Tonya and PQBON's WebLog

Being a dad... or my weekend

We had an interesting weekend. Saturday, was marred by discovering my mothers 1997 BMW M3 had been vandalized while she was at our house. We were just about to leave for brunch when my wife (who had just returned from the chiropractor) asks my mom if she was aware her car had no license plates on it (Normally the car has plates the read: SuesM3 : if you see those plates call the cops! They are stolen!) So, my mom decided to stay at the house and Tonya and I left Kathryn with her for company.

Brunch was nice. It was kind of nice for Tonya and I to get out and see our friends with out having to entertain and manage the baby. It was kind of like being transported back in time by a year or so (that was about the last time we regularly saw our friends for brunch). We were up to our old tricks of scaring and offending the people around us with our angry/strange/educated liberal discussions. The really kicker was our talk about child molesters and parents defecating in front of the principal's office. We scared away a family with that conversation.

When we returned home I retrieved my mom's car from the street it was parked on to top off her brake fluid. While looking for further damage from the plate thieves we noticed that they stole almost everything off the exterior of the car that had the BMW M logo on it. It made me sad. While my mom has bought 2 new Mercedes since getting this car, and my dad has bought and given away a Z3 this car has kind of a special place in the family. It was the first car since my parents had kids whose purchase wasn't the result of pure practical need. Since having me, (when they had a BMW 2002tii and an AMC Gremlin) my parents have owned a dodge station wagon and two Chrysler minivans all were aimed at being able to handle a growing/large family. My first year away at school my parents were finally in a place to buy a car that they actually wanted. Before my mom left I topped off the brakes and test drove the car to verify it was OK. Then my mom left to be with my father.

Tonya, Kathryn, and I then went to friends house for dinner. The plan was to eat and then play board games. However, after dinner Kathryn was exhausted. So we left. She fell asleep as soon as we put her in her car seat. She then went straight to sleep when I moved her from her car seat to her crib (this is almost unheard of!). It was a really nice night. In fact other then my mom's car it was a very nice day!

Sunday was a family day. Tonya and I spent the whole day playing with and giving Kathryn our love. I had planned to go for a dirtbike ride Sunday morning but I decided it would be better to spend the day with my wife and daughter. We had a lot of fun. Kathryn got to take her first shower. Let me tell you a wet baby, is very slippery you have to be very careful! We didn't drop her or anything but she was definitely slippery and had to be held carefully. She seemed to enjoy the shower. Even the water in her face didn't really bother her. She wasn't crazy about it but she didn't get upset. She did enjoy all the other aspects of the shower. It was pretty cool. The rest of the day was spent dealing with the heat and playing with Kathryn. It was a nice day.

After dinner when it had cooled down we took a family walk. We have a normal loop we take that is a little over 2miles and allows us to stop about half way at Starbucks. It used to be that Kathryn would fall asleep during these walks. However, recently she has gotten where she stays awake the whole way. She likes to look at two things: cars and motorcycles, and trees. One of the ways I know her object tracking is developing is that she can follow a far with her eyes even if it is temporarily blocked by an object. As for trees she loves to stare up at the branches while we walk especially if there is some wind to russell the branches. After our pit stop at Starbucks at about the 2/3 to 3/4 mark we decided to add on to our route. We went an additional block and decided to turn right into the park rather then left to go home.

We walked from the edge of the park to the lake. All the while marveling at the huge swarms of knats visible in the dusk light. We were some where along the edge of the lake when Kathryn got really unhappy. She started to make it very clear that she didn't want to be in her stroller anymore. We pressed on, knowing that we were probably a mile and half or more from home. It soon became apparent that Kathryn was not going to be placated by a change in position in the stroller or by her toy giraffe. We stopped and I volunteered to shoulder the burden. Literally, I took Kathryn out the of the stroller and walked from the corner of Stevenson and Pasao Padre to our house. Here is a google map of the approximate route... We actually took civic center to walnut but it should be about the same. I did this whole walk in flip flops while switching her from side to side so that my arms could alternate recovering. Towards the end I even gave her a piggy back. She did really well with that but it made Tonya uncomfortable and even through the had a great grip on my hair I wasn't sure she wouldn't fall asleep so I took her down and went back to the arms. She started to fall asleep when we were almost home. I think she can recognize our neighborhood because she tends to let herself sleep when we hit our neighborhood on the way back from many walks. It doesn't seem to matter how long we walk, she falls asleep when we hit our neighborhood.

We then put her to sleep for the night. We had a few false starts but we got her to sleep in her crib... She is very cute when she is asleep!

Posted by pqbon at July 17, 2006 4:32 PM