Home Sick and Traveling up the wazoo!

I have been really hitting the road so I haven't had an internet connection long enough to write a decent blog. Put the motel 6 music on in the background....last week I was in Tampa, Atlanta, Milwaukee, Madison, Eau Claire, Minneapolis, Atlanta and Tampa...I've been everywhere...in 3 days. I'm heading out again tomorrow but wanted to give the weekend news.

First a big shout out to Rachel for consistently being our savior in our times of need. Rachel bit the bullet and babysat (Q's first babysitter!!) so we could go to Jimmy Buffett. It was a great time but we got off to an auspicious start as yours truly forgot the tickets, which we noticed after we arrived at the venue. Unbelievably this is not the first time I've done this, which is why I almost always give that responsibility to someone else. I am well aware of my short comings and being the ticket guy is not my forte. The other ticket holders or non-ticket holders as the case was were very gracious and didn't give me nearly enough flack for being such an absent minded professor or fundraiser. Working in unorganized academia is contagious. I'm telling everyone out there, you throw a kid in the mix and your world is upside down. Ask me if I forgot the beer (hint: no chance). It takes you an hour to get out of the house and you are rushing all over the place and you just keep asking yourself did we get the beer in the car, did we get the beer in the car - yes, so of course you figure you're good. It didn't help that wifey dropped a key component to Mr. Breastpump in the 1/8 inch space between the counter and the stove six seconds before walking out the door and it took MacGuyverian skill to coax this thing out of its hiding place complete with duct tape, hanger and swiss army knife precision. We found about 14 years worth of food but it was quite the scavenger hunt trying to find this tiny piece of all to important equipment. It was, however, very relaxing to see Jimmy and we gave his three hour show a solid A. All had a good time. Again, thanks to Rachel for helping us out - AGAIN!

Q is taking his first day off from school and is sicker than a dog. We feel terrible for him as he is running a fever, has a really stuffy nose and looks terrible. He's got something crusty around his eye for good measure. Carrie took the day off to give him a helping hand. With this swine flu running around I'm a little concerned since I spend most of my free time inside an aluminum can with the same air circulating for hours at a time with people who value hygiene let's just say less than your regular surgeon. Just ask the guy in 3B who spilled his morning OJ on my suit and then summed up the operation by saying, "Well, it least it didn't soak you." Thanks, that's great. We get to spend the whole next 2 hours touching each other! At any rate Quentin got some meds, which he didn't care for at all (banana-strawberry) so I really hope he feels better. He's not getting good sleep and is so stuffy. I wish he could blow his nose. It just runs down his face so we are constantly wiping his nose, which is making it sore. I feel so bad for the little guy. I hope the meds kick in and he feels better soon. I leave you with a picture of happier times. I love the size of his cheeks in this one.

We have our first tooth

Ladies and Gentlemen we have an announcement. Quentin woke up this morning and after a full inspection we have confirmed a new addition to his mouth; his first tooth. Quentin would like to thank all the people that made this possible. Mostly his parents, who without them, none of this would be possible. Carrie nearly shed tears over the exciting news and it has been documented with no less then 25 photos of this momentous occasion. Prepare your email box to be inundated with an entire slide show of Q's mouth with a barely visible stubby white spot, the tooth. The tooth fairy has already done the math and this isn't going to be cheap if they keep multiplying. He's already working on some uppers and has another bottom coming in shortly. Suddenly Carrie is pro-solid food. Hmmm, I wonder what sparked that? Maybe a mouth full of chompers will do that. We've been scoping out some highchairs and I believe a purchase is imminent. It's time to start moving forward as Quentin continues his journey towards his life in the NFL, which will require teeth.

