How to Travel, the Baird... Cubed Way.

This past weekend we decided to take a trip up to DC for Aunt Lindsey's (my sister's) bridal shower. We knew that Tiff was going to go up for it, since she's in the wedding, but we weren't sure if all three of us were going to head north. At the last minute we found a good deal on some tickets, making it AD's first flight. Of course he was awesome as usual on the flight... mostly, I am sure, because Tiff and I are seasoned travelers.

Since so many of you read this blog for all of my expert advice, here are the official Baird...Cubed Travel Tips...

First of all, decide in advance whether you want to spend some extra dough to check your bags, or stuff as much as you can into smaller carry-on bags. We decided to carry all of our bags on.

Pack wisely.

Now think of a time in your head that you would consider to be an ungodly hour to try to catch a flight. Say 6:30 AM? Ok... book that one.

Next, plan on being at the airport with plenty of time to spare. If you have a kid, add 30 minutes on to that time. If you have a 15-month old, add another 30 to that.

When you get to the airport, trudge to the ticket counter like zombies who haven't had their brain fix yet. By brains, I mean coffee.

Do the kiosk song and dance and get your tickets.

Now, plan this next part very carefully. Grab all of your bags; in our case, each of our bags with the rolly wheels, backpack, diaper bag, nebulizer bag (for the asthma), cooler bag (for the antibiotics) stroller, and kid (optional).

Now, count how many hands you have. The kid's dont count. We had four, which is good because it sucks whenever you look down and realize you're missing a hand...

Find somewhere near the gate to feed the zombies and buy coffee. Make sure it is roughly the temperature of magma.

Now check on your gate because it is most likely boarding without your knowledge. Ours was, without our knowledge... until we checked.

Grab your two rolly bags, backpack, diaper bag, nebulizer bag, cooler bag, stroller, kid (still optional), and two cups of coffee that you haven't been able to drink due to the fact they are the same temperature as the sun.

Realize you only have four hands.

Curse.

Now this next part is also very important. Make sure you look as uncomfortable as possible. Making a face like you are both lost and in pain at the same time worked for me. One of the nice people at US Airways will hopefully see this, and offer to grab a bag or two.

All kidding aside, one of the nice people at US Airways DID see my lost-pain face, got us to the elevator, and helped us on the tarmac to the plane.

We did the planeside back check thing so we didn't have to jam the wheely bags into the overhead compartment. By his point they take the stroller away from you. So now you have a backpack, diaper bag, kid (no longer in stoller and by this point no longer optional), nebulizer bag, cooler bag, two cups of coffee that are 50 degrees cooler than before yet still hot enough to inflict 3rd degree burns on your tongue, and a ticket that you have to look up and down from at least fifty times to make sure that you don't pass your seat by.

Then finally... sit in your seat.

AD traveled great, and we really expect nothing less. He took everything in stride. Apparently the reading light was pretty cool, and the little doohicky that holds up the tray was really cool. We had a nice but very short visit, and headed back down to South Carolina the following night.

Bubbles

The past week has been quite eventful around our house. Tim was scheduled to be out of town last week so I was going to be a single parent. I thought I was prepared as Tim has been out of town for a few nights in a row before. Sadly, I was mistaken. All went well for a few hours, then A.D.'s daycare called and he was running a low-grade fever. No problem. Pick up little man and monitor him overnight to see what was going on. I can handle this. Uhhhh, no. A.D.'s fever spiked to 102.7 overnight so I figured that earned him a MD visit on Tuesday. This is the point where I should probably say that my diagnosis for A.D. was a sinus infection (he had had a virus a week before). Due to the amounts of flu going around, the MD's office was swabbing all children with a temp over 102 to test for Influenza A or B. Lo and behold, he comes up positive for Influenza A. H1N1 is a strain of Influenza A but the test they currently have does not separate H1N1 from Influenza A. Long story short....A.D. most likely has H1N1 and I'm at home alone. I was happy Tim was out of town so he would miss the germs, but it is always nice to have backup when a child is crabby. And A.D. got very crabby. Luckily, the flu was relatively mild as advertised and A.D. recovered by Friday. I, on the other hand, earned myself a MD visit today due to a running a temp all day yesterday. A.D. is good at sharing already and I have now also tested positive for Influenza A. Tim was given a prescription for Tamiflu also, in hope of him not getting sick. And for all of those who know us, we need all the help we can get to stay well. Now, if I can just figure out where to buy some protective bubbles so that we can make it through the cough/cold/flu season in one piece!

