Death by Platypus

Two days ago, Quinnie took three unassisted steps! Sadly, I was at work, but she did repeat the feat yesterday for me – taking three steps at one point, and two another. She’s growing up so fast now…

I used to post regularly to “Tyler’s Homepage” and then to pages for both kids – a place to put the fun pictures and remember the stories of them growing up. Since last Fall, I hadn’t posted. I’ve been saving the photos I want to post, but never going in and adding the captions.

After throwing the Steamboat fun pix out there, I also got a batch done from last Christmas and New Years.  I still have about 50 or so from the Spring to post – hopefully sometime this week, if work eases up.

For now: http://www.hedgefamily.net/Kids/2006_Holidays/index.htm

Tyler: Hey Piper, waiting for the parade is getting dull, let’s go hit Sixth Street!

Well, it’s certainly taken me long enough, but pix from the Steamboat Springs trip are on Alpha Dog: http://www.alphadogphotography.com/2007/Steamboat/Steamboat.php.

I also posted my first page to the Kids’ site in almost a year with fun Steamboat shots: http://www.hedgefamily.net/Kids/2007_Steamboat/index.htm.

One month from today is the start of Austin City Limits Fest, 2007!! I’m very excited about the lineup this year. My schedule:

Day 1:

• Heartless Bastards – 1:30 – 2:30
• Pete Yorn - 2:30 – 3:30 
• Blonde Redhead – 3:30 – 4:30
• LCD Soundsystem – 5:30 – 6:30
• Spoon – 6:30 – 7:30
• Gotan Project – 7:30 – 8:30
• The Killers – 8:15 – 9:30

Day 2:

• Andrew Bird – 3:30 – 4:30
• Blue October – 4:30 – 5:30
• Amy Winehouse or Zap Mama – 5:30 – 6:30
• Muse – 6:30 – 7:30
• Clap Your Hands Say Yeah – 7:30 – 8:15
• Arcade Fire – 8:15 – 9:30
• The White Stripes – 8:30 – 10

Day 3:

• Yo La Tengo – 12:30 – 1:30
• The National – 1:30 – 2:30
• Devotchka – 3:30 – 4:30
• Bloc Party – 4:30 – 5:30
• Wilco – 6:30 – 7:45
• Ghostland Observatory – 7:45 – 8:30

This past weekend, Alyssa and I got out to see the new Harry Potter movie. Tyler found out we went to see Harry Potter, and wanted to know who he was. We told him Harry Potter was a book. He then spent the day Sunday wanting to read it. So I promised him that evening we would.

At bedtime, he crawled into bed and immediately started asking for Harry Potter. So I went upstairs and grabbed the Sorcerer’s Stone. When I lay down next to me, he wanted to look at the dust jacket,  and we talked about who Harry was. Then, I started reading.

Surprisingly, he didn’t say anything. No “where are the pictures,” or “let’s read something else.” He watched the book through the first few pages. Then, I suppose realizing the pictures really weren’t going to start appearing, rolled over. He kept listening patiently for 20 minutes. Finally, right about the time I neared the end of the first chapter, he fell asleep.

Then tonight, I asked him if he wanted me to ready more Harry Potter, and he said “No, that book got to be too long. Let’s read a kids’ book.” I tried to ask him questions about what we read – curious to see if he followed any of it. He said it was about Harry’s Mommy, but he couldn’t tell me what happened to her.

Oh well, how fun would that have been to spend the next several weeks reading Harry Potter to him every night? I suppose at 2 1/2, it’s way too much to expect, but he often surprises us.

Wow! The last week and a half, we’ve taken both kids to swim lessons after work. I can’t believe how far Tyler has come in that time! He’s been much more comfortable in the water all summer – paddling along on his own with his floaties, and even jumping into the water from a standing position. But in the time we’ve been at swimming lessons, he’s figured out how to blow bubbles, how to put his face under the water and to hold his breath. By unofficial count, he’s held his breath under water for 10 seconds at a time. 

Just tonight he did two things that blew us away. First, he figured out how to float face down. He’ll jump off my legs and sink to the bottom, then gets his butt up and bobs back up to just below the surface. From there he can take my arm and pull his head up for a breath. Second, he was able to swim (under the water) from me to Alyssa, standing in the pool about 5 feet away! He went back and forth between us about 4 times.

The coolest thing about this is he’s figured all this out on his own. The kids in the class are mostly doing water exploration – sliding into their parents’ arms from a sitting position at the pool edge, maybe blowing bubbles, maybe allowing themselves to get dunked once or twice. He’s just spent the better part of the time repeatedly leaping out of my arms and trying to figure it out.

It’s almost a shame that swimming season is nearing completion – it seems like at the pace he’s going, he’d be able to do a full, above the water dog paddle before long.

Just a quick post, but couldn’t resist putting this out there. We took a spontaneous trip out to Bastrop State Park on Sunday to give the kids an adventure. After a short, but hot hike, we decided to stop for milkshakes at the roadhouse right across the street from the park entrance. Alyssa snapped this picture on the ride home of Tyler, who’d obviously enjoyed the whipped cream topping on his kiddie sized milk shake.

A good first week – I ran Monday through Thursday nights. Kept it low – about 15 minutes the first three nights, then about 20 last night. I want to build slowly so that I don’t get tendonitus again this time. But, it felt good!

Readers of my wife’s blog, www.hedgefamily.net, know this already, but this past weekend, I bought Tyler a t-ball batting tee. We hadn’t gone and played a new outdoor game together in a long time, and I thought he’d have fun while blowing off some steam and energy. When we got back home, the whiffle bat I had in the attic was a bit bigger than I expected, so I was doubtful he’d be able to even swing it.

I was in for quite a surprise when he knocked the ball solidly off the tee in his first swing! And while he only had a few other clean connections after that, he still did surprisingly well. Of course, he kept trying to hold the bat from the other direction. I assume because it was lighter that way. He played for a good 20 minutes, even in the hot weather.

On Monday while he was at work, he spied a toddler baseball set on the top shelf of his closet we had forgotten he had, and got Momma to get it down for him. The best part was that it had a toddler sized bat in it! So one morning this weekend, we’ll get the tee out again and see how he does with a more manageable bat.

Did you know I put together a photo gadget for your iGoogle portal?

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