Dad's Gone

Here I am in California. And I'm missing my kid. And my wife's letting me know that she's taken tons of pictures and videos of him so I can still see him when I'm gone. And this lets me know that even though she was 1500 miles closer to Antonio when she was working her crazy hours, on some days she saw him as often as I did today... which means not at all.

And this makes me realize how much I sucked for not taking as many pictures as I could for her.

Because look at this kid. He's the best.
I know he's got the camo on, but he's in that picture. Really.

It snowed for a bit again today and stuck.... Except I'm in LA, and it's 70 here. That's the one good thing about being away.

Here a few pics from yesterday....before dad left. Antonio's got the stylin' 'do workin'.


Lunchin' at Elliott Bay Pub. Antonio was the perfect child. (What else is new, I know.)
Today we made an adventure to Best Buy - I have video surveillance that suggests tampering with the device.

Oops. No Wonder Pets until that's fixed. Guess we'll just have to play with cars instead. (Listen for the giggles.)

I can't wait until I can do this with him on Saturday.

BIG UPDATE!

Easter!

Antonio had tons of fun. Antonio ate tons of candy. Antonio hasn't slept in a week.
You know the other great part about Easter? Grabbing and hugging and smacking and squeezing cousin Elijah.

Know what else is great? Playing with Bonk.
See how much fun it looks like they're having? They were having even more fun than that. Take a look:

But Easter had to end, and so we drove down the island and took the ferry home. It wasn't the first time Antonio rode the ferry, but he was just as intrigued by all the sights.

When we got home, we had a few good days as a family.
But then we had to say goodbye to Mommy because she went to Texas to tell a bunch of people how to make a bunch of money for their worthy causes. So us boys had to fend for ourselves for a few days. We managed pretty well -- the house is still standing, we both have all our limbs, and we didn't lose the dog. (Well, we did lose the dog, but we found her before Mommy got home, so don't say anything, okay. It'll be our little secret.)

Here are some pictures from the boy days.
This one is a self-portrait. He's pretty talented, don't you think?
And then today, before Mom got home, we made our way over to Issaquah to visit with Mamma and cousin Preston. Antonio did a little house work...
And then Antonio showed off his mad basketball skills.

Too bad he's got the parents he's got. He'd probably go pro if it weren't for the whole height (and coordination and athleticism) thing.

But they're cousins... identical cousins and you'll find...

They laugh alike. They walk alike. But most of the time, Elijah is still scared and unsure about Antonio. Last week we headed over to Woodinville for a visit at Elijah's house. Antonio thought it would be a good idea to teach his cousin about sharing. So Elijah got to watch as Antonio shared all Elijah's toys.
I know Antonio had a good time. I'm not so sure About Elijah.
One thing I am sure about, however, is that one day, Elijah will like Antonio as much as Antonio likes him.

Do you know what Antonio wants to do? Do you know what Antonio wants to do?

Strut.

Gardening With Antonio

After a cloudy... no, sunny... no, rainy... no windy... no, sunny... no, rainy again morning, it was nice to have a pleasant afternoon. So pleasant, in fact, that the whole family went out and did a little yard work.

Antonio was a big help. Havana, not so much.

He really got the whole weeding thing down. Although when he does it, it's more like dirting.

Then Antonio hung out on the front porch.

He was having so much fun, he didn't want to come in.

I think he may be out there still. We should probably go check on him sometime.

Mommy's Done

Last night Deb had her big Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. She's been working hard putting this event together, and now that she's done, she gets to (after doing a bit of wrap-up) enjoy the same quality time I was lucky enough to spend with Antonio for the past few months.

All three of us are excited about this. The only down side is that my time with Antonio has decreased since I started heading back to California for work. But luckily, for the last few weeks, the grandparents have come down to spend lots of quality time with the little guy. They took great care of him, even when he was sick (or when he both he and Grandma got food poisoning. Then gave it to Laurie. Then gave it to Mamma. Then gave it to me. Then passed it along to Laurie's husband. That was a very bad bit of food poisoning if you ask me.).
Antonio picks a winner--
So this afternoon, we spent some very nice family time, just hanging out and playing. Oh, and I taught Antonio how enjoyable eating cereal for lunch can be. He seemed to warm up to the idea pretty quickly.

Antonio's getting ready for the next week. More Mommy time. More Daddy time. More Mamma time. More Laurie time. There will be less and less of this look every morning.
Oh, and as always, more Havana time.

Blogger Down

Well, the flu has swept the house and on a short weekend visit, dad got the bug. So in his place is mom....not nearly the writer or the blogger as dad, but I can load pictures!
Mr. Antonio has had the flu all week too and has shared it first with Grandma, then Laurie, then Mamma and now Dad. Somehow Havana and I are still healthy.

We have been going outside for fresh air as much as possible along with his cool fire truck from Uncle Rich. And of course, visiting his favorite bed of rocks....

And a little Oak Harbor came out in Antonio as he played with his own personal windmill.

