The Demangones

And So It Begins...

Posted by Anthony

It seems we may have a budding artist in our house.  That would be Kate.

The art?  A nice piece called "Parental Anger" done in Crayola Crayon.

2 years and counting...

Posted by Anthony

Kate and Briggs turned 2 on Saint Patrick's Day!  We had a nice quiet party with family, with green and white cup cakes.  Something tells me that those colors might be a common color combination on their birthday.

Soon thereafter, we had their 2-year check up.  Kate is now 3 foot, one inch tall.  Briggs is a clean three feet.  They both weigh just under 26 pounds.  Kate is in the 99th percentile for height.  Briggs is in the 86th percentile.  Come on, growth!  The Demangone side of the gene pool never saw 6 feet, to the best of my knowledge.  I look forward to when my kids can look down on me.

People ask us if it is getting easier or more difficult.  Yes. 

• Kate and Briggs are both physically able to do what they want for the most part. That means they can get up and down stairs. And they can sprint in different directions at the drop of a hat.
• They can communicate much better now.  Kate and Briggs will let us know when they are sleepy, hungry or thirsty.  But they also tell us at the top of their lungs when they want a cookie.  At 10 a.m.
• Sometimes they play along together very, very well.  That means sometimes they do not.  At all.

But life is grand.  Even when Dad forgets to update this blog!

There's a knock at the door...

Posted by Anthony

My son Briggs has not been the world's best sleeper.  Over the past 21 months, I've seen quite a few 2 a.m. airings of ESPN's SportsCenter.  The little guy would just get up around 1 or 2 a.m., and stay awake for 90 minutes.  Any attempt to reintroduce him to his crib was met with protests more effective than one can imagine.  My wife and I live in a 3-square foot condo surrounded by neighbors, so the thought of him screaming through the night invariably led to thoughts of my car getting "keyed."  So SportsCenter and I became fast friends.

Over the Holidays, we visited my sister.  Her home has spare rooms, so we put Senor Briggs and his sister down for the night and shut the door.  He hollered.  He screamed.  At one point, he even seemed to yodel.  But we stayed firm, knowing that all offended ears were related to us by blood or marriage.

It worked.  He may have been a bit angry with me, but by the second night, he figured it out.  He was stuck. And he started sleeping through the night. For those of you not familiar with kids and their sleep habits, let me say this.  When a child starts sleeping through the night, you notice an improvement in your life. I put it up there with the invention of fire, indoor plumbing, and televised baseball.

So we got cocky.  Oh, our life is back to normal, we exclaimed.  All the while, the Gods were chuckling.

We put Master Briggs down for the night recently, knowing he was down for the night.  A bottle of wine was opened.  We settled in for the evening.  Then we heard...it.  The door handle was jiggling.  I opened the door, and there was Master Briggs with a big smile. He had figured out how to get out of his crib.  Was it a smile he had?  Perhaps a "sly grin" is more accurate.

As I said in the title, when one door opens...another door...opens. (Sigh.)  

 
"You do realize, Dad - I'm calling the shots one way or the other."

 

No Fly List?

Posted by Anthony

I always joked that my children were perfect travelers.  I also joked that Briggs might go his entire life without knowing what it was like to fly, as he always slept the entire time he was on an airplane.  It turns out that as I was making these jokes, the Gods were listening.  And they had a little joke of their own in store for me.

On a recent flight back from Boston, my son Briggs was that kid.  Everything started fine, but about 30 minutes into the flight things turned for the worse.  He started to squirm. He started to whimper.  In about 5 minutes, he was screaming his head off.  I think I saw someone seven rows in front of me (the number gets larger each time I tell this) turn around and stare.  Not in anger, mind you.  But rather in awe that any human being that small could make that much noise.  Every other passenger near me was more than pleasant.  But if someone told me that for $1,000 they could get Briggs to sleep immediately, I would have written them a check on the spot.  

Mandy eventually found her way over to me, and we switched kids.  Briggs fell asleep almost immediately (and no need to pay $1,000!), and Kate slept with me for the rest of the trip.

People may not know how to go back in time, but I can tell you this.  If you want to ever experience what it is like for time to stop moving, have a screaming kid on your lap in an airplane.

Here's the little guy, in a much happier moment.

Pic of Miss Kate

Posted by Anthony

Here's a nice photo of Kate and me.

 

Here are a few thoughts:

1. I love that photo of her, because it is rare to snap a photo of them while they are looking at the camera.  They either are looking away, or they are running toward the camera to either try to eat it or break it.
2. I figured out how to pay for college.  I'll just run ads on my double chin.  Sigh.  I literally figured out why I put on some weight since the kids were born.  I usually am the one to cook them din-din in the evening.  When cleaning up, I'd spy an uneaten chicken nugget. -chomp- Or an uneaten wedge of a grilled cheese.  -chomp- I stopped doing that about a week ago, and I'm down a couple of pounds. 
3. Those are my favorite PJs of Kate.

