A few weeks ago I stumbled across another Dad blogger : Jason Good 365 .
Oh- My- Gawd.  I laughed so hard I nearly peed.  I also just have to share a copy of one of his most recent postings about "Great Jobs for New Parents."  The uber sad thing is that I've done nearly all of these already with either Tam or Jude or both of them.  The few exceptions at this date are #1, #4, #9.

Love it.

Re-posted from Jason Good 365:
Day 260: Great Jobs for New Parents.
In a previous post, I told you all the things you would NOT be doing after having kids. Things like grooming, stretching, learning, and snorkeling. It was all very negative. So here’s a list of all the awesome NEW things you’ll get to do after becoming a parent.

1. Butter a piece of toast while peeing.
2. Brush someone’s teeth against their will.
3. Blow on food while it’s in someone else’s mouth.
4. Help someone else blow on food while it’s in someone else’s mouth.
5. Eat food that’s fallen out of someone else’s mouth.
6. Eat food you found on the floor.
7. Eat food you found on the mantle.
8. Eat candy you found in a shoe.
9. Visit a psychiatrist.
10. Wipe somebody’s nose with your bare hand.
11. Eat baby food.
12. Blame a fart on a child.
13. Blame a child’s fart on your spouse.
14. Get someone dressed while you’re in the shower.
15. Cut up a grape.
16. Almost agree to cut up a raisin.
17. Pretend to enjoy the flavor of a prune.
18. Ask someone why their hair smells like Gogurt.
19. Ask someone why their hair smells like your antiperspirant.
20. Put someone else’s toenail clippings in your pocket.
21. Let someone watch you crap while staring blankly and eating a popsicle.
22. Have someone think you’re amazing at frisbee.

Family outing to see exotic animals

On Saturday, we had the chance to enjoy the beautiful weather outside as a family. We opted to head south of the city to Boulder Ridge Wild Animal Park. It looked like a little zoo with exotic animal... and Tam was still young enough to get in free.

The drive down to the park was uneventful...thankfully. This was the first longish trip with the boys in their new carseats (30minutes). Tam passed the time looking at a dinosaur book and roaring. Jude didn't sleep, but he didn't cry either, which I certainly count as a win.

The park itself is brand new, like just opened in July of this year. The front part of the park had the smaller animals in large cages or open pits for visitors to watch. Tam seemed the most interested in watching the alligator (roar) and walking over the bridge above its pit.

They had a little petting area with little goats and zebra to touch. Tam's okay with these guys because they were small. I thought it was funny to see the animals poking their heads out looking for food to munch from the visitors.

They also had a reptile room...which fascinated Brian but not Tam. I really liked seeing the lemurs and the huge porcupine.

Once we had taken a turn around the small animal area, we climbed aboard the tractor trailer for a ride around the large animals pens. These included water buffalo, Ibex(?), Buffalo, camels, warthogs, peacocks, and several other large things whose names I can't remember. Tam loved riding the trailer and talking with a few of the other kids. He was more fascinated with the other tractors we passed then the live animals. Jude liked it well enough; he hung out on my shoulder the entire time.

I think the coolest part of the park was the budgie bird cage. All of us got to walk into the cage and "play" with the 30+ birds. at. I just had to laugh as they alighted on Brian's hat. Tam thought it was "pretty cool." He did a good job of holding still and let the birds land on his food stick or around his feet. Such a big grin...even when all the birds took off into flight at once. For a three year old, he wasn't scared at all...compared with some of the older kids that walked into the cage and back out again in fright when the birds flew around in mass. I was so proud of him and his curiosity.

Overall, it was a good park, and allowed us to spend a couple of hours together learning about some of the world's more unusual animals. Jude did a great job hanging out and didn't fuss until he created a messy diaper :-)

Reflux Update

How's Jude doing with his little tummy?

Well...he's got good days and not so good days.
He's still on his baby heartburn medicine three times a day.
He's not quite as gassy as he used to be, and he has an easier time burping.

What have we figured out to help him?

• I've eliminating most dairy from my diet, along with spicy foods. This seems to have helped a bit, though I still eat cheese on occasion.
• We give him his medicine religiously, since missed doses = unhappy Jude.
• Brian has started warming up his bottle milk, so he swallows it a bit easier with less gulping.
• We try to get him down for at least two good naps during the day...though he sometimes fights this with a crying jag.
• We've learned that he does only cry when he has extra gas / pain or is really tired or has a poopy diaper.
• If he's having a bad day, I dress him uber cutely so I have more compassion toward the wee devil.
• He LOVES the jumperoo and being upright which has been really helpful for his reflux and for giving us a break from holding him.

• AND I finally realized that and earlier bedtime may help. (Duh, sleep begets sleeps). So now Jude is put down by 6:30-7pm and wakes around 6am to feed / 7 to wake. I think this has made the most help for us. Though there are still nights when he wakes at 2am to eat too...and Gos help us all if I', a bit slow getting from the crib to boob.

On crying days, it's tough. He may fight the nap, start crying, swallow air, and then keep crying because of gas, and then finally pass out from exhaustion. This cycle certainly wears on both Brian and mine nerves, but luckily these days are becoming fewer...

And Tamlin has been a great kid. We both make sure that Tam gets alone time too and in return, Tam helps with trying to entertain Jude  :-) Jude is definitely a pistol ...but when he makes that huge toothless grin at you and his little face lights up with joy at seeing you come toward him and he coos loudly with delight when you say his name at him, my heart just melts into a warm happy puddle of goo. I love the gober:-)

Wordless Wednesday - Reading

Story Time at our house...

First day of Sunday School

Round about the early months of Tam's life, Brian and I settled on a place of worship to call home. We became Methodists. .

Now, Sunday mornings are a bit chaotic in our house.
Usually, Brian works a closing shift the night before, so he roles into bed around 1:00 am. If we want to get to church for the 8:30 service, we all need to be out the door by 8:05...From 7am to 8am, everyone needs to be up, pottied, washed, fed, dressed, including finding dress shoes which Tam seems to lose every week, and buckled into the car. This also leaves us time for Brian to warm up his voice to help lead the singing during worship. We hit the early service not only for the singing, but because I like the more intimate setting of only having about 30 other worshipers compared to the 100-150ish people at the second service. And, the second service is too late in the morning for Brian to get home and changed and back out to work by 12:30pm.

This past Sunday, we actually made it out of bed and to church on time. During the service, Tam, as usual plays in the nursery. Often he is the only kid there and is dotted on by the three ladies in charge of the rooms. I'm still hesitant to drop off Jude, so he stays with me until he falls asleep in my arms...which is about mid-sermon :-) Then, I enjoy the last half of the service sands wee ones. However, Tam is old enough for Sunday School and he is potty trained, which is the big point for the transfer out of the nursery. This meant that after service, he got to go to another classroom and be with the older children for the education hour. He's in the pre-k room with other 3,4, 5 year olds.

So, after the first hour, we collected our Tamlin and toted him upstairs to his new classroom. He got to met his new teachers and get a name-tag. Then he spotted the huge train set and fell in love. He barely listened to us when we reminded him to mind his teachers and to give us goodbye hugs. Then, Brian and I left to sit through the adult ed class offered, which was a little boring this week.

Afterwards, Brian retrieved Tam I picked up Jude. Jude apparently slept up until a few minutes before I showed up and was great. Tam was a good boy too, except he had some hang ups when told to stop the random play and start the structured lessons. However, the teachers assured us that he did a good job for his first time :-)

In the end, Tam did tell us that he had fun and played with trains. Then, we went home and had egg and bacon sandwiches :-)

He's growing up so fast!

Where did you learn that?!

Every so often Tamlin does something or says something that totally surprises Brian and me. When this occurs, we look at each other with the "Where the hell did he learn that?" expression on our faces. Here are a few of the latest incidents:

I open the car door and tell Tam to crawl on into his car seat. Tam scrambles on up, sits down, and exclaims "Yee-Haw!" - Where did that come from?

Tam's looking out the window in the front room. He turns around and says, "Check it out, mom, check it out!" - Again, where did this come from?

Tam sits down at the top of the stairs. "Slide down on bum-bum, mom" he cries out and then proceeds to slide down the stairs on his butt. - Where did he learn to do this?