This is a video of when we went to Branson in October. Let me know what you think!

OK, so that last post was truncated and late. Today’s my 40th birthday. Also, we had a “snow day” at the school. I actually have some time, tonight. So, here’s some quick catch up for the last 3 months. As always, click on any picture to see a larger version.

Mid-October
In the middle of October, I was home, alone, with Seth. He was cranky and not a whole lot was making him happy. He does love the camera, however. This is a sample of the result:

Not the best picture. But, fun.

Halloween
Seth’s really too young, for Halloween. We did, however, have to get him a really cute outfit. We were going to go to a friend’s party, but it was outside. We thought it would be too cold for him. So, he wore the outfit, the next day, when we went to visit Barb’s family. Barb’s Mom was recovering from some major surgeries she’d had. She was staying with Barb’s sister and getting ready to go home. So, we went for a quick visit. Here’s a few pics:

Now, if I call him, “My little Pumpkin”, I can mean it. In the second picture you can see the end of the sentence, “Trick Or Treat” written on his butt… Heh…

Random
I can’t remember when I took this. But, I can’t wait to show it to his girlfriend, one day:

Thanksgiving
For Thanksgiving, we headed back to SE Kansas. I forgot my camera (bad, daddy). We had to rely on Cousin Molly for pics. These three sum up the day. Pic 1 = Getting Ready to Eat. Pic 2 = Mmmm…. Turkey and Noodles. Pic 3 = Post Turkey nap, for Daddy. I’m raring to go.

Branson
For our 5th Anniversary, I gave Barb a trip to Branson. She loves the Ozarks. Especially in the Fall. We dropped Seth at his Aunt’s house on Friday and headed down. We stayed in a great condo, right on a lake. We also went to Silver Dollar City. She wanted to check out the Holiday decorations they put there, every year.
This is the view from the condo balcony.

And here’s some of Silver Dollar City

Hannukah (Hanukkah/Chanukah/etc.)
And, finally, our Hanukkah celebration. We waited until Saturday for the dinner and gift for Seth, but we’ve been lighting candles throughout the whole holiday. This was the first time I attempted a Hanukkah meal. So, I kept it simple: Slow-cooked brisket with onion gravy, latkes, and steamed broccoli. I wanted to make sure Seth could eat what I cooked. It was delicious!

After dinner, we gave him his gift. It’s a Leap Frog Brightling’s Exploration Station. He loves it! He also got a Leap Frog Learn n’ Groove drum and maracas from his Aunt Lisa and Uncle Jonathan. He sure is having fun with his new stuff!

Here’s some pictures of the Saturday festivities.

6 months… one half of a year… .5 years old… wow…

A lot of things have happened since I last posted. My Mother-In-Law had open heart surgery. She’s doing fine, but it was still scary. During the same time, my parents came to visit their Grandson. I’ve got pictures and video of that, below.

Seth’s changed, quite a bit, too. He’s sitting up, on his own. He’s eating “solid” foods, too. He’s tried oatmeal, rice cereal, peas, carrots, squash, sweet potatoes, bananas, and pears. He’s a good eater, as you’ll see in the video, below

It’s hard to believe how quickly time has passed. Between taking care of our son, work, and some side stuff I’m trying to work on, things have been flying by. It feels like, just yesterday, he was a little, helpless, sleeping poop-machine.

Now, on to the pics and videos. Click “More”.

19 Weeks

Starting with Week 19. Even when he sleeps, he looks older. He changes every day. *SIGH*

20 Weeks

This was a big week, for the whole family. My Mother-in-Law had open heart surgery, as I mentioned. She still has another procedure to go through, for another reason, in a few weeks. This second procedure won’t be as invasive as the first, but we’re watching her very carefully.

On a brighter note, my parents came to visit. They’re a half a country away, so they don’t get to see Seth too often. This was the first time they’d seen him since he was about two weeks old. It was great! We’re trying to get it together to go visit Grandma and Grandpa, this Winter, as well. You can see a short video of Seth playing with his Grandparents, below.

21 Weeks

Another week. Another milestone. The doctor had asked us to wait until 6 months to start feeding him solid foods. Well, at 21 Weeks, Seth let us know he was ready. My wife was sitting with him in one arm and a class of water in the other hand. Set reached out and grabbed the water, pulled it to him and took a drink! We started his food the next week.

————————–

To the potheads who took 1 of the 4 free patio chairs I posted on CL
Date: 2007-07-05, 11:36AM PDT

Godspeed, you crazy potheads.

