Vintonville

Despite the irreverent title, for reals- Liz and Luke are proud parents of a pretty cute little guy. Jace left womb for world at about 9:45 pm last night (November 25) and weighed in at a welterweight 6 pounds, five ounces and a stunning 18.5 inches in length. Liz and Luke are (we think– they were kinda in a haze when we arrived) doing fine, despite chalking up a mere 4 hours of sleep in the last 24 hours. I’m apologizing in advance for the lack of CS3 on this computer, where I would have made the little fella’s complexion look flawless, but hey, give little Jace a break– he was just pushed, vacuumed and clamped out of a hole the size of a bathtub drain.

After checking out their undeniably handsome little gentleman, do check in with them, won’t you?

Joshua and I were “fighting” the other night. Our fights pretty much consist of “wrastlin’”– I kneel on the floor as he backs away, hunches his back, draws his arms into his body and with clenched fists charges into me with his angry face and a hearty “yaaaaah!” I fall over, he throws a few 3-year old hammer punches, I gorilla squeeze him, roll over and then whirl him across the floor. Rinse, repeat infinitum.

After a few rounds of these shenanigans, it gets a little hot when you’re wearing sweaters and stuff, so we went semi Greco-Roman style with shirts off. No one (NO ONE) needs to see a picture of me with my shirt off right now (clad in undershirt or not) but, with Mari-Catherine encouraging Joshua’s eating habits with promises of “big muscles” and “growing up to be like Papa”, Joshua was all about showing his Mama what was up with his shirt off. The pics* slightly capture it, but the kid was seriously straining these flexes with competition quality grunting, intensity and eyes bugging/watering.

Either way… Awesome.

*The first pic is blurry as I rushed to get the camera and snap a candid shot before the moment passed by. When Joshua saw the second photo, he says, “Hey! There’s my ribs!” And to you I say, “Yes, we do feed him well.”

One of the childhood traditions I remember as making Christmas-time wondrous and exciting (you know, back when Christmas didn’t involve crushing hordes of suburban cannibals and heathens, every last retail item rewarded with “Christmasization” and having your ears vigorously punched with every known musical variation of three “faith neutral” Christmas songs) were the extensive “want” lists I’d whip out for Mom, Dad and Santa.

Not that it was all carefree and easy. This was serious business. I had to troll the Sunday paper and holiday catalogs, making detailed lists that not only included writing and lovingly hand drawn illustrations, but also carefully cutting out the good stuff and gluing it to paper. Not to mention the complicated “If/Then” scenarios: “If” I don’t get the AT-AT, “then” I’ll be equally thrilled with the AT-ST! This wasn’t just a list- this was a season long project laid out in phases.

Of course now… not so much enthusiasm.

On Sunday, however, my cold and jaded heart was warmed with some of that same enthusiasm as we found Joshua stepping into childhood tradition. As pretext, because he’d been great about not wetting the bed, we’d promised Joshua a Star Wars guy. While we were out a couple days ago, we hit up Kohl’s. As we cruised the store, we ran across a wall of Transformers and Star Wars toys. Joshua was awestruck (WHOAH!!!), telling Mari-Catherine “This is all on my list”. Without hesitation, he giddily picked a “droid” character which came with a little fold out catalog that, for Joshua, was almost as cool as the toy.

A day or so later, after holding up the fold-out and asking, “Papa, can I cut this?” Joshua matter-of-factly asked for paper, pulled “his scissors and glue” out of the drawer and began an intense focus on his procedural work of cut, glue, paste while hunkered over the kitchen table. I’m sure most parents know the feeling when they see their kids doing something similar and instantly remembering the innocent clarity of their own childhood. I think the term to describe it is “SO Freakin’ cute!!”

As you know, last weekend was Mankend and, intent to deliver on the promise of a Mankend reveal (and satiate the flood of zero requests I see in my inbox every day), I’m posting some insider pics. Now, you may hear “Mankend” and find yourself unable to justify “Manly” with some of the pics you see below –in fact, some of you might think it more aptly name “Gaykend”– I assure you, it was less gay than the “Rock Band” picture would indicate.

Either way, that’s an awful lot of meat necks on display up there.

Shooting crap follows:

You know THE scene in Field of Dreams? The one where Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner) gets to play catch with his young dad in the (here comes the purple prose!) warm twilight of a summer’s evening? That scene encapsulates and always reminds me of the many times Dad would take the time to play catch with me. It’s difficult to describe, but it’s a timeless bond– one that, for me, inherently carries unspoken purity and meaning. Of course, this amounts to nothing short of a massive saline loss every single time that scene plays out. “Of all the movie scenes that make grown men cry, this one most earns it.”

My tears start flowing at minute 3:08. Thanks for the memories– I love you, Pops.

So, now that I’m drying my tears, time to get back to the original post… obviously, this is a tradition I want to pass along to my little guy– and so it was that Joshua and I were out back as I was trying to “teach” Joshua the time-honored basics of putting a leather glove in front of your face before a  speeding white ball hits it. I may be a little early, and Joshua’s still learning (he gets a little frustrated, expecting the ball to just hop into the mitt), but we had a decent go at it. MC snuck up and took some pictures of it, but sadly, most came out blurry (or made my kiester look MLB large). So, here’s a couple posed ones instead.

Halloween kind of came and went with a lot of fanfare around our place, but despite all the hubbub leading up to it, I’ve been yet to post pictures of the hype culmination– Joshua’s costume. Until…

…Now!

As an explanation, Joshua was all about dressing up like a shark/robot up until two days before Halloween, when all of a sudden he wanted to be a ghost. I suggested the ol’ bedsheet with two holes standby, but was totally shot down. Instead, with some crafty handy work and some helpful hints from Parenting magazine, Mari-Catherine whipped him up the ghost costume you see at left. I’m still not superkeen on seeing my little guy kicking it in a pair of tights with pink sparkly crests at the top (hidden from view, thankfully), but I guess it all turned out.

The pic below? Joshua as Iron Man in his tumbling class. The dude is a cheeser. And yes, he’s been working out.

A few weeks back, MC threw Liz a baby shower at our joint. Like the dews of heaven distilling upon the everlasting hills, gifts were exchanged with glowing smiles and warm embraces. Now that my stab at a conference talk is out of the way… the ladies ate, chatted and left. The Vinton Utah Girl contingent was up and all together, so I took a pic, which you may now behold.

They’re pretty.

So Mari-Catherine is finally done with her stint on jury duty. Though she was in the stand-by pool, she was required to be at all dates and sentencing sessions. In short, she received all the adventure, but none of the worry or pressure (I say that NOW).

As it stands, the accused was convicted of murder in the first degree and, despite the state asking for the death penalty, was sentenced by jury to life in prison without parole. One fact she was let in on– she was the first juror on the stand-by list, so had anyone been unable to finish out their duty, Mari-Catherine was the first replacement.

DUN-DUN!

You can find a story on the conviction here.

You can find a story on the sentencing (just a few hours old now) here.