Santa Baby

My mom took this picture this week, and it was just too cute not to make public.

Barrett also had a great time playing with his cousin, Dylan, at Thanksgiving. I can't believe that he is almost 5 years old. Anyone who was at our wedding may remember Dylan as our then tiny little ring bearer who barely made it down the aisle. It's looking like Barrett and Dylan are going to be great friends.

Big boy

I was feeling anxious to post so that I could stop seeing the title: "I like you, here are my underpants" every time I checked the blog. So here are some big boy pictures of Barrett which will be much more fun for me to look at everyday.

Barrett turned five months old last week and I can hardly believe it. Here's his official five months pic - reclining in the chair like a tiny little old man.


And he just looks so big here; Matt especially likes this picture.
And I have to send out a very public THANK YOU to our wonderful friend Justin Wolfshohl (in addition to being the greatest friend ever, he also authors the best blog around: http://whyjustinwhy.blogspot.com/). Justin generously gave up his Friday night for us last weekend and became the first non-family member to give mom and dad a date night. He did awesome, and Barrett was all smiles when we got home. Matt and I were able to get out with another set of great and generous friends, the Latimers, who graciously shared their box seats at the Mavericks game with us. Praise God for such awesome friends.

I Like You, Here Are My Underpants

I would like to examine the phenomenon of women throwing their underwear at celebrities.

Jerry Seinfeld once joked about the ridiculousness of men resorting to honking their car horns at women to get their attention, but doesn’t throwing underwear have to rank lower on the flirtation totem pole? What does this action even mean? The obvious guess is that the thrower wants to have sex with the intended recipient of said underwear. If this is the case, why is Tom Jones always the person you hear about this happening to? Angie thinks it’s because he wears tight pants and does lots of pelvic thrusts. But have you seen Tom Jones?

And I’m wondering about the logistics of the underwear throwing. Is the action pre-meditated – the ladies all bring along a special pair of undies to toss – or are there awkward scenes taking place at Tom Jones concerts everywhere, with ladies reaching up through pant legs and tearing their hose, so turned on by the thrusting that they can’t help but throw their underwear in a moment of pure lust?

And why doesn’t this happen outside of concerts? Don’t women lust in other places? It has to be something about musicians, because I know it surely isn’t happening to celebrities like this guy…

Who knows, maybe rednecks don’t wear underwear.


-Matt and Angie – a coauthored blog post.

Halloween Fun

Precious little pea-man. This picture is already framed and up on the wall. I love it. The Lambs and Latimers came by for some pre-Halloween pictures. Abby the pumpkin is a little pumpkin indeed! And Ryann looked ridiculously cute with her little pig tails, pom poms, and megaphone.

We had a special Halloween celebration at Itsy Bitsy Yoga before our work out.

Trick or Treating - he held his own little goody bag - I was so proud!!

I did it again...

I'd like to make this public to help others avoid making the same awkward comment that I have recently made for the third - count it - first, second, third time.

Three times now, in an attempt to give a gal a compliment about her youthful appearance, I have created an awkward situation. I am somewhat famous for creating awkward situations, but I do like to avoid them whenever possible. How the scene plays out is: a woman tells me that she has a child who is X years old. I say, "wow, you don't look old enough to have a child that age." Instead of saying "thanks!" like I expect her to, she then becomes uncomfortable and tells me that she had the child when she was 14, 15, or 17 respectively. It's especially awkward if this person is your boss.

I am somehow amazed that I've managed to do this three times without learning my lesson. I'm reminded of a time when I told Katie Noble that I had just eaten 3 oranges. She said, "it's not that eating three oranges is that crazy - it's that after having eaten 2 oranges, you might say to yourself, 'I think I'll have an orange'"

-Angie

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday 10/17 to the lovely and delightful Courtney Greenberg. Hope you had a great time in New York - happy day!


Happy Birthday 10/18 to my new little niece - Mckenzie Lyn Ridenour! 8 lbs, 1 oz - Couldn't be happier for you, Ryan and Joey! Congratulations!!!

For Justin, An Opinion Post

id·i·o·path·ic: adj. Of, relating to, or designating a disease having no known cause.

I think that the term "idiopathic" should be something of an embarassment to the medical community. Of course, it's only reasonable to acknowledge that not everything can be known. There is research yet to be done, and there are some things we just don't know yet. My particular beef with the term idiopathic, though, is that it seems like it's trying to hide its own meaning. It sounds like a word that a knowledgeable person would know, yet it actually works to cover up a lack of knowledge. I assume that a doctor doesn't want to say, "um, yeah, we don't know why you're having migraines," so he says, "you're having idiopathic headaches" - as though that were a satisfactory diagnosis.

I have a similar problem with the notion of an exclusionary diagnosis. I'll put a finer point on that and talk about SIDS. First of all, it's the syndrome that dare not speak its name for any parent of infants, so I hardly dare type it, but I think about it all the time, so I may as well mention it here. We don't know what causes it. The name, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, itself should be an embarassment - our diagnosis: your infant has suddenly died. And we don't know why, we just know what didn't cause it.

I accept that modern medicine has its limits, but let's call a spade a spade.

-Angie

Four Months

The official four months shot
Getting ready to start eating solids! He loves his booster seat.
Fun in the big bath tub for the first time. We probably won't return until he's sitting on his own a little better, but it was good fun.
Justin has requested an opinion post, and Matt and I are both trying to come up with suitable topics. Suggestions welcome, but I promise, an opinion post is forthcoming.

Three Months Old

I can't believe how big he is getting!