First, some pics of our Son:

16 Weeks Old

The above picture is Seth at 16 Weeks. Quite a change, huh? His eyes have started to lighten. We still don’t know what color they will be, but they are starting to look steel blue or like they might be green/hazel when it’s all over. There’s a lot more hair, too. It’s color, too, is still a mystery, but it looks like it might be light brunette or dark red.

17 Weeks

For his 17 Weeks, I just couldn’t narrow down the pictures to one or two. The first two aren’t the best, photographically speaking. But, they give a good overview of him as a whole and that cute smile. I’ve discovered that it’s hard to take pictures of him, sometimes. He just keeps moving .

The third picture is the obligatory “son in sunglasses” shot that I think all parents have to take, these days. I think Seth pulled it off without a hitch. This sure is the cutest one of these types of photos I’ve ever seen. Or, am I just being biased? mmmmmmmmmmm… NAH!

However, the last picture is my favorite of this set. It shows another milestone. Seth’s been wrapping his hands around his bottle for the past few weeks. This is the first time he held it on his own, though. We had a hand ready, in case he needed help, but he was fine. Not bad for a 4 month old!

18 Weeks

It’s times like this I wish I was better with my camera. I don’t like using the flash, because I think natural light looks so much better. Unfortunately, a lot of times, my camera sees this as a low light situation. I’m sure I could make some adjustments, but haven’t had time to figure out how, yet. Thus, these pictures are blurry. It’s a shame, too. I love them, otherwise.

Seth hit another big milestone during his 18th week. Thursday night, my wife woke me and said, “Look at your son.” I grabbed my glasses and went over to his bassinet. Low and behold, he was laying on his stomach, head turned to the side, sleeping. Now, we always put him to sleep on his back. The best research says you should do so, to reduce the risk of SIDS. I didn’t put him on his belly. Neither did my wife. It took me a moment to draw the right conclusion. The little guy had done this himself!

This was contrary to everything we had been told about how he should sleep. So, we did some reading and found out that, when they start flipping themselves over, the increased risk of SIDS due to sleeping on their stomach is greatly reduced, which was quite a relief.

There’s just one problem with this, though. He can roll from his back to his stomach. However, he hasn’t figured out how to roll the other way. He hates to be on his tummy for long periods of time. After a few minutes, he gets kinda cranky. Barb’s been having to get up several times a night and roll him back over. Unfortunately, I’m on meds that make me sleep pretty heavily. So, I don’t wake up. That means he’s cranky all night and she’s a bit cranky in the morning.

That’s it for baby updates. Other things:

1. I finally got my dry well in. It works! Surprised me. Of course, I ordered 3 times the gravel I needed, so I’m going to use the extra to put in a parking area next to the street.

2. A strange thing happened, last week. Strange things used to happen to me all the time. So, I was used to it. However, it’s been a long time since that’s happened. So, I didn’t know how to deal with it. So, I took a picture. I went out on the porch and there was a chicken strutting around by the side of our house. That wouldn’t be so strange if there was a farm anywhere near us. Overall, it’s not the weirdest thing I’ve seen. But, since my life’s been so normal for so long, it threw me for a loop.

She was pretty tame. I was about 1.5′ away when I took this, with my phone. Didn’t phase her at all. Cute, isn’t she?

That’s about it. I’m in training all this week, for work. Next week, I’ll be in Memphis for a few days. After that, my parents are coming to visit. We can’t wait to see them. It’ll be interesting to see what they think of their Grandson, now. They haven’t seen him in 17 weeks, or so.

IT: “Hey, you ever see a $2 bill?”
MG: “No. A what?”
IT: “A $2 bill. This guy just gave it to me.”
MG: “Ask for something else, THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS A $2 BILL.”
IT: “Yeah, thought so.”

He comes back to me and says

IT: “We don’t take these. Do you have anything else?”
ME: “Just this fifty. You don’t take $2 bills? Why?”
IT: “I don’t know.”
ME: “See here where it says legal tender?”
IT: “Yeah.”
ME: “So, shouldn’t you take it?”
IT: “Well, hang on a sec.”

He goes back to his manager who is watching me like I’m going to
shoplift, and

IT: “He says I have to take it.”
MG: “Doesn’t he have anything else?”
IT: “Yeah, a fifty. I’ll get it and you can open the safe and get change.”
MG: “I’M NOT OPENING THE SAFE WITH HIM IN HERE.”
IT: “What should I do?”
MG: “Tell him to come back later when he has REAL money.”
IT: “I can’t tell him that, you tell him.”
MG: “Just tell him.”
IT: “No way, this is weird, I’m going in back.”

