New Activity Center Movies

Christopher's become quite the track star with his activity center. He's taken to running around in circles...which I love watching. He lowers his head and just takes off. This makes we really excited about walking around the mall with him when we go...or creepy places like Wal-Mart. These are times I wish we had things like Spider Tracers or Bat Man's utility belt...that would be cool.

Before I get started on the first video, I would like to point out a few things.

1.) Sorry about the R2-D2 comment. I just kept picturing my boy sporting a dome with lights making beep beep noises....and the way he's able to change direction by turning his body...it just reminded me of R2-D2

2.) That wierd thing he's doing with his head is how he dances. Dancing is a new skill that he's acquired. I was feeding him the other day and listening to the JAM network on XM radio. I don't remember what was on...I remember that it was either Tea Leaf Green or Maceo Parker...but that's neither here nor there. Anyway, I was rocking my head from left to right jamming away like I ususally do when I'm listening to some tasty jams...and he started rocking his head back and forth. Since that day (the orgin was the Sunday before last), he's come up with a couple of variations on the dance...this particular variation I like to call "I Wanna Make People Think I Have an Ear Infection" dance. Pretty happening if I do say so myself.

3.) He's also begun making "click" noises. There's really not much to be said about that....it is what it is.

Not much to be explained about this video except that Christopher apparently has enough awareness so that he can point out that this game has gone on long enough. He has learned the "so big" thing...which is, admittedly, kind of cute.

Not much to be said of this video either. Just Christopher running around in circles. I love it because right before he gets that good all-out run going he dips his head down...next thing you know....vrooooom!...he's done 2/3's - 3/4's of a full lap. Then he stops gathers himself, then continues on. It must also be said that this was all done at one time...he was in the aparatus for about 10 minutes before he was tired of that game. It didn't help that he was about an hour past when he usually goes to bed. I figured some running around for a few minutes would do him some sleepy good...and I was right for once!

Anyways, enjoy the videos...they're about 5 minutes total time...much love...

The Kanes

Maybe Next Year Cubbies

So you thought I was kidding, but I really wasn't. These were taken tonight. Some of you might know me to be a pretty big Chicago Cubs fan. I kept in on the D.L. during most of my college years (helped that baseball is primarily a Summertime sport). Colleen's cousin Trish, from Indiana, got Christopher two Cubs 'onesies'...the red on pictured here and a blue on that he will rock next week (don't worry, I'll probably post those too). So we got him chillin' on the couch....we got him standing against the sofa....yeah, guess who can pull himself up and who's about to start crawling all over the place?...one of the "standing shots" with Colleen. Sometimes I look back at the old pics of him that I've posted since his first breath of polluted Philadelphia air and think how amazing baby development is...how he looks...how he's developing quite the personality (watch out, Parker...I think Christopher's gonna be a tank, too!)...all of that. Its pretty amazing when you think about it.

I posted this last pic because it looks like we're talking smack about someone...or telling secrets or something. I'd love to come up with a story-line of some sort, but that's not a forte of mine. I, therefore, will not attempt to bore anyone with ludicris stories that don't follow any sort of concept, definitely don't build to any sort of climax, and ususally end on a very sour note....just the photo. Feel free, for those more creative sorts, to come up with a good story if you'd like.

Christopher's Last Christmas Present for the Year

I would like to apologize for the people who might take some time weekly/monthly to check out the blog. I haven't really had the time to do any updating. Hell, I haven't even really taken any pictures since New Years...for that I'm a sad definition of a first-time parent. Don't worry though...I do plan on making up for that lag tenfold!

Christopher's Uncle Micheal and Aunt Annette in Delaware had a nice gift for Christopher. So we took a short trip down there from Levittown to see them and to do an informal gift exchange. We also got something from them, and them from us, but really none of that matters because its really about the kid, right? At least that's what people tell me. This year was no more "What did Colleen get you for Christmas?" talk...and ALL "What did Christopher get for Christmas?" talk...so I'm just going with what I've learned as the status quo Christmas question and only posting what he got for Christmas because no one really cares what we got...which is ultimately ok.

Christopher got a toy piggy bank...and its a developmental toy! Col and I both love to get developmental stuff for Christopher...probably because we both work with children and understand that sort of stuff pretty well. It doesn't hurt that Aunt Annette is an Occupational Therapist as well. It was pretty cool actually...lots of cool noises and having to put the large plastic coins into a slot (which he tried, but couldn't quite get it). Very nice of them...thanks.

Another picture of the boy with his new piggy bank...and one sitting on Dad's lap.

Here is Aunt Annette and Christopher playing on the floor. It dawned on me after I posted all of these that I didn't get one shot of Uncle Mike. We'll have to correct that on the next visit with them. Until then, enjoy the pictures.

Holidays and New Years with the Indiana Troop

Colleen's two cousins arrived a couple of days after Christmas and made a holiday visit to the area. They usually come out around this time of year and its always a pleasure to get to see them. Col and I met while we lived in Indiana (for those of you who might not know this) and spent a lot of time with her cousins and their family. We think of these kids often and miss them terribly, so we really love it when they come here to visit or we go out there to visit. Point being, they were here for some of the holiday season and we had a great time with them while they were here.

We had to do an obligatory "Tierney Grandchildren" photo displaying the 3rd generation of my in-law family. These are all the children of all the sons and daughters of the 1st generation Tierney family. We could only get them all to stay still for about 3 shots, so we made it work with what we had.

Of course we had to get as many pictures of the Indiana cousins kids holding Christopher. We were able to get a couple, but I did want to represent ALL of the Indiana cousins starting with Maggie playing some keyboard, Jack demonstrating some of his Tae-Kwon-Do moves (he's in a class), JoAnna with Christopher, Molly with Christopher, and the three oldest (from top to bottom), Morgan (holding Christopher), Kelsey, and Courtney.

And we represent some plain old pretty cool pictures. A very good picture of Morgan holding Max, Courtney, Kelsey with Christopher, Molly wearing Jack's night-vision-goggles, and Emily and Ben doing some Tae-Kwon-Do (imitating Jack who had just completed his demonstration). The actual picture isn't that good, but the pose and action is priceless.

We also had an impromptu New Years celebration party at our house...and at the stroke of midnight Morgan, Molly, Kelsey, Courtney, and Jack braved the 11 degree temperature for about 2 minutes...banging away on pots and pans with all their little muscles could muster until they were lashed harshly by the bitter and frigid cold. After retiring to the house...they continued to play around for a little while longer then back to their Nana's house to sleep off the celebration!

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.