June 10, 2008

July 10, 2008

August 10, 2008 September 10, 2008

Game Days - Dad has been REALLY excited about watching his Eagles with Barrett. A couple game day shots...

The Eagles Onesie

The Pool!

Thanks to my very favorite friend Courtney and her family's pool, Barrett got in one good swim before the end of the season. He's still not sure how he feels about it, but it was good summer fun.


future's so bright...

-Angie

What Year is It???

Today, Beverly Hills 90210 premieres in prime time and New Kids on the Block release a new CD.

Hmmm.

- Matt

Horsey Sleeper

Possibly the cutest thing he's ever had on his little body. Thanks Nana!

He's loving it...


But he's had enough of the camera for now. Love those bottom lips.
-Angie

Two Months Plus

I feel bad that I haven't posted pictures for a while, so I'll throw up some recent pictures before I head off to bed. I go back to work tomorrow (tear) and I'm sure I'll have more to say about that soon. Barrett's looking forward to spending time with Grandma Ridenour, though, while mom's at work!

Two Months pic:

First pair of shoes that actually fit him
Yay! Another naked picture...I know he'll hate me, but I can't help myself. At least he's covered in this one.

Big smiles

Little smiles

The obligatory bathtub mohawk pic

And my favorite - Mischevious smile with Charlie in the background.

Baby Talk

I have always felt a little awkward around babies and young children. I struggle with knowing what activities and topics of conversation are age appropriate, so I tend to interact with my 4 year old nephew in roughly the same manner as I interact with his 30 year old mother. So Matt forwarded these to me, and I found them amusing.


-Angie

"On Children"

I've been loving this for months and I just thought I'd share it. The first part used to be the most meaningful to me, but the last part has been resonating with me a lot recently - particularly remembering to "let [my] bending in the archer's hand be for gladness"

"On Children"

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
Which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let our bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.

Kahlil Gibran, from The Prophet

Angie

Like Father Like Son

We've discovered that Barrett, like his father, knows a hot beat when he hears it. I put two and two together today...he's long been a fan of listening to "My Humps" with dad, and yesterday another piece of the puzzle fell into place when, during a record breaking crying spell, he stopped only long enough to hear the intro to "Run's House."

So about an hour ago we hopped on itunes together, and it's amazing - he's calm for hot beats, and fusses over boring songs. As I type, he's on my lap, absolutely fast asleep with hip hop music blaring at near club volume.

Our lullaby playlist includes:
Jay-Z, Dirt off your Shoulder
Justin Timberlake, Summer Love
Paperboy, Ditty
P.Diddy, Mo Money Mo Problems
...and of course - Run DMC, Run's House

Despite his love of old school hip hop, he does NOT care for Run DMC's "It's Tricky." Don't even try to sneak it in there.

-Angie

One month old

No big news, Barrett is still eating and growing like a champ, and is now weighing in at 9 lbs, 12 oz. (up from 8 lbs, 3 oz just 2 weeks before) Here are some more pictures of our precious little man...

Daddy loves Barrett

Aunt Mandy and Uncle Brian came to visit over the Fourth of July
First tub bath!
And the naked shot!
He'll love that one when he gets older.

Long Overdue Update

We're just past the 3 week mark and I haven't posted a Barrett update in weeks. He's doing AMAZING. I'm averaging about 5 hours of sleep each night, and I made it up to 6 and 1/2 one night this week! He's nowhere near sleeping through the night, of course, but he has established a consistent routine of at least sleeping AT night. Huge step.

We're crossing our fingers that it's just been a fussy week and he isn't developing colic - the past few nights he's cried from about 7pm to 12:30am, stopping only to feed. Poor Matt, the only time he gets to hold the baby during the week is when he's screaming. We're all over "the five S's" though, and they seemed to help last night. (Thanks Ashley and Meredith for loaning us the book and DVD! For you non-moms and dads out there, The Happiest Baby on the Block - make a mental note). The single most effective sleep aid for little Barrett, though, is dancing with his daddy to "My Humps" by The Black Eyed Peas...adorable.

I'm able to make this post this morning because Barrett has finally developed a liking for his swing. He surprisingly prefers the fastest setting - it looks like he's going to fly out of there, but we just latch him in and he's out like a light.

The kiddos playing together. Charlie has been surprisingly gentle and calm with her little brother.
Grandma and Grandpa Wood came to visit.

Barrett's first major outing - Trevor's wedding in Comfort, TX. Congratulations Trevor and Kathryn!!! The wedding was beautiful, and we couldn't be happier for the new Brock family. (More pictures from the weekend are likely to follow) Barrett did as well as could be expected and he made lots of new friends and admirers.

Jon and Jason at the Ranch

Mrs. Brock and Trevor's Grandma before the rehearsal dinner.
Dad at the wedding - thank God, no spit up on the tux.

Our Little Man!!

It's taken me a lot longer than I had intended to get some pictures up, but as you can imagine, it's been pretty crazy around here. A brief rundown of events since the last post - we checked in to the hospital on Monday night, officially began induction on Tuesday morning, 14 hours of labor, and we had Barrett!

Getting ready to meet our son

Seven pounds, one ounce, and a crazy surprising head full of long blonde hair. All of the delivery and nursery nurses said that they had never seen a head of hair like that.

Daddy and his boy

Mommy's little angel man

More daddy time

The car ride home

That brings us to our homecoming on Thursday. I'm hopelessly in love. I'll get some week one pictures up soon, but Barrett's crying in the other room so I've got to run!

Angie