Pancake House, Salt Lake City

We are safe and sound in snowy Salt Lake City. Alex slept through brunch today.

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Trying out new iPhone blogging tool

I decided to try and join the 21st century, by setting up a tool on my iPhone that allows me to post blog entries directly from the phone.

We'll see how well it works!

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Donuts, the new pancake?

This morning I tried out a donut recipe I found online from a Fort Collins high school teacher (see http://www.secretdonutrecipe.com/ ). It was really tasty!

Here are chocolate and vanilla glazed, and cinnamon/sugar dusted

Here is our satisfied donut taster. Go ahead, try one!

I don't think donuts will replace the weekend breakfast stalwart, blueberry pancakes. However, they were remarkably easy, and required only a little bit more clean-up than pancakes. To be fair to the donuts, I've practiced cleaning up after pancakes for years. I've only cleaned up after making donuts in the kitchen once. (We've made them as a precursor to turkey for a few years, but that's almost entirely done in the backyard).

The surprise is they only need 1/2 inch of oil in a pan. So it isn't the huge, oily mess you might expect. And they are at least as good as store bought donuts. In the time it would take us to drive up to Schmidt's or LaMar's, we can have a dozen homemade donuts of our own design and delight.

Alex seems to be doing fine with his stitches out. He hasn't been itching his forehead. The nurse told us to start using sunblock every day throughout the winter to help avoid excessive scarring. Also we are supposed to rub some vitamin E oil into the wound every day.

Dana is halfway done with final exams. Last week she wrapped up her Patent Litigation and Criminal Law finals. Next week she has her Evidence final and her 30-page International Trade paper to complete. Then she has a well-deserved few weeks off for the holidays.

Stitches Out, Christmas Parade!

This morning we drove back up to MCR to get Alex's stitches out. What luck - the very same ER nurse that helped us last weekend was there today! She remembered Alex, and she remembered our tuneless singing.

Alex did amazingly well. He didn't even cry, and the nurse didn't have to wrap him up like a burrito. He just lay there and stuck his lower lip WAAAY out, so we all felt very sorry for him.

When it was all done (about 90 seconds, all told), we walked over to the hospital's cafeteria for an ice cream. Alex likes having stitches taken out!

Later this evening Dana went to a baby shower for our friend Christine, so me and Alex took a walk downtown. We soon realized that today was the day of the Berthoud Christmas Parade. The timing worked out great. We got downtown only 20 minutes before the parade began. It was chilly, so we ducked into the Jumping Bean Cafe to warm up. They were offering free Christmas cookies to all the kids who stopped in -- and there were a lot of kids!

Dana got back to town just in time to meet up with us at the cafe. From there we stepped outside onto Mountain Avenue to watch the parade. We saw the Boy Scouts, the Girl Scouts, the preschool kids, the Berthoud Code Enforcement unit (for some reason, nobody was very cheerful to see them... can't imagine why), 3 great big fire trucks, horses, 3 or 4 other big floats being pulled by trucks or tractors, the school band playing Christmas songs, and a handful of other great participants. For some reason this is the first year we've attended the Christmas parade. Every other year since we moved here we've either been out of town or busy. Alex really likes parades, so I think he got a big kick out of it. The fire trucks were by far his favorite.

Then after the brief parade (only about 15 minutes all told), we walked down to the wine tasting at the liquor store. I tried a pretty good malbec, and a South African white that I liked but forgot to make a note of. I'm sure it'll be there when I go looking for it.

Oh, and Cal beat the snot out of Washington 48-7 in their final regular season game. I listened to most of it while Alex took his afternoon nap. What a trouncing! I feel sorry for the Huskies, especially since it wasn't that long ago (the dark days of 2001) that Cal went 1-10. I don't envy those UW fans. Meanwhile it looks like Cal is going to the Emerald Bowl on 12/27; We will be in Berkeley the night of 12/27, but we're planning to attend the wedding of my good friend Chris. So Chris, if you're reading this, I really hope you have the game on at the reception! Or better yet, why not have the reception on a charter bus heading across the Bay Bridge to AT&T Park to watch the game in a luxury box? Just a thought...