Children's Museum

This past Saturday we took A.D. to the Greenville Children's Museum which opened late this summer so the crowds were pretty thick on a Saturday afternoon. A.D. did great though and had plenty of exhibits that he could enjoy.

On the farm...the eggs went into the holes above A.D.'s head and dropped down to the collecting basket on the floor. He must have watched the older children do this because he walked over and did it the first time. He definitely shocked me!

Don't let his smile fool you. He was like all the other children...he definitely didn't like the horse!

He loves carrots!

The slides were the biggest hit. A.D. didn't want us to hold him going down. He is my little adventurer!

Playing the piano!

He loves playing the instruments!

The water exhibits were awesome, and he didn't even get wet!

The wind tunnel made him giggle so much!

They had these tubes set up that you could put balls into and they would shoot out into various bins below. A.D. figured it out pretty quickly.

LR Homecoming Weekend

This past weekend we headed back to Hickory, NC, for Lenoir-Rhyne University's Homecoming. Even though we had quite a wet start to the day, we had a great time catching up with all of our friends, many of whom are like our extended family. A.D. was able to experience his first "live" football game, but unfortunately, even A.D. couldn't help LR as they lost the game by 1 point. However, clapping is big around our house right now, so A.D. really enjoyed the band and cheering.

Mommy and A.D. watching the Bears

Daddy feeding A.D. to the Bear

Daddy and A.D.

Mommy and A.D.

We stayed overnight in Hickory on Saturday night and went on to Asheville on Sunday to see the Bonsai Exhibit at the NC Arboretum before heading home. Hopefully we'll add more pics to this post soon.

Lions and Tigers and Playgrounds, Oh My!

Over the past few weeks AD has had the flu, pink-eye, and an ear infection. This combined with a few weeks of rainy days, we decided to visit the local zoo this past Saturday. Here are a few of our fun pics...

It didn't take AD but one slide with Mommy before he decided it was much more fun to go by himself. Yes, we have a daredevil on our hands.

The park connected to the zoo has done some major renovations since I was little. AD had a blast crawling thru it all.

AD thought these were the best. He kept coming back to them, although he did have to share with ton of other children. Evidently we weren't the only parents with this idea.

Daddy was awesome showing AD all the reptiles. Mommy stayed a little farther back.

The pigs aren't so bad though.

Yes, we majorly cleaned his hands after this picture. The goat didn't seem at all phased by AD poking him.

The giraffes seem so much smaller than they did when I was little. AD seemed to like them though. He probably spent the most time here staring.

All in all, we had a great day and with our new membership, can go back as much as we would like.

Folly Beach 2009

So we've gotten really bad about posting but since most of you know how crazy our lives' have been lately, I hope we are forgiven. With that said, here are a few pictures from our family beach trip at the beginning of September.

First Birthday!

So we are a little late on posting these pictures, but during the past three weeks life has been ever exceedingly crazy. Hopefully there will be more posts coming soon, but for now...

Be Awesome... Buy us a Lightsaber...

Fatherhood Friday is a community of dads and moms sharing their stories, experiences, and humor on fatherhood. This community is part of dad-blogs. Stop by if you haven't checked it out...

Believe it or not, the little man has a birthday coming up on the 4th of August. So far, it's the biggest birthday of his life. I guess. Maybe the one almost a year ago was a little bigger. Don't tell him that though.

Anyways, Tiff went shopping today and picked up a few little birthday presents for him, including a couple toy trucks, some new PJs, and a couple new sippy cups. He may have one more big present coming from us too.

Since I know that all of you are itching to buy A.D. some stuff for his big day, I'm going to make it easy for and provide a short list of three gifts that I think he would like...

