Mind Wanderings Uphill Both Ways

Recently Nic and I have had a few conversations about the direction his underwear should face...but yesterday was the best one by far. He's got a handful of underwear all with his favorites on them (Transformers, Spiderman, Buzz Lightyear, Nemo, and the guys from Cars), and yesterday he was wearing his Buzz Lightyear (featured in picture below - though that pic is from January). The problem with these underwear is that all the pics are basically on the backside. So when I was putting his underwear back on we had the following conversation:

Nic: "No, other way daddy."
Me: "But Nic, they are meant to go this way so they fit comfortably."
Nic: "No No Daddy, it has to go the other way so Buzz can see where he's going!!!!"
Me: chuckling..."Buzz goes this way so that he can watch to make sure no one sneaks up on you."
Nic: "He doesn't need to do that, he NEEDS TO SEE WHERE HE'S GOING!"

In the end he heard Grammy's voice and distracted put them on normal, but I've got an 'uncomfortable' feeling that he'll be Kris Kross'ing it soon.

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Wow, 4 months (yesterday Sept. 1).....from jaundice to chubby thunder thighs, oh how the time flys.
He's a very happy baby, sleeps great, very talkative, abolutely loves his big brother (follows him with his eyes all the time smiling), but startles to sudden noises a bit easier than nic did....of course nic tends to be the sudden noises...lol.

Happy 4 month Evan Nathaniel Bobbe. Next stop rolling over (he's so close!!!)

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Tomorrow Evan turns 4 months, and as a preview of tomorrow I wanted to show you all how Evan blew kisses to all his adoring masses on his first day with us!

Evan-blowing-kisses

I myself don't remember having any imaginary friends when I was little, though often I'd play for hours with my toys by myself. Holly, I've been told, had R2D2 as her imaginary friend. So it comes to no surprise that Nic has his own little entourage. Actually he's got 2 separate ones.

The Tangible
The first entourage of Nic's is all his stuff animals that he's good friends with: Puppy Dog (Max for 2 days), Flower, Blue Bear, Brown Bear (aka lil bear), and Dinosaur. In my last post I noted Nic's incredible imagination....apparently naming stuffed animals is his cryptonite to his super imagination powers!

The Unseen
Now this is definitely my favorite of his two entourages....in fact, not to be hurtful to The Tangible, but I'd rather Nic hang with this crew more than the other because its so much more entertaining. Before I list them, let me just explain that when Nic tells you a story and/or wants you to play with him and The Unseen, he lists each and every one of them in the following order: Bambi, Feline, Baby Bambi, Other Baby Bambi, Feline when she was little, and Bolt. Bolt was tagged on recently. Now, I've listed them exactly as he says them...and every time he says "Feline when she was little" instead of baby Feline I crack up! I mean really...why does he distinguish them that way?...lol.

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Since the end of February when the company I worked for closed its doors, I've been a stay-at-home dad. This has been the most rewarding and most difficult job/time I've ever experienced. I get to be here to witness new milestones (Nic is officially fully potty trained as of yesterday), be the teacher, experience Evan's earliest days, and of course deal with the meltdowns (mine as well as the kids...lol).

Talking with Holly this morning I realized that I really need to try and write down stuff they do as it happens because the day gets so busy and it can easily slip by without even a mental note for later. So I'll be coming back to MWUBW more often and a lot of this will probably be about the boys. The first few posts may be a catch-up game of stuff thats happened with them in the past 6+ months (or since May for Evan). After that I'll try to stay up-to-date.

A little catch-up on us all here:
Evan - the newest Bobbe, is about 15 lbs and 25 inches at last visit to doc. He's a very happy baby and has quite the personality already. Adorable...of course. He's on the verge of rolling over, has thighs like tree trunks and I'm pretty sure he walks around when I'm not looking.

Nic - Hmm...hands are full! Lol, but he's awesome! He's the best big brother ever...always concerned with how Evan is doing. He's 3.5 years old and loves to run, scream and make explosion sound effects. He's very smart (at least thats what I get from his teacher...who I know very well) and extremely imaginative. He keeps me on my toes at all times and usually laughing as well. So far he's already more athletic than me so I have hopes of his Green Bay Packers QB position already!

Holly - Besides being back to work and busy, she's my rock and the best mom ever! We could both use some more sleep but neither of us can manage to go to bed before 10.

Me - Aside from the stay-at-home dad business, I'm also bartending now. Got certified a few weeks back and am starting up at a few places. Its fun and should help us out. Hopefully all the activity will help me shed my 'since Feb' weight. I'm also having Billy Blanks kick my butt several days a week and am amazed at how out of shape I am.

Thats us in a nutshell right now. I'll leave you with this video (some of you may have seen it on Holly's facebook).

The room is uncomfortably small for the number of people stuffed into it. We all thought we were clever enough to beat the rush and be the first to get in and out, but it seems no matter how early you arrive there is always a line. I guess everyone wants to get it over with...no one can possibly enjoy getting blood drawn.

