Big D, Little Tooth

Before I get to Dash's newest aquisition, forgive me a rant about the American Music Award's from last night. First, the goods. Every drummer that performed was great, with the exception of the Duran Duran guy. He had a rack full of drums and insisted on using a little electric drum pad for basically all of his fills. Dork. Now the bads. Jimmy Kimmel doing the "SoldierBoy" dance was pretty funny but since all the writers are still on strike, that was as humorous as it got. I was left wanting. Here's the point of my wasting 5 minutes of my life on the AMA's - Duran Duran was awful. The AMA's hyped them up and featured them late in the program (when everyone who used to like them would be in bed - right Greg Cullen?). Apparently, they're trying to make a come-back, and they should really reconsider. If you didn't see it, they really were bad. Up until last night, I kind of knew them as a decent band from the 80's. Now, my feelings of Duran Duran are the same as if Edna and the Boys got tight pants, highlights in their Grecian Formula and hit youthgroups in the greater Northwest. Yikes. You know what? I apologize to Edna and the Boys. They went out with style and grace - unlike Duran Duran. Simon LeBon must be broke.

Ok, I feel much better. Thanks.
Dash's first tooth popped up lst weekend. Next thing you he'll be driving dear old dad to his yearly physicals. Eric got him some jammies from DisneyWorld (where he was deflowered) that have Dash from the Incredibles on them - appropriate. They are 2T's and we were saving them for when he would be older. Unil we realized that he can wear them now. Maybe he's big (he's not that big), maybe they're small 2T's (likely). Anyway, they look good on him.

Time for this blog's "random Kaed quote".
"Andy, when I'm seven, can you get me an ipod. They're like, 80 bucks." When talking about money, Kaed has about as much cents sense as RainMan. He throws random numbers out with no rhyme or reason. I blame his teacher. It's always the teachers fault.

Happy travels over Thanksgiving. I love all of you guys.
Seriously. All.

And now for some more Duran Duran bashing. Here are some songs off of their new tour:

Girls on Metamucil

A View to a Crappy Band

Ordinary World Where Washed Up Bands Never Die

Notoriously Awful

And finally . . . Hungry Like a Wolf But I Gotta Mash Everything Up First Through My Strainer On Account Of Me Running Out Of Polydent So I Have To Gum It.

Tickets are on sale at a pharmacy near you.

Dash's Tricks or Doggy Treats

Dash is now .5 years old and he has grown up a lot in the last two weeks. If you prop him up, he can sit by himself now. His "weight of head" to his "weight of gut" ratio is evening out (close to 1:1) which makes balancing easier. He can also roll over. He kind of did it in accident the first time and it bugged him being on his tummy so just kept rolling. He officially was log-rolling. Genius. He went from not rolling at all to having me time him in a sprint-roll across our bed. Can't leave him alone now - not that we could anyway. (Do all babies need to be where the action is all the time, or just mine?) So far, when Dash gets a mind to do something, he does it to the nth degree. When he eats, he eats (look out Kobayashi). When he rolls, he rolls. When he grabs ladies earrings, it's like he's holding the reigns of Secretariat. When he poops . . . man is it gross. Not to get too graphic but the next time you go to Dairy Queen, watch them make your cone and imagine there's a diaper underneath it, and then let it go for about 4 minutes. There's no half-way with this kid. He's kind of Chuck Norris-esque like that. But we'll see.

Halloween was fun. Dash didn't dress up per-se', but he did have the whole Stay Puft Marshmellow Man in a diaper thing going on. His shirt did say "I Vant Your Candy!" so he was semi-festiv. Kaed was a skeleton and wanted to squirt fake blood over his face but we didn't let him. By the end of the eve he just wanted people to give him the candy without wearing the costume. I told him it defeats the whole purpose! I mean, if he didn't wear the outfit and "work" for the goods then what's the point of Halloween? If I have to sit and drive all night long so I can take half of his candy, I will, but he's got to earn his half. Life lesson: there's no freebies. (We have this deal that he gets all the little candy bars because he's little, and I get all the big ones because I'm big. It's pretty sweet.)

Oh yeah, the dogs got into the spirit of things thanks to my brother Eric. Super Murd and Bat Buster were out fighting for truth and justice with their powers of fart and slobber.

Kaed said a pretty funny thing which made a whole lot of sense to me (he does this a lot by the way and we should all learn to see things through a kid's eyes - like when he was 3 and asked me what God and Jesus looked like. After I failed miserably in my explanation he calmly said, "I think they look the same." Perfect.) Anyway, he went to church with his dad last week and he said that he saw people get "bathtized". Sure he did.

Nick and Tiffany's wedding pictures are done now and can be seen at http://daleyhake.smugmug.com/gallery/3779603#217798117 . There are around 270 of them so grab a cup of coffee and maybe your lunch too as you look through them. I can't say enough about the photographer. Good eye, that guy - and it's not even a queer eye.

Paternity Leave

And . . . We're back! It's been around 6 weeks since the last post because I've been on family leave to bond with Dash. Very cool huh. So much has happened in that time and I will try to fill you in as best as I can. I don't have any pictures to post because my computer is on the fritz again. I would have posted pictures of Dash and I doing all the things we would do on a normal day of paternity leave: grocery shopping, golfing, playing Wii, fishing at Sacajawea, etc. I can do just about everything that I'd normally do with Dash due to two primary inventions: the moby-wrap (long toga-like sheet that ties twists and turns around your body to form various baby-holding positions. It's comfortable but I kind of feel like a gypsie-hippi-roman senator-ninja. The other invention is kangaroo-front-pack. It's a little easier to handle although it looks like we're going tandem sky-diving. Dash likes both.)

Staying home for the first 6 weeks of school was awesome. Doing laundry (sometimes), dishes, cleaning stuff, picking Kaed up from school, and performing basic maitenance (I think I just murdered that spelling) on Dash - and still finding the time to coach football, well, just say I could get used to it. One thing is for sure, Dash knows his daddy. I can't tell you how cool that is. At his 5 month Dr. appt. he was 18 lbs (but he hadn't gotten any taller...). He's good size and good natured. He prefers standing to sitting. He loves food (all kinds) and really digs peaches and prunes (but not alfalfa...). His gas is tremendously audibly frequent, but poops very little. This concerns Leah and I, but I'm sure he knows what he's doing. When he's sitting in his Bumbo chair, he actually leans to a side before he toots. I love that boy.


Leah is now working 3 very full days with mom and grandma watching Dash during those days. Her energy levels amaze me. God gives much grace to moms. She's giving me lessons on how to parent. I will say though, with all that goes on in our lives, she has her moments of craziness. For example, this weekend she asked me, "If I wear my sweater-dress to church, are you going to make fun of me?" To which I replied, "No, you wore it last week and I didn't." To which she replied back, "Yes you did. You said 'is that new?' which we both know means that you hate it." Yes, she was serious when she said it, but as soon as she made that remark, she started laughing because it sounded so ridiculous.


Kaed and Kindergarten go together like me and Halo 3. Perfect. He loves it. He can't wait for Halloween (I think he's gonna be a skeleton, Leah's not dressing up, Dash might be a tiger, and I think I'm going to be "the Force"). He's making friends and behaving - which is all I can ask for. I too, love that boy.



We are still getting bids on our house (I'm asking a bunch of contractors) and that whole process has slowed a bit. I'm not worried though. It'll happen.