Please Excuse the New Setup...

Please, all, excuse my new setup for the page. Twice a year I get in this mode where everything I own has to be changed or altered in some way....usually all my passwords get changed, I change web stuff, yadda, yadda, yadda.... Now that I have a house I have this incredible yen to paint two of the bedrooms. One of them absolutely NEEDS to be painted and the other I just want a different color scheme....

Christopher's First Christmas!

Christmas morning came upon us, and there was much rejoicing. Christopher, the night before Christmas Eve (would that Christmas Eve's Eve?....hmmmmm...) came down with some sort of respiratory problem. Not usually an issue that Colleen nor I would generally freak out about. We had to have some concern due to Colleen's father's recent medical diagnosis (which I will keep off the web for his sake). He cannot be around sick people right now because he could have some difficulty fighting infection...we'll just leave it at that. That being the case, coupled with Christopher's shallow breathing, wheezing, runny nose, horse noise-making, and "wet" coughing, we decided to call his doctor for advice. We went in and got a clean bill for Christopher to hang out with Pop-Pop and wall was well...the rejoicing continued...

Christmas day arrived and after Christopher's steambath with Mommy, per Doctor recommondation, he bathed in a vapor-soap bath. Had to be clean and as minimally congested for Christmas as possible.

The in-laws arrived and present openning and breakfast ensued. He got more things than anyone should, especially since this will not be a memory he retains (I'm sure he was relatively unaware of the goings on to the degree that everyone else was aware of the goings on). But he notably got a 3-piece suit from Grammy Stevie, a bit stuffed dog from his Uncle Patrick, which was his favorite of all the presents he recieved...don't know why, it just was.

He also got a weeble-wobble sort of penguin toy that he just sort of got...basically a baby punching bag that makes a lot of funny noises when he's teetering about. I love this picture because it looks as if he's saying,"Uhm...for real? And what the hell am I supposed to do with this?" And he got the new Elmo toy...Elmo Live (???). Anyways, he liked the laughing and other random and wierd sounds Elmo made...but apparently he got tired of Elmo and did some cool WWF moves on him....you see the reverse headlock pictured...this was soon followed by the suplex and the obligatory "People's Elbow". It was really too graphic to display in photos....lets just say Elmo's gonna need some medical attention.

Christopher's 1st Christmas was a good one. He got way too much stuff, but that sort of thing will happen. We'll have to decide what to do with the extras (I'm sure they'll be donated...we're going to try to make that an annual thing and, eventually, get him involved in the donation part of it).

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas....

Pre-Christmas Photos

I'll be honest...I'm still learning to adapt to all of the family activities that my in-law relatives hold...especially around the holidays. There's nothing inherently bad about having all of these get togethers, it has just been somewhat of a process that I've just had to teach myself to do. And I'm still learning to adapt my anti-hang-out-with-people-too-much-or-too-often mentality to a more socially aware and involved (for lack of a better term) state of being. That being said, the activities really become more frequent around the holidays and, to be honest, its quite refreshing to experiece family that actually gets along well enough to actually want to be around one another....its quite an interesting phenomenon...and somewhat refreshing.

Regardless, here are two photos from 2 separate occurances of the aforementioned "gatherings" the first being the "Bad Christmas Sweater Party", with Colleen's cousin, and Christopher's God-Mother, Jacqueline, fully adorned in her pointsettia patterned black button-up top holding Christopher on her right and her son, Benjamin, on her left. Very cute stuff.

The second photo coming from the Christmas Eve gathering at my In-Law's home. I'm holding Max on my right knee (he is the son of another of Colleen's cousins, Kim) and Christopher on my left.

