Well, the Mrs and I are batting .667*. Our second child is on the way and hopefully to arrive in July, Lord willing. Morning sickness has been much worse this time around (which all the old wives around tell us means it is going to be a girl). We have are really hoping for a girl, but we'll take what comes our way.

The little guy still is having speech issues and understanding speech, so we have had a hard time communicating that he is going to have a sibling in a few months. He has been in a group for children with speech issues since the beginning of the year, but in such short time we have not seen much success. He otherwise seems very intelligent and able to manipulate his surroundings, but speech still eludes him quite a bit.

* 3 months of trying, 2 pregnancies

http://townhall.com/columnists/CalThomas/2009/01/06/interview_with_president_bush_from_the_oval_office

This was a pretty interesting interview with President Bush. It fills out some of the his reasoning, whether you agree with it or not, of why he made certain choices and explains some of his thought process of why he worked at certain issues.

So, a bunch of men from church got together Saturday to bitterly cling to God, guns, and religion. Since I haven't shot anything since my teen years I figured I'd go along and try out some various guns. I'm interested in picking up a handgun at the moment, since our president elect is likely to try to make getting them more difficult. My personal hunch is we'll see another "assault weapon" bill within the first few months, because scary looking weapons are bad. Then we'll see something for handguns, cause they only serve one purpose, which is to kill people. Finally, if it makes it that far, we'll see hunting weapons targeted.

There were two stations setup, a shotgun/skeet station and a rifle/handgun station. Before we split up one of the men explained the rules and safety pointers. Once we were familiarized with the rules we broke up into groups to head to the respective stations. I went to the rifle/handgun station as I've shot shotguns before and am in the market for a handgun. We were setup across a pond from the targets, at a range of about 50 yards. Certainly longer than I would consider for a handgun distance.

We pulled out the rifles first, which were only 22s. Because of the cold they were not loading well at all from the clips. It took some playing with before I got my first shot off, but I pinged the 4" target from about 50 yards. Of course that was beginners luck as I was only about 75% after that. I might consider picking up a 22 rifle at some point for my rabbit issues, but certainly not any time soon. Over all, very uninteresting.

The pastor's son brought a 9mm. It was about a 4 inch barrel, which seemed pretty short. I'm not sure if he has a CWW or not, but that seems to be more the size I'd expect for carrying. He put in the clip and shot off at the target 2' x 3'. I'm pretty sure he didn't hit the target once, and sunk a handful in the pond. One of the professors tried next. He was a bit more accurate, actually hitting the target a couple times. I loaded up a clip to try it out and put most of them at the foot of the target. The issue was that the sight was low, so I couldn't actually see the target when it would have been centered. I found it was pretty nice, with not a lot of recoil. But I'm not sure my wife would feel comfortable with it, but there are some things you can do for limiting the recoil. This was the gun I shot the most, as it is probably what I would be looking for as a hand gun. I might consider something with a longer barrel around the house, as I'm not sure that carrying about town is really a
concern.

The second handgun I tried was a 45. Thise one certainly had a bit more recoil, and definitely would no be suggested for the wife. It would take a lot of concentration to use this in a defensive situation and be able to hit your target even if they were not moving, at least for a second shot be be any accurate. The trigger on this one was very sensitive. The professor who tried this one accidently shot off twice while only intending one shot because of the recoil and light trigger.

I also tried out a 22 handgun, which was equally unintereting as the 22 rifle. I don't really see the purpose of a 22 handgun as you are not going to be shooting small game with it, nor using it defensively. So it seems more like a toy rather than a useful weapon. I suppose you could use it to put down a rabid racoon, but that seems kinda a niche use.

While I'm not a huge gun buff, I do figure I ought to exercise my right. First, living out in the country I don't expect a cop to be around to help. And relying on a neighbor who wouldn't be able to hear a yell in the first case is no help. I don't expect to ever even need a weapon around the home, but I don't ever expect to need a cell phone to call for a tow truck either, but we keep one around just in case. We even use it for calling other folks once in a while too. Just as I'm sure when we pick up a gun we'll shoot off a few rounds every now and then too.

