In the Xmas spirit

The tree is up, the stockings are hung, Christmas music fills our
halls and the "family" bed, as Henry calls it, is the prime spot to
watch Christmas movies. Here are our two little elves ...

Go Bucks!

Emerson is enjoying his first OSU / Michigan game (so far).

Yep ... Underwear on the Head

I told Henry to put on his underwear. This was the result. Goes really well with his homage to Animal House.

Henry has been an absolute godsend with the Emerson (but hasn't he always been? He is, after all, his Gaga's Baby Hope).

I'm still learning so much about this parenting thing. Dads (and Moms) have been telling me since he was born to cherish every moment, and I thought I understood what they meant. As I was climbing up the ladder to his bunk bed this evening, it washed over me that this kid won't be 4 much longer. And then he will never be four again. Will he still insist that I sleep up with him (no)? Will he still sing James Brown, Ray Charles, and Beatles songs with me (hopefully - fingers crossed)? And dance uncontrollably?

I went out to the car yesterday and noticed that the dome light was busted. I looked at it for a minute, then dismissed it so that I could get Henry and Emerson ready. Henry bounded out the driveway, opened up his car door, settled himself into his car seat and promptly (right away) told me that the light wasn't working because my (driver's) door was still open.

And he was right. I hadn't quite closed it all the way, and even though the door was closed, the sensors thought it was open.

Henry 1, Daddy 0.

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First Pictures!

Sarah has planned, since Emerson's birth, to get pictures of the boys
before Emer sprouts his first tooth. Then life happened for about six
months.

Yesterday she was feeling around in his mouth, and felt a tooth! So we
called an audible and got pictures. Tonight. Here's a behind the
scenes shot. The real pictures will be posted soon.

Catching up on the end of summer

We have had a very busy summer just trying to keep up with Henry, and
keep up with Emerson's high expectations of us! We have, however,
squeezed in some time for fun. You can see Henry trying to convince
the camera of the awful time that he's having just before and after
dancing like a mad man at a joint concert of the Symphony and the OSU
marching band.

Unfortunately, Sarah and I have have spent the last month taking care
of each other, combatting a case of the flu and a tweaked back
(Michael) and a severely sprained ankle (Sarah). Here's hoping that
the fall is a bit less crazy!

Who's 4? I'm 4!

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Originally uploaded by hepcatrayo.

On our bike ride to campus, Henry stopped off to hang out at The Numbers, which is a series of number sculptures on the outskirts of the Engineering buildings. Most of them are upright and huge.

Henry, however, wanted to find the "4" (for obvious reasons) which was off in the corner, and sat flush with the ground. After a bit of searching, we found it. Here's Henry sitting with his quarry.

Birthday's! - Henry's and America's

Henry turned 4! Henry turned 4! As usual, the small family birthday that we had in mind ballooned up to 20 people (we just don't have a small family, and really need to come to grips with it!). Gramma Schmidt made an appearance. Auntie Pammie called him during the festivities.  And all of the usual suspects were there: Grammy and Grandpa Rayo, Gaga and Papa, Jimmy, Erin, and Asia, and James, Rachel, and Tenzin.  Uncle Jonna was noticeably absent ... we hope to see him soon!

Henry's big present this year was a big-boy bike, replete with training wheels.  Have no fear, the frown that you see on his face has nothing to do with the bike. He has inherited his mother's absolute and complete loathing of cameras, and slapped that face on just before all the flashes went off.



Along with Henry, the country had it's birthday, and it was the first time that Emerson witnessed it! He wasn't all that impressed, sleeping through both the parade and the fireworks.  Henry, however, was quite engaged and excited, and saluted the servicemen.

    

Henry also had his first "friend" birthday this year along with his family birthday. We did pretty well for having 10 4 yr. olds (all boys except one) caged inside a Graeter's, plied with ice cream and cake, and set loose.  Everyone lived, and much revelry was had.

Catching up - Emerson's first DriveIn!

Whoa ... it has been a long time since I've written.  Here's a quick update.  After 6 weeks, my paternity leave ended (right about the time where I expected to start that "mommy" blog!).  Within two days, I transformed from being blissfully unemployed to full-on, 50-60 hours a week. Amazingly enough, I remember how to work like that!

In the meantime, life didn't slow down at home in the last .  Emerson went to his first drive-in movie (and Henry's second). This is us in the back of the Murano, just before the movie.  Henry actually fell asleep in the middle of the SECOND movie, which started at 10:30 (Henry fell asleep at 11).

 

Henry went to his first baseball game!



(Click to make this one bigger ... it's a pretty sweet picture of our seats!)

       

Henry's first time sleeping in a tent outside (which was really a trip, because he really likes jumping on air mattresses).




... and there were tons of other Emerson firsts through June that I frankly can't remember anymore!

New Daddy Blog!

OK, I entered a contest.  To be a mommy blogger.  Eternal optimist, right?  Well, they were pretty serious about the mommy part, so I was out on my tuckus.  So I'm going to blog anyway. I won't be flooding this blog, though ... I'm starting a new blog, Lightning Dad, at http://lightningdad.blogspot.com.  So you guys won't have to hear about cloth diapers, Moby's, how not to dress kids, and the like (unless you want to!)

I'll also be on twitter as LightningDad.

More Emerson and Henry pictures shortly.