Confidence

Both our boys had interactions with confidence this weekend. Gibson's began because he is now mobile. While most of the time he just army crawls, he has also figured out that when he especially wants to get somewhere he can put his legs underneath him and launch himself forwards. This new found confidence resulted in this.



Gibson and I were playing on the bed when I laid him down next to me and went to roll off the side of the bed so I could come around and pick Gibby up. But Gibson, probably thinking that he could just get down by himself, kicked until he launched himself a full 2 feet and landed forehead first on a chest at the foot of our bed. Luckily it was a slow launch. But as you can see, Gibby got two lines of bruises from the smash itself and two rug burns from where his forehead scraped along the moulding of the chest. Nevertheless, Gibson's desire for mobility has not been curbed by this experience. He just keeps on going.



McKay, on the other hand, has battled his fears rather than overconfidence. Among other things, McKay is as terrified of the garbage man as this guy. But after some research I've realized that McKay just may have been an early learner about the struggles between garbage men and civilians who fit in their trash cans.



McKay is also afraid of any toy that talks and moves (especially toys that look like animals or dinosaurs). And for the last 4 months or so K's been terrified of nursery. The nursery bit is the odd one because they do lots of McKay's favorite things. They sing songs, they color pictures, they get to play with a pretend kitchen, and they even blow bubbles. But McKay refuses to do anything unless he is within his arm's reach of a leader. This week, however, McKay had his confidence breakthrough. He happily went to nursery and he was just his normal, happy, energetic self.



Unfortunately, this may have bred some over confidence in him. Later that night when his cousins came over they all had their baths together and Halle and Mila headed downstairs in their towels to go get dressed. McKay decided he would follow in his towel. The trouble was that McKay has never really run around in a towel, especially not on the stairs.



You can see where this is going, and yes, McKay took his very first tumble on the stairs in the near year we've lived here. He was a little shaken up, but he'll be ok. I think more than anything it was his psyche that was damaged. For the next day he would start walking up the stairs and get scared halfway up. But it looks like he's back to normal now, after all, he's back to his normal routine. Although he's never been as crazy as that girl.

Game, Set, Match

Teri and I have seen a bunch of double takes the past couple of Thursdays. For several seasons now, I have played in the men's doubles tennis league every Thursday. Teri is usually there at the tennis courts too, only she patrols the grounds with the stroller, K, and Gibby. But I decided to take the summer off so that Teri could play in the women's singles league, also on Thursday nights. This has meant a role reversal of sorts, where I get to watch Teri play while Gibby clings on to my shirt and McKay runs up and down the walkway with his little kid tennis racket whacking all the used tennis balls that everyone likes to give him.

The first time the guys I used to play against saw me with the stroller and kids they were a little confused. They remembered McKay - he's hard to forget because he's just about the only kid out there and he stands at the fence and calls "Daaaaaaaaadddddddddy" while we play. But once I told those guys that my wife was playing this season they understood, but the double takes were funny nonetheless.

Tennis has been a lot of fun this summer. Although Teri hasn't had as much time to practice as she'd like, she's done really well. She's holding her own against women who have played for several years. As soon as we can get in out there for a little more practice and get her hitting more consistently she'll start playing like all those Russian girls I used to teach on my mission. Note: My teaching was more centered on the Gospel and less on tennis.

Big Kids

We were a little late in getting the kids in for Gibson's 4 month and McKay's 18 month checkups, but it was fun to get them in there are see how big they had gotten.

McKay, almost 20 months, now stands at a towering 35 inches but only weighs about 24 pounds. In 4 months he has grown 4 inches. At this rate, he'll be Shawn Bradley (7 ' 6") shortly after his 6th birthday.
He's always seemed to be a tall skinny kid. The only time it was different was our last visit when McKay was somewhere around the 70th percentile for height and right around the 50th percentile for weight (which the doctor noted was a big increase from his previous weight percentiles in the 20s and 30s). But this last visit demonstrated that McKay has returned to regularity. He's back to the 96th percentile in height and the 16th percentile in weight.

Gibson seems to be watching and learning from his brother. Diddy or Dibby (McKay's nicknames for his brother) is 24 inches tall and weighs almost 13 pounds. He's now in the 75th percentile for height and the 30th for weight.

It looks like we'll have to feed Little Dibby some Little Debbie.