Christopher's Santa Picture

We waited until almost the last minute to get the "Santa" pictures, so we had to get them done at the local mall. The picture actually turned out pretty good, even though it makes him look like he's about 40 lbs. They did stick us pretty hard though. One sheet of pictures was $26!!!!! I almost hit the floor. Quite honestly, I don't know why I was surprised at all seeing as how it was a mall and it is, in fact, the American way to capitalize on common traditions and lore. We went ahead and ate the fee, agreeing to 1 page of assorted sized pictures with the thought that Colleen will, at least, have some good pictures to scrapbook when she does his 1st Christmas page.

Colleen did tell me of an area "farm" (I'm not exactly sure what this place sells, but it has "farm" in its name...hence the openning and closing ") that provides a Santa Claus every year free of charge to the patrons. The only requirement is that the patrons have to take the pictures themselves. I think that is a more-than-prompting proposition than getting rammed at the mall. The only hitch on that is that its about 10 miles from our house. Colleen actually offered that to me a few weeks ago, but I shot it down with the thought that driving that far to get a picture of Santa isn't very fiscally responsible. I've since rethought that position!





All that being said, he's Christopher's first picture with Santa Claus....





Enjoy

Christmas Decorations and Boy

The Holiday Season is now upon us...tenfold. There's a lot going on in the world to entice us all to dwell on the negative. Between the buyouts, sellouts, bailouts and bombings going on all over the world it really is difficult to think of anything positive at all. But this is the time of year where, at least in my mind, things hopefully go alright and I get to see the love and bond between families and friends. I'm trying very hard to think positive....at least through Christmas. So, we all went out to get a tree, came home to decorate it and the house to prepare for the season of some hopeful optimism (we have a new president for example). Col and I decided to put the tree near the piano...which I thought was a nice touch. It looks very nice...my mediocre picture-taking ability definitely does the tree a great disservice. We also did the outside of the house. Nothing crazy...some light up snowflakes and present boxes. We have a wreath coming soon, too. I try to make it a point to only keep the lights up for a minimal amount of time (2 hours typically) so as to keep my electric bill down and keep it a little green (the lights are even low wattage lights that don't use much power...I was very excited to hear about that when I bought them). The pictures of the house are very bad. I'll try to replace them as soon as I can.


Of course, we had to get some shots of Christopher by the tree. What else is there to say? One more thing to say actually...look at the larger picture below, bottom gums....he's finally getting those teeth! Colleen and I are both very excited...I'm sure he's not at 2 a.m. when he wakes up in writhing and screaming in pain. (I can't begin to tell you how thankful I am for teething medicines!)

More pictures to come of Christmas...gifts to open and all that...gifts that he'll show little to no intrerest in, being more interested in the boxes and wrapping paper, but I'll tak what I can get atthis age!

The New Resident Musician

I usually sit with Christopher at the piano a few times a week. I usually play chords or something simple for him (basic II, IV, V, I Progressions and what not...sometimes Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star and the like...whatever). This time, however, he wasn't feeling just sitting and listening to Daddy play. This time he wanted to be part of the action...so away we flew.

"You want me to play what? Hmmm....let me take a look. Ok......ok...."

"I think I can handle this. I know I've heard it somewhere. Maybe inutero or somewhere. You guys were always playing something or singing something. I think I know this though..."

DA-DA-DA-DAAAAAAAAAAMMMM!!!!
DA-DA-DA-DAAAAAAAAAAMMMM!!!!

da-da-da-dam, da-da-da-dam, da-da-da-dam...
da-da-da-dam, da-da-da-dam, da-da-da-dam...
DA-DA-DA-DAM!
DA-DA-DA-DAM!
DA-DA-DA-DAM!....DAM!...DAM!


"I knew I'd heard this before!"


All jokes aside, it was a fantastic moment for me. It was a lot of fun to see him start banging on the keys of the piano for the first time...and without reservation. I'll train him on touch as we go. As for now, this was an amazing time for me with Christopher.

