Christmas 2006

Another busy weekend for us. But for good reason. Christmas with kids simply makes things so much more different. Joshua has really begun to understand more what's going on. He's got a ways to go, but it's fun to watch him get excited. We taught him that Christmas means "Happy Birthday Baby Jesus" and so anywhere we go, we have Joshua tell people what Christmas means. And he is just so cute when he says it because he's still learning how to talk. Abigail definitely has no clue what's going on except that she can now play with more toys regardless of whether they are Joshua's or hers.

A week before, we tried to get Christmas pictures with Santa at the Disneyland hotels. Unfortunately, Santa wasn't going to be there during the times we had planned. So, we still went and tried to get some cute pictures of them. That didn't work as well as we'd hoped mostly because the kids weren't really cooperating. Abigail had a runny nose (which comes out on most pictures). Joshua would rather ride the elevators and run around exploring. But we got a few good ones out of it.

Last Friday before Christmas, we went to the Santa Ana Zoo which had a Holiday Lights event in the evening. We have really enjoyed our memberships to the zoo this year. They've done a lot of cool stuff that all of us have enjoyed. We look forward to seeing how Abigail will begin enjoying the zoo as well. Anyway, they also had a Santa there to take pictures with which made us happy given what happened last week.

Saturday, my brother Brian and his wife Sharon and son Jefferson came over in the late afternoon for dinner and gift exchange. That was a good time, especially for Joshua to play with his cousin.

Sunday, Christmas Eve, in the morning, we went to see Danielle's brother Troy and his wife Carmen. Several of Carmen's relatives were here from Mexico City as well which was nice because we hadn't seen most of them since we were down in Mexico years ago. It was fun watching Troy interact with Joshua and Abigail. They seem to really like Troy a lot. After naps, we went to the Christmas Eve service at our church (at 5pm). It was a really good service and it made it even better that there was childcare :-).

That evening, we finished wrapping all the gifts, prepared breakfast for the next morning and finally got to bed by 11:30 or midnight. There's a phenomenon that occurs once in a while where you get the feeling - "I've become my parents!" Sometimes it happens when you react to something in such a way that is exactly the way your Mom or Dad might react in the same situation. Or you find yourself saying something that your Mom or Dad always said to you when you were young. Well...I never thought I'd be up late the night before Christmas preparing a meal, wrapping gifts and stuffing stockings. Actually, I guess Danielle really prepared the meal and stuffed stockings. But I was up with her finishing the wrapping as well. Nonetheless, the point is...growing up, my Mom was always up late wrapping gifts and stuffing the stockings. And I can owe it all to having kids.

Christmas morning, we brought the kids into our bedroom to snuggle for a bit while we woke up. I also went down earlier to start baking the meals that were prepared the night before. After coming down, it was fun to see Joshua's reaction to seeing all the gifts stacked up in the corner. Danielle's parents came over to have breakfast and exchange gifts. I think Abigail enjoyed Joshua's gifts more than her own. But both of them got a lot of really cool gifts. One of Joshua's favorite gifts came from a next door neighbor who got him a set of The Incredibles figurines. It's been fun trying to pretend with him using these figures, such as re-enacting a scene in the movie or something. Joshua also got a fire engine, a dump truck and a big wheel. But I will often see Abigail walking with the big wheel (since she can't walk on her own yet), pushing the fire engine or playing with the remote for the dump truck. She also likes to come over to wherever Joshua is and see what he's doing and/or play with him. Unfortunately, Joshua doesn't always want her there. But he's learning. We then brought out the "birthday cake" we got to celebrate Jesus' birthday. It was sort of a precursor to when Abigail has her 1 year birthday party and she gets to eat cake there. It was a lot of fun.

There are several pictures posted at our photo site, so check them out when you have the time.

All in all, it was a good weekend. But despite all that we try to do, let us not forget the true meaning of Christmas and that is to celebrate the day when our savior came to Earth to live what we live and see what we see. Merry Christmas.

The Witness

The other day, I witnessed an accident. I've witnessed accidents before, but often times it's far removed from where I'm at. For example, Danielle and I were driving home from San Clemente one night and it was raining really hard. As we're going along the freeway, you can glance to the other side and see the sea of white headlights reflecting against the rain. Almost mesmerizing really...which is why you glance and not stare. Anyway, all of a sudden, I saw a couple of red lights among the headlights and wondered why that might be. Then I thought how if that was a car, that would not be a good thing being the only way I'd see red is if it was facing the wrong way. Then I realized the red lights were moving and...WHAM! I saw the car sliding and turning until it slammed into the concrete wall. Oh...bad day for them! I guess the bright side was that it appeared to only be a solo crash and not one that involved several cars.

But that's not the accident I was originally going to share about. The other day, I took the kids to the car dealership to get work done on the minivan and on the way, I was stopped at a signal ready to make a left turn. On the cross street, there are two left turn lanes with a car in each of them about to make the left turn onto the street I was on...you know, if I could just map it out here, it'd be so much easier. Anyway, as they were turning, each of the cars was turning into their respective lanes, which by the way, are right next to where I was sitting. The problem was, the guy in the far lane was pulling a car trailer and didn't swing wide enough to compensate. So, as he was turning left, his trailer didn't turn as wide as it should have and started essentially creeping onto the other car turning left in the near lane. This car honked her horn, but the guy in the truck just kept going and it swiped her car good...or...bad. It also punctured her tire and ripped off her front bumper which seemed to hit my car as well. So, I got out and made sure the lady in the car was okay. The guy in the truck parked and walked over and said something about turning left into the correct lane as though he didn't believe it was his fault. The lady almost didn't know what to say and so I jumped in and said no and explained to him what I saw and that the issue was simply that he didn't swing wide enough to compensate for his trailer. He went back to get his paperwork and I chatted with the lady - actually it was a mom and her grown daughter. I found that there were no marks or damage on the minivan so I gave her my name and phone numbers and told her I'd be happy to be a witness for her. Then I went on my way.

A couple days later, I got a call on my cell phone from an insurance adjuster. He said he was given my info by the women in the accident who said I was a witness. So, I gave him my story as best as I could explain it and as detailed as I could to show I really was there and am not making anything up. He ended by essentially saying that it's apparent who was at fault and he thanked me for my time. Later that afternoon, I got another call on my cell phone from the lady who was in the accident. I couldn't answer it at the time and so she left a voicemail. It was really a nice voicemail thanking me for being willing to be a witness for a complete stranger and how my involvement had really helped. I called her back later and found that the guy in the truck was giving his insurance company a completely different story putting the lady at fault. So, the lady gave the insurance company my information which resulted in the call I had with them earlier in the day. Apparently, the insurance company called her back later and said that after speaking with me, they were going to take full responsibility for the accident. So, she called me because she was so thankful for my involvement. I told her that I was very happy to help because I really hate it when people don't take responsibility for their actions and I'm very grateful to know that I was able to prevent this guy from trying to scam her for something that was clearly his fault.

Who knows? Maybe this guy will convince himself so fully that he wasn't at fault that he'll take her to court and I'll be a court witness. I doubt it. But I'll be ready if he does.

