Davis's Blog

Samuel's first Halloween

October 2008 featured little brother Samuel’s first Halloween, and he took the affair in stride.

As you can see, our little guy was our little ghost for the evening, though he was plain to see to everyone. And he got passed around amongst our friends quite a bit, too, as the annual neighborhood Halloween party was his first major public outing.

Surprisingly, I only got one shot of Davis, and it wasn’t very good, so you won’t see it in the Halloween set. Davis was a clone trooper, from Star Wars, and this Halloween set a personal milestone for him: it was the first he did the entire neighborhood. Needless to say, when he and I returned home that evening, we had quite the haul!

I kind of missed being home this year, passing out candy to the trick-or-treaters. I like seeing the various costumes, and visiting, if ever so briefly, with the kids and neighbors we don’t see often.

Kelly held down the fort this year, so she could keep an eye on Samuel, and with Davis determined to stop at more houses this past year than he had in years previous, that was clearly a job for Dad.

All in all, I’d say it was our best Halloween yet!

Puppet show

Davis threw an impromptu puppet show from Samuel, and as you can see from the latter’s reaction, the show got rave reviews.

Ride'em, cowboy!

This past weekend, we spent a few days visiting my parents in the suburbs of Birmingham. (That would be Alabama, not England. Just in case it wasn’t clear.)

My dad pulled my old rocking horse, Donut, out of storage, cleaned up the parts, and assembled him in the basement, all for my son to ride while we were visiting.

I got Donut about the same age as the little phisch is now, roughly 1974. The nostalgia from watching my own child ride the same horse I did thirty-three, thirty-four years ago, was overwhelming.

New hat

The Disney Store online outlet was blowing out these green knit hats for three bucks each. They happened to have both boy and adult sizes, and Dad couldn’t resist…

Extreme Close-up!!!

A couple of weeks ago, Dad got in close on Davis for some camera shots.

Click on the photo to see the entire set.

Computer literacy is very important

One day last month, Davis wanted to play his Cars computer game, so Dad set it up for him on Mom’s computer (a Dell running Windows Vista! Icky!!), then grabbed some “action” shots.

Click on the photo to see the entire set.

Third skating lesson

Two weeks later, some more skating fun!

Davis got better moving around the house without help, but seemed to regress when it came to getting up when he fell.

Click the photo to see the entire set.

First skating lesson

Whenever he’s been asked what sports he wants to play, Davis has been consistent: “Baseball and hockey!” Since the first skill required in hockey is the ability to ice skate, we enrolled him in ice skating lessons earlier in the year. Of course, Dad had to take photos of the first lesson!

Click on the photo to see the entire set.

Visiting with Santa

This past Wednesday morning, Dad took Davis over to Santa’s workshop for a quick visit, all without the hassle from last year. The big guy was nice enough to take a moment from overseeing toy assembly and packing to chat with our little guy. He even posed for a photo! Thanks, Santa!

Click to see a larger version.

The little phisch turns phour

The little phisch’s fourth birthday party this year was held last month at the main fire station in our little burg. It’s a free service the department offers to town residents, with the understanding that there may not be any firefighters or fire trucks around if there’s a call-out.

Fortunately for us, and the firefighters (they’re understaffed right now), there wasn’t a call-out while we were there, and everyone had a great time.

Major kudos to my wife, who took care of nearly all the arrangements, what with my being out of commission with the busted foot and on crutches, and thanks to my parents and grandmother for helping her out.

Click on the photo to see the entire set.

Learning fun

The week of Thanksgiving 2006 found us in Birmingham, Alabama, visiting my parents and younger sister. My sister works for the McWane Science Center in downtown Birmingham, and we had a day there thanks to her. She also got us behind the scenes to see a few of the Center’s animals.

Click the photo to see the entire set.

First visit to Chuck E. Cheese

It’s the suburban rite of passage every parent dreads: the first visit to Chuck E. Cheese. Because you know your kid is either going to hate it, and get freaked out by a giant, walking, talking mouse, or they’re going to love it, and petition you repeatedly to return. Davis fell in to the latter category.

Click on the photo to see the entire set.

This was back in November, and the occasion was the birthday of one of his classmates.

Photo with Santa

Okay, so fast-forwarding for a moment from the Halloween pics…

Today I took Davis to Stonebriar Centre in Frisco for the annual photo with Santa. During Davis’ first Christmas season, we were shopping at Stonebriar, and saw Santa there (in his workshop clothes, rather than the all-red costume with hat), and we thought, What a great Santa! So Davis’ first Santa photos were taken with Workshop Santa, and they have been taken with him since.

