A Thanksgiving Conversation with BJ

ME: So who's winning the game?

BJ: The Cowboys.

ME: Who are they playing?

BJ: New Orleans

ME: Are they as good as they were last year?

BJ: (blank stare) Think about who this is you are asking. This is the guy who left the game to come downstairs and watch "Punkin Chunkin."

*"Punkin Chunkin" is a show on Discovery channel about engineering different machines to throw pumpkins. It is exclusively for nerds.

One Month Old

Shepherd turned a month old yesterday. It has without a doubt been the craziest month of my life, and I mean that in the best possible way.

I've learned a lot this past month. I've learned the basic stuff, like how to change diapers and various burping techniques. I've also learned more abstract truths, like how little boys are special. For example, my son can pee in his own ear.

In the past month, I've posted a lot of pictures of Shepherd, but I've had a hard time getting a picture that fully captures his cuteness. He is seriously indescribably cute, and photos just can't capture how big his eyes are or how perfectly his mouth is shaped. Those eyes and those lips are going to break a thousand hearts. I already pity the girls who will meet him later in life, fall instantly in love, and then have their hearts broken because they can't live up to his mother (hehe).

On that note, happy one-month birthday, Shep. Your mommy loves you.

The New After-Work Ritual

BJ's Parenting Techniques: Part 1

Anyone who know BJ knows that he is very methodical. For example, he raised Sienna and is now raising Zoe in such a way that unflinchingly abides by certain dog-training techniques. (I did not mention Gus here because he required no training. Although BJ loves Gus, he has been constantly baffled by the dog's total lack of dog-ness.) Anyways, BJ has unsurprisingly approached parenthood with the same matter-of-fact, abide-by-the-book methodology. If you are curious, my parenting technique is more of the blubberingly sentimental, all-heart, no-head variety you might expect of me.

So I've decided to post some of BJ's techniques that are getting his overly-emotional wife and cry-baby son (I'm allowed to call him a cry-baby since he is a baby who does in fact cry) through each day. First, we have the football hold.

When BJ gets home from work, I pass Shep off so that I can go frantically prepare dinner before I need to feed Shep again. If Shep gets fussy, BJ calmly takes him and puts him in the football hold. The football hold is a technique we learned in one of the baby books we read before Shep was born. Here's a close up.

You might call it BJ and Shep's first game of ball. Regardless, it buys me a good thirty minutes to get stuff done. Here's one more picture for cutness's sake:

Also notice how BJ can get stuff done on the computer while keeping our son calm and happy. Next up: BJ's Duct-tape Swaddling. You will not want to miss that one.

I love this little guy more than...

...swimming on hot summer evenings.

...eating candy corn in the fall.

...the number I saw on the scales before I got pregnant (but I'm still keeping my fingers crossed that I'll see it again one of these days).

...cuddling up on the couch with a good book.

...all the free time I used to have (a distant memory after three weeks.)

...playing "Desperado" on the piano or painting watercolors.

...well, you probably get the point.