Why bother

Next time I decide to be lazy and leave the basket of neatly folded clothes in the living room, i'll be sure to put Lily's blankets on top so that she doesn't have to dig through all my hard work to get to them.

Mission accomplished.

Daily Routine

Lily's morning routine
1. wake up
2. Get diaper changed
3. Eat
4. Pull all the videos off the shelf

Moms evening routine
1. Feed Lily
2. Change her diaper
3. Put her to bed
4. Clean up all the videos

A Nice Gesture

I recently entered an essay contest commemorating Martin Luther King Jr. Day. I found I didn't win, which was disappointing, mostly because the 1st place prize was 300 $. A sum I am not opposed to winning. Regardless, yesteday I got this nice email:

Jacob,
As one of the reviewers for the MLK Essay Contest, I just want to tell you how much I enjoyed and admired your entry in the contest. Though it did not receive a prize, it was still my favorite -- and so well-written.
You are a remarkable writer, and I hope you keep it up!
Mayo Bulloch
Mayo M. Bulloch
Director, Educational Enhancement Programs
Case Western Reserve University

It's so nice to get stuff like this from people you have never met, and may never meet. If you want to read the essay I wrote, I'll post in on my other blog.

Book Review: Feed

First of all, this is a short book, but I enjoyed it enough to finish it within three sittings. Most sources and critics describe it as a postcyberpunk, dark satire of consumerism and corporate data mining to enhance advertising and personality channeling. Whatever else you read, this book is not about dystopia! But it sure feels like it. If you want a good read about dystopia, try The Giver or 1984.
Feed is about a boy named Titus in the not-so-far away future where almost everyone's brain is connected to the feednet. The feed is basically a chip attached to the brain so you can get constant advertising, entertainment, information, telepathic chatting, and self-inflicted brain malfunctioning similar to using drugs.
The uses this scenario to examine the way our society is headed, and also, sadly enough, what it is already like. And though at times the author can be a bit heavy-handed, the most frightening thing is when you begin to see your own personality being mirrored by some of the characters. The feel of the novel reminded somewhat of Albert Camus' existentialist style. There are times when you have very little connection to Titus' emotions and feelings, only his sensory perception, which is somewhat the case with ourselves when we are constantly bombarded with media and internet's constant visual and auditory noise.
I would highly recommend this novel to anyone looking for something poignantly dealing with the problems our society faces and we become more and more connected to the internet and to each other in instant communication. The jargon takes a few pages to get used to and the swearing is rampant, but used very well to make the point that our youths' vocabularies are shrinking to the point that perhaps someday they will mirror chatting.

My Little Rapunzel

I wish her hair would stay curly. It is so cute. No matter what I do it just goes straight and sometimes it looks a little silly but I just don't have the heart to cut it off.

Back in the Game

Last night I got to play Volleyball again for the first time in years. It was so much fun. We played for about 4 hours. Today I have a stiff neck, back pains, swolen and bruised arms, fingers that feel broken, sore hips and legs, bruised knees and blisters on my feet. When are we going to play again guys?

Are You Handling Your Baby Correctly?

Yes, there's even more, but unfortunately, these are the last. If you want to see them all, check the previous posts of this month.

A shout out to the home team!

GO BYU BASKETBALL! For the second straight year, they swept the Utes' Men Basketball team. Here are some fun pics:

It was a hard fought battle.
But BYU won 67-59.
And the Utes went home sad.
Or angry.

She's a climber

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Lily is learning to climb stairs. I am glad we don't have stairs in our house because it scares me.

BB's (blankie buddies)

Jacob and I babysat for some friends tonight. We had lots of fun. Lily and Finn both love their blankets. Notice how Lil is doing her usual eyes closed and thumb in the mouth.

This is Lily and Lucy. Lily was being a goof and running around with her blanket on her head. Lucy is just a few months older than Lil. Whenever these two are together I always get their names mixed up.

A Few More How to Handles:

Some day Jacob

Our landlord came over today to see how things were going and he was driving a new Mini Cooper. That is Jacobs dream car except he would want a blue one. He took Jacob out and let him drive it for a while. He is a photographer so he was very picky about how I took this picture. He wanted me to make sure I got our cute little house in the background. He probably would not be too impressed with it because I cut off the top half of the house. Oh well.

Story Time

Lily loves to read books. She gets so excited when you get a book out. We don't have very many books yet so we have to read the same ones over and over again. I can pretty much quote the whole Dr. Seuss ABC book from memory.

Happy Valentine's Day, Kat!

I love my wife!!!!

She's the love of my life!!!

So I wrote her this:

A Dream Called Happiness

I had a dream called happiness when I was just a boy
I thought it meant pizza cake or ice cream
Or getting the newest toy
I had a dream called happiness when I became a teen
Cars and dates and roles in plays
Was what it seemed to mean
I had a dream called happiness when I left my parents’ home
Freedom money and fame sounded good
The world was mine to roam
I had a dream called happiness only five years ago
A degree a job a well-built house
Then love would surely show
I had a dream called happiness and this dream did come true
I found true love and seized it fast
That’s why I married you
I had a dream called happiness it was just the other night
I woke up thinking it was gone
But you were still in sight
I have a dream called happiness I live it every day
As long as you’re there when I wake up
My dream won’t go away.

So Cute!

Here are two little video clips back to back. The first one isn't the most exciting video but it is still cute. The second one is Lily growling. whenever you growl she will growl back. If you ever want to know where she is in the house you just growl and she will do it back. She is a little distracted with some Cheerios in this clip but it is still pretty good.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Happy Commercialized Romance Day! (and more how to handles)...

Yes, this is the day that you HAVE to be romantic or you don't love your wife / husband. The people who thought up this one and Halloween are brilliant. Support true romance by not buying your spouse ANYTHING around this holiday. I'm done now. Here are some more How to Handle Your Baby:

Lily's New Words and More Baby Jokes

Lily's first words came today. I missed the very first one: baw-baw for her bottle, but Kat hasn't heard the second ones yet: Ma ma! She's in the shower right now, so maybe she'll hear them when she gets out. Here's some more How to Handle a Baby:

How to Handle Your Baby

Everyone needs to get a laugh at these:







We've got about thirty of these. We'll post more over the next few days. Don't forget to check out Lily's cuteness below!

Finally more pictures

I just thought these were cute.

Jacob's Parents came to visit for a few days. We had a lot of fun. Lily especially enjoyed the extra attention. We went to the Cheescake Factory for dinner one night. My little girl is getting so big. It is so strange to see her sitting all by herself and feeding herslef.

We went to eat lunch with Jacob at school.

We discovered that Lily loves Beef Jerky. She kept getting it out of the red bag on the floor, then she would give it to Grandma and wait for her to open it and give her some.