Speaking of getting bigger he took his first unscheduled visit to the doctor the other day. He has been sniffling since he was in Wisconsin and although we didn't think it was serious, it's been quite some time to have the sniffles so we took him in. They weighed him again and he came in a bit over 18 pounds. There was talk of our child being obese. You've got to me kidding me doc!?! I mean come on here. We can't have some skinny minnie playing linebacker. He's four months old for crying out loud. We aren't filling his bottle with Coke and giving him a breakfast of Krispe Kremes. He's drinking Coke Zero and eating one bear claw in the morning. Next thing you know he'll be on a strict diet. (We did take the dog into the vet last week and they did say he needs to shed 10 pounds). I think this is an MD conspiracy against the Spiegelhoff clan. This is why I don't go to the doctor. Geez, I'd walk in there and they'd tell me to lose 20. One cannot survive on celery sticks alone. Every home in America deserves, no strike that, needs at least a one pound bag of peanut M&M's in their pantry for sanity alone. We will stand united against the medical profession and continue our gluttonous ways. And no, our child is not obese, he is simply big boned. The new tooth alone could weigh a good ounce or two so let's cut him some slack. You start calling him a fatty at four months and he'll be anorexic by the time he's 1.

I leave you with a picture if you have a magnifying glass and really good vision of the tooth. Please no cards or gifts as we're pretty sure this happens to everyone. The first one is an extreme close up. The second one is a what in the H are you doing to me. Give me my face back!

Fins to the Left, Fins to the Right...

Bust out the margaritas, Jimmy Buffett is in town this weekend and he's causing my wife some chest pains. Buffett is my hero as his easy way and beach living lifestyle is something (if ever lucky enough) I hope to emulate one day. It's no secret I've been seeing one of his shows at least once a year since before I could drive and this Saturday he's heading to Tampa. I've been fortunate enough to see him in Tampa once before in November 2006 with Carrie and her cousin. Those two put on their own show and left me to the babysitting. I had tickets for a few months later when he was playing Alpine so I thought I would be okay only to invite my brother who also decided to put on his own show and required me to babysit him. So the score - Friends/relatives I'm handing out tickets to - 2, me - 0. So this year I'm looking to don my grass skirt and get a little tequila payback. I have had these tickets for ages patiently counting down the days until Jimmy rides his shark fin into town desperately nagging my better half to find a babysitter (for an actual baby this time) to watch Quentin. Nothing. Weeks pass and I'm still nagging. So here we are today, four days away from the momentous Summerzcool tour and still we haven't put out a feeler for who is going to watch our kid. Yikes. It's starting to look like that 150% mark up for these tickets on the internet is the investment I'm going to get out of this show. But, no, Jimmy needs me there singing along at his show. He needs to see me in a coconut bra. He needs me to spread Corona cheer across the land. Carrie needs to break herself of this motherly instinct and have parrothead date night. So if you know Carrie and especially if you are a mother please write her and tell her everything will be okay. A few hours of fun will not make her a bad mother. (In case you were wondering I'm very comfortable with the whole babysitter thing - as long as it's not a stranger - danger). I think Quentin's first words the other day were, "dada, buffett, coo, cooing." I think it's a sign.

If not it looks like one of us, and I did volunteer, will need to stay home. I volunteered today because it will take me a good 4 days to get over it. But I think it will set a good precedent and give us future date nights if we break the babysitter seal early. We do have quality folks around that could do it. He'll be sleeping for most of it. We have people coming into town for this show! We need a psychologist (pro-bono) to help her work through this (quickly) in the next four days. Know anyone?

Okay, got that off my chest. Quentin's got a nubber of a tooth. It looks like it will be his front bottom (my) left (his right) tooth. I'm sure that particular tooth has an actual name, but I was a history major and didn't make it to dental school. It's been trying to break the surface for about 3 days so we're hoping by the time our guests arrive on Friday he will have one pearly white to show off. He has tons of teething rings now and there isn't room in the freezer for the ice cream any more but that's good for our waistlines. I have attached a pic of Q's third plane ride and as you can see he fills out a Badger uniform quite nicely and was also very happy on the plane, which was good for us and the weary passengers next to us. Send your good babysitting, Buffett flip flop wearing hula skirt, margarita drowning, lei giving, sweet hawaiian shirt barely buttoned so your coconut bra shows wishes out to the mother of my child. Thanks and enjoy!

