Another Fun Weekend Ahead!!!!

Are you telling me that you built a time machine?  Out of a Delorean?  Out of a rusty go cart you bought cheap from a really drunk old Mexican man in Hutto?

Fact.  All of that is true.  This weekend is the 3rd Annual Marble Falls Soapbox Derby.  My car is ready to go.  Big thanks to my dad for helping me work on it and to my mom for watching The Boy while we were working on it.  And as always, thanks to my lovely wife for bankrolling all of the miscellaneous parts and paints and pieces that it takes to build something of this magnitude.  And for letting me waste a lot of time on this.  And for painting my license plate.

Video walkaround of the car

All the way, From Bourbon Street to Esplanade, they sashay by, they sashay by...

Tara and Nick Rodrigue, the newest newlyweds we know are coming to meet The Boy and support my amateur racing career.  We generally have a pretty good time when we all get together.  They are from Chalmette, LA,  which is a census-designated place in the parish seat of St Bernard Parish, which is affectionately and simply known as...."Tha Parish, brah".  It's next to New Orleans, to da east.

Oh Yeah, the Boy!!!!

This kid is great.  Not only is he made of snips and snails and puppy dog tails, but he's made of sugar and spice and everything nice.  And lots and lots of farts, I mean, like a champ.  You can hear it from behind closed doors.  It's likely something that he inherited from his mom, while his mild-mannered demeanor and general laid-backtitude came from me.  

After a milk, we've been trying to get him to teetee on his little potty seat.  Some people can train their kids from day 1 to pee on command like a seeing eye dog.  While we aren't doing this full time, it's good practice to get him used to peeing and pooing in something other than a diaper.  I don't see how people have time to constantly try to get their baby to do this, especially considering he can't walk or do anything very cool yet.  Maybe they just don't do much else.  Cristina and I, on the other hand, are busier than a couple of one-legged men in a butt-kicking contest.  Writing this blog was the first time I've sat down today since I got up at 4:30AM.  

We joke that Ginger tries to offer him advice, but since she is fairly ignorant, her advice is usually off.  She whispers things such as "Don't eat the cold snow."  "Look one way before darting across the road with reckless disregard."  "Always jump into the lake without testing depth."  "Two birds in the bush are better than one in the mouth."  "What goes up doesn't always come down....for instance frisbees that got lost in trees 2 years ago.  Always go look for them."  Stuff like that.

"This knuckle sandwich comes with an extra serving of 'get away from my milk', Dad ".

Mom and Christopher like to play, rest, and relax on her days off and watch me run around in circles cleaning, maintaining, fixing, painting, scraping paint off , building, etc, etc, etc.  I think I already posted this pic, but it's so cute.  Cristina has him dressed up like an elderly Canadian tourist at any beach in Central America.  

They help each other nap.

Staying home with him is great and all, but you can't get much done when you have one of these people strapped to your front.  I feel the same way.

But, it's worth it to look down and see this.

For you parents out there, you know what it's like to get excited about every little thing that these kids do.  He's making lots of noises now(besides belches and farts) and is blowing raspberries.  I call it motorboating.  It's crazy(and cliche) how fast they grow up.  Just three months ago, he was a lump of cells that didn't do anything.  Now, he doesn't do much, but he likes to stand and will lift himself up if you pull his hands up slightly.  He also will follow you around(tracking?) the room as you move.  He also smiles quite a bit, and is enjoying a great deal of tomfoolery.  A dab of peekaboo, some Superman flying, walking(with my help) like the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters, a fair amount of motorboating on the belly, riding Ginger, etc.

Gotta go get mentally prepared for the race.  That, and pack my first aid kit.