Travis had his four-week checkup this morning and I had the privilege of tagging along. Turns out Travis has been a very productive eater. He weighed in at 9 pounds, four ounces, measured 22 inches, and has a head circumference of 37.5 (sorry, I’m not sure what the units are).

Anyway, he’s in the 50% percentile for everything but height, where he’s 75%. His weight gain amounts to over an ounce a day. Pretty impressive!

A few more ounces might get him to the point where he sleeps through the night.

I completed an interesting experiement today. Well, its interesting if you’re a total dork like me, that is. But then again, you’re actually choosing to read this cruft, so what does that say about you?

Anyway, back to my experiement. I had read an article about Amar Bose. Bose, genius inventor of Bose speaker fame, is in his mid-70’s and has great eyesight, which he credits to eye exercises he does each day. Eyes are muscles like any other muscles, I suppose, so why couldn’t you strengthen them with exercise? Just for fun, then, I thought I’d see how long I could go without wearing my glasses or contacts.

Last I had my vision tested, it showed 20/60 or so, uncorrected. So I’m not blind without glasses, but my vision isn’t perfect, either. But its tolerable.

I didn’t begin my day thinking today was the start of my experiment. I think sleeping on the couch last night put me away from my habit of unthinkingly grabbing my glasses upon waking. Thus, I began my day away from my glasses and really didn’t think about them until later.

I read the paper just fine and saw what I needed to in the room without much strain. In fact, the thought of not seeing well really didn’t cross my mind. It was kind of neat. And empowering.

After our morning walk was the first time I “rememhered” that I wasn’t wearing my glasses. By that time, though, I was thoroughly enjoying seeing out of my own, unaided eyes. My goal of a full day of seeing with my own eyes was a sure thing from that point on.

Tomorrow I’ll have to drive to work, and because the law says I have to wear glasses when driving, I’ll have them on. I’ll wear them throughout work, too, more than likely.

We’re just wrapping up a roller-coaster weekend, one that had some tremendous ups and white-knuckled downs. Fortunately, it ends on a high note!

I woke up at my usual time Saturday to take my (stupid) driving class. I got to the building five minutes before class started but was dismayed to find the door was locked. Two other students waited with me almost a full hour before another student wandered up, called a number on his cellphone, and then led us back to the other door behind the building!

I felt like the kid in Gary Larson’s famous Midvale School for the Gifted cartoon. Driving school may be stupid, but what does it say about me if I can’t even find the right door?! To my credit, neither door was marked with a suite number or business name, and the side I was the only one with building numbers on it, so it was clearly the front. But no one told us where to go once we made it that far.

The class was predictable. It was pretty much like a flashback to high school drivers education, but without the gory drinking and driving films. Wandering in an hour late didn’t seem to affect us much, as the other students (there were 8 in all) were in the middle of watching a video. We watched a half-dozen of those videos throughout the day, each one taking the material of the prior one and retelling it. At least the fresh faces and the stunt car crashes made them interesting.

One was hosted by the late Christopher Reeve (“This is old!” one student quipped). Chris seemed so at ease in front of the camera. Very, very genuine. And not pretentious at all, the way I had once imagined him to be. He seemed like a regular guy. Watching him on tape made me sad again about his recent death.

I left class and arrived home at 3 PM, where I was met by a house full of sleeping family members. Kelly whispered how she’d had a trying day before I let her sleep again, stepping out to take the recycling out.

The rest of the evening was a bit challenging, too. Hallie didn’t want to spend much time with me, preferring that Kelly wake her up. For his part, Travis spent much of the night demanding to be held, screaming relentlessly when he’d put him down. At least he held off while we had dinner, though.

Towards bedtime, Hallie’s attitude deteriorated. She became whiny and didn’t want to clean up or get ready for bed. Travis began to get restless, too, and no amount of movement seemed to satisfy him. Kelly needed to break away and do some chores, which left me with two kids pleading for my attention. I went to bed on the couch in an effort to get some better sleep, taking a splitting headache with me.

At 2 AM, I awoke with what felt for all the world like a hangover, though I’d only had a glass and a half of wine with dinner. I drank water and rummaged around in our master bathroom for an ibuprofin, noting how Kelly and Travis were sleeping soundly next to me. After chasing the cat down from the kitchen counter, I fell back asleep until 8 AM.

Today has been a winner from the get-go. Hallie woke up in a fantastic mood, Kelly, Travis and I (in spite of my early morning headache) got more sleep last night than we had for weeks. Also, the weather was shaping up to be absolutely gorgeous, with highs in the mid-70s.

Travis had plenty of alert time during breakfast, after which we took advantage of the day and set out for a walk on the greenway. I wore Travis in the Baby Bjorn. Kelly and Hallie took turns pushing the stroller, with Hallie sometimes riding during Mommy’s turn. That hour of walking felt so relaxing. Just what we all needed!

While we were walking, Kelly and I were amazed to hear Hallie quietly reciting the alphabet! We were so proud to hear that that we both burst out in applause. We’ve worked with her on letters and we’ve sung the Alphabet Song, but neither one of us expected her to pick it up so quickly. Just when we think we’ve seen it all, Hallie finds yet another way to blow us away. She is a genius!

I took Travis from Kelly to give her a break and was delighted to have him fall fast asleep in my arms. All too often he would bawl when Kelly would hand him to me, but not today. The time he spent riding with me during the morning walk had softened him up and made him a champion napper, at least for today. I spent some quality time moving sprinklers around the yard with him, cleaning up around the house, or just sitting on the couch with him snoozing on my chest. It was unbelievably fun to see him so comfortable with me. I was a very proud dad.

