Start of November

Townes has definitely started becoming more vocal with his squeals and moans, I guess he's just experimenting with different sounds. He's also still gaining better coordination and can grab things and flip over easier. He's figured out that when he shakes his rattle that he is the reason it makes a sound, he'll shake the rattle and smile.

Townes also has started to notice Lilly more and sometimes tries to reach out to touch her. He seems really interested in Lilly, and Lilly seems really disinterested in him; their love is not reciprocal.

Townes got another around of vaccines the other week. It's a pretty sad thing to witness, one moment he's laying on the table all content and smiling at you, then WHAM, he's squealing like a stuck pig. He weighs 17 lbs 11 oz.

Townes gets a kick out of his Montgomery Biscuits stuffed animal. When he laughs it's one of those deep toned, huh-huh...huh-huh, laughs. Kind of like Butthead on "Beavis and Butthead".

As far as music we listen to Jazz and the "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" album in the mornings, Townes also really likes the rap version of Hickory Dickory Dock on his nursery rhyme album. I might need to play him some Tribe Called Quest to see if he likes it.

Townes really likes to fly now. Right before we put him in the bath I hold him over my head and fly him around the room while he's naked. Even though I feel like I'm risking a pee shot to the face every time I hold him up, he loves it and always has the biggest grin.

* For those of who who can't tell, Townes is dressed as a Peep (that horrible sugar coated marshmallow candy) in the third picture

First Weekend of October

The last time Townes went to the doctor, the doctor said that he could feel some teeth below Townes' gums. Although I'm sure he's several months away from actually having teeth, maybe this explains his increased drools and wanting to suck on things.

Townes is beginning to become evermore "squirmy". Alot of the time he doesn't want to be held, and would rather lay on the floor where he can kick his legs and wiggle around. He'll flip over on occasion, and one time while on his stomach he slid across his mat while moving his legs. He continues to improve on grabbing things. Townes is also laughing more noticably. Especially this moring when Emily was playing with him, he was chuckeling alot.

We started him on rice cereal a few weeks ago. It took him a while to get use to it, but now he kills it down. I now know why our Diaper Champ was such a valuable purchase, since Townes started eating rice cereal he's been dropping some horrific bombs as of late.

* Auburn- Not much to say here, I guess I just need to find something else to do with my Saturday's. I'm about as disenfranchised with Tuberville as Bama fans were with Shula. I feel that we need to blow the whole program up and start all over. The offense is beyond pathetic, our quarterbacks are terrible, and all the penalties on the offensive line are inexcusable. I don't know what the answer is, I just know that our players are not as bad as they've been performing.

Baptism

Townes was Baptized this Sunday. Emily's family came into town and after the Baptism everyone came over to our house and ate Jim & Nicks BBQ for lunch. Everything went very well. I was a little worried that Townes would pitch a fit during the Baptism, but everything went smoothly.

Townes is starting to grab at things and is gaining better neck control. He went to the doctor this past Tues. and he weighed 16.2 lbs. He has also started grabbing his feet, and is making laughing sounds periodically.

Townes has started eating rice cereal once a day at night. He actually takes it pretty well, although sometimes he does spit alot out. Townes has also started to sleep through the night. I'm not sure if this is because of the rice cereal; the down side to this is he now wakes up around 5 am instead of 6 am, but given the choice I'd rather him sleep through the night. He got his first cold last week, which was pretty pitiful to watch (he does not like having his nose suctioned). He's over it now and doing well.

* Movies- I went and saw "Burn After Reading" last week. The commercials make it out to seem a light hearted comedy, but it was actually pretty dark. I'd compare it to Fargo out of all the other Cohen Bro. movies. I also watched "Over Her Dead Body" with Emily last weekend. I'm not kidding when I say that it might be the worst movie ever produced. I also bought two episodes of MST-3K on DVD, I use to love that show in high school. I bet Emily can't wait to watch it.

* Auburn- We lost a game to LSU that I believe that we should have won (just like last year). If it wasn't for an awful punt with a few minutes left to go in the game, I think we would have come out on top. I still have faith in Tony Franklin, but he really made some bad calls last night that I also believe cost us the game. Why can't Auburn recruit a decent QB? We had to put up 3 years of Brandon Cox, and now Chris Todd. Auburn has no threat of throwing a deep ball, which I believe hurts us tremendously. Hopefully we can beat UT next week, if not our whole season will fall apart. I still think Les Miles is an idiot coach that has tremendous talent.

Labor Day Weekend

Townes now weighs a little over 14 pounds and he flipped over twice this past weekend. He can't flip over on a consistent basis, but it's fun to watch him because he really looks motivated when he tries. It's neat to watch Townes' personality develop he seems to be smiling and in a happy mood (most of the time). He's also gaining better control over his hand movements, he started rubbing his eyes when he gets tired.

