Past few days

Zach has been sick a bunch and been loving the tylenol. On Elena's first day back, I gave him some drugs and he was out for the day. He ate a few time like he is starving and then like a lightswitch he is out. That was nice for Olivia because then we could play a lot. The family is really liking going downstairs now to play with games and music. Olivia has been digging REM. Going to play some of The Who tomorrow. She recognizes the different CSI series intro music and just stares at the TV until it's over.

Zach has been getting better with holding his weight up both his head and by helping him stand. He smiles goofily a lot and gives off a little, "Coo."

Elena bought her a bouncy ball that is about a foot and a half in diameter and that has been a fun toy along with an alligator on wheels that clicks when you pull its string.

Over the past few weeks I've been thinking about picking up another hobby. I had liked collecting pennies as a kid so I decided that I might as well step up to nickels. We went to Sears photo at the mall yesterday for the kids. It went fairly well and we got some good photos. Afterwards, we went to the food court and Elena had a Sbarro sub, Olivia had about the biggest slice of pizza I've seen and I had a reuben from Arby's. After that I stopped by the Barnes and Noble and picked up a bunch of those folding cardboard nickel holders going back to the late 19th century. So I raided the kids change jar and picked out a bunch of them and got a good start. (I did feed the jar other denominations) Maybe tomorrow I'll take the kids to the bank to buy some. First day off in a while and this is all I can come up with.

nothing new going on

Been working a lot recently. Yesterday, the four of us went downstairs before going to bed and tried to burn off some of Olivia's energy so she'd go to sleep. Elena held Zach while playing the nintendo and the girl and I jumped around to some old REM albums. She really likes doing that, jumping and bouncing on the couches.
Elena goes back to work for the first time tomorrow and she's kinda bummed about that but I think that it'll be good for her to get out of the house some. It will be my first day alone with the kids and I'm apprehensive. We'll see how that goes. I hope that they isn't anything to report.

Sin City

Yesterday we dropped the kids off at daycare. It was the first time for Zach and he handled himself fairly well. Olivia was having a bit of a crabby day but she was OK. Then Elena and I went off to eat lunch at Salad Brothers. I had a hot ham and swiss, a cup of potato soup and a bunch of their bread rolls. It was that or a baked potato with cottage cheese and salsa. Mmmm

We then go to the movies and see the 1:45 showing of Sin City. There were exactly 6 people there watching. A couple of guys, a little old wrinkled couple, and us. This was a violent and gory movie. We liked it but I don't think that the old couple knew what they were getting into. I mean, this was peoples limbs being chopped off, there was a cannibal, lots of prostitutes, guns all over the place, and peoples heads getting stuffed into toilets. I guess it was based on a comic book and while there I felt like we were watching a comic book. As we left the elderly man said to me, "Quite a movie, huh." His wife leaned on her cane and just shook her head at him. I wonder in two years when we go to a movie again what we'll see?

leaky pipe

Last Monday right before going to work I go down stairs and see that some of the carpet in the basement bathroom is wet. I think that the repairs we did to the upstairs bathroom sink had gotten loose and when used it was seeping through the floor to the basement. So this means that as long as not much water is used it won't get worse until I can get home tonight and redo the drains. Not so much. Elena calls me around 7 PM at work and tells me that there is a pin hole leak right above the main shut off and its been going for a long time. I buy some repair parts and hope for the best. When I get there I just have a miserable time with soldering the copper. For starters, I'm not that good at it. I think I have it set and test the line and it leaks. Crud.
OK, shut off the water and try to re-solder. I can't get the pipes hot enough with all the water in them and it doesn't work. So I cut the pipes again and re-do some of it.
This time I mess up and get it too hot for it to run in properly and I don't realize it. Elena comes down to see the progress and tells me that its after midnight. Super.
Anyway, this didn't work and I'm out of stuff to use. So I get up at 5 and run to the other Menards store that opens then. Buy the parts I need and go home. Twenty minutes later we're good to go with no leaks. Head back to bed for a few hours and off to work again.

Zach's baptism

The past week or so Elena has been really busy fixing up the house and cleaning up and stuff. Lots of stuff to do with planning of the party too. I wasn't so good at any of it so she got all the food planned and invitations and stuff. I cleaned up the basement a bit and of course Olivia and I did a lot of vacuuming.

We went to church with everybody and that went well. Olivia was funny. We walked up to present Zach and she was a bit unnerved walking in front of everybody. Then we gave Zach to the pastor and in our church the pastor takes the kid down the aisle to show the congregation. Olivia just lost it. Some stranger was stealing her baby!!! I think the boy had the last laugh for all the people he was handed off too. He had pooped something fierce up his back and it was all yellow over his white Easter suit.

After church we went back to our house for lunch and conversation. AJ, Ben, Robert and I hid downstairs and played cards and watched the Twins. Good fun was had by all and I'll get some photos up here sometime.

Next installment will contain excerpts of the tragic tale of a small hole in our main water line.

stuff

Been working on the basement the past few days getting it moved around so its more fun for the kids and me. We set up the entertainment center so it has a TV, VCR, SuperNintento (yea yea its about 10 years old but works great!), a CD player with my Dad's old control box (30 years old, but again, works great!) and two of those plug 'n play old school game boxes with pac-man, dig-dug, galaga, nappy, mrs pac, galaxian, pole-position, and a few others. We opened the room up a lot and Olivia has been asking to go down there to play a lot more. With the new flooring Dad and I put in it has warmed up and softened the floor but wheeled toys roll easily around.

