New York, New York

Well, it's Day One since the wife and kiddo have abandoned me for NYC. I got home last night and house was just so quiet that I turned on the TV while I surfed the web and check my email. I didn't get to sleep until midnight because it just felt really strange being there all by myself. I really just miss the heck out of them...

However, with all this free time, I'm definitely going get a lot of those errands done around the house. We still have a bunch of boxes in the garage that we haven't emptied since moving into the house last November. The study is still in disarray with books and boxes everywhere. The lawn needs addressing, my car's just about filthy, and we have laundry that needs to be put away. With it being a long weekend, I don't have any excuses for not getting all of these things done before Xuan and Gage get home.

I've also decided to party like a rock star for the next few days, while my time still belongs to me. It'll be nice to get it out of my system.

D&G Weekend O'Fun - Part 1

Well, both Xuan and Gage are heading to New York this week for about 6 days and so I'll have to fend for myself during that week. This will be the first time I'm away from both of them since Xuan and I got married and Gage came into our lives. I'm going to miss them tremendously!!!

In anticipation, I decided to take this weekend, part one of our Daddy and Gage's Weekend O'fun. The little man and I hit the Kemah Boardwalk on Saturday morning and rode a bunch of rides, including a train (Thomas the Train ChooChoo - as Gage refers to it), a plane and zebra (the merry go round). We walked along the pier and waved to a bunch of rich people heading out to Galveston Bay on their million dollar boats. After his nap, we went to my sister's house for several hours of partying. Gage was up to his usual antics of wooing my sister's friends for a couple of hours before we headed home for the evening.

The next day, Gage and I took off for the local Starbucks and then La Madeline for brunch. As I've said before, the little man doesn't like to waste time eating. He focused primarily on eating a pat of butter and then proceeded to spread jam/butter onto the strawberry crepes that I bought for him. I soon realized that he wasn't going to eat and was only interested in "cutting" the crepes with the butter knife. You should have seen the looks on all of the mothers sitting within viewing distance of our table. By the stares I was getting, I might as well have given Gage a machete. Anyway, I gulped down my coffee and brought over two to-go containers before we headed to my mom's house.

After reaching home, Xuan's friend Michelle called and invited over to play with the girls. We accepted and headed over, after realizing that Gage was not going to take his afternoon nap. After getting to their house, we thought it was a good idea to take the bikes out and put the kids into the little pull along attached to the bike. It was at that time we found out that Gage 1) hated the idea altogether, 2) thought that Xuan was leaving me behind, and 3) wayyyy past his afternoon nap time. He screamed out loud and made a certain high pitched noise that we had never heard before. We took him home, after calming him down, and put him to sleep.

Later that evening, after he awoke, we decided to put together his backyard pool that consisted of a large whale slide that connected to the actual pool itself. I haven't seen him have that much fun in a long time. Since the big community pool just opened as well, we decided to take him there next weekend. Soon thereafter, we received a visit from both Masi's and Masa's. Gage was gracious enough to give them a tour of the house, complete with hand gestures and garbled english. Before long, they headed out and we prepared the little man for bedtime. I had such a long weekend entertaining the kiddo, that I passed out at 9 pm alongside him.

I can't wait for Part II...

New Bedroom Furniture, Part II

Well, we finally got the bedroom furniture delivered and setup this weekend. In an age where most people refuse to pay for shipping, if you purchase a minimum amount of goods, I wasn't too happy with the cost to just deliver the furniture to the second floor of the house. The cost was over a hundred dollars and that didn't even include assembly. I was up until 3 am in the morning putting together the bunk bed...

So now, we have it all setup, except for the mattresses. I just don't remember my parents ever agonizing over distance between coils, padding, hypoalergenic materials, etc, when they bought my twin sized mattress when I was a kid.

The experts say that it will cost approximatley $250,000 over the course of their eighteen years at home. In my two short years, as a parent, I think the experts are way off! A quarter million won't even cover college, let alone the expenses you incur as a new parent. Regardless, I'm sure the all decisions about the quality of wood, allergenic properties of a mattress and the "best" paint type (Consumer Reports is hardly ever wrong) are incremental enough to add up to something significant.

Oh, by the way, having a new house means that you become fanantical about HGTV. Nothing beats Design on a Dime! Even if you're never selected for these shows, no matter how many sign up for it online, at least it was nice to see family being selected to appear on the show. Dejim and Tran - the bathroom looks nice.

Happy Monday All!

Visit with the duckies

Gage and I decided to head outdoors this weekend because the weather was just so cooperative. We ended up getting some leftover pound cake from Starbucks and went to Nassau Bay to visit all of the ducks. What I didn't prepare for was the agressive family of ducks. These fowl (pun intended) creatures started to creep up onto us when they saw us with a bag of goodies.

With one of the ducks bigger than Gage, I placed him on the bench by the lake and sat right next to him, so that he would at least have some elevation. Being naive and everything, I actually thought this would protect the little fella. After we threw out a couple of pieces of the pound cake, the whole flock started to walk towards us. It was like a scene out of a zombie movie, except with a bunch of waddling ducks rather than dead people. One in particular, who had about 6 inches on Gage, started to make a bee line right towards us, and it was at that point I decided to make a quick exit with the little man on my shoulders.

The scary part was that the duck started to follow us towards the car. As I was strapping Gage into car seat, I kept on pearing over the edge just in case that duck got too close. I felt like I was in a movie, where the bad guy's coming after you and the car (carseat, in this case) won't cooperate right. I almost threw the remaining pound cake in another direction to distract him, but I got the little man strapped in and we took off. I just don't ever remember ducks ever being so aggressive...