squirmy

Talk about a weekend from hell. It started out Friday morning at 8am. I work nights, so anything before 10am is way too early. But there I was, bright and early at my mortgage broker class. We spent 9 hours learning the exacting details of Florida Statute 494, the law pertaining to mortgage lending, and federal mortgage laws. If that doesn’t excite you, then I don’t know what will. That was my slow start to the weekend.

To make things really interesting, I threw my normal work schedule into the mix, so Saturday started at 8am and ended at 1:30am, Sunday morning. I got two hours of sleep, and Sunday went from 8am until 12:30am. Needless to say, by the end of Sunday, I was nearly useless. To say that I slept in Monday morning is an understatement. I’m just now starting to feel normal again. Tomorrow morning is my state mortgage broker exam. Over 3000 applicants statewide are testing this month. Not all of them will pass. Sucks for them.

No, Kai is not crawling yet. I’d call it more like squirming. He gets around on his belly, but I don’t think anyone would call it crawling, yet. It could be any day now. He tried spaghetti the other day and loved it. And by the way, it seems that tomato sauce will damage the “color-change” baby spoons that are so popular today.

This weekend will be quite fun. I’m celebrating my 31st birthday this weekend. Thursday night we’re going to Roy’s for their anniversary dinner hosted by Roy Yamaguchi himself. Friday night we are going to the Magic game, and then meeting some friends out downtown for drinks, and staying at the eo inn on Lake Eola for the evening. Erin and I have never had an evening without Kai. We are definitely looking forward to this new experience. Wish us luck.

mini-me

I love my morning naps with Kai. After he wakes up at before the crack of dawn, Erin feeds him breakfast and plays with him for a few hours, and then he’s ready for his first nap of the day. As I’m still asleep at this point, she just brings him in and lays him down with me. It’s the sweetest thing ever. As you can see, we even sleep alike.

Kai crawled today. Mind you, he’s been working on crawling for awhile now, and he does a great job squirming across the floor. Or if he’s on a blanket, and there’s a toy he really wants on the other end of the blanket, he’s figured out how to just pull the blanket until the toy comes to him. But today, of all days, he crawled. Legitimately, on hands-and-knees crawled. Yes, today, right in front of me, he took three full strides (I can’t call it a step, can I?). Backwards. Yes, indeed, backwards. It was so cute. Erin and I laughed because, unlike most babies who prefer to crawl forwards, our son likes to back it up.

I’ve been grilling a lot, lately, since the weather has been so nice. Kai enjoys my cooking, too. I’ll usually throw a carrot or some asparagus on the grill just for him, and he loves it. Somehow today me managed to get carrots everywhere. He was covered in it, and loving every minute of it.

I begin mortgage broker school tomorrow. I’m kind of nervous, entering another phase of my career. I’m sure I’ll do well passing the class and state licensing exam. But the time has finally come, no more excuses. So I’m nervous and excited. I’m going to need a long nap after this weekend is over.

march madness

Kai waved at me Saturday morning. I nearly passed out at the sight of his newest trick. And I think his tongue has outgrown his mouth, since it almost always is sticking out. I call it his Shamu tongue, it reminds me of the enormous tongues of the killer whales at Sea World. And, for his latest maneuver, his first tooth has broken the skin and is officially coming in. What a week it’s been.

We took Kai to the Winter Park Sidewalk Art Festival today, in his Snugli carrier. He loves being on my back — the smile on his face was priceless. He was grabbing my ear and hair the entire time and trying to steer me like car. When he wasn’t grabbing my head, he was reaching out to grab Erin’s hair or any nearby artwork. It was quite a different experience from the last art show we took him to, when he was only two months old and he barely moved.

We’ll be getting video soon of his latest tricks. The hard part is to get him to ignore the shiny camera and act naturally. He’s such a Leo, just like his mom.

I am currently registered for mortgage broker school this coming weekend of the 24th. It’s a 24-hour course conducted over a weekend, with the state licensing test following 3 days later. It should be quite the challenging endeavor. I’m looking forward to it.

Anyways, I’m off to rest. I’m on day 11 with no break from work. It’s been quite an interesting work-a-thon though. Lots of golfers in town for the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill, and lots of conventioneers along with our normal crowd. How they all mesh together over the course of an evening is quite interesting sometimes. I’ll delve into that topic another time. Until then, I’m going to get some rest.

catching up

Tuesday marked our one-year wedding anniversary. Erin and I spent the day together canoeing on the Wekiwa (Wekiva?) river up in Sanford. Every twist and turn of the river held natural wonders and surprises for us. We saw a baby alligator sunning itself on a branch, and watched a red-shouldered hawk patrol its territory, soaring gracefully over us. It was awesome. Kai spent the day with grandma Janet and grandpa Bill — Kai has a mild cold and wants to be held even more than usual, and they were more than happy to oblige.

Kai spent the evening with my parents, and Erin and I went to Manuel’s on the 28th, a very nice restaurant on the 28th floor of the Bank of America building downtown. The 360-degree view of downtown is amazing. The food was very good, and very expensive, as one might imagine. But everything was great, I’d definitely recommend it for a special night out.

As I mentioned earlier, Kai does have a mild cold. Now along with the prolific amounts of drool coming out of his always-open mouth, his nose runs. And he has a cute little cough to round out the picture. And yet he’s still in good spirits — I’m sure that we feel worse for him than he does for himself.

Erin thinks he’ll be crawling soon. His coordination is getting better and better. Occasionally he rolls onto his stomach trying to reach one of his toys, and he doesn’t know we’re watching he will lay there and squirm his way towards it. It’s so cute. But if knows we’re nearby he’ll definitely manipulate us into helping him out. It’s cute for now.

Today Erin, her mom, and Kai went to Jacksonville for the day to watch Isaac’s basketball tournament. I was tempted to ask her to stop at Beach Road Chicken to bring home a box of the world’s finest fried chicken and creamed peas. (Google it, it’s that good.) I was all alone today. I haven’t had a full day without Kai since he was born. It’s a weird feeling, like I left my wallet or phone at home. I ran some errands and went to the gym all by myself. It’s also really quiet around the house. But no rest for the weary, since Erin’s not here to wake me up to go to work if I fall asleep. :)

I’m at the beginning of a marathon 13-day work schedule. Thankfully I’ve mostly recovered from my bout with bronchitis, so it shouldn’t be a problem. One guest at a time...

back in business

I apologize for the extreme delay in posting, but my computer got hacked. By hacked, I mean, Kai diverted my attention by throwing his bottle on the floor, and then when my eyes were averted, he grabbed my coffee mug. Spilling piping hot coffee on my leg, my desk, and my computer. My computer has been drying out for a week now, and some of the keys I’m afraid will never work again. For example, the Return key....

Anyways, lots of stuff to fill you all in on. I’ll post a proper blog tomorrow (Friday) and get all of you all caught up. Holla (leave a comment) if you hear me.