Barry’s Daily Web News

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It was cloudy today, but the temperature was pleasant, so I floated the idea of going over to the park this evening. Sean picked up on this right away, and responded “my turn to go to go down the slide”. There was no backing out at this point, so I bundled up Ethan and grabbed Sean’s hand and headed out the door. Sean was eager to go, and did not mind at all holding my hand during the walk over. When we arrived, there was a couple of other children, so Sean had someone to play with other than me. Ethan is just heavy enough that my back gets sore if I attempt to do too much while wearing the carrier, like spending an hour going down all of the slides. Sean had so much fun at the park that he didn’t want to leave. After the other children left and the sun had started to set, it was time to go, but it took some coaxing to get Sean to walk home. Sean is on to our ways of “bribing” him with his evening milk or a video, so it isn’t easy getting Sean going in the right direction. At least when Sean does get home, he is much better behaved for having worked out his excess energy at the park.

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The network connection to my computer was down today, so I came home early to try to get some work done using my remote connection. I was thinking it should be quiet at home with Sean at school, but I didn’t realize Sean had the day off for the President’s day holiday. It was hard to concentrate with all of the commotion in the house. For the most part, Sean was well behaved. At one point, Sean was playing with his toy cars in the loft with me. I find it fascinating watching Sean concentrate on his cars when he plays. Today at least, Ethan turned out to be the cranky child. We’re still not sure why he was crying more today than yesterday. When I wrapped up my work, I gave Cortney a needed break from watching Sean and Ethan.

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After the afternoon naps, we all went to the park at Anthem. This park had a half size railroad train, which was running today. Normally when we go, the train isn’t running. Sean gets excited about trains, so he went on the train twice. In between the train rides, he played on the playground equipment. They have some tall tube slides, but Sean didn’t have the courage to go down all but the lowest slide. I read on the playground sign that this equipment was designed for children 5-12 years old, so Sean has a couple of years to work up the courage for the slides.

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This morning was devoted to yard work. I emptied the excess rainwater from the pool. I had to drain over two inches of water to get close to the normal water level. I spent the rest of the time pulling weeds. I finished weeding the front and side of the house, but I didn’t get very far on the back of the house. That will have to wait for next weekend.

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Ethan hit a big milestone today. He rolled over for the first time, going from his stomach to his back. It was interesting watching him do it. He lifted his head up high, definitely up to a 90 degree angle. Cortney and I saw this, and were commenting on it, when Ethan turned his head to the side, and the rest of his body came along with his head, landing him on his back. Ethan repeated the roll this evening, so it was not just a one-time occurence. Also, while Ethan was on his back, he rolled over onto his side, so it would be easy for him to roll on to his stomach if he wanted to.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding

The only movie of the month was My Big Fat Greek Wedding. This movie had some funny moments, but in the end, it was just about a wedding. I should point out that I don’t care much for wedding’s in general, so I did not find this movie very entertaining. But, other people did, and Cortney certainly enjoyed it. Other than being a low budget film, this movie did not have many flaws, so I rate it a B.

Buy it.

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I had to remove the “On this day in” link from my public website. I forgot that my web site is static, meaning the date is hard-coded once I publish a page. This feature somewhat on the home page, which I usually change every day, but did not work on older archive pages.

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It was foggy this morning, and very damp from the drenching rain we have had in the last few days. I watched Sean and Ethan while Cortney went shopping in the morning. I experienced first hand how Sean acts out because he is jealous of the attention Ethan gets when he is fed. Sean can be tough to handle when he doesn’t get his excercise. He did get some exercise when we took him to play in the ball pit at Burger King. We had some sun in the afternoon today, so hopefully it will be dry enough to go to the park tomorrow.

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I added a new page to the site, FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions). I also updated the Bio page. The links to these two pages can be found on the left-hand side of this page. This completes the makeover from my old blogger site. For the geeks out there, I used radio’s built on outliner to write these pages.

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Happy Valentines day. We celebrated by going to the mall. I owed Cortney a box of See’s candies, and we also needed to pick up Ethan’s three month pictures. We decided to eat dinner at the Mexican restaurant at the mall while we were there. After dinner, Cortney shopped while I walked Ethan and Sean around the mall. I noticed a visible increase in security at the mall, with either mall security person or a policeman every 100 feet or so. I can’t imagine a terrorist picking a mall in Glendale, Arizona as a preferred target.

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I thought Floppy looked goofy with her front leg shaved for an I.V. (click on picture for full-size image);

but check out this cat picture and story.

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It looks like I’m not the only one who thinks stocking up on duct tape is silly. For some advice not tainted by the government bureaucrats, go here.

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Oops. I wrote a bunch of stuff yesterday, but never put it out on the internet.

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The first attempt at feeding Ethan solid foods was unsuccessful. I tried the rice cereal last night. He thrust out the food out of his mouth, which is a sign that he is not ready for the solid food yet. This evening, we mixed some of the cereal in with his bottle. We did this with Sean, and we kept the collections of the bottle nipples with the larger hole cut in them. Ethan had no problem with the cereal in the bottle.

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We had rain today, and lots of it. Cortney says she likes it when it rains, so she must be exstatic. I would rather do without it. I’m going to have to empty the pool this weekend, I will be doing some heavy duty weeding over the next month or two. I don’t think Sean cares for the rain either. The only time he went outside today was for school.