The (almost) Daily Adorable

Lightening Round

jogrehome — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 01:42:08 +0000

Okay, so it’s been a while since I last posted. I’ve been tired.

So in order to catch you up I suppose I’ll need to cover a few things.

First, Joey is in his first soccer team. He just had his last game. Lucky thing, his team is almost completely comprised of kids of soccer coaches. They haven’t lost a game. More than that they have been crushing the opposition. I mean they’re five right? They shouldn’t have skills in anything really, but the kids on our team are awesome…and then there’s Joey.

Don’t get me wrong, Joey is awesome, but we broke him and are now having to deal with it. You see, as liberal lefty tree-hugging parents we taught our child that it really isn’t about who wins or loses. We’ve taught him that you go out there and do you best and the outcome is pretty much irrelevant. So what do we have? We have a kid who thinks that the outcome is irrelevant. All the other boys on the team are keeping track point by point of the status of the game, however Joey when asked after the end of every game who won or lost “I don’t know” is his only response. Seriously, couldn’t care less. He has however shown quite a preference for defense. He’ll spend most of the game standing/dancing by his goal and then wait for the ball to break loose and roll his way. Once he see’s the ball coming, he lines up, winds up and then boots the ball three quarters of the way back toward the other goal. It’s a sight. Unfortunately though this means that he’s not actively participating in 98% of the game. Gretchen and I are screaming our heads off for Joey to chase down the ball and score, but stubbornly he’s doing it exactly how we taught him.

Charlie is in full walking mode. Everything needs to move up a shelf. Yesterday we caught her after having climbed up to the top of the potty. Yeah, that high. She will no longer abide being penned in to a corner of the room, she insists on nothing but every square inch of the house being her domain. She’s also up to signing three words, more, all done/finished, and as of yesterday she asked to be fed “food”. Gretchen went to a parent teacher conference for Charlie and found out that she’s well ahead of the curve in that she’s only fourteen months, but can already ask for things…which is kind or hard to do when you can’t talk. Speaking of talking, our little girl…is a little girl. Back in the day when Joey cried it was in direct response to external stimuli. He had to be hurt before he cried, Charlie on the other hand. Sheesh! When she cries, for any number of reasons, it’s a whole body experience. She’s just a baby, but she can swoon like she’s on the set of Gone with the Wind.

This will break your heart.

jogrehome — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 03:03:12 +0000

If you are in a bad place, or just not in the mood for bad news…don’t read this.

The family is fine.

Okay, you were warned. I just got wind of a story the BBC is running on how over 50 years the Catholic Church in Spain has been taking healthy newborns away from their mothers and selling them to other couples. 300,000 babies. It’s beyond imagining. You can see the BBC article here, and a longer writeup here. Here’s what I had to say on the subject.

Hold your little ones a little closer tonight.

Mine enemy, thy name is laundry

jogrehome — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 00:55:31 +0000

So there was this huge chunk of my life where I was a single guy. During those days I had two laundry piles…whites, and everything else. It was an idyllic time where me and laundry got along. We weren’t the best of friends, but we understood each other, and from that understanding came a mutual respect. Laundry came out of the dryer and went into one of two piles.

Now, I simply don’t know what’s going on. I had two piles, now I have:
1. Joey jeans
2. Joey shorts
3. Joey short sleeved shirts
4. Joey soccer outfit
5. Joey long sleeved shirts
6. Joey jackets
7. Charlie dresses
8. Charlie pants
9. Charlie short sleeved onesies
10. Charlie long sleeved onesies
11. Charlie socks
12. Charlie bibs
13. Charlie blankets
14. Kids bedding
15. Grown up bedding
16. Kids towels
17. Grown up towels
18. Gretchen clothes (of which a book could be written on the different piles)
19. Joe’s whites
20. Joe’s everything else

All of the above go to different places. I need a pneumatic tube system to get the clothes to the right location after they come out of the dryer. I don’t respect laundry anymore, I don’t think it respects me anymore either.

Happy Anniversary

jogrehome — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 17:10:07 +0000

Suck it naysayers, you sayers of nay! Six years and going strong. Can you believe it?!

For those of you that don’t know Gretchen and I are celebrating our six year wedding anniversary…almost. See, what happened was that we were planning on getting married in October (2nd) however in June we found out we were pregnant, and she had no insurance. So we pulled together our first wedding in five days, with just close family, however we still had the dress and the reservation for the October wedding, and we’re not one’s to pass up a party.

So this is the sixth anniversary of our second wedding, if you do the math it’s like twelve years together already, or maybe it just feels that way sometimes.

