Shoes that attract dogs

I made a guest appearance on Sarah's blog to show a video of Emma and her squeak shoes.
Check it out

Spring Summer cleaning

So, my Mom came to visit us here in New Orleans for my birthday (July 27th). She brought with her a vacuum attachment to clean fans. Boy did we need that. Our fans were very dusty, and under the dust was a nice layer of greasy gunk. I was able to clean all three of our fans with the vacuum and a plastic knife (to scrap off the grease). I took some pictures of the last fan blade before I cleaned it. Please do not call DSS because the fans are now all clean and Emma is fine.

top of fan blade

Bottom of fan blade

All Clean!!

How did you spend your Bastille Day weekend?

So its not quite Bastille Day yet but this is the unofficial Bastille Day weekend. So as we say in southern Louisiana Happy Fête Nationale Y'all! We spent part of our day at the Louisiana Children's Museum Yet another reason why we love New Orleans is the Louisiana Children's Museum (LCM) . We have a year membership to the LCM and decided that it should be our every Saturday field trip. There is an awesome toddler room with every toy you could imagine for toddlers. Emma can just go explore and be a toddler with out us being to worried about safety and stuff. The rest of the LCM is a kind of discovery place/edventure sort of place with a New Orleans theme. You got the Port of New Orleans, a streetcar, a creole cottage and Mr. Rodgers Neighborhood (I know, I'm not sure how that fit in either, but its fun). Its also got the good ole' dicovery stuff (ramps, levers, etc.). Here are some pictures of our fun time.

growl! says the dinosaur

Look at all these toys!

Puzzle pieces or items to bang together..hmm depends on my mood.

I love puppet shows..Here let me try!

It's my Mom!

"Emma give Mommy kisses"

Enough sitting and loving lets ride!

Did I mention i just came from Itsy Bitsy Yoga. DOWNWARD DOG!

Here I am! I was in the cabinet!!!

I'm Driving a Freightship.

Hey Mom, Watch out!

oooo...Bubbles!

Hold on Dad, I want to see if I'm bigger than this Bubble. Maybe if I poke the bubble it will get shorter!

What a day.. Time to relax on Mr. Rodgers porch swing.

Well armed Garbage truck

So Sarah and I were driving to work on Claiborne, and turned down Alvar to cut down to St. Claude (road our office is on). As we turned I discovered there was a garbage truck in front of us. So I prepared for the worst, A/C on recirculate, foot on the break to prepare for sudden stops. Well the garbage truck picked up 1 can on the whole street, weird! We get to a red light and one of the Garbage men (boy really) jumped off and ran to the front of the garbage truck. Well Sarah and I are admiring how proud we were that the remaing Garbage worker was working hard as a trash man and not off in some gang or robbing people. About the time those words left my mouth the Garbage boy reaches over to the side of the truck and grabs something off then runs to the front of the truck. "Was that a gun!?!?" Sarah and I ask at the same time. Sure enough he comes back around to the back of the truck holding a hand gun and stands there playing with it like it was no big deal. Oh my! People are so desinsitized that playing with a gun at work, in the middle of the street, with a car behind you, is no big deal.

Nola is never boring

Today was Saturday (I suppose it still is). Daddy and Emma did not have there normal 3 mile walk of the uptown, but thats okay cuz they both got a different kind of exercise. Swimming! This was Emma second time in a swimming pool, but her first Official "I'm in a pool, look at me". We got her one of those blowup/Pop up floating devices and they rock. Emma's friends were even hanging on it and it didnt even sink but a tiny bit. I supose I should go fill out one of those chessey I love this product reviews. But anyway We had SOOO much fun at the pool and got to hang out with some of Emma's "school" friends. Emma loved it and everyone in the Family got sunburned (even with 50 spf sunscreen) Daddy the worst, Mommy Next, then Emma a tiny bit on her arm (do not worry grandparents we will keep a watch on it to be sure it doesnt get worse). But you can tell the hierarchy of how the sunscreen was applied. Mom and Dad both worked on Emma. Daddy helped Mom, and Daddy was on his own.
On another note I became obsessed with another item and Sarah told me we could get it for Fathers day (I think I will add birthday as well, Christmas not so fast still got to get me something for that). Its a Netbook! If you have not heard of them, picture a laptop the size and weight of a portable dvd player with a 10.1 inch screen. I'm so excited because this replaces the old Toshiba that died, and I no longer must bring my work laptop home. Its a Asus 1000HE and while you can't play HUGE GRAPHICS shooting games on it (not that I would I'm a Father now) it works for internet and word processing with the occasional movie or video. YEAY! I'll post more when it comes to the house.

Life

Can I just say how fast babies grow up. I was holding a 3 month old (not sure if that is the right age, Sarah will correct me if not). He could not do anything without help, I was trying to remember when Emma was that small, it was hard to do. She is such a big girl now, walking, playing, eating with a spoon. Before I know it I will be calling her to see how her baby is doing (Sarah had Emma when she was only 24).

My Life in Jobs

Some of these were only a few times but still count.

• Door to door salesman (selling chocolates in Elementary school, I was quite good at it. Come to find out its cuz the people in my neighborhood were all high and had the munches)
  
• Landscaper (made retaining wall once and mowed and raked someones yard several times)
• Childcare provider (church nursery)
• Camp Councilor (For a few, week long camps)
• Childcare provider (after school program)
• Landscaper (mowed and raked peoples yards to raise money for Campus Crusade)
• Ride Operator at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk in CA (two summers)
• Warehouse Manager (5 semesters)
  
• Student Teacher k-4 class for Semester
• Student Teacher 2nd Grade class for Semester
• 1 year old's teacher for 8 months
• 1st grade Teacher for a school year
• Kindergarten Teacher for a school year
• Live in Staff at a Children's Home for 9 months
• Secretary to a Lawyer (1 day)
• Painter (painted part of the outside of our pastors house)
• Tiler (fixed some tile in our bathroom)
  
• Shoe Salesman (3 weeks)
• 1st grade teacher (1 day)
  
• Factory worker (3 days)
• 2 year old teacher (1 day)
• Office Worker (13 months and counting)
  
• Delivery Driver (3 months)
  
• Fast food worker (3 months)
• Husband (4 year to Forever)
  
• Father (12 months to forever)