We ordered Townes some Halloween outfits. Emily got him a Peeps chick outfit (Peeps= those awful sugar coated marshmallows that Emily loves), a penguin outfit, and I got him a monkey suit with a fez hat. The monkey suit I got him is for 18 months so he'll have to wear it next year, the costume was just too good to pass up so I had to go ahead and jump on it.

Townes is getting Baptized on Sept. 21st. We met with our preacher last Wed. to go over the process. Hopefully Townes will behave during the service. He's getting Baptized towards the end of the 11:00 service and he usually takes a nap around 11:45 or 12:00.

I had to write a paper for one of my classes this weekend. It's probably the first paper I've had to write in 6 years.

*Music- The Knopfler/Harris album was a disappointment, there are only about two good songs on the CD, however the Uncle Tupelo album is good.

*Auburn- Well, football season is here. It kind of snuck up on me this year with so much else going on, and to be honest I don't have as much excitement about this season as usually do. I'm sure that will all change a few weeks down the road. I'm somewhat uneasy with Tony Franklin's offense. I was expecting to see a more high powered offense than the one that played on Sat., to be honest I'm kind of worried about it. Hopefully things will improve over the next few games. Franklin needs to realize he's not in the Sun Belt anymore and step it up.

Well I guess Bama is the dark horse for the National Championship this year. Honestly the ACC should just give up football all together and focus on B-ball; they are an embarrassment to NCAA football. NC State, VA Tech, and Clemson all lost. Is Bama that good, is Clemson that bad, or is it both? Time will tell. I do think Clemson's O-Line is terrible and Coach Bowden is a known choke artist. $100 says the next Daniel Moore print is called "The Catch", depicting Julio Jones first touch down for Bama.

*- We're going to try to post every two weeks now. Trying to post every week was becoming a hassle.

Not Much Going On

Townes is starting to notice his reflection in the big mirror in our bed room. We also gave him a small hippopotamus blanket that he seems to really like. Townes is becoming more active kicking his feet up in the air (I think he's trying to turn over), he is getting better control of his hands, and is starting to like is play mat alot more. Townes also likes to talk himself to sleep.

Townes went to his first birthday party in Birmingham is weekend. He mainly slept the whole time, and fussed while wake. Even short trips up to Birmingham seem to throw off his schedule and as a result he becomes more difficult to handle. Townes also went to church the first time this Sunday, he did pretty well in spite of us dropping him off screaming and crying. Hopefully the more times we take him to church the more use it it he'll become.

I'm starting back my MBA program at AUM this week. I'm not really looking forward to going back to school at all. Having a full time job, a baby, and school work to do is probably going to be a little stressful at times.

*Music- I took off my Pandora Radio stations, and instead created a play list of music to the right. It's a little bit easier to use than the Pandora link, all you have to do is click on it.

Vacation

This past week was our first vacation with Townes. We went down to Seaside, FL. this past Tues. and got back on Sunday. I think what I use to consider a vacation is now a thing of the past. Gone are the vacations where Emily and I could spend alone time together doing what we wanted when we wanted. Townes now occupies most of our time, it's kind of like having the same daily routine only in a different setting. It's still nice to get away from work, and I think once Townes is old enough to interact with us our vacations will be more enjoyable.

The weather was great at Seaside. There was a good breeze and the water was clear for the most part. We only took Townes down to the beach one morning around 8:00 am when it was overcast. He was in a fussy mood once we got down to the beach so we quickly took our pictures and left.

Townes did very well with all the traveling we did (i.e. going to Emily's grandmother's house in PC, the beach at Seaside, and her father's in Dothan).

Townes is a real morning person, every time we wake him he always smiles back at us (almost to the point where it looks like he wants to laugh). He also smiles when I tickle under his bottom lip, for some reason he gets a kick out of it.

* Music- I ordered a CD by Mark Knopfler (of Dire Straits) and Emmylou Harris; and also Uncle Tupleo's "Anodyne". I have most of Uncle Tupelo's stuff but have always heard Anodyne was their best album, and the Mark Knopfler album is just something I ran across which sounded pretty good.

* The top picture is Townes before we went to the beach, the second picture is what happened when we got down to the beach.

Short Post

Townes is now starting to sleep a little bit better without being swaddled, although nap times are still somewhat a challenge. Two of his favorite things to do now are watch the giraffe mobile in his pack n' play and layout in our front yard around 7:00 PM and watch the trees.

