Retro night with super smash brothers

(Photos taken 2014-11-27.)

Tooth fairy fail

(Photos taken 2014-11-20.)

When one laptop is not enough

(Photos taken 2014-11-16.)

Tommy at the hair salon

(Photos taken 2014-11-15.)

Chilling with Uncle David

Sent from my Sony Xperia™ smartphone

(Photos taken 2014-11-15.)

Got up at 5, played until he fell asleep an hour later

(Photos taken 2014-11-13.)

Double-wide Foosball at the Cassandra Summit

(Photos taken 2014-09-10.)

Corinna wearing Grandma's dress

(Photos taken 2014-09-02.)

Isaac at the park

(Photos taken 2014-09-01.)

Deep fried oreos

(Photos taken 2014-09-09.)

Bacon popcorn

Worth trying. Once.

(Photos taken 2014-10-12.)

David inventing new exercises

(Photos taken 2014-10-13.)

Corinna dresses herself

(Photos taken 2014-10-13.)

Fancy S'more at the Hightower

The bowl was filled with smoke.

(Photos taken 2014-11-05.)

Zombiecide with the Banks

(Photos taken 2014-10-18.)

Little David, big David

(Photos taken 2014-10-29.)

Christine's car, stage 3

(Photos taken 2014-10-27.)

Tommy barely fits on Mommy's lap now

(Photos taken 2014-11-08.)

Tommy is our first kid to sit with his feet in front of him

(Photos taken 2014-11-05.)

Preparing for a Halo Master Chief collection marathon with Brian

(Photos taken 2014-11-12.)

Emails from Rachel

Context: Tommy went to sleep early last night.  Then he woke up shortly before midnight and wanted to play.  Rachel put him in his crib, but he didn't sound sleepy.  Rather than wait it out like the night before, I went to sleep on the couch and put earplugs in.

(Lest I sound like a terrible husband, I would like the record to show that I first volunteered to stay up and play with Tommy while Rachel went to bed, but this plan was turned down.)

Spoiler alert: the brisket turned out great.

Email 1: What a night (2:07 AM)

It is now 2 am. You are sleeping like a baby. Our baby isn't and hasn't been sleeping. Tried all the tricks I know and finally gave up and left the room. He's wailing. I don't have the energy to watch him play on the floor nor do I want to set a middle of the night precedent. Checked the smoker and then discovered that you'd locked the door back. Fan-freaking-tastic.

I pounded on the back door and then the front door (rang the door bell too!) for a while, but you blissfully slept. Wish I had that super power. Remembered that the garage door opener was in the car and got back inside. It was cold.

The baby is still crying and I want to too.

See you in the morning.

Email 2: Finally got the little man to sleep (2:56 AM)

He nursed in my arms for 40 min. Then checked the brisket. Unwrapped it and accidentally spilled the juices onto the fire putting it mostly out. Now I'm restarting the fire. Smells amazing, don't want to spoil it.

Melissa at Young Eagles

(Photos taken 2014-11-08.)

Matthew at Young Eagles

(Photos taken 2014-11-08.)

Daylight savings

Yesterday we finally went off daylight savings.  (After a month of kids walking to the bus stop in the dark.  Thanks, Congress!)  For the first time ever, I didn't bother setting the clocks on the wall and the oven and the microwave.  Our phones and computers updated themselves so no hurry, right?

This morning, Tommy woke up a few minutes before six.  He was poopy and peed through his diaper.  While I was wrestling a new onesie on him and Rachel was fastening the new diaper around his butt, we heard the front door open and close.  I ran upstairs and Melissa's bed was empty.  She must have woken up, saw the time on the wall, and figured she was about to miss her bus.

I got dressed and picked her up from the bus stop.  She was glad to hear she had time to eat breakfast and brush her hair after all.