Football Player

Well, my MANternity leave is over so I must head back to the office tomorrow. I think it will be a challenge to get back into work mode after having so much time off. So before I head back I wanted to catch up on the blog and get some pictures uploaded from the holidays. We were fortunate to have some overlap with our parents so we took the opportunity to grill some braats and burgers and take some family pictures while Quentin is still a little guy. I've attached the extended family pictures. Unfortunately my brother and sister were unable to make it so we are missing a few on my end but Carrie's siblings made it down. I also decided to see if Quentin can hold a football. His hands are big so I thought it's never too early to get him going. I believe Tiger was swinging a golf club around 2 years old so I figure why not. Ya, well, his hands may be big but as you can see a football is about the size of him so I'm going to have to be a wee bit more patient until he starts throwing the pigskin around. I also threw one out there of Baby Favre. As you can see it's tough work being Favre all day and he needed to take a breather to catch up on some Zzzzzzzz.

Quentin has turned mighty crabby the last few days. He goes from happy-go-lucky to angry and wailing in an instant. We're not sure what is setting him off but his mom says he takes after his dad - total lack of patience. She thinks we're not giving him exactly what he wants in a timely fashion. There are only about 3 things you can give him; food (can't help ya there buddy), change my diaper please (can do) and soothe me already (this leads into about 10 more options). It takes you a while to run through the possibilities. In the mean time he's patiently wailing away so as you don't get mixed up about which option he is looking for. You'll know it when he is satisfied because the room will be filled with a calm similar to when we didn't have kids. It was a long time ago (36 days), but not forgotten. He has been especially crabby near that 10pm hour. That would be the same hour mom and dad want to go to bed so last night we tried something different and gave him a late night bath and applied a lotion that is supposed to be soothing we received as a gift from a co-worker. Last night? Blissful uninterrupted sleep. We would like to thank Stacey at work for the sleep potion. Where can I get a case of that stuff? Quentin's sudden sleepiness last night worked out well so dad could watch the Indy/San Diego match up, which he correctly picked by the way, through it's entirety without interruption. And it was a great game with San Diego winning in OT.

I forgot to add a few thoughts. We took Quentin car shopping yesterday. Don't you remember how horrible it was when you were a kid and your parents would drag you to such an event? Well, we thought we would do it before he could remember. He was really good too. We are thinking about taking a major road trip up north this summer and wanted a bigger vehicle. We don't think Betsy or Black Beauty would make it to Wisco with Quentin and Lucky in the same seat. Maybe I should rephrase and say Quentin probably couldn't survive that drive with Lucky in the back seat. We have been wondering if it's possible to get a dog saddle. Right now Lucky is the perfect size for Quentin to ride around on. We'll get a little saddle made, get Quentin a helmet and presto we've got great entertainment for mom, dad and excellent video for the rest of the world. I can see the hits coming on Youtube - 1 million, 2 million, 3. I don't think Lucky will be at such a staggering height for too long so we want to take advantage now.

We could probably take straight video of Lucky in the car and get a few million hits. His routine is get asked, "Wanna go for a ride? Who wants to go for a car ride? Who's a lucky dog?" Which results in one freaking out dog running around the house desperately looking for someone to open an outside door so he can haul out to the car, which he does tail wagging like its the last wag, waiting for someone to open the car door. Any door will do, whether it's the driver side door, which makes for more entertainment when you try to explain to the 90 pound dog that he can't sit there if he actually wants the car to move, to the passenger side door, which results in him clumsily climbing over the armrest into the backseat. Once in place in the backseat he wants to get as much of his body outside regardless of the opening. That might be the moon roof for example, where he will throw his paws on the front seats' arm rest and stick his shoulders and everything north of that out the moon roof. The other vehicles love that one, especially at stop lights. When the back windows are down he puts his paws on them and lunges the rest of himself out the window. He's been known to operate the automatic windows in a downward fashion if the child-locks aren't on so we need to be diligent or we'll have a scene similar to that of Marley and Me with Lucky running on the pavement while one of us desperately hangs on trying not to lose him. When the car is in motion he just runs across the backseat going from one window to the other, to the other, moon roof, back window, other back window until you finally get to your destination. Because of this behavior the dog hasn't been in the car for longer then a 30 minute car ride and let me tell you that's the longest 30 minutes for the adults you'll ever have in the car. Carrie just sits there and says, "Are we there yet? Are we there yet?" Because she can't take the dog freaking out. Okay, I can't take the dog freaking out either, which brings us full circle and back to the car dealership. We need a car where we can safely lock the Luckster up in the back so he doesn't repeatedly pounce on our soon-to-be famous NFL quarterback son. I'm sure Quentin can take a hit. He is a tough guy after all, but relentlessly torturing him for a car ride 20+ hours long might appear as cruel and unusual punishment. Thus, we have decided a bigger vehicle will be necessary.

No offense to all the windstar drivers out there but a mini-van there will not be in my driveway. I don't care if we have 17 more kids (Carrie may have something to say about that) but there will never be a mini-van titled in my name. I can't do it. It brings back far too many painful memories of childhood being tooled around in a wood-sided maroon "caravan." They were all the rage when I was a kid. I will be honest - I'm a station wagon guy. We're getting a wagon and then we're putting rims on it. Alright, I might not go that far, but definitely some dubs. Nothing says parenthood like a set of dubs on a volvo station wagon. Actually we're looking at crossovers that will seat 7-8. I guess that means there must be more children on the way or we are really going out of our way to accommodate the dog. It looks like Betsy will go up for auction to make room for some really nice gas guzzler that will take the place of one of our beloved hondas. Please gas, stay at $1.59. If you come across one such vehicle let us know as we are in the market and prepared to pull the trigger. More importantly and to the point of my long winded story was that we are heading north, provided we successfully purchase said vehicle to visit friends and relatives far and wide. Be prepared to meet the beast of the south (Lucky) and our little prince charming (Quentin) for we are invading a town near you. Enjoy the pics!