Alex's First Visit to the Emergency Room

Last night marked Alex's very first visit to the hospital emergency room. Before I go any further, let me assure you that Alex is just fine - he was, and remains, in good spirits about the whole thing.

My parents decided to take us out to dinner last night. We had a wonderful meal at the Outback Steakhouse in Longmont. Alex spent most of dinner taking each of us in turn on a walking tour of the restaurant. So at any time, the remaining three of us had a very nice conversation.

Anyhow, we had just driven home from the restaurant. I was sitting in the back seat with Alex and my Dad. I unstrapped Alex from his car seat and set him on the sidewalk while I got out. He ran across the yard towards the front porch as he often does, while I followed about a yard behind.

But when he got near the front steps, he tripped and fell forward, striking his forehead solidly on the stone face of the front steps. He started crying immediately, and I knew it was a pretty hard knock because of the sound it made. Still I hoped for an instant that all was OK. The blood ended that hope.

The offending stone stair

I've heard many times before that head wounds bleed profusely. Now I believe it. Alex's forehead was bleeding all over the place. I rushed him into the kitchen to get a better look while Dana, Gene and Carla caught up with me to find out what had happened. It was definitely a big gash in his forehead, and we weren't quite sure if anything else had gotten smashed in the accident.

There wasn't much debate - we kind of all decided as a group to hop back in the car and head for the nearest hospital. We weren't sure if MCR in Loveland or Longmont United was closer, but opted for the newer, fancier MCR. In retrospect I now believe they're about equidistant, and probably equally well-equipped.

On the ride up to the hospital, Alex was upset, but gradually calmed down while me and Gene sat on either side of him and comforted him. Grandma and Dana had a couple of Starburst candies which they split into small pieces to give him, which greatly improved his mood. He was talkative and interactive throughout the 15-minute car ride, and we came to the consensus that he hadn't suffered any major brain injury. We also were able to feel his hands and face and figured out that nothing else seemed to be wrong.

After being admitted to MCR, we sat around for an hour or so talking in turn to a trauma nurse, a head nurse, and an administrative assistant. Everyone agreed that Alex needed a few stitches to sew up the gash in his forehead. By the time we got to the ER, it had stopped bleeding, but was still a big enough cut to need attention.


We had the presence of mind to keep his diaper bag with us, which had a small stash of toys, books and food. Alex had two of his favorite trucks with him the whole time, plus a great new truck book he got from G&G over Thanksgiving.




Here Grandma and Grandpa sit patiently and watch the patient


Alex was really happy and calm for most of his visit to the ER. He was really jazzed to meet all of the ER nurses. He said a big, friendly, "Hi!" to each of them as they came into the room.

The only times he got upset were when we had to keep him from scratching his forehead, and when the nurses gave him a topical anesthetic called "LET" (lidocaine, epinephrine and tetracaine) to numb the wound before the stitches. But once the clear liquid started doing its job he didn't even mind the wound at all.

The other tramatic moment came when the physician's assistant came to stitch him up. One of the nurses wrapped him up in a sheet, so that his arms were clamped to his sides. Then they laid him on the bed and put a surgical drape over his face. At this point Alex started to get very frustrated, and a little scared too. But me and Dana stood above him the whole time so he could kind of see us around the edge of the drape. We sang songs (very badly, I assume), and talked him all the way through the stitches. I was amazed at how efficient and practiced the PA was at doing the stitches. The whole team of 3 staff who attended were so professional and quick - as if they had practiced this all the time. Each one knew exactly what to do and never fumbled or stalled.

It only took a couple of minutes to stitch him up, and he was all set. They put a bandage on to keep his curious fingers away, and sent us home. We'll be back on Saturday to get the stitches taken out. Meanwhile we have to wash the wound twice a day with mild soap and water, and avoid getting it wet. That means no swimming this week for Alex and Ryanne. Bummer.

