costumes

here are some of our looks for halloween this year:

thanks to the Cooleys for the use of the cool froggy costume.

grandma T. gave him the glow-in-the-dark skeleton t-shirt, which caught us a little by surprise, since death and evil and such were forbidden costume ideas back in the day.

and here's a knit pumpkin hat, which Caleb left on for about 1/2 second, so I'm showing him how it's done.

more pics here.

first love

tonight I returned to my first (musical) love: the bass. I had the opportunity to play with Tom and Carl and others for a church event across town. these days I'm definitely more willing than able to help when it comes to playing the bass, but with enough practice it came together pretty well. many thanks to Dave for letting me use his equipment (which turned into a comedy of errors of sorts, but it all turned out ok).

but anyway, it was really good to feel the power of the bass again (the 5 string is especially sweet). it's funny that the bass was my first instrument, since I never really played in a band, and it's a pretty poor solo instrument. it's no wonder I dropped it in favor of the mandolin (but I never should have sold the bass stuff). in college I had a shot at playing with Andrew and others (which turned out to be Infradig eventually), but strange circumstances and being too busy kept that from happening, much to the benefit of the band and their numerous fans, I'm sure. a few years back I did play for some friends at a festival gig, but all that did was confirm I'd rather play mandolin, as it was tons of practice for just one show of music I didnt really like.

I still had a similar feeling of practicing a whole lot more than actually playing the "gig," but I really enjoyed learning and playing the praise music. I've come to view musical performance as a service to others, and it's definitely easier to keep that in mind when helping to lead a worship service. and as a bonus tonight, I got to see Amie and Charlie and their kids, eat some good BBQ, take home a little diaper money, as well as hear a great sermon from Robertson McQuilken.

unfortunately I had to miss our church's holloween fall costume party, but there were lots of pictures taken not only by Michelle, but also Dave and Alli. and tomorrow we're getting together with our old Bradley class, so even more fun to come.

weekend pics

Finally got the pictures uploaded from this weekend. Enjoy.

weekend recap

it was a very good weekend as a little family. we got stuff done, got to hang out with folks, and spent some good time together. words now; pictures later.

on Friday night we party-hopped a bit. first it was Katie's art show. until then we had only seen her art online and in the art cards we got. this should be obvious, but wow what a difference. her stuff is so great. and it was good to see her. we've been friends-of-friends for a while, but got to know her better via blogland lately. and it's probably natural to have a certain affinity for someone who gives you a car. anyway, if we had the budget (hopefully some day!), I'm pretty sure we would have bought her newest one "Be Still." Michelle was captivated by it, and it really is great.

then it was off to a celebration of all things Susan Green. she's meant a lot to us, especially during our Covenant years, so it was good to remember God's faithfulness in and through her. it was nice to see lots of folks we dont see all that often (like Katie's kids...itty-bitty Eden is so very cute!), and Caleb did very well playing and eating grapes until 10 or so.

Saturday was a day to get lots done. dishes, laundry, photo albums, random getting-ready-for-baby-girl projects. and we harvested lots of pecans! who would have thought the pecan trees in our back yard would give us such yummy nuts to eat? we must thank the dog for keeping away the squirrels lately. in the evening we took Caleb to the corn maze, but didnt actually go in it...just took some fall pictures with the pumpkins and such. we both think he's even cuter in his cozy fall clothes. Saturday night I worked on a friend's website as I took in the World Series a bit.

today I got to sing for church with Tom and Jim. we did Chris Rice's "Nothin'" which is based on "Nothing But the Blood." I think it went pretty well. then in the afternoon Caleb and I went to Isaac's first birthday party. we left mama home to rest, as she's been feeling the pains of late pregnancy lately. it was so cool to hang out with all the Williamson family. Caleb was a little overwhelmed at first, but warmed up to them soon enough. I cant tell which kid belongs to which mom, but they're all pretty cool. having a big family like that is such a blessing, and it makes me thankful for our church family too. anyway, Caleb had his first chocolate cake and had a good time.

we're loving the cooler weather, and looking forward to next month and holding our little girl.

busy, waiting

in the last weeks before baby girl arrives, I've found that I'm busier than perhaps I should be. there's church music, more church music, helping a friend with a website he's building, Bible study, work, looking after Caleb, watching baseball playoffs, spending time with friends, making Christmas presents, keeping the kitchen clean, and getting various stuff ready for baby girl. not to mention helping Mama with some around-the-house stuff she doesnt have the energy for these days.

