One Little Kicker

It’s Been Way Too Long

2009-02-22T22:54:00.001-06:00

Upon the many requests by Petunia’s Mommy my mommy is taking the time to update our blog. And YES it has been way to long. LK turns “1” next month. I watched videos the other night of the first few months, I could not keep the joyful tears from falling. It’s been the best and I would not change the pregnancy sickness, sleepless nights, and everything that comes with baby for anything in this entire world. We are beyond blessed to have such a wonderful little boy who makes us laugh every single day. LK’s top teeth are coming in so the past two nights have not been the best for him. Poor little guys wakes up about every 2 hours, but we have to let him cry it out since we have established a routine. He doesn’t cry for long, but you can tell he’s hurting. So this morning I got up at 5 AM with LK and watched the sunrise with a sleeping baby in my arms. I just feel so bad for him. Along with teething comes a runny nose and a little appetite.
Since is has been forever since our last post here are several photos for you to enjoy.

Here is a Christmas picture of me and
my girlfriend Little Vandy Girl

I love feeding myself!

I got to see my Great Aunt N for the very
first time at Christmas, we have the same haircut!

I always love hanging out with my Uncle JM!
Please pay no attention to my Redneck outfit –
it was hot and my Grandma dressed me!

Who wouldn’t love waking up to this face every morning?

Getting ready to play Daddy’s video games!
I picked out Mario Kart for the Wii.

Updates!

2008-11-17T19:00:00.001-06:00

LK has been busy since the last update. He’s really starting to develop a personality which of course is a pleasure all in itself. When I (dad) comes home from work, he knows my face and voice so he gives me a big smile when I walk in the room. I love it!

We’ve been feeding him baby food of course, and so far his favorites are carrots, squash, prunes (yuck!), and some others that I can’t remember…but those are the big ones.

My favorite thing to do is to open my mouth, wait till mom or dad puts the spoon close….and then look away real quick so the food hits my face!

Teething is pretty much over for the most part…and here are the fruits of my LK’s labor…

Well I know this is a short post but today has been crazy busy at work and I’m tired of typing on a computer!!! I will update some more with some great pictures in the next few days hopefully! Stay tuned.

Dad

First Halloween

2008-11-03T18:30:00.001-06:00

LK’s first Halloween was pretty uneventful, but it was still fun. We only had 10 trick-or-treaters….10….what the heck?? Maybe the kids went to the neighborhoods with the bigger houses in hopes of getting full size candy bars. Who knows? Anyway, we didn’t dress LK up too much because well, it’s just not worth it for one picture. Maybe next year we’ll get him a good costume.

That being said, we still got him SOMETHING…

This is my scary face!

I want candy!!!

So yeah, not too much of a costume, but it’s still something. Next year will be different :-). Happy Halloween everyone!

The Camera is Charged

2008-10-17T19:41:00.001-05:00

Much thanks to daddy for finding the camera battery. We’ve been picture taking fools here lately. LK is now 6 months. We are trying new foods – squash and sweet potatoes are the only ones that he likes at the moment. I can get a couple of spoonfuls of pears, but that is it. He does not like green beans, bananas or apple sauce. Our next new food to try will be peaches. We think he is cutting a tooth, I’ve been wiping snot all week. Maybe I should take him to the doctor, but he has not had a fever so I am not going to rush him to the doctor when he is in a good mood.
We are anxiously awaiting our new friends “Little Vandy Girl” and “The Next Baseball Star”. Every time their moms call me I expect to hear “We are on our way to the hospital!” False alarm every time! I’ve jumped across the couch a couple of times in the past few days. Once was just a Dr. update and the other was “Did you watch Wheel of Fortune?” Also, please be praying for my newest friend JCM. She is having a tough time with her bilirubin counts which are on the high side. Please pray specifically for the numbers to go down.
And now what you all have been waiting for. Pictures. These are slightly older, but good ones that we just can’t leave out. Hopefully we will get better at posting.

Paying no attention to my rainforest because I would much rather
watch the soccer game – you all should know better by now!


Learning to roll over, but I get a little frustrated when I can’t get back over.


I finally got the hang of eating – I wanted my cereal like oatmeal not soup.


Trying to figure out my new toy. Yeah that little green guy – I’ve practically destroyed him – I think I broke his neck!

We are such slackers!

2008-09-12T19:28:00.001-05:00

Hey remember us? Yeah, we have a little boy and it's been so long since we posted on this blog, he's now a senior in high school and plans on being in the starting 11 for the LA Galaxy next year.

Okay so maybe not, but man it's been a long time since I posted on here! Sorry about that, but you know...baby and all. LK is really growing, and we've done lots since I last posted. We are now feeding him "cereal", but it's more like runny oatmeal. Maybe more like Tasty Wheat. But he loves it and gobbles it up every time, but the best part is that it makes him SLEEP THROUGH THE NIGHT!!! WHOOOOOOO!!! Ah, 6 hours of straight sleep (sometimes even more) never felt so good. LK is able to roll over to his stomach now (I almost said tummy...mom can say that here, but I just feel weird saying tummy). He loves to scream for no apparent reason other than to just make noise. Of course mom and dad encourage this screaming by laughing at him so I'm sure we are just feeding his love for noise. Ah well. But by now I'm sure you are all saying "enough talking, where are the pictures????" Well here ya go...

4 Months and Talking A LOT!

2008-07-26T15:01:00.001-05:00

LK has started gurgling and babbling with his smiles. He has this very loud squeal that makes us laugh every time - he is the best bubble blower I've ever seen. LK is almost laughing, he has a few times, but it's not everyday - so we love the times that he does. It is so much fun to talk to him and of course Mommy translates all his sounds into real words. He has said "green," "how," "burger" and "big boy." He is really good saying "I'm good" - he says this one a lot! Daddy has not heard him say the following yet, but I am sure he will hear it soon enough "Mommy is always right!" I didn't know 4 month olds could talk in complete sentences!

LK is already working on his sign language
"I Love You!"

Here he is hatching his evil plans
to take over the world.

Then there is the ole' silent treatment.

Shouting at those crazy people what
to bid on the Price is Right!

"Milk - it does a body good!"

Happy 4th...yesterday!

2008-07-05T09:51:00.001-05:00

Okay, so where we live is kind of in the country. Well, it's "country" compared to the city, but not really...that's just what everyone in the city says. Whatever. Anyway, several people asked us "where are you going to watch fireworks?", to which we reply with "well where we live, every redneck within a 20 mile radius from our house is setting off fireworks so we don't need to go anywhere." One thing I was worried about last night was the loud fireworks scaring LK. But with that in mind, we went outside and stood in the driveway and watched our neighbors, and neighbors of our neighbors, and...well okay the whole neighborhood set off fireworks. I was so distracted by the fireworks display, that I didn't look over at Donavan's reaction to the loud noises and bright lights until about 5 minutes into the show...and this is what I saw...

Come on dad, give me something just a LITTLE more exciting than this! Boooorrrrring!

Seriously, the fireworks were RIGHT in front of our house...as in, loud booms, and bright lights and everything. He fell asleep during the show. He wasn't asleep when we brought him out, but the calming, soothing sounds of Japanese explosive devices put him off to dream land. Mom and dad are raising a real party animal!

It's been a while

2008-07-04T08:10:00.001-05:00

Sorry it's been so long since we last updated. Apparently mom is only letting me update the blog and she just takes the pictures :-P Oh well...

Once LK starts crawling and doing a little more, it will be more fun to take pics and post about his new discoveries. Right now, he's just beginning to grab for things. He LOVES anything yellow, especially this little lion thing we got at one our many baby showers. So...thanks to whoever got that for him!

He's also started to just mumble and squeal every so often. It's funny because it will be extremely quiet, and then he'll just belt out a loud squeal all of a sudden. Ha! It makes us both laugh every time we hear it. I'm not sure it's not that funny to everyone, but to us, well you know...we are easily entertained. Now, I know everyone just wants to see more pics, so here you go:

Here I am in my bath/hammock thing. I used to cry EVERY time mom and dad placed me in it, but now I just chill. Dad covered me up so as not to expose me to the Internet.

And right after my bath, I get dried off, squirm, and then start to complain that dad is taking too long to put my pajama's on.

Here is mom and dad's attempt at getting me to sit up. It works for the most part...until I have to sneeze...and then my head is a little unstable!

I'm just so photogenic....the camera loves me.

That's all for now, but I'll post some more pics soon. I have a couple that are another "before and after" that just need to be shown in their own post :-)

What's The Schedule?

2008-05-27T22:35:00.000-05:00

This is Mommy's first post!! The number one question I get is "What is his schedule?" Well, the only real schedule we have is my TV schedule. I do think that LK is getting close to a schedule, rather than flying by the seat of our pants - which does keep things interesting! So I'm going to share my TV schedule because I know you want to know! Please note that I don't sit in front of the TV all day, every day, but if I did this is what my schedule would look like.

6:00-9:00 A.M. - SportsCenter (really depends on when we wake up)

9:00 A.M. - Live with Regis & Kelly (not everyday)

10:00 A.M. - The Price is Right

11:00 A.M. - What Not to Wear

12:00 P.M. - All My Children

1:00 P.M. - One Life to Live (just started watching this Soap, like I need another one to watch - I've got to have more drama than a poopy diaper in my life!)

2:00 P.M. - Days of Our Lives (which I said I would never watch again!)

3:00 P.M. - Dr. Phil (only if it is not sleazy and if we are not napping)

4:00 P.M. - PTI: Pardon the Interruption

5:00 P.M. - Cash Cab

6:00 P.M. - Jeopardy

6:30 P.M. - Wheel of Fortune

Primetime (when the shows are in season)
The Bachelorette, Jon & Kate Plus 8, So You Think You Can Dance, Top Chef, America's Next Top Model, Step it Up and Dance, Shear Genius, Project Runway, Big Brother, Design Star

WOW! I am a reality junkie!

Well, I can't post without adding a photo of LK. We are working on sitting up!

Here come the smiles!

2008-05-16T06:11:00.001-05:00

Over the past week or so, LK has started to finally smile. It comes and goes, but when he starts smiling he'll do it several times. Of course the trick for me is trying to catch when he is doing it. It's harder than you think! However, I was able to get some good ones one Saturday morning while mom slept....I guess it was my reward for not sleeping in :-)

And just to prove that I mean it when I say it's hard to catch him while he's smiling...here's a couple of pictures that prove it!

Here he is, completely content, and looks like he is getting ready to just laugh up a storm.

And then....

So as you can see, these pictures really can tell the story of a baby's emotions. But it's hilarious to watch.

It's so cool to watch him grow and develop. He's only a little more than a month old and he's already grown so much, at least to me.

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures!!

2008-05-06T19:56:00.001-05:00

I know it's been a while since I last posted. Things have just been crazy around here. LK is 6 weeks old today and it seems like time is going by really fast. He's sleeping right now, and it's early enough that I'm not asleep myself....soooo....I'm posting pictures! So without further ado:

This is what we affectionately call LK's "rainforest". It lights up, plays music, and completely mesmerizes LK. You can't see it in a picture, but he kicks his legs out like crazy when the music is playing....I can't help but laugh :-)

He doesn't sleep in this thing much, but in this picture he is!

This is some kind of vibrating, bouncy, swing...thing. Basically it's something else to keep him entertained for a good 15 minutes.

I LOVE this picture. Need I say more?!?

And I'll end with this one. Good stuff :-)

Well I have some video but I still have yet to get anything all edited up to post. I'll post as soon as he's asleep and I'm awake again...and not doing anything else...and not going anywhere. So yeah...sometime eventually!

Dad

Sleeping at night? Check. Sleeping during the day for mom? Notsomuch.

2008-05-02T06:48:00.002-05:00

So we started out with LK sleeping mostly during the day, and at night it was up and down. Sometimes he would sleep for 2 hours, sometimes 3 if we were lucky. Now he is sleeping for 5 hours or so for last few nights! Great for dad, bad for mom. Why bad for mom? Well for some reason, he has decided to fall asleep for his naps during the day, and then wake up within 20 minutes of being put down. At this point, we aren't really sure what the deal is with that, but hopefully he'll snap out of it soon.

On the other hand, my big project is finally starting to calm down a little, thanks in large part to mom being able to take care of LK at night so I can sleep. It makes coming to work so much easier. I think tonight we will be able to go on a date for the first time in a long while because Grandma has been staying with us for a few days. I've surrendered my eyes, ears, and movie taste in general to go see Baby Mama will my wife. It's a sacrifice I'm willing to make for the good of the group! Just kidding...sorta....well not really....but yeah pretty much. Anyway, I hope it's funny...or...something. Maybe mom will change her mind and decide she wants to see Iron Man instead! :-)

I'll post pics in the next day or so of LK finally "playing" with one of his toys. I want to post video but I'm not sure how well that will work on this blog. We'll see.

One month old today!

2008-04-22T20:33:00.001-05:00

Even though LK is with mom at grandma's, there's still reason to celebrate...LK is one month old today! I know everyone has told me that "they grow up so fast", and I've always just said "yeah yeah, I know". But now that I see it, it's like...where has this month gone? I feel like I just left the hospital and we are still trying to figure out how to get him to go to sleep! Well, I guess we'll always being trying to figure that one out! Ha!

I saw another father today in a restaurant and he was carrying his son who was probably 1-2 years old. I'm not saying I want LK to grow up faster, but that age is what I really look forward to. I guess that's natural for all dad's because that's the age that they first start reacting to things. Don't get me wrong, it's amazing to watch LK and just kinda stare at him, but I can't wait until he cracks his first smile...for reasons other than pooping....just needed to clarify that.

Anyway, in honor of his one month um, celebration I guess, here's a picture that I took with my camera phone while I was at grandma's over the weekend.

This is either his first "stop taking my picture!" pose, or he's doing his best impression of an elephant (you know, with the trunk and all). I was holding him, and his arm was just kind of stuck in this position. :-) I couldn't stop laughing!

The house is a little empty...

2008-04-21T22:10:00.001-05:00

So mom and LK are at grandma's house for the next week or so. Mom needed some time to fully adjust to the whole newborn baby thing (understandably so) and grandma is just the ticket! Meanwhile, back at the hall of Justice, I'm holding down the fort as best I can. Although I'm starting to see clothes/dishes/and other items find their way to the floor/kitchen/etc. Maybe that's the bachelor life for you, though I'm thinking it's just because work is really starting to wear on me. Hopefully after my big project is done, I'll be able to get back to a normal life...although LK and mom will be home by then...so I guess "normal" isn't necessarily a good way to put it. Maybe, "less active"...no wait, that won't do it either. Um, "less stressful"?? Nope. I guess I'll just settle with "just as stressful, busy, and hectic, only much more fun now that mom and LK are home!".

This week has been nice, but more bittersweet than anything. It's nice that I've been able to get a full nights' sleep for a change, and that I can focus on work a lot more. Of course that's one of the reasons that LK and mom are at grandma's. Anyway, I can't help but feel weird coming home and not having anything to do. I mean I could always mow the grass (which it needs really badly) or clean the house (again, which it needs really badly) but it's just kinda empty here without my wife and son. Empty and extremely quiet. Don't get me wrong, the quiet time is nice and I know all the parents reading this are saying "treasure these moments as if they were your last!!" but I definitely miss the voices of my wife and son.

Again, I will just sum up my feelings here with one word: bittersweet.

I will leave with one note though on one thing I've been doing with my free time, and that's watching movies. I watched:

-the Skeleton Key (cool movie...creepy thriller type movie, but not a horror film)

-Ultimate Avengers (nerdy super hero cartoon movie...HULK SMASH!)

-Tombstone (for the 234234235521th time)

It's been fun being a bachelor for a little while, but I'm so ready for mom and LK to come home! Well, it's super late (10 p.m.!!!...I'm officially an old man for being sleepy at this time) and I have a long day ahead of me tomorrow. Dad signing off...

3 Weeks old

2008-04-15T20:17:00.000-05:00

Today, LK is 3 weeks old...and what a 3 weeks it's been! To say that having a baby is an adventure is the understatement of the year. It has totally changed our lives...and other than the lack of sleep and an overall overwhelming feeling, it's changed our lives for the better.

I know that every parent has their story about what their child does that's "so hilarious", and while I don't necessarily have a story per se because he's still very young, I do have some funny moments. One of things that LK does after being fed, is that I guess to show his contentment with his milk, he gets this squished up look on his face and closes his eyes and goes into a sort of a Thanksgiving Day Coma. However, the big difference is that he makes this sound that I can only describe as a machine gun grunt. It's kinda like he's clearing his throat or something. Anyway, it always brings a smile to my face even at 3 a.m.!

Well right now LK has a serious case of the hiccups, and while I can't do anything about them, I can't help but feel sorry for the guy. He needs to learn to hold his breath for 20 seconds like me and that will get rid of those hiccups in no time at all! :-)

I took some more pictures tonight because I know that's what everyone wants to see anyway. Shut up Dad and just show the pictures! Yeah yeah, I hear ya....

This is LK's "hey thanks for putting me down, now I'm uncomfortable and I'm going to start crying" face. We see this often.

Grandma to the rescue! Nothing like Grandma's arms to cure the endless hiccups.

Welcome to our blog!

2008-04-12T17:01:00.005-05:00

This is our "new" blog since the one I set up previously was apparently too complicated for some, but I won't name any names :-) Anyway, we will be posting pictures, stories, and eventually videos here.

Since this is a public blog, I'm going to try to come up with nicknames and stuff for myself, mom, and our son. I'm thinking of doing stuff in third person like referring to me as just "Dad", my wife as "Mom", and our son as one of the following:

Little Kicker
Kicker
LK

I'm not sure, so maybe I'll let people comment and vote? Or maybe no one cares and just wants mom or myself to pick one and not worry about it?

So this blog isn't much right now, but when mom or I get a chance (ha!) we'll post pictures. But as for a status update for us right now, things are great, but just a little overwhelming at times. I think we take turns being the "strong one" of the family when LK is fussy or whatever. Usually mom is the stronger one in the middle of the night because I'm always a zombie and easily shaken up between 1-5 a.m. We are managing though, and even during stressful times, just hearing LK burp really loud or something makes us both laugh and of course makes it all worth it. We are truly blessed to have this child in our lives, and we can't wait to share more with our family and friends. For now, here are some pics for those that haven't seen them already...Stay tuned!!

Dad