Another week has gone by...

...and another week without a post *sigh*. This blogging thing really can be difficult to keep up on. But I shall press on...

So, let me start with a little fun. You're likely familiar with the motivational posters that have some cool photo with a word like "Teamwork" beneath it and a short catch phrase. There's a site out there that parodies this with De-motivational posters. The website is: http://www.despair.com. For instance, one of their posters is labeled "Apathy" with the phrase "If we don't take care of the customer, maybe they'll stop bugging us" and has a picture of a telephone with cobwebs all over it. They've just set up a way where you can create your own using your own pictures. So, I created a couple. One is a co-worker's new son who happened to be flipping off the camera when the picture was taken. The look on his face is priceless too. The other is of Joshua and Abigail in the wagon. Go to http://diy.despair.com/motivator.php to create your own.

Monday night, Danielle invited a bunch of women (neighbors, family members, etc.) to a Women's Christmas Dessert at our church. Sounds like it was a great night with a really good speaker. And the desserts weren't bad either. Danielle brought the rest of the cake home for me to eat (even though I think she was hoping for another piece). Here's a picture of her in front of her table. Isn't she beautiful?!?

Abigail is getting closer and closer to being able to walk. She is cruising so well now. I watch her going along and see how she navigates from one thing to another, such as from the coffee table to the couch and so on that you can see how she's gaining more and more confidence. I think she's really proud of it too. She's looking more and more like a little girl...and a beautiful one at that!


The big news of the week has been Joshua beginning what it seems to be potty training. Danielle and I are not sure we're ready to go through this, but it'll come eventually. We had gotten him an insert to use in the regular toilet because he had started showing interest several months ago. It seemed he was intrigued by Mom and Dad sitting on the toilet and wanted to do that too. But that was all it was. In the past week, though, he really started showing more interest again and this time, he actually started peeing while sitting on the toilet. We were quite impressed and praised him for it. He's also getting 2 M&M's for each time he pees in the big boy toilet. We told him he'd get 4 M&M's if he went poop in the toilet. Today, after naps, he went to sit on the toilet and nothing was coming. Danielle was about to just be done when she heard a couple "plops" and sure enough, he went poop. Kind of weird to think how excited one gets after someone takes a dump, but I guess these are the sorts of things parents get excited about.

Where'd the time go?!

Wow! I can't believe it's already Thursday and I haven't blogged since Sunday. Purely unintentional. And it's not even that it's been that busy this week.

The week did start out a little odd. Sunday night, after the last post, I woke up in the middle of the night with severe indigestion. I could hardly sleep. Most of Monday I would often feel like throwing up. I can only guess that it was the blue cheese burger I ate at the Clippers game. But who knows...I haven't heard any news reports of a mass stomach flu breakout in Los Angeles. Of course, it wasn't like there were THAT many people at a Clippers game...let alone ate the burger. So that made Monday and Tuesday a little different.

Sometime this week, Danielle said I should blog about Goldie since I haven't really mentioned much about her for awhile...at least since "the incident" last June. She'll be turning 6 years old at the end of this month. Weird to think we've had her for over 5 years now. She's still adjusting fairly well to Abigail being around. We're, of course, being a little more cautious than normal when there's food around. I think she's enjoying my new "grass" (actually, I think there's a neighbor cat who's also enjoying my new "grass" - but that's beside the point). She still thinks she's the princess of the house no matter what anyone tells her. One of the attached pictures is her favorite seasonal pillow. The other picture is her greeting whatever cat might be outside - or at least any cat we tell her is outside.

Then of course, there's the picture of her on top of the couch which she'll do usually to see who's coming. She still jumps up on our bed in the middle of the night (or sooner!) and plop down right between us if there's room. Oftentimes I don't even realize it till I'm awake and I try to move. Danielle and I both comment often on what a bed-hog she is! But the nice thing is that it's been so chilly, she helps keep us warm, so we don't always mind.

All in all...she's as cute as ever. But then again...I would expect nothing less.

That was a weekend...

This was one of those weekends that you only do once in a great while. I suppose on the surface, it wasn't as much as I'm making it out to be. But when you add two little ones in the mix, it sort of increases the...oh, how would you say it...the exhaustion factor...exponentially. In other words, add one child...it doesn't just add one degree of exhaustion, it adds twice the degree. Add a second child...it doesn't just add two degrees of exhaustion, it adds four times the degree. See what I mean?

Friday night, Abigail decided to wake up in the middle of the night and have a problem going back to sleep. That was between 2-5am...or 3-6am...but who's counting? It was 3 hours of little or no sleep. She was gracious enough, as was Joshua, to let us sleep in till after 8. But we were still pretty tired. That morning, we packed up the kids and went to Lakewood to celebrate a surprise birthday party for Danielle's aunt. It was a cowboy western theme. So, we did our best to dress the part. Abigail was probably the best dressed in an outfit we got at one of the baby showers. It was one of those outfits that when we got it, we thought "that's a cute outfit...not sure I'd dress her in it...unless Danielle's aunt has a surprise birthday party with a western theme". Okay...not the last part. But personally, though the outfit was really cute, I really didn't think I'd dress her in it. But since pulling it out last month, we've probably put her in it 4-5 times including the surprise birthday party yesterday.

The party was a lot of fun. Her aunt was REALLY surprised. Got really emotional which almost got me tearing up. It was really special. The kids did great. They did some line dancing too. Threw me back to my line dancing days. Yes...truth be told...there was a time in my "younger days" when a group of us from the church college group (or was it the singles group) would head down to the Neon Cactus...at the Disneyland Hotel. It's not there any more...this was before Downtown Disney and all that. But they did line dancing and it was a lot of fun learning all the different types of dances. So, it was kind of cool to do some of these dances at the party and feel like I already knew how to do some of them. It was also fun holding Joshua or Abigail while doing them.

Left the party about 1:30 which is already getting past their naptime. Abigail fell asleep pretty quick while Joshua took a little longer even after we got home. Then after naps, we packed up the kids one more time - mostly getting food prepared for Abigail - and drove to Canyon Lake to a house warming party for some friends who just got married and moved out there. Canyon Lake is by Lake Elsinore, so it took a good hour or so to get there - with traffic. Had a good time seeing the house and visiting with friends. Got home from that about 9:45pm. Abigail had fallen asleep, but Joshua still needed some help. Nonetheless, that made for a long day.

Today, the big event was that our neighbors invited us to go to a Clippers game in the evening. So, we still had to prepare everything for those who would be watching our kids. But first we went to church in the morning. That's always a good time to get grounded, to worship and connect with friends. Afterwards, we did lunch and prepared for the evening. Immediately after naps, I took Abigail over to a friend of the family who was going to keep her overnight. We figured since we'd be home late, there was no sense in trying to transport Abigail home like that. Instead, we'll pick her up first thing in the morning. We had a neighbor girl who's in 8th grade watch Joshua for the evening. We met up with our neighbors around 5pm to start heading towards the Staples Center for the game which started around 6:30.

