Sharkbait!

What do you suppose he's watching?

Anchors Aweigh!

La Familia went for a trip to Quincy, MA today to check out the heavy cruiser USS Salem (CA-139) museum ship.  It's a tad smaller than it's battleship sister (USS Massachusetts) in Fall River, but still fun to see.  It reminded me of a pocket-sized battleship.  It's slightly longer (about 30 feet), but much skinnier and it's main guns are half the bore width of battleship.  

Emmitt had a great time, since he knows what a "big boat" looks like from his old man teaching him.  As soon as we pulled into the parking lot he said "Look daddy!  Big boat, big boat!"  That balloon, ubiquitous in these pictures, is from his haircut earlier.

Emmitt's hittin' the switches, etc.  There were tons of buttons, and you know he had to push all the ones he could reach.  

Holding the bear hostage for a picture.  He REALLY wants to see the cranes on the adjacent pier.

Can you spot where Emmitt is?  (Hint - look for yellow marker.)  Michelle, who was a good sport is trying to catch him as he sprints away to where daddy is: hiding in the off-limits area up on the bow.

Preview for next weekend?  The USS Massachusetts is having a Memorial Day ceremony and firing the 5 inch guns as part of it.  Emmitt can't wait!

Bye Awwwiiee, Bye 'Tephh!!!

Sadly, some of our favorite people are pulling up stakes and leaving for greener pastures out west.  At our church, the Pulhams have been around longer than most of the congregation, and it feels pretty weird to think that they're gone.  We can't feel too bad for them though since they'll be getting away from the cold, snowy winters and sinking their toes into the warm sand (their new place is near the beach - yeah, tough accommodations, right?).

We're sad to see them go.  This was Emmitt as he watched "Tephh" hop into her car to drive off for the last time.  He's really attached to her!

Stephanie watched Emmitt for quite some time, starting when he was about 4 months old.  Ali-Steph (they're one entity as far as Emmitt is concerned) have been fun playmates for most of his young life.  

I wanted to put up a picture of Nick doing something cool.  Sorry buddy, I can't find that shot of us throwing sand at the little kids in the park or us throwin' up mad weight in the gym.  All I have is you cleaning!  

Bye Nick, Steph, Ali, and baby Kat!  We'll miss you guys!

Goose Herder

Emmitt went to the park today, where there just happened to be a ton of geese.  I'm still not up to running just yet, so he got away from me pretty quick in the open field.  I only say that to explain why this video is so cruddy - I'm far away and I'm using my phone.  That small figure starting on the right is Emmitt, and the other figures running away from him are big ole' Canadian geese.  BTW - the field is LOADED with geese bombs.  Guess who cleaned some shoes afterwards.

Trucks, Tractors, and Snowplows, OH MY!!!

The Department of Public Works had an open house today.  The bear wanted to venture out of the cave and check it out, so off we went.  The DPW folks were super friendly and went out of their way to make it fun for the kids to experience.  Throw in that this was free and open to the public and you've got yourself a fun outing.  Big thanks to them for keeping our roads clear in the winter and our public spaces enjoyable year round!

Emmitt's head was on a swivel the whole time, and he really enjoyed the things that had lights/sirens.  

This was a lift that hoists these HUGE trucks up several feet.  This was the ultimate cool toy in Emmitt's eyes - it has buttons, it makes noise, it moves, and... it's orange!

This is what Emmitt calls a "peeman," which is obviously a bad idea if you get pulled over.

This is GIANT version of what some folks call a "honey sucker" (those trucks that empty port-a-poopers).  It ranked high on Emmitt's cool list because it had a bunch of tubes and it was yewoah.

 

Big Moment on a Little Potty

This morning, Emmitt made his first foray into the realm of manhood; he pooped on his potty!  All he needs now is a newspaper.  After hopping out of bed and slugging down some milk, he says, "potty, potty!"  We took him over to his little throne and he promptly grew a tail (or three)!  We were so proud, but for decency's sake we've censored his trophy in this picture (okay, mom made me cover it, 'cuz the 2 year old in me really wanted to show you guys).  He was proud too when he got to flush his own handiwork.  However, like every new step, there is the growing pain for mom and dad.  Keeping this whole process sanitary is a MAJOR challenge because he already wants to do it all himself, including the cleanup.  Yeesh!  The day he succesfully takes care of the whole operation on his own, he gets a present.  

