Entries Tagged 'Being a Kid' ↓

Judah has been walking around tonight talking about Artoo, Prince-a Way-a, and Yoyo.  He can’t find Artoo and Prince-a Way-a.  “Where’s Artoo, dad?”  He might be the youngest boy ever to have a crush on Princess Leia.

My wife sent me this link today, and I was blown away. Do you remember those wooden block and marble sets that you could build tracks for the marbles with? My grandparents had some, and I enjoyed playing with them. This is like that, but taken to an amazing extreme. The video is 12 minutes long, but well worth it.

Link [via Addison Road]

[tags]Rube Goldberg[/tags]

This Halloween Judah will be doing his first trick-or-treating. His costume isn’t quite ready yet, but look at it so far.

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted, so I’ll try and sum it up for everyone.

1. We bought a house, as I mentioned here. With home ownership comes the responsibilities of a home owner…like managing a lawn, cleaning windows, and having a pet We got us a kitty, which you can see here. His name is Orley, named in memory of New Orleans. He was born on June 15.
2. As of today the Red Sox lead the AL East by 1.5 games. It is definitely going to be another intense September.
3. Microsoft has decided to release seven — yes seven — versions of it’s next operating system named Vista. Talk about mass consumer confusion just waiting to happen. Seriously, release three version at most: Basic, Intermediate, and Professional. The MS-hater in me believes this is their way to appease anti-trust people. “See, we offer a stripped down version, but no one wants to buy it.”
4. Judah turned one. Check out the photos here.
5. I’m playing my first season of Fantasy Football. It’s kinda fun. I think I’ve got a pretty good team. My #1 QB is Carson Palmer, and he is having a monster year so far.
6. A co-worker and I are starting to develop a professional website for Christian admissions professionals. We are trying to nail down the intent and scope of the site, as well as finding a software package that will meet the intent and scope that we decide upon Right now I’m toying around with tikiwiki. I just need to find a way to make it look less “geeky”.
7. Work is keeping me ever busy. I was commenting to Aj that I don’t remember feeling this busy last year. She pointed out that last year I was still learning my job, and this year I’m doing my job. Plus I think I have more responsibility this year, including having more people to supervise, which takes up more of my time.

Ok, I think that does a fairly decent job of letting you know where I’m at. Let the next week begin.

I know that Judah is only now starting to crawl, but it’s got me thinking about the things that I want to do with him when he gets older (and his siblings too, when they come into the picture :-)). One of the things I lots of good memories about as a kid was riding my bike. I spent most of my early childhood years living in NE Portland. I spent a lot of time on my bike riding around the neighborhood with friends, but there were many times where my family would go out on rides together.

One place we’d ride to was Rocky Butte. Up on top of the butte is a man-made lookout area where you can see up the Columbia River Gorge and gaze at Downtown Portland. And due to the closeness of Portland International Airport you can watch as planes come and go. Being so franticly hyperactive I’d ride on ahead and eventually stop and wait for the slow-pokes to catch up. By the time my mom would show up I’d be rested and ready to go again, so I’d take off. She didn’t like that too much
Another ride we would take is along (and sometimes in the middle of) I-205 from Portland, OR, to Vancouver, WA. The trip to Vancouver is tiring because the bridge is mostly uphill as you go North, but that makes the trip home that much more fun as you can fly downhill going South. It was mildly scarey with all of that traffic going by on both sides of you, but with all of the barriers you totally feel safe.

So, sometime in the next 3-4 years I’ll need to get a bike. I somehow don’t think I’ll be riding through muddy baseball fields this time around, but I’ll be waiting with a hose to spray Judah off when he does…just like my dad did for me.

As I’ve mentioned before I was a high energy kid. I was always moving around. Well, the time has come that my son is starting to move around. We think he is going to be a high energy kid just like his old man. Oh boy, this is going to be fun! Check out some video clips of him here.

I remember as a little kid getting to play softball with the grown-ups at church picnics. Now I’m the grown-up and I am, for the first time, participating in an adult sports league. I’m playing on a city league softball team from my church, and let me tell you, I feel like a kid out there. No it’s not because I’m probably the youngest guy out there, but that’s a good start
I had enough energy for two people growing up, and I used it every ounce of it. I was always moving around, had to be running around doing something. If I was a kid now I probably would have been on Ritalin. I was also blessed with coordination and athletic ability, so participation in sports was a very natural and healthy outlet for me.

After spending a couple of summers playing in the dirt while my older sister played softball it was my turn to start playing t-ball. Being ADHD I was one of those kids that wasn’t too focused on the game. I was that kid in the field pretending to make the amazing catch and throw to get the guy out at the plate. I was pretending to make that amazing strikeout pitch to win the game.

Fast-forward a couple of years and I’m playing “real” baseball. I remember the field I was on at Gregory Heights Middle School. I remember I was playing second base. No outs, runners on first and second. The batter hits a pop-up to me, but the runners don’t tag up they just take off running! So, I catch the ball, step on second, and — rather than touching the runner from first or throwing to the first baseman (apparently I didn’t trust him to catch it) — I ran and stepped on first. Triple play, all by myself!

Jump to sophomore year of high school. I’m playing on the JV team. Correction, I’m sitting on the JV bench because the coach won’t put me in. I’m not a bad player. I can field the ball well. I’m smart on the base paths. I’m timid at the plate, and only get 7 at bats the entire season. I was so frustrated with my level of participation that I quit with only a few weeks left.

It’s been 11 years since then. I’m back on the diamond fielding grounders, making good — and bad — throws to first. I’m back on the dirt that I was playing in 20+ years ago. I’m happy.