Gone fishing

On Saturday evening, Leslie and I loaded the wagon with my tackle box, a couple of fishing poles, and Jack. We meandered down the street to the neighborhood pond, and hoped for at least a few bites from some brim to pass the time. Four bass later, it had turned out to be a fun evening. Thanks to Leslie for taking some timely action photos.

Does anyone else do this?

My wife has many superpowers...among them is the following:
Whether she has been sleeping for one hour or 10, she wakes up disoriented. Sometimes she even sits up and looks around bewildered, then she looks at me and inevitably says, "What day is it?"

Also, she has the power to have a hightened body temperature. However, under pressure from a party that shall remain nameless...I have edited this part. Just suffice it to say: It's crazy. Meanwhile, I'm laying beside her shivering and just trying to make sure some part of my body is touching her so I can stave off frost bite. I call her "Wall-heater Girl." That's her super-power name. More to come on her other super-powers some other time. These are some of her funnier super powers, endearing one and all, making her whole package "all that and then some."

Jack speaks...

1. While at church last weekend, Leslie, Jack and I were headed upstairs to the second floor, but instead of steering towards the stairs, Jack tried to pull us toward the elevator and he said, "Let's take the illustrator!"

2. Leslie was singing the B.I.B.L.E. song to Jack the other day
"It's the b-i-b-l-e, yes that's the book for me"
to which Jack complained: "I don't want to sing the bee-hive, bee-hive E!" Pretty funny stuff.

Fast-Track Posts

Okay people...Life is too busy these days, and I find myself unable to make time for blogging. So I am going to adjust by going to a mostly text-style update for the time being.

The first text update is about Jack, of course...

Halloween 2010

Jack trick-or-treating with the children of some of our friends.


Mommy with a red dinosaur.



The ferocious red dinosaur serveys his surroundings
with a suspicious eye.

The dinosaur takes a swing at a halloween spider pinata.

As I've previously stated, the pumpkins turned out pretty nice. Leslie did the happy one, I did the cat (not the high degree of difficulty), and Jack did the mean face.

Caught with their hands in the pumpkin's brains! Yuck!

Jack was hesistant, but as always with Mommy leading the way, he overcame his hesitation and pressed on with his Airborne mission.

A trip back in Oct '10

We went to Kristen and Dave Trout's wedding back in October, and on the way back, we stopped at a place called Lamb's Farm in Illinois outside of Chicago. It was a decent stop and we had a good time with Grammy and Opa.

Grammy and Opa riding the kiddy train with us.

Giddy with anitcipation for the train ride.

Jack rides the chicken. See how excited he is in this picture?

It was close to Halloween and they had some decorations up - this one was a nice photo op.

3 big men.

While Mommy is away... (1st weekend of Nov)

Leslie went away with her Mom and sisters for there annual girls weekend in Gatlinburg.

So, Jack and I entertained ourselves with several fun activities.

Here are the ladies ready to have to together time.

Jack and I went to Play Dog Excellent and watched teams of 4 dogs each run relay races! Talk about crazy loud and fun!

We watched high school bands at Finley Stadium that Saturday night. Jack and I sat in 40F weather for an hour while we ate Halloween candy and watched the bands.

We had a great time and nearly froze to death.

Good times!

Here is the bigger-than-life sized Cat in the Hat. We saw him and his friends at the WTCI open house that weekend. They were a little too big for Jack to be comfortable with them, so you can see below that even Clifford was a even a little too scary to approach. I did get him to stand beside Curious George long enough to snap a quick pic. You can even see in the pic that he's blurry because he wouldn't stand beside George long enough to get a good shot.

Clifford

Jack and George

Jack beside the big Fire Truck that was on display.

He was interested in it for about 3 minutes.

Here's the results of Leslie's shopping trip with her Mom and sisters. Jeez. It was a good weekend for everyone apparently!

The Annual Pumpkin Carving Fiasco

Jack had no nap today despite our best efforts. We went to TJ Maxx, and even out to the fall festival at Burks UMC for a few hours, so carving the pumpkins was the last event of the day. Jack was skittish at first, but with some gentle encouragement (and a few honest threats thrown in) he finally warmed up to the idea of putting his hands in. All in all, despite teetering on the edge of three-year-old eminent breakdown, I think all of the pumpkins turned out real nice. Leslie did the happy one, I did the cat, and Jack's is the "mean face."

A child's unique perspective...

The other day, Jack was using the toilet in Mommy and Daddy's bathroom.

He noticed his Daddy (me) stocking a

cabinet with Mommy's femine hygiene products.

The wrappers were plastic and multicolored,

and I was taking them out of a bright pink box.

Jack asked me: "Daddy, are those lollipops?"

I replied: "Yes they are. Only for Mommy though."

And with that, we finished our business and went on our way.

Conversations like this are a daily occurence between us.

And I only lie to him most of the time.

Bionic Woman

Here is a picture of my lovely and brave wife,

who has gone four times under the knife.

I can't think of anything else that rhymes at this time of night! Leslie had surgery #2 on her left shoulder 3 weeks ago, and is progressing well. She isn't pain-free, but has done a lot better this time around. She is doing therapy twice weekly (sometimes thrice weekly) and has good range of motion. If you care to look back to the very beginning of this blog, you'll see that she always looks great before surgery.

( By the way, if you haven't already, press play on the arrow under her pic. )