Daddy did you hear dat? Fiahtuck!

Emmitt's family (i.e. - granparents, aunties n' uncles) got him some cool toys for his birthday.  The blogger in chief has been slow to post evidence of this generosity.  Let's see if we can't fix that right now, shall we?

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The first item on display is the namesake for the title of this post: the fiahtuck!  It makes neat noises, has flashing lights, and it supposed to be riden.  I say supposed because he still is a little leary of moving fiahtuck.  

He wouldn't give up trying this thing out.  He already loved fiahtucks before he got this; now he's obsessed and the first thing he asks me in the morning is, "did you hear dat daddy?  Fiahtuck!"

Next up is the ever popular workbench!  It comes with tons of cool tools that actually work.  It's a good thing I put this together for him while he was asleep.  Otherwise it would have taken twice as long.  He loves this thing!

Note the improper tool handling technique here.  Clearly some instruction is needed from dad.  (No children were harmed in the posting of this picture.)

Mat vs. the Sawbones

!!! THIS POST IS NOT FOR THOSE WITH WEAK STOMACHS !!!

Recently, I had a chance to sample the health care in the Boston area.  The place had a good Zagat rating, so I thought, "what the heck, I'll see what's on the menu."  The hip arthroscopy was the daily special that day, so I took one of those with a side of heavy-duty pain meds.  We got there in the early afternoon, but didn't get seen until nearly 7p.  The wait-staff was very courteous and the restrooms were "hospital clean."  I recommend the saline for an appetizer; doesn't taste like much, but it really makes you pee.  

First course was five nifty punctures like this one to get the tools into the joint space.

That furry stuff?  That's cartilage that should be smoooooth.  The surgeon's description of the area was "decimated."  It fell victim to the weed whacker first.

Lastly, some good ole' fashioned grindin' to make sure that the bone doesn't do any further damage to the joint.

Here's my reaction to the whole thing.  I may look coherent, but I couldn't have told you what planet I was on.  I still have no idea how I got dressed.  The last thing I remember was being somewhere near La-La land getting slid over onto an operating slab.  My hip, though hidden by a blanket, is twice it's normal size here.

Now, nobody worry.  The prognosis is good.  I'm supposed to be able to do all kinds of things in about 3 months.  I'm off my crutches for the most part, much to Michelle's irritation as she thinks it's much too soon.  Here's where I give a massive shout out to all the people who watched Emmitt for me for the past two weeks so that I could recover as quickly as I have.  The surgoen said that running may be off limits for good, but that remains to be seen.  I see the surgeon again in a few weeks, where I plan to pitch my idea: start running again after I fully recover to just go ahead and blow out the left hip too, get it fixed, then I'll be good to go for life!  Running dilemma solved!  Something about my forehead against brick walls feels so good... 

Belated Birthday Post

Soooooo...  it's taken a while to get this post up because the "keeper o' the blog" got taken down by the old sawbones.  Emmitt's second birthday passed us by in the blink of an eye.  This year, there were a lot of other things happening on the same day, so we decided to forgo the massive party that we wanted to have.  The afterglow from last year's party will have to last for one more year!  Instead of tons of pictures of Emmitt eating cake, or rather his parents eating his cake, I thought I would put up some pictures of him doing all the things he likes to do.

Swinging on the swing.... and more swinging.... and more swinging...

Dad's least favorite of all playground activities - throwing sand OUT of the sandbox (that's how you know it was his birthday)

Giant floating Elmo head was a favorite.

He opened this in the morning and didn't get off it for an hour.  Tough to hide for long, as his jammies riding outfit demonstrates.

And what birthday would be complete without the traditional dunce hat?