Townes took his first dip in the pool on Saturday with mixed reviews. He seemed a little uneasy at first then after a few minutes started to fuss. I thought he'd like the pool because he loves his baths (the pool wasn't cold), I guess the two don't necessarily equate.

*Music- I found out how to link my Pandora radio stations off our blog. All the stations are self explanatory. Townes Radio was the first one I created; all I did was input all my favorite bands. Every now and then Townes Radio will play some junk like Queen or The Eagles, other than that it's pretty good.

Wedding Weekend

This past weekend was chaotic to say the least. Emily was in a wedding over the weekend so I was left to watch after Townes for extended periods of time. Needless to say his routine was inadvertently thrown out the window. I found out that for some reason he doesn't like to eat out of bottles anymore, and it was a struggle to get him to eat. Townes use to not mind bottles that much so I'm not sure what changed. We are going to make an effort to bottle feed Townes at least once a day.

On Sunday a few of Emily's friends came over and brought their babies. At one point we had four babies over at once which became kind of hectic, but that's something we'll have to get use to.

I think this week we might try to get Townes to sleep without being swaddled. He's pretty use to this process so I'm not sure how he'll take to it.

I'm now convinced that "Gripe Water" works better than Mylicon.

Townes is starting to try to roll over and sometimes I think he's trying to laugh out loud. He's been looking at his mobile over the changing table more than the blinds lately. I also bought Townes about 5 books this week, there is one called "Black On White" that he likes alot.

* Music- I bought two Charles Mingus CD's this week; "Ah-Um" (I think that's the name) and "Mingus at Antibes". My friend also burned me some Dexateens and a Black Keys album that Danger Mouse produced.

It's been a while...

I know it's been a while since my last post. I'm going to try to get back posting every Sunday again. Coming up with content for this blog is more difficult than expected.

My aunt from Asheville, NC came by the Saturday before last and met Townes for the first time. I really wish we could take a boat ride with Townes on the river this Summer, but common sense is telling me that we'll have to wait until next year.

Townes is still smiling and cooing but doesn't care for his "tummy time" at all. I need to come up with a new strategy so that he can exercise his neck mussels. He also started looking at his reflection a few weeks ago. His favorite place still continues to be his changing table, I don't know why but he loves it (he also loves looking at the blinds beside it).

Townes got his first rounds of vaccinations this past Tues. and actually took it pretty well. He'll be 9 weeks this Thurs., weighs 12lbs 12 oz ,and is 24.5 inches long.

I really wish that I had more to write about but I don't. I'm really starting to get anxious for the upcoming football season and can't wait to see Auburn's new offense. There has been so much discussion about our offense that I haven't heard anything about our defense. I hope Paul Rhoades proves to be a good hire.

July 4th Week

The 4th was pretty fun. My parents came over and ate BBQ and we watched our neighborhood's 4th of July parade from our front porch. Townes slept through the parade so we didn't make it to the park where everyone congregates after the parade. Later that night a band played in the park and Emily, Townes, and I listened and watched from our front yard. We ended the night uneventfully by watching the fireworks displays on NBC (NYC) and CBS (Boston) on TV. Townes took at bath this Sunday without crying which is a major event, however he might have been a little bit dazed from just waking up so we'll have to see how his next bath goes.

One of Emily's coworkers (who has four children) came by to see Townes. She commented on how squirmy he was. Hopefully his squirminess won't translate into him being a hyperactive child. As far as Townes smiling and cooing, some days he's more alert than others. One day he'll smile and talk back to you for an extended time period, and some days he'll only do it in short intervals.

This past Tues. (Emily's B-day) Townes had one of the worst days he's ever had. On Monday he was pretty fussy, but on Tues. he was constantly crying (screaming at points), did not want to sleep, did not want to be put down, and was hungry all day. I think at around 6 weeks many babies go through a growth spurt so I think that's what he was experiencing. The next day Townes was his normal self. I also read that babies cry the most between 6-8 weeks; I hope this holds true.

* Music- I was really happy with the Mudcrutch album. To me it's ideal Summer time music (good for grilling out, the lake, beach, ect.) and is something everyone would enjoy. The Hayes Carll "Trouble In Mind" is pretty good as well; although if you don't like country music or Texas singer/songwriters you might not really care for it.

* Movies- We watched "Persepolis" which was pretty good. It's a black and white, animated, french film about a girl caught in the Iranian revolution. We also watched "Jumper", it's a terrible movie and I believe that Hayden Christensen is one of the worst actors of our time (along with Nicholas Cage).