As of now, the Sarah Palin article on wikipedia has 2000 revisions since 09:50, 28 August 2008. The Joe Biden article on the other hand 2000th revision would place it 01:27, 29 July 2006.

Interesting. I am sure some of it comes from Biden being more of a known quantity for a longer period of time. But a lot of the revisions I see are fairly minor and often repeated, such as one that changes the heading "Public Safety Commissioner dismissal" to "Abuse of power" and back again, and "Pro-Life" to "Anti-Abortion" and back again.

I did find one revision which was pretty chuckle worthy. Look at the previous revision for the picture of the moose.

[update]
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/08/30/1858240

It seems I am not the only one who found this interesting. I haven't read the story, but it looks related to what I was observing.

+ Friend jmorris42 - I've noticed his comments regularly while browsing stories. While agnostic, he is rational and seems to call people on their foaming at the mouth Atheism. This fellow also seems to be a voice of reason when it comes to the Left, socialist, globalwarming, hate Bush crowd here on slashdot.

+Friend GeckoFood - This fellow marked me as a friend a while ago. I've been looking at his journal entries every now. He covers a range of interesting topics.

+Friend RailGunner is no more. Long live RailGunner^WNaqamel. Which I always wind up translating in my mind to Gargamel, which is funny since it is his band's name. I get a mental picture of RailGunner dressed up as a cartoon wizard and all sorts of smurfs on the stage with him.

As usual, when I add or remove friends or set foes, I remind folks that a friend gets +1 to their comments, which is often needed to counteract the group think around these parts. And foes get +0. Just because I don't like you doesn't mean I always avoid you comments. Mainly I mark foes so if I ever sustain I nasty crack to the head I've got a good reference point to say, "Don't think like that."

The last month and half has been pretty exciting with the little guy. He has been learning so many new things, some good and others are a bit naughty. It is great to see him playing new games and have fun each day.

One of his new games is to roll a ball back and forth. I am trying to get him to learn that daddy and mommy refer to people. So I will roll the ball to him and when he is about to roll it back say, "Roll the ball to daddy!" I haven't gotten mommy to play the game with him, but hopefully I'll get her to sit down with him and do that for a while. Hopefully while playing these games we'll help him figure out a number of words.

A couple weeks a really icky illness hit both the little guy and my wife. They could barely hold anything down and what they could came out the other end shortly afterwards taking the express route. I took a couple half days at work to help nurse them back to health. The little guy lost about 3/4 to 1 pound during that time though.

He was really picky eating after he started feeling better though. The day he started being able to hold things down about all he would eat was chocolate chip cookies. He would just scream and holler at us if we even tried to set him in his high chair or tried to give him anything else. But since he lost so much weight and was drained in energy we let him have his way that day. It was probably about 3 days before we had him eating normal meals.

He is learning a number of ways to communicate with us, some of which do not require crying or yelling. We have a bag of crackers and other munchies which we leave on the table. He will now bring that or his sippy cup when he gets hungry and set it in our hands or at our feet. We'll then get him something to eat or drink. He knows where we keep his videos and will go turn on the TV or start reaching up for the videos if he wants to watch one.

This last weekend we had a picnic after church down at a park. He thought this was great. He would run around like a little wild man exploring. He also got to spend a fair bit of time on the playground. He did get a little bit red from the sun, but he isn't doing too bad. We put some lotion on his arms afterwards and that seemed to help him cope a little better.