these are worthy endeavors, but stacked together it's made things a little crazy. mama is ready to be done being pregnant (until at least 2008 or so), Caleb is getting fussier these days, and even the dog is getting clingy (can they tell the new baby will be here soon?). hopefully soon I'll be done with a couple of the things on the list. one of the most important things to suffer amidst the the craziness is time with Michelle, so we're feeling distant on top of it all.

so I've decided to make a list or two of stuff to take care of and not add anything to it if at all possible. less bloggy stuff, and less TV sports too. more Bible, more sleep, more beer. I know things will get crazy when the baby arrives, so it would be nice to have a few weeks of calm.

so things may get quiet in this space for the next month or so, besides perhaps the latest cuteness from Caleb. we're counting down the days until baby girl's arrival. please pray for Michelle especially, and for all of us as life will change very soon.

the teal mobile rides on

the old saturn -- which came to me via blogland from Katie, who got it from Bear -- passed emissions inspection! I had no idea how it would do, since it's got 183K on it, although the engine has never given me any problems. so once again thanks to Katie and Joel for their generosity, and thanks to God for answering my little prayers to keep that thing on the road. oh and if you're in the area, check out Katie's gallery show this Friday evening at Hollis Gallery.

5-string friends

over a year ago, a friend gave me his grandfather's old 5-string banjo for safekeeping. he and his family were moving out of the country, and he couldnt take it, and he knew that I loved instruments. so he asked me to take it and I gladly accepted. I did a little research and figured out it's about 100 years old. I love the inlay and the carving on the base of the neck, as well as the old-timey lack of resonator. but I didnt feel like teaching myself how to play banjo, figuring I play enough instruments with middling skill. also, being left-handed, I'm not very good at the finger-picking style, so it was just a nice decoration for a while.

but then I started learning a little more finger-picking on the guitar, which bolstered my confidence a bit, and what made me finally pick it up was going to the Be Good Tanyas show. the banjo-playing Tanya has a nice, mellow style, although she has more skill than she lets on. so I was inspired to try some mellow banjo for myself, learning just a few chords and teaching myself some rolls. I'm sure I'm doing some if not most of it wrong, but it sounds ok to me so far. it will undoubtedly be a while before I'm ready to play for anyone besides myself however. any advice Bear? I may need to look up Scott before he leaves town.

and then tonight I had another encounter with a 5-string, but it was of a very different sort. Tom asked me to play bass with him and Carl for a church function, but alas, I sold my bass and amp last year (big mistake, by the way). so I borrowed Dave's which happens to be a 5-string. it should be a fun show, although I havent played bass for about a year and havent played in front of people since college (with Andrew) so we'll see how it goes.

geek day, baby night

it's been a full day. (the next paragraph is relatively geeky. skip down if you're more interested in baby/family stuff).

early this morning Ed and I headed to an all-day geek event for work, namely a Microsoft TechEvent and MSDN thing. being Microsoft developers we get to take in these free presentations now and then. we have a good streak of bringing home decent door prizes (I won a PDA last time, which went strait to eBay), and there are always t-shirts and other schwag. the content of the actual presentations is usually somewhat pertinent to our work, although often it's either over my head or doesnt apply to what we do, or both. but today was very good for us, as it addressed the new versions of our database software (SQL 2005) as well as our programming platform (ASP.NET 2.0). for the first time at one of these, I knew exactly what they were talking about, could see the benefit of the upgrades, and even could ask some relatively intelligent questions. so we're looking forward to the new versions, and as Ed marveled, some of the features of the new stuff may be the first time we'll use a Microsoft product as it's intended (without bending over backwards with workarounds for our purposes). we shall see. oh and Ed won a nice laptop bag.

when I got home the fun began. Michelle had a get-together here tonight (which happened to be almost exclusively the wives of Coptix). so she was busy getting stuff ready, and I was on baby duty as well as trying to help with the dishes and whatnot. but there was also an event this evening for work that we needed as many work folks as possible to attend. so instead of going myself, I volunteered to watch Fuller so his parents could go. double baby duty!

it was actually a lot of fun so see the boys interact, and to marvel how different they are. then again it's not that surprising, because the boys' dads personalities are pretty different too. then Jaron showed up with his mom, so he joined in on the fun too. having 2 kids to tend to was eye-opening for what we're about to experience, but chasing after 3 kids isn't easy. I have new respect for the Wells. thankfully these boys are all low-maintenance, at least until bedtime fussiness kicks in. but after playing and whatnot, I got Fuller and Caleb put to bed, and handed off Jaron to his mama.

then I retired to the backyard to hang out with the dog and pluck on the banjo a little while the girls had fun together.