We were released at around 11pm and headed home. But we promised Alex more food and a video when he got home. So we had some yogurt and watched a Richard Scarry "Busy People" DVD. That really made Alex happy, and he didn't put up much of a fuss going to bed. But it was a very, very late night for all of us!

I think it's safe to say that Dana and I were freaked out and shaken by the experience. I feel rotten because it happened on my watch. I know that it will be a long time before I let Alex run off ahead of me -- even in our own front yard! Maybe this is how parents become super over-protective? I hope not.

Now here's the patient as of this evening:


Extreme close-up of the stitches:

We counted 6 stitches.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving in Colorado


It snowed just enough so that the visiting Californians got a little taste of the season, but they didn't have to shovel the sidewalk or get their feet wet.

Meanwhile, everyone got re-acquainted with a certain little 21-month old boy named Alex.

Alex really took a shine to Uncle Eric. They ran all over the back yard together!

Alex and Grandpa Gene also seemed to share a special connection, perhaps their shared love of biiiiig trucks?

Over the last few years we have adopted a new family tradition of making cranberry sauce the night before Thanksgiving. We use 2-3 apples, 2-3 oranges, and 2 bags of cranberries. We run them all through an old meat grinder we picked up at a barn sale just after Dana moved to Colorado. It takes about an hour and is a great bonding experience! Plus it beats the heck out of those gross cans of cranberry jello you find at the grocery store, that make the disgusting "schloop!" sound when the red loaf oozes out of the can.

I believe this is one of two major food-related traditions we adopted from Dana's father Michael -- the other one being Michael's now famous (infamous?), heavenly, creamy egg nog recipe.

Long story short, homemade cranberry sauce = MUCH better:

Here Grandpa Gene and Grandma Carla try their hand.

And Gene and Dana have a whirl

In fact we have a somewhat ill-enforced rule that only those who actually help make the cranberry sauce may partake of it. So far it has never actually been called, but you can bet that yours truly takes no chances and is sure to take several turns at the meat grinder!

Alex had a ball at Thanksgiving dinner. In addition to his Aunt and Uncle and 2 sets of grandmas and grandpas (whom he consistently referred to as "Grandma and grandma"), we enjoyed the presence of our dear friends Tyr and Mandy. The couple had planned to spend Thanksgiving in Las Vegas, but Tyr suffered a minor stress fracture of his foot that forced them to revise their travel plans -- much to our great delight! (other than the bum foot, of course)

Here Alex hops up and down on Ali's lap

Most of our dinner guests - (clockwise from left) Ali, Eric, Tyr, Mandy, Carla, Alex, part of Gene, Herb, Susan and Dana (I am taking the picture)

The only major mishap was a seriously backed up kitchen sink drain. As my grandmother observed, "Messes under the sink always happen when you have company" Tyr and I ventured down to the deepest, darkest, dankest recesses of the basement to open the cleanout and clear it of the stoppage, while Eric kept a close watch on the turkey fryer.

Oh, we fried a 15.3 lb turkey again this year. This time we used cottonseed oil, as it was massivly cheaper than any other oil. Tasted fine - nothing outstanding, but it was certainly respectable, I think.

Here Alex brushes his teeth, standing on his potty / stepstool.

This video may be my all-time favorite Alex video ever. Each night when it's time to go to bed, we have a simple ritual. We walk through the house and say "good night" to all the things we pass on our way upstairs to Alex's bedroom. It gets me every single time Alex says "bye bye" to each item. Most of the video is dark - our camera can't handle low-light very well - but the audio is the important part anyway.

Here's a short video clip of Alex at Thanksgiving dinner. He was having fun getting everyone to clap for him. He is a "ham" for the crowd!

We're here!