The list:

1. Sand is cool. Tough to walk in.

2. Rumor weeds are funny. Desparados are scary and should come to their senses.

3. Clackity clack clack clack goes the clacker. And then it clacks some more.

4. Petting cats is for chumps. Grabbing cats is for men! Chumps spend more time with cats.

5. It is funny to shut daddy into a room. No so funny when daddy shuts himself into a room.

6. Sometimes daddy praying at night is funny.

7. Book spines are weak and must be punished for their frailty.

8. Toys are exciting when thumping and rolling down the stairs.

9. Late to bed and early to rise makes mommy and daddy with bleary eyes.

10. Who knew that sippy techonology would ever advance in your child's lifetime? Old and Busted meet New Hotness which doesn't leek like a sieve.

A lot of Lefties think Fox is Right wing for new reporting. Well, I have found an even better source of news over on youtube. Check out News Busted for some really Right wing news.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,353758,00.html

Anyone want to bet that the conspiracy theory Bush Derangement Syndrome folks claim Bush had her wacked because he didn't want her giving up his name as one of the Johns?

I keep a journal on my nightstand since our little guy was born. Each night I will write about a page or so of the day and interaction with my son. I consider giving him the stack of journals at some point, maybe when he turns 18, his wedding, or maybe when he has a child. He isn't likely to be able to read them as my handwriting is terrible, but after and advanced degree in hieroglyphics and chicken scratching he might be able to decipher something useful.

One of the patterns I noticed was mentioning how often he slept, such as when he woke up, took his nap and how long, and when he went to bed. I wonder if he'll think the only thing I cared about was when he went to sleep! Well, to tell the truth, on the rougher days that is a major concern. When is this little monster going to sleep so I can do something other than carry around a crabbing little punk!

For the last couple weeks I have been trying to focus more on my interactions with him, new experiences he has, or things he has learned, or at least events which happen with him. Hopefully as I record things in the journal I will be able to look back and remember how these days have gone. What sort of thoughts and ideas were going through my head, and what I thought was going through his mind.

And, of course no parenting journal is complete without the list.

1. There are very few ways to keep my little guy still.
a. If you guessed sleeping, you are wrong.
b. Bob and Larry can anchor him in front of the TV for a 1/2 hour.
c. Putting him in the center of the lawn works too (though I guess only for a short period of time).
d. Theme music for pretty much any show (tested with A-Team, Air Wolf, ST-TNG, ST-DS9, X-Files, B5).

2. Cats are now catchable. Totally unrelated, but they now sleep in higher places.

3. The occasional 3am dissertation is required to keep the mind clear and focused. At some point we are going to get rid of the monitor.

4. Typing is a full body experience. Luckly for dad he has an IBM keyboard.

5. You can never have too many baby spoons. For the feeder or feedie.

6. I don't want yogurt anymore dad! Nevermind I throw up anything with a mixed texture. Give me more crunchers!

7. A note from experience, do not set your child on your shoulders and then lean backwards unless you find scratches on your face appealing.

8. Related to 7, if you have ever seen Ratatouille.

9. Yes 8 was an incomplete sentence, but if you have seen Ratatouille you know what I am talking about and the sentence does not need to be completed.

10. While walking around the store aimlessly and grabbing pretty much anything is fun, daddy would really like to get the groceries and go home.

Has anyone been reading Dilbert this last week?

I am beginning to think the conservative media theory really does exist, they have been surpressing the riots by all of the Christians. There can be no other explaination.

Much to my delight the little guy is starting to walk. Compared to learning to crawl he has taken his sweet time, which was a bit concerning. Every parent wants to brag about the exploits of their children, but when yours seem behind the curve you worry and fret. When he was crawling at 5 1/2 months my wife and I were amazed at how advanced he seemed, and for the last couple months I've been worried that he was stalled for some reason. Well, it seems from what I have been reading an early crawler will often be behind on the walking curve since they have learned how to move to where they wish to go, walking seems only to be an inpediment.

Saturday my wife was in the living room with the little guy and he wanted to be picked up. Usually he will crawl up to you and then start climbing up your legs into a standing position and then wave his hands over his head. Well this time instead of grabbing her legs he just stood up in front of and waved his hands. Well, that ofcourse had to be rewarded with a big congratulations and a picking up.