The cool thing about this opportunity is that we got to sit in the VIP section. It's not quite court level...one level up I guess, but you have a different entrance which isn't quite as crowded - in fact, it wasn't crowded at all - and you can order food to be served to you. You still have to pay...and the prices are as outrageous as you might expect. But at least you can have it served to you in your seat. Pretty cool thing really. Apparently, our neighbor has 2 Lakers season tickets. And there's some system where you can trade tickets with others...sounds similar to how you do exchanges with timeshares. But since Lakers tickets are such a hot commodity...and especially depending on the team they're playing, he can trade his 2 Lakers tickets (for a particular game) for 4 Clippers tickets...in the VIP section no less. So, that's how he got us there without paying extra. That's a good deal...especially since the Clippers aren't that bad of a team. They played the Orlando Magic tonight and whipped them by over 20 points.

We got home just after 10 and fortunately, Joshua was already asleep. Which was a good thing because we were wiped. So, it was a good weekend. But I'm glad it's over. I'm going to bed now!

Christmas Lights

Today is the first day of the last month of the year. In other words, 2006 is almost over! Weird...not only that, but Abigail will be 1 in a month and a few days. We haven't even started thinking about her birthday party...but I digress...

Today was a great accomplishment. I finally got the Christmas lights up. Of course, before I could do that, I had to clean the patio from all the stuff the wind blew in this week. And since I was putting up lights on the rafters, I had to clean out all the spider webs and such from there. And since the lights were going around the windows, I had to clean the windows. It was just one chore after another. But I sure am glad to have that done.

Afterwards, we went out to dinner and then drove to a neighborhood in Brea where a majority of them go all out with the Xmas lights and decorations outside, enough so that later in the month, there are lines of cars going through that neighborhood. Fortunately, there was hardly anyone tonight and some of the homes didn't appear to have gotten all their decorations up. Every time we'd see a manger scene, we'd say to Joshua, "Happy Birthday Baby Jesus" and he would repeat it. It was really cute. He is really enjoying trains (he calls them "choo choo twains"). So, he kept looking for them in the decorations and getting excited when he'd see one. Maybe we'll go looking for more of them another time.

Wind, Hair and 7-Up

Not much to report today. It's been really windy in Southern California the past couple of days. At least enough to give local news stations something to report about. That always kills me...we get a hint of rain and immediately...Storm Track 2006! Certainly, rain storms are few and far between. But it's always humorous how local news will grab onto something regardless of how useless "team coverage" is for a little rain. Of course, today it was "team coverage" on the wind *sigh*. Then again, here I am reporting on the wind on my blog. Like I said, not much to report today.

I did get my hair cut...and colored...today. Yes, I color my hair. At 37, I'm not too interested in having snow white hair. I wasn't too keen on the idea of "coloring my hair" a few years back. But that was probably because I didn't have as much gray hair and so it still gave a more "sophisticated" look. Now I just look old. Of course, with my receding hairline, there will come a day when my hair will hardly be long enough to worry whether it's white or gray...another big *sigh*.

Before signing off for today and before this gets posted to the picture site, here's a picture Danielle took of the kids "drinking" 7-up. This was NOT a set-up. Abigail went over and pulled down the box of 7-up cans and pulled one out. Joshua, always interested in what his sister is doing, went over and imitated her. Danielle simply got the camera and snapped a picture. I love my kids!

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas

Well...at least Southern California style...after having so many weeks of heat, we're finally having days where the highs are in the mid-60's and the lows in the 40's. Not only that, but we've had some rain in the past couple of days.

Tonight, we went out a got a Christmas wreath to put on our door. We decided against a tree mostly due to the baby factor and that Abigail is crawling, pulling herself up on things and overall very curious. Not a good combination for a tree with a base of water. Joshua is whole other story. But at least he's teachable right now.

We tried putting lights up last weekend, but found that half of the strings of lights we had didn't work. I think most of these were lights Danielle had in college and used to put up in her dorm room. Yeah...I think it's time to get some new lights. They're bought...just need to find the time to put them up.

Beyond that, Danielle put up a lot of our Christmas decorations last weekend. So, we're doing pretty good with getting into the Christmas spirit. Often times, it's a week before Christmas before we get around to doing these sorts of things. We've even got a jump on our Christmas shopping, which you sort of have to do with family all over the world.

Finally, tonight, ABC aired the Charlie Brown Christmas special. We let Joshua stay up to watch this. One interesting observation that I was made aware of by World Magazine's Blog site is how when Linus begins reciting the biblical account of the Christmas story, he drops his security blanket, recognizing the significance of the story. The blogger states he got the info from Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Charlie_Brown_Christmas). Either way, cool observation!

Yup...Christmas 2006 is definitely here!

My "Grass"

One of the things I've gotten done in the past couple months is get some new "grass" put in. This time, unlike all the other times, it's still there. Here's a picture of it. Looks good, huh? I love having "grass" there and having a place Goldie can do her thing as well as a place Joshua can play on...and eventually Abigail. Not only that, but this is drought-resistant "grass". Doesn't require much water, if any. And the only other thing I need to do with it is rake it to get all the tree trimmings off of it.

Yes, all this is true. The only difference is that it's not real grass. If it were real, it'd already be dead. Goldie can do her thing and all I need to do is rinse it off. Water just soaks through it into the ground. No trimming or mowing necessary. It's a wonderful thing. And it really wasn't that expensive when you think of all the time and energy you have to put into not only preparing and planting real grass, but also maintaining it and keeping it looking decent.

I'm pleased.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving day, we spent the morning walking to the park (Tri-City Park), playing there for a short while and walking back home. I was tired, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Enough so that I didn't even take a nap while everyone else did. Instead, I got caught up with our finances and getting some other things taken care of. Must be the Juice Plus ;-).

After naps, we drove over to Danielle's aunt's house in Lakewood to have a Thanksgiving dinner and some family time with her extended family. Here is a picture of all of us at the table. We started off going around and saying one thing (or more if you'd like) that you're thankful for. That was pretty cool. Even Abigail made a couple cute sounds at about the right time. But when it came to Joshua, he surprised everyone...especially his Mom and Dad. He said something like "dankful fo you and you and you..." as he pointed towards each person around the table. It was the cutest thing I've ever seen and I don't necessarily say that because he's my son. I would have thought the same thing had it been someone else's 2 year old. But I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a proud father at that moment.

So, I hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving and could reflect again on the things that we can be thankful for, no matter how big or small they may be. It's good to have a thankful heart. Keeps you humble.

I'm Back!!

After a 4 month hiatus, I'm back and ready to blog. Well...it's not as though I was taking the time to refresh and renew. Completely the opposite I'm afraid. But...I've had too many people ask me "when are you going to blog again?!" that it's about time.