It's been a few weeks, sorry! We have been preparing for guests over Thanksgiving. The weather has been anything but normal. We have had a long string of beautiful, warm, sunny days here in Northern Colorado. Nights are chilly, to be sure, but it's almost shorts-and-t-shirt-weather during the day. In fact, I've been running at work every other day around 2pm for the past 3 weeks (yeah! go Dan!), and I've only had to resort to the indoor treadmills twice in that time.

This past Saturday was no exception; we decided Dana needed a break from studying for finals and Alex needed to get outside a bit and burn off some toddler calories. So we headed up to our favorite park in Loveland -- one of the few left in the world with a real merry-go-round.



They have two of these scoopers that Alex was intrigued by. He loves scoopers (backhoes, bulldozers, Bobcats, dump trucks, etc). He calls them "coopers!"








We bought a training potty for Alex a few months back, and he showed some interest, but it was poorly designed and he didn't fit on it very well. So a week ago Dana got him a Baby Bjorn training potty that fits MUCH better, although it does not have a seat cover. That's OK because his old seat does have a seat cover and it makes a nice step stool for washing hands or brushing teeth at the sink.

But alas, Alex is just not quite comfortable yet using the potty for its intended purpose. He is very happy to sit on it for several seconds at a time, even with his pants down. But then he stands up and wants to go do something else.

So we have all the equipment we need, including training pants. Now we need to convince Alex that if he uses the potty, he won't have to have his diaper changed any more (an activity he is not overly fond of).

Other words...

For the last week, Alex has said "tickle!" a lot. For a long time we thought he was just affirming the fact that he is ticklish. He is VERY ticklish. :-)

But then this past weekend, we realized that at least part of the time he is saying "Thank you". I noticed it after handing him a sippy cup of milk at his request. He said "Tickle" or actually more like "tee-koo". I thought about the context for a minute and realized it was thank you! I think Ryanne has been working really hard with him on manners, and it is really paying off. He still needs help with "please" (or, in Alex-speak, "peas"). We usually have to remind him to say please, by prompting him, "How do you ask for it?"

Last Thursday was my last full class at the Sherrif's Office Citizens' Academy. We spent class at the Detention Center - a nice name for the Jail. Generally the County jail is used to lock people up awaiting trial who can't post bail, and people who have been convicted to sentences of 2 years or less for any single crime. In some instances, however, courts choose to use the DC for more serious crimes because of the circumstances of a case or the convict. So the Larimer County DC has people who were just hauled in for the night on DUIs, all the way up to convicted 1st degree murderers. (They are not, however, housed in the same units). Suffice it to say, if I wasn't convinced before, I have no desire to go to jail. It amazes me how hard the deputies work to take such good care of these people we lock up for doing some remarkably bad things.

I continue my battle with the fall leaves around the hard. I've now blown and vacuumed them 3 times this fall. I think I'll have to do it one more time at least before I'm done. The cherry trees are the hold-outs every year, hanging on til the last. That, plus leaves that blow in from neighbors' yards, keeps me busy.

I'm also working on several small fix-up projects around the house. Since we installed baseboard electric heat in two bedrooms upstairs, I've decided I need to move the electrical outlets that are now above those baseboard heaters. This is actually required by code, and now I can see why. Cords that are plugged into the outlets above the units get VERY hot while the heat is on. This will eventually weaken the cord and could cause serious problems. So I'm adding new electrical boxes on either side of each of the two baseboard units, which means lots of crawling around in the attic, cutting old-work holes in the wall to accomodate the new boxes, and fishing romex through the walls. What fun.

On top of that I decided last week it was finally time to re-caulk the upstairs shower. It was a mess. Almost all of the effort was in removing the old caulking and grime. This took me about 3 hours of scraping, scrubbing, and swearing. But once it was clean, it only took a half hour or less of carefully applying the new caulk. Now it looks much better. The only remaining problem with the shower now is the cracking shower pan. After careful inspection it appears that somebody took a stock shower pan with a drain hole located 12" x 12" from one corner, cut a new drain hole to accomodate their wacky plumbing geometry under the floor, and then filled in the old drain hole with some epoxy. Gradually over the years the fill job has been deteriorating, and the new drain hole has compromised the strength of the remaining fiberglass surround so that it has sprung several hairline cracks around the edges.

