888215500115" /></a><br /><br /><p><br /></p><p>She was especially happy when she got to team up with her big brother<br /></p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/6752078965/" title="HiRes_0888215500347 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7003/6752078965_40c09f2148_z.jpg" width="480" height="640" alt="HiRes_0888215500347" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/6752078301/" title="HiRes_0888215500321 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7029/6752078301_e055dc2910_z.jpg" width="480" height="640" alt="HiRes_0888215500321" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/6752074223/" title="HiRes_0888215500065 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7014/6752074223_aa28e8abcc_z.jpg" width="480" height="640" alt="HiRes_0888215500065" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/6752083127/" title="HiRes_0888215500560 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7173/6752083127_4b135ef599_z.jpg" width="640" height="480" alt="HiRes_0888215500560" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/6752083831/" title="HiRes_0888215500578 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7009/6752083831_f8065af041_z.jpg" width="480" height="640" alt="HiRes_0888215500578" /></a><br /><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>and The Original Cajun Baby Wallace came across looking way older than we see him.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/6752072391/" title="HiRes_0888215500016 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7015/6752072391_7e46f35bcc_z.jpg" width="480" height="640" alt="HiRes_0888215500016" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/6752072607/" title="HiRes_0888215500024 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7012/6752072607_3c88415ae3_z.jpg" width="480" height="640" alt="HiRes_0888215500024" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/6752555509/" title="HiRes_0888215500149 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7023/6752555509_65eedbbc80_z.jpg" width="480" height="640" alt="HiRes_0888215500149" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/6752073579/" title="HiRes_0888215500040 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7154/6752073579_7919482652_z.jpg" width="640" height="480" alt="HiRes_0888215500040" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/6752072939/" title="HiRes_0888215500032 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7028/6752072939_18704209b7_z.jpg" width="480" height="640" alt="HiRes_0888215500032" /></a>bwallacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10526874860461455422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2001447615443225961.post-66726744698093916252011-06-26T18:39:00.008-05:002011-06-30T18:53:37.721-05:00Almost halfBy now, you are all familiar with every aspect of Avery's life so there really isn't much to say.<br /><br />Wait.<br /><br />What's that?<br /><br />"Who is Avery?" you ask.<br /><br />Yeah, yeah, I know, I'm a bad blog parent and you, the loyal reader, barely know that we have two kids now, but that's going to change. (at least for today)<br /><br /><br />Avery is now five months old and really starting to come into her personality. <br /><br />She's laughing, smiling, trying to sit up, and attentively studying every detail of her brother's behavior. (who knows, maybe she can figure him out.)<br /><br /><br />She hasn't been too much trouble so far.<br />We were lucky that she didn't have the same milk protein intolerance that her brother had, but she did have some reflux problems that took a couple of months to get under control.<br /><br />Now, aside from being somewhat restless at night if she loses her pacifier, she's on a pretty good course.<br /><br />At her 4 month visit, she was at the 25% for height and weight and the 80% for head size.<br />Contrast that to Riley's usual 50% height and head and 5% weight.<br />Definitely children of differing proportions.<br /><br /><br />Despite being generally healthy, she did give us a good scare a couple of months ago.<br /><br />One morning she had a pretty high fever that came on pretty quickly.<br />Joan called the ped to see what she would recommend.<br />The answer, unfortunately, was a calm "get her to the ER asap."<br />Due to some test results around birth, she was potentially positive for a bacteria that can manifest itself as meningitis. So, the instruction to send her to the ER also came with the warning that they may want to spinal tap her and keep her for a few days.<br /><br />That was quite a jarring way to start a Saturday morning, but it ended up not being so bad.<br />The doctor found an ear infection and decided that a spinal tap wasn't warranted, though if this had happened just a few weeks earlier, it would have been the first test.<br /><br />The worst part of the whole trip was that she was given an antibiotic shot and then decided to hold her breath for a minute or so and turn blue.<br />She was quite the drama queen that day, but I'd rather her get it all out of her system now than save it for the teen years.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5686502205/" title="IMG_1949 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5267/5686502205_fbd44da7bc_z.jpg" alt="IMG_1949" width="480" height="640" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />She's developing on track and has recently perfected rolling front to back.<br />Unfortunately, she likes to do that all the time now, which leads to difficulties in trying to get photos of her.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5874449553/" title="DSC_4275 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3245/5874449553_e5f1d715b2_z.jpg" alt="DSC_4275" width="429" height="640" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5874450605/" title="DSC_4278 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5148/5874450605_83ecec2321_z.jpg" alt="DSC_4278" width="640" height="428" /></a><br /><br /><br />and , usually, at least one shot of her looking really disheveled and mad that I keep flipping her back over.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5875011528/" title="DSC_4279 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3096/5875011528_497825ae15_z.jpg" alt="DSC_4279" width="640" height="428" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />She has recently started solid food, and, around the same time, earned the nickname, "Piggy."<br /><br />It was a slow start, but she had a change of heart and now is quite interested in having the food shoveled into her mouth.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5849359809/" title="DSC_4055 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5073/5849359809_d82242a5b1_z.jpg" alt="DSC_4055" width="640" height="428" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5849379639/" title="DSC_4122 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5147/5849379639_6363ebf4bd_z.jpg" alt="DSC_4122" width="640" height="428" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />Within a week, she was grabbing at the spoon and trying to help/speed up the delivery.<br /><br /><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" width="640" height="360"> <param name="flashvars" value="intl_lang=en-us&photo_secret=302d3c8339&photo_id=5875452984&hd_default=false"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377"> <param name="bgcolor" value="#000000"> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377" bgcolor="#000000" allowfullscreen="true" flashvars="intl_lang=en-us&photo_secret=302d3c8339&photo_id=5875452984&hd_default=false" width="640" height="360"></embed></object><br /><br />While we have no visual evidence, just this week when Joan walked away, Avery grabbed a bowl, pulled it towards her, grabbed the spoon and put it in her mouth. At 5 months old.<br />Riley still doesn't do that. (eating is pretty low on his priority list)<br /><br /><br />We've even caught her trying to smuggle food to bed in her neck folds.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5874440289/" title="IMG_2143 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3019/5874440289_5b9b55cccc_z.jpg" alt="IMG_2143" width="640" height="480" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />She is a lot like her brother in many ways.<br /><br />She took pretty quickly to the Baby Bjorn and the "deathtrap" walker.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5687067180/" title="IMG_1897 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5285/5687067180_3b28c42dae_z.jpg" alt="IMG_1897" width="640" height="480" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5686512221/" title="DSC_3514 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5183/5686512221_04771f5b38_z.jpg" alt="DSC_3514" width="428" height="640" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5687100452/" title="DSC_3644 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5250/5687100452_5089903902_z.jpg" alt="DSC_3644" width="640" height="428" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />She's content to watch mommy get ready for work.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5849947870/" title="DSC_4171 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2722/5849947870_e3ac12d6c1_z.jpg" alt="DSC_4171" width="640" height="513" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />She loves destroying clothing, but is pretty good with sunglasses.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5686514425/" title="IMG_1988 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5028/5686514425_9a91e06e4c_z.jpg" alt="IMG_1988" width="640" height="480" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5686541739/" title="DSC_3676 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5222/5686541739_239a9c9df3_z.jpg" alt="DSC_3676" width="640" height="428" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5849380475/" title="IMG_2139 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5027/5849380475_b5d1565ebe_z.jpg" alt="IMG_2139" width="512" height="640" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />Aside from the appetite and size disparities (and junk), they differ in very few ways.<br /><br /><br />For one, she loves the sling that he wouldn't tolerate.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5687115618/" title="IMG_2009 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5026/5687115618_3f7b4d1cf4_z.jpg" alt="IMG_2009" width="512" height="640" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5687123210/" title="IMG_2050 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5146/5687123210_6a51ca8398_z.jpg" alt="IMG_2050" width="640" height="480" /></a><br /><br /><br />and, well...... that's all I have photo evidence of, and all I can think of, but I would assume they do have a few other differences.<br /><br /><br /><br />She does have quite a talent for making mean or at least strongly indifferent faces. (again something I'm hoping she gets out of her system.)<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5849394611/" title="DSC_4175 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2526/5849394611_f2447a67e5_z.jpg" alt="DSC_4175" width="458" height="640" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5687078270/" title="DSC_3507 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5025/5687078270_0b285dcca1_z.jpg" alt="DSC_3507" width="640" height="428" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />But she's just as likely to be making a goofy face when the shutter clicks.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5852177617/" title="DSC_4033 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2702/5852177617_c8293b85ee_z.jpg" alt="DSC_4033" width="458" height="640" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5875008388/" title="DSC_4274 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5069/5875008388_73870d99eb_z.jpg" alt="DSC_4274" width="640" height="428" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />All in all she's just a pretty little girl, and a pretty good kid.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5849922258/" title="DSC_4094 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5273/5849922258_98c5ac52be_z.jpg" alt="DSC_4094" width="428" height="640" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5849923426/" title="DSC_4101 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3082/5849923426_184cc6e344_z.jpg" alt="DSC_4101" width="640" height="428" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5875001370/" title="DSC_4207 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5309/5875001370_66a9e905ab_z.jpg" alt="DSC_4207" width="640" height="428" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5687081708/" title="DSC_3529 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5103/5687081708_f00b34267a_z.jpg" alt="DSC_3529" width="640" height="428" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5686529153/" title="DSC_3622 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5147/5686529153_00a37db16c_z.jpg" alt="DSC_3622" width="640" height="428" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5849352499/" title="DSC_4002 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3188/5849352499_ecb07c7fe1_z.jpg" alt="DSC_4002" width="640" height="428" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5874446419/" title="DSC_4265 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5234/5874446419_90abeb6d9b_z.jpg" alt="DSC_4265" width="640" height="428" /></a><br /><br /><br />I think we'll keep her.<br /><br />(especially if she keep up the habit of laughing when I do things like throw cold wipes on her bare stomach. dad-o-the-year)<br /><br /><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/xVKWaE-sIxY" allowfullscreen="" width="480" frameborder="0" height="390"></iframe>bwallacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10526874860461455422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2001447615443225961.post-63785421362922038622011-04-04T19:24:00.011-05:002011-04-06T12:57:16.793-05:00Cast BiosI've been so neglectful of this place that procrastination paralysis has set in. Too much unsaid to be able to get anything said.<br /><br />I already posted a little rundown of what we've been up to recently. Now this one is just about the kids. You know, our fashion accessories.<br /><br /><br />Riley is now three years old and is rapidly becoming a real kid.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5586265707/" title="DSC_3182 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5105/5586265707_b2bb02b17a_z.jpg" alt="DSC_3182" width="428" height="640" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5586860458/" title="DSC_3197 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5148/5586860458_ac899d2c83_z.jpg" alt="DSC_3197" width="428" height="640" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5586885670/" title="DSC_3362 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5132/5586885670_c056c63c62_z.jpg" alt="DSC_3362" width="428" height="640" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5586273729/" title="IMG_1865 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5054/5586273729_276effee5b_z.jpg" alt="IMG_1865" width="480" height="640" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Our new neighborhood is great for him being able to get out and run, explore the adjacent cane fields, and "fish for crawfish."<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5586850516/" title="IMG_1815 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5254/5586850516_31fc6fcc95_z.jpg" alt="IMG_1815" width="458" height="640" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />We still have to push food on him to keep him on the weight chart, but he's got great local tastes and can always be counted on to eat pulled pork from <a href="http://www.blogger.com/www.johnsonsboucaniere.com">Johnson's</a>, Meche's donut holes, or a bag of Crawtators.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5586886272/" title="IMG_1884 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5224/5586886272_87aba264a0_z.jpg" alt="IMG_1884" width="458" height="640" /></a><br /><br />Upon finishing that bag he told me, "Those chips feel like they have fire in them."<br /><br /><br />And he put a good dent in the minicake from Southside that he had for his Birthday Breakfast.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5586276317/" title="DSC_3222 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5178/5586276317_3e370213c6_z.jpg" alt="DSC_3222" width="640" height="458" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Much to our satisfaction, he seems to really like music.<br />In addition to having a toy trumpet, saxophone, 2 guitars, 3 harmonicas and plenty of drums, he's also gone to a few concerts at Lafayette High and seen the Symphonic Band and Percussion Ensemble (his favorite)<br /><br />He's been really good about sitting quietly and paying attention to the music, except at one point where he had to be taken out, crying, because he wanted to be the one playing the drums.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5586293617/" title="IMG_1886 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5095/5586293617_d35c4c9142_z.jpg" alt="IMG_1886" width="640" height="480" /></a><br />(and I count him pretending to conduct to be good behavior, though it would probably not be considered so for an adult.)<br /><br /><br />If you are looking for an activity that is good for the kiddos' brains and free, check out the calendar over at <a href="http://www.lhsband.net/">www.lhsband.net</a> (note: during marching season not everything is free, but most concert events are.)<br /><br />Mr. Walker's groups always have something good going.<br /><br />I'm sure other schools do stuff too, but that would be like a Blood telling you to go hang out with some Crips and you ain't gonna catch me slippin'.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />But wait, there's more. For the same low price, we'll double your order and bludgeon you with photos of not one, but two of our offspring.<br /><br /><br />Avery is almost three months old now. Joan has been back at work for two weeks and the baby's sleep schedule is kind of hit and miss.<br /><br />But she's starting to look more human-like and, as of this week, is smiling and attempting to use her voice.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5586858098/" title="DSC_3167 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5133/5586858098_f7d9b75bc9_z.jpg" alt="DSC_3167" width="640" height="428" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />Joan has had fun playing with Avery's hair and perfecting the "bowhawk" which capitalizes on her hair's natural tendency to 'hawk up. (which is different from hock up)<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5586853982/" title="DSC_3123 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5024/5586853982_d2fc360102_z.jpg" alt="DSC_3123" width="640" height="428" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5586261457/" title="DSC_3134 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5098/5586261457_b6c02f4a26_z.jpg" alt="DSC_3134" width="428" height="640" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />She was born with a lot of hair and, for a while, was shedding like a Husky in Ecuador in July.<br /><br />But she had enough to start with that she only ended up with a couple of thin spots.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5586240671/" title="IMG_1709 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5137/5586240671_ed677a4096_z.jpg" alt="IMG_1709" width="640" height="480" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />She's old enough now to allow us to go to gatherings with our friends, where Sarah and Traci compete to see who has the most "baby whispering" skills. They're both pretty good.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5586834796/" title="IMG_1711 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5221/5586834796_91ce48a996_z.jpg" alt="IMG_1711" width="457" height="640" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5586242073/" title="IMG_1712 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5070/5586242073_3fe820247e_z.jpg" alt="IMG_1712" width="480" height="640" /></a><br />and Traci better be, because I've heard tales of what her husband was like as a kid.<br /><br /><br /><br />Most shots we have of Avery come with a pacifier in her mouth.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5586273181/" title="IMG_1859 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5185/5586273181_cc5871a04d_z.jpg" alt="IMG_1859" width="480" height="640" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5586274659/" title="IMG_1870 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5292/5586274659_f8470d462e_z.jpg" alt="IMG_1870" width="640" height="480" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />but we have a few good ones without<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5586305531/" title="DSC_3431 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5265/5586305531_f9fc158533_z.jpg" alt="DSC_3431" width="640" height="428" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5586263311/" title="IMG_1839 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5259/5586263311_1245d7356d_z.jpg" alt="IMG_1839" width="480" height="640" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />and at least one that will be used as a screening tool for future potential boyfriends.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5586272413/" title="IMG_1852 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5171/5586272413_0a18b95095_z.jpg" alt="IMG_1852" width="640" height="480" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />Both kids get along pretty well for now.<br />We know it won't always be that way, but we'll take it as long as it lasts.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5586852792/" title="DSC_3117 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5256/5586852792_29fd2c7246_z.jpg" alt="DSC_3117" width="640" height="429" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5586845128/" title="DSC_3069 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5142/5586845128_af7b2d0066_z.jpg" alt="DSC_3069" width="640" height="428" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />and finally, we want to extend a special thanks to our old high school pal Christian, for Avery's custom bedroom art, inspired by a photo of her bedding.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5586833604/" title="DSC_3031 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5185/5586833604_72f5cd0aa0_z.jpg" alt="DSC_3031" width="640" height="428" /></a><br /><br />People with talent have always amazed me, and Christian definitely has some.bwallacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10526874860461455422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2001447615443225961.post-50463405735078676122011-04-03T20:19:00.011-05:002011-04-06T07:49:15.232-05:00The Goings OnFrom the start with Riley, we tried to integrate him into our normal lives instead of dropping everything just because we had a kid.<br /><br />I strongly feel that it is important for kids to get out and about regularly, even just for trips to the grocery store. I think this blog documents the fact that we were pretty successful in living that philosophy when Riley was new.<br /><br />While having two kids does seem like more than twice the work of having one kid, we've still been able to be fairly active and get Avery involved.<br /><br /><br />Despite some pretty good temperature swings, we actually attempted Mardi Gras 2011.<br /><br />I used to be one of those people who spoke of how Lafayette Mardi Gras is family friendly and better for families than NOLA and blah blah blah. I don't really believe that anymore.<br /><br />This year my eyes were more open than ever to just how much the trash, of all ages, crawls out of their festering septic tanks/gene pools and inflicts themselves on the world.<br /><br />Don't get me wrong, there are still plenty of family friendly spots, but the same can be said for NOLA.<br /><br />We have the great fortune of my having a colleague with a large yard, just steps off of the parade route, who loves to open his home to everyone he knows. Without that, Mardi Gras would not be part of our lives.<br /><br /><br />This year we tried the Monday night parade with the whole fam.<br /><br />Avery got all bundled up and behaved pretty well for a five week old.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5586243031/" title="DSC_3036 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5056/5586243031_daa1c28862_z.jpg" width="640" height="428" alt="DSC_3036"></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5586243543/" title="IMG_1719 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5257/5586243543_8669359f23_z.jpg" width="457" height="640" alt="IMG_1719"></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Riley stoically observed the parade, but enjoyed it nonetheless.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5586838278/" title="IMG_1725 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5222/5586838278_b3de2156d4_z.jpg" width="480" height="640" alt="IMG_1725"></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5586839694/" title="IMG_1733 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5092/5586839694_35a848b0bf_z.jpg" width="480" height="640" alt="IMG_1733"></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5586246919/" title="IMG_1748 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5150/5586246919_987a62b90d_z.jpg" width="640" height="480" alt="IMG_1748"></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Overall, it was a success.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5586843094/" title="IMG_1763 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5291/5586843094_acf57e6696_z.jpg" width="480" height="640" alt="IMG_1763"></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5586248829/" title="IMG_1762 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5308/5586248829_9eebc4c09d_z.jpg" width="458" height="640" alt="IMG_1762"></a><br /><br /><br /><br />Tuesday, the gals stayed home, and the day was pretty dreary. Riley got to play with a few colleagues' kids and grandkids, but we called it quits pretty early.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5586844100/" title="DSC_3061 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5027/5586844100_02f6a872d5_z.jpg" width="428" height="640" alt="DSC_3061"></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Just before Joan went back to work, Avery had her baptism/christening (I don't remember what they call it at a Methodist Church.)<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5586269481/" title="DSC_3210 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5149/5586269481_f4e6fa4697_z.jpg" width="640" height="428" alt="DSC_3210"></a><br /><br /><br /><br />Lesley (their godmother) was able to make it in, while Eli (their godfather) was stranded near the beach in St Augustine, Florida with his new wife. Poor Things. <br /><br />But Avery wore a little something to symbolize both. <br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5586271627/" title="DSC_3216 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5107/5586271627_9b520991ae_z.jpg" width="428" height="640" alt="DSC_3216"></a><br />(explanation: Lesley lives in NOLA, has season tix and went to the Super Bowl,and gave her these bloomers. Eli is a Saints fan as well.)<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5586864014/" title="DSC_3213 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5188/5586864014_69386e21f4_z.jpg" width="428" height="640" alt="DSC_3213"></a><br />(explanation: Eli's name starts with an E.)<br /> <br /><br />For a couple of years, we've been going to Covenant Methodist Church on Martial. I'm not really quite sure what Methodism actually is, but I know these people don't pester you and they don't seem kooky. That 'bout meets my criteria for a church. And they supposedly have a good preschool. We'll find out in August.<br /><br /><br /><br />Just this week, the original star of this show had his third birthday and accompanying tiny party. We figured that after his extravagant first birthday party <a href="http://cajunbabywallace.blogspot.com/2009/03/wow-its-big-and-fun.html">(The Cousins' Collective First Birthday Boil)</a> we'd take a few years off.