I am Mudderless!

jogrehome — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 00:20:57 +0000

For those of you in the know there was supposed to be a Tough Mudder trip in my future. Long story short I didn’t wind up making it. Long story long, I went on an accidental 11 mile hike (read: got lost in the woods) two weeks ago that almost killed me (can anyone say airlifted?) and decided that being brave and being smart were not mutually exclusive terms. The hike that almost killed me was the same length as the Mudder with about 1,000ft. more elevation or so. Having gone through it I decided that attending the actual Mudder might be a bit much at this stage.

Good news is that I’m sticking with the training in anticipation of next years event. Better news is that Gretchen and I went on the non-lost version of the death hike I took two weeks ago. That last hike really kind of broke me. I’ve never felt that bad in my life and I have never been so thoroughly defeated in my life either, however not one to let things get me down so I decided to go back and kick that mountains ass! My darling dulcet wife decided that she wanted to come along to support me and we had a really good time together taking our time getting up there so some beautiful views (to include the Mrs.).

So the bad news is that I didn’t get to go play in the mud and get hit with a stun gun, the good news is that I can wait until next year and I got both my revenge on the mountain and a date with my wife all at the same time. All things considered a win win.

First steps

jogrehome — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 15:44:31 +0000

This has been a big couple of weeks for Charlie. She just had her first birthday, just figured out how to stand by herself, and just a few days ago took her first step. That’s right party people, our little girl is walking. Well, maybe not so much as leaning toward something, taking a step or two and then crashing down to the floor. Damn Gravity. Anyway, we have had several confirmed sightings at daycare and last night we were tempting her with cookie bits to get her to walk back and forth between us (does that make us bad parents?). It worked! She would stand up give us a big smile and then hobble along for three or four steps before falling into our laps.

So now all the dangerous stuff goes on still yet higher shelves, and we’ll need to start padding everything now that she has farther to fall. If by chance you come over and hour living room looks like a padded cell, at least you’ll know why.

Manliness is not an indicator of the best men.

jogrehome — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 00:36:04 +0000

So I went on a hike today. It was hard and took three hours and wah wah wah…

Anyway, one of the guys on the hike with me had a video camera. I got the footage off the camera after the hike and Joey and I were sitting in the living room afterward watching the tape. As should be no surprise, I was bringing up the rear for most of the hike, and for some of the hike I was bringing up the really really really rear.

So Joey and I are watching the video during one of those times where the cameraman and the rest of my merry crew is waiting up ahead of me and the video is pointing back toward me as I make my way up.

Joey: Daddy, how come your friend isn’t helping you?

Me: Well, baby, there really isn’t a lot they can help me with. I’m not carrying anything so there’s really no help for them to offer.

Joey: Well, he could hold your hand.

I’m truly saddened that I’ve lost whatever it is that makes it okay for Joey to say that. If I were a tougher man among tougher men I’m sure someone would have helped me along by holding my hand.

1st birthday

jogrehome — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 03:19:50 +0000

Today was Charlies birthday party. Her actual birthday is Monday, have you any idea it is to have a party on a Monday? Anyway, it was a great time for all. The day started out kind of crappy, but it warmed up for us and the park was a total hit. We invited a few of Charlies friends, and we invited a few of Joeys friends, and we invited a few of our friends. I’m a little too tired to go over the details right now, so I’ll have to let the pictures speak for themselves. The rest of the picture set is on flickr…enjoy!

Kids say the darndest things.

jogrehome — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 15:34:42 +0000

So this morning we were all in kind of a hurry to get out the door. Since I started hitting the gym again, I am no longer a morning person and need to be dragged bodily out of bed. We were all kind of late raisers this morning so when I was finishing my shower, Gretchen hopped in to start hers.

Don’t worry this is a “G” post. It was all plans for the day, and what’s for lunch, but while we’re in there Joey finishes breakfast and comes walking down the hall to his bedroom so he can start getting dressed. As he’s walking down the hall he can hear our voices in the bathroom. He opens the door sticks his head in and says…

“Mommy and Daddy in the shower, together…how fun!”

Hugs in hugs out.

jogrehome — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 17:36:51 +0000

Hey all! So one of the things we’ve been doing since Joey was a wee one was hugs in and hugs out. It started as a way to get him comfortable with company, but has really taken off and become just one of those things that you can remember why you didn’t do this you whole life. Everybody get’s hugs now and it’s awesome.

Obviously Charlie is too young to participate…or is she. Yesterday I came home and with my second foot just barely in the door Gretchen yells out “Don’t move.” I figured I had one of those Indiana Jones spiders on my shoulder, but then I notice my wife’s expetant gaze turn toward our daughter.

Charlie is sitting in the middle of the living room and when she sees me come in the door, she puts down her blocks and crawls around the long edge of the couch and comes all the way to the front door where I am. I’m thinking that’s damn cool to begin with, but then the grabs onto my pant legs and pulls herself up to stand at my feet and hug my legs.

My heart just about broke right then and there.