So far nothing has leaked through the floor to the downstairs playroom. But I'm sure it's only a matter of time before I'll need to rip out the entire shower stall and replace it, thanks to some shortsighted construction work years ago. Unfortunately, this has become the legacy of our home: every project I undertake reveals some shoddy workmanship or half-assed construction from days gone by. Before I can address the symptoms, I have to address the root cause by undoing whatever nonsense was done before.


I recently got a new application for my iPhone that is supposed to allow me to post pictures and text directly from my phone to this blog. I have not had a chance yet to configure it and try it out, but I'll try to do so in the next week if I have time during the holidays. If it works, you can expect more, and more frequent, posts in the future.

Oh, I almost forgot two new words Alex knows: "Pumpkin Pie!" He likes pumpkin pie.

Happy Halloween

A special message from a special monkey...

Today Alex was a real monkey! He came to visit me at work this afternoon for our annual trick-or-treating tradition.

Now let's see... who has candy at their desks?

Ahh, Randy has some candy in his big orange bowl!

Then tonight we went trick-or-treating in our neighborhood. Alex didn't like the hood part of his costume very much, so he kept pulling it back. It was such a warm, pleasant evening!

Getting Ready for Halloween #2

It's been almost a month since my last update. I hope everyone is having a great autumn! Now to a few photos from a couple of weeks ago...

From a couple of weeks ago when Grandma Carla came to visit - Alex really started to get into his Richard Scarry book about cars and trucks and things that go. Alex and Grandma had a wonderful time, as usual. They have really bonded since their summer together in Seattle.

Alex likes to try on Mommy and Daddy's shoes

If Alex is a bad boy, he might go to baby jail. Our dining room buffet has cabinets on either end covered with wooden bars, and they're just barely big enough for Alex to fit into.

Getting Ready for Halloween

This past weekend Alex started getting ready for his second Halloween.

The first thing we had to do was acquire some pumpkins, and carve them out. We had a small pie pumpkin that Dana bought last week. Alex was curious about it, especially when he learned how to say "pom-keh". But he became even more interested once I drew a face on it with a Sharpie and made it talk to him.

Alex and the talking pie pumpkin

But imagine Alex's surprise when we got two HUGE pumpkins and proceeded to cut their heads open and scoop out their brains! I've never seen Alex so shocked in his life! He just stood there for a few minutes watching me butcher this poor, innocent squash. When I held out a handful of stringy orange goo for him to inspect, he backed away in horror.

In hindsight, who wouldn't be scared of Daddy right now?

After a few minutes of watching Mommy and Daddy go to town on a couple of gourds, though, Alex figured out the game, and had a great time helping to scoop out the pumpkin and telling us where to cut out the nose, eyes, and mouth.

The Corn Maze

To get in the spirit of Fall this past weekend, we decided to go to the Corn Maze and fall festival a few miles down the road from us. It was an achingly beautiful fall afternoon

Mommy and Alex in the maze. This is the non-haunted maze - we decided Alex wasn't ready for chainsaw-wielding zombies jumping out of the walls. Maybe next year?

Alex and Dana liked the alpacas. We also saw sheep, goats, rabbits, chickens and ducks.

Alex really liked feeding the ducks. Me too!

Trains seemed to be a consistent theme:

Alex enjoys the wooden train on the farm.

Mommy and Alex ride the bucket train

Here's a video of Alex and Daddy riding on the (extraordinarily uncomfortable) bucket train at the fall festival at Andersen Farms in Erie.

Alex and Dana...

Alex and Daddy go to the big Berthoud calendar fly-in!

A couple of weeks ago the Berthoud Historical Society had their annual calendar fly-in event. Every year they print calendars featuring historic photos of Berthoud, and they're delivered to a nearby farm by some amazing, beautiful historic biplanes.

Alex and the little yellow bi-plane (Note the relative scale - this was a tiny plane!)