Happy Easter!

Quentin did very well on yet another plane ride. He may very well be a world traveler some day. We had an extremely turbulent ride home on the plane that bothered Carrie a great deal trying to hang on to such precious cargo while enduring an extremely bumpy ride. Quentin didn't mind a bit and barely made a sound the entire trip. It is a lot of gear to haul through an airport though, with child in-tow. You can check all the baby goods free of charge though, interestingly enough but not a single piece of your own luggage. Wouldn't it simply be a better system if they just charged everybody an extra $5 on their ticket so we could go back to checking luggage if we wanted to or not? What a monumental hassle for the airline to make a whopping $15. That must be the single greatest line item keeping them out of bankruptcy.

We had a blast in Wisconsin. We arrived in Milwaukee on Thursday and set to work on getting Quentin up to speed on euchre with the college fellas. He did alright but kept getting confused with the jacks. I soothed him by explaining it's a common error. He slept good at the Sloppy's and everyone had a good time catching up on old times enjoying delicious, hard to find Wisconsin beer and munchies. On Friday Carrie and Q headed off to Lake Geneva to visit with our immediate family while the boys attended Opening Day at Miller Park. We had a great time and won in exciting fashion as entering the 9th the Brew crew were down a run and rallied with a play at the plate to notch their last victory in the past 7 games. The victory was that much sweeter as we knocked off our hated rivals, the Cubs.

My folks threw a get to know Quentin party on Saturday and we had the extended Petrie posse and Spiegelhoff clan over for the evening. It made for some nice catching up and some photo ops. We were fortunate enough to get to see Quentin's great grandparents who were back in Wisconsin after wintering in California as well as several of his second cousins, great aunts and uncles. For Easter my we grilled out as Auntie M has an adverse reaction to hams. It was an interesting twist on Easter but another delicious meal we were happy to devour. The three grand kids got to go on an Easter egg hunt and had their own baskets, which allowed Carrie and I to steal the majority of Q's candy since he's not old enough to eat it. We had a real nice time and as usual had to go back to work all to soon. Thanks to everyone who came and visited and to my folks who cooked a ton of food. It's good to know I'm still number one at pinball. Enjoy the pics!

It's a man's weekend...sort of

Every year the fellas get together and attend opening day for the 2008 playoff making Milwaukee Brewers. This is our 9th consecutive year of getting together for the inaugural home game of the season. We have been going for as long as Miller Park has existed. This year the cherished man weekend happens to fall on Easter weekend creating a bit of a conundrum. It's tough to explain to your "new" family that you won't be making it this Easter because the mystical call of the Miller Park sirens are in your ear. Lesson one, generally learned shortly after the I do's, you don't get to ditch out on holidays to drink a few brewskies with the boys, who probably can't hang out anyway due to similar circumstances. Surprise! We're bringing the fam this year. Beginning tomorrow night, barring tragic travel snafus, Quentin will meet the boys for a little welcome back to college thirsty Thursday entertainment. I know things will be a wee bit different this year when I checked my email this morning and received a message from our fearless host letting me know that he is making a trip to Babies R' Us this evening and wanted to know if I needed him "to pick anything up for me." You know when your college roommate is asking to purchase some diapers for you in anticipation of your arrival it's not going to be the same man weekend it used to be. By the way he already has the pack and play set up and ready to go. Oh boy do times change! We will still have a blast and I do very much appreciate our extended Sloppy family for accommodating our ever expanding family.