The plan was to get up like we were getting him ready for school, only Dad would take him to the mall first for the photo, then get him to school well before lunch time. So while the little guy was eating his breakfast, Dad used his car battery-powered compressor to put some air in the tires of the Pilot. (The two front tires were really low, much lower than Dad had expected.) Only Dad was stupid. Dad didn’t crank the SUV. Using the compressor wore on the battery something fierce. The Pilot wouldn’t start.

I asked my neighbor Neal if he could give me a jump, and Neal said he’d do one better, he’d loan me his battery charger. I pulled out the extension cord, hooked the charger up to the Pilot’s battery, then plugged it in to the extension cord. About ten minutes later, whatever loss of charge which had prompted the Pilot to shut down was restored, and we were back in business.

So we were off, and because it was just after 9:30 in the morning, there shouldn’t have been much traffic.

Except.

There.

Was.

Slow, crawling-along-at-less-than-ten-miles-per-hour sort of traffic. (In The Colony, where they’re doing all of that Highway 121 construction. Locals will know to what I refer.) I called Kelly, who had a 9:00 am meeting this morning, and thus would’ve been unable to come back home to help out with the aforementioned dead Pilot, and left her a message that it seemed like someone really didn’t want our son to get his Santa picture today.

Thanks to my short-lived career as a courier, however, I knew the back channels through The Colony, and managed to shave some time off our drive by taking them at the earliest opportunity. Pretty soon, we were “going fast”, the mantra Davis had been saying repeatedly while we had been crawling along at less than ten miles per hour. (“Let’s go fast! Let’s go fast!”)

So we get to Stonebriar. I park outside Dick’s, because Santa’s Workshop is in the mall foyer just outside Dick’s mall entrance. Has been for the past four years. Davis is getting really excited now. “I want to ride in my stroller!” he declares, which is a big relief to Dad, who had already planned to do exactly that, since it makes it much easier—and faster—for Dad to get around the mall when the little man is rolling along.

So, the little phisch is in the stroller, Dad’s pushing him from the parking lot, in to Dick’s, past the collegiate apparel, the workout clothes, around the climbing wall, out in to the mall, and…

No Santa.

Deep breaths, Dad, deeeeeep breaths.

Dad sees the sign with Santa’s smiling face. Santa photos are being taken just outside Sears.

On the other side of the mall.

Dad offers a quick prayer of thanks to God that Davis insisted on riding in his stroller, and we set off. Dad calls Mom and tells her that there really is a conspiracy afoot to keep their son from his appointed photo with the Jolly Elf.

Davis is excited, constantly chatting during the walk/ride from one side of the mall to the other. Dad is hoping the little man’s good mood will hold while they wait in what will now surely be a long line.

Then, as they pass by the ice rink, then the Build-A-Bear, approaching the children’s play area, Dad spies Santa’s Workshop, and the Tensabarrier™ human corral system in front of it.

The human corral system is empty.

Well, not completely empty. There are two families waiting while a third is in the Santa meet-and-greet, photo-taking process, but other than that, there is no one waiting.

Glory, hallelujah!! Dad is screaming. In his head.

We pull in to line, and I let Davis out of his stroller. He rushes over to the short, golden fence which rings Santa’s Workshop, watching in anticipation as a sweet boy of two in a red jumper gets his photo taken. When the family in front of us moves in to the workshop, Davis suddenly goes apprehensive, saying he doesn’t want to be next.

I pull him to me, telling him there are people waiting behind us, so we have to go next, since it’s our turn. And to sweeten the pot, I tell him Santa is going to give him a present after they take a picture together. (Said present is a button with Santa’s smiling face and the caption, “I Saw The Big Guy”, and a six-page coloring book.) This mollifies him, and when it’s our turn, Davis doesn’t hesitate to move toward Santa.

Santa helps him in to his lap. I stand next to the photographer, we get his attention, ask him to smile…click!

And now that you’ve experienced the odyssesical length of my morning from reading this entry:

Click to see a larger version.

Halloween!

Yeah, I’m aware it’s December…

Click the candy-obsessed lad in the photo above to see all of his Halloween photos.

The little guy really isn’t in to going trick-or-treating on Halloween. He likes to see who comes to the door instead. He went to a few houses this year, but had much more fun at the Halloween party at Mom’s office, and the costume parade at school.

For those who may not be able to figure it out, he was Diego.

Fun at the fire station

In honor of National Fire Prevention Month, each October the Flower Mound Fire Department hosts an open house for the Town at Fire Station One.

Click the photo to see the entire set.

Davis’s school is across the street from the station, so we pass it all the time, and he’s always talking about seeing the fire trucks and ambulances. He was in hog heaven…