drug-free weekend

after at least 2 weeks of round-the-clock tylenol or advil, Caleb finally had a couple days without it. 2 of his lower molars are in now, and the upper ones are coming in too, but thankfully we all had a break from the pain, fussiness and drugs. and we had a great weekend to reconnect as a little family. Caleb hasnt been himself for a little while now, so it's great to just play and watch him enjoy a day.

we're loving the cooler weather! we bundled up a bit and headed to the back yard to play without fear of bugs or heat. it's been a while, but Caleb remembered how to play on his slide and dig up grass and whatnot. it was fun to walk together too, tho he had a little trouble negotiating the divots with shoes on.

then we had some old friends stop by with their cute little girl. they didnt quite play together too much, but we all had a good time catching up and basking in cuteness.

oh and I managed to stay up late reading Harry Potter 6, which was fun. my favorite is still 3, but I thought it was good. at least the ending was good enough to keep me up til 2am.

today we went to Caleb's first birthday party (that wasnt his own). we had a fun time celebrating with Fuller, and Caleb even tried ice cream for the first time, but he wasnt too interested. maybe next time. and he drew a picture for Fuller too, which I think is the first drawing he's done. I had to help a bit. and Caleb loved the family dogs of course.

and another first: he had is first minor injury. he was climbing on his chairs and table, and slipped, hit the table and cut his lip on his tooth. he was a little scared, but recovered rather quickly, and thankfully he's fine.

finally, the thing we're most proud of is that he's standing on his own. whenever I've tried to have him stand, he'd flop down, which he'd make into a fun game. so he never stayed up long at all. but something apparently clicked this weekend, as he'll stay standing for at least 30 seconds. of course we're thrilled with this progress as we're hoping he'll walk well before his baby sister arrives. he can tell we're excited as he'll stand there grinning before he flops down laughing. hopefully soon he'll take a step or two. in all the excitement I forgot to take a picture, but here he is in his super-cute cooler-weather jammies. update: mama took some pictures of his standing for us.

we're so glad fall is here, looking forward to holding our little girl, and falling more and more in love with our little boy.

lotsa videos

Here are a bunch of video clips in windows media format. Most are around 30 seconds and 5MB, tho some approach 1 minute and 10MB.

Block party:
Caleb's first block building (my favorite clip)
The last time we'll let him do this

Playing with Katie:
He loves her new do
They both love envelopes

Around the house:
Yogurt mess
Peek-a-Boo with mama

At the aquarium:
Checking things out
Butterfly
With grandpa

With grandparents:
Reading with grandma
The hat game with grandpa
On the phone with grandma

And now I would like to thank Microsoft Movie Maker for making it so easy to get these off the camera and into nice little clips.

making the web a better place

the new site isnt quite ready yet, but the fact that the old one is gone makes me very happy. it's days like this that make it all worth while.

butt-wipe bonanza

almost all baby wipes (and most diapers) have aloe or chamomile or some other plant-derived, supposedly good-for-your-skin kinda product in them. I'm sure most folks dont really pay much attention to such details. but it so happens that the medication Michelle takes for her fibro has an adverse reaction whenever she comes in contact with plant products. namely, it just doesnt work that day. given enough days in a row of "blocking", she'd be feeling consistently miserable again. so we have to watch out for plant stuff in every last thing: soap, hair gel, tissues, cleaning products, and yes, baby wipes.

one of the very few wipes that were plant-product free were the walmart generic "newborn" style. until last month. they changed the stinkin formula for no good reason! they added chamomile without any notice. it's a good thing Michelle was paying attention to the ingredients, because manufacturers are devious that way. so she checked the fibro email list and fibromyalgia treatment website to be sure no one else got caught unaware, and found out that the change was indeed quite recent. the only other option we could find is twice as expensive. so the race was on to find some wipes on the shelves that had the old formula.

Michelle and Caleb went to 4 different area walmarts (and twice to one location) in 2 days, scoring a couple dozen packs. then she called in the troops: Grandma T found some at her wally, and Grandma and Grandpa W went above and beyond the call of duty, traipsing all around central NC to get something like 40 packs! and the amazing thing is they apparently had a fun time doing it. so a big thanks to the fam for helping out. and if anyone out there (not in the Chattanooga, TN or Chapel Hill, NC area) wants to get in on the fun, let me know.

so at last count, we now have about 80 packs of wipes, for a total of 6400 individual baby butt-wipes. we're not sure where we're going to put all of them, but if we use less than 10 a day, they'll last us 2 years.