He also managed to walk the full distance between the recliner and the couch later that day. He slid off my wife's lap in the recliner and fussed some, as is one of his favorite pastimes now. Well, instead of letting him continue to fuss at her I gave him a call and he turned around to me on the couch and judge the distance and then started awkwardly taking one step at a time. About half way there he seemed to lose his balance but was able to keep up the momentum to get to me, basically lunging at me into my arms. This also was rewarded with a lot of love and affection.

So now we have ourselves a toddler (or in mmorpg terms: DING! :-). He has learned a ton of things in the last week. We found him playing with the huge "lego" type bricks and actually putting the blocks together. Some of the games he plays with us now show he is really understanding how we'll act around him. Such as yesterday when we were getting him ready for church and had yet to put pants on him he escaped and crawled out into the hallway. Instead of just keeping going he waited a second. Since we didn't start chasing him he peaks around the corner at us and ducks behind again. So we give chase and he takes off giggling again.

Feeding him is still a bit stressful. Some things go worse than others, as he is still unable to eat from our plates. Chunky things will throw him for a loop and cause him to gag and usually vomit. And then there is the cleanup time involved afterwards. He is good with crunchy things now though, like grahmcrackers and "crunchers". He is able to chew those with out issue usually.

Compared to a year ago at this point life with the little guy is wonderful. Last year we were a bit overwhelmed and still learning how to fit him into our lives, and wondering what a number to a good chiroprator was and how much he charged! While he really enjoys being carried around (I'm not sure he ever won't enjoy being carried) he is content to be on the floor and explore, or play with some of his toys. God has upheld us through this entire adventure so far and will continue to bless us through him.

The photo album from 12-15 months is up on our website. The two with Misha and the one with me are from Thanksgiving (prior to 12 months, but the other album was closed at that point).

And onto the list:

1. We have a tupperware drawer^Wfloor in the kitchen.

2. While I didn't see a tail at birth, I am sure it was removed when I wasn't looking.

3. I still want a bumper sticker that says, "My child was raised by Bob and Larry."

4. Baths are great, but dad, can you not pour water on my head.

5. Okey dad, new game. You push the vaccum towards me and I'll touch it before you can draw it back.

6. Correct, drill used to be scarey, now I don't care. Tablesaws were never scarey.

7. Dad, why did you have to close that door!?!

8. Dad, I was trying to close that door!

9. (Bottles, spoons, lego bricks, random item on the floor) does not get filed with the marriage license, taxes, or identification.

10. You are doing it wrong, the blocks only stack to three or four, then you knock them down. Learn to play.

It appears even being famous and sleeping with little boys doesn't protect you from all of the foreclosures happening now.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,332776,00.html

1. Tell you why I befriended you.
2. Associate you with something - fandom, a song, a color, a photo, etc..
3. Tell you something I like about you.
4. Tell you a memory I have of you.
5. Ask something I've always wanted to know about you.
7. In return, you must post this in your Journal/Blag/whatever.

Just doing my part since I finally responded to one of these.

This was in an email from my wife. It is odd how we find the good in something as unpleasent as your child vomitting. The last week has had things exiting this child from both ends at various velocities.

Lunch was terribly fun. I fed him some pinapple with ham and rice along with some veggies and a container of pear blueberry oat. About halfway through the meal, he vomited right into the overalls he was wearing. Talk about a mess. That was gross. :( However, the plus side was that almost no vomit got on the chair, just on the tray. Small blessings. :P

On Monday night I bathed the little guy and was getting him ready for bed. I set him on a couple towels on our bed usually and dry him off then put lotion on him and a diaper and PJs. Well, after setting him down and reaching for the lotion I hear the warning sounds from his bottem. Sure enough a stream of diarrea is shooting from him directly at dear old dad. I almost managed to dive out of the way.

