Happy Turkey Day!

We hope everyone had a glorious Thanksgiving.  We had a lot to be thankful for this year, most notably the birth of our second healthy boy, Gavin.  Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.  How can it not be everyone's?  We had enough food to feed a small army, football galore and good company to enjoy the day with.  Carrie's family came down to join us this year.  Earlier in the week Carrie and I had one of our good friend's in town from California to spend a few days with before the festivities kicked off.  Blake was in our wedding and probably knows the two of us as a couple best because he was my Florida roommate while Carrie and I were dating.  He saw the ups and downs and had numerous opportunities to play pre-marriage counselor.  It was great having him back at our house not only to play child psychologist this time but to have a beer or two and reminisce about the Florida days.  It brought back a lot of great memories of Carrie, Blake and I in our early years.  I think it was a trip for him too, to see us with two kids, a dog and living in full domestication.  It was a lot different from, "I can't believe she's upset I was up until 4 am playing poker on Tuesday.  What's the big deal?"  Ha!  (He's a professor and was earning his PhD at the time so he and I kept a little different hours than we do today).

Blake took off Thursday morning to spend the holiday with this his family in Madison.  We may reunite if the Badgers hold on and earn a trip to the Rose Bowl in January.  Before he left we were up early to begin the cooking and baking.  Carrie knocked out an apple pie before 8:30 in the morning.  We had taco dip, cleary a pilgrim favorite, an assortment of cheeses (habanero was my favorite) and who could have Thanksgiving without deviled eggs? for appetizers.  After chowing down our apps we had dinner which consisted of our 20+ pound bird, Grandma Spiegelhoff's stuffing, smashed potatoes and gravy, green bean casserole, strawberry salad, sweet potatoe pie, seven layered salad, and of course cinnamon dinner rolls.  Needless to say we were stuffed.  We napped the afternoon away watching a futile Dallas team blow yet another disappointing game.  One more thing to be thankful for I suppose. 

The boys were great and even Brett behaved himself this year.  Gavin slept like a baby in his high chair through dinner and Quinny was stuffing his face with both hands.  Kids are so great.  They do the things everyone wants to do.  The fact that they have no inhibition can be both frustrating and envious at the same time.  At the dinner table stuffing thanksgiving into your pie hole two hands at at time, well, that falls under the envious category.  Good for him.  He's kept that up in subsequent days as we move through the leftovers.  Quinny has been helping us edging closer and closer to the 6 am wake up call.  By Christmas when we hit the road and get him off his schedule he'll be sleeping until 7 right before we start the cycle all over again.

We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!  Here are a few pictures of Gavin in his first Thanksgiving outfit, the boys and the family finishing up before the feasting can ensue.

Dancing Spectacular

After living here for approximately five minutes Carrie entered a drawing through the local paper to see Radio City Music Hall's Christmas Spectacular featuring the Rockettes.  Wow, that's a mouthful.  We had seen the show once before in Tampa and anyone that knows me knows that I love anything with singing and dancing in it.  I just had to go again!  We won four tickets in the front row of the balcony section so we had plenty of space to spread out. We picked up the kiddos and headed downtown for the show.  The performance lasted about 90 minutes.  Quinny lasted about 55 minutes.  After that first hour passed he had seen enough dancing for one day.  He leaned over and whispered into my ear, "Dad, if you've seen one high kick you've see them all."   It took cookies, a patient dad and lost of whispering to get him to muscle through the rest of it.  He did enjoy the theatre type seat that folds up on its own.  He just can't sit still for that long.  He had only been to the Dancing Bear show at Disney, which maybe lasted 20 minutes so we weren't sure if he would make it to begin with.  He kept talking or rather wondering (aloud) where "fill in the blank" went.  "Dad, Dad! Where did the stars go? It's dark! Moon! Moon! Moon!  Ba-bye Santa!"  And so on.  Not sure if the people around us thought it cute or annoying.  I guess that's the nice thing about living in the Midwest.  People are too nice to let you know.  Gavin made it through without incident.  The show itself wasn't as long or good as the one in Tampa.  I would think it would be the same but I guess size of arena and such maybe make that impossible.  The Tampa one had live animals including camels.  This one, well, not so much.  The tickets were worth over $200 and we were glad we didn't pay for it.  That seems like a lot to see some high kicks.  Quinny did get some kicks in so that was fun for the folks sitting behind us. I think I would like to see the one in New York next time.  It was a one day show and it was nice that Q was able to see the Santas. They do a number with maybe 25 Santas out there busting a move.  Quinny was shaking his booty.  He was shakin' it on down.

