Socialite

Rylie is the most social baby I've ever seen. (Of course she's only the 2nd baby I've had experience with.) She has to have constant interaction with people at all times or she will fuss. And because she's not mobile yet she must be held at all times or she fusses. She will perceive your thoughts and if you even think about putting her down she will start fussing. She demands your undivided attention at all times. I was playing with her yesterday and paused for a second to see what was going on with the Olympics - fuss.

You put her down in her bouncy chair right next to you so you can eat dinner with two hands - fuss.

Sit down to check your email real quick - fuss.

Stand up - ok. Sit down - fuss.

I thought about writing up some instructions for our next baby sitter about how to keep Rylie happy. I feel like the princess's personal aid, explaining to the visiting foreigner what is acceptable interaction with the princess.

1. You must never put her down.

2. If she is facing you, you must never break eye contact and must entertain her at all times with funny faces.

3. see number 1 above

4. She permits occasional raspberries on her belly and gentle exercises of her legs and arms. And see number 2 above.

5. When facing away from you she must sit on your forearm so as to have a front row seat to everything happening around her.

6. You must never sit when holding her in the front row seat position. She cannot be fooled even if you try to sit very erect; Stand up - ok. Sit down - fuss. You must also gently rock back and forth or slowly pace the room.

7. You must change her diaper expeditiously. Only for this reason will she permit you to lay her down on her back.

I woke up one morning grumpy and groggy to the sound of Rylie fussing cause she was ready to be up. Heidi handed her to me and as soon as she saw me she got the biggest happiest baby smile on her face. Suddenly it was Spring and all I could think of was I am the luckiest guy in the world.



Here is Opa demonstrating the Front Row Seat hold.


Here is another example. Heidi is sitting down in this rare instance caught on film, probably because mom holds certain privileges over dad.

Daniel strutting his stuff

ok, enough of me, Heidi returned home with the kids, which means new pictures.

Here is Daniel imitating his dad. Although his dad wears pants, I don't understand how Daniel always ends up in these pictures without pants on.....

Red Hair??

Going through this box of pictures of myself of my childhood is a real time warp. Let the Memories pour forth!

I think I'm about 3 in this picture. This was about the time I got sick of people telling me I had pretty red hair. First of all, I didn't believe them when they said I had red hair. Everybody else in preschool had brown hair, so I knew I had brown hair too. Secondly I hated being called pretty. Boys are handsome, girls are pretty. Get it straight.

One day after preschool when another delusional woman commented on my "pretty red hair" I finally had to confront my mom. I asked her if my hair was really red? When she confirmed that I really did in fact have red hair I think I was disappointed. I hated being singled out all the time, I just wanted to fit in with everyone else.



I eventually grew out of the age where I would receive comments all the time. But now with Daniel it's started again. "oh, what pretty red hair. I wonder who the father is!!!?" (looking at me with a big stupid grin on their face.) Oh well, we were born to be noticed I guess.

Cowbows

I found this picture of me in a cowboy hat, I think I was about 2 years old, the same as Daniel in the picture we took of him wearing his cowboy hat.

We also both have our binkys in these pictures, Daniels is his blanket, mine was Curious George. Not too long after that picture was taken I peed on George during the night so my mom threw him away the next morning. I was so sad I think I'm still scarred.

My little blueberry (with olives)

Here are a few pictures I've been trying to post of Rylie. Our internet connection finally got fixed so here they are. I like this dress, it really brings out her bright blue eyes. And I love the olives on her feet!









Heidi has been in Utah with the kids the last two weeks, I was talking with her today on the phone and could hear Rylie googling in the background. I can't wait to see them all again!

Grocery shopping law violated!

People who get irritated over stupid things irritate me. For example, I went shopping yesterday
and had the following encounter in the check out lane:


Self-Righteous Check Out Lady: Did you know this was the Express checkout?

(I was taken a little off guard not expecting a confrontation with the check out lady. I then took
an extra second to consider a million different possible responses but I couldn't decide which
response to give so I played it safe..)

Darin: Yes, ahuh.


(She was looking at me with a "You're in the principals office now you trouble maker" face. I was
clearly in violation of grocery store shopping law and she wasn't one of those slacker nice cashier
people who would just check me through the line anyway because it doesn't hurt anyone and
who honestly cares??? but she wanted to make sure I knew that this time I was caught; pulled
over by the illegal check-out line police. She was the Cop, Judge AND Jury.)

S-R Check Out Lady: The express lane is for people with 15 items or less. (...looking very
Purposefully into my basket of 25-30 offending items)

(I was putting my offensive items on the counter but she hadn't started checking them through
yet. I almost chuckled out loud when I realized she was seriously trying to reprimand me for this
heinous breach of grocery store policy.)
(I decided to be honest and reason with her. I'm a natural sarcastic, it was hard to not give in...)

Darin: The other checkout lines are backed up, this one is empty so I jumped in.

S-R Check Out Lady: We don't have baggers in the express lane.

Darin: Not a problem, I can bag my own groceries.

S-R Check Out Lady: If someone were to walk in behind you and see all of your items they might
be annoyed.

(Or the s-r check out lady might be annoyed. Are we seriously discussing this? I'm starting to
get annoyed.)
(I Purposefully looked behind me.)

Darin: Nobody is here but you and me. Which is why I chose this lane. Do you seriously expect
me to go to a different lane so I can wait another 10 minutes behind two people before being
checked out?
(Pause)
I'm a fast bagger.


She then proceeded to check me through appearing satisfied that she addressed the situation
and maybe because she singled me out this time that I won't do it again. I saved 28% and 8
minutes. I'd do it again.

One of a million responses: Take your next break outside. There's a big world out there past
those exit doors, you should check it out sometime.

Phelps Reunion 2008

We had our annual Phelps family reunion over last weekend, this was our 4th one since we started this tradition. We try to do something different every year. We went camping a couple times and stayed in the valley a couple times and planned a number of fun things to do over a weekend. This year our original plan to go to Strawberry fell through so we made some last minute plans to do some fun things around town.

All activities are inevitably always geared toward the younger kids. Like it or not, the kids always get all the attention, so if you just plan around the kids then everyone can be happy to some degree. So we went to the Alice in Wonderland play at Broadway Palms Theater.

Before the show they serve lunch a la buffet and what better than bite size corn dogs, mac and cheese and pizza all washed down with root beer! After the show all my nieces and nephews got the casts autographs.

Here is tweedle dee and tweedle dumb:


Caterpillar and the White Rabit:


March Hare, Mad Hatter and Cheshire Cat


Come on! it was enough to bring the little kid out of anyone!


Queen of Hearts and Alice:



We took the kids swimming at the new Carson Jr High pool. Coincidentally that was were I also went to Junior High 18 or so years ago... I hadn't been back there since I left; it was kind of surreal. The kids pool is a new addition only added a couple years ago and is geared toward younger kids so of course Daniel had a blast.



We did all these activities over Friday and Saturday. I don't remember where we were coming from or going to in this picture but when he was quiet and I looked in the back seat Daniel was finally wiped out:



We also took advantage of the family being together to bless Rylie. This outfit was made by Heidi's mom:


I don't think I'll ever like wearing a tie.


Our final activity was the Science Center in Phoenix, that was so much fun.



I guess you had to be there for that but Daniel liked that nose blowing demo. We got so caught up in the fun that we forgot to take any more pictures while we were there.