1. The piano from Big

The piano... not a cheap knockoff like the ones you see in while you are flipping through the SkyMall catalog as your captain assures you that you are scheduled to take off in the next 20 minutes... and you have to pee. I heard the piano that is in FAO Schwarz in New York is the piano. So we'll take that one.

2. A Lightsaber

Like the piano, he wants a real lightsaber. They are great for trimming hedges and taking care of pesky Sand People at the same time. Not good for punishing your pets, so I'm told... Stick with a rolled up newspaper for that. And please, only hand constructed lightsabers like Anakin and Luke made... preferably orange.

3. A Cardboard Box

A.D. loves cardboard boxes. Big ones, small ones, ones filled with 24 beers... any box will do. He likes putting stuff in them, standing in them, chewing on their sides, and hiding from the cat in them. He plans on keeping his light saber in his box. Boxes rule. Boxes full of beer rule even more.

So there you have it. Get to buying.

A.D. (and daddy) thank you.
___________________________________________________________________

On a side note, Tiff and I just celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary. We headed up to Asheville last weekend (sans kid) and stopped by the Biltmore house and the North Carolina Arboretum.

Keeping with tradition, here are a few longarms of me and my beautiful bride.


Tiffany, thank you for four wonderful years. Hopefully many more longarms are to follow.

The Password is...Kah!

The little man has started talking. Well, not talking talking. I mean, he's not exactly ready to order at the drive-through yet, but talking none the less. His first word is "kah." Yup, that's his word, and it's his favorite word in the word.

What does it mean? It's what he says when Smokey, our (much beloved, mostly pain in the ass) cat walks in the room. A.D. hasn't put the T on the end to round out the word "cat," but he's pretty close. And he's been getting closer and closer to petting Smokey the Kah on occasion too.

Maybe he'll ...

I lost my train of thought because as I was typing, Tiffany was giving A.D. a bath. I heard her yelp for help, and seconds later I was fishing poop out of the bathtub with a cup. Awesome... where was I?

Sigh... I don't remember where I was going with that.

Anyways, as many of you have noticed, we've got new header art for the blog courtesy of Samantha, Tiffany's sister. Samantha is a recent graduate from Winthrop University, and is now a starving artist. She's also the one who painted A.D.'s room right before he was born. She's doing freelance work right now, so if you have a blog that needs some bling, give Sam a ring (hehe). You can contact her and check out some of her work at her website http://www.samillustrates.com/.

Lastly, Tiff and I are celebrating our fourth (holy crap!) anniversary this weekend. Our anniversary is really next weekend, but next weekend we are celebrating the little dude's first birthday (holy crap again!). Stay tuned for the "smash cake" photos.

It's Been a Long Month...

It doesn't seem like it's been a month since I updated the blog. In my defense, it's been crazy month around here. It started with my dad and brother stopping in for a few days on Father's Day weekend. I think this is the first time in at least twenty years that I spent Mother's Day and Father's Day with each of my parents on their respective days. It was a nice visit.

Also, I got the new Tiger Woods '10 for the Wii. It really is the most realistic golf game I have ever played. The other day I shot a 11 under Par at Oakmont... which is exactly what I would shoot if I played it in real life!

Lastly, the Tour de France started last weekend, which has us glued to the TV every night until about 11. I know most people could care less about a bunch of grown men riding bikes. But if you understand the race and the rules, it gets pretty exciting. If you are one of those people, you're not alone... Apparently ESPN doesn't understand it either.


I know the main star of Baird...Cubed is A.D., so here's the obligatory photo of him to keep y'all satisfied.

We've got some big things on the horizon for B3, including some new B3 art, a rousing discussion on the effect of bubbles on an 11-month old, and the big birthday coming up in August. Stay tuned, and sorry about the hiatus.

-- Tim

Using A Walker, Chuck Woolery, and Zombies...

Fatherhood Friday is a community of dads and moms sharing their stories and experiences on fatherhood. This community is part of dad-blogs. Stop by if you haven't checked it out...

A.D.'s starting to kinda walk, but only if he uses a walker. But not your regular little kid walker that they put their feet into, bash around the house, and scare the bejesus out of the cat... but a walker like Grandma used to push around. This one just happens to have some bells and whistles...