We are doing a little bit better in the sleep department. Quinny is sleeping in until 5:15 most mornings but there is usually one day a week where both boys cooperate and we maybe get 4 hours of sleep in a row.  Hooray! Quinny is inching his way towards getting potty trained. Milimetering his way may be a more accurate representation.  I took off for work one morning leaving both boys with Care before Q headed off to school. She jumped in the shower and upon exiting couldn't find our little monster.  She looked and looked.  Quinny?  Oh, Quinny?  Where are you?  It's awful quiet in here...She found him naked on his potty chair.  He stripped himself down as he was already dressed for school by himself.  We are still looking for the diaper.  It has mysteriously disappeared.  We hope it was a number one.  Oh Mr. Diaper where are you?Even with him sitting in his office we still haven't had a successful potty experience.  People are telling me not until he turns four.  Six years of changing diapers.  Ya, I said six years and that's if junior number three doesn't materialize. Um, can we change the subject please?

When not running around buck neked Quinny is really into cleaning.  Carrie was out with shorty number two last weekend so I took some initiative to clean up the kitchen. If you clean one area and Quinny is in another you sort of just rotate.  He's in the living room trashing the place while you clean the kitchen.  You get the kitchen done and move into the living room.  While you are busting your hump cleaning the living room he sneaks into the kitchen and trashes the newly cleaned kitchen.  It's a vicious cleaning-trashing-cleaning-trashing cycle.  (And that's why we have a beer fridge).  So, to combat this it's better to have him help you.  Sure, it takes you two and half times longer to clean an area but you aren't doing things twice.  Slow and methodical is more fun than repeat, repeat, repeat.  Twenty minutes to empty the dishwasher.  You get the bottom rack done, look over and realize he's emptying the top rack by putting those dishes into the bottom rack.  Oh, kids, don't you just love em'?! He's working the counters with a rag and he has a never ending cold so being father of the year I ask him if maybe he would like a Kleenex.  You know to help with the snot running down his face.  He gives me a look that he's got it covered.  And then proceeds to blow his nose into the rag.  Yup, we live on the farm.  Hilarious.  Snot everywhere.  And what does one do when blowing their nose into their cleaning apparatus but continue cleaning with it of course.  Okay, so maybe even when he's helping you it's redundant cleaning.  Still, it was hilarious.  We got a new rag, a Kleenex and recleaned the counters or did we? No, no just kidding we totally wiped the snot up.

Gavin turned a month old last week.  He's plumping out like you wouldn't believe.  He's got massive cheeks.  He's also going bald.  I'm glad I'm not. Quinny lost his hair in the back but it kept growing long in the front and then grew out again in the back.  Gavin's is slowing receding from the front just like a real person going bald.  I kind of feel sorry for him.  I've done some research and apparently this is normal. It's not easy being 4 weeks old.  He's going to be totally bald, which is a buzz kill for me.  I love Quinny's trademark long hair.  He's always had it and it's always been awesome.  We put product in it.  It gets chicks.  It's awesome.  I always thought it was weird that babies were bald.  It is, isn't it?  We'll see how it shakes out but he's having a tougher time looking sexy right now than I remember Quentin.  It's cold here anyway so he's all bundled up.  People are still fighting for a look.  Isn't that a little weird too?  Strangers want to stare at your baby.

