Toddler with flowers

Andrew Hicks

When you up your blog productivity to once a day from two or three times per week or just whenever you feel like writing it, you start using little tricks you wouldn’t have considered before. List-oriented posts, writing heavy on back story, and now the photo essay. Ah yes, the photo essay, the easiest way to fill a bunch of space, especially when you’ve got a cute little kid playing with flowers.

My mom ordered a huge, beautiful bouquet delivered to our house for Tiffany’s birthday. It came in the early evening, Tiffany fawned over it and primped it up just the way she wanted it (while, I think, I was off changing a diaper or something) then went to bed early. An hour or so later, Sarah managed to sneak up to the flowers and pluck out a red rose and that yellow daisy or daffodil or delphinium or whatever that is.

And, instead of getting the flowers away from her, I pulled out the camera. Below are Figures 1.1-1.4. Missing are Figure 1.5, in which Sarah spits out the rose petals, and Figures 1.6-3.1, in which Tiffany awakens in the middle of the night, tries to get a peek at her beautiful floral birthday bouquet, finds out there are flowers missing, and expresses her displeasure with yours truly.

Figure 1.1 -- Here, Sarah is already done sniffing the yellow flower and is enjoying the texture of the petals on her lower lip.

Fig 1.2 -- Sarah introduces the rose to her nasal palette.

Fig 1.3 -- Sarah shoves rose petals into her mouth.

Fig 1.4 -- Gleeful, enthusiastic rose-chewing.

Old tapes and Disney trivia

Andrew Hicks

EDITOR’S NOTE: Andrew is still behind with his blog, thanks to a late but very rewarding night of social drinking minus the drinking. But, as was his vow when he signed up for the WordPress Post a Day 2011 challenge, he’s posting 365 new blog entries this year. So Andrew is writing this a day late, but being caught up is within his sights. Until he falls behind again. Which, really, is what his whole life has felt like for more than three decades now.

In the past couple months, my wife and I — but mainly my wife — have rearranged our kitchen, living room and downstairs family room to be more aesthetically pleasing and maximize space. We’ve been in this house for two years now, so it’s good to change things up and improve the look from room to room. The downstairs has even become a makeshift Man Cave… well, really, a Whoever Currently Has a Tiny Slice of Free Time Cave.

My VHS and DVDs, which appeared to be down for the count with the arrival of Charter OnDemand and Netflix Instant, have made what will probably be their final resurgence. I don’t mind getting rid of obsolete forms of entertainment, but you never know when something might change and your old stuff will come in handy again. Last year, I started driving a car with a tape player in it, and I wished I had my old, embarrassing cassette collection to wander through.

My mom unearthed a box with my 90-volume Encyclopedia Musicana mix tape set from 1997, though, so once again I’m flush with the guilty-pleasure sounds of Wilson Phillips and Weird Al. I’m giving all those tapes one ceremonious last listen before they end up in the landfill. I’d recycle them if I thought there was anyone out there with horrible music taste whose entertainment technology had not advanced past the 1980s.

Anyway, I can’t predict when I’ll get a free second, but they do come around once or twice a day, and it’s nice to retreat to the comforts of downstairs. Kid stuff is already encroaching, though. There’s a Pack-N-Play down there now, and Tiffany let Sarah get into the Disney Trivial Pursuit game she and Josh used to play years ago. So there are cards and little mouse heads everywhere.

I’ve seen all the classic Disney movies, but I agree with my buddy Ryan Krause, who said it’s impossible for even Disney lovers to play Disney trivia because they toss in really obscure questions about all the Disney direct-to-video sequels. (“I don’t know what happened in Lady and the Tramp 2! I didn’t even know there WAS a Lady and the Tramp 2! When did they make THAT crap?!”)

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FAMILY PICTURE OF THE DAY

My mom and I fuss over 3-week-old Sarah at Thanksgiving, 2008.