He really enjoys having the freedom of mobility, but I can tell he's getting a little frustrated in the fact he can't really walk yet. In fact, just this afternoon, after we were watching the Game Show Network (he has a man-crush on Chuck Woolery... I can't really blame him) I caught him trying to dial the Scooter Store to get him a Hover-Round.

Here's the little man cruising in the hallway upstairs.

(I realize now that I asked "where are you going" twice. Poor editing on my part. Sorry.)

On a side note Tiff has to work tomorrow, so I think I'm going to take him shopping at Wal-Mart for a cultural experience. I'm starting to worry a little bit about his safety though. Not because anyone will take him, although he is pretty damn cute. I'm more worried that...

We will be strolling through electronics when I stop to point out to him how he is absolutely forbidden to one day listen to Miley Cyrus when I get distracted by the plasma TVs... I then think about plasma and remember that I need to donate blood soon... Speaking of blood we are low on Band-Aids... where the hell are the Band-Aids? Hmm... should I get the ones with Elmo or Larry the Cable Guy... Who am I kidding, thats a no-brainer! Speaking of brains, was that toothless hunched-back employee a zombie? Let's find the bike helmets, just in case they are a zombie. He won't be getting my brains, I might need them someday (or was that zombie a she?)...

Then all of a sudden I'm standing in the middle of the Wal-Mart, holding a pack of Elmo Band-Aids and a bike helmet, saying to myself "didn't I come in here with a kid?"

I think I'll put a GPS transmitter on his Hover-Round, that way I can track him down when I lose him.

-- Tim

Tales from a Sunday Morning...

A.D. has been battling a viral upper respiratory illness since Friday and has definitely not been himself. He has morphed into a cranky, not eating, drooling baby. And I do mean drooling. We changed his shirt at least 3 times on Saturday and it probably should have been changed more. So the whole morning started off innocently enough when Tim wanted to go fishing just for the morning, I thought why not, I can catch up on some sleep while little man naps. That had to be one of the last sane thoughts that entered my mind until Tim came back at Noon.

A.D. did, bless his heart, take a great nap for a good hour which allowed me time to take a 30 minute nap that I was very glad to have taken especially as the morning unrolled. After his nap, A.D. finished his bottle (something he had not done since Friday morning) so I was extremely happy thinking that we had turned a corner. Oh, no. Promptly after finshing, a coughing fit began which ended with A.D. gagging himself and emptying his stomach of most of the bottle onto my somewhat clean floor. Hmmm, guess we'll try this again. I stripped him down to his diaper and debated momentarly what to do. The bathtub sounded like a good idea at the time. I mean, A.D. was dirty, it was clean and he loves a bath. If I knew then what I know now.

The bath started off great. Much splashing, giggling, and general happiness exuded into the room. Until I noticed, quite quickly, I had just witnessed another first of parenthood. The poop in the bathtub. Hmmm, quick thinking (not intellegent, just quick), had me pulling A.D. out of the tub before he decided to try to eat anything floating around. I drained the tub and allowed A.D. to stand beside the tub watching. After I had cleaned the majority of the tub, I realized that A.D. was now standing in a new puddle of more poop. He thought this was great though...using his feet to spread it around the floor and pulling the toys placed on the side for cleaning onto his new designs on the floor. OH, .... I am not a neat freak, but all of this grossed me out. So what do I do...

I decide to put back on his diaper and fill up the bathroom sink with water to wash him off. I should have known by now that my thinking today was always in error. No sooner did I have his feet and hands washed then he pulled himself, diaper and all into the sink to play.... Now, I have a utterly disguesting bathroom and a baby in the sink in a wet diaper, and for the record, no towel that I hadn't tried using yet. Ughhh. I decided to abandon the bathroom for his bedroom.

I think he must have picked up on my mood of utter helplessness because he decided that all he wanted to do from the time he was dried off and dressed was cry until Tim came home. I've never been so happy to see my husband come back from a fishing trip. The day should have quickly improved since this freed me up to Clorox the bathroom, but belatedly, I realized that Cloroxing a white floor only in one area is very noticable. Oh, well. That will have to wait for another day.

