Attack of the Toddler

Eli took his first unsupported steps yesterday. At 13 months of age, he's been a little bit behind on learning to walk. We were told it isn't unusual for a child his size to have difficulty learning to walk. He's currently 32 1/2 inches in height, weighs 29 lbs and has been wearing clothing meant for two-year-olds for months now. It's good to see him finally taking his first steps, though the cats will be horrified.

Back in March, I explained to Kyra that her brother was turning into a toddler and was no longer a baby. She asked me what toddler meant. I told her that I thought the word came from kids at that age toddling along with their first attempts at walking. She asked me what toddling meant. I told her that it meant walking clumsily. Kyra responded with "Oh! Like zombies!"

My first week returning to a stay-at-home dad status is nearly at an end. The first day was a bit of a bumpy ride, but we got through it. By the third day I was actually able to get a little bit of writing for http://www.darkdestinations.com/ done. I revised an article about Richardson High School in Richardson, Texas. It has an unfortunate anniversary today that is tied in with a popular 1990s song.

By Thursday, I was back in the swing of things enough to get back in practice with Kyra's hair. After roughly half a year of not dealing directly with those curls, I'm afraid I didn't do so hot a job on her hair the first few days. She was happy with the results on Thursday.


Next week Kyra and I will be touring a local elementary school that we are interested in having her attend. It has a progressive approach to teaching. It has multi-age classrooms and has a International Baccalaureate program. Kristy and I attended a meeting with teachers, parents and students from there last night. The students are encouraged to be outgoing, outspoken and to develop a love of learning through exploration rather than just having facts thrown at them and being expected to remember them. I think the school would be a great match for her. Enrollment is lottery-based, so we're crossing our fingers that she gets in. Getting our kids into this school could make our 2009 upheaval ultimately worth it.

In Eli news: Our little giant has been stepped up to 3 full feedings of cereal and one snack before bed. Replacing the usual bottle of formula before bed with a bit more cereal definitely seems to help him sleep through the night without waking up hungry a few times thoughout the night.

Earlier in the week, Eli had his first taste of sour. He sucked on a lime. He made a horrible face at first and seemed almost ready to cry after the first taste but then suddenly smiled and dove back down for more. We still haven't found a food that this kid doesn't like! Unfortunately, I wasn't quick enough to grab my camera and capture his initial reaction. Here are photos of his later enjoyment of the lime.





Mmmmmmmm. Lime. :)

The Return of Son (and Daughter) of the Horror Dad Journal

The Horror Dad Journal will be returning in 2010, ending the extended break it has been on. I'll have to change the subtitle to "Stay-at-Home Dad with a Part-time Job."

My family and I continue to live with my mother. I've been working a low-paying full-time overnight security job for months. The schedule (1 am to 9 am) has made it difficult to spend time with my kids. Luckily, Kristy landed a job with a good hospital out here (with only a week to spare on her unemployment!). So, I am switching back to being a stay-at-home father during the day and will be looking for part-time supplemental income during the evenings. I will also be returning to writing (and thanks to being back in Rochester, possibly even filmmaking again). Unfortunately, we're still saddled with the old house back where we used to live. Hopefully it sells soon so we can finally stop making payments on a place we no longer live in and can move on with our lives.


In the time since I last wrote an entry, Eli has grown immensly in size. He is 98th percentil in weight and 100th percentile in height. He outgrows clothes faster than we can buy them. At 9 months of age, he's weighing 25 pounds and wearing clothing meant for 18-24 months of age. Kyra also began preschool in the fall and is absolutely loving it. She also insisted that we do a zombie walk this year, and even though I wasn't really feeling in the Halloween spirit this year, she got her old man out there and shambling with her and the other undead the night before Halloween. She was a vampire for Halloween itself.



I hope everyone has a Happy New Year. See you again in 2010!

The Ice Cream Horror

Eli had his second doctors appointment earlier this week. He'd gained two inches and more than two pounds since his appointment two weeks earlier. He's growing like the chicken heart from that old radio play.

We recently bought Kyra a novelty ice cream treat that she picked out for herself. It was supposed to look like Spongebob, but instead we revealed a monstrosity upon opening the ice cream wrapper. It is the first time ice cream has given me chills without eating it. Kyra was brave enough to eat it though. I took a picture first. Is it just me, or is this thing just evil looking?



Kyra didn't care for the gumball eyes. She chewed them briefly and then spat out a dark blue goo with tiny hard gum chunks into the bowl we had to catch the icecream drips.

Heeere's Eli!

Elijah was born at 11:04 pm on Friday, March 27. He shares his birthday with his uncle Jason. Elijah was 21 inches long and weighed 8 lbs, 12 ozs at birth. He has big feet with long monkey-like toes that he can grasp fingers with. He's a pretty mellow little guy and loves to be held so much that the nurses nicknamed him "cuddlebug."

Everyone Out of the Pool

The baby is now six days overdue. We met with the midwife today and decided that if Kristy doesn't go into labor today or tonight, we'll be heading in to the hospital early tomorrow morning to begin inducing labor. Tomorrow also happens to be my brother-in-law Jason's birthday, so it appears that Elijah will be sharing his birthday with a relative.

For news on the birth tomorrow your best bet is to check the Dark Destinations blog. It is likely that Casey will be making a post there to let people know the news at some point tomorrow. Otherwise, I'll be posting details when we get back from the hospital and I find time to write again.

