I have to admit that Barbie does most of the nighttime feedings, and also gives Kyle most of his baths, which obviously leaves me as the more uneducated of the two when it comes to the nighttime routine. I have done his nighttime feedings before, and also given him baths, but the two have not been combined for me for some time. Well, last night Barbie had a work function, so it was all up to me. At about 6:15, I decided to take him and Kymba for walk around the block, so we got back to the house about 6:30ish. And, although he would normally take a power nap before his last feeding, he wasn’t acting tired, so I decided it was bath time. Normally Barbie would wait til after eating for the bath, but he hadn’t gotten to bed late the previous two nights, so I figured might as well get it over with now. After bath time, he was ready to eat, so I got everything ready and began with the bottle. Just like clockwork, he ate about 3oz., got grumpy, and wanted some real food. Well, I didn’t realize how much the little guy likes to use his hands now, which was about to cause big problems. When I would feed him his food on a spoon, not all of it would stay in his mouth, which used to be fine, b/c I could wipe it off with the spoon. However, now that his hands are in play, he would rub his mouth, then rub his eyes, then his head, ears, eyes, cheeks, the dog…you get the point. Obviously, there was now food not only in his mouth, but everywhere else also, which is really quite frustrating seeing as 10 minutes early he was super clean. Needless to say, despite my best efforts to keep things under control and clean him up afterwards, the boy went to bed smelling fairly similar to Chicken and Sweet Potatoes. All in all, a lesson learned to always give his bath after the feeding, and not before, otherwise you are just wasting your time.

While my mom was out last week, she informed me that some people still didn’t have a good idea of what Kyle’s bedroom looked like. I guess we haven’t been taking a ton of pictures in there, but I do have some video that I shot back when we first finished the room. To be honest, the room was a lot of work, and just when I would think I was done, my parents and Barbie would come up with something that they thought would make the room all that much better, and off we would go to Home Depot to get some new supplies. Anyways, to give you some background, Barbie and I, well me, decided we should wait to do anything with the room until my parents came out for Thanksgiving last year. Of course, it was a little bit of procrastination, but I thought it would be fun to decorate the room and build it up with my dad. So, when they got out here, we got to work. Basically, it was going to be a Winnie the pooh room, and Barbie and I had decided we wanted a chair rail, with Winnie the Pooh border. The first part was to find the appropriate paint colors to match the border. Luckily for us, the room already had paint in it that matched the border, so all we had to do was match the blue, and I must admit we got it perfect. Afterwards, we had to go buy a miter saw in order to create the floor trim and chair rail. Finally, we needed the actual trim and chair rail, which we got from Home Depot.

Our family upstairs became the sawing room, and since this room borders our neighbors, we had to be careful of when we were doing it. My dad would measure it off, and I would saw. Back and forth we went, and eventually we got it all done, or so I thought. My parents and Barbie thought it would look good to see a small trim above the border, and sure enough we got ‘er done, and it did look great. So, I hope you enjoy the video, as that took some work also.

 

 Kyle's Bedroom [1:43m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In my ongoing quest to get all of the videos of Kyle that we have shot over the last few months, I bring you “Kyle in his Exersaucer.” If you are like me, you probably have never heard of an Exersaucer before, but it has been one of the best things for both Kyle and us. He was a little too small for it back in the day, but he is now absolutely enthralled with it. The video is from back in March, so he is just getting into it, but either way, he is cute and you should enjoy it. Not much action, but it’s Kyle, and he is always worth your time!

 

 Kyle in his Exersaucer [1:30m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Well, you will just have to watch to see what Kyle had to say back in March about going to Cabo

 

 Kyle talking about Cabo [1:04m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Barbie has gotten into taking Kyle to the pool, and Kyle absolutely loves it. Honestly, I am amazed at what she is able to do with him already, and he never seems to cry. I’m quite confident he has gotten his “fish” personality from his mother, b/c I can’t ever remember anyone being so comfortable in the water as Barbie. When we go SCUBA diving, she literally doesn’t seem to breath. While I can stay down about 40 minutes on a tank of air, she has only used half of her tank. The dive instructors, who are supposed to be the most comfortable under water and not use up as much of oxygen, don’t even come close to Barbie. They can maybe go another 15-20 minutes longer than me, but Barbie is going about 45 minutes longer. Anyways, as I said, Kyle is taking after his mother and thoroughly enjoying his time in the water.