My folks are throwing a hootenanny on Saturday night so Quentin can meet his extended Wisconsin family. He's been gearing up all week(end) mostly by practicing his regurgitation of his meals on our house guests. I warn all, wear a bib before holding on to him or bring a change (or two) of clothes for he will strike multiple times. Think of it as winning the lottery of love. Carrie's folks were here this past weekend and it was great for all of us. Carrie and I snuck away for a couple hours on Saturday to hit a few golf balls and grab some alone time. It was the first time we did something date-ish in about 4 months. As we were sitting there enjoying the sunshine I was thinking to myself why don't we do this more often? Oh, how easy it is to forget with just a few short hours of leave. I know this weekend will be the same. With all the people trying to get some Q-time we will probably miss him.

On a final unrelated note I stumbled across a news story regarding a $3 million mansion on the water complete with boat dock that is being raffled off down here in lovely Florida. I sent the link to buy tickets to several friends and the response was a little more positive than I expected so I am including the link here. Tickets are $10 a piece and they are selling 300,000. It's a better shot than winning the lottery. If anyone is curious the taxes were $34,000 last year. Quite reasonable for a free house on the water we thought. Check out the link at http://www.floridaluxuryauctions.com/. We are hoping to move to the other side of the state and get a boat. Feel free to crash after we move in. Attached is a pic of Quentin getting ready for baseball season. Enjoy the Easter weekend!

Call Child Services, Dad's parenting solo...

Well Grandma and Grandpa R. were in town this past weekend getting a little chill out of their Iowa lives (8 inches of snow yesterday) for a few days. Carrie went and picked them up at the airport on Friday afternoon and I decided I would watch Quentin and Lucky solo for the 90 minutes or so she was gone. Everything was working out pretty well. I had a happy baby and the dog was being his usual self, wishing he was getting more attention. Quentin has been spending more and more time on his tummy and I had him propped up on some pillows so he could attempt to get a toy just out of reach while I was working on a crossword puzzle on the other side of me. (Multi-tasking is the only way to accomplish anything these days). Well, Quentin is quite squirmy right now as he learns to creep, crawl and simply move around. He made a quick dart to the right and I wasn't prepared for such lightning quick movement. I wasn't sure but I thought I may have "got him" a bit. He seemed okay, no worse for the ware, so I didn't think anything of it. Well, about an hour later the Grandparents arrived and of course picked him right up and started smothering him with the kind of attention only grandparents can give when Grandpa R noticed something on his head. "Whoa, he's got a really big blue vein showing through on his head." Grandma says, "Is that really a vein?" Carrie being more cynical of my parenting skills coupled with a better understanding of what our child's head looks like, "What is that? Did you write on him with pen?" She is accusing dad of the year over here. "Umm, me? Are you asking me if I signed my kid's melon a la Cabbage Patch Kids (butt, but same difference)?" Me more sheepishly now as I ponder how I can excuse myself from writing on my child, "Hmmm, well, I sort of thought I may have got him but wasn't sure at the time." Well, I did. I scarred my kid with a line of blue ink about 3 inches long right across the back of his head. Totally busted. It's not something you can really spin like, "Honey, I was going to surprise you! Or I wasn't finished yet. It was going to be really cool but he wouldn't sit still long enough." I had to come clean. I am not fit to watch our child if one expects him to come home without some pen on him. Does this mean I won't be getting the $12/hour going rate for babysitting? Oh, right, that rate doesn't apply when it's your child. I guess I might need a refresher on my parenting class. They didn't cover rule number 127: Don't write (in ink) on your child's head without your wife's consent. We took a picture for all to see. It is today's picture of the day. Enjoy!

I can eat food!!

Quentin had his much anticipated doctor's visit yesterday where he received his second round of immunizations as well as getting measured and weighed. He weighed in at 16 pounds and 13 ounces and measured 27 1/4 inches. He has grown an even 6 inches since being born. His height puts him in the 95th percentile and his weight dropped a bit putting him in the 90th percentile. I think Carrie is holding out on him. We spoke and she said she'll take it up a notch to maintain his 90-something percentile weight for the next weigh-in coming at 6 months. He took his 3 shots and one oral shooter like a champ. I bet he cried for less than 60 seconds. Mom took it worse than he did. Our nurse wasn't nearly has fast as our last nurse with her shot technique but he survived just the same. I think it made him drowsy though, as he woke up about 5:30 am for his early feeding and then slept until 10 am, an all time record. Of course he hasn't napped all day, though.