Wish us luck!

...and Still Waiting...

Kristy is now five days overdue with the baby. We get phone calls, emails and instant messages on a continuous basis asking if the baby has arrived yet. This morning, my father-in-law called and asked if anything was "going to happen in the next couple of hours" because he needed to go out and run errands. I told him that as far as we knew nothing was happening.

My mother has been staying with us the past two weeks to help out. She took Kyra to a local playgroup this morning while Kristy and I stayed home. When they returned Kyra had a funny conversation with Kristy. Kristy mentioned to Kyra that she'd taken a shower. Kyra asked if it was a "baby shower." Kristy told her that it had been a regular shower. Kyra replied, "Every time you take a shower with the baby inside you, it's a baby shower.”

Last week I bought a new Duncan Butterfly yo-yo and have been playing around with it. Back when I was in the Air Force I got into the yo-yo habit. It was something I used to do to pass the time while waiting to service aircraft. It is sort of like pacing, only it annoys people less and is healthier than smoking. It's been a while since I carried a yo-yo on me like some folks carry a pack of cigarettes. I passed my old worn yo-yo on to Kyra to play with. She likes to drag it around on the floor. So she has part of "walking the dog" down.

Kristy has an appointment with her mid-wife tomorrow. Hopefully we'll be discussing an inducement plan in case Elijah keeps hitting his snooze button.

The Haunting in Connecticut

We're still waiting on Elijah over here. He's hitting the snooze button inside the womb.

Next week The Haunting in Connecticut film hits theaters. The movie is inspired by real life events. Casey Hopkins and I just wrote a long article on the subject. Click here to check it out.

Funeral, Angering Prison Guards and Still Waiting for the Baby

We made it to the funeral service and back home without going into labor.

Kyra has been having a tough time with Grandma Frieda's death. She seemed not to be affected much by the news at first, but that night she started crying at bedtime. She said she was crying about an old stuffed animal of hers (named "Boo Bear") that she had placed in the crib for her brother many weeks back. She was suddenly worried she was never going to see Boo Bear again. We had a talk and what was really bothering her quickly became apparent - knowledge of what had happened with Grandma Frieda had sunk in.

We've had a few talks about Frieda and the grief that Kyra is feeling. She seems to be dealing pretty well with it overall. Kyra made cards for Frieda by cutting and decorating construction paper, writing the words "Kyra", "Mom", "Dad" and "Nana" on the pieces and gluing googly eyes to them. This morning we placed Kyra's cards in Frieda's coffin along with the photos of Frieda's cats and great grandchildren that had been placed there by other relatives. The service was well done and now Frieda is back with her husband Bob, who passed away a couple of years back. When our son is born, we're giving him the middle name Robert in honor of Bob.

On the way home we passed by the prison that had once held Amy Fisher. Prison articles are popular for Dark Destinations (because there are usually a ton of stories with each one), so I pulled over across the road from it and snapped a few photos. I immediately had a corrections officer pulling alongside me in a big blue truck and telling me to "Git!"

I understand prison guards having concerns, but there are no signs posted condemning photography or stopping along the road. It is a residential road. In fact, we were parked right in front of the house my wife lived in as a toddler right across from the prison. I'm aware of my photography rights and was well within them with what I was doing. However, I'd already gotten enough shots and am not in the habit of arguing with surly liver-spotted prison guards (especially when I have a woman in the car who could go into labor at any time). We mosied along and had an otherwise uneventful trip home.

Now we should be staying put at home until Eljah decides to be born finally.

Any Time Now...

Kristy is due on the 20th. We're all anxious for the baby to make his appearance. My mother has come to stay with us for a little while in order to watch Kyra and help out.

Kristy's grandmother passed away last night. It sucks. Frieda was a cool lady and we'll miss her.
We're going to the funeral in a couple days. I'm really hoping that Kristy doesn't go into labor while we're nearly four hours away from home... or worse while I'm driving in the middle of nowhere between the two locations. Ugh!

Car Accident

On Tuesday morning, Kristy got into a car accident on her way into work. Luckily, her and the baby are okay. She was going under 30 mph at the time and was buckled in. She was driving down a winding section of road when she saw cars stopped ahead (presumably due to another accident) and slowed down. Her car began sliding and spinning and she struck a guard rail twice, smashing the front and back on the driver side.

The insurance company decided to total the vehicle based on it's book value. Kristy wasn't very happy with what they are paying us for it. Luckily, we have a reliable second vehicle, so she's able to get back and forth to work. It just means that Kyra and I will be limited in travel for a bit and will miss playgroups at the local community family room. As soon as we get the money for the vehicle, we'll shop around for another car. It will likely not be as nice though. Oh well.

The important thing is that there were absolutely no injuries during the incident.

Meet the Family: Elijah

This is Elijah.




Coming March 2009 to a maternity ward near us.

So far, his hobbies include kicking his mother in the stomach, sleeping and eating through a fleshy tube that runs straight to his tummy. We were pretty sure the next baby was going to be a girl and he surprised us when we got the ultrasound a few weeks back. I wonder if he will continue to pull surprises out here in the world outside the womb.

My wife wouldn't let me name him Milo or Pugsly. She spoils all my fun.