Wolvertown

Big stuff around here

Chris — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 03:10:23 +0000

We now have a school girl in the house! Lindsay’s first day of kindergarten was yesterday, so I broke out the moving-picture recorder and shot this archival footage:

First day of school from cwolverton on Vimeo.

I also uploaded some new photos and video, so you might want to check those out, too.

Dairy air

Chris — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 03:59:39 +0000

Jack’s favorite foods, which seem to change almost daily, include toast with butter, eggs (yolks only, thank you very much), yogurt, shredded cheese, the bottom of his sippy cup, sausage, gravy, sausage gravy, those little crispies from KFC chicken, biscuits (pref. with gravy), pot roast, and many fruits. The combination of all the dairy products coupled with his continued infatuation with the bottom of his sippy cup, which usually contains a delicious milk cocktail, has lead to a chronic ‘dairy air,’ if you will, in the vicinity of his high chair. Conveniently, high chairs are designed to be approximately as cleanable as the bottom of a refrigerator.

When he is not growing teeth (7 so far) or otherwise in pain, he is the most agreeable, sweetest baby boy we can imagine has ever been. When Jack laughs, which is often, everybody laughs with him. To hear him makes you want to grab him up and pat pat pat his little derrière.

He’s my boy

Chris — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 06:05:03 +0000

He’s one handsome dude, don’t you think? See those teeth? He pushed those babies out in about 10 days. As of now, six of ‘em. Once he had them, he watched longingly as I ate homemade biscuits and gravy in front of him, so I had to give him a little taste. I can’t be positive, since his mom is always trying to “encourage” him to “try” “healthy” foods, but I’d like to think his first big-boy food was his daddy’s biscuits ‘n gravy. Mmmm… gravy…

And… we’re back

Chris — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 04:17:46 +0000

What better way to celebrate a new post than with a little Christmas video!

This Little Light from cwolverton on Vimeo.

Fair week is over

Chris — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 02:24:52 +0000

Our first fair week up here has come to an end. The good: it’s a real county fair, with lots of livestock, 4-H kids showing their animals, big pumpkins, and the opportunity to play the ponies. The rides were fun for Lindsay, especially on the first trip. We went back twice, and neither of those trips were as fun as the first (imho). The bad: one word — food. That’s right, the food pretty much sucked. I’m a sucker for the Fried Fair Food, but this stuff was B-A-D. Dripping with fry oil bad. This homemade ice cream has the texture of a sand castle bad. Which was a bummer, but I think I’ll survive (maybe even longer) without it.

This guy has been enjoying the rice and oatmeal cereals now for a couple of weeks, and recently started on the peas. If he had his way, I get the feeling he might have moved on to hamburgers and pizza by now judging from the way he watches us when we eat. He’s definitely showing a bit more than a passing resemblance to his old man these days, eh? So much so that Jenn has started to call me ‘Big Jack’ rather than calling him ‘Little Chris.’ Don’t miss the other recent photos either, there are some good shots of Lindsay on the rides.

Lead paint and catfish bait

Chris — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 01:53:42 +0000

I’m free-associating tonight, and here’s what I’ve got: How about the toy factories that make all our Barbie accessories and Bob the Builders stop coating them with bright, durable, poisonous lead paint. For God’s sake, what is it with China trying to poison the people and dogs that buy stuff from them? In a country that summarily executes high-ranking officials for ‘dereliction of duty,’ I would think people would be more careful about their job performance.

I mean, we don’t need to import poison, we’ve got plenty of it right here. Take these guys, for instance. They tried to pass off catfish bait + vinegar as heroin. Now that’s American creativity right there. Ever wonder what it would be like to mainline some catfish bait? Me neither, but it can’t be too fun. Can you imagine the conversation that hatched this plan? Three parting observations: 1) There seems to be quite the cottage industry for catfish bait. 2) Target has bought AdWords for the search term “catfish bait” (see inset image at right). 3) I wonder if any catfish bait is imported from China?

One month on

Chris — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 03:50:50 +0000

On August 4, we moved. It required a Herculean effort, but we managed to collect all of our stuff into one medium-sized truck and drive it up the road a piece. Fortunately, by ‘we’ I mean a team of very energetic professional movers. Much of our stuff remains packed neatly away in boxes, and it very well could take years before we have that useful set of silver napkin rings at the ready. Somehow I think we’ll adapt.

Quote of the Move:

That house weren’t that big, but you sure was usin every nook n cranny.

Well said, Teeny, well said.

The upshot of all of this is something that feels like a new life. Last week I didn’t even start the OldsmoBuick until Thursday morning. Last night I left work at 5:30, joined Jenn and the munchkins at the pool, did dinner and bedtime, then went back to prep lab for this morning. It is a completely different experience, and I love it. And did I mention the ice cream joint about four blocks away? Good thing I’m riding my bike again, I suppose.

Found a house!

Chris — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 01:44:04 +0000

It’s been a wild month, that’s for sure. We listed the house and within five days, we had a contract on it. Then we didn’t (we thought). Then we did again. But it looks like all is well, and we’re all set to close on it this Friday.

Of course, that meant we had to find a new house, which we did right away! Then we didn’t. But now we have! It’s beautiful and spacious and just about perfect for us. I can’t wait to be in town and able to ride my bike to work. Aaahhhh. No drive. Goodbye drive. I will not miss thee.

Jack’s first bath

Chris — Sat, 12 May 2007 15:46:00 +0000

Here’s something just for the grandparents — Jack taking his first bath. The real video camera is in the shop getting repaired, so this one was taken with the video mode of a digital point-and-shoot. I think it turned out really good, actually. Not sure I’ll mess with replacing the real one when it finally dies. It’s kind of nice not to have to mess with tapes, especially for transferring over to the computer.

EDIT: Just so you all know, that bold text up there is a link to a video…

sleep/wake

Chris — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 15:55:58 +0000

The boy is still a little confused about when it’s “socially acceptable” to be awake and when it isn’t. For example, not at 3:00 am. Or 4:00 am. Or even 5:00 am. We like it to remain quiet around here until at least 7:00 if possible. Jenn says I have to wait until he’s about 15 to confront him on stuff like that. I say she coddles that boy way too much. All kidding aside though, he’s doing great, plumping up like he was Elvis on fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches. Except he’s not doing cocaine and diet pills at the same time (that we know of).

Lindsay has been a total darling with him so far. She loves to hold him and sing to him, and she swears up and down, “Look, he’s smiling at his big sister!” I hear this all changes as soon as he can crawl into her room and start drooling on her Barbies, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. Speaking of Lindsay and sweetness, I recorded her singing “If you’re happy and you know it” the other day, which is about as cute as it gets.