Then from about Wednesday last week until Sunday we were able to see pretty much every meal he ate multiple times. Once going in, and another time covering him and our cloths. The poor boy has been terribly sick for the last week. We had him down to just soy milk for a number of days as that was the only thing that he seemed to be able to hold down.

Today's incident (from the email) is not likely that he is sick anymore. This actually is probably because he has an over active gag reflex. It can be terribly frustrating for all involved. He goes to a speech therapist for this once a week now, but there has not been much for progress. He is slowly improving and able to eat things that have more texture, but the last week has been a huge step backwards.

1. Being a father is easy. Being a good father is a bit tougher. I suppose it'll take more than a year to know if I managed the good part.

Well, getting to be a father wasn't too hard, and quite fun infact. I'm sure mom's out there will object and say certain parts of becoming a mom are not fun though, such as the whole birth thing. Being a good father is certainly challenging. I think of things daily of how I could have handled a situation better, or see things that might cause harm, or a dozen other things that concern me as a parent which never would have been brought to my mind otherwise. In the end, when I am dying, I hope to hear my son say, "You raised me well dad," more than anything else.

2. Bath time. Well, bath time can only be properly enjoyed at the time of the bath. Though the high speed setting on the camera helps.

I think "bath time" is one of the few phrases that my boy understands now. I can take the gate off the bathroom door and give a holler and he will come crawling. Usually I'll hand him off to mom to stip him down and bring him to me, but sometimes he'll hear me getting the bath ready and come crawling along. He'll holler and yell and splash like a wild man in the tub. It is so much run to see him enjoying himself during a bath. One of his favorite parts is after I've washed him up and drained the tub I will then count to three before I turn the water on to rinse. Sometimes I'll Monty Python is and do, "One, two, ..., five," and not turn the water one. He'll bust out laughing. Then I'll count again and turn the water on for him and we'll rinse him off.

3. No means no. But no has nothing to do with squirming when the diaper is being changed.

Changing time can range from pleasent and quick to unpleasent and wrestling a poopy baby for 5 minutes trying to protect oneself from errant dirty legs and arms. It also happens to be where he hears the word no more often than anywhere else. He is very strong willed, but isn't every little kid, but usually after a little restraint and repetition of the word no he seems to get the idea dad is going to change the diaper whether or not he likes it and settles down.

4. Front facing car seats are way better than rear facing car seats. At least when driving around. They are not nearly as convient for getting a kid out of the car.

Af first he didn't like the car seat facing forward much. I think this is partly because he could see on coming traffic and that kinda scared him. But now he thinks it is great. The old car seat is getting too small, so he has more space in the new one. And the old one also let the sun shine in his face a lot more, especially when the sun was behind us. Also, he can see much more now. The only disadvantage is that sleeping in this one is a bit harder since his body is more upright.

5. 13 hours to grandma and grandpa's and 13 hours home do not make a happy baby the next day. Other than falling asleep and waking every time I'd have to stop after dark he was great in the car though.

The drive out to grandma and grandpa's went well. We made decent time until we went backwards for an hour outside Buffalo. Who knew there was a tollway on the south west side? Anyways, it was a bit longer of a trip by about an hour and half then, which made our arrival a bit later and way past the little boy's bed time. But he held out like a trooper. The next day was probably one of his worst though. A foreign crib, house, and people were very confusing for him. He slept terribly, and was in a foul mood the whole day. After that though he was fine the remainder of the stay. When we got home he was a little upset the day after getting home, but not as bad. I suppose he remember his own home and bed.

6. One might think the stinkiest things come out the back end of a baby. One probably has not had to deal with baby yogurt puke.