We haven't been very good at taking pictures lately.  I am digging deep here. And of course we forget to grab the camera on our way to the lady high kicking extravaganza but we did remember to bring both kids.  And, honestly, isn't that the important part?  Why don't they put flashes on camera phones?  Do I have to think of everything iPhone?  So here is Quinny sporting my shoes and Carrie's vest.  He's big on getting in the closets lately.  No dresses yet.  He has shaved a couple of times.  He has this bench and he's finally realized he can take the bench to any room and wah-la he has access to places he shouldn't like my shaving cream and cologne.  Here is one of big brother helping lil' bro with a nose pick.  What are brothers for?

Turning a boy into a Man

Now that Q-dog has a little brother I thought it high time that he start taking on the challenges of manhood.  Do you think your son's two year old birthday is too early to buy him his first gun?  I thought it would be a nice bonding experience.  You know killing things together and then gutting them.  Nothing says BFF's like getting two hands bloody.  I was trying to remember back when my dad got me my first BB gun.  I'm sure I was too young. Too young to remember so I suppose it was the right age.  I know one of the things I did with it was shoot my younger brother in the booty so clearly irresponsible enough, but likely older than 2.  Ultimately I decided a gun, even a BB gun, was probably not the right gift.  Okay, so what else can we do?  Got it.  We need to fix up the car.  Nothing says man better than greased up boys.

I did a little research online and found the local auto parts store.  I needed to winterize the engines that will sit all winter, get some new windshield wipers as they will have to tackle more destructive elements than rain this year, a new air filter and some funnels to dump a minimal amount of toxic chemicals or fossil fuels as some may call them into the Earth.  I picked up my son, soon to be a man, and loaded him into the car.  Along the few mile drive I taught him how to grunt like a man so when we got to the store he could act appropriately.  Not sure how to write the sweet sweet sound of grunting on paper.  Let me give it a shot so you can feel like you too were strapped in beside these men among men.  Grrrrrr, nope that's not it.  Hunnnn.  No, that doesn't really capture the moment either.  Ernnnnnn.  Well, that sounds like constipation.  Last try....Hurnnnernnnn, hurrnernnn, herrnnn.  That's pretty close.  Quinny was having a ball in the backseat grunting his way one hrrenurrn at a time into manhood. 

Practice completed we were ready to enter the store on a delightful Saturday morning. There was a tow truck in the lot revving it's engine.  Hurenenenr!  Hureennrrn!  Oh, ya this is gonna be great.  We walk into the store.  Q, dude!, get the pacifier out of your mouth.  Geez, you're totally blowing it!  Immediately the woman at the counter asks how old he is.  18.  He's a man.  Why?  Looking for a date?  Hurrennnr! She asks what we're looking for.  We give her the eye, wink and reply - trouble.  That's right honey I said trouble.  Know where I can find any? After Q was done flirting (I'm a married man you know) we spread out looking for the goods.  We had a pretty decent list and trying to find just the right part wasn't going to be easy.  Quinny was doing his part grabbing anything within reach, taking it out of its respective box, examining it, ultimately deciding it wasn't the right part and tossing it aside in the middle of the aisle.  Hurernnrerun!  That's right baby I do what I want.  Herurernnn!

After 30 minutes we gathered just about everything we needed.  The lady from behind the counter tracks us down and asks us if we have everything.  Hereunnr! She helps us take our man goods up to the counter and continues to flirt continuously with Quentin. Clearly, all that man practice in the car was paying off big time.  And I mean big time.  All Quinny had to do was ask for her digits and she would've melted right there next to the brake pads. But no he was playing it cool. He had the car to go home and work on.  The babe could wait.  Hereurrn! Playin' hard to get?  That's all man right there.  This kid was oozing cool. And with that he flipped his collar, walked out the front door, grabbed his bah, popped it in and strapped himself in for the ride home.  We revved the engine in the parking lot for effect.  Herenunnrn! Peeled out and headed home. 