Besides, I've been making some other changes in the web-o-sphere. Specifically, we now have our own website!

http://www.bdcannon.com

Of course, it's not much...it's really just a portal right now linking someone to this blog as well as to our new picture site. That's the other thing I've been working on. This allowed me to narrow down our set of pictures a bit and also organize the photos better in general. So, check out our new photo site either by 1) going to our home page and clicking the Pictures link, 2) clicking the BDCannon Family Photos link in the upper left corner of this blog or 3) using the link below:

http://bdcannon.myphotoalbum.com

Finally...if you do go to our home page, you'll notice a link called Juice Plus+®. This is Danielle's new venture that she's REALLY excited about. And frankly, it's a pretty cool deal. You have all heard the 5 A Day campaign by the FDA or whoever it is saying that we should be getting 5 fruits and vegetables a day. Well...apparently, there's a whole lot more truth to it in that getting your fill of whole fruits and vegetables really provides you the nutrients and minerals that our body truly needs. Juice Plus+ is essentially a way to get 17 fruits and vegetables all in four capsules a day...and it only costs a little over a buck a day to get that.

I think one thing that really sold me on it was a month or so ago when Joshua, Abigail and myself were all sick for, literally, 3-4 weeks. Cough, congestion, runny nose, aches, and even completing the ordeal with the stomach flu of some sort. During that entire time, Danielle did not get sick. Now, I'm not trying to say that taking Juice Plus+ will prevent you from getting sick. But I am saying that it will certainly boost your immune system and likely will prevent you from getting sick as often. There's also a TON of research that has been done by major universities backing up this product. It's actually quite impressive.

At any rate...at the risk of staying on my soap box too much and taking away too much from what Danielle could share, just click the link and check it out. Oh...one more thing...they even have Juice Plus+ gummies that you can take for your kids or if taking capsules is hard for you. We're giving them to our son and he loves them.

Okay, enough of my soapbox...there's a whole lot more I could share. But I'll save that for the next post. It's about time for the kid's bath.

So this is what it feels like to be in the tropics!

I can't believe it's been an entire month since I blogged last. Where has the time gone!? Now that I've lost all my readers...as though I had any to begin with...I will now continue...

Yesterday, the temperature got to 106 degrees officially. It was so humid that I was dripping as soon as I walked outside. To make matters worse, we had a softball game at 4 in the afternoon. It had to have been over 120 degrees on the field. And yet, I still had a lot of fun playing. I'm sure it's been this hot here before...I just don't remember it. Thank God for air conditioned homes and enough energy to power them.

Today, we had what I call a freak storm blow through. Thunder, lightning and a 30 minute downpour in the morning. Then nice blue skies in the afternoon. Still hot and humid through it all, just like in the tropics...or in Tennessee in August. Right now, at 10:30PM, the weather channel shows it to be 79 degrees (or feels like 82 degrees).

Father's Day; Softball; Brotherly Love

Been a week...I hate saying that as an excuse not to have blogged sooner...but it's just been a week. Actually, more so than that is the fact that by the time we put Abigail down for the night around 9:30PM or so, I am so sleepy that to even try to blog on something would be hard. *sigh* Am I just getting old?? Don't answer that!

So, a week ago today was Father's Day. My second one :-). We dedicated Abigail at church similar to how we dedicated Joshua last year on Father's Day which is kind of cool. And no, we don't plan on dedicating our next child next year on Father's Day. It's fun to do consecutive Father's Day dedications...but not that fun. Anyway, later after church, when Danielle and the kids took their naps, I went to play softball with other men in the church. It was more of a practice in preparation for the summer softball league. Been a couple years since I've played, so was a little rusty. But I didn't pull any muscles or get hurt more than just a little tightness, which is fabulous.

That was until this past weekend. Saturday morning, the men did another practice and this time, I wasn't so fortunate. I was fielding balls at the shortstop position when I took a ball right above the ankle. I didn't think much of it at first...yeah, it stung a little, but didn't seem that bad. After a couple minutes I looked down and noticed a rather large bulge in my sock and I didn't think it was my ankle. So I quickly excused myself from the field and took a look. Yeah, it was like the size of a tennis ball, right above my ankle. So, got some ice, elevated it and rested for a little bit before heading home. Today, it's still a little swollen and sometimes hurts more than not. It really looks a lot worse than it is. Here's a picture I took earlier today. I had just taken off the Ace bandage I had on it (which explains the indentations).

One of the neatest things I'm seeing with Joshua is how much he really loves Abigail. It's hard to imagine that it's something we've taught him, except through our own actions perhaps. But it's as though there's something we're born with that immediately gives us the capacity to show love to another person, especially an immediate family member. I guess I've shared this before, but it's just so apparent...and so cool, that it bears repeating. He really loves giving her kisses. Here's a picture we got of him kissing her. I hate to say it, but it almost looks like he's giving her a french kiss.

Goldie comes home and Reception for Denise

Thursday, we went to the pound to pick up Goldie. It's good to have her home. She spent most of the rest of the day laying down...as though she hadn't done that the whole time she was in the pound. Here she is in one of her favorite positions...especially when one of us starts petting her.

We found out a couple of days prior to picking her up that there would be some "fees". Once we got a hold of someone, we found that there was an $18/day board and care fee (go lightly on the care!), a $57 quarantine fee and an $8 shot that they give to every dog that comes into the pound. Once I found that out, I spent some time trying to figure out if there were ways around this. I figured the quarantine fee was sort of non-negotiable. But in the County Code, it made it sound like it was optional for the animal control worker to impound the dog. So, I tried to argue that given our environment, there's really no chance that Goldie would get rabies. But they told me that beyond the "code", they have a policy that any dog bite to the face that breaks the skin, they take the dog in to the pound. I asked them to mail me the policy. I haven't received it yet.

Today, we went to a reception for our friends, Phil and Denise, to celebrate Denise's recovery from a rare form of Valley Fever. What makes this so remarkable is that Denise is the only person on record to have recovered from this disease who was also 6 months pregnant. She went into the hospital July 18 of last year and came home earlier this year on March 30. It's been an incredible ride and it was fun and exciting to see today how far Denise has come. Phil had kept up a blog this entire time chronicling the journey...so if anyone's interested in reading through it, please do so. Just go to: http://pullingfordenise.blogspot.com/.

Late Monday Post

I started writing this on Monday night...and just hadn't gotten around to finishing it.

Danielle's still fighting something. Abigail goes back and forth. Last night she screamed the loudest scream I've heard from her. Not quite sure why because she went back to sleep pretty quick. I almost think she couldn't breathe for a second because of congestion, but I really don't know. Of course, if you try to suction her nose, it's dry. Needless to say, we didn't get much sleep last night. Sort of a repeat of last Thursday night. Then I felt like I was coming down with something. *sigh*

But aside from that, we still have had some accomplishments recently. Danielle would say he's been doing this for awhile. But I have now distinctly heard Joshua say "mommy". And more than that, it seems very intentionally stated as a call for mom. That compared to his ability to say "daddy" which in the past has always seemed more like babbling. However, in recent weeks, his "daddy" has been much more intentional as well and now coupled with "mommy", it's kind of cool to hear.


Today we started Abigail on solid food...i.e. rice cereal. We're actually a little late in doing so. For Joshua, our pediatrician had us start him a week before his 4 month checkup. He wanted us to start doing it after we had her 4 month checkup. Abigail is just over 5 months old now. The delay is mostly just due to our own laziness. Of course, we could blame it on being busy with two kids...but that's not always a good excuse. But she did really good. Almost as though she knew what she was doing already.