You'll need to squint to see a little boy standing in the middle of a recently-harvested corn field. He had a good time running through the dirt and examining all of the rocks and dirt clods.

This was the biggest and best plane there - painstakingly restored and obviously very, very well cared for!

We also got quite a show as the planes all took off after an hour or so. They each motored down a startlingly short mown grass runway, and somehow magically pulled up at the very last minute to take to the sky.

Of course, before we left, Alex had to check out the ENORMOUS John Deere combine parked in the middle of the courtyard. It's identical to one in his Richard Scarry book!

Alex has been growing so fast lately. He seems to pick up new words every day. We are constantly amazed. He has started counting. We can say to him, "One... two... " and he will say "Fwreee!!" He seems to have a grasp of numbers from 1 to 10. Although I don't expect he could put them together on his own, he's able to follow along and I think he knows what they are for.

He can drink out of a regular cup, with supervision. Usually he spills a little on his shirt or pants, but hey, don't we all?

It's becoming less and less of a mystery what he's saying, what he wants. He can ask for specific items. He can tell us what's wrong (sometimes) if he's upset. He points out things he likes -- cars, trucks, big scooping excavators. (The town of Berthoud is completely rebuilding Mountain Avenue this fall, so there are a lot of bulldozers and excavators and road graders around to look at)

We've been singing and playing the guitar more (he calls it the "ghee-car") He is learning how to swim with Ryanne twice a week. When we take baths now, he practices kicking his legs and blowing bubbles. He's still not crazy about getting his head wet, so we use parts of his saxomaflute as a straw to blow bubbles through.

Alex has a delightful personality. He is a constant joy. I never thought kids would be this much fun, this engaging and entertaining. Every day he does something that makes me and Dana laugh. We laugh a lot. It's better than any TV show, any movie, anything I've ever experienced.

I'll close by asking you one small favor: Please go vote! It matters a lot who and what you vote for, and maybe you already know from reading this blog what our feelings are, but it's more important still to understand the issues and candidates and register your choice.

Trains and Monkeys

The last couple of weeks have been as hectic as any, and yet we don't seem to have much to show for it. We're getting ready for winter, I suppose, blowing out the sprinkler system, trimming some particularly threatening tree branches, listening to Cal give a sound drubbing to Colorado State (42-7) and then a more modest win over ASU (24-14). Oh thank heavens for live streaming KGO radio on the iPhone. It's almost as good as listening on an old fashioned transistor radio!

Alex has been enjoying his green ride-along train lately.



Sometimes he puts his feet up on the steering wheel and leans back against the back rest. It's startlingly casual.

It may have been the best $4 second-hand toy ever.

Now here is a picture of a little boy in a box:

For lack of time or energy to do much else in the evenings, I've been playing my guitar a bit more. Alex calls it the "gii-car" or "geet-car". I'm no better now than I ever was, and probably worse. But Alex doesn't seem to notice, especially when I let him strum and pluck the strings. Once last week he even pulled out his big green alligator xylophone and played along with me.


I'll be honest with you. We are exhausted most of the time. Money is really tight. We don't see all that much of each other, between work and school and commuting. The house is falling apart and is a perpetual disaster area of dirty dishes, baby toys, and paperwork. We have pieced toghether a patchwork web of small blessings, contingencies, and outs that get us by: Ryanne (the world's greatest nanny, fills-in-all-the-gaps, stays late, Alex's #1 fan), frozen meals (Bertouilli's frozen pasta skillets are a nice treat when they're on sale), walks around town, parks with swings and slides, kids videos from the library (Richard Scarry's Best Videos really are just that), and now we have a newly minted babysitter Priya who can watch Alex when she hasn't got too much homework.

So we get by. We're definitely not DINKs anymore. Let's not talk about 401(k)'s right now.

Auntie Ali sent Alex a ridiculously cute monkey costume for Halloween.
It even has a banana. Can you believe it?

Here's what makes it all worth while: