I'll follow you in, I know you can't swim

Well, disregard these Harvey Danger lyrics, because Evey CAN swim... thanks to four straight weeks of swimming lessons!

 Big thanks to Grandma Judy for taking Evey everyday. Evelyn loved her swimming classes. She'd tell us everyday what they did in class that day, and what her new trick was -- holding her head underwater for a certain amount of time, or jumping in from the side, grabbing rings from the bottom, etc.

 ***

GREAT weekend here in Jonesland.

Friday we went to the old football field right off Church St. and enjoyed an outdoor movie, courtesy of Parks and Rec. They showed the new Muppets movie. I had heard the movie was bad, but I actually laughed a few times, I was pleasantly surprised. And the weather on Friday was perfect for it -- the girls were actually cold by the end of the movie and covered up with blankets! Adro and Boydee fell asleep on the movie, and Evey got a little restless at one point, wanting to play with the kids who were running around. But we all had a great time. I had another "Isn't 2012 great?" moment when I looked at Adro and Boyd, alseep under the stars, then I looked in front of me, and there's my little girl watching this movie, then I look all around me, and I'm in Small Town, USA, surrounded by my neighbors.

Saturday we had some early morning plans cancelled, so we had some free time. I made a kick-ass breakfast (ham and cheese omelettes) and we relaxed afterwards, while I watched some of the British Open. Then we met the Neutebooms at this new place in Lawrence called Laugh Out Loud, it's an indoor playground for kids. Afterwards, we grabbed lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings. Back home by 3 p.m., we relaxed around the house some more before my friend Hendo came over, and me and him went and got a few cold ones at Rick's to catch up on things.

Sunday, more plans cancelled -- not enough guys for Sunday morning hoops. So I made the same breakfast over again (almost as good the second time around.) Then me and Adro removed all the furniture from our living room so she could steam-clean the carpets. We then "Bubba-Proofed" the living room and rearranged some furniture.

 Now I'm relaxing in a clean house, with a new arrangement to our living room. Feels good, feels fresh. Boyd's asleep, and Adrianne and Evey are almost there. It was a good weekend.

 ***

The Harvey Danger lyric is from the song "Carlotta Valdez." Great rocking song, and I think it's cool because the lyrics are basically a rock retelling of the Alfred Hitchcock movie "Vertigo." Some of my favorite parts:

You jump into the San Francisco Bay/ I'll follow you in I know you can't swim/ when you've been dead a hundred yeara!/ Carlotta Valedez!

I'll follow you up the Mission stairs/ But not too high.../ 'cause I get.../ VERTIGO!/ VERTIGO, OH!

Someone put together a cool music video to the song, using the movie. Check it out:
 

 ***

Happy birthday to my Mom today! I called her, me and Evey sang to her over the phone. We saw my mom on Wednesday, had dinner with her, so we were able to give her some flowers then. And it sounds like she had an evening that included a dinner with her mom, her brother, and her sister-in-law, who shares a birthday with her. Following that, a trip to the Mulvane casino. Hopefully she had some birthday luck!

 ***

Crazy shit about the Batman movie murder rampage. Those are my people that asshole killed, I'm the kind of guy who used to go to those midnight showing of the latest superhero movie.

I'm interested to see what this fool looks like in his prison jumpsuit. He has a court date tomorrow, so we'll get to see him for real for the first time.

 ***

Volleyball tomorrow night. The team is 15-3 on the season. Two more weeks to go. It looks like we won't be able to win the league, because our three losses came against a team that was 11-1 when we played them. But we're having a good season, a lot better season than last, for sure.

 ***

OK, enough blathering tonight. Sheesh, I haven't even been drinking...

Anyone who knows me knows I'm not gritty

So, some details about Boyd's crawling...

He first crawled at Elvira's on Wednesday. The girls picked him up, and Elvira excitedly told them he crawled for the first time. But he wouldn't repeat the feat there at the moment, so they were left in suspense.

He came home and we were excited to see what he could do... however, we could not persuade him to crawl any... until...

THE REMOTE CONTROL!

My son covets the remote control. He loves to grab it and push the buttons, then chew on it. It's maybe his favorite thing aside from his Momma, his Sissy, and Steve Ditko Spider-Man comic books.

So I took the remote control and tossed it about four feet in front of his face.

He wasted no time -- he crawled right for it!

We repeated this over and over, putting the remote control in different spots around the living room.

Each time he hustled to get the remote, would grab it, then roll on his back to enjoy button-pushing and remote-chewing.

One time he turned the volume all the way up, then flipped it to the music channels, which are 50% louder than normal channels. I was downstairs grabbing the camera, and I about shit my pants at this moment. I think he turned it to the '80s channel, so it really was an awful sound coming from our TV.

But yeah, CRAWLING!!! Don't worry, I have the whole thing on high-def video!

That's my boy!

Meetings with remarkable men

Here's a photo of me with Sergio Aragones of Mad magazine fame, taken Saturday night at Comic-Con.

I grew up reading Sergio's work so it was neat to meet him in person and have a laugh with the guy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergio_Aragonés

Sooner or later your legs give way and hit the ground

BOYDEE CRAWLS!

I know these lines look crooked on paper, but I swear I got them straight in my head

Evey's new favorite hangout? Boydee's playpen. She even took a nap in it the other day (after she covered the entire thing in blankets to make it like a fort.)

The kids are doing well. I was in San Diego for most of last week, and I'm hearing back that Evey was really good while I was gone. That makes me happy. Boydee is just being himself, although he seems really happy that I'm back, and he even cried out yesterday when I left the room.

Boyd's upper front teeth are all in now. He looks a little different with these small teeth in his smile now.

Evey was looking at a wooden race car toy yesterday. It had a "made in China" sticker on it. She grabbed Adrianne to let her know...

"Mom! This car is extra special... because, look here -- it was MADE IN CHINA!!!"

Call me freaky, call me childish, call me Ismail...

Here a crazy pic I got of Evey during the 4th of July. Thankfully, all fingers are still accounted for.

Or maybe even psychic friends...

A continuation of the previous post, as it was supposed to have WORDS with it...


(I typed the whole thing out on my little iPhone touchscreen, hit send... and all that effort typing little letters for nothing!)


So the story that goes with that photo below:

We met some friends at the new Minsky's on Mass St. recently. For the first time, we put Boydee in one of those restaurant wooden high chairs.

Boyd did great in the wooden highchair (makes you question the 14 straps and lock-on tray on the one we have at home) and was looking all around, having a good time.

And then, a group of four young ladies walk into Minsky, and sit down at the table right beside us.

And the Boydee fell in LOVE.

There was one particular girl, college-age, I guess. She was pretty, and wearing a fluorescent green shirt. Boyd couldn't keep his eyes off her. He'd smile at her, then coo at her. Then smile some more.

The girls laughed, we laughed, everyone thought it was cute. Adro turned his high chair more towards us so he'd leave the girls alone.

That didn't stop Boyd and his new dream girl. He'd lean over the chair towards her and smile some more. He'd make more noises at her to get her attention. She'd smile, laugh, and wave.

I'm pretty sure Boydee thought he was going to get digits. No number, but he did put up a good effort.

Nice work, Boydee.

All I ever thought it might come to was second dates, and flirting eyebrows

It's old hat... how do you write about that?

Photos to come....Photos toPhoDid two things that are way out of my comfort zone:

1. Bought fireworks
2. Set off fireworks

I come from an anti-firework family.

Tonight, I lit off more stupid stuff than I have in the previous 25 years combined.

And yet, Evey is still mad at me that she didn't get to do much besides sparklers...

Sheesh!

Boyd, thankfully, slept through all the hub-ub.

Eudora, FYI, takes fireworks SERIOUSLY.



Pkjfckjbdfskjfd

Where Have All the Merrymakers Gone?

It's Monday night, and finally, I'm kickin' it at the computer in the wee hours of the night.

A photo from way back in 2009, at Dad's funeral.

Work brought me down here, but an email to my wife (re: potential trip to my birthplace, Wheatfield, Ind.) made me look back at some blog posts in the Fall of 2009, when my Dad fell ill and when he passed.

Damn, I used to tell some STORIES on this blog. I read some stuff, and I didn't even remember these stories until I read them.

And guess what, moron (Seth)? THAT'S THE POINT. Chronicle your kids, tell cute stories of them growing up, and if someone (you) wants to read it in the meanwhile, fine.

But don't let if fall by the wayside. That's not cool. Especially to Boydee. Evey had a blog dedicated to her and her only for pretty much four years, then the train derailed, you took a new job, and poor Boydee hardly gets a mention here except for once in a while. I think I had four blog posts in the month of June 2012? That sucks. Dammit.

I thought about renaming the blog "Especially Evey; Barely Boydee" but that title -- though accurate -- pisses me off. Still, I need to incorporate my son into the title here somehow. "Barely Boydee" would be apt, sadly. But I'll come up with something better.

To get me back in the mood of blogging more regularly, I'm going to declare July 2012 "Harvey Danger Month." I think Harvey Danger is one of the most underrated bands of the 90s. Great songwriting, catchy tunes. Sad I only saw them once.

This post is entitled a Harvey Danger album, not a track. But I have 29 more days to celebrate... the what, 30 songs HD ever released on vinyl?

Photo for this post stolen from http://www.boydedwardjones.blogspot.com/ where I was cruising around today.

***

Boydee is not crawling yet. He only rolls. He'll roll to and fro. We'll occasionally play the game with him... "Come here, Boydee! Want the binky? The toy? Sissy? Crawl to her!!!" And instead he'll roll to her. He does well with his rolling. He uses his giant noggin to his advantage.

Not a big deal, right? Until we saw Spencer Rockhold (son of John and Jess, brother of Amelia) WALKING at Asher Heiman's birthday party this weekend. Holy shit, Asher walks?!? Boyd only rolls?

I would say the pressure is on Boydee right now. But honestly, I'm too distracted buying $1.04 Burger King chicken sandwiches to concentrate on Boydee's crawling. We'll postpone this goal to next week.

***

Sad Sweetheart of the Rodeo video. Awesome.



***

Boydee gets a great deal of pleasure shaking his head "no." I think he kind of knows what it means, but even better is that we all have a good time when he does it. He smiles real hard, sticks out those lower two teeth, and vigorously shakes his head "NO!"

He does it on-demand. Just say, "Boydee?" and then start shaking your head "no." You'll then be ensconced in a shake-your-head "no" party for about 5 minutes. Good times.

***

Boydee has his two lower teeth, and that's it, right now.

But his upper gums look like they're about to erupt with teeth. I think his left front tooth might even be peeking out right now.

It can't be fun, and he is drooling a lot right now.

Of course, his dad drools a lot, too.

***

Our sand volleyball team is now 12-0 on the season. It's been a while since we've been a winner. We have four weeks left. I hope we can hang on.

***

Time to go to bed. More this month... I hope.

NEW PHOTOS (finally)

Jason and Jackie's wedding was on Saturday (a beautiful affair) and I finally dusted off the Canon 60D to get some pics of the family.

I did not, sadly, get a single photo of the newlyweds. But I nabbed a few pics of the fam on the way to the wedding, and then during the reception.

Captions to follow...

Evey showing off her missing teeth, and holding Boyd's head so it doesn't float off his shoulders.

Boyd Atticus Jones, professional binky model.

My favorite photo on the card. I've got handsome children.

Grandma Judy shares a laugh with her grandchildren.

Posed pic, everyone's eyes on the camera!

Boydee playing with Grandma Judy's necklace.

My beautiful wife and my beautiful boy.

A family photo! Haven't done one of these in a while. I'm sweating like crazy in this pic.

Virginia and Boydee. Boyd looks mature in this pic, huh? Photo by Adro.

Random updates

Evey has lost her second tooth, now both lower front teeth are gone.

I think a bunch of Boydee's top teeth are going to come in all at once... his gums look like they're barely keeping these teeth at bay.

Boydee still isn't crawling but he can roll all over the place. That's his preferred way to travel.

Neuty came over and helped me put my fence back up over the weekend, and that was awesome. Big thanks to him.

The St. John's Mexican Fiesta was last weekend, but I didn't take any photos. We got there early and avoided the line for once. It wasn't too hot out, either.

Some photos from the Spring football game

Evey, Jett, Baby Jay and Marina.

Boydee and Aunt Jessica.

Jett, Kevin Young, Marina and Evey. Young was very nice to the kids.

Boydee's Godparents

Here's a photo of Boydee and his Godparents, Lindsey and Mike.

It's funny, I didn't get a great photo of the three of them together at the baptism. I assumed that they would be holding Boydee for most of the baptism and I'd be able to click away. But Father John never said anything about handing off the child to the Godparents, so it turned out that I held Boydee for his entire baptism.

(If memory serves right, at Evey's baptism, Lervik held Evey during her baptism.)

Recently we went to Lindsey's house for Sadie's birthday party, and it was really sweet, she wanted to get some quality time with Boydee. The two of them hung out for most of the time we were there. She even fed Boyd.

Solo hasn't had much of a chance to hang with Boydee yet, but we're going to fix that this summer!

***

Boydee joined me and Evey today among the ranks of JEDI KNIGHTS.

We handed him one of the light sabers and he held on tight. We got a good laugh out of it. He was quite entertained by the light sabers. And he didn't try to suck on them (like he does with everything else) he just held on to them and looked at the lights.

***

Thunder win game one. I like it. I'm taking the Thunder in six. Durant looks like the player of the future right now. Excited for game two. Let's go Thunder!!!

May the Farts Be With You

Evey's getting ready for dance class the other day. Judy is taking her. She strips off all her clothes to get into her tights. But then she sees a light saber, and she challenges her dad to a light saber duel.

Never one to turn down a light saber battle, I engaged my opponent, despite her level of dress. So we're doing our best Luke/Vader battle in the living room when --

phrrrrppp!!!

Evey's eyes get real big. I give her a look like, "you OK there, princess?"

She stops. "Dad!" she says, naked as the day she was born. "...pretend I didn't just fart. Because, in Star Wars... they don't fart."

"OK, Evey." She's right, after all.

The battle restarted. For about thirty seconds. And then --

"Dad! Also... pretend you can't smell the fart."

"OK, Evey."

***

Lot going on over here at the Casa de Jones. We were in Roaring River State Park for about a week with Adrianne's dad two weeks ago. Then I was in Chicago and Indiana on business most of last week. Good to be back home now.

Evey lost her first tooth last week when she bit into a peach. She was quite excited about the visit from the tooth fairy, who left her a $2 bill.

Boydee is doing great and has two lower teeth now. He's gaining weight quickly, it seems. Just like his dad.