I got so excited I tried him out on the Doumbek (smaller variation of the family of tuned drums such as the Djembe). That took him some time, but he started to get it a bit after a few minutes. That's my boy.

please note: For those of you who will enlarge the pictures to look at them, I'm very aware that the sheet music is not, in reality, Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. The music is actually from Franz Schubert's song-cyle "Die Schoner Mullerin." Just play along...Beethoven's 5th is a much more recognizable and type-easy

The Day of "The Tierney December Birthday Party"

These are some pictures I took yesterday.

These photos were taken during the morning. He was in a very good mood considering he is now beginning to shed his two bottom teeth. He was actually very comical...laughing hysterically while grabbing his little flex football and flinging it all around. Its tough not to be reminded of how much we should really appreciate the simplest, most seemingly benign things. Its a fantastic reality check of sorts to try to see the world through the eyes of a child.

We then attended the "Tierney December Birthday Party" held in celebration for all of the people with birthdays in the month of December...a real gala affair. This festival is held every year, but this year there was a special motivation. My wife and her cousins who are also mothers wanted to have a picture taken of all 4 of the children in Christmas pajamas. Again, its amazing to think of myself so "tamed," for lack of a better term. I think we took between 40-50 shots cumulatively, but eventually my wife's cousin, Jacqueline, got the shots. She got the only 2 photos that had all 3 (or 4) children all looking at the camera. The results are below, along with a very good picture of Colleen and Christopher.

Black Friday

O.K., People who know me know that I actually hate about everything that has to do with the Black Friday sales extravaganza. I hate the way impatience, arguing, rudeness, and other completely ludacris behaviors that entail the shopping melee. I also generally hate being around large groups of people, waking up at 2:00 in the morning, then standing out in the cold to buy something no one really needs (or sometimes even wants). I've done it before and vowed never to do it again, but this time, I was swayed by Colleen to come out with her and her family. Being the dedicated and loving husband I am, I agreed to go through this torturous event if, for no other reason, because it would make her happy. After the Thanksgiving feast, we dropped Christopher off at Pop-Pop and Nana Culley's house to have his first sleep-over. This was our first time having the house to ourselved without him...it was pretty tough (honestly tougher for her than me). I reminded her that her parents were really excited about having him stay over for the first time, which seemed to help her a lot (admittedly, it also served as a reassurance to me as well...)

We got to Circuit City, which I guess is where they go every year, around 2:30 in the morning and was surprised that the lines weren't too bad. I contributed it to the failing economy, but I'm no financial analyst. This was also slightly awkward for me because I had a part time job there last year and quit due to a lot of things that were going on...lets just say our split was not amicable. So I wasn't sure of how my entrance into the store was going to go. The wait wasn't as bad as I thought. I 'm thankful that a lot of people in Colleen's family are very funny and we ended up laughing a lot of the time. And my aforementioned awkwardness quickly subsided as I entered the store and was greeted with open arms by the few people I actually got along with during my stint at Circuit City. Here are some pics of the wait...

After Circuit City, we headed to a nearby diner (not the Blue Falcon for those who ate there during my wedding out here) for breakfast, then headed out to Target and Kohl's. We all separated after that and went our different ways. Col and I headed home for a nap, then went to pick up our son and that was that for the Black Friday fun.

All things said and done, we ended up with a few gifts (2 for Colleen, 6 for Christopher, and 3-4 for me). So it wasn't a completely awful experience, as I figured it would be. The obvious question remains, though....and the answer is "probably never again." Colleen can pretty much talk me into anything.

Thanksgiving Pictures

Some pics of Christopher's Thanksgiving...we start with his post-breakfast/pre-bath chillin' in his high chair while Mommy is cooking pies and stuffing for Thanksgiving and Daddy is cleaning up the breakfast mess (the in-laws were over for Thanksgiving breakfast). Christopher is content with his chew toys and a bit of attention.

Daddy gave Christopher a bath, and we had a good time playing afterwards. We also played with some bathtoys during his bath. Most of bathtime was splashing with hands and feet, but we did get the bath in...even a hair wash! But there was still more fun to be had after getting out of the tub, dried off, and diapered up...especially his very impressive impersonation of Sean Penn here.

