Here they are playing on top of their new bunk beds. (Though I should point out that Duplo still sleeps in a crib.)

Here’s Duplo trying on a puppy costume that Brinestone found at a garage sale. He really loves wearing it.

Here are the boys going for a walk one morning. Don’t ask me why Duplo took his shoe off.

Here are my little buddies. And what handsome kids they are, too.

Updates on the Kids

I’m frequently surprised at the things that come out of Lego’s mouth. Today when I got home from work, he informed me, “I got my sleeping bag out, in fact.” In fact? Seriously, where did we get this kid? He’s a veritable verbal sponge. It makes both the linguist and the editor in me proud. And I can’t believe how big he’s getting. It’s weird to think that in just a couple years he’s going to be in school.

Duplo is learning to talk, but he still isn’t saying much yet, and it’s hard to get him to perform on cue. Also, for some reason he thinks “Dad” and “Daddy” refer to him, not me. Whenever I ask him, “Where’s Daddy?” he points to his own chest. It’s okay, though. I forgive him ’cause he’s so stinking cute. And to illustrate his cuteness, here are a couple of pictures.

Here he is learning the fine art of automotive repair. No, son, that’s not how you remove the brake caliper! Use the 18 mm socket!

Aww. What a sweet boy he is.

Updates on Me

I haven’t really been up to a whole lot lately. I’m just working for the summer and will be starting classes again in a few weeks. However, I’ve been pretty busy at work, and I figure here’s a good opportunity for some shameless self-promotion. Two of the books I’ve worked on lately have just been published. I typeset this one and did a fair amount of editing and proofreading on it as well. On this one I designed and typeset the insides and did some revisions on the cover. Check them out.

• Finished the semester with my first real 4.0 (not counting last summer when I took an intro course that I didn’t actually need and got an A).
• Replaced the front driver-side window motor and the window glass on the Beagle. The window motor was dead, and the Teagle has tinted windows, so I figured I might as well swap them all out. I’ll do the rest of the windows over the next few weeks.
• Fixed the burned-out lights in the Beagle’s dash. Hooray for having a soldering iron!
• Fixed some buggy HTML in my blog’s sidebar. Firefox and Chrome still displayed it right, but stupid Internet Explorer choked on it.
• Watched Duplo learn how to walk.

Edit: Okay, apparently I don’t actually know how to embed videos, even though I’ve done it before. I’ll try to figure it out and then update this post later.

Here’s Lego learning the fine art of automotive repair. No, son, don’t use a hammer! Obviously I need to show you how to use the steering wheel puller.

Duplo looking sharp in his new church outfit.

A belated Halloween picture. Lego is an elephant (same as last year, but now it actually fits him), and Duplo is an alligator (or perhaps a Danielsaur).

And here’s a picture of Duplo giggling.

Newborn Duplo

Brinestone and Duplo

Brinestone, Duplo, and Jon Boy

Lego and Duplo

She’d had a doctor’s appointment yesterday, and she was dilated past 3 cm then. This morning she was past 4, so they said we were there to stay this time. Things moved along quite quickly this time all by themselves, whereas last time her water had broken but she wasn’t really progressing until they put her on pitocin.

They broke her water, and then things moved really quickly. About 20 minutes of pushing later, we had ourselves a little boy. The doctor remarked on how huge he looked—sure enough, he weighed in at a whopping 9 pounds 3 ounces. Don’t ask me how the two of us produced such a big baby.

The name we settled on is Daniel Porter, and he seems to be doing great. He’s pretty calm and alert—he’s hardly cried, and he likes to just look around at everything. Brinestone’s doing pretty well, but obviously she’s pretty exhausted and sore (she went without an epidural this time).

I’ll try to post pictures tomorrow.