We grunted out way all the way home with the excitement of getting greasy barely containable.  Hereunnrn! Upon reaching our destination and with the hood already popped open we grabbed our tools, one in each hand. Huerennr! Huernnr! Herurnern! We replaced the air filter, ditched the washed up wipers, installed the new ones, spilled gas multiple times all over the garage floor (not our house! Herurn!) - little dude don't inhale that, well okay just a little - alright that's enough -seriously enough, and got the engines winterized.  Like any good man moment we wiped our hands on our shirts, grabbed a man beverage, Busch Light, and quenched the thirst of acting like a man that only a Busch can cure.  It was official, Quinny was now a man.  And all before his second birthday.  He went inside and put on some man clothes flicked on nascar, kicked up his feet and called it a Saturday.  See picture.  I cannot wait for more man moments with the Qster.

Shake Yo Booty!

Daylight savings was not made for children.  Yowsers.  Momma!  Dadda!  Um, what's that noise?  It's 3:37 AM.  Oh, well it's Quentin of course ready to start his day.  If it wasn't for the Packers pummelling the Dallas Cowboys all night long I might have gotten some sleep.  That game was like watching a car crash.  I really wanted to turn it off and get some sleep but every time I reached for the remote they would do something spectacular.  There's just something inspiring about ripping the soul right out of a team's heart.  America's Team?  Good one.  I think it's safe to say the Packers make the playoffs.  But with the Pack playing late into Sunday night and the time change the kids were all screwed up.  We started the day at 3:30.  We tried to pack the bed with the whole family but it didn't take.  We have to go back to banning all children from bed.  We're such wafflers.  I just want to take the path of least resistance to sleep.  I'm not sure there is one.

The weather in Iowa has been fantastic so we had a glorious day getting ready for winter yesterday.  It's amazing what you can accomplish in a day when you start at 4am.  The house got cleaned, the laundry got done, the lawn got mowed for the first and hopefully last time this year and we found the time to watch some football and grill out.  We changed diapers approximately every 7 minutes as well and still managed to stay on course.  I think at any given moment in time someone is either crying (I'm including myself in there) or pooping.  It's really amazing how fast the human body can turn food into excrement.  We still are partial to Pampers versus Huggies.  We once again went with the Huggies for the newborn diapers and we find ourselves getting wazzered on constantly.  It's worth the extra few bucks to buy the Pampers and cut down on the laundry.  Huggies leak - constantly.

With Carrie hosting the feeding trough for Gavin Quentin and I have been spending more time together.  Getting him dressed in the morning has been a challenge so I sing to him, making up my own lyrics because I can't remember any children songs in their entirety.  Clearly, I have no singing talent what so ever or rhythm for that matter but I can put together some pretty sweet lyrics.  The other day I sang him a song to the hokey pokey music to get us going and we ended up with a "Shake, shake, shake yo booty.  Shake yo booty on down. Shake, shake, shaky yo booty on down.  Shake that booty." And so on.  It's an easy way to get his clothes on.  You put your right arm in, you put your left arm in.  Shake, shake, shake yo booty.  Shake yo booty on down. Put your left leg in, put your right leg in. Shake, shake yo booty. Shake yo booty on down.  Of course he's shaking his booty, which is really awesome. All day yesterday he's running around the house singing "shake yo booty down" while shaking his booty.  I've created a booty shaking monster.  We keep trying to get it on tape, but he gets a little camera shy.  Getting dressed is a shake yo booty down event now and a piece of cake in the mornings.

Gavin also took his first bottle yesterday and slurped that puppy down so that should provide Carrie with some night time relief down the stretch.  He's getting so much bigger.  He added his second and third chins this past week.  I'll be curious to see what he weighs in at during his next appointment because he's packing it on.  He's also started sleeping a little better at night.  If we go to bed pretty late like 11:30-12 he usually only gets up once or twice.  Now that I am writing that it doesn't sound that good considering we get up at 5.  Huh, it's amazing what you think is improvement with newborns.  With Quinny testing the waters at every step (Don't use that bat to hit the TV.  He turns around smiles, winds up...Quinny!?! and then smokes the TV.  That's it! TIME OUT! Wails away.  This happens in standard 15 minute intervals).  At any rate one needs a monstrous level of patience to make it to 10am.  Thankfully, I've been blessed with an extremely patient demeanor.  Carrie really leans on me and my patience to get through the day.  I really don't know what she'd do without me.  Yes, the blog is dripping with sarcasm.