We started off with him just in the water splashing, then we started with him putting his face under water. We then moved on to him getting his full head under water, and he is now “swimming” under water as Barbie puts his whole body under then pulls him around for a little bit. It was scary the first time even for me, but he doesn’t seem to mind. Here are some of his latest videos.

p.s. I didn’t edit them b/c my editing software is on the fritz, but they are still fun. I recommend you download the files first and watch them off your local hard drive if the audio/video seems a little jumpy. Also, I’m not sure why the times are all off, but they are all about 10-20seconds.

 

 Kyle splashing in the pool [13:05m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Barbie teaching Kyle to go under water [18:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Kyle putting his face under water [8:11m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Kyle going fully underwater with Mommy [11:44m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Kyle going fully underwater with Dad [17:44m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

What a great week this has been. To be honest, it is probably the best and most relaxing time that Barbie and I have had in quite a while. There are actually a few reasons why, the first being Independence Day. Thanks to the USA’s forefathers we got July 4th off in celebration of America gaining its independence. The second reason for the great time is b/c my Mom was able to come out and visit us, which means Kyle got to visit his grandmother for the past 5 days. There is nothing better than seeing your child interact and have a great time with family. Kyle was actually a little bit sick the first couple of days, so I’m sure my Mom thought we were crazy when we said he was a little bit down since he didn’t complain or cry or do anything wrong, but we could just tell. Sure enough, he got a 102 degree fever, so he had a pretty good excuse for relaxing a bit. The good news it didn’t last long, and the last 3 days have been great with Kyle smiling, laughing and just having a good time all around. Just check out the latest pictures of Kyle and you can see what I mean. The final reason it has been so great is b/c Barbie and I took Thursday and Friday off from work, and we didn’t go anywhere. Therefore, we got to just hang out and relax, something that hasn’t happened in a while. With my mom around, it meant Barbie and I could go golfing, go out to lunch and go see a movie. When you get a new baby, simple things like this are just great. All in all, just a great last few days.

After having read Harry Potter and being disappointed, I wanted to read something that had a lot of excitement, so Barbie recommended “The Camel Club.” I have this thing about not wanting to read books that are part of series unless I read them in order, so finding one of Barbie’s books is not so easy since a lot of writers have a character that they write about in multiple books. Barbie assured me the book was not part of a series and that I would be thoroughly entertained, and she was absolutely right.

The book is based in Washington D.C. and is all about conspiracy theorists and the whole political and national defense scene. From the first couple of chapters where a Federal employee is killed and made to look a suicide, the book goes through chapter after chapter of page turning excitement. Honestly, I would read a minimum of 30-50 pages at a turn, b/c I didn’t want to stop. The final night, I read for the final 100 pages even though it was 10pm when I started. You basically get into the book, and don’t want to come out of it. I don’t want to go into details about the specifics of the book, especially since my mom just started reading it and I don’t want to ruin it for her. If you decide to read it, you will not be disappointed. As Barbie and I said, it is one of those books that you easily see being turned into a movie sometime in the future. The last book I read that had that “movie” quality was “The Da Vinci Code,” which they obviously ended up turning into a movie, albeit not a very good movie compared to the book. So, if they ever end up making this a movie, you can say you heard, I mean read, it hear first.

While writing this post I decided to go to amazon.com and see what other reviewers had to say about this book, and oddly enough it only received 3 out of 5 stars. I didn’t read the specific comments, but either the author has some REALLY good books that I haven’t read yet and the reviewers are comparing this one to those, or I am off my rocker. I’d like to think the former is the right thing, as I don’t consider myself crazy just yet.

Anyways, as a side note, some of you may have noticed that I still have the book “John Adams” as the book I’m currently reading on the right side of my website. This is somewhat true, as I actually read half of it, got bored, and just couldn’t finish it. My goal is to listen via an audiobook for the rest of the book, so technically, I’m still reading it, although I’m really not, if that makes any sense.