I've always said that I don't mind if my kids are taller than me. It would certainly appear that I'm going to be held to my word. But I'm ok with that. At least some one in my family will be able to stand up to Randy Newman.

Easter Weekend

Yes, Easter was a while ago and it probably feels like we're taking a trip in the Wayback Machine for this post, but there have been lots of goings on in our household over the last little while.

Back a few weeks ago, my parents came down to Mesa for Spring Break/Easter Weekend/Gibby's blessing. McKay, sensing he would have to share time with his brother, decided to add some sparkle to his personality by cutting all four eye teeth that weekend. But like many plans laid by 18 month-olds, it didn't quite work out the way he intended. I'm sure McKay thought that his eye teeth suffering would garner him some sympathy, but actually he just earned the reputation of being a bit of a complainer.

Grandma and Grandpa got to go to the zoo with us and Grandpa even offered to take McKay on the merry-go-round. McKay was unsure about the whole thing and even though he got to ride on a rhino, one of his favorite animals, his reaction each time he would pass us and see us was about the same. He wasn't too happy.


But we moved on to other things. Grandma and Grandpa got to play with the stingrays.
The Phoenix zoo has a deal with another colder weather zoo so that Phoenix has the stingrays between November and April and they have the rays between May and October. The twist this year was that the stingrays also had a few sharks in their pool. I never got a picture but Grandma has to just about jump in the pool to feel the cool nurse shark. They liked to hang out under the waterfall because there is more oxygen there so it was kind of hard to get to them. This is just after Grandma felt the shark.
The sharks feel rougher than the underbellies of the stingrays. The rays are really soft and slick. Interestingly, they ask you to pet the underside of the rays rather than the tops because the rays are more susceptible to injury on top. I guess they paid extra for the undercarriage coating.

McKay did ease up on the pain and suffering once we got to Oregano's and he was given permission to finish off our Pizookie (Pizza - Cookie). It's a semi-baked chocolate chip cookie - read still doughey - with a lot of vanilla ice cream on top.
Gibson didn't get any of the pizookie, but he was pleased with his new blanket. He already likes dinosaurs, largely because McKay likes to read him stories about them.
The Easter egg hunt itself went pretty well. McKay loved searching out for eggs. He didn't have any trouble at all picking up on the idea that you needed to pick up as many eggs as you can at blazing speed.
Before Grandma and Grandpa left, we showed them the Wii. They got really into boxing.
It was a lot of fun having Grandma and Grandpa here. Happy Easter.

Housing Litmus Test

This is when you know the housing market is bad.



I love how the realtor actually thinks he's cool. Usually I give props to people for trying, but I think at some point you can try too hard.

But in the end, this is a nice house baby. Who wouldn't like to live in that place? Maybe I should give Neil a call and inquire about the price.

Singles be warned

"Are you a loser? Come to Chemistry.com where all of life's rejects come together to meet each other."

I don't mean to jump to conclusions here, but isn't that basically what the new Chemistry.com advertisements are just screaming at you? Take this one for example:



What was the point of that ad? Look I don't really care who eHarmony accepts or rejects. (Fortunately, I'm married to TeriDel who is wonderful. We no longer have to scope out the dating scene.) But if I were to turn back the clock a bit and date again, would I really want to sign up for a dating site whose ad campaign is "Are you the kind of person that has been rejected by members of the opposite sex AND a dating service? Come over to Chemistry.com. We'll take you're money."

Just as an aside, I have nothing against Internet dating. In fact, I think it can be a positive for a lot of people who don't have a lot of time or who find it easier to get to know people. I'm sure there are lots of other reasons to do it as well. I just think you have to be selective on who you Internet date - much like you should be selective of what you eat, what you wear, or even what music video you decide to appear in. Obviously these guys didn't heed my advice.



Anyway, if you are currently a member of Chemistry.com, don't fret. I'm sure there are lots of interesting, fun, and charming people on there. But I'd beware of the new sign ups - at least until you find out a little bit more about them and whether or not they watch advertisements.

Sorry Jason

Halle, our 3 year old niece, watched American Idol over at our house this week with her parents. Although she enjoyed the show, she definitely showed her potential to become a critic when she judged Jason Castro's performance. After Castro sang his second song of the night, Halle said, "Mommy, I don't like that girl boy." Hmm...I wonder if Paula Abdul is thinking the same thing.