<br /><br /><br />So this year he enjoyed the immediate family and couple of friends that stopped by, and everyone enjoyed the food from.........Can you guess?<br /><br />Yup, <a href="http://www.johnsonsboucaniere.com/">Johnson's Boucaniere.</a><br /><br /><br />The quality of the cake art was questionable, but you can't beat a double doozie cookie cake.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5586888340/" title="DSC_3371 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5052/5586888340_49ef3e0917_z.jpg" width="640" height="428" alt="DSC_3371"></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5586890174/" title="DSC_3384 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5299/5586890174_72694358cd_z.jpg" width="457" height="640" alt="DSC_3384"></a><br /><br />We figured it was so bad that Disney couldn't possibly assert any copyright claim.<br /><br /><br />and it's just going to end up a mess anyway.<br />Poor Buzz.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5586297537/" title="DSC_3390 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5134/5586297537_b934043534_z.jpg" width="458" height="640" alt="DSC_3390"></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5586298653/" title="DSC_3391 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5263/5586298653_15faa6699a_z.jpg" width="428" height="640" alt="DSC_3391"></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />In the lead up to the party, we had a treasure hunt in the backyard to indulge his current stage wherein the body we named Riley is often possessed by Captain Hook.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5586304567/" title="DSC_3428 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5022/5586304567_1038890383_z.jpg" width="428" height="640" alt="DSC_3428"></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Conveniently, when Captain Hook and Smee buried their treasure in the backyard, they marked it with an X made of discarded border stones. Such thoughtful pirates.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5586278421/" title="DSC_3239 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5180/5586278421_c63a668e72_z.jpg" width="640" height="428" alt="DSC_3239"></a><br /><br /><br /><br />He was probably a little too young to really get into the digging process.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5586280605/" title="DSC_3247 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5302/5586280605_2df83b1aae_z.jpg" width="640" height="428" alt="DSC_3247"></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5586875222/" title="DSC_3268 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5268/5586875222_b6f3b06fb9_z.jpg" width="640" height="428" alt="DSC_3268"></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5586876566/" title="DSC_3276 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5177/5586876566_4fe36e5586_z.jpg" width="640" height="428" alt="DSC_3276"></a><br /><br /><br /><br />But he got a little excited once he saw the chest.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5586879138/" title="DSC_3294 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5150/5586879138_2b0dbe917b_z.jpg" width="640" height="428" alt="DSC_3294"></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5586287015/" title="DSC_3299 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5267/5586287015_e28559af64_z.jpg" width="640" height="428" alt="DSC_3299"></a><br /><br /><br /><br />and was pumped once he was able to play with his plundered loot.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5586289003/" title="DSC_3310 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5187/5586289003_d2eafb6da0_z.jpg" width="428" height="640" alt="DSC_3310"></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5586883622/" title="DSC_3330 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5018/5586883622_c7d829173e_z.jpg" width="428" height="640" alt="DSC_3330"></a><br /><br />He surprised me by unpromptedly saying, "I wish Caroline was here to see my gold doubloons." I don't know if he wanted to share or gloat, but we can assume the best.<br /><br /><br />He's even been nice enough to share with his cousin Gavin.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5586884696/" title="DSC_3335 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5224/5586884696_0aafc43a20_z.jpg" width="640" height="428" alt="DSC_3335"></a><br /><br /><br />One reason for a small party is we're already so stocked that we don't have room to take on many more toys. But he did get a few fun things, like a tunnel that's great for hiding things like Dads.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5586895646/" title="DSC_3420 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5261/5586895646_74a8a7b289_z.jpg" width="458" height="640" alt="DSC_3420"></a><br /><br /><br /><br />and a tricycle for learning to pedal.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5586894434/" title="DSC_3411 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5142/5586894434_cd7f03a3b7_z.jpg" width="640" height="428" alt="DSC_3411"></a><br /><br /><br /><br />Learning to pedal will bring him one step closer to his ultimate goal of getting a "pedal bike." <br /><br />Last year we got him a running/scoot/balance bike and he's started to get really good at it. He can now go some pretty good distances and down small slopes with no feet. here's a couple of clips from the first day that he figured that out.<br /><br /><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="640" height="360" data="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000"> <param name="flashvars" value="intl_lang=en-us&photo_secret=efb8edab21&photo_id=5586202987&hd_default=false"></param> <param name="movie" value="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377"></param> <param name="bgcolor" value="#000000"></param> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377" bgcolor="#000000" allowfullscreen="true" flashvars="intl_lang=en-us&photo_secret=efb8edab21&photo_id=5586202987&hd_default=false" height="360" width="640"></embed></object><br /><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="640" height="360" data="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000"> <param name="flashvars" value="intl_lang=en-us&photo_secret=e5e8edb38d&photo_id=5586821906&hd_default=false"></param> <param name="movie" value="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377"></param> <param name="bgcolor" value="#000000"></param> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377" bgcolor="#000000" allowfullscreen="true" flashvars="intl_lang=en-us&photo_secret=e5e8edb38d&photo_id=5586821906&hd_default=false" height="360" width="640"></embed></object><br /><br /><br />I really recommend one of these to anyone who wants their kids to learn bike skills early. I totally buy into the idea of teaching balance before putting a kid on a "pedal bike," and I think because of it, I will feel more comfortable putting Riley on a "pedal bike" earlier.<br /><br />And I vouch for the <a href="http://www.stridersports.com/">Strider brand</a>. Good quality and a very good price compared to some of the other brands.<br /><br /><br /><br />Finally, in furthering our transition to textbook suburban family, Joan and I have each gotten new wheels in the last couple of months.<br /><br />In replacing her old highlander, Joan scored a new 2011 Toyota Sienna.<br />She had been enduring a spiritual struggle between acknowledging that a minivan is the most practical vehicle format for her, and the thought that minivans just don't look "cool." <br /><br />But she liked the Toyota redesign and eventually came to grips with being a 31 year old mother of two kids, married to me. (in other words, sapped of all coolness)<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5586306627/" title="DSC_3437 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5145/5586306627_a6f241ea65_z.jpg" width="640" height="428" alt="DSC_3437"></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5586307787/" title="DSC_3441 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5102/5586307787_7b769c79ca_z.jpg" width="640" height="428" alt="DSC_3441"></a><br /><br /><br />But who needs cool when you've got almost twice as many cup holders as you do seats?<br /><br />If you're in the Market for a toyota, I was happy with <a href="http://mussonpatouttoyota.com/Staff.aspx">Mark Smith at Musson Patout</a>.<br /><br />I shopped every dealership between Houston and NOLA and they had the best price with none of the typical car sales BS.<br /><br /><br />My new wheels were a little cheaper and came in a cardboard box. (a pretty big cardboard box)<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5586846782/" title="IMG_1812 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5302/5586846782_a870d3d662_z.jpg" width="640" height="480" alt="IMG_1812"></a><br /><br /><br /><br />Our yard is too big (for me) to push mow.<br />I mean, I've got short legs and three college degrees.<br />I need easy physical tasks.<br /><br />The yard also has lots of landscaping, making a traditional riding platform somewhat awkward to use.<br /><br />Solution-- Zero Turn Radius.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5586848194/" title="DSC_3073 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5172/5586848194_a9e8faae82_z.jpg" width="640" height="428" alt="DSC_3073"></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5586255473/" title="DSC_3091 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5022/5586255473_fde0b999fd_z.jpg" width="640" height="428" alt="DSC_3091"></a><br /><br />It's fun, and it takes me less than a half hour to mow, with very little effort exerted.<br /><br /><br />I'm down with the Dad Life<br /><br /><iframe title="YouTube video player" width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/DOKuSQIJlog?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br /><br />(though I'll never wear sandals)bwallacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10526874860461455422noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2001447615443225961.post-78772338587081594462011-03-01T12:51:00.019-06:002011-03-09T16:04:25.242-06:00No Coherent Theme<p>How many years of therapy do you think I'll have to pay for just because Riley got a weekly blog and Avery is getting much less? </p><p>I could try to make excuses, but I'm too lazy. (well, actually, that's one of them)</p><p><br /></p><p>But, for now, there is no sibling jealousy. Riley has taken a liking to his "little sister named Avery," as he tends to address and describe her.</p><p><a title="DSC_2772 by bwallace, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5487010763/"><img height="428" alt="DSC_2772" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4087/5487010763_1ccf531534_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></p><p><a title="IMG_1656 by bwallace, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5487616628/"><img height="480" alt="IMG_1656" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4147/5487616628_d0892fe4e4_z.jpg" width="640" /></p><p></a><a title="DSC_2988 by bwallace, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5494861587/"><img height="458" alt="DSC_2988" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5253/5494861587_58b035fcfb_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>The lack of blogging really is Mother Nature's fault, though. Riley was born deeper into Spring and we could get out and do a lot more. </p><p>Avery's first few weeks were freezing. She was mostly stuck inside, staring at a plain, white (popcorn-free) ceiling, getting dolled up or blowing out diapers. </p><p><a title="DSC_2831 by bwallace, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5487014195/"><img height="428" alt="DSC_2831" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5254/5487014195_f014c3338d_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></p><p><a title="DSC_2840 by bwallace, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5487014903/"><img height="428" alt="DSC_2840" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4087/5487014903_10ca50136c_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></p><p><a title="IMG_1663 by bwallace, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5487023249/"><img height="500" alt="IMG_1663" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4126/5487023249_e314340cb8.jpg" width="375" /></a></p><p><a title="IMG_1662 by bwallace, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5487022671/"><img height="480" alt="IMG_1662" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5136/5487022671_0ec6277413_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Riley coped with winter by doing normal, sane things, like sword fighting the TV.</p><p><a title="DSC_2892 by bwallace, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5487017341/"><img height="428" alt="DSC_2892" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4092/5487017341_9279a5ecd9_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>and turning his stuffed George into Cajuns football player.</p><p><a title="IMG_1664 by bwallace, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5487619062/"><img height="640" alt="IMG_1664" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5178/5487619062_be676c1a7d_z.jpg" width="480" /></a></p><p><br /></p><p>He also started to learn the responsibilities that come with living in a house with three very large oak trees. Responsibilities destined for a firstborn son. </p><p>Ok, I lie. Actually, he just stood in the back of the truck while I loaded 20+, 55 gallon bags of leaves to drive 50 feet to the front yard.</p><p><a title="IMG_1642 by bwallace, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5500247910/"><img height="640" alt="IMG_1642" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5259/5500247910_9bb049026c_z.jpg" width="512" /></a></p><p><br /></p><p>He did help a little with stick gathering and making a fire. Ya know, safety first.</p><p><a title="IMG_1646 by bwallace, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5487018871/"><img height="480" alt="IMG_1646" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5220/5487018871_8335e32e74_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>And he was also a pretty good helper when we used my Jeep to rip a few crappy trees and stumps out of the ground.</p><p><a title="IMG_1699 by bwallace, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5500276972/"><img height="480" alt="IMG_1699" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5298/5500276972_f205de318f_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></p><p><a title="IMG_1703 by bwallace, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5500277810/"><img height="640" alt="IMG_1703" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5256/5500277810_f16a90bcb2_z.jpg" width="480" /></a></p><p><a title="IMG_1704 by bwallace, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5499682015/"><img height="480" alt="IMG_1704" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5218/5499682015_137094d1f6_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>But, meteorologically, things have started to change.</p><p>Avery and Joan have had a few visitors, as it seems that many people we went to high school with have bred in the last year.</p><p><br /></p><p>First, she met up with two month old buds Austen (son of Beth and Jude) and Ryler (son of Laci and Chris, and star of <a href="http://laciandchrisonthego.blogspot.com/">Laci and Chris on the Go</a> )</p><p><a title="DSC_2871 by bwallace, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5487016535/"><img height="428" alt="DSC_2871" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4116/5487016535_1d0ee5ddfc_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></p><p>Their conversations were riveting.<br /></p><p><br /></p><p>A couple of weeks later she met up with four month old Maggie (daughter of Katie and Mike and star of <a href="http://youresmelcome.blogspot.com/">A Baby is Brewing</a>)</p><p><a title="DSC_2929 by bwallace, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5487622912/"><img height="428" alt="DSC_2929" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5100/5487622912_698aef81a3_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></p><p>I think they plotted on how to find out all of the bad things, if any, Katie and I may have participated in when we shared an apartment in college. They're hoping to have a stack of Get Out of Jail Free cards for their teenage years.</p><p><br /></p><p>As for outdoors, the new neighborhood is all dead ends, and very low traffic, so we get to go for lots of walks, weather permitting. These are great lessons for Riley who learned how hard it is to ride a bike with a sword and a hook hand. </p><p><a title="IMG_1652 by bwallace, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5487020839/"><img height="480" alt="IMG_1652" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4122/5487020839_f97edfa9f9_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br /></p><p><a title="IMG_1649 by bwallace, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5499555935/"><img height="640" alt="IMG_1649" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5297/5499555935_a0d2111dab_z.jpg" width="457" /></a></p><p><br /></p><p>Since she hasn't learned to talk yet, Avery has had no choice but to be dragged along for the things the rest of us like to do.</p><p><br /></p><p>She made a trip to the Baton Rouge Zoo.</p><p><a title="IMG_1682 by bwallace, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5487026173/"><img height="458" alt="IMG_1682" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5293/5487026173_007d4c2006_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></p><p><a title="IMG_1685 by bwallace, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5487621676/"><img height="500" alt="IMG_1685" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5019/5487621676_a3e35c6c70.jpg" width="375" /></a></p><p><a title="IMG_1679 by bwallace, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5487620774/"><img height="640" alt="IMG_1679" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5095/5487620774_6337d132ea_z.jpg" width="480" /></a></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>And combined her first Jeep ride and first trip to Johnson's into one giant ball of overstimulation.</p><p><a title="IMG_1665 by bwallace, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5487024341/"><img height="480" alt="IMG_1665" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4074/5487024341_39e678c45c_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></p><p><a title="IMG_1668 by bwallace, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5487024731/"><img height="640" alt="IMG_1668" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4074/5487024731_c3268163ff_z.jpg" width="480" /></a></p><p><br /></p><p>But she missed out on a Lake Martin hike with Granny and Caroline and Paul.</p><p><a title="DSC_2956 by bwallace, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5487030575/"><img height="428" alt="DSC_2956" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5138/5487030575_89b869e48a_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></p><p>(yes, the person pushing the double stroller through the grass is the same person who just had a broken ankle and broken elbow surgery, but she didn't complain. Oh, yeah, y'all don't know that story yet, 'cause I still owe a Disney World post.)</p><p><br /></p><p>Unfortunately, it was still cool enough that the gators weren't active and we didn't see any until we spotted a tiny one just as we were walking through the gate to leave.</p><p><a title="DSC_2986 by bwallace, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5487629870/"><img height="335" alt="DSC_2986" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4138/5487629870_671aab3b0a.jpg" width="500" /></a></p><p><br /></p><p>That made Riley's shirt even more appropriate.</p><p><a title="DSC_2984 by bwallace, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5487628990/"><img height="428" alt="DSC_2984" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5254/5487628990_05238155ba_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></p><p><a title="DSC_2965 by bwallace, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5487031281/"><img height="640" alt="DSC_2965" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5139/5487031281_3b4d61dedb_z.jpg" width="428" /></a></p><p><br /></p><p>No pics of this, but, along the way, Riley got to pee outdoors for the first time. He immediately exclaimed, "It's just like watering flowers!" He was a natural. </p><p></p><br /><br /><br />With this temporary winter temporarily respite, our Big Green Egg has been getting a multi-tasked work out.<br /><br /><br />First, it's been cooking lots of chicken.<br />Since Avery started to show signs of stomach trouble similar to what Riley had, Joan immediately cut out dairy and other common intolerance inducing food, again. Combine that with some Zantac, and things on the infant digestive front have calmed down considerably.<br /><br /><br />But the Egg was also charged with the more pleasant task of backyard marshmallow roasting.<br /><br /><br /><br /><a title="DSC_2994 by bwallace, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5487632678/"><img height="334" alt="DSC_2994" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4124/5487632678_d8cb40578d.jpg" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><a title="DSC_3002 by bwallace, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5489128321/"><img height="500" alt="DSC_3002" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5056/5489128321_461e6fd08a.jpg" width="357" /></a><br /><br /><a title="DSC_3008 by bwallace, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5487039001/"><img height="334" alt="DSC_3008" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4098/5487039001_958a2a56ca.jpg" width="500" /></a><br /><p><br /></p><p>and to wrap things up, here's a couple of kooky kid examples.</p><p><br /></p><p>First, Riley has taken to calling anything he does an "exercise."</p><p>His most recent "exercise" is to stand on the rail of his bed and the arm rest of the adjacent chair, usually nude or in his underwear, post bath. At one point he dubbed it the Captain Hook Pirate Exercise Trick.</p><p><a title="DSC_2905 by bwallace, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5487617426/"><img height="428" alt="DSC_2905" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5251/5487617426_96caea8d06_z.jpg" width="640" /></a></p><p>and I promise you, the only part of that I am responsible for is that he has any clothes on at all.</p><p><br /></p><p>Not being happy with just balancing precariously a few feet off the ground, he then added the element of stomping his foot while singing "Step In Time." Behold Mary Poppins meets Cirque. (if you've got 90 seconds to spare)</p><p><br /></p><p><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" height="360" width="640" data="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000"><br /> <embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377" bgcolor="#000000" allowfullscreen="true" flashvars="intl_lang=en-us&photo_secret=62fe510efe&photo_id=5487605476&hd_default=false" height="360" width="640"></embed></object></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>I also made the (possible) mistake of letting him watch the You Tube video of Three Little Pigs by Green Jelly. Now he wants to watch it, or at least hear the song on my phone, all of the time.</p><p>He doesn't know all of the words, but he's getting a feel for the intro, and the overall vibe.</p><p><br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CYwNWHZuT0">for reference here's the original</a> (sorry, they disabled embed. Warning- claymation violence and the word a$$ uttered once.)<br /><br /><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="640" height="360" data="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000"> <param name="flashvars" value="intl_lang=en-us&photo_secret=1c2e9045eb&photo_id=5500411246&hd_default=false"></param> <param name="movie" value="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377"></param> <param name="bgcolor" value="#000000"></param> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377" bgcolor="#000000" allowfullscreen="true" flashvars="intl_lang=en-us&photo_secret=1c2e9045eb&photo_id=5500411246&hd_default=false" height="360" width="640"></embed></object><br /><br /></p><p>That's it for this week. I would promise to post more regularly, but I don't make promises I can't keep (unless I think I'm going to get something in return)</p><p><br /></p><p>But stay tuned anyway. Please?</p><p><br /></p>bwallacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10526874860461455422noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2001447615443225961.post-75936282201065362302011-01-30T18:23:00.009-06:002011-01-30T20:48:36.313-06:00One Down<p>Last week you saw photos of a baby all covered in biological gunk. A baby we were surprised to see so soon.</p><p>This week you'll see a baby not covered in biological gunk and a baby we aren't surprised to see.</p><p>This will be a long one with lots of pictures (thats what she said?)</p><p><br /></p><p><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>Part I-- The Incarceration</strong></span></p><p>Before we brought Avery to the nursery we brought Riley in for our first family time. Pics of this meeting are sparse because she was also having her first meal, and this just isn't that kind of website (unless you sign up for the $29 monthly membership)</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5402208259/" title="IMG_1542 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5017/5402208259_218af19d53.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="IMG_1542" /></a></p><p><br /></p><p>Then, as per protocol, we abandoned her in the nursery to be the subject of secret government experiment and to receive her security tag capable of putting the whole hospital on lockdown if you get too close to a stairwell or door. </p><p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5402809808/" title="IMG_1555 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5140/5402809808_85132af40e.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="IMG_1555" /></a></p><p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5402209343/" title="IMG_1554 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5136/5402209343_859eb8cf39.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="IMG_1554" /></a></p><p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5402810328/" title="IMG_1558 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5099/5402810328_660157435d.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="IMG_1558" /></a></p><p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5402208785/" title="IMG_1543 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5098/5402208785_90da60419c.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="IMG_1543" /></a></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Riley's first act as a big brother was to fuss at the nurses through the window for hurting his little sister. He was legitimately upset, which answers a burning question we had, yes he is human or at least capable of having human emotions.</p><p><br /></p><p>In addition to having a mass of dark hair, Avery was also a few rhinestones and some yellow polish away from being a star cashier at WalMart. Her mommy fixed that real quick like.</p><p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5402211171/" title="IMG_1559 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5017/5402211171_a248068d40.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="IMG_1559" /></a></p><p><br /></p><p>and then they both got some sleep, which seems to be what WalMart cashiers are doing when we are forced to go there.</p><p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5402811636/" title="IMG_1561 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5218/5402811636_a502fb62f5.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="IMG_1561" /></a></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>with her newly shorn fingernails she confirmed that she is Riley's sister and went straight for the thumb. </p><p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5402812390/" title="IMG_1573 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5012/5402812390_f471137159.