Then we got to Colleen's aunt's house and feasted. All were merry...until Christopher's second cousin decided to take his lunch money! Only kidding, of course...she apparently wanted to pose with him for the picture and I tought it was funny becuase it really looks like she's about to punch him in the face and he actually looks a little scared...cowering to the larger, faster, and stronger second cousin!

I hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving.

Been a While...

It has been a while since I've posted anything to the ol' blog. Things have been a little crazy at the Kane house for the last couple of weeks. Regardless, I thought I'd take some time and post a couple of pictures I took over the last week or so...enjoy....

There is absolutely no chance of Maury now...He looks just like me in this picture. Its pretty scary. I even think I've made that face on more than one occasion. Those who know me well can identify this look as my general look of "what the hell?"

I don't think that he's feelin' the hat. Mommy and Nana Culley dig it...and I suspect that Grammy Stevie loves it as well. Daddy hates it, but he needed a hat and that was the only one we could find in the 4 stores we searched that had one that would fit. Probably because last week, the temps dropped under 20 degrees F. I'm still a last-minute-man apparently. I love his face...as if he's saying, "I hate them....both of them."

AND he's finally holding his own bottle on his own...pretty magnificent I think...but I'm a bit biased. He has one of those cool Captain Kirk-esque high-chairs that has separate tilt functions for the tray and the seat...craziness. Anyway, he had just finished downing some turkey and sweet potatoes and a bit of mango (which is what is splattered ever-so-slightly over his tray). He seems to be taking to the home-pureed foods pretty well. We just started meat a couple of weeks ago. So far, out of everything we've tried (veggies, fruits, and now turkey), he hasn't completely rejected anything. He wasn't such a fan of lima beans, but who is?

Well, there you go. I must off to bed now...

Night, all.

Guess Who Figured Out How to Get Cell Phone Pics on His Blog

That's right....me! So, I thought I'd share some of the pictures that I've taken with my cell phone since the lad decided to grace us with his presence. Some of the pics are a bit out of focus, but taking pictures with a cell phone can, as many of you might know, be somewhat challenging. Definitely not Anne Geddess (sp?) material or anything like that, but still...

ABOVE
Here's Christopher an hour or so after his birth (upper left) and some random cute pic I had to get when he was about 3 months (upper right). Cuddling with his wolf teether thing (lower left) and falling asleep after almost an hour of screaming his head off (lower right)...don't worry, he was tired the whole time and couldn't be consoled at the time. So he got some supervised floor time. After long battle with the strong human urges to rest and recooperate, he had to succumb to the gentle beast of human nature.


ABOVE

(left)...we were at a party for the child of one of Colleen's friends. This was Christopher's first visit to Philadelphia since his intrduction to gaseous oxygen. Good times had by all. The pizza was really good I remember. We shared that same expression for much of the party. (right) Christopher at the Gastro-Intenstinal doctor at Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia (not a fun drive if you're wondering). He was, obviously, elated to find out that he was no longer under the weight charts in the dungeon of infant development...jumping from 4th percentile to 10th percentile. We all shared his excitement.

BELOW

I hate to admit this, but I was at the mall (not an activity I practice often, trust me) and found myself being drawn into Gap Kids or Kid's Gap...whatever. The scary thing is that these pictures were taken almost a week apart...8 days apart to be precise. Regardless, after being drawn into the abyss, if you will, I found some humor in trying on these flap hats (we only tried them on because I refuse to pay over a certain dollar amout for baby clothing...call me irresponsible or Daddy Dearest if it makes you feel better). They made out for pretty decent pictures...and my son has the patience of a saint...a trait that he had to have gotten from his mother (for those of you who know me well).

Also note that Daddy has an uncanny ability to accessorize...brown hat with earth-toned outfit on left, red hat (barely noticeable...sorry) on the right with the red/white/blue athletic outfit...craziness...