-- Tiffany

Fatherhood Friday and the Greatest Kids CD Ever...

Fatherhood Friday is a community of dads and moms sharing their stories and experiences on fatherhood. This community is part of dad-blogs. Stop by if you havent checked it out...

This is my first post for Fatherhood Friday, hopefully there will be plenty more.

As I have mentioned before, I'm not a big fan of kids music. But a little while back I realized that me not playing kiddie music for A.D. isn't fair to him. So I decided to pick up a few CDs for him to see how he liked them.

First of all, not playing music while driving around, or cooking, or cleaning the house isn't an option. I have to have it on in the background... that's just how I am. And I figured that he's about at that age where I worry about him listening to some of the music I like.

The first CDs I got was a collection of Little Tikes CDs. There are four of them... and they are awful. One of the CDs is "Toddler Dance Favorites," which includes The Chicken Dance and Baa Baa Black Sheep... Another CD is "Nursery Rhyme Favorites," and includes Little Teapot, Itsy Bitsy Spider, and Three Nice Mice. Oh yeah, you heard me... Three Nice Mice, a politically correct version. Apparently violence towards rodents in the form of chopping off their little tails isn't condoned by Little Tikes.

But honestly, the songs wouldn't be that bad if they didn't sound like they were recorded in a garage by a mom and a few of her kid's tone-deaf friends. So I started thinking about some music that I like that I think the little man would like too... So here's a short list of some kid-friendly music that is both worthy of him learning, and certainly recorded by some talented people (complete with YouTube links in case you want to hear the song).

• We're Going to be Friends - The White Stripes (yeah, that's the song from Napoleon Dynamite)
• Under African Skies - Paul Simon & Linda Ronstadt (because everyone needs to know a song from Graceland other than You Can Call Me Al)
• The Christmas Song - Dave Matthews (because Dave tells a quick little story about Jesus)
• Return to Pooh Corner - Kenny Loggins (because, what kid doesn't like Pooh?)
• If I Had A Million Dollars - Barenaked Ladies (because I can't wait for him to yell "Ha-vent you always wanted a Mon-Key!?")
• Birdhouse in Your Soul - They Might Be Giants (because TMBG crack me up... sorry, no good video for that one)
• Upside Down - Jack Johnson (because the video has Curious George in it... and we like Curious George)
• Heartbeats - Jose Gonzalez (because it's a perfect lullaby song)
• New Shoes - Paolo Nutini (because it's a good dance song for a little one)

Honestly, it's been a long Friday and that's all the music my brain can muster up right now. Any other good ones that you can think of, please shoot them my way. One day I'll post my final list of the greatest kid's CD of all time...

-- Tim

An Afternoon in the Life...

You ever had one of those times where you aren't really quite sure whether you are coming or going? You don't know which way is up? You don't know if what you are smelling is what you are stepping in?... That was my afternoon yesterday... And all of which was for 15 minutes of fun in the pool with the little man. Here's a recap of events...

• Head home from work to pick up A.D. from daycare. I'm feeling pretty good because I am going to take him swimming over at his Papa and Grandma's house.
• Go into daycare where I immediately have to sign an "Uh-Oh Report" because he whacked his face on a bookshelf while trying to get a toy. Nothing new there.
• Head home and start getting stuff ready for the pool and dinner...
• Marinate chicken breasts.
• Search the house for A.D.'s swim suit.
• Change into my own swim suit in the middle of the kitchen, then realize the blinds were open... crap.
  
• Get food together for A.D. and put all into bag.
• Throw everything in the car and head over to Papa and Grandma's house.
• Realize that I am locked out of their house... double crap.
• I break into the house, grab the kid and all his stuff and go inside.
• Change kid into "L'il Swimmers," which by the way don't go on like diapers, so it was like wrangling a cat into... well I don't know where I was going with this analogy, but it would be somewhere a cat wouldn't want to go. Got that?
• Realize I left his bottle at home... crap again.
  
• Inflate his little float thingy and put sun shade canopy on it.
• Fight with A.D. as I try to slather sunscreen on him.
  