Other Kate notes: She can run like the Dickens.  She's picking up new words here and there, although her "Elmo" still sounds like Mama.  And she had her first "bloody incident."  Kate is a bit of a drama queen.  Recently, she tripped and was laying flat on her belly, crying.  I figured it was one of her drama incidents.  After a few minutes, I finally picked her up - and there was a little pool of blood!  Yikes. She cut her lip a bit on a tooth during the fall, but she was no worse for the wear. 

We love and miss you all.

The 4:30 a.m. phantom

Posted by Anthony 

I have NO idea what is happening at 4:30 a.m. in our little condo, but it is giving me and Mandy fits.  Every morning at 4:30, Kate and Briggs simply decide that it is time to awake.  They stay awake until roughly 6 a.m., at which time they think it is just about the right time to go back to bed.  Now, their timing means that we have no opportunity to go back to bed, so we generally put on a cup of coffee and start our day...which really started at 4:30.

Last night, the 4:30 phantom appeared again.  Enough, I thought.  So I grabbed two pillows and decided to sleep on the floor between the two of them.  

It worked. Well, at least for them.  They seemed to be sleeping soundly in their cribs, but I was sleeping on the floor. If this is progress....sigh.

Looks can be Deceiving

Posted by Anthony

I love this picture of Briggs.

Doesn't he just look angelic?  Well, this picture was snapped during a "stomach virus" day for Briggs.  He managed to nail me twice, which wasn't all that nice. 

The kids did get their one-year checkup.  Both are in the 90th percentile of height, and the 10th in weight.  It does not appear that they received my height and weight genes.  I kid you not when I report that the doctor said we should consider feeding them ice cream as snack to bump up their weight.

Almost a year...

Posted by Anthony

I can hardly believe that it has been almost a year since Kate and Briggs joined our lives.  It seems strange to say this, but I cannot remember life without them.  I'm sure that life had more sleep and a wee bit more flexibility, but it seems like the life of some character out of a book.  And certainly not mine.

The other day I was thinking about them, and it hit me.  As parents, we normally get no more than 18 years with our kids in our home.  So, we get 18 with Kate and Briggs. Then Briggs goes off to start his professional baseball career, and Kate goes off to take advantage of some sports, academic, or art-related college scholarship.  Well, one of those years is on the books.  The lesson, it seems, is to enjoy the journey and to make each day count.

With a year of fatherhood behind me, I am a changed man.

• I can pour 5 ounces of water into a baby bottle without looking.
• Smells that would have once led to a bout of vomiting, no longer phase me.
• The sound of children crying has become a background noise, akin to the tick-tock of a wall clock.
• In the past 360-some days, I have not slept in past 9:30 a.m. (I hear that's pretty good for being a new parent.)
• I've spent thousands of dollars in what I call the circle of parenthood expenses.  About half my salary goes to formula and baby food.  That all ends up in diapers, which cost me the rest of my salary.  Oh, and the other half of my salary goes toward daycare.
• I have bonded with other fathers.  I don't belong to any daddy lunch get-togethers.  In fact, I'm not aware that they exist. But as i go about my business with Kate and Briggs, I'll see another middle-aged man who looks a bit tired, pushing his own bundle(s) of joy.  Our eyes meet, and we communicate the following without saying a word.

Holy $%&#@!  What did we get ourselves into?

In all seriousness, life and God is good.  I've been blessed more times than I can count.  Now, for the mandatory picture of Miss Kate and Master Briggs.

And So It Begins...

Posted by Anthony

It seems like yesterday when we brought Kate and Briggs home from the hospital.  They were fairly immobile.  But just 10 months later, we see this:

No, Briggs is not relieving himself.  (Well, I can't say that for sure.)  He is pulling himself up into a standing position.  Walking cannot be far away.

-sigh- 

 
 

 

Daddy's Little Girl

Posted by Anthony

Here's a little Kate update.  

• Kate has mastered the word "hi."  She hasn't mastered when to use it.  But I'm sure she'll get to that soon enough.
• She loves faces.  More specifically, she loves to slap them. Couple this with her super sharp baby fingernails, and you have instant entertainment every time you pick her up.
• She has 4 teeth.  And if you put your finger in her mouth, you will feel each one as she clamps down.  
• She is in love with our cat, Poe.  He isn't so sure yet.  Kate tends to pet Poe by using her karate chop.  Wax on!  Cat run!
• She can crawl to beat the band.  Especially if she sees Poe.
• She has me wrapped around her little fingers.  (Which have super sharp fingernails.)

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