While Hallie was napping, Kelly wandered out to find me and Travis moving sprinklers around the yard. As we were standing there, two separate neighbors stopped us to either deliver gifts for Travis or promise to deliver them! We stood talking with them for a half-hour over the neighborhood and other things. Afterward, Kelly and I agreed at how cool our neighborhood really is. The people are just so friendly!

After dinner, Hallie followed me out to the back porch as I took the trash out. We stood there for fifteen minutes as I showed her the moon, pointed at some planes flying by, and talked about one day seeing the stars through a telescope. Hallie became enchanted with the dark, and begged to play some on the porch. When she walked over to look at Kelly, who was inside nursing Travis, I formed a little halo over Hallie’s head with my hands. Kelly knew exactly what I meant.

When Kelly brought Travis out to join us in the dark, Hallie had begun to entertain herself over at the corner of the porch. As we watched, she began to twirl around, singing a song and holding her hands out in front of her. We both watched as she spun around and tried to make out her mumbled words.

She was singing something along the lines of “bees, byes, bows, bears” over and over, and holding her hands out at each word. It looked like a twist on “eenie, meanie, miney, moe.” She learned it in preschool and was obviously happy to be showing it off. It was a priceless moment.

The fun continued before her bath. Kelly brought her her solar-powered calculator and showed Hallie how to “use” it. Hallie spent the rest of the night pushing buttons on it and pretending to calculate numbers. Then, the calculator became a phone, and Hallie made numerous pretend calls to relatives and friends. I raced to videotape as much as I could of her antics, and managed to get a good bit of them captured on film. She was in rare form tonight.

I had Hallie settled on my lap for storytime when Kelly was telling her goodnight. As she closed the door, I told her how I wished every night would be this good.

“Every night? Try every day!” she said, and she was right. This day has been one of the best.

I’ve got a day full of boring traffic stuff tomorrow as I sit through driving class to make my Virginia speeding ticket disappear. The six-hour time I spend in class will magically morph into eight hours by the time my certificate gets filled out. I don’t know how that works, but it somehow does. I’ll leave it up to the experts.

As my deadline loomed for getting this certificate back to Virginia, I began to get concerned I wouldn’t find an appropriate course. The ones North Carolina provide are only four hour courses, while my Virginny judge wants an eight hour course.

Thinking I was out of luck, I called the court clerk last week and asked for advice. I was hoping she’d clue me into some North Carolina schools she’d seen cross her desk. Though I prodded her, she politely claimed she didn’t have any names to give me.

“Certainly you’ve read some driving school names on the paperwork,” I asked incredulously.

“Well,” she finally admitted, doing everything she could to get me off the phone. “We don’t pay that much attention. We just file the certificate along with the rest of the paperwork.”

I hung up and paused for a second, amused. They don’t even read the paperwork!

No wonder there are so many stories of crooks faxing themselves right out of jail.

Sleeping and blogging don’t mix. I’ve not been doing much of either, lately. Travis has a ways to go before he learns how to do this sleep stuff. In the meantime, we’re all getting too used to seeing each other every hour or two during the night.

Today, though, I wondered if Travis has turned a corner of sorts. He was very relaxed and aware throughout the evening. The three more mobile family members ate dinner while he peered up at us from his bouncy seat.

Afterward, he actually let me hold him without wailing the whole time! I was so thrilled at this. Usually, he’s got a 20 second fuse with me before he cranks up and demands the Food Parent. Instead, I got to carry him around the room, during which he happily fell limp as a rag, curling up in my arms like a football. He was so out of it that I got away with carting him around the yard as I adjusted sprinklers!

He’s never been so comfortable with me until now. It’s great to see, and it makes me want to hold him again and again. And my weary wife must be thrilled at that thought, too. Bless her heart!

A coworker missed one of my Fletch references, the “cup of hot fat” one, so I sent him to this page to brush up on his Essential Fletch.

Now, where is that Beatles’ White Album?

It’s ten o’clock and we’re still downstairs in the den. I was just about to nudge my wife to head upstairs, thinking it’s bedtime. Instead, I looked around.

Kelly’s on the couch and Travis is sound asleep in his Take Along Swing seat. Both are snoozing better now than then have for three weeks!

It’s always good policy to let sleeping family members lie.

We are incredibly fortunate to have such wonderful family and friends! since Travis arrived, we’ve been inundated with generosity from just about everyone we know. Whether its a meal, a card, a gift, or just a phone call or visit, we’ve been humbled at the outpouring of support.

Truly, thanks. You guys rock!

Blogging from the Z is never easy. But neither is blogging with a newborn in the house. You do what you can, stealing what moments present themselves. I’m sitting in our den in the recliner. Kelly is sleeping on the couch next to me while Travis is rocking in his rocking seat. The Boy loves motion, so the chair is one of the few things that keep him quiet.

We haven’t made much progress in getting him to sleep through the night, but we’ve made some. And some is precious. I think we’d all be feeling better with more sleep. Poor Kelly stays up most of the night with Travis and then entertains both him and Hallie during the day. Her strength is simply amazing.

I’m enjoying work. Its challenging and fun. I’ve got the right amount of work to do and I take immense pride in doing it. I only wish I could do my work and be able to play with my family at the same time. Regardless, I’m feeling fufilled.

My Saturday is booked with the all-day driving improvement class I have to take to erase my ticket. Already, I’m wondering if I can take my laptop (or Z).

The yard looks great now. EPM has come out twice to reseed it. Apparently, no one talks to each other at the company. We won’t complain, though!

In short, life is good right now. Peace!