Fun at Grandma and Grandpa's

After his hair appointment, we dropped by my parents' house. John was his normal charming self and even entertained himself with a few different fun activities.

Our John's Second Hair Cut

It's been about 3-months since John's last hair cut. In that time, two teeth have popped up, he's started to eat food, he's taking regular bowel movements, and he's just grown cuter. Along with his handsome visage, his hair has grown quite a bit. As you can see in the photo at the left, our John has a great head of hair, so he needs to see his stylist Adriana ever two to three months.

We arrived at the Yellow Balloon and John was a little ornery. He'd woken up at 5 AM and was a little tired. Can you blame him? He fell asleep in the car ride over to Studio City and we had to wake him up to have a woman come at him with some scissors. I'd a little upset.

Adriana is a miracle worker. She jumped in and just kept on going. I have no clue why she'd want to cut kid's hair, but dang is she good and fast. When John would shift, she'd adjust immediately. It was quite impressive. Plus, she had an autographed photo of Luke Perry on her mirror. That's pretty big in our book since Beverly Hills 90210 was what it was because of him. Anywho, enough of my woolgathering. John kept on fidgeting, but our girl just kept on shifting the balance. In the end, I'd say she did a darned good job. Wouldn't you agree?

The Giggler

If John were a supervillain, his name would obviously have to be The Giggler. Listen to him. He's hella RUFUS!

John's Social Calendar

Being the society dandy that he is, John has quite a busy social calendar. This morning we went over to the Farmer's Market and had breakfast with his little friend, Julia. Her mom is a friend of Maureen's from waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back when. They recently reconnected over Facebook.

Anywho, John and Julia enjoyed their outing together. The pancakes were good. And the company was quite pleasant. What have I learned? I should be a bit more social. It's nice to go out with other people once in a while.

John Unwinds After a Long Day at Grammy's

It's been what seems like a long week for our John. He's been a bit fussy, but we think it's because a new tooth is coming through. Hopefully, it'll pop out soon because he's just being a little to ornery for our liking.

Anyway, Maureen always says that he reminds her of one of the kids from Peanuts whenever he sticks his tongue out of the side of his mouth. If you can recall those wonderful comic strip and cartoon classes from days gone by, the kids would always stick their tongues out the side of their mouths when they were doing some hard school work. I suppose she has a valid point; othewise, it wouldn't have made the blog.

Enjoy the clip. He's quite entertaining like a young Spanky. Actually, he socked me today much like the young Spanky would have.

Splish Splash Johnny Take a Big Boy Bath

Our John has outgrown two bath tubs, so we had to go buy a big boy bath tub. After doing away with the notion of buying him the baby spa and shower (the reviews were terrible), we decided on the sensible Primo Euro Tub. Now, that name may seem a bit misleading since it's actually made in the USA, but it had great reviews on the internet. It's huge, but it fits in our bath tub and John seems to like it. Actually, he lost his balance and did a face plant into the water, but Maureen saved him.

Johnny Walker Green Label

Maureen likes to say that John is full of beans. I like to think that he has a lot to say. What he's saying? I don't know, but I think he's trying to tell us that he's not pleased with the direction that the government is taking and that he'll run for President in 2044. He'll be 35-years old and elligible.

John and Montecore

We all know what happened on that stage in Las Vegas when Roy had the stroke. Montecore "sensed" that Roy was in danger and dragged him off. Well, I can assure you that John will go nowhere near wild cats like that. The closest that he'll come to anything like that will be when he listens to Andy Williams singing "Born Free" at the Andy Williams Moon River Dinner Theater in Branson, MO when we go visit the Upshaws for Shelby's graduation in a couple of years.

John's New Toy

We stopped in at Babies R Us today and picked up a couple of things. Actually, we were going to pick up a new bathtub, but they didn't have it. We picked up something even more fun. Yes, that's right. We bought him a Jolly Jumper.

Yes, Maureen is giving him a little help, but after a while he figured it out himself. John's a bit of a genius that way.

John and His Pruney Poop

Our John has taken quite well to eating his prunes. Some might say that he has taken too well. He just loves those prunes. That's great, but they go right through him, if you know what I mean. Normally, I'd say no big deal, but I do have two big gripes:

1. It smells to high heaven. It smells like the prunes in the container mixed in with his poop.

2. I hate the consistency of the final product that he excretes. It's sticky and I have to use twice as many wipes.

Thankfully, I think we are going to move on to some new food tomorrow. I look forward to going back to the nice poops which are easy to clean.

Rolling with the Homies

So Johnny decided that he needed to spend some time with his boys, so we invited Milo the Monkey and Jon Voight over for some fun. As you can see, they are just maxing and relaxing. Take a look at the positioning of John's hand. It looks like he's practicing for the future. You know how boys like to scratch.

He's Bound for the Hague Some Day

I know that will only resonate for people who work for Royal Dutch Shell, but this boy is going places. One day, he'll be sending out e-mails like Marvin Odom or Jeroen van der Veer. Either that, or he's going to take my place at the office tomorrow if I continue to feel like garbage.

Plus, it never hurts to curry favor with the big wigs in The Netherlands.

John Enjoys Having His Teeth Brushed

Thank God the boy likes having his teeth (all two of them) brushed. We don't want to have our perfect boy with a mouth full of rotten teeth. You won't be calling him Yuck Mouth any time soon.

The Weekend and Daylight Savings Jazz

Yesterday, my plan was to go see Watchmen whilst Maureen and John took a nice walk around the Grove. As we were on that long (1.5-minute) drive to the Grove, I decided it would be a much nicer day to walk around the Grove and take in the sites (I didn't know Miley Cyrus was going to be there). So, we saw some great clothes at Janie and Jack. Just you wait until you see our boy dressed for Easter of 2010. He'll be quite the society dandy!! To top it off, we had a lovely lunch by the new tables at The Farm which are located next to the fountain. I must say that I had some french fries (which I shouldn't have since I gave them up for Lent), but if you've had those fries, you'd know why I gave in.