We learned some interesting parenting tips this time around. First, he is definitely teething. He has two nice seedlings on the bottom and they are definitely coming in soon. Usually, babies get their first tooth around 6 months, so he's going to be a bit early, but it's not that unusual. He is also ready for solid food. The doctor told us to begin with rice and see how it goes. That means we need to buy a high chair. We've been putting it off because we didn't want one more piece of baby equipment floating around the house until necessary (read no basements in FL!). It's really up to Quentin when he starts getting the full baby food spread. If he takes to it we are to begin introducting new foods every few days. If he isn't in to it than we are supposed to wait him out and give it another shot every week or so. He loves watching the food at the dinner table so I think he will be all for it.

We also learned that he is out of the woods for SIDS. Once babies break the 4-month barrier they are considered safe. From now on the doc told us to only put him to bed on his stomach. (Up to this point we were only supposed to lay him on his back). He needs to learn to sit up, roll over, creep and crawl and this should speed up the process. They will skip the crawling if you don't put them on their stomachs all the time and it helps with coordination. If you hold his hands and put him on his feet he'll take baby steps without much balance but we would like to see him crawl for a bit. We tried it out today and were met with a lot of screaming. The doctor said when he gets mad is when he'll start to figure it out. If you pick him up every time he's upset, he learns to scream when he hits adversity and someone else will solve the problem. We don't care for the screaming and we would prefer a self-sufficient baby as well. He's 4 months old, it's about time he learns life isn't fair right? Here is a pic of him lounging. He did have his legs crossed at the ankles with his hands on the shoulder of the pillow straight lounging but we just missed it. He still looks pretty happy. He loves that farm animal noise maker toy. Pigs, chickens, horses and some tweeters, oink, oink, oink...

Blogging from the MLI

I thought I would get a quick post out here since I have a bit of time to kill in the Moline airport waiting for my delayed plane to arrive. The city of Cedar Rapids' motto is the city of 5 seasons. We joke that's winter, winter, winter, winter and something resembling spring for a few weeks out of the year. I'm starting to think the motto for the whole state should be Iowa, celebrating 300 days of overcast weather annually. That's probably not as good as Iowa - welcome to the corntacular state! but equally accurate. I suddenly remember what drove me to Florida - it's not the heat, it's the sun. I miss the sun almost as much as I miss Q going on these trips. I do miss the niceness of the people, though. I was walking from the ticket counter to the rental counter and there was some airport personnel working a counter and asked me how I was doing. I was stunned. It literally stopped me in my tracks. I actually wondered if he was talking to me. He was and it put a smile on my face. We chatted for a bit. You get so used to people ignoring you on the east coast that it's insanely odd for someone, a stranger, to be nice to you. It made my whole day. I walk the dog every day and wave to everyone in the neighborhood; people working in the yard, driving, other walkers, everyone. I bet 90% of the neighborhood wonders what my problem is and the other 10% feel obligated, grudgingly, to wave back to that crazy guy who is always walking with the big dog and hot wife. You can take the Spiegelhoffs out of the midwest but you can't take the midwest out of the Spiegelhoffs. We're looking forward to heading home for Easter to spend another holiday with some family. It's amazing how much more you get to see your family by expanding your own. Maybe we'll even wave at some strangers along the way.

Well, just got the update - I'm not making my connection. Sweet. I love Moline! I'm just hoping to make it home in time to see lil' Q-dog before he hits the sack. I'll end my ranting here and post a pic of Quentin looking awfully happy up at mom. (Scene of the crime from the whazzering incident...)