Sitting directly across from me is an old man. He's the type of old man that all directors try to create in movies. His cane is gently resting between his chair and the adjacent one. His pants, while sitting, are clearly 2-3" shorter than they should be, leaving his skinny ankles exposed and completely lost as they plunge into his awkwardly large orthopedics.
His eyes are thin, dark pools of knowledge and experience that send out dark circles like ripples of flesh downwards, forcing his cheeks to hang below either side of his chin. His head and back also hang earthbound in a severe hunch. Nature's plastic surgeon has done quite the number on him. He glances up at me. There's nothing but the wait in his eyes.

Directly above him is a sign reading "Welcome to LabCorp." It's neither welcoming or noticeable...in fact if it weren't for the old man I wouldn't have even noticed it. All you truly notice when in a waiting room such as this, is the others around you. Here we all are waiting for something to happen. In this particular case we are all waiting for our blood to drawn, but in reality you can tell that we are all waiting for more than that. Each of us are clearly waiting for something more personal than being stuck by a needle. We are all sitting together in this small, overcrowded room, yet we are all by ourselves in our own waiting rooms. Each waiting for our name to be called.

I'm fortunate. Though I'm waiting on a lot of things currently, my names been called already for the important things. As for the blood...my name just got called. Now lets hope I don't faint.

Hey everyone. I've just submitted a design over at Threadless.com and if they approve it, then it goes up for voting...the voting determines if it will be printed or not. So i'll need everyones votes once its up. if you want to take a look and bookmark the page ahead of time you can go here:

http://www.threadless.com/submission/185790/C ruise_to_new_heights?streetteam=travisbobbe

Thanks so much!

Its election day....and regardless of your views and/or who you vote for, I would hope everyone would join me in praying that whomever the winner, he chooses wisely those that surround him and advise him in matters. And that ultimately he makes the right decisions for this country and those we assist worldwide. Also, may those decisions meet little or no major challenges, and those challenges that do arise be overcome quickly.

Lets see, i'm about to be 32, my hair is continuing its 'cluster and depart' strategy from head, and now my blood is full of fat (does this A- make me look fat?). Apparently my triglycerides are way higher than they should be. In fact a doctor looked at them and said that it looks like its 10 years from a heart attack (or HA as its been dubbed in my house).

Anyha, i mean how, its solution is 2 part at the moment.

Part 1: Exercise
No problem, we got a stationary (sit down) bike in the back room so i don't even have to do much but relax and peddle. Um, i don't remember getting out of complete shape, but the sweat that beads up on my forehead from just pressing the Mode button isn't a good sign. I'm up to 7 miles in about 25 minutes, and this week i actually did the exercise all week. Thats really been the hardest part (aside from the physical part) is having the will to stick to it.

Part 2: The Meds
Fish oil....nothing more, nothing less. Just pill form fish oil via prescription. Sure there are over the counter fish oil pills you can buy, but they are less pure (as if pure fish oil weren't bad enough, to know there is 'un' pure versions...ugh) and the side effects are more pronounced in them. What side effects? Oh, i didnt mention it already? Well, apparently these side effects can include nausea, belching, bad breath and sometimes diarrhea. YEAH!!!! But, they are "rare" to start with and if they do appear (so far no sign of them) they fade after a few weeks.

Part 3: Stupid Lettuce
ok, so there are 3 parts, not just 2. The third being the reduction in consumption of some of my favorite foods. So if you'll humour me and read (or sing) the following to the tune of "these are a few of my favourite things"...

Big juicey burgers with french fry potatoes          
mexican goodness in an overstuffed tacos
corn dogs with beer battered onion rings
these are few of my favorite things

loads of great cheeses that make my mouth smile         
greasy italian foods all stacked in a pile
chocolate and cheesecake, my internal bling
these are few of my favorite things

I can't have these
I must eat less
and this makes me sad
i wish i could eat all of my favorite things
but it makes my heart feel bad

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1 comment

The feel of book in your hand and the "fffwit" sound as you turn the page...the unsuspected joy across someone's face when they checked their mailbox and found a letter from an old friend...

These and many others are just some of the things we as a culture and species are losing. Email has replaced regular mail and in doing so it has destroyed the excitement of communication. So much is connected with that tangible element. In the mail's case, you lose the effort that was put behind it, that personal touch you got to witness in each letter. The speed and ease of email has forced it to become a "without thought" function that we all just do. It's like breathing.

Reading in general has gone that way also. And now with products like the Kindle by Amazon (which i admit is really cool), all need to physically own and pick up to read a book is gone. I fear that with that we will lose the passion and commitment a story/book deserves when being read. Instead of delving so deep in that your mind even makes up details the author didn't describe, instead we are soon to become people who read books at fast speeds, and more to pass the time than to enjoy it.

Even just hanging out with friends & family have become a victim of this loss of tangibility. Granted lives are busy (i'm hugely aware of this), but people keep in touch so easily now with IM, Facebook, email, etc. that we don't have as big of a drive to schedule time to hang out...or visit. I know I myself find that to be the case, and I accept it because of the hectic life going on around me and all of us...but I often wish it were like back in the day. Instead we've moved so face in our technology and our 'wants' that we aren't even living in the "now" world...but rather in the "next" world. It's making us not appreciate what we have and how far we've come, and making us forget where it use to be...we as a whole just want to know what's next, when is the newer, faster, better version coming out?

But, maybe thats just me...thoughts? feel free to write it in a letter. =)