April 2007 Archives

Yesterday, a friend of mine brought her little boy (age 13mo) over for a play date while she went to get a little pampering at one of the local salons. At first, Mr Cameron didn't know what to think. He pretty much stayed where his mother had left him for the first 30 minutes. It wasn't until after lunch that he started to think that this place wasn't so bad and began to venture out of the living room. Not too long after that ... he was all over the place! Running up and down the main hall, building and knocking down block towers and playing ball with Noah. The boys were getting along so well that I was able to sit down at the computer and check my email and even respond to a couple.

Around 12:30 or so, Cameron had accidentally rolled the ball under the dining table where I have my "office" set up. He crawled under my feet (since mine was the only chair pulled out) to retrieve it. Next thing I know, he collapses. I look under the table and Cameron's just laying there, head down, picking at the carpet. He looked so very sleepy. I began to rub his back with my foot ... he was right there; it was convenient ... while I finished my emails. It only took a couple minutes for him to drift off. Not wanting to chance waking him up, I left him there and snapped a quick pic.

Not five minutes later, Noah was out too ... in the middle of the main hall.

Tonight we went to meet Andrew face to little tiny face. It was so nice holding a teeny tiny again. I miss it ... a lot. Anyway ...

Myra LOVED holding Little Drew. Noah ... not so interested. He liked watching all the construction trucks through the window. If you were to ask him, Anna had the best view in the entire building! While I was busy being a "baby hog" and helping Myra do the same, Josh was doing what he does best ... capturing precious moments. Click on the adorable picture below to see more.

----Update----
I added a video clip so everyone can hear his sweet little voice--Josh

We are happy to help announce the arrival of a new little family member .. A new "half-child" for me and Josh ;) and a new cousin for the kids. Anna and Ricky headed to the hospital yesterday morning and this time, they weren't coming home empty handed.

Andrew Dawson was born last night around 8pm. He is 6lbs 10oz and 19.5in. Both Mama Anna and "Drew" are doing fine ... and so is Daddy Ricky.

We'll see you tonight! About 4:30 ... That gives you plenty of time to prepare for your photo shoot. We can't post something like this without pictures ... for too long. Until then, we're borrowing one of yours ;)

I was preaching to my class the amazing amounts of crazy information on Wikipedia the other day and a few of them apparently took it to heart. We spent some time on the Spongebob page and I explained to them how ANYONE can edit the page. They asked everyone's first question, "What if somebody vandalizes the page?" I told them how the whole idea of Wikipedia is that our collective intelligence is greater than our singular intelligence and if there is any wrong information on it, eventually someone who knows better will edit it out.

Over the weekend, one of my students was singing Wikipedia's praises to her parents who were more than a little skeptical. They just couldn't imagine trusting any of that information. They argued that correcting errors would take forever and why would anyone do that anyway? She tells them that ordinary people do it all the time. She sits down at the computer and tells them she can prove it. She goes to the Spongebob Squarepants page and changes the name of Patrick Star to Bailey. Seven minutes later, her edit was changed back to Patrick by some random wikipedian. SEVEN MINUTES. If you called up Encyclopedia Britannica to suggest a correction, you'd probably spend more than 7 minutes on hold just trying to get to the right department.

As a teacher, I was really proud that she not only listened to my lesson in class, but bought into it enough that she defended it, and then took it an extra step and proved it to someone else. It's all part of my master plan! Next thing you know, I'll get them all switched over to Linux. It should be easy since they already love the GIMP.

Today was the end of 4 days of TAKS testing so we let our 8th graders roam free on the track field for an hour or two. I called Chris and she brought the camera and Noah up to play. I roamed around and took fun pictures of the kids doing things like playing football, tossing frisbees, and building sand castles in the long jump pit. Noah had a blast in the sand and the kids loved ooing and ahhing the little Mr. D. When it was time to go, Chris came back by to pick up Noah and a few girls were up near the fence watching us. When I came back over to them they said, "Mr. Davis, is that your wife? How'd you land her 'cause she's HOT!" I told them something that I've marveled at many times over the past 7 or 8 years: I'm a lucky man.

Maybe ...

You too can learn to be an Etch-a-Sketch Master thanks to Photojojo.com!

Myra (and Noah) got their very first glimpse of hail tonight. It was a very up close and, according to Myra, "scary" glimpse.

Josh had a wedding rehearsal to go to so it was just Mommy and the kiddos. First, it was just the tornado sirens but as soon as the hail started coming down, the Little Missy started crying "Can we go to your bathroom now?" (They've been talking about what to do in case of a tornado at school.) We headed to the bathroom with the house phone, the cell phone and a radio. Myra also insisted that the door be closed and we be in the tub. When the hail stopped, we gathered outside with the neighbors to assess the damage.

The Davis' are good. Visiting families across the street, however, had the back window of their van totally busted. Everyone else's cars that were left uncovered now have dents. We all chatted about and compared Myra's reaction to it all (FREAK OUT!) to the reaction of the neighbor's mother-in-law and how Noah seemed oblivious to it all. While the adults exchanged their current and past experiences with sever weather, the kids splashed in the freezing gutters. Before heading back inside, we took a few moments to admire the brightest rainbow we've ever seen.

(Myra's hands)

ADD ON: While hiding ... I mean ... taking cover in the bathroom, a very concerned Myra asked "Is Daddy lost forever?" I'm not 100% sure what made her ask that but I assured her that Daddy was in INSIDE a building just like we were and that he was safe ... just like us.

It looks like Peter Cotton Tail visited our house last night! There was a mad rush for Easter eggs this morning in what Myra called "Easter Egg World"--a place better known as our house. There should be a video of the action up soon, but for now, you can feast your eyes on our two little hunters in their Sunday best!

--Update--
The video is up! Check it out below.

Every good Texan--even us transplanted ones--knows that when those weedy little blue flowers poke their heads out of the soil, you better get your camera out! Well they did so we did! Afterward, we hit Chuck E Cheese to make a good day even better. Check out the album here:

Myra, being the polite young lady that we're raising her to be, wanted to call Grandma and thank her for the extra special Easter outfits she sent. Unfortunately, all Myra got was Grandma's voice mail. After leaving a message, Myra asked ...

"The girl said to leave a message and then push a lot of buttons to answer a lot of questions or she said I can hang up. I don't want to answer questions. So can I just hang up now?"

I wonder how big of a fit she would have thrown had I told her "No, you need to answer those questions." I know ... that would be mean.