Another Week

Townes is warming up to his pacifier somewhat; although he can't really keep the pacifier in for long periods he is learning and I hope that he'll get the hang of it soon. I had some doubts about giving him a pacifier, but sometimes it's the only thing that will soothe him. Townes definitely seems to be smiling and cooing more and he also took his first bottle of breast milk on Saturday. I now feel that we don't have a "fussy" baby like I thought last week. I've come to the realization that all baby's cry and that Townes is probably no different from most. My one contribution remains my ability to swaddle Townes. Every morning around 2 am or 3 am Emily wakes me so that I can wrap up Townes and put him back to bed. Townes does sleep well and I can't imagine how he would sleep at night if we didn't swaddle him.

Townes is starting to lose some of his hair and is developing a slight case of baby acne. The doctor said most babies start to develop acne around this time and that it will start to subside by the 8th week. Townes also still doesn't have full control over his eye movement yet, so he has a tendency to go cross eyed sometimes. I know that it sounds like we have a balding, cross eyed baby with acne, but I promise he's cuter than it sounds. On Thurs. he lifted his head really high and it seems that he has a strong neck.

I will say that having a new born is not the healthiest thing physically for us. Not that I was ever what someone would consider an in shape person before, but I did like to occasionally go jogging every now and then. However, with Townes in the house I've noticed that my eating habits have worsened and that there is absolutely no time whatsoever to go exercise. If I did have time to go jogging I'd much rather zone out in front of the TV. Thankfully our Sunday school class at Trinity Presbyterian has gone above and beyond the call of duty and they have been bringing us meals since Townes was born. I really don't think we've had to cook dinner in the past 5 weeks.

Emily's birthday is this coming week (July 1st) she'll be 28 years old. Emily really wants a waffle maker for her birthday; instead I got her a brand new 4 ton, 14 SEER, Train HVAC system. Nothing says I love you more than energy efficient AC in the Summer time. Our neighborhood is having it's annual 4th of July parade this coming Friday. The parade ends with a gathering at the park across the street from our house and we are going to take Townes for a short period to see how he behaves. A Beatles cover band will be playing at the park later that same night, I believe we'll have to skip that one and maybe we can sit on the front porch and listen.

*Movies- We watched "The Other Boleyn Girl" last night which was actually pretty good although I think that it might be a little embellished as far as the actual historical events go.

*Music- This past week I've been listening to Dinosaur Jr.'s "You're Living All Over Me", it's a great album and I highly recommend it. It kind of takes me back to 9th grade. I'm going to pick up the new Mudcrutch and Hayes Carll album this week, I'll let you know if they are worth the money.

* Auburn- As the season approaches I'm becoming more and more excited about Tony Franklin's offense. After listening to Pat Dye sing the praises of "the spread" offense, I'm a believer that it will be successful. It just makes sense that if you get quick players in open space big things can happen. I hope Coach Franklin stays around for more than two years though. It seems that while the players Coach Franklin is recruiting might be a great fit in his system; I think that in any other system they would be a disaster. I can't wait to take revenge on UGA and ruin their NC hopes this year.

Long Weekend

The past few days have been alittle bit frustrating. I've come to the conclusion that Townes is a fussy baby. The past few days he has become more difficult. I believe that the walks we take interfere with his regular schedule, he's also wanted to suck on a pacifier (something he hasn't shown much interest in until the past couple of days). Townes is to the point where he's either asleep, awake and eating, or awake and crying; he only has about an hour and a half total of quiet alert time. I don't know if it's better to console him when he starts to cry in this crib during sleep time, or just let him "cry it out"; if anyone out there has any suggestions I'm all ears.

On a positive note I believe that Townes is attempting to talk back to us. During his few alert times he smiles a little and says "Ah-ah" as if he's trying to speak to us. The doctor also thinks he's going to have blue eyes. I know I don't have blue eyes, nor does Emily. I might need to interrogate Emily further on this issue.

As for us not much is going on. We try to watch parts of movies while we can, last night we watched "About A Boy" on TV. As for me I've learned "Take It On The Run" on guitar, have put off reading "All The Kings Men" indefinitely, and have been listening to My Morning Jacket a lot lately (I believe they are one of the better bands out at the moment).

*I'm going to try to update the blog every Sunday, once a week. I'm not sure if I'll have the time or the content to post much aside from once a week.

Getting Started

This is my first attempt at this blog thing. Since Townes was born about a month ago I thought starting a blog might be a good way for family and friends to keep in touch. We'll have to see how my commitment to the blog goes. It's destined to either succeed or fail within the first month; or possibly turn into an Auburn football sounding board where I can vent my frustration. Townes now weighs 9 lb 15 oz and is 22 1/4 inches and continues to be pretty fussy but also more and more altert, I'm told at the 6 week mark things start to get a little better...we shall see. Emily may post from time to time, but that's highly doubtful. Right now she's too busy watching one of the worst flims ever created, Pollyanna.