Here's a few pics I just have to post that we took this past weekend. The two of them together is just way too cute sometimes to not share. So...here ya go...

By the way, I should note that you can always click on every image that I post to view a larger size of that image. Just a public service announcment.

More later...

Just another week in the Cannon household

It was just a matter of time...not only does Abigail seem to be getting a cold, Danielle and Joshua also are battling something. We have a feeling they got it at MOPS on Thursday. But we hate to blame stuff like that too. Whatever the case may be, Abigail had a miserable night last night which meant mommy and daddy didn't sleep well either. I was reminiscing a day or two ago my statement previously about finally getting to the point where we weren't giving medicine to anyone after having done so for a couple months straight. That ended when Joshua got his antibiotics for "the incident". Now everyone's sick so who knows when this little stint will end. Let's hope it ends soon. I'm not sure we have the emotional strength to handle another couple months of someone being sick.

Speaking of "the incident"...we had a visit from Animal Control today. Sadly, they said they had to take Goldie for a few days (6 days I believe) since this was the second reported incident. The first being that Goldie had nipped at Joshua's cousin Jefferson a year and a half ago. Wasn't nearly as bad as what happened to Joshua, but it got reported nonetheless. But because it was the second time, they have to quarantine Goldie at the pound rather than let us keep her inside here. State law apparently. Will have to read up on that law (yeah right...like I have time to do that). It was very sad seeing them take Goldie knowing we wouldn't see her for almost a week. Sort of sudden and unexpected. Not sure it's fully sunk in for me yet.

Kind of unrelated to all that I'm blogging about, but it's just too cute a picture to pass up sharing here. This is Goldie and Joshua doing what they do best - trying to get mommy's attention while she's feeding Abigail. They will often climb all over Danielle without the slightest concern over Abigail. It's actually quite humerous even if it's annoying at times.

This isn't something I've blogged about for awhile, but it's certainly newsworthy. Back in October 2004, I blogged about my company's stock price, which at the time was in the high 5's to low 6's. This week, it's been hovering in the $15 range only today closing below that to $14.93. Either way, it's pretty cool. I'm not sure I could've imagined back then it would get to this point. Now I'm imagining it hitting $20! ** calm down Brent **

Back to more mundane things...it is now jacaranda season here at the complex. That means an endless stream of those beautiful yet annoying little purple flowers come down in our patio only to be dragged into the house by anyone walking outside even for a moment. It does look really pretty when you look out over the "greenbelt". But what a mess they make!

The two plants I have in our patio are blooming really nicely. We have a rose bush that Danielle's sister Lisa got as a gift I think and so I planted it not thinking it would last more than a month. It's now been there over 3 years I think. I had planted three jasmine bushes and liked how they were growing so much along the fence, I planted three more thinking I'd fill up that fence. It's been a few years, but it's finally producing a generous amount of its fragrant blossoms.

Joshua and Computer Update; Abigail 5 Months

A couple days from "the incident"...and Joshua is doing pretty well. It seems he's getting some nasal congestion, but we can't tell if that's due to getting sick or an outcome of the injury. Danielle took him in to see our doctor this morning because it was recommended we see him after a couple of days. Actually, it was our doc's PA, but she's good too. She gave us a prescription for a different kind of cream ointment to put on his wounds saying that the stuff ER gave us is keeping the wound too moist and not allowing it to heal as fast. Otherwise, he's doing fine.

I was able to get my computer working again. Some guys at work gave me some advice given the symptoms I was experiencing. Required me to go to Fry's and get a couple of things, but it actually worked! Kind of impressed myself really...especially since I'm not sure I grasped half of what was going on. I'm just glad to have it working and not have to buy a new one yet. We'll see how long that lasts.

Abigail has now turned 5 months old and she is really adorable. I think I've already said she's started laughing. She's becoming a lot more interactive where we can "eat" her tummy or her sides and she'll smile really big or even laugh a little bit. Danielle says that she responds to her name. I tried that tonight and she just kept doing what she was doing. So, I have yet to experience that. But I'll take her word for it...

100 Years; Computer Woes; Another ER Visit

We had a crazy weekend that culminated today with another trip to ER for Joshua, this time for something a little more serious than just a rash. But I'll get to that.

This past weekend, the church we used to attend, East Whittier Friends Church, celebrated their 100 year anniversary. They started back in 1906! Pretty cool stuff. Danielle basically grew up there (even though she didn't start going till elementary school) and is the person she is today because of the influence this church had in her formative years. I can't say I have that much history with the church except that I went there for a few years while dating Danielle (and a year after we were married) and that I kneed the pastor in the eye while playing flag football. And he still performed our wedding...what a guy!

Probably the worst part about the weekend was the heat. I don't know what the temperature ever got to, but it felt like 100 degrees, especially in the sun. That just made it a tad uncomfortable at times when chasing after Joshua around the church. I don't think the church building itself has AC...probably because it was built in the 1920's I think. Nonetheless, it made sitting through the celebration service (which was on Sunday afternoon) a little more distracting then it might normally have been. But it was a still a good time to hear stories of the past and to see people who you didn't realize had some connection with this church.

During the weekend, we also had a guest staying on our hide-a-bed. It was sort of last-minute, but we were happy to accommodate her. Julie was someone we knew from Westmont when Danielle went there. Julie's sister wanted her to meet her boyfriend by meeting them at Disneyland. I guess they came down from up north (Oregon or maybe bay area) and Julie is working with a mission in Ensenada. So, she remembered we lived near Disneyland and looked us up. We always love being hospitable and opening our home up to friends and family, so we were glad to have the opportunity. And it was also fun to reconnect with her a little bit.

Needless to say, we were pretty tired going into Monday. Oh and another "fun" thing happened Sunday morning...my computer wouldn't boot up. Of course, this is the spare we've been using because I just don't have the time or money to spend trying to fix up the "new" one I had put together last year. Now I'm sort of forced to put time and/or money into doing something. I'm ready to just bite the bullet and buy one from Dell or HP or something and use these other two as my hobby machines. So, I had to spend some time today making sure the harddrive was still good, which I think it is and trying to figure out what's wrong. The guys at work really helped offer some good suggestions, so maybe I'll be up and running soon. We have to...we do too much stuff on the computer NOT to have it. I guess it shows us how dependent we've become, for better or worse.

So...just when we think the drama is finished...I was finishing up getting dinner ready, Danielle was upstairs getting ready to go to a bridal shower and I guess we just didn't worry too much about what Joshua was doing. We've been leaving the gate open more because he climbs the stairs well, we don't worry too much about him falling. But we've also trusted him more around Goldie's food, especially because Goldie isn't often eating when he comes by. I guess this time was different and Joshua must've gone over to the food while Goldie was eating. We weren't there, so we didn't see exactly what happened. But all I remember hearing was a growl from Goldie and a second later, Joshua started wailing. I don't want to downplay the situation or appear casual when I say that it really isn't THAT bad...it could've been a LOT worse. But it was definitely more than a quick nip. Needless to say, Danielle and I freaked...hey, this is the first real injury Joshua's every had! Okay, I know I know...it won't be the last one and there will likely be worse injuries we'll have to deal with. Danielle and I both learned a lot from this experience, namely how we should react so as to give Joshua a greater assurance that he will be okay. Attached are pictures so you can see...it doesn't really do it justice, but gives you an idea.

