The title and the videos should say enough, but to be clear I do say horror in the video. Sometimes I mumble, so I wanted to be clear I didn’t talk about a great little house in Texas.
Author Archives: teamfricke
Orange Is His Color
I’m a bit late on this post, but Mason has stepped up to the next level of violence self defense and has received his orange belt in karate. He is quite proud of his accomplishment. Below are a few photos from the test night.
You Say Tomato
Cutler says “Yuck!”
Yesterday, while attempting to increase the vegetable intake in my diet I offered up some cherry tomatoes to Cutler. Here is the outcome and it is very similar to Melanie’s typical response to tomatoes as well. What’s surprising is that he actually went for a second one.
Flying Solo
A few months ago we started the process of teaching Mason to ride his bike without training wheels. Let me back up, teaching Mason consisted of removing the training wheels and feebly trying for a short period of time to help him ride. Then a few weeks later I decided to remove the pedals and have him try gliding on it to learn how to maintain his balance and as usual he quickly lost interest in this effort as well. Fast forward to yesterday where I was trying to get him to practice riding it down the driveway, sans pedals, and he asked when we were going to put the pedals on because he already rode his friend’s bike without training wheels. So I decided to call his bluff and put the pedals back on and surprisingly enough the kid can actually ride…with a little helping hand to get going. It’s amazing what they can do once you push them out of the nest.
By the way, I realize how pitiful my effort was in the month of April and I have big plans for the month of May. Well not big, but three posts this month would be big compared to April. Happy Mother’s Day to all you mothers out there, especially mine!
Happy Belated Easter
I know it’s been a very long time and I don’t really have any updates. Just wanted to share this picture from over the weekend…complete with real rabbits and real rabbit poop. Hope everyone had a great Easter weekend! The boys are doing great.
For Future Use
After a couple of fairly rough days in the office and a very rough night of little sleep, thanks to Cutler I may have been a bit extra grumpy with both of the boys tonight and especially Mason. Ok, who am I kidding? I was unjustifiably extra grumpy and short-tempered with Mason tonight. So after getting home from a boys dinner, Melanie is out of town for work, I was relaying a story to Kobi about how I was a horrible parent for letting Cutler cry for 30 minutes in the middle of the night in hopes he would just fall back asleep only to find that he was just hungry and a simple banana did the trick when from across the room Mason quickly corrects me and tells me that I’m not a horrible parent and that I’m in fact a great daddy. His words, not mine…or something to that effect (I’m tired people). It damn near brought tears to my eyes as it wasn’t just 15 minutes earlier I was lecturing him on how he needed to be more grateful for all he gets to do and showing his just how great of a daddy I can not be at times of stress.
I post this not to brag or show everyone how sweet and compassionate Mason is, but simply to have it documented to show Mason in a few years when he is sure to have changed his mind and have completely forgotten about how great of a daddy I am. Ok, there I go kidding again, there is a bit of bragging involved in this post as well. 🙂
Photos – Because I Can’t Think Of A Catchy Title
Just thought I would put up a couple of pictures from my quick trip to the park with Cutler on Sunday when Melanie and Mason had a date to the puppet show. Fortunately there are some pretty cute ones, unfortunately he is wearing what seems to be the only sweatshirt he ever seems to wear when I have cute pictures of him. I promise, he has other clothes, so no need to send anything. And I am working on putting together pictures from his birthday party.
The Mad Scientist
For Christmas Grandma and Grandpa got Mason a scientist/wizard kit complete with home made lab coat and Saturday we decided to break it out and perform a few exciting experiments like absorbing purple water with crystals, causing water to bubble over the test tube, changing the color of colored water, writing in invisible ink, making the invisible ink disappear, and apparently causing the temperature to drop from 86 to 46 in a matter of hours. Or that may have been a cause of my bragging to grandpa after he called to complain about the 4 inches of snow he had received. Still have some more experiments to go and will try to get some video of the more destructive ones. Until now, some photos of Mason and his lab coat.
Melancholy Bliss
Cutler had his bi monthly oncologist visit this morning and before the title worries everyone, I will let you all know that everything is great. His blood work is still marvelous and still no concerns. In fact, in between visits he has managed to overcome a nasty stomach virus and a double ear infection so he has been putting his new immune system to the test with no issues. The reason for the title is that it was just so much more difficult of a visit than it has been in the past.
Perhaps it is due to the lack of visits, but as I stepped off the elevator I got sick to my stomach as a sense of stress just rushed through me as it did the very first day when I first saw the “Texas Oncology” sign for the first time. Then as we walked into the waiting room it was a much more somber experience than normal as there appeared to be a family with a teenager waiting in one area and despite Cutler’s best area a smile wasn’t to be found. On our way out I ran into another gentlemen, I believe he is around 20, that I had met at the Christmas party that appears to have lost a leg between then and now. Fortunately he had a big smile on his face and waved to Cutler, so it put a bit more of a smile in my heart on the way out.
All of that just to remind us all of how fortunate and blessed we are that today was just another normal check up for our healthy two year old.
Monkey See Monkey Do
I am sure it happens with all siblings, but Cutler is in the stage where he imitates everything that Mason does. These videos show it a bit, although the first video is more like a couple of monkeys just dancing around. Yes, that is Grandma in the background that you hear talking. She and Grandpa are in town so you will probably find that I will be quite active on the blog during their visit as it pains me to watch my father watch soap operas that he has recorded on my dvr all night long. (cue the song “Where have all the cowboys gone”)
In this second video I find it a bit ironic that Mason just got done slamming Cutler’s hands together as Grandma starts talking about how gentle he is with Cutler. Although, in her defense, until that point he has been extremely gentle with him and usually is extremely cautious of hurting him.
Team Fricke 