• Take him out to the pool just to realize the back yard is shaded after 4 PM... no sunscreen or sunshade needed on his float thingy... sonofacrap!
  
• Play in pool for 15 minutes until he gets cold...

Reinforcements arrived when we were just about to get out of the water. I was then able to hand him off and let mommy get him dry and changed. In the mean time, I drank a beer.

He had a blast for the short time he was in the pool. And any time you put a kid in the pool and he doesn't leave a floater behind has to be considered a successful trip.

Tonight I get to install kid-proof latches on all of the kitchen cabinets... I can't wait.

New 'Doo & Tantrums...

Well we finally broke down and trimmed the little dude's hair. It was about a 1/4 inch over his ears, which was way too long for Tiff. So she grabbed the scissors and took some off of his bangs and around his ears. I think it looks pretty good. She could have a future there, if she wants to deal with cutting the hair of squirmy, snotty nosed kids whose only goal in life is to NOT get their hair cut. A.D. cooperated though, and sat through it like a champ.

Yesterday, however, he decided he did not want to cooperate with anything. I think we had our first full blown tantrum, and I'm not really sure what triggered it. I think it was a combination of being a little hungry, tired, and getting the 10-month clinginess. I was pretty impressed with his extreme defiance towards authority, especially for a 10-month old. It was so funny that I had to grab the camera.

I'm pretty sure that he'll soon be ready to run away and join that loving wolf-family, since we are such horrible people.

Uh-Oh...cubed

The little man is walking... if "walking" meets the definition below.

Walk: \'wok\ : To go into motion after standing upright while holding onto a low object (e.g. couch, table, chair, etc...), swaying like a drunk fraternity kid, and taking one step before crash landing onto the hard floor into a crumpled heap.

In reality, the little man just thinks he can walk. If we don't watch him, he really will let go of whatever he is holding on to, and try to take off across the room. But so far his upright traveling hasn't fared well for him.

Those papers are "Uh-Oh" reports from his daycare. Uh-Oh reports come home with him when he hurts himself at daycare. We've had one or two before from another kid bashing him with a toy, or him wiping out when he was learning to pull up. But we've never had 3 in one day!!! These are from 10:30, 11:30, and 2:30...

We may not be fast learners... but we sure are persistant!

Trip to D.C. in Review...

Although the little man systematically gave everyone the plague (except for myself, I'm proud to say), we had a pretty good time up in Burke. Here are some of the highlights in photos...

For Mother's Day we had the whole family at the house, including all four of Poppy's Great-Grandchildren. Poppy's the big one in the middle, with Gregory on the left, Logan in the middle, and A.D. sitting on Randin's lap. It was about 4:30 and Poppy was hungry, so the photo session didn't last very long.

Tiffany, myself, Nana (my mom), and the little man got a tour of the Capitol. We were able to score a few PRESS passes, so we got to see much more of the building than normal. Of course this is in the rotunda, nothing special there other than a nice photo op...

We had the pleasure of meeting Sen. Pat Leahy (D-VT) down in the bowels of the Capitol right before he had to go do some "senator stuff." I didn't realize until later that my one chance at making an impression passed as I held a Coach purse in my left hand. I'm sure he thought it was lovely...

We had to leave the stroller behind while we were in the Capitol, but that didn't stop A.D. from crashing on Mommy...

On Thursday we met up with Matt & J, who were in town from Arizona, and took the kiddo to the zoo. Although A.D. isn't talking, I'm pretty sure some of the noises he makes are the native tongue of the Emu... So we met an emu, and they chatted for a while.

Mom took A.D. into the front yard for some photos. He's turning into a little ham, and is cheesing it up as soon as he sees the camera.

I got out my wooden blocks from when I was a little man. I'm pretty sure he jammed all 100 of them into his mouth at one time or another. Since they were blocks from when I was a kid, they probably are coated in lead, mercury, and PBA. I periodically check to make sure he hasn't grown a third eye.

Lastly, as Tiff mentioned in her last post, we finally have a couple teeth. Below is proof. Blow it up and look closely on the bottom row... I promise they are there.