We are slowly but surely getting used to the family of four.  One of these days we are going to be brave enough to venture into public as an entire family.  We aren't quite ready for that transition yet.  We were invited to dinner at a friend's house and we just kept declining.  I fear unleashing our tornado of a family on someone else's flat screen.  I just want to ask, are you insured?  And I mean well.  Really well.  I think Carrie and I are getting near looking for a reprieve.  We aren't there yet as we are still exhausted but we will be soon.  The stir crazies are starting to set in.

Here are a few pics of Gavin posing and Quinny not quite letting go of his youth as he joined Gavin on the floor for some time with his old toys.

Fitting In

As we continue to retrace our Midwestern roots we did what any new to Iowa person would do this past weekend.  Yup, we visited the ole' shootin' range.  Being a novice I wasn't too sure about this little adventure but my father assured me this would be a blast.  I'll bet.  I'm not afraid to walk into this place and let everyone know I don't know anything about bustin' a cap but my dad tells me to play it cool.  Sure, no problem.  I doubt they'll notice I know nothing about guns like how to load one.  We walk in cool as a cucumber checking out the cache or is it stash? of guns on the walls.  I'm doing my best to speak all the right lingo.  "Damn liberals!"  Well, I see there is the one the terrorists like to use (AK-47) and I see the one our marines like (M-16).  My dad re-fell in love with the beloved M-14 from his on-my-way-to-Vietnam days.  "Seriously, no seriously, I was accurate at 500 meters."  Uh-huh.  Me too!  Well, clearly that AR-15 is a deer rifle and a must have in any gun collection. Then we got to the hand guns.  Okay, sir I'll take that one. Ya, the shiny one with the long barrel.  Can you just load that sucker up and point me in the right direction?  We can just rent one of these right?  Suddenly, like a deer in headlights, the jig was up and we were exposed.  And I had such confidence.

Apparently, according to our gun toting host, the liberals up there in Milwaukee have made it so renting isn't so easy.  I guess a few poor souls have rented one of these blasting machines and taken their own life in the range.  Didn't see that conversation coming this weekend.  So, what's a couple of guys with a Wisconsin and a Florida driver's license to do in a gun shop in Iowa?  Well, get the scoop on how to illegally purchase a firearm of course!  It's deer season!  Okay, well, we are about to enter the realm of state line crossing gun smuggling rebels.  Hmm, maybe we should just head home and watch the football game.  What do you think?  It was at that point that our host realized we weren't going to shell out thousands for our second amendment rights or at least put that theory to the test.  Maybe the NRA could defend us.  And I was really looking forward to popping off a few rounds.  I hear it's a great way to relive stress.  In all seriousness you could choose a target that had a picture of Saddam on it.  Isn't he already dead? I really wanted to take a shot at Osama.

After the gun shop experience I enquired to my colleagues at work that I was attempting to assimilate into my new state but can't seem to grab a foothold.  Of course they were incredulous to my gun buying ignorance.  They tell me,"All you have to do is run down to the Sheriff's office and get a background check.  After paying for that you just need to fill out an application for a permit to purchase a weapon.  It's only about a two month process.  Once you've paid and procured one of those you can then go back to paranoid gun shop owner fill out another application, wait 7 days and by Easter you could be the proud owner of a Glock or a Sig-9," but after waiting so long you've probably already moved on to a new hobby like corn planting since it's spring.  Oh, and no duh?  Where did you grow up?

