What a difference a week makes!   So I ended last week telling everyone that my life is pretty much bland and all I do is eat, sleep, and produce bag-loads of diapers with the dirty squirties.  But now I'm a week older and things are beginning to get a tad bit more interesting; I'm now beginning to hear Daddy tell me how much he loves me...and insisting on how much I look like a Kemp over a Wilson.  In fact, when I'm in Daddy's arms, I'm starting to get a lot of, "C'mon son, stop burying that chin of yours into your neck...you look like a Wilson when you do that!!   Lift that head up and stick your chin OUT!"  Mommy too even concedes on some things...she admits I'm starting to make noises that sound a lot like Daddy - that my bathroom sounds, my grimaces and grunts, are dead-ringers for the same bathroom noises that Daddy makes!  Of course, Mommy & Daddy (M&D) laugh at me while I'm making my grunts and groans.   They also smile at me when I stretch, when I'm eating, when I sneeze, when I'm staring blankly at them, when I make an "O-face", when I'm trying to smile back at them, when I try to stick my tongue out...basically whenever I'm not asleep.  C'mon, I can't be THAT entertaining, right?   Well, apparently I am.   

This wild week also saw me finally get to experience this place that M&D always refer to as "outside".  Daddy had been getting me excited for this "outside" ever since we were in the hospital.  Daddy would hold me and let me look out the window every day and he'd say "You ready for this, Huckleberry?  The world.   It's a cold, dark place that will eat you alive if you're not careful."   My Daddy knows how to whet my appetite!!!   As Dee Dee and Lolly say, I was ready to "do the dangerous"!   I was super-amped to experience the outdoors for the first time to walk our dog, Penny Lane, in the park!   So Mommy gets me all ready - telling me about how she has "tricked out" the stroller and has all sorts of surprises for me - but I'm just excited to experience this "outside" for the first time.  She then puts me into said stroller, and all I'm thinking is "What in the he...?!??!?  Is this what Mommy meant by 'tricked out'???   Mommy!!!  I can't see any of the outside, for all these hanging toys in my face Mommy!!!!!  Mommy!!!!!"  

Daddy for his part, told Mommy there was no way he could push the stroller with all those toys and still feel comfortable with himself the next morning.  Mommy though was deaf to it all, and took a picture of the madness instead.  Needless to say, I was not a happy camper and gave my beautiful set of lungs a nice workout!   Daddy even got flustered to the point where Daddy "reset" [MOMMY & DADDY NOTE: Have you ever heard about people who experience something so traumatic and overwhelming that their brain just "resets" - they turn catatonic and go to their "happy place" for a bit while their brain returns to normal?  Well, Baby crying combined with Mommy nagging can create one of those overwhelming, traumatic experiences for Daddy that causes his brain to "reset".  He went to his own "happy place" for most of the rest of the walk, though he did come-to towards the end to offer constructively, "That was not a good first outing"].  After that walk, M&D decided that future dog walks would ditch the stroller in favor of the baby sling.  And oh man, was that sling comfortable!!!   Even my eagerness to finally experience the outdoors couldn't hold a candle to just how comfortable that sling was - I fell asleep before we even entered the park!    

That sling had me so knocked, that even after returning from walking Penny Lane in the park, I was still out.  Apparently a sleeping baby means perfect time for picture shoots.  I can vaguely recall Mommy messing with me - moving one of my hands into a position....pause...then moving my other hand into a position....pause....doing the same thing with my legs....pause...taking off a hat, then putting on the hat.  You get the idea; it was all quite annoying for me, but I was too tired to put up much of a fight.   When Mommy showed me the pics she took, I must say that I was impressed.  I look manly-posh, cutting-edge, suave, fresh-to-death.  I mean, look at my shades!!!

(Daddy took this one!!!!!)

On Friday, Mommy had a Dr. appointment that turned into an entire family event for some reason.  Daddy told me before we left about something called a "Bucket List".  He said to me that as an American, one of the most important things to put on your Bucket List is to visit the FIRST McDonald's, and that I was in luck b/c the FIRST McDonald's was right next to the Dr. office!!!   So we went there and well....yeah there it is.

 Wish I could say more about it but despite it saying it was open, it was closed.  Daddy was not happy.  And it turns out it isn't even the first one (though McDonald's says it is), and minus the sign, the whole thing is a reconstruction.  Daddy was really not happy.  But he said we could knock it off my bucket list anyhow.  After the Dr. appointment, M&D went to Mommy's work where she passed me around to everyone in the office.  I think every nurse that saw me commented that they would babysit me for M&D whenever they needed it.   That's right.....I sparkled....again!!!

But all that sparkling is very tiresome and takes sooooo much energy out of me.  So much so that yesterday, I was a very very fussy baby.    I think I even made Daddy do one of his "resets" at some point yesterday, but I can't quite remember.  I was getting M&D nervous b/c I still had to make one more public appearance - this time to M&D's friends Lisa & Dries' house for some pizza.     I was given a pep talk beforehand and told that I needed to sparkle....and sparkle I did (which basically means just sleeping the entire time, it's super easy really)!!!!  This caused Daddy to attempt to rat me out in front of everyone.  "Guys, you realize this whole day today he has not been a happy camper until we came over to y'all's house.  He's putting on an act!!!"  None of the girls were buying it, and just continued to oooh and awwww over me.  Nice try Daddy!!!    

When I'm crying at home, Daddy will calm me down - I'll go from crying my head off to calm & relaxed in a split-second - he will then look at me and ask "Son, are you messing with me??!?!  Are you playing games right now or what?!?!"     Daddy, what do YOU think?    Have fun!!!!!!!!