I used to use about 3 wipes on a poopy diaper, and usually none for pee, but now I'm trying to get it down to 2, which is possible as long as it's not too nasty. and we'll soon have 2 bottoms to wipe, and one will be flowing with wipable material for a little while, as the breastfeeding newborn poops often, if I recall correctly.

we could always make our own with paper towels and soap and such, but the last thing we need right now is another time-consuming task. but when our stash runs out, we may go that direction. meanwhile, we'll urge the manufacturer to take out the evil and unnecessary plant product.

getting chatty

Caleb has been communicating for a while now. he does great with his signs, doing more, please, all-done, and milk. he actually uses the "more" sign as an all-purpose "I want that" sign, and he's modified it to more like a clapping motion. and when he REALLY wants something (like a bit of my cookie), he goes through all of his signs in rapid succession, which is quite funny. but the point is that he can "talk" to us without whining too much. very nice. now that he's doing them well, we need to figure out a few more to teach him. we're currently working on water.

but he had shown little interest in actually saying words. he likes to do animal sounds (dog, cow, snake), but not so much enthusiasm for real words. until yesterday. we may be reading into some of his sounds, but we're pretty sure he's attempting these words now: "fit" for fruit (his favorite food item), "buh" for banana, "bah" for ball, "da" for daddy, "ma" for mama, "ah-um" for amen (which he's been doing a little while now at the end of every mealtime prayer), and he'll say "hi" to grandma on the phone, much to her delight. it's really cool to see him understand a whole lot of what we say too.

and while were on the subject of milestones, we're often asked if he's walking yet. the current answer is "not by himself." he LOVES to zoom around the house while holding our hands or using his walker, but he's not steady enough to stand and balance on his own. and he is naturally VERY cautious at all costs, and being so tall, I think it's hard for him to balance. so we'll see. mama hopes that he'll be walking well by the time the little girl arrives (probably less than 2 months!), but it doesnt seem like that is going to happen. all in good time. meanwhile, he's getting good at climbing up and down the furnature, and getting in and out of all manner of basket and such. it's so cool to see him explore his world.

oh and here's a common sight, which grandma spotted in this picture: he loves to clutch a cheerio or goldfish or whatever in his hand and carry it around the house. I've discovered that when he wants one of those things, he actually wants TWO: one to hold, and one to eat. this also makes for fun games with the dog, who follows him around, trying to get at it. I think he's figured this out, so they'll chase eachother back and forth. it's alot of fun to see them playing together.

baby builder

one of my favorite things about being a dad is watching my son learn stuff. sometimes it's just amazing, especially when it's me who is doing the teaching. I get so proud of him, and I can tell that he responds well to positive reinforcement.

he got a set of building blocks for his birthday almost 2 months ago. I really like to build with them, and he really likes to knock them down, so we have fun playing together. for a little while now I've been trying to teach him to build with them, but he showed no interest, until today. I put one down flat, and put another upright on it, and I gave him another one, the whole time saying stuff like "let's build" and "now you build."

and he took right to it. he put one on the other and looked up all proud. I'd of course say something like "good job!" and he'd light up. then he got to work, trying his best to put 2 up, but always knocking the first down. I just love how he concentrates and the looks he gets when he's thinking through something. eventually he got it where he could put 2 side-by-side, but all the knocking over was starting to frustrate him, so he got a little pouty. we're still working on the patience and perseverance part.

1st concert

we went to the Indelible Grace concert last night at Covenant. we couldnt find a sitter (at least not a free one), so we ended up taking Caleb too. we werent quite sure how he'd do, as it started after his bed time, but thankfully he did really well and seemed to enjoy himself. a lovely first concert for him.

and we all really enjoyed the show. it was somewhat of a sing-a-long, as they had a projector with the words to all the songs, so it was not only enjoyable, but also worshipful, as their thing is doing new tunes to old hymns. thankfully it was semi-acoustic, so it wasnt so loud as to be painful (I'm sure the cavernous acoustics of the chapel helped this too...ugh, a terrible place for such shows, but oh well). I was impressed with the turnout of all the Covenant kids, as the place was mostly full.

Caleb added lots of members to his fan club, I'm sure. he was in mama's lap for most of the time, and would smile and clap and wave his arms with some of the songs. he got a little antsy after a while, so I took him back to crawl around the lobby area. it was a little surreal to take our little son to the place where we met and fell in love years ago (Michelle and I were both chapel attendance-takers, so we saw eachother alot, became friends, and miraculously got hitched. it's a long and lovely story).

we're so thankful he made it through the whole show, as we got to hear some of our favorites, and more than a few of the songs we've done in church. afterward I got to thank the band leader for his work, as their music has added much to our lives and our worship at church. we're looking forward to the new album, and we might even pick up their Christmas album for this season.