Quinny seems to be fairing a little better.  It's about 6:30 the other morning and I'm getting my briefcase together and he's finishing up breakfast in the kitchen.  I look over and he's chugging out of the milk carton. Now, I know he didn't see me do that because I'm allergic and don't drink milk.  Care?  That's what I thought.  I got a sweet picture.  It was hilarious to look up and see your not quite two year old chugging down some good old fashioned moo-juice.  Where did you grow up?  In a barn?  Just wait it could still happen. 

Gavin is growing like a little weed so it looks like he's taking after his big brother.  He weighed in at 7 pounds 11 ounces at his two week appointment last week.  That's a full pound and nearly a pound and a half since being released from the hospital.  Now, I know what all that crying is for in the middle of the night.  Ungry! Ungry! We have another child that snores the day away and screams all night - again.  Seriously?  Well, at least we know it can't get worse.  We are probably getting between 3-4 hours a sleep a night but it comes in roughly 45-70 minute increments.  Obviously, Carrie does the heavy lifting but do me a favor and set your alarm for every 50 minutes tonight and let me know how great you feel tomorrow.  Oh, right, you already had kids.  If you haven't do it soon before you get too old.

The top picture is of Gavin on weigh-in day.  You can see his giant paws.  Q slamming the milk and a victory shot for bragging rights.  Yes, Wisco won the bacon trophy.  We don't play Iowa for 3 more years. The next time Iowa has a shot at beating Wisconsin Quinny will be able to drive.

Happy Halloween

We had our first Cedar Rapids Halloween and fairly good weather.  By fairly I mean a temperature that would be considered tolerable and a breeze less than the 40 MPH winds we experienced throughout the week.  The city held trick or treating Sunday evening, which seemed a bit odd but this is the first time we've been trick or treating in 20 years so I'm not in a good position to argue otherwise.  For a warm up work held trick or treating for the employee's children on Thursday.  It took Quinny a while to warm up but once he got started it was "want some" and "more."  He didn't quite grasp the candy concept.  He's not yet two so we haven't been feeding him candy on the regular.  Tonight we found out why.  Oh, the highest of sugar highs and the lowest of sugar withdrawals. I thought the whole thing was a myth.  But after three suckers, one pack of M & M's and some skittles I'm a believer.  There is such a thing as a sugar high.  Upon finish the aforementioned candy he went ballistic.  He was screaming and moving a hundred miles an hour. We literally started running around the house - in circles for the next 45 minutes trying to bring him back down.  When he crashed, he crashed hard and we hopefully have a peacefully sleeping little hamburger. 

I can't imagine we don't live in a Halloween utopia.  I'm not sure if there is a single house here without children in it.  The entire neighborhood was either out trick or treating or happily greeting the hundreds of candy hoarders.  The majority of houses were decorated.  I fear we won't measure up come Christmas time.  I have house decoration envy.  We feel good that so many of our neighbors are in the same place in life raising families and are so friendly.  We've definitely hit the jackpot in that respect.

Quinny was a hit in his hamburger costume and we didn't see a single other burger in the neighborhood.  Gavin and Lucky joined the caravan around town.  Gavin had a little pumpkin onesie on but it was too chilly for him to be exposed so he was all bundled up and tucked into his stroller.  Lucky wore is badger red bandanna and enjoyed the walk around to see all the people.  Being out trick or treating instead of in waiting for the trick or treaters means we have far too much candy left over, which is slowly being devoured by me. 

Outside of having too much candy we had a fairly quiet weekend.  Quinny carved his first pumpkin but was more interested in allowing me to do the dirty work.  Shockingly he didn't want to plunge his little paws into the orange goo and start scooping out.  We carved a little happy face into his pumpkin and lit it up for the first time.  Quentin definitely got a kick of lighting it up.  Pumpkin!  Orange!  It was a good time to see Halloween from a different perspective. 

Here are some pics of Quinny posing on the proch before we headed out for our bounty of candy.  A picture of Gavin in his costume and one of Q returning enjoying his first ever sucker.