After that, we headed over to Larchmont Blvd to see if there were interesting items at the sidewalk sale. I must say that I really liked the new toy store on the Blvd. They had so many cool toys. They were a bit on the pricey side, but they had a great selection of toys. And, they had those old balsa wood gliders that you used to find at the grocery store for $0.25. Needless to say, they cost a little more than $0.25 these days. The sidewalk sale was rather blah if one were to ask me. We stopped by Flicka and I didn't like any of the sale items. Inside the store, that was a different matter. Our John would look quite stylish and smart in many of the outfits in that store. We finished our visit with a trip to Baskin Robbins. John was dying to have some ice cream, but we all know that Dr. K would have a fit if we gave him anything like that until he says it's ok.

This morning was a bit interesting. Due to the time change, we were quite discombobulated. John was up early as always and he wasn't exactly going back to sleep in his crib, so Maureen put him on his Boppy in the bed at about 6:15. Next thing I know, it's 7:45. Normally, we're awake and puttering about by then. We didn't quite make it to mass since our schedule was obliterated by this time change (Do the farmers really need that extra hour? curse you Congress for mandating the time change!) So, if John's a little off this week, we can all blame Congress!

John Likes Prunes, We Think

This week's new food is prunes. It's the only one we hadn't given him, so we're going to see how things go. Hopefully, they'll go right through him. He doesn't need it because he's quite regular, but it's good to expose him to all sorts of foods early. We'd hate it if he were to turn out like me and be "allergic" to most healthy foods.

How Miley Cyrus Ruined John's Trip to Barnes and Noble

Today, we were at the Grove and decided to go pick up a couple of books for John. So, we walk up to the B&N and notice that Miley Cyrus will be signing books there at 12 PM. Since it was 11:10, we figured that everything was ok and that we'd be in and out in about 10-minutes. Needless to say, that didn't happen or else my title would have been something else. We went up to the third floor to the children's section and guess what: That's where freakin' Hannah Montana herself was going to be signing. They blocked the kids section off completely. Fortunately, we were able to find some books at Pottery Barn Kids, but I'm sure we would have found more at Barnes and Noble.

Johnny Makes Some Noise

John Just Likes To Chill

Maureen walked into the bedroom yesterday morning and saw that John was just lying back on the bed. He looks quite comfortable as if he were watching his favorite television program. Right now, we're not sure what that is. I'll bet it's Law & Order SVU or ER.

John's Trip to the Doctor

John had a follow-up with Dr. K yesterday to see if he still had any fluid in his ears after his ear infection. Sure enough, he still has some fluid, so he's back on his Amoxicilin. Aside from that, he's quite healthy. He's up to 18.5-lbs and his teeth are coming in.

There are times he makes the upper part of his body stiff and throws himself backward. Maureen asks him to stop doing that because she doesn't want him to be autistic. I just think he's trying to shake the liquid loose from the back of his ears much like I did when I used to go swimming (I don't do it anymore since swimming in most pools or bodies of water is no better than swimming in a toilet).

If we all know anything, it's that autism can be cured with tough love. Watch "A Change of Habit" starring Elvis and Mary Tyler Moore. Elvis is a doctor in the ghetto that cures a little girl, Amanda, by holding onto her, rocking back and forth, and saying "I love you Amanda" and "Come on, baby. Get mad at me." Eventually Amanda stopped rocking back and forth and started interacting with Elvis. Watch the clip below to see Elvis' healing touch.

JD and Pears

Sadly, no strange reactions come forth from the boy. Oh well, next week, it's prunes. That promises to be quite interesting.

Strange Sunday

So, we woke up this morning to go to mass at 10 AM at Cathedral Chapel. As we are driving up 9th Street to make a right onto La Brea, we notice there is quite a hubub going on down the street near La Brea. There were police cars, fire trucks, and an air bag. Sure enough, there was a jumper on top of the Korean church that was on the corner of La Brea and 9th. Maureen looked up and said, "Is that man on the cross on top of the Korean church naked?" I looked up and saw more than I needed to see of this poor, lost soul. Sure enough, he was naked as the day he was born. He eventually came down at about 3 PM after about 6-hours of balancing on the rusty cross.

Giggles McGee

Please enjoy the best sound ever, Our John's laughter!

Then, look at John enjoying his own video.

Johnny's Ready to Crawl

Take a look, Maureen says that John's just ready to start crawling with the way he's propping himself up. Well, it shouldn't be too bad if he is getting ready to crawl. It's not like we have a ton of space for him to crawl around. What do you think?

Sleep Update

Our John is an angel for the most part when he sleeps. On most nights, he'll go down a little before 8 PM and he doesn't wake up until after 5 AM. Sure, he'll wake up every now and then, but he falls back to sleep. I think my long talks with him about respecting his neighbors have really helped out.

Of course, there are those nights (few and far between) where his teeth are bothering him or he's got a cold. Those nights are kind of rough, but it's part of the parental gig. We knew what we were getting into when we had him, so we have no right to complain. It may be tough, but it's well worth it.

Johnny Simmons

I didn't know that we had Gene Simmons in our family, but apparently, we do. I wonder if we can be on his tv show. Mr. Simmons, I have a proposition for you. Make my son a superstar and I'll give you 25% of his lifetime earnings (I don't think that's a legal offer, but we'll see how it goes). I think that's fair and we know what a star maker you are. Have your people call my people.