Country road...

We took a family trip to Momma's hometown this weekend and had a great time with the family celebrating the birthdays of Loreli's cousins. Though we wish we had more time to soak up all of the love and laughter, we'll take it whenever we can get it.

On our way back home, I figured that as fast as Loreli has been growing up, it was finally time to give the little miss a chance behind the wheel...
She did alright for a first-timer... though she did have a bit of trouble keeping her eyes on the road.

The middle of a dream...

I shouldn't even be putting this in writing for fear of the inevitable jinx, but Little Miss Loreli has slept for an average of 12 hours straight for the past 3 nights. We think it's pretty obviously in direct relation to the rice cereal we've been putting in her belly, but whatever the cause, I think these are the first consecutive nights my wife has slept through the night in about a year.

It's crazy when I look at the picture above and think how quickly we've gotten to this point from the first few nights of her life, when she was allowing us about an hour of sleep at a time.

In a weird way, I miss those moments of holding her and soothing her throughout the night... sometimes sleep can be overrated, but the happiness I get from solving her problems, even at 3 am, is beyond words.

The sleep is pretty sweet too though.

Happy Birthday Riley!

My other baby—my Riley dog—is turning two today. To celebrate, we took him and Loreli to the dog park, something Jeremy and I used to do often, but since Loreli’s arrival, we haven’t done at all.

It was a perfect fall day. Crisp air. Blue sky. Perfect. It felt so good to be outside.

While we were there, Riley did the typical dog stuff. Lots of running, tail wagging, and butt sniffing—all with a giant grin on his silly dog face. He also greeted all of the people at the park. In fact, it started to seem like he was more interested in the people than the dogs, an unusual course of action for our active puppy. He even came whenever I called him, an even more unusual action for Riley. We began to realize that he really is all grown up - that his puppiness has waned and, in its stead, is lots of… dogginess.

Adding Loreli to our mixed up pack—comprised of 2 cats, 2 turtles, and 2 years ago, Riles Barkley himself—has been a big transition for all of us. For Riley, though, it’s meant a total shift of our attention, and he’s handled it pretty well. Much to Jeremy’s dismay, Riley eagerly tries to lick Loreli’s slobbery chin, her tasty toes, and her irresistible ear lobes. When we’re on the floor together, Riley sits right by her side and watches her. I think he’s almost as amazed with her as we are. He even leaves her toys alone. Not a single stuffed animal or rattle has been chewed…yet.

I’m happy that Loreli will be able to grow up with Riley by her side, and I’m pretty sure he’s happy about it too.

Civic doodie...

I answered the call of judicial justice today and served my time on jury duty... for the first time ever. I'm not sure how I dodged it for a decade,but apparently my time finally caught up to me.

As a result, I had to drop the little miss off to daycare earlier than I've ever had to before, and when I did, I informed her teachers that she had not done her "business" in over a day (apparently introducing rice cereal has some binding effects). Perhaps informed is the wrong word... I suppose warned would be a better fit.

When I picked her up later in the day, I noticed on her daily report card that her teachers felt it prudent to relate that one of her diaper changes was, in fact, epic.

I had guessed that Loreli had dropped the bomb on them when I first walked in and saw her in a different outfit than when I dropped her off... I think she had the slightest hint of a smirk as well.

It made for a fitting end to a day spent in between my new friends - an obese woman, snoring and spread-eagle, and a man who smelled like Fritos, and not in a good way.

Big poopy indeed.

Future's so bright...

All my love to my beautiful bride and my bad-ass baby for a wonderful weekend...

Snap Crackle Mom & Pop

Loreli got her first taste of "solids" this weekend - a bit of rice cereal mixed with some good ole' boobie juice. At first she thought it may have been a mistake and politely removed it from her mouth to give back to us.

Once we explained that this was going to become routine, she of course expressed her disbelief...and then her acceptance...

and then her agreement that this was, in fact, awesome.

Riley, meanwhile, will wait as long as it takes for his first taste of rice cereal...

Soon, Riley, soon...

Here comes the sun...

I don’t think I’ve ever been a morning person… Why would anyone enjoy bypassing those sweet moments of sleep that linger when your dreams are in high gear?

I knew that when our little one arrived, sleeping in would become passé, but I’ll be honest that I still try to stretch out those sunrise winks as long as possible…

However… it’s become family routine in this household that Daddy leads the morning show, while Mommy runs the matinee. And then at sunset, we share the ooh’s and aah’s over the goo’s and gah’s for those precious few moment before bedtime.

Unfortunately, that means I miss out on seeing her face light up when Mommy arrives to rescue her from daycare, the smiles when she realizes she’s finally home, and so on…

However… those moments in our mornings are amazing.

When I finally wake up and come back to reality each daybreak, I can always count on Loreli to have been gently placed in our bed next to me by her Mommy – we each do our own stretching routine, and then turn our heads to lock eyes and revel in the day to come. She gives off the littlest giggle.

Pure bliss.

I may never be a morning person, but I do love being a morning Daddy.