Christmas video

Santa Came!!!!

Santa did, indeed, make his way to San Antonio last night, and helped himself to some of the milk and cookies we left out for him.

For his part, Jake became a little overwhelmed while opening "family gifts" Christmas Eve and needed to go downstairs to watch Mickey Mouse and unwind.

He was up, off and on, all night. We thought he was perhaps coming down with something, but most telling, actually, was the intercepted monitor chatter involving "Santa coming" that was broadcast around 1 a.m.

When he finally woke up, he was still a little "iffy," but he enjoyed his presents, particularly the "Go Diego Go" Animal Rescue Center.

Cooper, meanwhile, got a teddy bear and a "Dancing Bandstand" that looks suspiciously familiar ...

Jake and Cooper meet the Big Guy

There are any number of reasons to love this photo.

First off is the "Color by DeLuxe" quality of this work of art, which somehow looks like it was taken by the same camera that photographed me, the father, 32 years ago in Florida.

Second is the slightly rumpled appearance of both boys ... see, we'd never thought he'd run right up to Santa and insist upon sitting on his lap. We'd anticipated Jake'd pull his patented "not too close, but not too far away" technique he'd perfected with such luminaries as Ballapeño, H-E-Buddy, and the Texas State University Bobcat.

But no. He saw Santa -- relatively underworked a full four weeks before Christmas Day -- and immediately starting making plans for actually going up and talking to him.

And this time, he didn't chicken out.

It made it fun when we were leaving, and the next family came up in what must have been their family best ... all scrubbed and tied and knotted and ready to look good for posterity. Not so much here.

But the third thing, and best thing, I love about this photo is Jake's expression, which totally communicates the fact that this whole "visiting Santa" thing was not as cool as advertised.

"Yeah, yeah ... take the picture, whatever ... but, I was led to believe that presents would somehow be involved here today?"

In point of fact, when Santa asked him what present he wanted, Jake calmly pointed to one of the big prop gifts under the mall tree next to Santa's throne and calmly said, "The blue one!"

He tried to nab it, too, while we were haggling over the cost of the picture they snapped. Probably shoulda let him get away with it.

(Cooper, meanwhile, just started at everyone like they were crazy ... it's his standard expression.)

All in all, a great visit with the Red Man from Up North.

More Christmas fun, I'm sure, will follow.

Professional Photos ...

It's hard to believe -- as I write this I can hear Cooper upstairs flat-out refusing to sleep for the Second Big Day! -- but they're actually pretty sweet kids.

A photographer at a national chain mall photography group did a pretty good job capturing that last weekend. Here's a sampling:

Enjoying the spoils

Afterwards, Jake lounged about and showed Cooper the cool skull lollipop he got when trick or treating. Note the open adulation Cooper has on display in the second photo.

That won't last long.

Hitting the road ...

Actual action shots of the actual trick or treating.

Jake generally did well, although he didn't much care for any of the "skull-based" masks we encountered. "Scary!" Was his point. I couldn't much argue, although I did convince him at one point that a T-Rex could easily take out those skeleton guys. Eventually, he agreed.

Cooper as Cavebaby!

Since it seems Jake gets all the attention by being mobile and all ...

Video from Halloween!

Click on the video to make it play. (It's not really all that great, although it's fun watching Jake freak out as T-Rex ... I just wanted to see if I can make this work.)

Happy Halloween!

(Photos of Cooper to come after trick or treating ...)

We meet again at last, for the first time

Those of you who have been following us for a while know the long history between "Red Dog" and Jake.

Here, Cooper has taken up his brother's gauntlet. (Sorta.)

Showing him the ropes ...

Okay, here's how you play "dinosaur."




You look into the camera there ...



Eh, forget it, you're hopeless! (Just kidding, just kidding.)

Who's your team?

A bunch of new pics

Get Well Grandpa!

From grandma and grandpa's recent visit to Texas ...

Oldie but a goodie ...

I'm not entirely sure how this one got past me, but judging from the fact it was taken in our old house and Jake's apparent age here, I'm guessing it was maybe six or seven months ago.

At any rate, Jake here shows off his famous Foster Brooks impression ... or maybe that was applesauce that had been in that container ... and the sauce had turned hard ...


Hick!

A few new Cooper pics ...

Presented without comments:

Yet another reason I love my son (the second one)

Last night, we were cuddling on the couch, and Cooper woke up a little hungry. I held him up, looked at him, and he looked back at me and let out an entirely straightforward "Wah."

You have to respect a kid who cries in perfect onomatopoeia.

Here's a bonus pic of Cooper, mere minutes after he was born:

Generosity ...

So we get up the other morning, and Jake wants to play with the new Play-Doh that we bought him the night before. For the record, it was a collection of animal parts (legs, heads, eyes, etc.) that you plug into lumps of Doh to easily make giraffes, elephants, flamingos, bugs and so forth.

The set came with three new cans of Doh, and I went the extra $1.67 for four more cans of different colors.

So we get up, I generously agree to play. We open up the blue ... and he sort of sits there, squishing it. I ask for some.

After a long moment's thought, he relents, picking off the puniest, tiniest, most microscopic portion he can manage with his tiny fingers and happily offering it up to me. The photos below, complete with other objects for scale, indicate just how generous Jake was with his new possession:





Please note, those are "AAA" batteries, not the relatively massive "AA" kind.

Getting to know you ...

Jake continues to get more excited about Cooper ... although he currently won't kiss him because he was told not to right after eating peanut butter.

Better safe than sorry.

Here he is after asking to hold his little brother:



Here he is noticing the baby socks we put over Cooper's hands to keep him from scratching himself. The exact quote, "He's got socks."

Here we go again ...

Hey everybody, meet Cooper Garrett T., born Aug. 2, 2006, at 12:16 p.m. He weighed 8 pounds, 4 oz., and was 20 inches long. With the exception of a two-ounce weight advantage, that's almost the exact dimensions of his brother, Jake, when he was born.

It's late and I'm tired. Let's just say we would've gotten home a lot earlier today (Aug. 3), but we spent the entire day waiting for Cooper to get around to peeing ... a prerequisite to make sure his kidneys, etc., are all functioning properly. With the paperwork in for a rather unpleasant exploration to be performed early the next morning, Cooper came through, finally letting loose with ... well, I'll spare you the details. Suffice it to say, we're home.

Here are some more photos:





And finally, the big meet:



Much more on all this stuff later ...

Jake's crib goes bye-bye

Today we converted Jake's trusty crib into a big-boy bed, ending an era that spanned over two whole years.

Why?

As means of explanation, we offer these photographs.









(Bear in mind, Jake was in no danger at any point of this maneuver ... he became an expert quite quickly and at no time seemed the slightest bit nervous about performing for us. Indeed, the smile in the third photo, I think, sums it up nicely.)

As a final tribute to what's been (and, in a metamorphosed form, continues to be) a trusty steed for the lad, here's Jake and his crib in happier times:



Happy trails, crib ... er, cribbie ... whatever.

(By the way, I also assembled a new crib today for the soon-to-arrive little brother. It's the exact same model ... We'll see how long it'll take him to figure out how to escape. The heat is on ...)