The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

It's funny how this blogging (and my brain) work. I can frequently come up with interesting - to my mind at least - and irreverent things that I SHOULD be blogging about but then when push comes to shove and I want to actually post something....nothing happens. I can't come up with the slightest bit of interesting material. So I go back to old faithful - Jack! Here's jack climbing onto the exercise bike without a safety harness. Please don't let child protective services see this.

In the future I will jot down any ideas I can potentially post about to make this process a little easier and less awkward. In the meantime - climbing baby!!!

Oh, Sweet Baby Jesus

I am not even sure what to say about this Charlie Sheen interview other than read it...should be called "Portrait of a Dying Man". The Superficial says its the "GREATEST INTERVIEW YOU WILL EVER READ IN YOUR LIFE"...the all caps are theirs.

You be the judge...ratings for Two and a Half Men keeps rising! Oh America how I weep for thee...

What the French call a certain... I don't know what

Hello *again* World!

Here's how it goes: every time I open my Google Chrome browser (plug: best web browser around hands down) I see the bookmark for my on-again, off-again blog. It taunts me - much like the exercise bike in our bedroom. It reminds me that "hey, i'm right here. ready for more words and typing and stuff. it's easy. just think of something then type it". Taunting, constantly. So we could go two ways with this:

1. delete it because frankly it's the proverbial tree falling in the woods at this point, or...
2. start posting REGULARLY again.

So, I've decided to channel my inner Brett Farve (no, there won't be pictures of my junk) and un-retire from blogging for the 3rd (or 4th, or 5th time?).

(Brett thought bubble on the relaunch of Ben's blog:

"Sweet Jesus, more self-aggrandizing from this d-head")

Consider this the shot across the bow letting the world (my mom, really) know the blog is back - at least for another week or two. I even "rebooted" the look of the site so it feels fresh and more 2011 than 2009 - a MIGHTY improvement if I do say so myself. I feel fresher already! Do you?!?!?!

Watch this space for more awesome coming soon.

Back By "Popular Demand"?

So, I've been informed that people (people?) have asked when I would resume illustrious blogging career. It's a valid question, really. I got a new computer recently that I need to use. I mean, it makes sense. So, I guess I just posted, though i'm sure it's not what mom had in mind.

I will get around to making a legitimate entry very soon. I promise. This weekend at the latest. After all there is a lot to tell. Baby is crawling around like a Komodo Dragon, eating everything in sight and continuing to develop a larger than life personality - and giving us a glimpse of the handful he's going to be which i guess is payback.

Anyway, watch this space and in the meantime here is a picture from Christmas of my family (minus the head of the household, Stewie)...

Jackson Loves His Dog - And Chewing on Things

We got to spend today with Jackson and were reminded that he doesn't nap. I feel for the day care folks and Susan who get to watch him regularly. He's exhausting and by about 5p he's over tired and pissed off so he just starts crying. At least he sleeps through the night! Without that ..ugh...don't want to even think of it.

Jackson was in a good mood this evening after eating some sweet potatoes so we decided to let the boys play together while the camera ran. This kid has a great personality. He's pissed off sometimes but mostly he's smiling and laughing, which in turn makes Ally and I smile and laugh. He's a great baby and we are truly blessed...but he's starting to crawl.

Enjoy!

Fetch


Chewy

Mall Santa is Creepy

Holiday Greetings to the 4 of you who read this blog...

So, not only is the mall Santa a little creepy (IMHO) but i believe it would be behoove everyone if he sanitized his hands after every child. How many germs must this man come into contact with in a given day? Gross. BAH HUMBUG!

Ok, with that all out of my system Ally and I are happy to present Jack's first pictures with Santa. He smiles ALL THE TIME at home but we had a lot of trouble getting him to smiles for Santa. Without further ado our beautiful child and creepy, germy mall Santa...

AND

AND

Monday

Oh, hello. Back to the grind after a nice relaxing weekend with family, food and fun. To help kick the week of here's another video of the little man. Have a great week.

Happy Thanksgiving

Hope all had an enjoyable and happy Thanksgiving.

We are very very thankful for our little one, Jackson James. He has brought so much joy to our life in the 5 months (to the day) since he was born. We are very blessed to have such a wonderful little guy!

Below is a video from today. He is trying to crawl but still can't put it all together. He also screams a lot. Stewie still doesn't care for him...Also, we had some lighting issues.

Happy Thanksgiving!



PS: Ally said watching this video is like watching paint dry...consider yourself warned.

More of the JJ Videos

We had a big "dog weekend".  We babysat our neighbors dog, got to play with Ally's folks dog Max and of course there is the princess himself Stewie.  JJ LOVES dogs.  Dogs love JJ too...except for Stewie.  Stewie puts up with JJ but does not really care for him.  He's still having issues "sharing" Ally and I will JJ.  

Anyway, we took some video of JJ playing with Coco, the aforementioned neighbor's dog.  Enjoy.  

JJ Videos

Actually, I thought posting some new videos of JJ would be easier than doing a full entry.  Not so much.  Took much longer.  Funny how things work out.

Below are two new videos featuring JJ.  He is doing many more things these days including "Eating" oatmeal (some of it gets eaten) and "Protesting": showing us he's not interested in what we are selling.  

He is also doing his best to try to crawl.  He's got the idea but can't put it all together.  I will try to capture that on video but it's like an elusive creature in the wild: you never know when your going to see it but you know you always have to be ready.  Not sure where I was going there...

Without further ado...

"Eating"

"Protesting"

Yep

So i haven't posted in a while. I have no excuses. Here's a video of JJ. Not much going on, just wanted to post a video so you all can see him!



Hope everyone has a nice weekend. We are going to the pumpkin patch (again) this weekend!

Fits and Starts - Random Rant

It seems like just when I get a good head of steam going on this blog I get pulled in a million different directions, or get really busy, and stop making entries. Here's the rub, it's not a tremendous amount of work to post; it just goes to the back of the queue and thus isn't something I get around to during the course of the day. I need to work on that. I always say that.

So, now that I am posting again, at least for the short term, allow me to start with a picture of angry baby: see above.

(Note: this next part, for some reason, got chopped and I had to retype this part...it was much better before since it was stream of consciousness. Maybe Disney has access to my blog and deleted it...that will make more sense as you read)

The Jonas Brothers and Miley Cyrus suck. I mean really suck. What do kids see/hear in these folks? Musically they are the equivalent of tone deaf monkeys. I get the marketing aspect of it all. I mean I get it. Disney has done a good job with them AND the High School Musical groups, aside from the naked Internet pictures of Vanessa Hudgens. Oops. Anyway, if there is anything I can do, any way to avoid it, JJ and any future children will only listen to good music, or at least not awful "designer bleach" music like the crap Disney pumps and pimps out. It's not good music on any level. Have you ever heard it live? Well I have (research for this post) and it's worse. Plus the main Jonas person looks like a girl. Am I wrong?

JJ is going to listen to real music, as long as there is no profanity. Now you are probably saying "but Ben, that's irresponsible. what about the suggestive lyrics that will corrupt his impressionable mind". To that I respond NUTS. I can't understand half the lyrics of the songs I listen to and even when I do I can't make heads or tails about what they are talking about. It took me many years to figure out what "Afternoon Delight" was about...I might be special because that one couldn't have been more clear. Anyway, if he starts putting the pieces together, that's another story...we will cross that bridge when we come to it.

So now JJ (angry: right >) goes to sleep to the smooth tones of his baby iPod chalked full of Jack Johnson, The Shins, Death Cab for Cutie. Donovan Frankenreiter, G-Love, Alison Krauss, Dave Matthews and other mellow night time tunes. While most of that can't be considered GREAT music, it's WORLDS better than the Jonas crap. When he's in the car he gets steady dose of The Beatles, The Jam, Weezer and The Raconteurs. I literally just rattled off what's in the CD player now. See, the kid already has good taste in music.

Before I sign off wanted to update on the kid...he's 16 pounds, still sleeping, has a thing with grabbing his parents by the face and pulling them close, doesn't like to be held if the person holding him is sitting down UNLESS there is a bottle in his mouth and is quite shy but also laughs like crazy. He gets more interesting every day.

In closing, this post took 10 minutes which really leads me to question why I can't set aside 10 minutes every day or every other day to post? Maybe I need to set a time in my calender as a reminder? Either way, I am trying.

NOTE: I would like to apologize for getting quite angry about the Jonas Brothers and Hannah Cyrus.

Spooky

I just noticed that my post yesterday was posted at 9:02 and it talked about 90210...SPOOKY. That is all.

Checking In - Eat a Sandwich

Hello. I know everyone is ANXIOUSLY awaiting my 90210 piece. Well you'll have to keep waiting for at least a little bit longer. I am not trying to create false demand by holding out on the details. I just haven't had time. That said, I have another episode under my belt and my thoughts on the show are quickly evolving. It's coming. In the mean time I will leave you with a discussion item - The girls of 90210: Too Skinny or WAY Too Skinny? There is photo reference on the left to help kick start the discussion...

Ally is spending her last week with JJ before returning to work on Monday. She is not looking forward to leaving the little guys (Stewie too) and I am not either. Hopefully soon she can be a stay at home mom, or worst case get a job MUCH closer to home.

Hope everyone has a nice day. It's almost the weekend again! I keep telling myself that...

What Are They Looking At?

For some reason this picture makes me laugh. If I had to guess I would say Stewie is pursuing one of his favorite pasttimes, lizard hunting...

5 Years - Anniversary Celebration Our Way

Yesterday was Ally and my 5 year wedding anniversary and celebrated our way; a UA/UCLA football game at the Rose Bowl followed by some BBQ from a local BBQ joint. There is no more appropriate way for us to celebrate.

So, at the risk of getting overly sappy on the internet, I will keep this brief.

Ally, you are an amazing mother, my best friend and the love of my life. I love you and can't wait to spend many many more anniversaries with you, preferably at college football games. :-)

More Sleep and Baby Toupee's

I guess the little dude has a new sleeping regimen. We are happy and well rested...until he starts having trouble sleeping because of teeth coming in or something else. I find (like billions of parents before me) that once you get through one thing another thing pops up that needs to be dealt with.

On another note I am starting to get concerned that he hasn't shed his "baby mullet". I figured by this point he would start getting hair on top to go with the party in the back but so far that's not been the case. I mean he's grown a little but nothing compared to the shrub draping the back of his head and neck. I am starting to think "Baby Toupee".

The attached Baby Toupee called "The Donald" after the man who inspired the look, Donald Trump. There are others but I was really drawn to this one.

We are going to give it another month and if there hasn't been progress in hair growth it's Baby Toupee time! Have a look at the before and after shots...

BEFORE (notice difference between mullet and rest of head)

AFTER (notice fullness and body in hair)

This is Getting Silly

He slept through the night AGAIN. 3 nights = trend. We are pleased.

In another development the young man has two white bumps trying to protrude his front-lower gumline. Yes, he is starting to get teeth. He's not quite 3 months old yet. It's all happening too fast.

Reason for Optimism

Well, we are 2 for 2 with operation "Keep the Baby Up Longer and Feed Him Later So Mom and Dad Don't Lose Their Freaking Minds from Lack of Sleep".

Last night was much of the same...in bed at 8:45 but this time slept until 6:30. Fed him a little more before bed too. Things are looking up and just in time since Ally is going back to work a week from next Monday.

Things are starting to look up...

Cautiously Optimistic

Operation "Keep the Baby Up Longer and Feed Him Later So Mom and Dad Don't Lose Their Freaking Minds from Lack of Sleep" went very well it's first night.

As the "code name" would indicate, we kept the baby up longer and fed him later and son of a gun if he didn't sleep from 9pm through to 6am. He did stir a bit throughout the night but stayed asleep for the most part.

Now, this is only one night so we aren't going to throw a victory party quite yet. However, we are going to keep on doing what we're doing and see if it keeps working.

On another note, it's amazing that outsmarting a 11 week old baby can make a person feel so satisfied. He's 11 weeks old. What's it going to feel like when I outsmart him as a teenager? Will it be less satisfying? Probably. I have a theory on that but can't really articulate it right now...probably still tired.

By the way, there is no good information in "baby books". Save your money and spend it on diapers.