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="IMG_1573" /></a></p><p><br /></p><p>The rest of the stay was pretty uneventful. All of the nursery nurses and a few of the floor nurses were really good.</p><p>Surprisingly, there were only a couple of employees whose personalities and idiocy made me want to rip their heads off (and one of them was a supervisor). </p><p>After a couple of days cooped up in that small, drab room, we were paroled and made our way home.</p><p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5402813768/" title="DSC_2638 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5180/5402813768_90cb0b1d18.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="DSC_2638" /></a></p><p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5402814496/" title="DSC_2642 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5173/5402814496_b4832bd2aa.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="DSC_2642" /></a></p><p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5402215675/" title="DSC_2657 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5213/5402215675_ba9f9039ca.jpg" width="334" height="500" alt="DSC_2657" /></a></p><p><br /></p><p>But while we were there, Riley had his own doctor's visit, just to be safe. Our pediatrician, who we really like, told us that in the last month she had put 5 infants in the ICU with RSV that they got from older siblings. That's more kids than she had put into ICU in her 5 years of practice. You could see in her face that it was something that bothered her.</p><p><br /></p><p>Because Riley had been snotty for a few days, she urged us to get him tested. Fortunately, he passed, and she was visibly relieved. She is either a great actor (doubtful) or she really cares about her patients (probable) and she definitely won us over even more just by showing that she cares.</p><p>That visit then led to a week of me having to play "Dr. Hubal" [sic] and let Riley listen to my "heartbeep" and check my eyes for eyelashes.</p><p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5402812922/" title="2011-01-24_10-04-07_840 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5092/5402812922_eecb241611.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="2011-01-24_10-04-07_840" /></a></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>Part II- Homecoming Week</strong></span></p><p>It was everything you remember about Homecoming Week, just without the cheerleaders, jocks, marching bands, pep rallies and awkward dances. </p><p><br /></p><p>Avery has gotten progressively more eye opening, literally.</p><p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5402819102/" title="DSC_2677 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5174/5402819102_03e7b4d595.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="DSC_2677" /></a></p><p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5402226109/" title="DSC_2728 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5178/5402226109_0b674df406.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="DSC_2728" /></a></p><p><br /></p><p>and her hair has demonstrated the insane ability to stay in a mohawk no matter what.</p><p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5402218403/" title="IMG_1604 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5171/5402218403_09cec7b21c.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="IMG_1604" /></a></p><p><br /></p><p>i had forgotten how many silly faces they involuntarily make, especially when sleeping. I was actually momentarily concerned a couple of days ago because her eyes were doing weird Stevie Wonder type movements. Then I realized she had just opened her eyes in her sleep. But that almost makes it more creepy.</p><p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5402822980/" title="DSC_2710 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5092/5402822980_453910eb4e.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="DSC_2710" /></a></p><p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5402823882/" title="DSC_2714 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5252/5402823882_efbc219592.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="DSC_2714" /></a></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Riley has taken to her pretty well, treating her just a couple of steps better than he does Jimmy.</p><p>He has rocked her.</p><p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5402220441/" title="DSC_2691 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5137/5402220441_f9c1e8395a.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="DSC_2691" /></a></p><p><br /></p><p>and let her lay in his bed.</p><p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5402225181/" title="DSC_2721 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5259/5402225181_f465cc1d14.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="DSC_2721" /></a></p><p><br /></p><p>Held her hand for comfort through he first "bath"</p><p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5402221781/" title="IMG_1609 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5173/5402221781_45fbcda1ca.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="IMG_1609" /></a></p><p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5402820884/" title="IMG_1607 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5056/5402820884_ed03d35a43.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="IMG_1607" /></a></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>and had sing-alongs while playing spastic movement peek-a-boo</p><p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5402216717/" title="DSC_2663 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5098/5402216717_07ef545afb.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="DSC_2663" /></a></p><p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5402217769/" title="DSC_2666 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5097/5402217769_82e9f40780.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="DSC_2666" /></a></p><p><br /></p><p>He has only shown a little bit of jealousy toward Avery, but that manifested in the form of mimicry.</p><p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5402222421/" title="IMG_1613 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5016/5402222421_16c59855f4.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="IMG_1613" /></a></p><p><br /></p><p>he got into a little fight with his cousin Caroline over whose baby it was, but, generally, he's been a pretty sweet kid about everything.</p><p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5402228013/" title="DSC_2742 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5294/5402228013_d620bb960d.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="DSC_2742" /></a></p><p><br /></p><p>Most people seem to ask me, "Is she sleeping?"</p><p>To which i can only reply, " I don't know, but I am."</p><p>Despite what Ben Stiller said, there's not much I can do to take care of the baby's most basic need. But from my semi-well rested vantage point, it seems that everything is going well.</p><p>And we are less scared this time around and have started allowing occasional tummy sleep when she's having trouble.</p><p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5402226905/" title="DSC_2733 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5052/5402226905_46c445803d.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="DSC_2733" /></a></p><p><br /></p><p>Joan has posting privileges, so she may come on and tell the actual horror story of her current life as a 2x mother, but things are sunny behind my rose colored glasses.</p><p><br /></p><p>Thats pretty much it for the organized thoughts, if that what you want to call what you've just read ( I mean skimmed over while looking at pictures.) Now here's some randomness.</p><p><br /></p><p>I figure you can't be a truly obnoxious new parent unless you post a video of your kid sleeping.</p><p>But this one is actually kinda funny (to me) because it is a 4 day old snoring.</p><p><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="400" height="225" data="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000"> <param name="flashvars" value="intl_lang=en-us&photo_secret=045ff9f7fd&photo_id=5402180095"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377"> <param name="bgcolor" value="#000000"> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377" bgcolor="#000000" allowfullscreen="true" flashvars="intl_lang=en-us&photo_secret=045ff9f7fd&photo_id=5402180095" height="225" width="400"></embed></object></p><p><br /></p><p>and Riley's musical "talents" have been steadily progressing. He's got the rage of a metal drummer, and the posture of an old blues man.</p><p>Here's his percussive interpretation of Mahna Mahna</p><p><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="400" height="225" data="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000"> <param name="flashvars" value="intl_lang=en-us&photo_secret=d77be00616&photo_id=5402807696"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377"> <param name="bgcolor" value="#000000"> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377" bgcolor="#000000" allowfullscreen="true" flashvars="intl_lang=en-us&photo_secret=d77be00616&photo_id=5402807696" height="225" width="400"></embed></object></p><p><br /></p><p>and the same song jazzed out with his Nanny on the "bandstand", while hitting himself in the eye with his saxophone (easier than you might think)</p><p><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="400" height="225" data="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000"> <param name="flashvars" value="intl_lang=en-us&photo_secret=25e87d4352&photo_id=5402191237"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377"> <param name="bgcolor" value="#000000"> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377" bgcolor="#000000" allowfullscreen="true" flashvars="intl_lang=en-us&photo_secret=25e87d4352&photo_id=5402191237" height="225" width="400"></embed></object></p><p><br /></p><p>for reference sake, here's what he thinks he's playing </p><p><iframe width="425" height="344" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/NA90IlymdZ4?fs=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>While it is mildly fun to be doing this again, I can't guarantee weekly posting, so be sure to sign up on the right to receive emails when new posts go up.</p><p><br /></p><p> </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>bwallacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10526874860461455422noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2001447615443225961.post-28606253518761631102011-01-23T11:45:00.002-06:002011-01-23T11:54:01.431-06:00ArrivedAvery Christine Wallace<div>7 lbs 2 ozs</div><div><br /></div><div>born 11:15 am, January 23, 2011</div><div><br /></div><div>despite a quick descent, she is lacking the facial bruising we were warned to expect.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5381632820/" title="IMG_1530 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5004/5381632820_7555f75ee5.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="IMG_1530" /></a></div><div><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5381035145/" title="IMG_1535 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5007/5381035145_90a70fdcc7.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="IMG_1535" /></a></div><div><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5381036355/" title="IMG_1536 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5248/5381036355_fa8db2fd34.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="IMG_1536" /></a></div><div><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5381642610/" title="IMG_1538 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5043/5381642610_2d73af2b9f.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="IMG_1538" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Very quick and much easier than Riley. Hopefully that is some sort of foreshadowing.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>bwallacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10526874860461455422noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2001447615443225961.post-51056551650307589742011-01-23T05:32:00.007-06:002011-01-23T06:24:00.532-06:00Poor PlanningI had such grand plans for this chilly Sunday.<div><br /></div><div>With a baby on the way, I figured it would be a good idea to get the old blog muscles moving again and that catching you up on our last few months (including a great trip to Disney World and Eli & Amanda's kickass wedding) would be a great way to do that.</div><div><br /></div><div>I was going to hit you with great pictures, maybe a little video, and possibly (very remotely) a smattering witticism. With adequate cooperation from life, I was even going to work on the layout and maybe bring this little project up to a visual standard you may go so far as to classify as "tolerable."</div><div><br /></div><div>But if things were going as planned, why would i need to tell you what I was planning? Right?</div><div><br /></div><div>So, what changed those plans?</div><div><br /></div><div>Being woked-uped by the statement, "I either have a bladder problem or my water broke." (rough paraphrase)</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5380153509/" title="IMG_1519 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5288/5380153509_10dda7c9ec.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="IMG_1519" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>So now we sit in the Labor & Delivery Suite, waiting for something to happen.</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5380165569/" title="IMG_1524 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5123/5380165569_0ea76d7d82.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="IMG_1524" /></a></div><div><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5380166173/" title="IMG_1525 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5243/5380166173_c3c67b588b.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="IMG_1525" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Unlike three years ago, the hospital now supplies WiFi, and we don't have to rely on the unintentional generosity of a less than tech savvy neighbor.</div><div><br /></div><div>and now instead of having to talk and interact with a human to pass the time, the world in the palm of your hand can keep you company.</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5380755142/" title="IMG_1521 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5128/5380755142_68a4a4b798.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="IMG_1521" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>So, if anyone on a Droid phone is playing Word Feud, Jaydub1024 is looking for opponents. She should make plays pretty quickly for at least a few hours. No promises after that.</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/5380755662/" title="IMG_1522 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5286/5380755662_890fc84bb7.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="IMG_1522" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Stay tuned to watch the (facetiously) fascinating progress of our income tax deductions doubling.</div><div><br /></div>bwallacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10526874860461455422noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2001447615443225961.post-87091479294219797282010-09-06T19:52:00.008-05:002010-09-06T21:39:15.719-05:00Un Thirdo de Ano<p>Sooooo, it's been over 4 months since I posted. Please accept my sincerest apologies for the hole that absence must have left in your life.</p><p><br /></p><p>The dry spell is not due to a lack of happenings, but more so to an over-abundance (real word?) of happenings.</p><p>I won't bore you with all of the details, but here's your dose of catchin' up.</p><p><br /></p><p>Back in May( the last time it wasn't too hot to step foot outside) we spent a weekend in New Orleans for some friends' wedding. Nonnie came along and watched Riley while we did the wedding thing. T'was a weekend full of zoo, aquarium, riverboat, streetcar, ice cream, food and strolling the quarter. </p><p><br /></p><p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4965300365/" title="Week 110 (13) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4131/4965300365_28a8a2ab56.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="Week 110 (13)" /></a></p><p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4769669066/" title="Week 110 (214) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4079/4769669066_040310821d.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="Week 110 (214)" /></a></p><p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4769028621/" title="Week 110 (36) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4136/4769028621_a1cbcfa9ef.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Week 110 (36)" /></a></p><p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4769672032/" title="Week 110 (45) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4121/4769672032_8bf0e860f8.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Week 110 (45)" /></a></p><p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4965309659/" title="Week 110 (399) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4106/4965309659_bbc4c2d18c.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="Week 110 (399)" /></a></p><p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4965907942/" title="Week 110 (81) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4104/4965907942_6526e12e69.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Week 110 (81)" /></a></p><p>it was also a weekend that set a dangerous precedent. Just a few weeks ago, Riley heard me say "New Orleans" and he said, "I ride the boat and the streetcar train."</p><p>We can't afford this kid's memory.</p><p><br /></p><p>Around that same time, Granny got Riley the toy he had been promised since before he was born. The Step 2 Extreme Coaster.</p><p>It is a very well made, fun piece of equipment.</p><p> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4965317775/" title="Week 111 (54) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4145/4965317775_6175d5f3a8.jpg" width="334" height="500" alt="Week 111 (54)" /></a></p><p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4769677404/" title="Week 111 (15) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4141/4769677404_d7507da1ae.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="Week 111 (15)" /></a></p><p><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="640" height="360" data="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000"> <param name="flashvars" value="intl_lang=en-us&photo_secret=78cace2f58&photo_id=4599613549&hd_default=false"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377"> <param name="bgcolor" value="#000000"> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377" bgcolor="#000000" allowfullscreen="true" flashvars="intl_lang=en-us&photo_secret=78cace2f58&photo_id=4599613549&hd_default=false" height="360" width="640"></embed></object></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>'bout that same time too, Uncle Eli graduated from UL. </p><p>Here he is being applauded by a married man who screws high priced prostitutes (literally) and the rest of us (figuratively)</p><p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4965919916/" title="Week 111 (85) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4089/4965919916_622d753b1f.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="Week 111 (85)" /></a></p><p><br /></p><p></p><p>and uncle Eli got in on the fun of the Step 2 Extreme Coaster.</p><p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4965325973/" title="Week 111 (113) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4105/4965325973_2b972e42ba.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="Week 111 (113)" /></a></p><p></p><p><br /></p><p>Riley was having such a good time at the afterparty that he got his arm stuck and required amateur rescue from a toy that needed to be thrown in the attic anyway.</p><p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4965321537/" title="Week 111 (106) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4103/4965321537_7a521a03c6.jpg" width="500" height="335" alt="Week 111 (106)" /></a></p><p>(I wonder if Ol Hypocrite Davey V ever ran into that problem, and if the clock keeps running.) <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">(terribly inappropriate, yet appropriate at the same time)</span></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Riley also took his first swimming lessons with Anna, gabe and other kids belonging to our assorted friends.</p><p>He still counts it as one of the most traumatic experiences in his short life, but is beginning to move past the damage.</p><p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4769043473/" title="Week 112 (10) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4099/4769043473_5af1dccb50.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Week 112 (10)" /></a></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>To avoid the heat we mostly did nothing all summer. </p><p>But Riley did catch his first movie, Toy Story 3, and actually saw it twice. </p><p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4769690382/" title="Week 117 (25) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4100/4769690382_576e839f1f.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Week 117 (25)" /></a></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>He perfected his Space Ranger aerial acrobatics when he got a visit from a real Connecticutian, Cousin Hailee, back in July.</p><p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4965351021/" title="Week 122 (13) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4084/4965351021_531fd945bd.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="Week 122 (13)" /></a></p><p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4965949544/" title="Week 122 (10) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4125/4965949544_389d6cb5dc.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="Week 122 (10)" /></a></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>That was just before he decided that he needed a walker again to get around. (that phase lasted 30 seconds)</p><p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4965347345/" title="Week 122 (2) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4144/4965347345_50f8f89586.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Week 122 (2)" /></a></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>It seems like most of the summer has been spent in doctors' offices. Everything from sinus infections, to hives, to constipation to a weird mystery rash, he has had a problem with it this year.</p><p>><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4077/4769687742_8d5ea59c96.jpg" width="357" height="500" alt="Week 117 (2)" /></p><p> <img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4141/4769689172_f9742532c3.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="Week 117 (12)" /></p><p>through those maladies though, we've discovered the wonders of Acadiana Urgent Care on Ambassador in Cordoba. Much quicker, cheaper, friendlier and cleaner than any ER I've ever seen. (though my only recent ER experience was at LGMC at 2am on a Sunday, or as I call it-- Angola Lite)</p><p>Acadiana Urgent Care is definitely our first choice for afterhours/weekend, non-trauma care.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-size:x-large;"><br /></span></b></p><p><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-large;">and now for the big news, which some of you may already know.</span></b></p><p><br /></p><p>A few weeks ago, Eli and I caught the Deftones at House of Blues. it was awesome.</p><p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4965955774/" title="Deftones, NO, Aug 2010 (2) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4144/4965955774_72caebce6c.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="Deftones, NO, Aug 2010 (2)" /></a></p><p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4965957036/" title="Deftones, NO, Aug 2010 (6) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4151/4965957036_aa33113fd7.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Deftones, NO, Aug 2010 (6)" /></a></p><p><object style="background-image:url(http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/hM6uVk8I7r0/hqdefault.jpg)" width="480" height="295"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/hM6uVk8I7r0?fs=1&hl=en_US"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/hM6uVk8I7r0?fs=1&hl=en_US" width="480" height="295" allowscriptaccess="never" allowfullscreen="true" wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></object></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>But I guess that is overshadowed by the even bigger news that Riley is potty trained.</p><p>After a miserable Memorial Day weekend potty training boot camp, and a few weeks of learning, he only needs diapers overnight and accidents are getting pretty rare.</p><p>its nice.</p><p> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4769042081/" title="Week 112 (1) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4098/4769042081_fd59ea61a3.jpg" width="400" height="500" alt="Week 112 (1)" /></a></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>But even that seems to be overshadowed by the even bigger news that we bought a house last month.</p><p>No we were't looking, and no we haven't sold this one, so yes, it does not make sense.</p><p>But we couldn't pass it up.</p><p>The new shack is 5 doors down from Joan's parents. Its the last house on the second block of a three block, dead end, tree lined boulevard.</p><p>The house is the same size but the lot is almost twice as big, and it has a shop that I can park my Jeep in.</p><p>It'll probably be another month before we move in.</p><p>So far we've stripped down all of the popcorn ceiling, repaired & painted all of the ceilings, painted a couple of bedrooms and ripped up old carpet. Now we just have to paint the common areas and have some new carpet put in and we'll be ready.</p><p>I'll do a more detailed post later, but here's a little taste.</p><p>Taking down the popcorn ceiling texture was a mess, and due to the fact that some brands used to contain asbestos, we took extra precautions. Respirators, disposable jump suits and acres of plastic sheeting.</p><p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4965353283/" title="New House (10) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4133/4965353283_c9c0521deb.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="New House (10)" /></a></p><p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4965952502/" title="New House (8) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4087/4965952502_ea56f9c105.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="New House (8)" /></a></p><p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4965354413/" title="New House (11) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4132/4965354413_823d4dafc8.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="New House (11)" /></a></p><p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4965960424/" title="New House (45) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4091/4965960424_f0e3ce5ceb.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="New House (45)" /></a></p><p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4965961098/" title="New House (53) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4107/4965961098_a05450e6b8.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="New House (53)" /></a></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>If anyone knows anyone looking for a 3 bed, 2 bath, plus office, and screened in patio, 2,050sq ft house, off of Verot in a good school zone, please send them our way.</p><p><br /></p><p>That just about does it for the major news.</p><p><br /></p><p>I'll be back if anything else interesting happens.</p><p>oh and Joan is pregnant, due in February with a girl.</p><p>Bye.</p>bwallacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10526874860461455422noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2001447615443225961.post-15738535515979560682010-05-02T09:49:00.007-05:002010-05-02T19:51:08.904-05:00Up & Down2010 has been a year of ups and downs for us.<br />Unfortunately, so far, the downs have tended to be downier than the uppitiness of the ups.