Let it Snow

We are back from East Alton and I say, "Let it Snow!" Tomorrow is the first of December and it's nice to see the white stuff on the ground. I took Logan outside along with the kitties, and all three of them seemed to want to come back inside right away. It feels nice and cozy in our house, so I was glad to accomodate. Anyway, still feeling grateful for all the good things in life, even though I've been a bit sick the past few days. Well, I think that's all.

Getting Dressed

Logan no longer seems to enjoy getting dressed and getting a new diaper. I hadn't wanted to blog about it before in fear of giving power to the naughty new habit, but alas, I have to face the music. He is a fussy baby on the changing table. It makes that all too frequent time much more of a chore for us and I imagine him. I suppose it's because Logan doesn't want to take time out from his exploring, or that Logan just doesn't like being on his back anymore. Whatever it is, we hear Logan crying and fussing a lot more than we did. Especially so when he is overly tired. Then my kisses on his chest and the goofy faces we make at him have no effect, and he cries his little heart out. The moment we're finished, he's ok again. Ahhh, the mysterious wonderful world of a child.

Daddy is "Officially" a Novelist

I won Nanowrimo 2008!!! I wrote a 50,222 word novel in the month of November. Yeah, Me! I couldn't have done it without the help from my beautiful and inspiring wife, Carly, and my wonderful, non-napper at Thanksgiving little boy, Logan. It feels really good to have used my time at home in a productive way...you know, in addition to rearing my child and all. Writing this novel has not been easy. However, it hasn't been that hard either. I've learned that in life, simple persistance and stubborness can get you pretty damn far. It allowed my to finish an Ironman, and now, it has allowed me to write a book, it worked out to 1,666 words a day, which isn't that hard and doesn't take too long. Sure, the book is most likely a load of junk, but it's my junk and guess what...now I get the chance to revise and edit and make the junk into something that resembles a publishable manuscript. And who knows what's next? Anyway, I'm on a writer's high right now and could keep blabbing on indefinitely in this blog post, but to spare all of you readers out there, I think I'll end now. We're driving to East Alton this weekend. Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. Thanks for reading!

Forrest Gump in the House

First off, Happy Thanksgiving everybody! We are thankful and grateful for our little boy, Logan, our family and friends, and all the blessings in our life. We have so much and feel so thankful.

I thought a light-hearted blog would be appropriate today. Logan is doing a good Forrest Gump imitation. For the past two days, he has been, well, sort of rhythmically grunting so to speak. You know that scene in Forrest Gump where Forrest's Mom will do anything to help out her boy...Forrest imitates the noise he heard from the...um...bedroom. Well, those are the exact noises that Logan has been making. It's interesting to say the least. We've been trying to discourage the noise, but to no avail. Anyway, I'm thankful for this blog too because I get to share and record all these silly little things that Logan does.

Enjoy today everybody.

Trace Amounts of Melamine

Carly and I were watching the news last night and what do we see: Logan's brand of formula, Enfamil Lipil, is in the news for containing a scary chemical. Trace amounts of melamine were found in the formula by the FDA. Melamine is the same chemical that was criminally used in China to boost the protein of infant formula; it was making infants sick, causing kidney damage and failure, even killing some children.

We were pretty upset and immediately went to the Internet to find out more information...we were not happy with the teaser that the scary news media gave us in the middle of the Dancing with the Stars finale. Anyway, after much googling, it turns out that this is something not to worry about too much, but still, it's not really acceptable and very frustrating.

I don't have the figures in front of me, but the melamine found was something like 10,000 times less than the melamine in Chinese formula...likewise, they gave some sort of analogy saying it was a drop of chemical in something like a whole truckload of liquid or something. I don't mean to be reactionary or anything, and I understand that we live in a world where risks are everywhere, but is it too much to ask that we do everything we can to attempt to protect the most innocent? After the Chinese problem was encountered, the FDA stance was that no melamine was acceptable...after quietly investigating American formula, they may be backtracking saying some parts per million are ok. They blame this contamination on the cleaning of the machinery or packaging or something because this level of melamine would do nothing to make the formula more protein rich. Anyway, the whole situation is scary and raises a lot of concerns for me and my family.

In case you didn't know, Carly and I have been vegetarians for the past 6 years or so now. Sure, I enjoy the occasional package of beef jerky now and then, and Carly did crave KFC during her pregnancy, but for the most part, we live on a plant based diet. Part of why we don't eat meat is because we don't like how industry mechanizes the whole process. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the fact that we are more efficient and enjoy the many products of industrialization. But something has gone too far when we are so removed from the processing of our food. I'm not always confident that the organic, natural foods movement is the way to go, but I do think there needs to be more awareness and transparency in how our food gets to our tables.

Here's my dirty little secret...I had actually been buying the Target brand formula more than the Enfamil Lipil. It was over half the price less than the Enfamil, and as far as nutrition, it is identical. I'm telling you this, because we tried to figure out if the Target brand was affected by the melamine chemical. After some pretty intense sleuthing on the web, I managed to find out that the Target brand was made in a factory in Georgia. They had a nice website...and had been making formula for over 40 years. Encouraging, but I have a hard time trusting. It was challenging to find out where my baby's formula was made. Should it have been? Should I have done this before I gave it to him? Probably. But the whole food processing mechanism is also to blame I think. We don't have to think about where our stuff is coming from if we don't choose to.

I want to have some land, grow my garden, have a few goats that munch my lawn, and make goat cheese. It would be nice if my neighbors had chickens, and I could swap my goat milk for eggs. Maybe to some, this sounds backwards. To me, it sounds so forward thinking that it may even be revolutionary.

Anyway, I'm getting off topic. The fact is, we thought that formula was ok for Logan now. It is, but not as ok as we thought it was. We're sticking with the Target brand, but every time we make up a bottle, a little gnat of worry is buzzing around in our brains. No wonder people freak out all the time. This human world can be a scary place.

The Movin' on Blues

That was the title of a song that was in the Electric Sunshine Man, a play in which I played Thomas Edison. Sure, it was nearly 20 years ago, but I remember the lyrics...crazy. Anyway, those words were going through my head because Logan is really on the move.

For example, I was making my picks for the Pro-football, fantasy pick-em league I am in. It doesn't take long because I pretty much randomnly just choose winners, but anyway, I noticed that Logan was crawling his way down the hall to the bedroom. I planned on grabbing him as soon as I was finished...and when I did, I walked into the bedroom only to find Logan missing. Strange...I looked down the other hallway, and Logan is in the guest bedroom...attempting to stand up to grab a vase. And so it begins...my ability to do things on the computer while Logan wobbles on his back is no longer an option. If I want to write or blog or simply surf the web, I'm going to have to either put him in some sort of baby contraption, or not do it. I'm not the greatest multitasker so I have a hard time paying attention to Logan and playing on the computer at the same time. Like right now for instance, he's been emptying a box filled with cords and miscellany and I haven't been paying attention. Gotta go.

Up, Up, and Away!

Logan has been standing all day long...here's an example.
He has also been falling a lot today...I wonder why?


It has been a day of bumps and bruises, but in the immortal words of Mickey the trainer from the Rocky movies, "Get up you sonovuabitch, cause Daddy loves ya!" That's what Logan has been doing...getting up after a fall.