There are some mighty foul things in this world. And a baby puking up yogurt is somewhere near the top of the list. And I live not too far from a dairy farm. We had just finished feeding him and eating dinner at a sandwich shop and were about to hit a store to see about picking up a new car seat. Mom says, "I think he's gagging on something." Then the smell. Thankfully nothing soaked into the car seat, but cleaning the stuff out of the seat was miserable. I can only feel sorry for mom and him riding home in the car together. I had to take the truck home since we met at the sandwich shop that day.

7. If the doctor isn't worried, well, why should I worry. Granted it isn't his kid.

The little guy has a weak tongue and we've known about it for quite a while. But the doctors just finally got around to seeing him about it in the last couple weeks. It seems that there is nothing too bad about it, so we try not to worry. I took him in to a neurologist who checked him out and asks, "Are you worried about this?" Um, yeah, kinda, I'm here with my kid who seems to have an issue with a weak tongue. But he is like, it doesn't seem to be anything neurological, so don't worry. Okey, we'll give it a shot.

8. When people who see babies every day remark on how incredible your son's eyes are, you start to wonder if they really are that amazing.

Everyone, even the neurologist above, remarks on his eyes. We are still considering setting up a website ethanfanclub.com and selling t-shirts. There are a couple girls at church who I am pretty sure will wind up waiting 18 years just to marry him, so they better hope he likes older women. Everywhere we go, the first thing people say about him is how amazing his eyes are and what a great looking kid. Un-surprisingly though his height and weight are in the 5th and 10th his head is in the 50th, everyone fawning over him is giving him a big head.

9. When posed with 4 buttons on a car, the one that is closest to music will be the one pushed.

I believe I am cursed to raise a son who is going to wind up with a BA in music. Mom and dad both have BS in computer science, love all things logical and geekish. But somehow there is a gene in me that will make my son a liberal arts major. I blame my dad though, as he originally wanted to be a musician. Anyways, he absolutely loves music. One of his favorites is the intro music for shows, like Buffy and Angel. But even the A-Team will do. He will stop whatever he is doing and crawl up so he can hear the music play where ever he is. He found this car at the doctor office whch had 4 buttons. The first three he pushed played car noises, like revving engines and horns and stuff. The last button he pressed played some sort of music. The other buttons must have felt very lonely once he discovered the music button.

10. Dad, you know nothing about how to play a keyboard. Those white and black buttons are dumb. The little green one makes all the music.

Related to the previous, one of his grandmas had a kids keyboard from one of her previous grandkids that she let us have. He at first liked the beat on the keys and make noise with those. Then he discovered these green buttons that play preprogrammed music. There hardly goes a minute with that thing in his sight that he isn't playing with the green buttons. I personally wish it didn't have the preprogrammed music as I think it'd be better for him to try playing the keyboard instead of just having music play for him.

BONUS. If it doesn't have a tail, its not a monkey. Its an ape.

Veggietales is wonderful. A mixture of music, biblical stories (not Bible stories), and humor for the parents. We started our Veggietales library before the little guy was even born, but since we have collected even more. He loves to watch them (though we keep it to only one a day unless he is really cranky, which is rare). Junior Asparagus seems to be his favorite we are pretty sure. Personally I am a big fan of Larry the Cucumber as he reminds me of myself too much.

Tomorrow it will be one year since Ethan has been born. Without a doubt this has been the hardest year of my life. There were so many rough points like when we were worried that he would never sleep or eat when he was just born, the night spent in the ER when he wound up with hives, and the days after his immunizations, and the random days where all he would do was cry and fuss. It has all been worth it though. When he figures something out, like how to crawl or cruise. Or get off the couch without diving head first. Or even how to eat a cracker all by himself. Or raise the sippy cup up and drink from it. Or stack blocks.

Each night was give thanks to God for blessing us with such a wonderful child. We pray for him, that he will grow strong, healthy, and wise. We pray God would touch his heart and lead him all the days of his life. We pray that Ethan will seek God as he grows older and in more understanding. And also that God would grand us wisdom and patience as parents to raise and teach him correctly.