This is one of my favorite pictures because he does this all the time.  He'll find a book, pick it up, face me, and hold it up in the air with a very earnest look on his face.  It's as if he's saying, "Won't you read this to me, PLEASE?"

That, or, "Sandra Boynton?  Seriously?  If you read me one more Sandra Boynton book, I'm going to stab you in the face with a soldering iron."

Seeing as we live about an hour away from the snow, we felt it proper to finally introduce TT to the bliss that is frozen water.

Pretty sweet, huh, dude?  Your life is now complete.

By the way, his mother is responsible for that awful hat.  Troy, I am so sorry.

Moving right along…

He's still not sure what to make of it.

Okay, I think he likes it.

Face plant!

Huh.  Apparently babies don't like doing headers into the freezing snow.

Dad made everything all better.

Note my proper baby-tossing technique.  If you need help with this, I highly recommend that you RTM.

In the end, we had a fun family snow day.  The weather was beautiful, and we couldn't have picked a better location.

Okay, maybe we could have.  That's a Shell station sign.  The Shell station is attached to a Burger King.  Outside the BK was a "Whiskey Tango" lady in a Cutlass station wagon.  Inside the station wagon directly behind the woman were two propane tanks.  Oh, by the way, did I mention that she was smoking like a chimney?  I'm still kicking myself for neglecting to snap of photo of it.

Anyway, it worked for us.  There's actually a decent snow park around the corner, and Troy was having a rough time on the ride up, so rather than force it and drive all the way to Truckee (and later, all the way back to Sac), we decided Nyack was good enough.  Besides, he only lasted out there for 10 minutes, so it would have been a waste of a trip to go any farther.

Babies are smaller, cuter versions of full-grown human beings, so it stands to reason that their diarrhea would be less explosive, better smelling, and just an all around pleasant experience, right?

Right???

No.

That is all.  Carry on.

Yesterday was Troy's first day of day care.  The duty of dropping him off in the morning fell to me.  It was a little bit tougher than I expected, but in the end, we all fared just fine.

I suppose this will end up being a good thing, but it's hard to turn over your infant son to other people for 6+ hours a day.

Argh.

One thing I have gradually noticed since becoming a new dad is that it is extremely difficult to enjoy your meals.  Prior to Troy being born, I could eat at a leisurely pace, and, providing I wasn't shoveling for some reason, I could savor every bite.

Now, I shovel by default.  It's like eating has become a distraction that might keep me from leaping to Troy's rescue, should he ever need my help.  My objective now is not to savor the meal, but to finish it as quickly as possible so that I can focus on the little boy.  Really, I guess I'm just trying to finish my hot food, uninterrupted, before the little tyke starts screaming and causes me to have to resume eating 1 hour later when the food is all cold and soggy.

I see now why leaving the baby at home with the babysitter while mom and dad go out to dinner can sometimes be a good thing.

Little Boy slept six (six!) consecutive hours last night.  Other little babies of the world, this is what happens when your father has Mad Ninja Parenting Skills™.  Or, when you’re no longer a newborn.  Either way, I kick ass.

But the fact remains, after the boy has slept for 6 consecutive hours, he’s carrying an extra 12 or 13 pounds around in his diaper.  Whoo-eee!