The manager approaches me and says

MG: “Sorry, we don’t take big bills this time of night.” [it was 8pm and
this
particular Taco
Bell is in a well lighted indoor mall with 100 other stores.]
ME: “Well, here’s a two.”
MG: “We don’t take those either.”
ME: “Why the hell not?”
MG: “I think you know why.”
ME: “No really, tell me, why?”
MG: “Please leave before I call mall security.”
ME: “Excuse me?”
MG: “Please leave before I call mall security.”
ME: “What the hell for?”
MG: “Please, sir.”
ME: “Uh, go ahead, call them.”
MG: “Would you please just leave?”
ME: “No.”
MG: “Fine, have it your way then.”
ME: “No, that’s Burger King, isn’t it?”

At this point he BACKS away from me and calls mall security on the
phone around the corner. I have two people STARING at me from the dining
area, and I begin laughing out loud, just for effect. A few minutes later
this 45 year oldish guy comes in and says
[at the other end of counter, in a whisper]

SG: “Yeah, Mike, what’s up?”
MG: “This guy is trying to give me some [pause] funny money.”
SG: “Really? What?”
MG: “Get this, a two dollar bill.”
SG: “Why would a guy fake a $2 bill?” [incredulous]
MG: “I don’t know? He’s kinda weird. Says the only other thing he has
is a fifty.”
SG: “So, the fifty’s fake?”
MG: “NO, the $2 is.”
SG: “Why would he fake a $2 bill?”
MG: “I don’t know. Can you talk to him, and get him out of here?”
SG: “Yeah…”

Security guard walks over to me and says

SG: “Mike here tells me you have some fake bills you’re trying to use.”
ME: “Uh, no.”
SG: “Lemme see ‘em.”
ME: “Why?”
SG: “Do you want me to get the cops in here?”

At this point I was ready to say, “SURE, PLEASE,” but I wanted to
eat, so I said

ME: “I’m just trying to buy a burrito and pay for it with this $2 bill.”
I put the bill up near his face, and he flinches like I was taking a
swing at him. He takes the bill, turns it over a few times in his hands, and
says

SG: “Mike, what’s wrong with this bill?”
MG: “It’s fake.”
SG: “It doesn’t look fake to me.”
MG: “But it’s a **$2** bill.”
SG: “Yeah?”
MG: “Well, there’s no such thing, is there?”

The security guard and I both looked at him like he was an idiot, and
it dawned on the guy that he had no clue.

My burrito was free and he threw in a small drink and those cinnamon
things, too. Makes me want to get a whole stack of $2 bills just to
see what happens when I try to buy stuff. If I got the right group of
people, I could probably end up in jail. At least you get free food.

I did add the possibility to subscribe to my posts via email. It’s a great service and they won’t sell your email address to anyone.

To sign up, look for the “Subscribe to Schachter’s Ramblings by Email” in the sidebar, to the right, in the “Site Meta” section.

Cool, huh?

How can time be moving so fast? Has it really been a month since I made a post? It’s just crazy! Things are wacko and getting worse, every day. It seems like I wake up in the morning, run around, and then it’s time for bed. And I still wouldn’t change it for the world.

The past month has been one of real change. Seth’s 14.5 pounds now and 26.5″ long. For those keeping track, he’s in the 50% for weight and the 95% for height/weight.

There’s been a lot of developmental changes, too. He’s in parrot mode, now. He returns our conversations with him, in his own way. Most of his vocals are really gibberish, but he has made some very distinct sounds. He can repeat several sounds directly back to us, including: “Uh-Oh!”, “Sweetheart”, and “Hi!”. Although, “Sweetheart” sounds more like, “Swee………har!”

Seth also prefers sitting up to laying down. And he’s not at all fond of tummy time. We think this kid’s going to skip crawling and go straight to walking. He can also stand, unassisted, for about 2 seconds. He now reaches for his favorite toys, as seen in the pic above, with the mouse. And, he’s trying to pull himself up.

I have some video of him playing with a rattle. Hopefully, I can post it this weekend. We’ll see. I’m putting in a dry well, so time will be tight… Should be a fun time!

Today is Barb’s first Mother’s Day. In addition to making her a Mother’s Day Breakfast, I got her two gifts. The first was some tickets to see her favorite 80’s band. She’s so excited .

The second gift was a framed collage of pics of Seth. It’s the one you see posted, above. If you want to see a bigger version, click it. I’m pretty proud of it and Barb liked it more than the tickets… she says.

I had several people tell me that I should start selling these collages. They give me pictures (digital or printed) and I put the collage together and sell it. I’m giving it serious thought.

However, that’s off-topic. Happy Mother’s Day to all Mothers. You are a wonderful bunch.