This week, Antonio has discovered his boots from Uncle Alvin! They are a little tough to see since Antonio is wearing camo pants with his camo boots, but believe me they are very cool. Every parent has these pictures and memories of their kids playing in boots, including Mamma who says that Jeff wore white boots and gloves.....HMMM???

Better blogs will come when the writer is back.

Antonio's Blog is Quite Deprived

I know what you're thinking... The strike's over, why have the blog posts stopped. You know I'm unemployed, right, so I should have nothing better to do than chronicle the excellent adventures of my awesome son. Right?

Well, actually... I got a job.

So I've been in Los Angeles all week. (Well, technically Toluca Lake, Glendale, and Burbank. But you get the idea.) Yep, I'm back to the back and forth schedule I enjoyed last year. I won't have to do it for long, however, because I'll be able to do most of my work from home. There's just a bunch of stuff to get done to get the show off the ground. The show's just getting started and doesn't even have an official title yet, but when the time comes to start watching, I'll let you know.

So I have to be away from Antonio during the week for a while. It's tough, because I'd been spending so much time with him, that not seeing him for even an afternoon is hard, much less four days in a row. But we'll (and by we'll, I mean I'll) get through this. Hey, at least I'll make Alaska MVP Gold again.

Luckily he's got his grandma and mamma close by, and they've been down to take care of him (and Deb) when I'm gone. Of course, I get work right at Deb's busiest time of the year, but when it comes, it comes. (Much like the flu, which is making its way through our house right now, too.)

Here are some pictures of Antonio playing with a leaf from last week.
I'll have to check the other cameras, because I'm sure there are plenty of others I missed while I was gone.

Antonio Likes Soup!

We'll get things started off with some pictures of Grandma and Grandpa's recent visit. Antonio was not at all pleased to see them.He hated wrestling with Grandpa.
He despised sharing water with Grandma.He didn't enjoy sitting in his chair with Havana balancing very carefully on part of his pillow fort.

He didn't like any of it. That's for sure.

Another thing he didn't like, his lunch today. At first he thought he was too cool to enjoy his soup.
Then he was curious about the whole situation.
Then... well, let's just show you what happened then.

After lunch, Antonio needed a new shirt.

Happy Valentine's Day. (Part Two)

Antonio had a great Valentine's Day. He had a great past week and a half, too, but you probably couldn't tell that from all my updates. But he did. I swear.

He's been doing lots of exploring. Even after an hour-long walk, he didn't want to come inside. He was happy just hanging out on the porch, playing with Havana's leash, checking out the neighborhood.
Since he's spending so much time with me, he's starting to get pretty good at the wrestling. Here he pinned me in just under a minute. I stand no chance against him.
Oh, and he likes grabbing the camera a lot more than he used to. Here's one of his self portraits.
Antonio spent his Valentine's Day morning with Mamma, who stayed the night. After she fed him his nutritious breakfast...
He decided to give himself a pedicure.
Then we went for a walk and ran some errands. Once we got close to the house, Antonio decided to walk the rest of the way home. That's the thing about Antonio, you can tell him to walk the rest of the way home, but he's pretty going to walk wherever he feels like walking.

Then Antonio enjoyed his favorite part of Valentine's Day. The cupcake. Look how happy he looks just before he eats it.
Now watch how happy he is while he eats his cupcake.

Now look how unhappy he is after he finished his cupcake and his Mommy and Daddy told him he wasn't going to have any more.
Yeah, Mommy and Daddy suck.

Antonio enjoyed the sugar rush for as long as it lasted, then he crashed. He crashed hard.

Here he could barely keep his eyes open long enough to finish watching the Wonder Pets.

All in all, it was a great day. Like all the other days recently. But you knew about those days, because you've been reading all about them here. Right?

Happy Valentine's Day. (Part One)

Just a little something to tide you over until later tonight.

STRIKE'S OVER!!!

The strike is over. The strike is over.

That's good news, right?

Well, not exactly.

"On strike" sounds much better than "unemployed."

Nobody tell Deb.

It'll be our little secret.

Superbowl Weekend

Antonio was excited about his second Super Bowl. All he could talk about all week was that he didn't think Eli Manning was going to be able to stand up to the pressure and how he really was getting sick of all the Boston teams winning stuff.

And Nemo. He also talked about Nemo.

And Lightning McQueen.

To get ready for the big game, Antonio played with some of his cars (not to mention his favorite ribbon) on his new table. Then he went to the park and ran around. He really liked watching the big kids slide down the slide too fast and crashing onto the bark. He can't wait until he's big enough to do that, too. His Mom and Dad can wait. They can wait a long, long time.
Finally, as the game got closer, he started working on his jump shot.
(What do you expect, he's only one.)

For the game, we went over to Elijah's house. He was as happy to see Antonio as ever.

As for the game, Antonio was proven wrong about Eli. He just hopes the 'Hawks get there next year.