Barry’s Daily Web News

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Mondays are always the hardest days to find something to write about. The first workday of the week is rarely exciting, and I think that carries over to Monday evenings. I spent some time with Sean and Ethan this evening, but not as much as I would have liked. Cortney went out tonight for Bunco, leaving me to put the kids to bed. I’ll probably go to bed early myself, in order to be more rested for the following days.

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This evening, Cortney took Sean in the car to go to a different park then we walk to. She doesn’t like to get bored by going to the same park. At the same time, I took Ethan out for a stroller ride. We stopped by the park, just the two of us, and I took Ethan out to put him in the baby swing. Ethan really loved the swing. He kept giggling and laughing, drawing attention from the other people in the park. I let Ethan crawl up the stairs at the small playset at the park, but he isn’t quite big enough to go down the slide.

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We braved the heat to go out to the nearby train rides. This time, Sean was afraid of the steam locomitive. With the steam locomotive actually running, it was putting out a lot of smoke and making a lot of noise. We stayed long enough to go on all four of the tracks they have.

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BDWN is now one year old today.

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Since Cortney and I went out for a dinner and a movie last night, we took Sean and Ethan to Burger King for dinner tonight. Sean and Ethan had a good time playing in the ball pit, except for when Sean was too rough with Ethan. By the time we came home, the sun was starting to set, and it had cooled off considerably from early in the day. So, we all took a nice walk. We walked out to the lakes area of our development, where they have recently built a nice sitting area. We stopped by the park on the way home and let Sean play a bit. We had a good time, and if it ever cools off here, we will be doing this more often.

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Sean had a rough time this morning. His grandparents left for Florida early in the morning, and I took him in for a flu shot. I tried to make him feel better by taking him to the park across the street. He had a good time, but we didn’t stay long because we had to get ready for Sean’s soccer game. When we arrived at the soccer game, it was hot. Sean had no interest whatsoever in playing, and nothing we could do convinced him to play. Finally, after the start of the fourth quarter, I told Sean he wouldn’t get a snack treat if he didn’t play in the game. To my surprise, he ran right onto the field. The other team had just scored a goal, and our coach let Sean kick the ball from midfield. Sean played his best game yet, running after the ball, and even kicked it once. Sean enjoyed his snack treat after the game.

We found out later on in the day that we set a new record high for today, 103 degrees. We are used to 100 degree temperatures in Phoenix, but we don’t expect them towards the end of October. The normal high this time of year is only 86 degrees.

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This is the last night with Cortney’s parents in town, so Cortney and I went out for dinner and a movie. Unfortunately, I was late coming home from work, so dinner consisted of dining with the local teenage crowd at the mall food court. The movie was Kill Bill, which was definitely interesting. Just like last night, I was unable to spend any time with Sean and Ethan. I’ll make up for it over the weekend.

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Pilot ground school this evening. Tonight, we learned about avoiding mid-air collisions and hypoxia. I like the class, but I miss evening time with Sean and Ethan.

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Tonight was soccer practice for Sean. I had trouble putting his shoes on, since he was fussy, and Sean ended up sitting on the sidelines for the first ten minutes of practice. After that, he did all the drills, and listened to the coach during practice. The hard part for me was afterwards. Sean insisted on going to the playground, and I told him he couldn’t because he didn’t participate for the whole practice. Sean didn’t calm down from that until we were most of the way home.

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Ethan went to the doctor this morning. For his measurements, he was just over twenty pounds, which is 20th percentile, 30 and 1/2 inches long, which is 75th percentile. His head size if 46 cm, which is 60th percentile. It looks like he will grow up to be tall and thin. Ethan is now cleared for all foods, and we can take him off formula and put him on whole milk. The downside to Ethan’s visit was he finished off with three shots.

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I couldn’t talk anyone to going to the library with me this evening, so I took Sean and Ethan by myself. Sean sat patiently through baby time, and it only took a little coaxing to get Sean to go to story time. I think Sean actually enjoyed some of the stories, and I know he enjoyed the movie. The highlight of the evening was Ethan showing off his walking skills. At one time, he walked at least 15 feet. This was the farthest he has gone so far, and it was even more fun for him to do it in public.

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Cortney and I went out to dinner tonight, just the two of us. It was nice for us to get time out alone. Sean and Ethan had fun with their grandparents. Ethan did some good walking this evening. Several times, he walked all on his own. Once, with my coaching he took a good eight steps or so.

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This afternoon was devoted to yardwork. Cortney’s parents cleaned up around the playset area, with Sean helping. I trimmed up the front hedges. Ethan took a nice long nap this afternoon.

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Ethan is one today! We had a simple family celebration, with party hats and a cake shaped as the number one. Ethan was very methodical with his piece of cake. He started off by pulling off bits of frosting. He then tried lowering his whole mouth to the cake. After that, he picked up the entire piece of cake, and started nibbling it. Other than the bits of cake that fell into his lap and on the floor, he didn’t make that much of a mess. Afterwards, we opened Ethan’s presents. Sean was anxious to help, and pulled off all of the wrapping paper for Ethan. It was a good day for Ethan. Ethan has his one year well visit on Wednesday, where we will hopefully be expanding his diet and turning his car seat around. Be sure to check out the photo essay from when Ethan was born last year.