<br /><br />The last month has been a little different, so here's a rundown of where we stand.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >A few of the ups:</span><br /><br />1. It previously looked like Caroline's family would not be able to come to Disney World with us because none of Paul's job possibilities would allow it.<br />Then, as if arranged by Walt's frozen head, a job appeared, right up Paul's alley in Baton Rouge and he landed it. Yay for ups.<br /><br />Then we realized that because Liz works for a major retailer and we are going between Thanksgiving and Christmas, she wouldn't be able to get time off. Well that's fitting.<br /><br />Then as if Walt's frozen head got bored again, she was granted the time off. Yay for ups.<br /><br />Then we called to book them a room at our hotel, and there were no rooms left. Well that's fitting.<br /><br />Then as if Walt's frozen head bankrupted a family from Minnesota, when I called back to make them a reservation at another hotel, a room had opened at ours.<br /><br />Aside from the fact that my Dad obviously won't be going with us as originally planned, the trip is now as complete as nature will allow it to be. I'm super pumped.<br /><br /><br />2. Having a big yard and two grand kids who will be around for a while, Joan's Mom bought a playhouse for her backyard that we assembled. The set up is made by Step 2, a company whose products have impressed me.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4571428750/" title="Week 107 (156) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4036/4571428750_d776993a19.jpg" alt="Week 107 (156)" height="375" width="500" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4570795209/" title="Week 107 (157) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3422/4570795209_0823d2bb62.jpg" alt="Week 107 (157)" height="375" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br />But the final product (not pictured above) looked like a nightmare to mow around, so we built an enclosure and filled it with rubber mulch and it came out looking great.<br /><br />Fortunately, I picked up some skills from my Dad over the years and I'm pretty capable of doing these things. I also picked up a predisposition to overbuild things which I always have to battle. It took me 10 minutes to figure out how to build it, then 30 minutes to work backwards from overbuilding it, but I'm happy with the finished goods.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4570803479/" title="Week 107 (187) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4003/4570803479_84a252d054.jpg" alt="Week 107 (187)" height="375" width="500" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4571443052/" title="Week 107 (193) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4072/4571443052_c03e8fc499.jpg" alt="Week 107 (193)" height="375" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br />3. Our Goodnight NOLA weekend (see next post)<br /><br /><br />4. A few weeks ago Melissa Stevenson & The Dill Pickle Band played a show at the Acadiana Center for the Arts. Hers is the only real kids' music, aside from classic Disney stuff, that Riley has listened to. It took him a while to warm up, but eventually he and his pal Anna got into the show.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4572457216/" title="Week 107 (124) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3389/4572457216_e269451433.jpg" alt="Week 107 (124)" height="375" width="500" /></a><br /><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" height="360" width="640"> <param name="flashvars" value="intl_lang=en-us&photo_secret=b24bc8b004&photo_id=4572682222&hd_default=false"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377"> <param name="bgcolor" value="#000000"> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377" bgcolor="#000000" allowfullscreen="true" flashvars="intl_lang=en-us&photo_secret=b24bc8b004&photo_id=4572682222&hd_default=false" height="360" width="640"></embed></object><br /><br /><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" height="360" width="640"> <param name="flashvars" value="intl_lang=en-us&photo_secret=209d4ac997&photo_id=4572814622&hd_default=false"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377"> <param name="bgcolor" value="#000000"> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377" bgcolor="#000000" allowfullscreen="true" flashvars="intl_lang=en-us&photo_secret=209d4ac997&photo_id=4572814622&hd_default=false" height="360" width="640"></embed></object><br /><br />5. Festival international was a mixed bag this year. Riley was sick but got to have fun with his cousins.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4571447756/" title="Week 108 (32) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3429/4571447756_3810c4785b.jpg" alt="Week 108 (32)" height="334" width="500" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4571450852/" title="Week 108 (45) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4043/4571450852_60f2145c1d.jpg" alt="Week 108 (45)" height="334" width="500" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4571449300/" title="Week 108 (38) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3469/4571449300_68191d599b.jpg" alt="Week 108 (38)" height="500" width="334" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4570815965/" title="Week 108 (129) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4001/4570815965_9726d187a9.jpg" alt="Week 108 (129)" height="375" width="500" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4571453332/" title="Week 108 (130) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4049/4571453332_74403a74be.jpg" alt="Week 108 (130)" height="500" width="375" /></a><br /><br /><br />6. Office crawfish boil. Riley had fun, rode his bike, made friends, ate a lemon and splashed in the pool.<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4570820037/" title="Week 109 (24) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4022/4570820037_e06d52909e.jpg" alt="Week 109 (24)" height="375" width="500" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4571457412/" title="Week 109 (27) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3503/4571457412_dc7bf588ef.jpg" alt="Week 109 (27)" height="375" width="500" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4570822479/" title="Week 109 (28) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4035/4570822479_60e4999e38.jpg" alt="Week 109 (28)" height="375" width="500" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4571454598/" title="Week 109 (7) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4010/4571454598_4dbe78723e.jpg" alt="Week 109 (7)" height="375" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />7. I went to the cardiologist who said my heart sounds good, and, at least for now, i don't have to worry about having the same problems my Dad did.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >The Downs</span><br /><br />1. The day after I dumped all of our photos from New Orleans, our computer died for the third time this year. Unfortunately this time it was a hard drive. Unfortunatelier, it was the hard drive that had all of our photos and videos, that I hadn't backed up since before Riley was born.<br /><br />After a sickening, sleepless night, we were able to get the equipment that allowed us to get everything off of the drive, and it is now backed up in two places. But, for a while, the office was a war zone.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4571440724/" title="Week 107 (190) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4030/4571440724_0cabcbcce1.jpg" alt="Week 107 (190)" height="375" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />2. The lorakeet feeding at the Zoo of Acadiana is not as much fun as it sounds. They are more interested in eating you and fighting with each other while sitting on you than they are in the sticky cup of food spilling all over your hand.<br /><br />Granny seemed a little amused, but neither Riley or I enjoyed the experience. I've never considered birds scary, but when they are on you and you can't see them, it is a bit unnerving.<br />Especially so with the second hand smoke stained Zoo of Acadiana birds. With the crowds that they see all day, I'm surprised they haven't learned to tie little birdie nooses out of grass just to end their misery.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4570801079/" title="Week 107 (111) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3458/4570801079_cd0d42db64.jpg" alt="Week 107 (111)" height="334" width="500" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4570799161/" title="Week 107 (90) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4071/4570799161_bbf5e715c2.jpg" alt="Week 107 (90)" height="334" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br />3. As I write this, I feel like I've been beaten up from the inside because, well, essentially I've been beaten up from the inside.<br />Despite not being symptomatic for a couple of months, all the tests showed that my gall bladder was shot.<br /><br />The doc said he couldn't believe I wasn't hurting with the numbers I had, but then I flexed for him and he understood what he was dealing with.<br /><br />Ok, only half of that was true.<br /><br />But since it sounded like removal was inevitable, I went ahead and had a laproscopic cholecystectomy last week.<br /><br />Four incisions later and I have one less internal organ than I was born with.<br />Warning, you can't unsee what you are about to see...<br />.<br />.<br />.<br />.<br />.<br />.<br />.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4571843797/" title="Week 109 (33) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4071/4571843797_5899e89926.jpg" alt="Week 109 (33)" height="500" width="409" /></a><br /><br /><br />That's like a self esteem booster for 95% of guys out there. Pretty good gut for a skinny guy, huh?<br /><br />I'm bouncing back now. Some soreness still, but I ate crawfish and chips and salsa yesterday without any additional pain, so I'm pleased with the results. And I didn't say anything too embarrassing under anesthesia, so I'm happy.<br /><br />The hardest part really was the mental weight that came with showing up on a cold, early morning to a hospital in the same parking lot as the hospital my Dad was at. Felt too familiar, but even more personal knowing I would be the one with the bracelet on this time. But that's in the past now, and you've all seen my sexy bruised belly, so I expect the hit count to skyrocket and make it all better. Electronic ego is a wonderful thing.<br /><br /><br />4. While I was building the playset at Joan's parents' house, she and Riley were playing here. At some point, she stepped over him just as he sat up, resulting in a cut on his forehead. He took to explaining to everyone that , "Mommy walk on my head." often adding that she went to time-out and that it was not nice. No scarring involved.<br /><br /><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" height="360" width="640"> <param name="flashvars" value="intl_lang=en-us&photo_secret=2719975ceb&photo_id=4572218575&hd_default=false"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377"> <param name="bgcolor" value="#000000"> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377" bgcolor="#000000" allowfullscreen="true" flashvars="intl_lang=en-us&photo_secret=2719975ceb&photo_id=4572218575&hd_default=false" height="360" width="640"></embed></object>bwallacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10526874860461455422noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2001447615443225961.post-83232881139933790822010-05-01T18:48:00.017-05:002010-05-02T21:16:30.905-05:00Goodnight NOLA<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.goodnightnola.com/images/spreads4.jpg"><br /></a><br />As you all know, we're nerds.<br />You also know, if you are a regular, that we've kinda become semi-photo geeks since we bought our dSLR last year.<br /><br />That hint of a hobby, combined with trying to raise a literate toddler, sparked an idea for a little photo project that I'll share with you today.<br /><br /><br />If you've been around kids, you are probably familiar with the book Goodnight Moon, wherein the narrator goes through a catalog of impractically juxtaposed items in a bedroom, acknowledges them, and then gives them a dismissive night time greeting.<br /><br />Fortunately, from this crap on a page, a Louisiana author had the idea to do a New Orleans themed version, but less crappy.<br /><br />Riley's Nanny, Lesley, introduced us to the book Goodnight NOLA by Cornell Landry and Louis Schmitt.<br /><br />It's like Goodnight Moon, but good.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4569393283/" title="Week 106 (812) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3419/4569393283_bed955a68c.jpg" alt="Week 106 (812)" height="375" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />The book sticks to the "Goodnight (insert object)" formula, but with New Orleans/Louisiana items, and much better illustrations than the Moon based original.<br /><br />Here's some examples from the official website:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4573245856/" title="spreads4 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4037/4573245856_6494365a64.jpg" alt="spreads4" height="282" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />you can pick up your copy at www.goodnightnola.com or at some of the chain book stores.<br /><br />Now to why this is relevant here.<br /><br /><br />I thought it may be fun to set aside a weekend, head down to NOLA, and "recreate" the book with photos depicting Riley with the subject matter.<br />Throw it all together online and we've got a neat little keepsake. Then we can do it again as both he and our family grow.<br /><br />So, a few weeks ago we ran like mad all around NOLA trying to be sure that we got everything.<br /><br /><br />Our rules were simple:<br />1. All shots had to be taken that weekend.<br />2. We had to incorporate all of the featured objects in the book.<br />3. Shots had to include Riley unless absolutely impossible due to legal or sleep reasons.<br /><br /><br />It was quite an ambitious project with a 2 year old with active sinus congestion, but it made for an interesting weekend.<br /><br />We got some good shots for some pages, and had to settle on others, but, 800+ shots later, here's our handy work. (cropped, but otherwise all natural)<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" ><br />Goodnight red beans, goodnight rice</span><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4569632978/" title="Week 106 (239) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3459/4569632978_d77c05e271.jpg" alt="Week 106 (239)" height="500" width="357" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" ><br /><br /><br />Goodnight pralines and Zatarain's spice</span><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4569622856/" title="Week 106 (151) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3443/4569622856_3f12bb7b86.jpg" alt="Week 106 (151)" height="335" width="500" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4568965837/" title="Week 106 (10) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4063/4568965837_bd2d21c9f7.jpg" alt="Week 106 (10)" height="335" width="500" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4569602680/" title="Week 106 (6) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4026/4569602680_72a6f86792.jpg" alt="Week 106 (6)" height="335" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Goodnight Cathedral, goodnight French Quarter<br /><br /></span><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4569609610/" title="Week 106 (30) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3449/4569609610_e22f0e5b8a.jpg" alt="Week 106 (30)" height="334" width="500" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4568978999/" title="Week 106 (75) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3466/4568978999_ca12d5ab5c.jpg" alt="Week 106 (75)" height="335" width="500" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4568987727/" title="Week 106 (169) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4008/4568987727_fec12199bd.jpg" alt="Week 106 (169)" height="335" width="500" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4569618852/" title="Week 106 (87) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4062/4569618852_a8d361d54c.jpg" alt="Week 106 (87)" height="500" width="357" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" ><br />Goodnight Cafe DuMonde</span><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4569677046/" title="Week 106 (562) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3472/4569677046_3fea0688c7.jpg" alt="Week 106 (562)" height="334" width="500" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4569678194/" title="Week 106 (568) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4002/4569678194_9c6d787aee.jpg" alt="Week 106 (568)" height="335" width="500" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" ><br /><br /><br /><br />Goodnight Muddy Water</span><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4569612132/" title="Week 106 (42) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4010/4569612132_f168b3fd0d.jpg" alt="Week 106 (42)" height="334" width="500" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4568975763/" title="Week 106 (48) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3468/4568975763_df2483c273.jpg" alt="Week 106 (48)" height="334" width="500" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4568978195/" title="Week 106 (73) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3448/4568978195_1244a55557.jpg" alt="Week 106 (73)" height="335" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Goodnight po'boys and Hubig's pies, Goodnight Lucky Dogs and Cooter's fries.</span><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4568968451/" title="Week 106 (18) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3504/4568968451_525204a880.jpg" alt="Week 106 (18)" height="500" width="334" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4569692956/" title="Week 106 (743) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4055/4569692956_8750c97dba.jpg" alt="Week 106 (743)" height="500" width="357" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4568989125/" title="Week 106 (172) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4019/4568989125_fafda4071c.jpg" alt="Week 106 (172)" height="335" width="500" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4569022919/" title="Week 106 (449) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3486/4569022919_42cb6d9c0b.jpg" alt="Week 106 (449)" height="335" width="500" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4569024161/" title="Week 106 (456) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4001/4569024161_659fd3b0aa.jpg" alt="Week 106 (456)" height="500" width="400" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Goodnight to the Saints and the Dome filled with noise. Goodnight to the fans cheering "Bless You Boys!"</span><br /><br /><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4569653038/" title="Week 106 (365) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3514/4569653038_6b4b4d6816.jpg" alt="Week 106 (365)" height="500" width="400" /></a></span><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4569014191/" title="Week 106 (352) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3485/4569014191_179bdc4f66.jpg" alt="Week 106 (352)" height="500" width="357" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Goodnight to the Hornets and the balls that they dunk,</span><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4569654402/" title="Week 106 (377) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4059/4569654402_a856ee70bd.jpg" alt="Week 106 (377)" height="334" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Goodnight to the bands playing Jazz, Blues, and Funk.</span><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4569006553/" title="Week 106 (303) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3506/4569006553_ca68e0e648.jpg" alt="Week 106 (303)" height="335" width="500" /></a><br /><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4569621352/" title="Week 106 (139) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4062/4569621352_a01656a232.jpg" alt="Week 106 (139)" height="335" width="500" /></a></span><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4568996663/" title="Week 106 (252) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4070/4568996663_8079fe06f3.jpg" alt="Week 106 (252)" height="334" width="500" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4569005093/" title="Week 106 (297) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4045/4569005093_2df2e9a4dc.jpg" alt="Week 106 (297)" height="335" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Goodnight to the restaurants with their glitz and glam. Goodnight to the cooks and to chefs who yell, "Bam!</span>"<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4569633090/" title="Week 106 (250) crop by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4024/4569633090_5b58cc3786.jpg" alt="Week 106 (250) crop" height="312" width="500" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" ><br /><br /><br /><br />Goodnight to the Aquarium and the Audubon Zoo, Goodnight to the fishies and animals too</span>.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4569044423/" title="Week 106 (587) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4050/4569044423_7ac28189d6.jpg" alt="Week 106 (587)" height="335" width="500" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4569679070/" title="Week 106 (576) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4065/4569679070_0f3576b1e2.jpg" alt="Week 106 (576)" height="500" width="400" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4569637314/" title="Week 106 (264) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4003/4569637314_aeb690b9d8.jpg" alt="Week 106 (264)" height="500" width="357" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4569001149/" title="Week 106 (269) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4072/4569001149_505289a127.jpg" alt="Week 106 (269)" height="334" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Goodnight to the Bunny and the bread that he bakes</span>.</span><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4569053627/" title="Week 106 (737) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3495/4569053627_0de5bd8388.jpg" alt="Week 106 (737)" height="335" width="500" /></a><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /><br /><br /><br />Goodnight to the Causeway that crosses the Lake</span></span><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4569027679/" title="Week 106 (473) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3511/4569027679_c75a59caac.jpg" alt="Week 106 (473)" height="335" width="500" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4569664310/" title="Week 106 (471) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4004/4569664310_8fab8c4008.jpg" alt="Week 106 (471)" height="500" width="333" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Goodnight to doubloons and Mardi Gras things</span></span><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4569673226/" title="Week 106 (505) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4022/4569673226_1a78a00b42.jpg" alt="Week 106 (505)" height="334" width="500" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4569033945/" title="Week 106 (496) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3419/4569033945_afd147aee7.jpg" alt="Week 106 (496)" height="500" width="335" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4569038493/" title="Week 106 (512) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4061/4569038493_d8ef787c5e.jpg" alt="Week 106 (512)" height="500" width="400" /></a><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" ><br />Goodnight to Rex and to Cakes made for Kings</span><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4569037073/" title="Week 106 (508) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3460/4569037073_32ee22d17a.jpg" alt="Week 106 (508)" height="500" width="400" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4569031249/" title="Week 106 (483) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3472/4569031249_e2bc776c05.jpg" alt="Week 106 (483)" height="334" width="500" /></a><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4569032803/" title="Week 106 (491) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3422/4569032803_d0f0b805f3.jpg" alt="Week 106 (491)" height="334" width="500" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Goodnight to streetcars and rides which are breezy</span></span><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4569056191/" title="Week 106 (754) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4034/4569056191_b7dd5a227b.jpg" alt="Week 106 (754)" height="500" width="400" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4569032803/" title="Week 106 (491) by bwallace, on Flickr"></a><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Goodnight to the city they call the Big Easy</span></span><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4569010577/" title="Week 106 (323) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3418/4569010577_75c2e00316.jpg" alt="Week 106 (323)" height="335" width="500" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4569019511/" title="Week 106 (417) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3476/4569019511_394077a05e.jpg" alt="Week 106 (417)" height="335" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >The End</span><br /><br />If you don't have the book, pick up a copy, for yourself or as a gift for a parent trapped in the cow-pie minefield of most kids books. Well worth the price.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />We learned a few lessons during the trip, including:<br /><br />1. Riley is afraid of cooked crawfish, but not live ones;<br /><br />2. In our post 9-11 world, the sight of three late-20s looking, pasty white people, with a toddler, photographing the Causeway Bridge is apparently some sort of threat to national security worthy of police attention (fortunately he was polite, unlike most stories at www.photographyisnotacrime.com)<br /><br />3. Most of the non-Ron Paul supporters at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference are major douchebags. (yes that includes all of you chubby frat boys wearing seer-sucker suits and white shoes and ranting about gay marriage like it is actually a pressing political issue.)<br /><br />4. To get a shot of a Lucky Dog cart during the day, you have to stand in the middle of Decatur.<br /><br />5. I like taking shots reflected off of Riley's sunglasses.<br /><br /><br /><br />in closing, here's some miscellaneous shots we just liked.<br /><br />If the sign fits...<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4569300945/" title="Week 106 (836) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3518/4569300945_7c8b4d2c70.jpg" alt="Week 106 (836)" height="500" width="375" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Street<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4569302575/" title="Week 106 (106) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3480/4569302575_8661702e44.jpg" alt="Week 106 (106)" height="334" width="500" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4569941678/" title="Week 106 (107) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4039/4569941678_4a895ba624.jpg" alt="Week 106 (107)" height="334" width="500" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4569943276/" title="Week 106 (111) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4027/4569943276_d72ef9ddd2_b.jpg" alt="Week 106 (111)" height="1024" width="685" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />His middle name<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4569306601/" title="Week 106 (149) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4035/4569306601_d22015be56.jpg" alt="Week 106 (149)" height="500" width="357" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />Allergies<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4569307519/" title="Week 106 (412) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4057/4569307519_19692fa206.jpg" alt="Week 106 (412)" height="500" width="357" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />Safety First<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4569946222/" title="Week 106 (428) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4033/4569946222_b3e71a1dcb.jpg" alt="Week 106 (428)" height="334" width="500" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4569309409/" title="Week 106 (432) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4049/4569309409_81820e4987.jpg" alt="Week 106 (432)" height="500" width="334" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />Looking older<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4569948502/" title="Week 106 (556) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4023/4569948502_8496136c5e.jpg" alt="Week 106 (556)" height="500" width="334" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />Strike a pose<br /><br /><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4569950074/" title="Week 106 (759) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4045/4569950074_9bea4f844e.jpg" alt="Week 106 (759)" height="500" width="400" /></a></span><br /><br /><br /><br />Rockin' the milkshake at Creole Creamery<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4569951102/" title="Week 106 (782) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4024/4569951102_04c73a16cf.jpg" alt="Week 106 (782)" height="500" width="335" /></a>bwallacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10526874860461455422noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2001447615443225961.post-89288329029723023962010-04-04T18:54:00.005-05:002010-04-04T21:10:43.295-05:00Chartin'Tuesday was Riley's second birthday.<br /><br />Doesn't seem like 2 years ago that I was stealing someone's wi-fi at Women's & Children's Hospital between trying to sleep on a hard couch and occasionally being interrupted by complaints about the pain of childbirth or something petty.<br /><br />But anyway, time has flown.<br /><br />Riley celebrated his birthday by having a doctor's visit with no shots.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4491267792/" title="Week 105 (2) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4012/4491267792_a99dbdc845.jpg" alt="Week 105 (2)" height="375" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br />If he'll tolerate the Flu-mist this year, he won't have any shots until he turns 4.<br /><br />The doctor liked what she saw when his weight registered on the chart for the first time in a year and a half.<br /><br />She didn't like what she saw on one of the developmental questionnaires where I answered "yes" to "Do you ever think that you child is deaf?" and some other equally obvious mistake.<br /><br />She's cool though, so we laughed it off.<br /><br /><br />Wednesday, we headed down to Abbeville for a photo shoot with Beau Thomas, of JLang Photography.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4491270124/" title="Week 105 (5) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2790/4491270124_553c630f0e.jpg" alt="Week 105 (5)" height="500" width="375" /></a><br /><br /><br />Riley was not super-cooperative, but Beau did a good job wrangling what he could out of him.<br />And, in a small world way, it turns out that Beau is Anna's mom's godmother's son.<br />At least that's what I heard from my uncle's roommate's nephew's cousin's aunt.<br /><br /><br /><br />Thursday, was the first Rhythms on the River of the spring, and Cedric Watson and Buckwheat Zydeco were playing. Killer line-up.<br /><br />Riley played it cool until he and Gabe carjacked some innocent little girl's ride.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4491273184/" title="Week 105 (8) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4043/4491273184_687c83dc3b.jpg" alt="Week 105 (8)" height="500" width="375" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4491274608/" title="Week 105 (10) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4030/4491274608_cd46f1aa68.jpg" alt="Week 105 (10)" height="375" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />But Anna loves him even if he is a violent criminal.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4491275546/" title="Week 105 (11) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4014/4491275546_075067bb50.jpg" alt="Week 105 (11)" height="375" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br />and I got to enjoy one of my favorite beers. I'd probably enjoy it more often if I could have even a single drink without getting a headache.<br />My body lives in the wrong state.<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4491271342/" title="Week 105 (7) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2441/4491271342_bc1b9804af.jpg" alt="Week 105 (7)" height="500" width="375" /></a><br />(Maybe my body is telling me I may be better suited for Colorado or Northern California)<br /><br /><br /><br />On the way to River Ranch, Riley kept repeating a phrase that lets us know we've raised him right.<br /><br /><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" height="360" width="640"> <param name="flashvars" value="intl_lang=en-us&photo_secret=a1bf19b3d9&photo_id=4491054161&hd_default=false"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377"> <param name="bgcolor" value="#000000"> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377" bgcolor="#000000" allowfullscreen="true" flashvars="intl_lang=en-us&photo_secret=a1bf19b3d9&photo_id=4491054161&hd_default=false" height="360" width="640"></embed></object><br />(English translation- "I'm going see some bands")<br /><br /><br /><br />Friday, the weather was perfect and there was another great band to be seen at Bach Lunch--- The Howdies, and Taco Sisters burritos to be eaten.<br /><br />Riley even took a short nap in the parking garage just to get prepared.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4491276616/" title="Week 105 (14) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4045/4491276616_295252e940.jpg" alt="Week 105 (14)" height="500" width="375" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Unfortunately, the sound equipment and its operator were horrible, so the band's full effect didn't come across, but they played fine anyway.<br />Neither Riley nor Gabe noticed a difference.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4491278004/" title="Week 105 (16) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4064/4491278004_4ae354f981.jpg" alt="Week 105 (16)" height="500" width="375" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4491023747/" title="Week 105 (20) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2709/4491023747_24e87fe135.jpg" alt="Week 105 (20)" height="500" width="400" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />That afternoon we learned a new game called "Daddy jump off castle and scare me"<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4491283456/" title="Week 105 (68) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2762/4491283456_7844ef1a05.jpg" alt="Week 105 (68)" height="335" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />then a game/assault & battery called "Knock,Knock, Wake Up."<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4490641217/" title="Week 105 (66) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4023/4490641217_942d056ff1.jpg" alt="Week 105 (66)" height="335" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />That evening, Riley unveiled his new-found ability to climb out of Jimmy's dog door on the patio.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4490647043/" title="Week 105 (78) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4055/4490647043_6643af091f.jpg" alt="Week 105 (78)" height="334" width="500" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4491288870/" title="Week 105 (80) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4057/4491288870_f179d7e357.jpg" alt="Week 105 (80)" height="334" width="500" /></a><br /><br />and that is why he will not be in a "big boy bed" until high school.<span style="font-size:85%;"> (when he needs room for chicks)</span><br /><br /><br /><br />Saturday morning we took him to the epicenter of Amuhrican commercialism--- Sam's Club.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4490651797/" title="Week 105 (26) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4003/4490651797_d9f8ae6f46.jpg" alt="Week 105 (26)" height="375" width="500" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4490653037/" title="Week 105 (29) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4021/4490653037_8c5e5b91bf.jpg" alt="Week 105 (29)" height="500" width="375" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />an hour and a half and an obscene amount of dollars later, the Highlander's back suspension was sagging like an episode of Golden Girls and we were rolling with a lifetime supply of Slim Jim's, ketchup and paper towels. Goooo team!<br /><br />as a humorous aside, I heard the following (verbatim) statement from a 10 or 11 year old kid to his dad, in the liquor section : "Dad, Jack Daniel's is so good that other wines, I mean beers, are made from its old bottles."<br />Sip on that beer drinkers.<br /><br /><br />Our Sam's adventure was followed by a tip to Joan's Aunt Connie's for egg dyeing with Caroline.<br />The photos should tell the story that one kid was concerned with the finished product, while one kid just wanted to play with stirrers and drop eggs.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4491310268/" title="Week 105 (122) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4014/4491310268_042b5d33e7.jpg" alt="Week 105 (122)" height="334" width="500" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4491308464/" title="Week 105 (120) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4001/4491308464_7a6e389dfd.jpg" alt="Week 105 (120)" height="334" width="500" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4490671737/" title="Week 105 (124) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4030/4490671737_e927a3941f.jpg" alt="Week 105 (124)" height="334" width="500" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4491732532/" title="Week 105 (140) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4003/4491732532_25818380d9.jpg" alt="Week 105 (140)" height="500" width="335" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />Fortunately, preferences aligned and one dad was willing to dig in and help , while the other is repulsed by vinegar unless it is mixed with salt and sprinkled on Zapps or Pringles.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4490660975/" title="Week 105 (103) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2729/4490660975_887dac9936.jpg" alt="Week 105 (103)" height="334" width="500" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4491726820/" title="Week 105 (140) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4028/4491726820_18e80afa76.jpg" alt="Week 105 (140)" height="500" width="335" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />But Riley found a creative outlet in Connie's piano.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4491294184/" title="Week 105 (34) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4064/4491294184_3f7a7260de.jpg" alt="Week 105 (34)" height="375" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />and got some laughs out of Granny riding the clown bike.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4491296096/" title="Week 105 (40) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2734/4491296096_1ea30d78ba.jpg" alt="Week 105 (40)" height="500" width="375" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Then we made the mistake I am paying for today, at least when anything occurs to my left.<br />We hit the trampoline.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4491323776/" title="Week 105 (195) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2687/4491323776_41b8dfb85a.jpg" alt="Week 105 (195)" height="334" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Riley was too chicken to jump for himself, so he sat in one of our laps while the other bounced.<br />It was fun, but unwise for this old body. (and yes, I now know that there is no way to look cool in a photo while jumping on a trampoline.)<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4490685867/" title="Week 105 (202) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4056/4490685867_c574890618.jpg" alt="Week 105 (202)" height="500" width="400" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4490681281/" title="Week 105 (191) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4048/4490681281_3065d163ff.jpg" alt="Week 105 (191)" height="334" width="500" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4491330744/" title="Week 105 (209) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4038/4491330744_4518f4c10a.jpg" alt="Week 105 (209)" height="500" width="335" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Beware the Double Bounce<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4490692603/" title="Week 105 (215) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4017/4490692603_8f9fcf3f7f.jpg" alt="Week 105 (215)" height="500" width="334" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />That evening we tried Saketini, a sushi restaurant on Albertson's Parkway.<br />Their regular rolls were alright.<br />Their spicy tuna was really hot.<br /><br />What was awesome though was the Candy Cane Roll ($13) and the Tuti-Fruiti Roll ($14).<br />Pretty pricey, but worth trying.<br /><br />C'mon, who-da thunk 15 years ago that the metropolis of Broussard would someday be the home of three sushi restaurants?<br /><br />Behold $70 worth of food.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4491334798/" title="Week 105 (237) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2691/4491334798_94f8340ba0.jpg" alt="Week 105 (237)" height="335" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br />Eating healthy ain't cheap.<br />Maybe that's why we don't do it much.<br />Yeah, that's my story.<br /><br /><br /><br />Speaking of eating habits (do I ever not?) my immediate family gathered Sunday morning at Another Broken Egg.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4490698547/" title="Week 105 (53) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4008/4490698547_f463187fba.jpg" alt="Week 105 (53)" height="375" width="500" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4490697459/" title="Week 105 (50) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2727/4490697459_4c7cfc854a.jpg" alt="Week 105 (50)" height="500" width="375" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />So let's play a guessing game.<br /><br />Which plate belongs to a former college athlete who still works out and maintains a healthy lifestyle, and which one belongs to a lazy lawyer who doesn't work out and can only do a pull up by virtue of weighing just slightly more than most 10 year old girls?<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4490699797/" title="Week 105 (55) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2679/4490699797_0ea7870ce1.jpg" alt="Week 105 (55)" height="375" width="500" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4491341262/" title="Week 105 (58) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4067/4491341262_1d83545006.jpg" alt="Week 105 (58)" height="375" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br />it's not a trick question.<br /><br />But I enjoyed the hell out of my cinnamon roll french toast with cream cheese icing and whipped cream.<br />and<span style="font-weight: bold;"> fruit</span>.<br />Don't forget that I ate fruit.<br /><br /><br />And, by chance, as Riley and I were hunting bugs and sniffing flowers outside while everyone else ate, Anna's family arrived and my Mom got to see her two grandsons and proxy granddaughter for Easter.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4491342390/" title="Week 105 (61) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4020/4491342390_5847fe6326.jpg" alt="Week 105 (61)" height="375" width="500" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4491343528/" title="Week 105 (62) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4049/4491343528_5c492d0df3.jpg" alt="Week 105 (62)" height="500" width="357" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />Before you click away, this is one of two posts for the week, so you're not quite done.<br />Keep reading. (it's worth it 'cause I tell you how you won't have to read much anymore)bwallacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10526874860461455422noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2001447615443225961.post-35138670599441038152010-04-04T17:15:00.011-05:002010-04-05T06:00:22.791-05:00Just Like Babs & Brett, Cher2 years and 5 months ago, I created a dinky layout on Blogger, posted the news that Joan was pregnant with our first gender unknown (at the time) child, and mailed the link to a handful of family and friends.<br /><br />Back then, he/she/it looked like this<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/1473343321/" title="12 weeks by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1027/1473343321_90087563ea.jpg" alt="12 weeks" height="417" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />Since then, I've logged on 173 times to write about our life.<br /><br /><br />Sometimes we were at the beach, and sometimes we were in a bad dream that we'll never wake up from, but we always had pictures.<br /><br />This has been my haven from the wasteland of Sunday evening TV, and a pressure relief valve for the corny, weak jokes floating in my head.<br /><br />It's been a way for far flung relatives to feel like they're here, a way for my Dad to proudly showoff his grandson to his friends at work, and a way for us to preserve memories that are too often crowded out by the small stuff that won't really matter in a few days/week/years.<br /><br /><br />Now, 25 lbs and over 25,000 hits later (from all over the globe), the star of the show looks like this.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4491232657/" title="Week 105 (26) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4034/4491232657_4a7f7c46a7.jpg" alt="Week 105 (26)" height="500" width="333" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4491233295/" title="Week 104 (163) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2727/4491233295_653ce8fe3f.jpg" alt="Week 104 (163)" height="500" width="375" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4491239805/" title="Week 102 (31) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2711/4491239805_33c7df175a.jpg" alt="Week 102 (31)" height="500" width="335" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />As anyone with a kid knows, at first everything is new.<br />After a while, things settle down and start to get routine.<br /><br />Sure, he's barely two and uses sentences more complex than half the population of our state, but that doesn't translate to a blog post.<br /><br />It started getting harder and harder to make something happen here every Sunday, so a few months back, I set an arbitrary deadline for myself--- I would post regularly until he turned two, then I would walk away (kinda).<br /><br />Tuesday of this week marked his second birthday, and, with that, my deadline.<br /><br />I now officially enter (semi) retirement.<br /><br />I have removed my self obligating edict to post here every Sunday.<br /><br />But I'm not quitting cold turkey.<br /><br />I mean, Shifty Shellshock has been on three seasons on Celebrity Rehab and he's still smoking meth.<br /><br />Why would I be any different?<br /><br /><br />I don't want to set the bar higher than ground level, or create any expectations, but, in the future, I will only post when I feel that there is something that has to be said or seen.<br />Imagine that.<br />Quality over quantity.<br />How novel?<br /><br /><br />Maybe it'll gives me the motivation to live an interesting life, in hopes of coming here and getting my little fix.<br /><br />Or maybe not.<br /><br /><br />Maybe I'll actually learn Spanish or learn to play the beautiful Ovation Adamas carbon fiber guitar sitting in the guest room that I've never really committed to.<br /><br />The possibilities are endless and limited only by my patience and pain tolerance.<span style="font-size:78%;"> <span style="font-size:85%;">(shucks, the future doesn't sound quite so rosey anymore</span>)</span><br /><br /><br /><br />I know. I hear you through the interweb tubes and you are saying "Why all of the melodrama for the semi-end of a dinky blog about some kid?"<br />And for that question I have no answer.<br /><br /><br />But I do want to thank everyone who has read, commented, emailed, and even said "hey" in real life.<br /><br />Since it probably won't be worth a click to stop by once a week, as many people do, I ask that you please sign up over in the right sidebar to receive notifications, via email, when new posts come.<br /><br /><br />Riley doesn't like it when people stop paying attention to him, as demonstrated by the change in his demeanor when Anna became distracted during their Ring Around the Rosey show.<br /><br /><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="640" height="360" data="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000"> <param name="flashvars" value="intl_lang=en-us&photo_secret=3f901f1d08&photo_id=4491537313&hd_default=false"></param> <param name="movie" value="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377"></param> <param name="bgcolor" value="#000000"></param> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377" bgcolor="#000000" allowfullscreen="true" flashvars="intl_lang=en-us&photo_secret=3f901f1d08&photo_id=4491537313&hd_default=false" height="360" width="640"></embed></object><br /><br /><br /><br />Like Barbara Streisand, Brett Favre and Cher, we'll be back, and we hope you're here when we return.<br /><br />(maybe we shouldn't try to be like three people I can't stand. oh well)bwallacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10526874860461455422noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2001447615443225961.post-86775454359180397622010-03-28T17:39:00.006-05:002010-03-28T21:05:06.214-05:00Scaled BackSo, for those of you not in the know, Toy Story 1 & 2 came out this week on BluRay and DVD.<br />We watched TS2 on Blu Ray and it is awesome.<br />It was almost like there were a bunch of toys actually playing in our TV.<br />I highly recommend going out and getting them both. They've got some pretty good deals going if you do a little net searching first.<br /><br />and don't forget, before you buy a stand-alone Blu Ray player, compare its costs to a PS3.<br />Going with the PS3 is probably worth it.<br /><br /><br /><br />On to the weekend:<br />Loyal readers will remember that for Riley's first birthday we had a crawfish boil for over 75 people (see "Its Big and Fun" in the right sidebar)<br />This year, for a number of reasons, we decided to scale things back alot.<br />Saturday we had just our immediate families, Riley's Nanny and her beau, Jeff, over.<br /><br />The small scale gave Riley a chance to give and get some cousinly love (appropriately, not hillbillily)<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4471648978/" title="Week 104 (21) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4039/4471648978_1e56f3258a.jpg" alt="Week 104 (21)" height="335" width="500" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4470870877/" title="Week 104 (26) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4032/4470870877_5d7d11fdeb.jpg" alt="Week 104 (26)" height="500" width="357" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />Of course, if you've been here before, you know that this week's title has nothing to do with our bathroom scale.<br /><br />Never a family to make healthy decisions, we opted not just for cake, but also for bread pudding from Johnson's Boucaniere.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4470863873/" title="Week 104 (11) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2768/4470863873_3767fee6d3.jpg" alt="Week 104 (11)" height="334" width="500" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4470866793/" title="Week 104 (20) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4020/4470866793_7554341d39.jpg" alt="Week 104 (20)" height="334" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />the local bread pudding looked even better on the Lafayette landmark plate that Eli and 'Manda got us for Christmas.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4471645418/" title="Week 104 (13) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4071/4471645418_a5ee652e4a.jpg" alt="Week 104 (13)" height="334" width="500" /></a><br />(click to get to the full size w/ detail)<br /><br /><br /><br />The cake was from Anjo's.<br />We've had it before when they call it Mardi Gras cake, but this week it is Easter Cake.<br /><br />three different layers of cake: yellow, raspberry and almond.<br />Two different fillings: strawberry and White<br />Coated with a light whipped icing.<br /><br />It is really good, especially chilled.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4470880759/" title="Week 104 (65) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4067/4470880759_92022aab71.jpg" alt="Week 104 (65)" height="334" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />Riley was eager to dig in and had to be held back<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4471654232/" title="Week 104 (53) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4030/4471654232_cf673f1105.jpg" alt="Week 104 (53)" height="334" width="500" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4470875965/" title="Week 104 (56) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4008/4470875965_84b6842046.jpg" alt="Week 104 (56)" height="334" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />and was surprisingly successful at blowing out the candle.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4470877525/" title="Week 104 (58) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4055/4470877525_e2a9aaccb5.jpg" alt="Week 104 (58)" height="334" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />Riley and Caroline enjoyed.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4470935069/" title="Week 104 (62) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2710/4470935069_dbb4fdf3e9.jpg" alt="Week 104 (62)" height="335" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />Frankly, one of the reasons for a scaled down party is we wouldn't have room for a whole lot of presents. But Riley did like the "new toys" he got.<br /><br />While I hoped he would hop right on his new Strider bike, he refused.<br />He likes walking with it, but just not in the straddle position.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4470940361/" title="Week 104 (43) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4070/4470940361_ce43d77958.jpg" alt="Week 104 (43)" height="335" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />but its got a spinning wheel, which is all he requires for a premium plaything.<br /><br /><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" height="360" width="640"> <param name="flashvars" value="intl_lang=en-us&photo_secret=499e9f77a3&photo_id=4471560026&hd_default=false"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377"> <param name="bgcolor" value="#000000"> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377" bgcolor="#000000" allowfullscreen="true" flashvars="intl_lang=en-us&photo_secret=499e9f77a3&photo_id=4471560026&hd_default=false" height="360" width="640"></embed></object><br /><br /><br /><br />and to go along with the new Toy Story DVDs, he got Woody and Buzz toys, and Toy Story coloring supplies, along with a bunch of helicopters and a new, giant Tonka truck.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4471662612/" title="Week 104 (96) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4047/4471662612_9fff5901f9.jpg" alt="Week 104 (96)" height="334" width="500" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4470884351/" title="Week 104 (98) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2682/4470884351_025e4f3acf.jpg" alt="Week 104 (98)" height="334" width="500" /></a><br /><br />(in an attempt to excuse the character themed commercialism that we usually try to eschew, here's my justification for all of the Disney stuff: We're trying to prep him for our Disney trip in December, and since the TS characters are everywhere, we're trying to get him to know and love them. But I still stick to my two Commandments. Thou shalt not bring Elmo into my home; and Thou Shalt not bring Barney into my home, lest ye face the wrath of.....me? scary, huh?)<br /><br /><br />Lesley, having recently been to the Super Bowl, tried to teach Riley to catch.<br />Unsuccessful in this take.<br /><br /><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" height="360" width="640"> <param name="flashvars" value="intl_lang=en-us&photo_secret=8b4ee8aa5f&photo_id=4471587240&hd_default=false"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377"> <param name="bgcolor" value="#000000"> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377" bgcolor="#000000" allowfullscreen="true" flashvars="intl_lang=en-us&photo_secret=8b4ee8aa5f&photo_id=4471587240&hd_default=false" height="360" width="640"></embed></object><br /><br /><br /><br />But Jeff, who was at the big game with her, did better with handoff technique<br /><br /><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" height="360" width="640"> <param name="flashvars" value="intl_lang=en-us&photo_secret=fb92447ba7&photo_id=4470810751&hd_default=false"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377"> <param name="bgcolor" value="#000000"> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377" bgcolor="#000000" allowfullscreen="true" flashvars="intl_lang=en-us&photo_secret=fb92447ba7&photo_id=4470810751&hd_default=false" height="360" width="640"></embed></object><br /><br /><br /><br />To finish off the evening, we ordered from BJ's.<br />Hard to beat a good old Full House.<br />and for those that don't know, their sausage pizza uses breakfast style sausage. Killa!<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4470887547/" title="Week 104 (101) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2753/4470887547_4c45328038.jpg" alt="Week 104 (101)" height="334" width="500" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4470886209/" title="Week 104 (100) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4045/4470886209_e37e144f9d.jpg" alt="Week 104 (100)" height="334" width="500" /></a><br />(don't forget about 40% off Mondays)<br /><br /><br /><br />Sunday, being the nerds we are, we were cooking for the week by 8am.<br />The weather was nice, so for the first time in months, I cranked up the Egg and seared up some fajita meat from HEB.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4471672228/" title="Week 104 (119) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4011/4471672228_5b11fdf121.jpg" alt="Week 104 (119)" height="375" width="500" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4470893281/" title="Week 104 (120) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4034/4470893281_16224bbaff.jpg" alt="Week 104 (120)" height="375" width="500" /></a><br /><br />It should be good once we finish all the cake and bread pudding that we've been substituting for meals.<br /><br /><br /><br />Later, despite previously witnessing juvenille violent crime and a train derailment (catch a first person account at the Tanory Tantrum) we headed to the zoo.<br /><br />Since I'm pretty open here I'll let you know our reason: The reason we went to the zoo was that he saw his stroller in Joan's car and said, "That's Riley's stroller. I go see animals at zoo."<br /><br />So, of course, we went to the zoo. Who's the Boss?<br /><br /><br />Despite the crowd that would seem trashy even by WalMart standards, and the general filth that permeates the zoo, its actually a pretty cool resource to have nearby.<br /><br />You can get close to the animals and run up a hill.<br />That's 100% compliance for certification as an official "Cool Zoo to a 2 Year Old"<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4470895319/" title="Week 104 (130) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2700/4470895319_b1a3893bea.jpg" alt="Week 104 (130)" height="375" width="500" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4471677136/" title="Week 104 (140) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4052/4471677136_f84d3bfe8f.jpg" alt="Week 104 (140)" height="375" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />The highlight of the trip was that he got to ride to lunch in Nonnie's Jeep.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4470900515/" title="Week 104 (144) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2681/4470900515_c9035abd71.jpg" alt="Week 104 (144)" height="375" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br />Lunch at Royal Panda was typical. Riley acted like a ham and Caroline ate like an adult.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4471681242/" title="Week 104 (145) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4034/4471681242_42ccb603bd.jpg" alt="Week 104 (145)" height="375" width="500" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4470902715/" title="Week 104 (146) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2780/4470902715_6c35605522.jpg" alt="Week 104 (146)" height="375" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />the little bit he did eat consisted mainly of his first ice cream cone.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4470903567/" title="Week 104 (152) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4024/4470903567_12845ec1fc.jpg" alt="Week 104 (152)" height="375" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />But, as you can see, he is pretty inefficient and not understanding that eating an ice cream cone is a race against the clock.<br /><br /><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" height="360" width="640"> <param name="flashvars" value="intl_lang=en-us&photo_secret=8172c46e84&photo_id=4471642590&hd_default=false"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377"> <param name="bgcolor" value="#000000"> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377" bgcolor="#000000" allowfullscreen="true" flashvars="intl_lang=en-us&photo_secret=8172c46e84&photo_id=4471642590&hd_default=false" height="360" width="640"></embed></object><br /><br /><br /><br />then, since he dropped his cool guy sunglasses into the monkey moat at the zoo, we were forced to bravely venture into the mall.<br />He actually fit in a little (to the extent that, like most people there, his clothes were too small for him.)<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4470905223/" title="Week 104 (163) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2792/4470905223_ce28697ba0.jpg" alt="Week 104 (163)" height="500" width="375" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4471684154/" title="Week 104 (161) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2767/4471684154_789034aa46.jpg" alt="Week 104 (161)" height="500" width="375" /></a><br />(I know, those shots have nothing to do with that stament, but I like 'em so i'll post 'em)<br /><br /><br /><br />Finally, a video clip to give all you mothers out there a heart attack.<br /><br />A game Uncle Eli and I created this summer that we call "That Thing Where We Each Hold an Arm and a Leg and Spin Him."<br />Riley likes it.<br /><br /><br /><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" height="360" width="640"> <param name="flashvars" value="intl_lang=en-us&photo_secret=b145a196ac&photo_id=4470797501&hd_default=false"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377"> <param name="bgcolor" value="#000000"> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377" bgcolor="#000000" allowfullscreen="true" flashvars="intl_lang=en-us&photo_secret=b145a196ac&photo_id=4470797501&hd_default=false" height="360" width="640"></embed></object><br /><br /><br />Unfortunately Necessary Disclaimer- We are very careful not to swing him too hard and not to put any shock forces on his joints. 'Bout as safe as you can be and still have fun. But thanks to me, we've almost met our deductible this year, so whats a little ER visit?bwallacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10526874860461455422noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2001447615443225961.post-9364834376175499442010-03-21T07:42:00.007-05:002010-03-21T17:48:47.715-05:00How big is the hill?As much as I would love to regale you with wondrous, hilarious, adventurous tales from this past week, I won't.<br />Why?<br />because it was a pretty routine-ish week.<br /><br />Now, that won't stop me from posting, it'll just stop me from gaining any new readers.<br /><br />To save time we'll fast forward to Friday, the day on which I embarked on my fourth decade on the planet. (that sounds way older than saying 30)<br /><br />I started the day exactly like most youngsters do, having blood drawn for tests and making a cardiologist appointment.<br /><br />If that doesn't scream "youth" I don't know what does.<br /><br />Which brings me to philosophical ponderings:<br /><br />When are you over the hill?<br />30, 40, 50?<br /><br />And is the hill the same for everyone?<br />Going back 2 generations, I only have one direct-line ascendant who has made it past 60, so if the hill is a flexible concept, I'm on the downslope.<br />Joan, on the other hand, has never had a relative die before 80 <span style="font-size:85%;">(i think)</span> and still has some living relatives who went to school with Abe Lincoln<span style="font-size:85%;"> (or as they called him, Funny-Hat McBeardface)</span>. Thus, though older than me, she is still little-engine-that-could'ing up the grade.<br /><br />Stick that in your pipe and smoke it. <span style="font-size:85%;">(if that's legal in your state)</span><br /><br /><br />But, as a birthday present to me, I gave me the day off.<br /><br />It was borderline warm enough for Jeeping, so Riley and I went topless to Bach Lunch.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4450689856/" title="Week 103 (3) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2697/4450689856_1be6071174.jpg" alt="Week 103 (3)" height="500" width="375" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />The place was crowded for the great weather and Bonsoir Catin.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4450690574/" title="Week 103 (5) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2702/4450690574_fb708332a3.jpg" alt="Week 103 (5)" height="375" width="500" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4450691572/" title="Week 103 (7) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2696/4450691572_66a2a5283c.jpg" alt="Week 103 (7)" height="375" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />Riley didn't like the volume level and was kinda embarrassed and style cramped to be there with just his old man, so we didn't stay long.<br /><br />To punish him for his scorning me, I went and scored myself a burrito from Taco Sisters and made him watch me eat it while drowning in toddler jealousy.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4449920555/" title="Week 103 (9) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2692/4449920555_4ac4b60e30.jpg" alt="Week 103 (9)" height="375" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />ok, not quite true. Though their burritos are spectacular, he doesn't know it.<br />And, since I'm actually a nice guy, we stopped and saw Granny at work and he had red velvet cake, while I ate.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4451518768/" title="Week 103 (10) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4017/4451518768_d0c117a52a.jpg" alt="Week 103 (10)" height="375" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Product Plug-</span> Taco Sisters is now open 11-2 on Saturdays and until 6 during the week. Well worth the trip down Johnston to Vermilion. this is high quality food. Find 'em on Facebook. If only Taco Sisters and Johnson's would move to the Southside, I could live my life in a 1 mile wide bubble.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Event Plug-</span> Mark your calendars for the Good Friday Bach Lunch in 2 weeks featuring The Howdies. They're the bomb-diggy-yo. Made with Pure Lighting.<br />< /crass commercialism><br /><br /><br /><br />After much needed haircuts, we headed to Downtown Alive to meet most of our family and friends.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4449923391/" title="Week 103 (19) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4045/4449923391_c0a6918dd3.jpg" alt="Week 103 (19)" height="500" width="375" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />Riley and Gabe battled for Nonnie's affection, though they both suck at climbing.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4451533770/" title="Week 103 (25) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4053/4451533770_f01a6b9ec8.jpg" alt="Week 103 (25)" height="375" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />Jake and Gavin got the obligatory "South Louisiana, Make It Look Like the Baby is Drinking" shot.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4449924071/" title="Week 103 (23) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4036/4449924071_cd8459263c.jpg" alt="Week 103 (23)" height="500" width="375" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />and Riley was as cheesy as ever.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4450699234/" title="Week 103 (29) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4019/4450699234_73601e00e1.jpg" alt="Week 103 (29)" height="375" width="500" /></a><br />literally- he had Cheez-its all over his face.<br /><br /><br /><br />Saturday we headed to the cess-pool to visit Heather and Trey's newest accessory, Ian.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4450700076/" title="Week 103 (30) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2750/4450700076_ae0fe3bc42.jpg" alt="Week 103 (30)" height="375" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />Riley was a little confused by the fact that there is a baby whose name is not Gavin, but he got over it by doing some gardening with Ian's big sister, Lillian.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4449928779/" title="Week 103 (34) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4057/4449928779_c54743dc77.jpg" alt="Week 103 (34)" height="500" width="357" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4450703044/" title="Week 103 (35) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4033/4450703044_8ec2efb8c2.jpg" alt="Week 103 (35)" height="375" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />Then, since we can't leave BR without being uncomfortably full, we headed over to Nagoya.<br />Despite dozens of selections of good sushi, traditional Asian buffet items and Pineapple rice......<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4449932611/" title="Week 103 (41) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2778/4449932611_a85d0e8af2.jpg" alt="Week 103 (41)" height="375" width="500" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4449931721/" title="Week 103 (40) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2749/4449931721_2def54c000.jpg" alt="Week 103 (40)" height="375" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br />Riley chose Cheez-its and yogurt. Trailer trash gourmet, but it's in his DNA.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4449930899/" title="Week 103 (37) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2755/4449930899_106bd4fc0e.jpg" alt="Week 103 (37)" height="375" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />and, like always, the highlight was the fish pond, where Riley identified "fish", "turtles", and "trash," the three necessary elements of a thriving aquatic ecosystem.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4449933733/" title="Week 103 (44) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4052/4449933733_212f772623.jpg" alt="Week 103 (44)" height="375" width="500" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4449934611/" title="Week 103 (45) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4038/4449934611_a7ffa7769e.jpg" alt="Week 103 (45)" height="375" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />our abnormally large lunch (by most human standards) precluded dinner that evening, which I think makes it a great bargain. (forget the future medical expenses it accelerates)<br /><br /><br />Sunday morning, ready to once again pig out, we headed to Another Broken Egg with my family and Joan's parents.<br /><br />Gavin eyed the food,<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4450625137/" title="Week 103 (61) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4032/4450625137_541edaf281.jpg" alt="Week 103 (61)" height="500" width="400" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />Riley ignored the food,<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4451397486/" title="Week 103 (63) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4022/4451397486_39bf2f373f.jpg" alt="Week 103 (63)" height="375" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />and I documented the food (specifically my strawberry banana pancake)<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4451398760/" title="Week 103 (65) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2708/4451398760_4789179cd9.jpg" alt="Week 103 (65)" height="375" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br />and, again, I don't think we'll be eating another meal today.<br /><br /><br /><br />Now a couple of stories about the wonders of technology.<br /><br />We were able to find a new home for the squatter dog that showed up last week.<br /><br />We posted her everywhere that someone looking for a lost pet would try, and after 5 days of no response, we deemed her abandoned.<br /><br />Fortunately, we were able to find someone looking for a new pet who picked her up Wednesday.<br /><br />What was cool was how fast the email that i sent to about 30 friends got around. Within a day, people I know in Lafayette were getting the email from people I don't know in other cities.<br />The person who got the dog received the email with at least three degrees separation from anyone I know.<br />It was neat to see the 'net work for something other that than pictures of the People of Wal mart, fake vIAgra and ciAli$ ads, and rumor emails about how various companies and the US Mint have, in fact, killed God.<br /><br /><br />Finally, Joan was very crafty and scored me a pretty cool birthday present, a Canon PowerShot SD960 IS Digital Elph.<br /><br />Most of the shots on this site are taken with our Nikon D60 digital SLR camera, which takes great photos, but isn't always practical to lug around. Our old point & shoot wasn't pocket size and is starting to age, so we now have this one.<br />It is tiny, but takes good shots, boots quickly and shoots video in HD.<br /><br />Here's a few that we played with.<br /><br />Video documentation of an event that was thought extinct 18 months ago--- Caroline allowing herself to be fed, however briefly, with a spoon, by an adult. (she's usually too independent.)<br /><br /><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" height="360" width="640"> <param name="flashvars" value="intl_lang=en-us&photo_secret=a7f5a1b990&photo_id=4451421520&hd_default=false"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377"> <param name="bgcolor" value="#000000"> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377" bgcolor="#000000" allowfullscreen="true" flashvars="intl_lang=en-us&photo_secret=a7f5a1b990&photo_id=4451421520&hd_default=false" height="360" width="640"></embed></object><br /><br /><br /><br />And somehow, from some story book, Riley has concluded that anytime you smell a flower, you have to sneeze. We didn't know this but it worked out to be quite humorous on our Saturday afternoon trip to the nursery.<br /><br /><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" height="360" width="640"> <param name="flashvars" value="intl_lang=en-us&photo_secret=a28c3a1b7c&photo_id=4451431066&hd_default=false"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377"> <param name="bgcolor" value="#000000"> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377" bgcolor="#000000" allowfullscreen="true" flashvars="intl_lang=en-us&photo_secret=a28c3a1b7c&photo_id=4451431066&hd_default=false" height="360" width="640"></embed></object><br /><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" height="360" width="640"> <param name="flashvars" value="intl_lang=en-us&photo_secret=403154388e&photo_id=4450667759&hd_default=false"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377"> <param name="bgcolor" value="#000000"> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377" bgcolor="#000000" allowfullscreen="true" flashvars="intl_lang=en-us&photo_secret=403154388e&photo_id=4450667759&hd_default=false" height="360" width="640"></embed></object><br /><br /><br />and finally, the ABC's.<br />I told him he had to know the alphabet before he turned 2, or he was going to boarding school in Kazakhstan.<br />But given the current exchange rate between the US dollar and the Kazakh Tenge, I'll call this substantially correct enough to keep him around.<br /><br /><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" height="360" width="640"> <param name="flashvars" value="intl_lang=en-us&photo_secret=aaf441e66d&photo_id=4451484866&hd_default=false"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377"> <param name="bgcolor" value="#000000"> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377" bgcolor="#000000" allowfullscreen="true" flashvars="intl_lang=en-us&photo_secret=aaf441e66d&photo_id=4451484866&hd_default=false" height="360" width="640"></embed></object><br /><br /><br /><br />Next weekend he gets his birthday bike. and I can post that here, because he doesn't like this site, so he'll never see it.<br />He probably won't like the bike, but it'll make me feel cool, and that's why we have kids anyway, right?<br />no, seriously, you agree, huh?bwallacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10526874860461455422noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2001447615443225961.post-59778927252747489822010-03-15T16:43:00.013-05:002010-03-16T07:01:07.507-05:00Feeling The ModelsStill having internet trouble, but I'll try to knock this out while I seem to be getting through.<br /><br />If you're just stopping by for the first time this week, please see the post below regarding a stray dog that has taken up residence in our front yard.<br /><br /> We can't keep her but we don't want her to die. If you know of a friendly home, please let us know.<br /><br />The dog is really cramping Riley's style. Earlier in the week, we had resumed the garage breakfast picnic which actually gets Riley to eat and helps him learn lots of words like "Slow down jacka$$" and "Look it's Tweedle Dumb and Tweedler Dumb."<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4435238482/" title="Week 102 (1) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4062/4435238482_c953802ff2.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="Week 102 (1)" /></a><br />(though the dog is friendly, we're trying to keep her out of the garage, mostly because she doesn't want to leave once she's in.)<br /><br /><br />Making signs, calling shelters and trying to get the dog to find its old home took up most of our Saturday. But we did have a chance to go and test drive a van that we'll likely be buying in the next 6-8 months or so.<br /><br />After realizing that we would have to buy a $300 ticket for Riley to fly to Orlando, we decided it would be better to drive, but that driving would require a new vehicle. <br /><br />So, to save $300, we're going to spend $XX,000.<br />Makes sense doesn't it?<br /><br />We got Riley to consent to the test drive by telling him it was a "Disney World van"<br /><br /><br />For at least a year, we have know that a mini-van is the most practical choice for Joan's next car, but she refused to relinquish her self identification as being "young" and "cool." That is until the 2011 Toyota Siennas came out. <br />Saturday, we headed down to Musson Patout so see the color we want in person. <br />We know know exactly what we want and are just waiting until the timing is right financially to pull the trigger. <br />Behold the 2011 Toyota Sienna in Pre-Dawn Gray.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4436103249/" title="01_2011toyotasiennafd by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2756/4436103249_4818889e69.jpg" width="500" height="233" alt="01_2011toyotasiennafd" /></a><br /><br />But if the 2011 Odysseys look good when they come out, then we're back to square one. Unfortunately though, their preview pics are pretty bad, so it seems like our decision is made for us.<br /><br /><br />Now, for your entertainment purposes, that leaves just Sunday.<br /><br /><br />In honor of Dr. Uncle Paul's birthday and in order to give Riley some face time with his long lost Nanny, we headed down to NO to check out the last weekend of the Disney animation exhibit at the Museum of Art.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4435243124/" title="Week 102 (40) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4066/4435243124_f6a3d33f80.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="Week 102 (40)" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />I can tell you it was a certifiably great idea, judging by the fact that EVERYONE else in Louisiana was there except for you. (yes, I do mean<span style="font-weight:bold;"> you</span>, my Everyman-ish reader.)<br />The exhibit looked pretty cool, but was really crowded and Riley needed a nap after traffic had stretched our drive an extra 45 minutes.<br /><br /><br />After the museum we ate at Theo's Pizza near the corner of Carrolton and Canal. <br />Riley wasn't in a pizza mood, but proudly demonstrated his ever evolving yogurt eating skills.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4435245022/" title="Week 102 (51) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4041/4435245022_4b1be3f7ae.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="Week 102 (51)" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />The place seems pretty hip and instead of a number identifying your table, you sport a placard with a cool-cat cult figure. We happened to be Christopher Walken.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4434475609/" title="Week 102 (73) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4044/4434475609_4996ac0e3c.jpg" width="357" height="500" alt="Week 102 (73)" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />The food was pretty good, but Riley was much more impressed by the beautiful day outside and the sights of New Orleans.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4434472835/" title="Week 102 (63) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4046/4434472835_caa3956208.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="Week 102 (63)" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4436303304/" title="Week 102 (70) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4048/4436303304_6be01d6287.jpg" width="500" height="335" alt="Week 102 (70)" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />He took special delight in his massacre of, literally, micrograms of ants who dared to scurry about his sidewalk domain.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4434471913/" title="Week 102 (61) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4027/4434471913_c1a8e4bb95.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="Week 102 (61)" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4435245978/" title="Week 102 (58) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2695/4435245978_9e9878772f.jpg" width="400" height="500" alt="Week 102 (58)" /></a><br /><br />(while brandishing a 2 inch long pointed stick as an ant smasher, his kill accuracy was on par with Bobby Hebert's pronunciation accuracy after a Saints win)<br /><br /><br /><br />He also found it hilarious to tell me that he had ants in his mouth.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4434473719/" title="Week 102 (67) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4068/4434473719_e777558fce.jpg" width="334" height="500" alt="Week 102 (67)" /></a><br />(his new trick is talking with his tongue out like the Melissa Stevenson song Love To Move)<br /><br /><br />Our plan was to then head to the Audubon zoo. <br />This weekend was Soul Fest and we were hoping to catch Rebirth and maybe a little soul food.<br /><br />Unfortunately, it looked like everyone in Louisiana (except you) was at the zoo too.(though you were "axt" for by the monkeys, tigers and elephants)<br /><br />We were still a half mile from the zoo and people were parking on the side of the road and walking. Definite no go with two nap deficient 2 year olds.<br /><br /><br />Instead we made the oh so undesirable compromise of going to Creole Creamery and contributing to the local economy, and the general decline of our own health.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4434482633/" title="Week 102 (120) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4028/4434482633_cc287c37a0.jpg" width="357" height="500" alt="Week 102 (120)" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4434480833/" title="Week 102 (102) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4016/4434480833_703a22f5eb.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="Week 102 (102)" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />As I've posted before, this place does mini scoop samplers and with a menu like this, it is hard to choose just a few.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4434480007/" title="Week 102 (101) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2708/4434480007_f1e5393955.jpg" width="334" height="500" alt="Week 102 (101)" /></a><br /><br /><br />The hit of the day, for the women folk, was the Lavender and Honey, while the mens were all hopped up by the Guinness Cherry Stout, (get it?) which actually tasted like cherry and beer ice cream. Quite cool.<br /><br />Riley showed us how it looks to live life like no one is looking at you, while Caroline, knowing that people were looking, tried to camouflage herself with ice cream.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4435252396/" title="Week 102 (94) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4047/4435252396_4c87cb3946.jpg" width="400" height="500" alt="Week 102 (94)" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4435254112/" title="Week 102 (98) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2749/4435254112_da2d99acfc.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="Week 102 (98)" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />That's about it aside from these shots of Riley's new Buzz Lightyear pajamas in honor of the re-release of the first two Toy Story movies.<br /><br />To Infinity and Beyond<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4435242138/" title="Week 102 (35) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4028/4435242138_35abf8160f.jpg" width="357" height="500" alt="Week 102 (35)" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4434465417/" title="Week 102 (30) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2680/4434465417_29e204341c.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="Week 102 (30)" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />PS- In addition to recommendations on where to send the stray dog, we're also taking pro and con advice on Toyota salesmen/dealerships. Thanks.bwallacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10526874860461455422noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2001447615443225961.post-25026755686805958742010-03-15T07:00:00.004-05:002010-03-17T15:53:24.264-05:00Temporary Solution<strong>Thanks to all who helped spread the word, we found the dog a new home, so disregard this post but for memory's sake.</strong><br /><br /><br />Got in late last night and having crappy internet this morning.<br />hopefully a real post will come this evening.<br /><br />But in the meantime:<br /><br />Friday evening an adult female, fat dog, looking to be a yellow lab mix took up residence on our doorstep and will not leave.<br />She has no tags and no microchip implant.<br />i've walked her all around the neighborhood and she hasn't gone toward any home. I have signs up in our 'hood and those around us.<br />The local no kill options seem to all be full.<br /><br />Anyone have any suggestions or want a dog?<br />She's very friendly and soft, and was clean.<br />If we dont hear something in the next few days, we may have to do what we don't want to do and take her to the parish pound which is a pretty bad place to be a stray adult dog.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_eyf27xCkgOk/S54lt4AkiNI/AAAAAAAAACY/VmxVZC5_vFY/s1600-h/DSC_6808.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_eyf27xCkgOk/S54lt4AkiNI/AAAAAAAAACY/VmxVZC5_vFY/s320/DSC_6808.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5448834069223999698" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_eyf27xCkgOk/S54l6_iIhbI/AAAAAAAAACg/3rgwi4nYzf8/s1600-h/DSC_6805.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_eyf27xCkgOk/S54l6_iIhbI/AAAAAAAAACg/3rgwi4nYzf8/s320/DSC_6805.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5448834294582117810" /></a>bwallacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10526874860461455422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2001447615443225961.post-18565675322357654172010-03-07T14:34:00.004-06:002010-03-08T06:44:03.514-06:00Plugging AwayWeek 101 of Riley's life is in the books and we can call it a success (but not quite as successful as 101 spotted dogs may be)<br /><br />and fyi, by successful, I mean no future ward of the state randomly kicked my kid in the face. We aim high.<br /><br />But I'm going to stay away from the anger this week. There's a couple of products/sites I want to point out and don't want them associated with my violent wishes.<br /><br />Not much to report from the weekdays, so I won't.<br /><br /><br />Saturday though, we, well... did what we normally do.<br /><br />Since the weather was pretty nice, we dusted off the Jeep and headed to Johnson's, where we were joined by Shane, Tara and Eli.<br /><br />They too have suffered a tragic, unexpected loss this year, so it was nice to get to see them and just hang out in a normal (read: non-hospital or funeral) setting. And, of course, we talked Disney, since I just booked our December trip this week.<br /><br />Riley and Eli stayed occupied for a while because Eli's parents, unlike Riley's, have the foresight to bring toys.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4415040238/" title="Week 101 (8) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4060/4415040238_f6543d5f52.jpg" alt="Week 101 (8)" height="334" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />But they eventually found their way to Riley's favorite area, the gravel.<br /><br />If Johnson's would just fence in that area so that we don't have to pay attention to our kid, the place would be perfect. :)<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4415042414/" title="Week 101 (11) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2742/4415042414_a2b683711e.jpg" alt="Week 101 (11)" height="334" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />Finally, in a "game" designed to get Riley closer to a state of nap-readiness, I tested how far he was willing to run to fetch a ball. <br />Considering his short inseam, I'd say, to scale, he did close to a half marathon.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4415044402/" title="Week 101 (24) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4071/4415044402_503c5a6680.jpg" alt="Week 101 (24)" height="334" width="500" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4414279017/" title="Week 101 (33) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2697/4414279017_7a01343732.jpg" alt="Week 101 (33)" height="500" width="400" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />To live up to our promise that he would get to feed ducks, we headed over to Girard Park where there was not a parking spot to be found. <br />We then, being the spontaneous, flexible, random people that we are famous for being, headed to Veterans Park where the ducks are pitiful and gross (ok, the live ducks are pitiful. the dead ducks are gross.)<br /><br />But ONE was hungry, so we partially lived up to the representation that he would feed duck<span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">S<br /><br /></span></span><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4414281069/" title="Week 101 (52) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4061/4414281069_f58f533cb3.jpg" width="357" height="500" alt="Week 101 (52)" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />Post duck letdown, Mommy and Daddy tried to get the yard/flower bed at least half a chance at looking good this year.<br />We also broke out the Cozy Coupe that we bought before Christmas.<br /><br />I'm pretty handy but that thing was such a huge pain to put together. They put 4 inch screws in spaces only 6 inches wide and just generally make things way harder than they need to be.<br /><br />Then after at least an hour of fighting this chunk of plastic, Riley climbed in, and he's almost too tall for it. He's middle of the pack height-wise for a kid who is almost 2, and his legs are too long for it. He can barely move it without hitting wheels or pinning his feet.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4414284907/" title="Week 101 (56) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4009/4414284907_486fdfe78f.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="Week 101 (56)" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />But he really likes the siren sounds that came with the fire & rescue package.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4415050876/" title="Week 101 (54) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4041/4415050876_a6b4ef8600.jpg" width="400" height="500" alt="Week 101 (54)" /></a><br /><br />and the fact that it is hard to use will hopefully push him toward his birthday present, a Strider Bike.<br /><br /><br />We finished off the evening with Wall-E on Blu-ray on our "new" Tv in our new entertainment center from <span style="font-weight:bold;">Cajun Closets</span>. Visually stunning.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4414290555/" title="Week 101 (68) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4054/4414290555_f0379f552e.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="Week 101 (68)" /></a><br /><br /><br />Long time readers may remember that Cajun Closets put in the closet in Riley's room, which has been incredibly practical, and I think we're going to love the entertainment center just as much.<br /><br />It turned out looking really nice. It's actually almost too nice for the rest of our house.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4415059930/" title="Week 101 (73) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4027/4415059930_49484000c2.jpg" width="500" height="335" alt="Week 101 (73)" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />We've got nice lighting across the top shelf<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4414297227/" title="Week 101 (82) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2764/4414297227_f2f7602300.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="Week 101 (82)" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />But, best of all, we have tons of storage.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4414298905/" title="Week 101 (86) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4049/4414298905_65e42d887a.jpg" width="500" height="374" alt="Week 101 (86)" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />And, like everything you read here, this thing is deep. (24 inches to be exact)<br />That has allowed us to have decorations toward the front, with baskets full of DVD's, cd's, and accessories partially hidden toward the back.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4415063302/" title="Week 101 (78) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4062/4415063302_2ef8acc085.jpg" width="334" height="500" alt="Week 101 (78)" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />Then, because we custom designed the system, we've got enough space to later accommodate a 70 inch TV. Werd up!<br /><br /><br />I really can't stress how happy we've been with their products. A few of our friends have also used them and have been really happy.<br /><br />Look to your right for the link to the Cajun Closets website when you need a closet, entertainment center or any other organizational solution.<br />My cousin Erin does their sales, so tell her you heard about them here.<br />It probably wont get you anything, but maybe it will get me something (kickbacks rock, I would expect)<br /><br /><br /><br />The second product to plug is this cool hard plastic popcorn tub they are selling at Target for $1 right now. Nothing special, but a neat idea for that cheap.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4414288867/" title="Week 101 (64) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2769/4414288867_d6477c1f35.jpg" width="400" height="500" alt="Week 101 (64)" /></a><br /><br /><br />and finally, I would direct your attention to the links on the right and a new blog on the list, The Tanory Tantrum.<br /><br />The blog is actually written by someone I went to school with 15+ years ago. I was directed to it recently, by a mutual friend, and liked it immediately.<br /><br />If you like CajunBabyWallace, you should really like The Tanory Tantrum.<br />Same basic theme- cute kid with a smart-ass dad, but Bobby is consistently funny.<br />Check it out.<br /><br />(when I reach my self imposed contractual obligation of keeping this up until Riley's second birthday, which is only a few weeks away, I don't want to leave you out in the cold.)bwallacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10526874860461455422noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2001447615443225961.post-10744338018439908352010-02-28T15:54:00.011-06:002010-02-28T21:19:58.394-06:00Wishing You all the Worst , Kid!So, dearest followers, a post here means that our desktop pc is back up and running, thanks to the skills of Paul and some scavenged Frankenstein parts (Thank you, Aunt Connie!).<br /><br />Below this pos,t you should find a make up post from last week.<br /><br />Double the pleasure? Double the fun? (sorry, no sets of twin models)<br /><br />The week was pretty slow.<br />We spent a couple of evenings finishing up our entertainment center, which came out awesome.<br />I'm going to wait to post about that next week though, because of the tone that this post takes later. Don't want to drag any good company down with that.<br /><br /><br />Wednesday, I went to the doctor who, after extensive interrogation, stuck to the theory that any problems I'm having are caused by my gall bladder, and that the way to fix it is to cut it out. He agreed though, that it may be wise to wait it out to see what my symptoms will be and if they are bearable.<br /><br />Pain once or twice a month with a gall bladder may be preferable to the risks of permanent bathroom related side effects that come with its removal.<br /><br />Regardless (not irregardless), I'll be seeing a GI doc for a full work up and getting a gauge on what, if any, problems I'll continue to have.<br /><br /><br />Friday was Caroline's 2nd birthday, and since her Mommy is laid up with the sickness right now, the birthday girl and her Daddy headed in to town and hung out here.<br /><br />Saturday, we headed to the Cajundome for Riley's first stage show, Curious George Live.<br />We had really good seats because we bought early.<br />But, judging by the fact that no one was there, we probably could have held out and still been ok.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4396426688/" title="Week 100 (18) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2776/4396426688_04d2f292f9.jpg" alt="Week 100 (18)" height="375" width="500" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4395658513/" title="Week 100 (88) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4068/4395658513_99daf64fe4.jpg" alt="Week 100 (88)" height="375" width="500" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4396427104/" title="Week 100 (89) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4017/4396427104_216844f827.jpg" alt="Week 100 (89)" height="375" width="500" /></a><br /><br />Riley was initially freaked out by the loud music, but settled in once he saw George.<br /><br />He spent the second act feeding my Mom popcorn, but he never caused trouble.<br /><br />After the show, everyone came back here, where we were joined by Caroline's Granny Jill, for Caroline's birthday cake.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4396219104/" title="Week 100 (20) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2706/4396219104_6dce59569f.jpg" alt="Week 100 (20)" height="334" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />Caroline has recently learned to blow her nose, which made for some interesting, very earnest attempt at candle extinguishment.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4395685757/" title="Week 100 (27) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2789/4395685757_1940f0f1b2.jpg" alt="Week 100 (27)" height="500" width="400" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />but eventually the fire was cleared, non-nasally, and the cousins partook.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4395453681/" title="Week 100 (29) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2738/4395453681_9b68f0ab90.jpg" alt="Week 100 (29)" height="335" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />This morning, we headed to the Zoo of Acadiana, where Mr. Cool was laid back and ready for the day.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4396224340/" title="Week 100 (4) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4026/4396224340_1343f74189.jpg" alt="Week 100 (4)" height="334" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />He wasn't impressed by the llamas' ability to open the chute door on their feed machine, but the adults were. (we're easy)<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4396226178/" title="Week 100 (48) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4003/4396226178_c3ef20897a.jpg" alt="Week 100 (48)" height="334" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br />We were prepared for the playground to be the highlight of the day, as usual.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4396227880/" title="Week 100 (60) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2679/4396227880_e538641ef2.jpg" alt="Week 100 (60)" height="334" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">(Warning: Hatred and anger directed toward a minor follows)</span><br /><br />Unfortunately, after a few minutes, some white trash POS kid named Jace (I'll remember your face) thought it would be fun to walk up to Riley (who was playing on his knees) and just start kicking him in the face. Riley started screaming, Joan told the kid to stop and his grandparents walked over and just stood there watching, never saying anything to us or the kid.<br /><br />My blood is boiling again just thinking about it.<br /><br />Of course, kids are going to do bad things, but without correction, they'll just keep doing it.<br /><br />Those grandparents will be so proud when their sweet little Jace is in prison in 16 years getting treated like Derek Vinyard.<br /><br />But aside from that particular hope for their future, I would also wish them the same fate that Jimmy Pop so eloquently expressed on the lead track from the Hooray for Boobies album (Look it up)<br /><br />Why?<br /><br />Well, I think Chapelle expressed that best in his "Popcopy" sketch (all these references should keep you busy and make up for the lack of content here)<br /><br /><br />Now that I've re-ruined my day, I'm going to wrap this up.<br /><br />But I'll remember that kid's face, and in 16 years, when he's certifiably an adult, I'm gonna wheel my walker over to him and get all Jules-style Ezekiel 25:17 on that punk.<br />(I'm sure I'll be using a walker by 46. that's pretty old)<br /><br /><br />Regulars- you know I'm usually a pretty nice guy (on paper), so to say those things, I've gotta be really mad.<br />So, do me a favor.<br />Next time you see a kid named Jace, kick him in the face, just in case.<br />(ok maybe that suggestion was out of place)bwallacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10526874860461455422noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2001447615443225961.post-39925747959270643622010-02-28T15:53:00.006-06:002010-02-28T21:31:22.912-06:00Last Week (if now was a week ago)As stated above, this is a make up post.<br /><br />I promise you, if i had been able to do it on time, it would have been great, but with the passage of a week, my memories of good one liners have faded and now you're stuck with this.<br /><br />so (assuming the tense of presently being in the past) it was Mardi Gras week, a week I used to really like when I was a kid.<br /><br />I'm fortunate enough to have a great colleague who lives along the parade route, which means we don't have to fight for space, bathrooms, etc, or have much contact with the general public, thus making it worth the trip.<br /><br /><br />Tuesday started pretty cold, and Riley had his first experience wearing gloves, which he tolerated because of their officially licensed Saints emblems.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4395259284/" title="week 99 (60) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4003/4395259284_64e34566dc.jpg" alt="week 99 (60)" height="334" width="500" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4394492891/" title="week 99 (61) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2786/4394492891_8cfedae045.jpg" alt="week 99 (61)" height="500" width="400" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />Riley was tolerant of the parade, but his interest was waning until we met up with another colleague and his daughter, Bayley, who is 10 days older than Riley.<br />Last year she could walk well and he couldn't, so their interaction was limited.<br />This year though, they seemed to hit it off.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4397024862/" title="week 99 (73) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2794/4397024862_95740ab39d.jpg" alt="week 99 (73)" height="335" width="500" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4395267438/" title="week 99 (90) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4008/4395267438_5ca864a626.jpg" alt="week 99 (90)" height="335" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />But we need to teach him that it's not nice to bounce ball off of people's heads.<br />(unless it is us doing it to him, then it's good family fun)<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4394496869/" title="week 99 (83) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2737/4394496869_88c7de1820.jpg" alt="week 99 (83)" height="500" width="400" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />Gavin has joined the crew here this week and Riley is trying to help him fit in.<br />Riley wants to play, but doesn't quite understand that an 8 week old really has no use for a tool set.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4394499959/" title="Week 99 (6) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4046/4394499959_7c4f654c86.jpg" alt="Week 99 (6)" height="375" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />Thursday night, Eli and I headed over to the armpit for a Sevendust show at the Varsity.<br />As usual, these guys are one of the best live shows around, and as long as they keep touring I will keep buying tickets (despite not really listening to their last three or four albums)<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4396276207/" title="Week 99 (22) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4042/4396276207_10191cd05b.jpg" alt="Week 99 (22)" height="500" width="400" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4395269608/" title="Week 99 (38) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4072/4395269608_d78561a436.jpg" alt="Week 99 (38)" height="375" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />On Saturday, we headed back to the armpit for a trip to the zoo with Caroline's crew.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4394503375/" title="week 99 (116) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2783/4394503375_82141f8bc5.jpg" alt="week 99 (116)" height="334" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />The BR zoo has a pretty nice playground, but it is usually crowded.<br />We got there right at opening time though, and headed straight to the toys, where we had the place to ourselves for at least a half hour.<br /><br />Caroline had fun showing us how to half grasp concepts, such as the proper placement of sunglasses, without consideration for size.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4394505255/" title="week 99 (216) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4058/4394505255_e401952ee2.jpg" alt="week 99 (216)" height="335" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />Riley was less than thrilled with the prairie dog tunnels<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4394506777/" title="week 99 (356) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2755/4394506777_1ba4eaa9fa.jpg" alt="week 99 (356)" height="334" width="500" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4394508089/" title="week 99 (359) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2706/4394508089_8cdef3edb6.jpg" alt="week 99 (359)" height="334" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />and his favorite part of the petting zoo was washing his hands afterward. That boy ain't right.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4395277994/" title="week 99 (388) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4047/4395277994_39bbfe1b64.jpg" alt="week 99 (388)" height="334" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />Paul played with our long lens (formerly his) and got to satisfy his inner spy.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4394511923/" title="week 99 (397) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2748/4394511923_748eeaab1d.jpg" alt="week 99 (397)" height="334" width="500" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4394513895/" title="week 99 (410) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2760/4394513895_a0bdd0e099.jpg" alt="week 99 (410)" height="334" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />Riley, despite being in the darkened reptile/fish house, insisted that his future was so brilliant that sunglasses were necessary.<br /> (that just doesn't have a ring to it)<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4395283922/" title="week 99 (507) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2692/4395283922_513639e670.jpg" alt="week 99 (507)" height="335" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />To close out the trip, as he gripped the last thread of his awake-ity, we took a spin on the train.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4395285636/" title="week 99 (524) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4037/4395285636_3843b70c3f.jpg" alt="week 99 (524)" height="335" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />Back in Lafayette, the kids showed of Paul's really cool, (non-saints) Fleur d'ecrevisse shirt design.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4396322289/" title="week 99 (548) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2790/4396322289_8c62bf7e64.jpg" alt="week 99 (548)" height="335" width="500" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4395288458/" title="week 99 (547) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4041/4395288458_ccb800287a.jpg" alt="week 99 (547)" height="500" width="357" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />On random notes, one of the best food deals in town is the Royal Panda buffet to go. Cheaper than dining in, and you can get up to 10 pieces of sushi. Add one roll and you've got a great meal for two for $15.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4394489423/" title="week 99 (54) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4029/4394489423_6273c468f5.jpg" alt="week 99 (54)" height="334" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />and between second hand Rock Band and Celebrity Rehab, Riley has taken an interest in being the Man in the Box.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4394488059/" title="week 99 (53) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2765/4394488059_cc485ecfc1.jpg" alt="week 99 (53)" height="500" width="357" /></a><br /><br /><br />That's about all of the fun times for this week. If you only come here for cheery, stop here and we'll see ya next week.<br /><br /><br />If you're still around, what I left our was part of our Saturday that wasn't fun.<br /><br />Sadly, some family members lost a daughter this week, a good way into the pregnancy.<br />Saturday afternoon was the small funeral service, as she was far enough along that arrangements were necessary.<br />Even though I've seen it a couple of times before, a shoe box size coffin is always heartbreaking.<br /><br /><br />On a similarly emotional note, Sevendust has a memorial song, written for one of their friends killed in a car accident, entitled Angel's Son. The song took on even more meaning for them when the lead singer's brother was murdered a few years ago.<br /><br />The song got them their most mainstream success, and they always play it.<br />I've seen it 3 or 4 times and Lajon always cried, but I never connected with the song.<br /><br />Given the events of the last couple of months, at this week's show, I heard the song as if for the first time, and it really connected.<br /><br /><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/YUDagXSSy04&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/YUDagXSSy04&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="344" width="425"></embed></object><br /><br />(Sorry if you tube is blocked for you. I didn't know where else to post it with that size file.)<br /><br />if you are interested in the song, check out the two alternate videos on YouTube. I found the hospital one a few days after we lost my dad, and it was damn hard to watch.bwallacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10526874860461455422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2001447615443225961.post-30307323347653597522010-02-21T19:08:00.003-06:002010-02-21T19:09:46.494-06:00bad timing'twas a busy week.<br /><br />mardi gras, sevendust concert, medical news, baton rouge zoo, and a very sad funeral.<br /><br />then, after i dumped all of this week's photos, our desktop pc crapped out.<br /><br />that means you get nothing.<br />sorry. hopefully it'll be back up next week.bwallacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10526874860461455422noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2001447615443225961.post-61792857012167613272010-02-14T18:30:00.007-06:002010-02-14T21:28:53.387-06:00The Gall?Did ya hear?<br /><br />The Saints won the Super Bowl.<br /><br />No, really.<br /><br />I have proof.<br /><br />Ya know how they always said the Saints would win when Hell froze over?<br /><br />Well, it snowed here this week.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4357241391/" title="Week 98 (24) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4014/4357241391_93538dd2bf.jpg" alt="Week 98 (24)" height="334" width="500" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4357990000/" title="Week 98 (29) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4063/4357990000_8a0a1f01d1.jpg" alt="Week 98 (29)" height="334" width="500" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4357991308/" title="Week 98 (32) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4032/4357991308_0944f8aa4f.jpg" alt="Week 98 (32)" height="500" width="400" /></a><br /><br /><br />So what does that tell ya?<br /><br /><br />Ok.<br /><br />Lafayette is far from hell, so maybe that logic doesn't work.<br />And snow is old news here.<br />I mean we've had it two years in a row. Geez, where's the originality?<br /><br />But in a way this week was my own personal hell, so the logic could fit. (since 2010 was going so great so far)<br /><br />The symptoms that landed me in the ER last weekend kept me up most of Monday and Wednesday nights and made me generally hurt all week.<br /><br />Pain is one thing, but the worst part was I couldn't eat anything.<br />For me, that is the ultimate punishment.<br />It's like taking away DJ Pauli D's hairspray or Hugh Hefner's little blue pills.<br />I love and depend on eating.<br />Why is the world so cruel?<br /><br />But I went to the doc on Thursday and he said all signs pointed gall bladder, for lack of any better option.<br />An ultrasound was clear so I'm going in on Monday for some nuclear testing. Laying on the table for an hour, not moving, with no source of entertainment. Yee ha.<br />I better be able to eat on Tuesday.<br /><br />On the bright side though, I've been fine since Friday morning. Oh well. That is the preferable outcome to surgery anyway. We'll see what the test says.<br /><br />and if you want a little laugh at my expense: On the way to get the ultrasound, I got stuck in a cold parking garage elevator for about 20 minutes. Yeah. I was incredibly happy.<br /><br /><br />Since I was feeling ok, and the temp warmed up a few degrees past freezing, we headed out to the Children's parade on Saturday.<br />(I'll just assume you foreigners north of I-10 know it's Mardi Gras season down here)<br /><br />As you can see, the turnout was tremendous.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4357992910/" title="Week 98 (45) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4045/4357992910_7af246c274.jpg" alt="Week 98 (45)" height="334" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />but we ran into some old high school pals whose kids were actually old enough to enjoy the parade and get into the spirit.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4357997166/" title="Week 98 (53) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2780/4357997166_6d1ea6f49d.jpg" alt="Week 98 (53)" height="334" width="500" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4358000336/" title="Week 98 (63) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2488/4358000336_4bbe0c0d0d.jpg" alt="Week 98 (63)" height="500" width="400" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />Riley , like his parents, was a pretty passive watcher.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4357248751/" title="Week 98 (51) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2788/4357248751_98e470c25d.jpg" alt="Week 98 (51)" height="334" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />He tolerated the police, mostly because they were on horses. (insert snide libertarian comment)<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4357247229/" title="Week 98 (47) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2701/4357247229_cc61092ab8.jpg" alt="Week 98 (47)" height="334" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />but he was quite impressed by the dog riding the fire truck.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4357998594/" title="Week 98 (60) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4007/4357998594_df51177387.jpg" alt="Week 98 (60)" height="334" width="500" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4357419407/" title="Week 98 (70) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4028/4357419407_7568fc0e0b.jpg" alt="Week 98 (70)" height="335" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br />For 20 minutes after it passed, he told us he "saw Pluto on a fire truck."<br />This confirms that his head is going to explode when we go to Disney World this year.<br /><br /><br />Sunday, the weather was actually nice, so we picked up Nonnie and headed to the zoo in BR.<br /><br />We were joined by Liz, Caroline, and Liz's mom, Ms. Jill, along with BR residents Heather, Trey, Lillian and Ian (but you won't be able to see him until next month.)<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4358003562/" title="Week 98 (98) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4043/4358003562_1a36e51552.jpg" alt="Week 98 (98)" height="334" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />Lillian is quite the social butterfly and played very well with the younger kids.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4358071882/" title="Week 98 (154) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4058/4358071882_748faa40b1.jpg" alt="Week 98 (154)" height="335" width="500" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4357261795/" title="Week 98 (197) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2757/4357261795_23fb9973b4.jpg" alt="Week 98 (197)" height="334" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />Even the animals at the zoo were in the Valentine spirit.<br />(or this elephant made a bad drunken decision back on spring break in college)<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4357255315/" title="Week 98 (82) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2760/4357255315_ba583f96cf.jpg" alt="Week 98 (82)" height="500" width="400" /></a><br /><br /><br />Riley continued his pattern of easy amusement.<br />The otters weren't active but he was thrilled with the stick in their pond.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4357258493/" title="Week 98 (151) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4001/4357258493_a75ab0b997.jpg" alt="Week 98 (151)" height="334" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />and the playground had a "spin-it" (gears) that kept him occupied for about 20 minutes.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4358009796/" title="Week 98 (205) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4028/4358009796_f96edfcde7.jpg" alt="Week 98 (205)" height="334" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />The rain and temps held out and the cousins were able to pose for a couple of shots with their non-mutual grandmothers.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4357265073/" title="Week 98 (250) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4005/4357265073_83b47094c9.jpg" alt="Week 98 (250)" height="334" width="500" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4357266783/" title="Week 98 (255) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4050/4357266783_6f2f50da18.jpg" alt="Week 98 (255)" height="334" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />Hope everyone has a safe Mardi Gras, or as you call in in the rest of the country, a safe workday.<br /><br />At this time tomorrow, my pee will be radioactive. How cool is that?bwallacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10526874860461455422noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2001447615443225961.post-52150887496549851562010-02-07T20:02:00.008-06:002010-02-08T07:18:55.039-06:00Super Bowel SundayThings were pretty good around here for most of the week.<br /><br />Riley is singing along to lots of songs and can recognize songs within the first few notes in most cases. If he didn't get his mom's musical ability, I hope he at least got both of our good tastes.<br /><br />On Monday, Riley used the big boy toilet on his own request. He has now used it every day this week. He still mostly uses his diaper, but if you put him on the pot, he'll make something come out.<br />He's still pretty early to be potty trained, especially for a boy, so we have no expectation of full success any time soon. But it is a positive first step.<br /><br />He's also gotten into putting toys where they aren't supposed to be.<br />Many of his small toys ended up in his ball popper this week.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4338731114/" title="Week 97 (38) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4016/4338731114_9c96539bf1.jpg" alt="Week 97 (38)" height="334" width="500" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4338755630/" title="Week 97 (40) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4026/4338755630_45cdbf65d1.jpg" alt="Week 97 (40)" height="334" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />and he thinks he's funny.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4337992225/" title="Week 97 (44) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2745/4337992225_f67f609006.jpg" alt="Week 97 (44)" height="334" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />As the week wore on, Saints fever took hold of everyone in town.<br />On Thursday, my office has Saints Day, culminating in some people parading around the office.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4340678884/" title="Week 97 (3) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4020/4340678884_3a698c7143_b.jpg" alt="Week 97 (3)" height="685" width="1024" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4340680322/" title="Week 97 (27) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2800/4340680322_711a68b703.jpg" alt="Week 97 (27)" height="500" width="400" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />Friday evening, we ate at Pop's Black Pot with Joan's parents, Caroline and Liz.<br />If you haven't tried it before, they are off of Saloom road, kinda diagonal from Fresh Pickins, next to Oishi Sushi. They are open for lunch during the week and for dinner wed-fri.<br />Sandwiches, burgers, plate lunches and some fried seafood. Family owned and friendly.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4338741914/" title="Week 97 (58) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2782/4338741914_0c76858852.jpg" alt="Week 97 (58)" height="334" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />Riley and Caroline ran around and played with one of the owners' daughters.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4337997477/" title="Week 97 (56) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2754/4337997477_a2d839cecc.jpg" alt="Week 97 (56)" height="334" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />Joan and I split the Pop's crazy burger, which is really good. I tacked on a cup of gumbo, which was good, and, at 2.95, was a great value.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4338737982/" title="Week 97 (52) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4051/4338737982_8276461e70.jpg" alt="Week 97 (52)" height="334" width="500" /></a><br /><br /><br />Saturday we had lunch from ________ (fill in the blank) and dinner at O'charley's.<br /><br />All downhill from there.<br />At about 8, I started having abdominal pain like nothing I've ever felt before.<br />After becoming well acquainted with the cold floor in front of the toilet, it wasn't getting any better. So after reading up on the warning signs of bum gall bladders and appendices and a coupe of hours of internal debate, around 2 am, I headed to the LGMC ER.<br /><br />After an hour and a half, I got called back and had an IV inserted (1st in my life).<br />An hour and a half later, I finally saw a doctor.<br />Fortunately the signs all pointed toward no major (read: surgical) problems.<br />Good news of course , but sometimes you wish there was an explanation for why you are in the most pain of your life. Doc said it could be anything: virus, food poisoning, bigger problems that had not yet fully manifested, or just random bad luck.<br /><br />Oh well. I left 5 hours after getting there, and having not slept for 25 hours, with a script for an anti-spasm med. No real pain today, but lots of nausea. Couldn't even stay at my Mom's house to watch the game 'cause the smell of the gumbo was making me almost lose it.<br />And I haven't been able to eat any of the chocolate covered "Fleureos" from Cakes by Paperwings (look her up on Facebook) but everyone said they were really good.<br /><br />But I'm not the real story.<br />How 'bout them Saints?<br />What a ridiculous game.<br />Right now I wish I owned a company that made black and gold icing for cakes. I'd be a millionaire, just off of the Saints' king cakes that are being bought up in this area.<br /><br />We've only really followed the Saints since about 2002.<br />We started watching in law school and have been to at least one game every year since 2005.<br />I never, thought you would ever hear them referred to as Super Bowl Champions.<br /><br />Lots of changes have happened for us this year.<br />Finally liking a winning team is one I can live with.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4340693846/" title="Week 97 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4069/4340693846_93057110d8.jpg" alt="Week 97" height="500" width="400" /></a><br /><br /><br />and since this is a blog about family and cute kids, yes, we were both holding back the tears with the shots of Breesus and his son on the field after the game.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4340009589/" title="brees son by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4045/4340009589_8b91c297c2.jpg" width="500" height="364" alt="brees son" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4340755578/" title="slide_4770_65980_large by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2771/4340755578_3254dec951.jpg" width="500" height="364" alt="slide_4770_65980_large" /></a>bwallacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10526874860461455422noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2001447615443225961.post-66698509359714438862010-01-31T12:45:00.008-06:002010-01-31T18:59:49.956-06:00Body ModificationSlowly returning to the new normal around here, which for you means that this page will be much less interesting.<br /><br />We had fun this week though.<br /><br />Our high school classmate Emily and her daughter Whitney were in from Japan again.<br />They came bearing gifts, again, of assorted Japanese gummy candies.<br />I love those things, and really want to go to Japan someday, mostly for that reason.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4320666452/" title="Week 96 (44) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4026/4320666452_6cc59ecfc6.jpg" alt="Week 96 (44)" width="500" height="334" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />We joined them, along with Paul and Caroline for breakfast at Another Broken Egg on Saturday morning. (accidentally cut Emily out of the shot.)<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4319002139/" title="Week 96 (12) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2679/4319002139_c442f64cee.jpg" alt="Week 96 (12)" width="500" height="334" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4319679594/" title="Week 96 (17) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4007/4319679594_2710f3de26.jpg" alt="Week 96 (17)" width="500" height="334" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />One of the main draws was to try the restaurant's new dish, "Cinnamon Roll French Toast."<br />The description says it consists of slices of cinnamon roll, prepared like french toast, covered in cream cheese icing and then topped with whipped cream and mixed berries.<br /><br />Here's the photo I was able to capture.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4318985133/" title="Week 96 (11) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4034/4318985133_4554b90116.jpg" alt="Week 96 (11)" width="500" height="334" /></a><br /><br /><br />Oops! I guess I was a couple of minutes too late there, but trust me, it was good.<br />There are still a couple of other things I like as much, if not a little more, but I was actually able to walk away from the table without extreme discomfort, which is quite unusual for our visits there.<br /><br /><br />Riley wasn't too big on that dish or the "biscuit beignets" (yes they are as good as they sound) but he did thoroughly enjoy his lemon wedge and orange slice.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4318988613/" title="Week 96 (13) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2782/4318988613_411f17267b.jpg" alt="Week 96 (13)" width="500" height="334" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />We then came back to the house, where Riley and Caroline played very well together and Paul continued, graciously, repairing our computer, often while holding two kids begging for Muppet You Tube videos.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4320672506/" title="Week 96 (29) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4046/4320672506_2aa93651b6.jpg" alt="Week 96 (29)" width="357" height="500" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4320668422/" title="Week 96 (37) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4047/4320668422_405e44bdff.jpg" alt="Week 96 (37)" width="500" height="334" /></a><br />(Riley wants me to thank Ms Nicole and Mr Harlan for stealing some of Garrett's outgrown toys and dropping them off here. dueling 4 wheelers should be fun.)<br /><br /><br />For dinner, we raided the prepared food section of Rouse's and put together a pretty good, fairly inexpensive meal. We fed five adults and two kids for less than 60 bucks, and we were all stuffed with: 2 large fried shrimp plates with fries, mac & cheese, shrimp pasta, 3 sushi rolls, bread, banana pudding, chocolate mousse, and strawberry shortcake. (that tasted like cough syrup, but everything else was really good).<br />Then, for dessert, we had Blue Bell Black Berry Cobbler and Blue Bell Mexican Praline ice creams. Portraits of health, we are.<br /><br />Caroline, seemingly enjoyed herself.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4319742940/" title="Week 96 (19) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4055/4319742940_4bafe36e67.jpg" alt="Week 96 (19)" width="500" height="334" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />and Riley put a hurting on some banana pudding, though it was quite inefficient to eat it using just the tip of his finger.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4319683070/" title="Week 96 (22) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4031/4319683070_d51a623616.jpg" alt="Week 96 (22)" width="400" height="500" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />I guess the amount of food we eat kinda ties in with the title of this week's post, "Body Modification" but that was unintentional.<br /><br />I've got some ink (and plan for more soon) and had my ear pierced when I was a young punk, but that is not hardcore.<br />The hardcore body modifier in our house is actually Riley, and unfortunately, that is our fault.<br /><br />We've known from early on that he had wide feet, but we've always bought wide shoes and have been rapidly upgrading sizes.<br /><br />Imagine my shock this week when putting his socks on and noticing that one of his feet now looks like this:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4318955183/" title="Week 96 (27) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4066/4318955183_43727bb580.jpg" alt="Week 96 (27)" width="500" height="335" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />One of his toes appears to be crowded up, and it's only on one foot. The other appears to be fairly normal.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4319005643/" title="Week 96 (25) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4008/4319005643_93af9d4e07.jpg" alt="Week 96 (25)" width="500" height="335" /></a><br />(it's like the first step toward being a Chinese lady from the 17th century)<br /><br /><br />I took him to Greenwood's and had him measured, and sho' 'nuff he was fully filling out his 5.5 wides that he's only been wearing for 6 weeks. He now wears the same shoe size (in a wide) as kids who weigh 10 pounds more than he does.<br /><br />It fact, though he wears a 12 month shirt from Children's Place, we have to get him 24 month pajamas so that his feet will fit.<br /><br />Maybe it will help him get a career as an NFL back up punter (league minimum is still a nice chunk of change.)<br /><br />I would close with a big ole "who dat" but I don't want the NFL to sue me.<br />Riley wouldn't like that.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4318937247/" title="Week 96 (1) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4066/4318937247_5cccfc6df9.jpg" alt="Week 96 (1)" width="357" height="500" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />But let's see if we get a cease and desist letter for Joan's fingernails.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4320670390/" title="Week 96 (42) by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4038/4320670390_659969b515.jpg" alt="Week 96 (42)" width="500" height="335" /></a>bwallacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10526874860461455422noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2001447615443225961.post-4296391193682838452010-01-25T08:30:00.004-06:002010-01-25T16:50:04.542-06:00Better Late than Never ??Ok.<br />For reasons that should be obvious, I was unable to post on Sunday night. But don't worry, not much to say this week anyway.<br /><br />We are thankful that at least one thing has gone right in the first month of 2010, in that the Saints are in the Super Bowl.<br /><br />Some may take that as a sign that the end times are drawing near, but we'll just use it as a little picker-upper.<br /><br />Pretty slow week for us as to things you may want to read about or see here.<br /><br />On Friday I picked up a bike for my Mom at Academy. Never being one to pass up a good impulse buy, I also picked up a little pop gun that shoots foam balls.<br />Riley and Anna immediately took to it.<br /><br />They both know that if they stand against a wall, put their hands in the air and say I "freeze", they'll get shot. Kinda like real life. (low blow, I know.)<br />The best part is that they think picking up all of the balls afterward is half of the fun. Suckers!<br /><br />Twice now, Riley has pulled me away from whatever I was doing, saying "daddy shoot me."<br />He goes to the end of the hall, closes the doors around him and waits.<br /><br />The balls aren't hard and he hasn't complained even when one accidentally hit him in the face. (the accuracy of the toy and me are both horrible. Of the 10 shots per load, only 2 or 3 hit the perp)<br /><br />But, we discovered yesterday that they do leave some pretty macho marks for a couple of minutes when they hit bare skin.<br /><br /><a title="Week 95 027 by bwallace, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4303082735/"><img alt="Week 95 027" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4043/4303082735_8462e0b453.jpg" width="500" height="334" /></a><br /><br />(Note of clarification , so no one gets the wrong ideas- We discovered the red dots after shooting one loading of the gun. The unraised red dots disappear in a minute or two, but, just in case, he now has to wear a shirt when we play with the gun. And I shot myself in the face, point blank, and it doesn't hurt. I know most sensible people would think nothing of it, but some sensible friends have pointed out that not everyone is sensible people)<br /><br /><br /><br />Most of my weekend was spent on the installation of our new, custom entertainment center by Cajun Closets.<br /><br />Here's a shot of the old one.<br /><br /><a title="Week 95 005 by bwallace, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4303082695/"><img alt="Week 95 005" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4001/4303082695_db3f12174a.jpg" width="500" height="334" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />and what we started with Saturday morning.<br /><br /><a title="Week 95 008 by bwallace, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4303082719/"><img alt="Week 95 008" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4031/4303082719_fd2371fd11.jpg" width="500" height="334" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />and one step into the process.<br /><br /><a title="Week 95 015 by bwallace, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4303082723/"><img alt="Week 95 015" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4062/4303082723_8cb64fa7b9.jpg" width="500" height="334" /></a><br /><br /><br />Taking shape<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4305081014/" title="Week 95 025 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4050/4305081014_edbd70836b.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="Week 95 025" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />We've still got another day's worth of work before it is totally done, but its in enough right now to be able to get our electronics set up and make the room usable.<br />Final product shots to come soon.<br /><br />Riley got to play with Caroline alot as Uncle Paul spent most of his weekend trying to fix our computer that was decimated by a virus last week. No pic because I was busy constructing.<br /><br /><br />All work had to stop though for the biggest pro football game, to date, in Louisiana history.<br />We packed up an headed over to Anna's house.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwallace/4303082747/" title="Week 95 032 by bwallace, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4003/4303082747_182cd4958c.jpg" alt="Week 95 032" width="500" height="335" /></a><br /><br />We watched the second half at home which was a good idea, given how stressful it was.<br /><br /><br />Thats about it.<br /><br />oh, I almost forgot...........<strong><span style="font-size:180%;">WHO DAT!!!</span> </strong>bwallacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10526874860461455422noreply@blogger.com3