So, we took him into ER because we were told by nurse friends that the biggest concern is the risk of infection. So we packed up some food (since we still haven't eaten dinner) and headed out. After coming home, we had to go to two different pharmacies to get the prescription filled. Since we now know he's allergic to penicillin, they prescribed two different things to make up for the augmentin they would have prescribed. So, I didn't get home till almost 10PM at which point we were able to give him his medicine and put him down. Joshua's really a trooper. He still doesn't seem afraid of the dog which surprises me. We'll see how he does tomorrow.

Photo Site Organized and Updated

I have finally taken the time to not only update our photo site, but to do some reorganization so that it's not so overwhelming to anyone going to it (at least, that's my perspective - right or wrong). I'm not too fond of this photo site, but it's free for me, so I deal with it. At any rate, I redid the "Abigail and Joshua" album and split them into two, First 3 Months and 3-6 Months. Then I consolidated all of Joshua's photos into fewer albums, removing some along the way. And of course, I added several more photos - Joshua photos from 18 months till today, Abigail photos from 2 months till today, "The Kids" photos for the past couple months and also photos from Easter this year as well as our trip to the Santa Ana Zoo. So, to access the photo site, click the link on the right side or to make it easier, click the link below or copy and paste it into your browser.

http://photos.yahoo.com/bdcannon@sbcglobal.net

Have fun!

Santa Ana Zoo

On Saturday, we decided to go to the Santa Ana Zoo. I think we might have been once or twice in the distant past. But Danielle read about it in a book about activities you can do with your family in Southern California. So, we thought it'd be a fun activity to do in the morning. Turns out we loved it so much, we went back in the afternoon and bought an annual pass for the family. Not only that, but we will likely have Joshua's 2 year birthday party there. Wow...is that extreme or what?

What's really nice about this zoo is that it's the perfect size for a toddler. Not so large that they get overwhelmed, but not so small that he gets bored easy. They have a really nice area where you can get snacks, have a picnic or just rest while the kids can use the playground area.

Funny story...we're at the playground and I needed to change Joshua's diaper. So, I took him into the restroom where there's one of those diaper changing tables that fold down in the large handicap stall. I stood him on it to pull down his shorts which I got down to his ankles and then proceeded to lay him down onto the table. I went to grab the shorts and...they weren't there! I looked down and found that as I picked him up to lay him down, the shorts sort of slipped off over his shoes and fell off...directly into the toilet. I quickly went to grab them and start ringing them out. I let out a little word of frustration - don't worry, it was clean - and Joshua just started laughing at me. Needless to say, I felt dumb. Of course, I came back out and confessed to Danielle what had happened - hard to hide something like that when he's no longer wearing his shorts - and a couple other parents just said not to worry...that we've all done it :-).

What's going on? cont'd

First off...here's a picture of Joshua's rash/hives. He'll probably kill me someday for posting this one, but at least he's covered. As you can see, it was concentrated around his waist. He actually scratched through it once to where it started bleeding. Poor guy!

After he got on the steroids and off the antibiotics, he started clearing up pretty quick. Probably took about 3-4 days before it was cleared up for the most part. On Tuesday, as Joshua was starting to get better, we noticed Abigail starting to get a temperature *sigh*. It seemed to get into the 100 range pretty quick. But we tried not to panic and just figured if she still had it after a couple days, if it didn't get higher first, we'd take her in. By Wednesday afternoon, it had stayed in the 100's and would occassionally creep into the 101's and 102's. Once it hit 103.0 and that's the magic number for sure. We also figured, even before the 103 reading, that since we're planning on heading up to Big Bear that weekend (more on that later), it'd be good to get her on antibiotics as soon as possible, if that was the appropriate course of action.

So, Danielle took her into Urgent Care and of course, they first read her temperature at something like 99.6! But since she really didn't have any other symptoms, they really couldn't do much. Later they took her temperature and it was in the 102's, so we felt more justified. They decided to try and take a urine sample in case she had a urinary track (or tract?) infection. Weird to think she could have that at such a young age. To do that, they had to put on this contraption around her private area in hopes that when she pee'd, it would catch some of it. Of course, she wouldn't go, but they did get enough to test positive that she had one. Now, they had to get more so they could do a culture and figure out what kind. That was more difficult. To make a long story short, they sent Danielle home with a couple more of these bags and explained how to collect the urine and put into the tube. If we didn't get enough to do a culture, they'd have to put a catheter in, which is not very pleasant for a baby. Fortunately, we got it, though it took us until about 2AM to do it! Oh and they gave us some antibiotic...the same kind Joshua had. Nice. We explained what happened to Joshua and they said don't worry about it, she'll probably be fine.

Friday, we went up to Big Bear with my brother and his wife and 4 year old son. We share a cabin up there and that was our week to use it. Here's a picture of the lake from the living room. It was beautiful that weekend. By that time, Abigail's temperature had come back down and she was generally doing better. Seemed she was getting congested some, but maybe that was the altitude change. The hardest part about that weekend was not realizing how much effort would have to go into taking care of our kids. Even on the way up, they were both a handful. Joshua was having meltdowns. *sigh* What a great start. I knew I wouldn't get much rest. But they've been sleeping so well in general, I didn't expect the struggle we'd have with them sleeping at night. That just made the days seem that much harder. We do look forward to going again, especially with family. But we'll have to make sure we're emotionally ready and have a better plan for handling meltdowns and such.

Nonetheless, it was fun seeing Joshua play with his cousin, Jefferson. I think Jefferson really enjoyed it. Joshua is in an imitation phase right now and I think Jefferson learned that pretty quick. One of the things he did was let out this loud high-pitched screech, which of course Joshua followed right behind. For the most part, it's quite humerous...unless you're in a restaurant or when Abigail's nursing or trying to take a nap. And of course, Joshua likes doing it on his own, even without Jefferson's help. But we all managed. Just before we left on Sunday, we all went to a place that has a long slide where you ride down in little carts, similar to bobsleds, except with wheels. Danielle and I each took Joshua down and he seemed to enjoy it a lot. That was a good ending to a long weekend. Not only that, but on the way down, the kids slept practically the entire time...a far cry from how it was going up. Joshua was especially funny...he slept so hard, he had bed-head...or is it carseat-head?

One final note concerning Abigail. When we got home, we had a message that told us the results from the urine culture and that they came back negative to having any infection. So, the original test was a false positive I guess. And we could stop giving her the antibiotic, which was just as well. Not only were we having trouble giving it to her, but Danielle thinks she started seeing a rash begin on her. But since we stopped it, we won't know till next time whether she really is allergic to it, like Joshua is. While it's nice to know that Abigail didn't have that infection, it's still a mystery is why she had such a high temperature in the first place. Another question for heaven I suppose.

