Gratuitous baby Post

We spent much of the last week babysitting Trenton while Brian & Kristin were in Denver for a hemophilia conference.

Despite some not incredibly restful nights, I'm gonna miss the guy in the morning. Just have a sleepy Trenton fall asleep in your lap once and you'll know what I mean. The kid's like cocaine. One hit, and you're hooked.

Bath time was always fun. Kristin has a little froggie "towel" with a hood that you put him in when you pluck him from the water. It's pretty snuggly and also irresistible.

The first night we THINK he kinda missed mommy. He has spent the night here several times, even recently, and he's been put to bed here before, too and had Brian & Kristin come pick him up and take him home later that night... so it was a little surprising. But we're pretty sure. As Vicki was putting him down I went out to put the car seat in her car, and when I came back in he heard the door and even after he saw me for a while he kept looking out in the hallway as if he were expecting someone else... like, say, mommy. That night wasn't the best. We took turns getting up, but ended up wrangling through the night like a couple of cowboy night watchmen. Yippie-cai-ay!

The next night he was much better. He ususally wakes up "for good" at 6:00 am according to Kristin, which was pretty close. Saturday and Sunday mornings I went and got him from his crib when he was "done", and we went in the living room where he promptly fell asleep on my lap for another hour, hour and a half.

We had fires in the fireplace for him. He loves fires. Heh. That doesn't bode well.

I was actually up with him quite a bit last night. I think he had a nightmare and woke up with a start and a little scream/yelp about 3:45. I went in there and he was all smiles when he saw me, but he was AWAKE!!! So I stayed in there with him for quite a while. Almost got him to sleep, but then he'd wake up again. He wasn't going down. So about 5:00 I took him in the living room where he zonked out on my lap until about 7:30.

Vicki had been up with him the bulk of the time on Friday night, so she was pretty bushed. She said she didn't even hear him yelp, or the short bouts of fussing we went through before we hit the living room couch.

Grandpa Ken came by this afternoon to see him. He'd just had a nap so he was pretty chipper, but he was out again before Ken left.

So, it's about time for bed ... but we'll be up again in about 3 hours when Brian and Kristin get here.

Autumn

Couple of weeks ago we went out to Shryock's Corn maze here with Brian, Kristin, Trenton, Ryan, and Kristie. We'd gone a couple of years ago. It's not terribly exciting, but it's a "fall" thing to do and there's that whole "togetherness" and "it's all about the people" thing. Plus I brought my camera (that's like saying "the ocean has water in it", I know).



The timing was great as we were there during sunset, and I found myself with a chance to do that sillhouetted-corn-against-the-sunset shot. Which I oddly hadn't considered because we were supposed to be there at 3:00 and my brain thought "that's the middle of the afternoon". But we left late and by the time we got our tickets and entered the maze it was 4:00 pm and we just went off daylight savings time... so there we were. Plus there were some clouds to set everything off nicely.

We ended up going through every portion, every path in the maze because we could -- and we were there until nearly 6:00 pm

We headed off to Ryan and Kristie's ... they don't live far from there -- where we had some really good chili, and went out to sit around a fire in their outdoor fire pit. Where we found out that Trenton LOVES fire!!! He's just giddy over it. Entranced, even.

So when we had him over the weekend we made sure to build a fire in the fireplace.

My shoulder rotator cuff deteriorated over the three weeks I really didn't do therapy ... about to being as bad as it was back in August. I went to the specialist and got a cortisone shot, and started physical therapy again today. Also found out that my physical therapist is a neighbor. Small world. Anyway, she just got back from a "difficult shoulder" workshop over the weekend and she's trying some new things.

Trenton wore a halloween costume that his Grammy Pammy wore as a baby, and so did Kristin, and he followed in their footprints as a pumpkin. I know it doesn't bode well for a boy to wear a halloween costume that his mother and grandmother had worn ... but there you have it.

There's a story about one of my aunts babysitting me over Halloween when I was a baby ... dressing me up as a girl and taking me to the zoo, and nobody would believe I was a boy. I guess it didn't warp me too much. :-) At any rate, there's nothing gender specific about Trenton's costume.

Dundee

I've had Dundee's famous Honey Brown ale many times, and it's always been on my list as a good quality for the price brown ale. I have also had their pale ale from time to time, which I am impressed with.

A few weeks ago while vistiting Mark & Cami in Olathe, I made a run to the liquor store to see if they had my favorite pumpkin ale, Buffalo Bill's Pumpkin Ale. And I spied a Dundee variety 12-pack for $12.

I didn't know they were brewing a bunch of beers, but since I'd liked the two I had no problems trying the variety pack.

There's a Pale Bock Lager, a Porter, a Wheat Beer, their Honey Brown & Pale Ale (both with new labels ... I love the new Pale Ale label), and an IPA. All excellent. They get the Phil stamp of approval.

Today I ran across their Oktoberfest and bought a 6 pack, and it is also excellent. So two thumbs up for Dundee beers!