Elena and Robert wallpapered the bathroom last night. Almost drove me crazy. Here I was trying to get to sleep, get the kids to sleep and they were doing that right next to Olivia and she just couldn't settle with them making noise and doing all this fun stuff and Zach was just not sleepy. Oh well. Eventually they knocked off and they finished their project I think around 4 AM. Goofballs.

Sitting at the photographer

Came home from work around noon today and we packed up the kids to go get professional photos done. We went somewhere new to us. It was a house on a definitely upper class neighborhood that this family had set up shop. Olivia started out kinda dicy but her mood improved and got a lot of good shots. Zach on the other hand was just upset. He wouldn't settle down for anything. I hope that some of the photos just happened to flash when he wasn't crying. We wanted some with the kids together but that just wasn't going to happen. Maybe next time. We'll pick up the CD in the next few days and see how it turned out.

Olivia and I swept out the garage and raked the backyard today. Elena grilled some steaks for supper.

Long Day

written by Elena

Well, here it is 7:15am and I'm still waiting to go to bed. That's right, you read that correctly, I am still awake from yesterday!!! Both Olivia and Zachary have colds - again!!! Well, and me, too. Anyway, last night was a normal night until about 12:30am when Olivia woke up from coughing. So I get out of bed, go out to the kitchen and get her cough medicine drawn up and go in her room, and the rebellion begins before I even get close to her. Let's just say that after trying - unsuccessfully - to give her her medicine, she threw up all over her bed, sheets, and blankets, not to mention herself. Of course, at the same time, Zach wakes up to eat. So while Scott changes Zach's diaper, I change Olivia's bedsheets while she sits crying in the bathtub, still getting sick. Scott gets done with Zach and we switch kids. I feed Zachary and Scott changes Olivia and gets her settled in to bed. End of night? Oh no, not at the Watson household...

So then both kids are still awake at 2:00am, and Scott and I are about to our wits' end, so I pull out the big guns. I figure since I'm wide awake, I load the kids into the car and we'll cruise for a bit. Well, Zach obviously read the manual because he went right to sleep. Olivia was still wide awake when we got home, ready to play with the dog and toys and all. But we keep telling her it's way past bedtime, and tuck her back into bed.

Ah, finally in my own bed - it's only 3:15am. And then...

Let me shorten this already long story down to the highlights: Olivia screaming all night long because she doesn't want to go to bed, and Scott ang I taking turns settling her in, all the while getting madder and madder... Finally I'd had enough at 5:45am - I got out of bed and Olivia and I went out to the living room to play. Oh, did she have a blast!!! So I decided I'd dust the living room. Turned on music videos and dusted while Olivia played. And then finally at 7:00am, she fell asleep on the couch - Hallelujah!!!!!!!

So now it's 7:15am, and I hear Zach, who is hungry again...

After work

Came home and found out that Elena wasn't too keen on my last posting. I guess it was his 3rd RSV shot (she corrected it from 2nd)and that there is nothing wrong with Fried Green Tomatoes.

Sister in law came down to say hi and spend the night. Help out with the kids a bit.
Nice of her. I'm told that she took everyone except me out for dinner.

Kids doing fine.

Two years ago today Saddam Hussein was overthrown.

Fried Green Tomatoes

Yup, it's what we're watching right now. Woot! I guess it's what I deserve for watching the Ultimate Fighter reality show earlier.

Zach's doing well. He had some pictures the other day at Sears. I dunno. I'm not so sure that the ones I take are all that "not professional." I do know that they are about 50 bucks cheaper. He's up to almost 10 pounds now. His cheeks are just big hanging jowls like Livi had. His head control is a lot better with him being able to stay up straight for a good 20 seconds if he wanted.

He had his 3rd RSV shot. It's about a 1k a dose shot. I guess it helps his immune system or something. I forget what Elena told me.

Olivia chewed up, spit out, and mashed into our carpet a mouthful of M&M's today. Zach smiled intentionally for Elena today too so everybody was productive.

Out on the town

Well, not quite out on the town but over to some friends. We went over to Travis, Michelle, and Forrest's place for supper. There is a little park nearby we walked to and the kids (and I) had fun playing on the swings and slides and there was a teeter-totter that could be used by one person or two. There were big springs that kept the board horizontal to the ground and the kids would push against that to go up and down.

We had grilled meats and veggies for supper. It was good. We started outside but the wind picked up and chilled our bones so we went inside and ate at this big round gold metal disc table with it looked like ancient Central American drawings on it. They have in their basement an intricate nylon tunnel system for kids to crawl around in. There are corners and places to pop your head up and it is long. I bet folded all the way out it would be close to 40 feet of tunnel all tightly packed together. Olivia and Forrest liked playing together with that.

some pics

Weekend to myself

Ahh... I came home from work tonight to a quiet house. Elena packed up the kids and the dog and went to my parents house for the weekend. Its almost eerie how much freedom I have do to whatever I want and have a real possibility to sleep a lot of hours tonight. I don't go in tomorrow until 10 so yea, things are looking good. I don't think I'd like this on a permanent thing though. I'm starting to miss those guys. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to watch whatever I want on TV, make what I want to eat, and use the computer however long I want. And now its time for bed.