So, it took us a few days to recover from that weekend. Not sure if Danielle ever fully recovered. But this past week has been pretty good. The biggest thing I realized this past week is that it's been the first time in a couple months that we haven't had to give our kids any kind of medicine. For so long, we've had these droppers and medicine bottles collecting on our kitchen sink and we've finally been able to move all those upstairs and not have to think about them. The other fun thing is that Abigail is really starting to show more personality, is smiling a whole lot more and is now starting to laugh. It is ADORABLE!! Talk about bringing joy, just like her name.


Joshua has begun to get into bugs more. He loves going just outside our patio and looking for snails, pillbugs, whatever. Here's a couple examples. Joshua also seems to be gaining more and more energy and has a huge need to expel it, despite his parent's inability to keep up sometimes. Actually, he's probably always had this much energy...but he seems to really enjoy just running around the entire complex. It's really fun watching him run because his arms just flail around, I'm sure to help keep his balance...but he looks so out of control too. Every few seconds, I can just envision him losing that balance and BLAM! Face plant into the sidewalk. I hate to say this, but I'll probably have to keep myself from laughing when it happens.

Enough for now...will share about my weekend later.

What's going on?

Wow...has it been over two weeks since the last post??? So much to share, so little time before I likely fall asleep. I suppose I ought to first start with a final American Idol comment being that the season ended tonight and it's fresh in my mind.

Of course, we knew Taylor would win. At least over Katherine. Once Chris was voted off it became a no-brainer. You could even see it on Katherine's face right before they announced it. It was the same face she had right before Chris got voted off. Anyway, I'm glad that's over because now I can have my Tuesday and Wednesday nights back...at least I'm sure my wife's happy about that. Oh yeah and the LOST season finale was tonight as well, so another reason my Wednesday's are back...not only that, Smallville finished a couple weeks ago, so my Thursday nights are back. It's a beautiful thing...

Now...let's go back in time...Friday the 12th, we had Abigail's 4 month checkup. I would share her measurements except I can't remember them off hand and the info is downstairs. Umm...I believe she weighed in at 15 lbs 10 oz and measured like 25 or 26 inches. I'll have to post an update later. Either way, she's doing well which is nice.

Saturday, we test drove the Honda Odyssey. That was cool. We even transferred the car seats over to it just to see how it would all fit. We'll definitely get this car. Just a matter of time. Later that day, I took our dog, Goldie, in to get a bordatella shot. That's always an adventure. Found that Goldie is at 22 lbs. She's been at 19 or 20 lbs forever! So, maybe she's beginning to pack it on now.

Sunday the 14th was Mother's Day and so after church, we met up with Danielle's family at a nearby park to have a picnic lunch. Earlier that day, I had noticed what seemed to be a rash on Joshua, but it wasn't that bad and we were in a hurry, so I didn't do much with it. Later in the day, it became worse and we initially thought it was a heat rash because it was so warm outside and because it was occuring mostly around the waist where his diaper is. By morning, it was a lot worse, appearing over a larger part of his body, and rather than wait the whole day for Urgent Care to be available (after 5PM), we decided to take him to ER (actually, Daddy took him to ER). The ER doctor suspected it was an allergic reaction to the antibiotics he was on the previous week. He told me to stop the antibiotics, he gave him some steroids and told me to have him see our pediatrician in 1-2 days to follow up. The weird thing is that we think he already had this antibiotic once before and didn't have a problem. Not only that, but he began this antibiotic a week prior to reacting. But reading some things online debunked that theory.

MORE TO COME...I'm falling asleep fast!

Conclusion of My Birthday Week

Wow...what a whirlwind this week's turned out to be. But it's been a good whirlwind except for Joshua getting another fever today. But I'll talk about that later.

Friday morning, we all met up with Danielle's parents at the Original Pancake House for breakfast. We always enjoy going there and this was no exception. Chocolate pancakes for me, thank you very much. Later that morning, we went to the mall to go birthday shopping - Robinsons May to be exact since the store here was closing because Macy's bought it. Later that afternoon, I took Joshua to pick up the portraits at Sears (because we forgot that morning). Then after dinner, the two of us went to church where MOPS put on a Dad's night where the Dads and their kids could make Mother's Day crafts together. Of course, Joshua lost interest pretty quick. But it was fun nonetheless. Next year should be more fun if they choose to do that again.

Saturday, we did some minivan shopping. It was actually sort of spur of the moment, but something we'd been needing to do for awhile. In the morning, we went to a Honda dealership to look at the Odyssey and in the afternoon to the Toyota dealership and looked at the Sienna. We were amazed at how much less room we felt in the Sienna. There were lots of other features we really liked in the Odyssey that either weren't in the Sienna or were just designed differently. Ultimately, it looks like the Odyssey is where we're leaning. We just need to do the test drive and the kid test (i.e. how does the stroller fit, get the car seats in and how easy is it to move in and out, etc) and then figure out how we're going to pay for it and we're all set.

That evening, our neighbor's, Tara and her mom Cheryl, came to babysit while we went out on a birthday date. We are very appreciative of them for taking care of the kids while we got some time together. We went to the Irvine Spectrum and specifically to the Yard House for dinner. We would have gone to the one in Brea, but figured we hadn't been to the Irvine Spectrum in a quite a while and it would be fun to walk around the various shops that are there. I wasn't impressed by the food or atmosphere. Not bad, just wasn't impressed. Danielle, on the other hand, really liked the food. Probably didn't help that it was on the night of Game 7 of the Lakers series with the Pheonix Suns. But since they lost so badly, we didn't hear as much from the crowd as we would have had they won. Overall, it was a fun evening just hanging out with my bride of 9 years (soon to be 10!) as we celebrated my birthday.

Today was really a regular day, going to church, going shopping, etc. During church, our pastor told us that there was an article written in the local paper (Star Progress) about our church and the series we were going through. Pretty good article. Here's a link and I hope you're able to see it.

Orange County Register - Star Progress for La Habra/Brea

After church, we began realizing that Joshua wasn't acting normal and felt really warm *sigh*. We took his temperature and it was somewhere in the 101 range. We took it again later and it read somewhere in the 103 range. Seeing that he had been pulling on his ear for the past day or two as well and that Urgent Care closed at 5, we decided to take him in rather than wait a full day. So, we got him on antibiotics...again. Sheesh! Does this ever stop, even for one month???

My Birthday; 83

I'm not one to toot my own horn...even if I had my own horn...and advertise that it was my birthday today. But I guess I already spilled the beans in the previous post, so there's not much tooting necessary. And no, I'm not turning 83. That was my golf score today. And for those not in the know about golf, 83 is pretty darn good (there I go tooting my own horn again).

I played with a friend from our old church and he invited his neighbor. It was a great time. I already knew that I like playing golf. I just don't always remember that I LOVE playing golf. And it's not just because I do pretty well, I love being outside with the green grass and trees. We played at the Westridge Golf Club in La Habra, my hometown. Really nice course built in the southern hills of the city.

On the way home, I treated myself to a lunch from The Hat. Pastrami Dip and fries...too much for one sitting, so I'm saving the rest for lunch tomorrow. After filling up with that and getting the mail, I took a nap with my wife while the kids were asleep. Only one hour long opportunity a day to do that.

After our nap, Danielle arranged for us to go to Fullerton College and get a massage. The students who are going through the program are, at this stage, just working to get their hours in before moving on. So, they're all relatively experienced, yet still new. So you still get a good professional massage at a fraction of the cost since you're not paying them, you're paying the department.

I would write more, but I'm falling asleep. I think it took me 5 minutes to write the last paragraph.
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Another week

Another week has gone by without a post...*sigh* I'll try to recap a few things as I think of them.

Last Friday, I went to a Men's BBQ at church. They had Big B's catering. They specialize in BBQ ribs and chicken. Good stuff. They're actually right behind us in the Albertson's shopping center, so everytime I walk over to the store, I smell the delicious spread. It was a good time at the event...and I didn't have to deal with the kids :-). But thankfully for Danielle, our good friend Stephanie came over to help out. Thanks Stephanie!!!

Saturday morning, we all went to the driving range so I could hit a bucket of balls and practice my golf swing. It's my birthday this Thursday and Danielle arranged for me to play golf with someone from our old church. Since I haven't even swung my clubs for almost a year, it was a good idea to get out a few times. Abigail fell asleep and so she stayed in the stroller while I practiced. Danielle took Joshua around and let him explore. It was fun for all. That night, we went to the Friends Center banquet. This is where Danielle recently finished her Master's degree. We love going, but it's especially nice because you not only get a dinner out of it, but also childcare. Gotta love that!

I went Monday night to the driving range again to get some more practice in. The place was well lit and it was nice and cool outside. I'm actually starting to feel a little more at ease and will get one more practice in tomorrow night. While I was there, they brought out the vehicle that goes around collecting all the golf balls that have been hit. It was the weirdest thing...as soon as the vehicle came out, it was as though every ball that was hit was aimed directly for it. Like there was either some gravitational pull or a certain collective motivation to hit it. Whatever the reason, to see a group of white balls all of a sudden attempt to descend on this thing was quite humerous. I had to stop myself a few times because I could just feel myself starting to crack up while trying to hit the ball.

So, Danielle was just reading a MOPS Magazine and came across an ad for Holy Folks. There's always comments made about how commercialized Christianity has become. This seems to be the epitomy. 'Nuff said.

More to come later. I'm falling asleep and need to go to bed.
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Sleep deprivation; poop in the tub; Idol Wrapup

Just when you think you've got things under control...Abigail's been sleeping 8-9 hours a night for a couple weeks now. We get her down by about 11PM and she sleeps until well after 7 the next morning. Joshua's been even better, generally going to bed by 7:30-8PM and not waking up till 7:30 the next morning. We've been really blessed by this, we know and we try not to take it for granted.

A couple nights ago, the two of them woke up around 6:30 and didn't go back to sleep. Fortunately, I had already left for work. Danielle wasn't that fortunate. Last night, Abigail woke up just before 5AM. So, Danielle fed her and put her back down. What made that hard for me is I had set my alarm for 5:30. I knew if I tried falling back to sleep, it'd be a major struggle getting up when the alarm went off. So, needless to say...I'm a bit sleep deprived. Danielle usually can get a short nap in during the day, but she's even more tired because she has to take care of the kids all day. Let's hope tonight is not a repeat.

A new ability Joshua seems to have is to poop in the bathtub. I think he's done that three times now in the past week. What makes it even more funny is the fact that he'll grab the shower curtain and hide behind it before doing it. We just think he's being cute with the curtain until we realize he's grunting back there! And in the "it's all about your perspective" category...at least they're solid. Maybe he's at the beginning stages of potty training already. Wouldn't that be a treat.

And what Tuesday wouldn't be complete without my take on American Idol. Granted, I missed reporting last week's festivities. Last week they sang the classics and Rod Stewart was their coach. I guess he's old enough to remember the classics. I wasn't really impressed with much of the performances. Ace was voted off which wasn't surprising except that I thought he did better than some of the others. I think what was even more surprising is having Kellie be in the top 3...I mean she even admitted that "ah butchered it".

So tonight, they did love songs. I again wasn't all that impressed with most of it...except for Chris' performance of a Bryan Adams song. Kellie again butchered it. Man...if she doesn't get voted off this week...actually, I have no idea what I'd do. Screaming doesn't seem like it would cut it. But she just seems totally out of her league right now. I used to like her, but now she's just an annoying ditzy blonde. She's way outlived her usefulness in the competition and it's time for her to leave.

I ran across a couple of sites that offer their own comments about the show that are pretty fun to read: http://althouse.blogspot.com and http://www.imao.us. You'll have to scroll down if you're reading this a couple of days after the fact. Have fun!

Sick again; Portraits

Another lag between posts...shame. Joshua got sick again this week. This is just weird...he was so healthy his first year and now in the past 6 weeks or so, he's just getting sick over and over. I ended up taking him into Urgent Care on Wednesday night. You know...that makes it sound so...well...urgent. It really wasn't that bad. It's just we didn't want to wait till the next morning to take him into walk-in hours. Not to mention the fact that Danielle would have to do that on her own whereas I could take him in to Urgent Care myself without having to take Abigail. Anyway, it just worked out better. The doctor said he had a lot of snot build-up in his ears which I guess is a sign that an ear infection is budding...which is really what we wanted checked. So, we got another prescription for that. I think he's beginning to feel better now, which is nice. Now if they could just come up with some prescription medicine for whinyness and tantrum-like symptoms.

On Friday, I stayed home from work and we took the kids to get some new portraits. We were supposed to do it as Abigail's 2 month and Joshua's 18 month portraits, but that didn't happen with everyone getting sick so darn much. So, now it's more like Abigail's 3...almost 4 month portraits and Joshua's 19...well, almost 20 month portraits. Nonetheless, we got 'em done. One things for sure...we won't be doing them together at the same time for awhile. OH MY GOSH!!!! Perhaps we just have to schedule it a bit better. But something was in the air that day that wasn't entirely right. Granted, we got some really cute poses. But that doesn't communicate what we went through just to get those. Maybe when they're teenagers, we'll try it again.

But I thought I'd post a few of the proofs so you could enjoy them. We got a pretty full package and since I have no idea who's reading this blog, if you're interested in one of these in wallet size and we have one, I'd be happy to mail one off. I suppose I could try scanning them in once we get them to make them email-able. Hopefully Sears doesn't get mad that I'm posting these.

UPDATE: After posting this, I realized I should comment on Joshua's outfit. We actually got those outfits BEFORE Joshua was born. They were a baby shower gift from friends at our old church. We loved them, but they're size 2T and we thought we'd never get around to wearing them. But Joshua is already fitting into 2T clothes, so we thought we'd try them for the portraits. The tops fit pretty well. The bottom part on the other hand...you can see the plaid shorts...yes, they're shorts, not pants. We didn't quite feel socks and shoes were appropriate in this case. For the other outfit, we used another pair of tan slacks we already had.