28 Dec 03

Let me start by saying we have the cutest kids in the entire world!  We have been having so much fun with them!  I have had this entire week off of work, and once I got the antenna issue resolved (trying desperately to get HiDef Over the Air) - We have had just a ball playing with the boys...  The kids are much better now, although Max still occasionally pulls at his ears.  We hope that it is not indicative of another ear infection, because that will mean that he will probably need tubes.  BOO!

Christmas was an absolute blast in the Puddy household.  Nikolai still didn't fully get the fact that Santa was going to come and bring him toys, but once the toys were here, he was more than happy to open and play with them!  Once he opened about three toys, he just started to play with those three.  Pam was trying desparately to get him to open the remainder, but he just wanted to play with the three!  So Pam helped him along - I think that she was having more fun than he was!  Max was having fun just beating around a box and playing with wrapping paper.  Who needs toys!?!  So cute...  If I hear another Wiggle's song, I think that I will kill myself!  Everybody on both sides of the family were more than generous hooking up the boys with cute clothes, educational books, and of course toys!  The aftermath was none too pretty...

Go Pats!  Ending the regular season at 14-2!  Woo-Hoo!

All Max wanted for Christmas was his 2 front teeth - but he had to settle for one!  Max has the cutest little bottom tooth!  It looks like it is even coming in straight - we are happy about that!  If only it would change his sleeping habits...  I don't think that he knows what it is like to feel normal!  But he is just too damned cute...

We have the cute Dog named Tucker that lives across the street - Nikolai loves to play w/ Tucker and throw rocks into the pond.  He doesn't fully grasp that the water is ~33 degrees, and if he falls into it he will get quite a rude wake-up!  He storms right for the water, and without parent intervention he would take a dip.  Tucker, on the other hand, loves to jump in the water, run right up next to me, and shake off!  Thanks.  It's not muddy around here or anything.

So I bought these "Deer Blocks" - meant to bring deer around to feed on them - they are a mish-mash of corn and grains that deer like to eat.  I put two of them on our property in front of the windows (where I have seen Deer running around), so that the boys could watch the deer eat.  But I put them out a week ago, and we have seen no deer.  Miraculously, we have the fattest squirrels on the block, though!

On a sadder note, Jeff Carter's brother passed away on Friday after a long fight with cancer.  Please keep Jeff (Scooter) and his family in your thoughts and prayers.

Other than that - we hope that you had a GREAT Christmas, and are planning a RAUCOUS New Year!  Me?  I'll be dressed in a toga ringing in the new year in style...

Check out the new pix and drop us a line!

19 Dec 03

We FINALLY have high speed internet access (although it, of course, is down right now - so I am doing all of this over dial up...)…  It took the tech 3 visits to finally get the satellite working, but he finally did it.  The download speeds are ~700KB/Sec, but the upload speed is only about 10KB/Sec.  Download is great, but the upload is terrible…  Oh well – still beats dial up!  Now for the update on the Puddys…

 Both kids have been wicked sick.  Max has had the sniffles since before we got here, and it progressed into an ear infection..  He got that treated, and then he started to get white spots on his mouth because of the antibiotics.  So we treated that w/ Nistatin.  After about 2 weeks he appeared a bit better, but then 3 days went by, and he was right back into looking/feeling terrible.  Nikolai had the sniffles as well, so Pam got them a few appointments to see the pediatrician on base.  The Doctor took one look in each of the boys ears, and BANG!  Double ear infections for both of them!  Ouch…  They were also wheezing quite a bit, so the doctor also threw them in a tube to take an X-ray of their chests.  BAM!  Both kids have pneumonia.  What a pain in the butt!  While Nikolai was getting stuck in the X-ray tube, he looked over at Pam and said, “Fun Stuff, Mommy.”  They are now on Nebulizer treatments so that the medicine can get into their lungs and loosen up the garbage in their chests and hopefully work them out.  Our kitchen counter looks like a pediatric pharmacy!  I feel so bad for them – I wish they could understand that a cold was just temporary and that they would feel better shortly.  The look on Max’s face – he just looks stoned, and then he keeps blowing these huge snot-bubbles out of his nose!  They will both be better soon, but this flu season has been a killer on the boys…  On top of that - Max still has no teeth!  We are waiting ever so patiently for the first chompers to appear...

 Pam has been a wicked trooper putting up with the sick children. I have been flying quite a bit, so I have been of limited help to her – especially in the middle of the night while they are both awake, crying…  I come out in the morning, and all three of them are asleep on the couch, looking terrible.  Every now and then if she can’t handle both of them at the same time, she will put one of them in bed with me – I never know who I will be waking up next to!  Nikolai will usually sleep – but Max will just repeatedly kick me.  Nice kid!  We are plodding along…

 OTHER BIG NEWS!!!  We found out the other day that we will be having a THIRD BOY!!!  Unbelievable…  We are wicked psyched!  We gave it the old college try for a girl, but to be honest w/ you – We couldn’t be happier!  We know boys well, they will be able to be the best of friends, and we have a ton of boy paraphernalia…  Giddy up!  Some of the guys in my squadron (with daughters) are asking us our secret…  It was wicked funny – we told Nikolai that he was going to have another little brother and asked him what we should name him – Nikolai’s answer?  Boo-Boo-Baby-Guy.  So cute!

 We have been adjusting well to country living.  The house is great, and Wal-Mart is only five minutes down the road – as they say around these parts, “If Wal-Mart ain’t got it – you don’t need it!”  HA!  So far, so true…  We went to a squadron children's X-mas party where the kids met Santa Claus!  They weren't sure what to think - Max stared, and Nikolai was happy as long as he was given presents...  The guys in my squadron are definitely and interesting bunch…  Not a whole lot of people like to really hang out with eachother.  It seems that people are so wrapped up in their families that they don’t really work in friends too much.  Not the way I am, but to each his own, I guess…  We will eventually make some friends around here.  I have been hanging around with some of the people who are going to be in my B-2 class.  People are nice – they just don’t like to seem to mix work and their social lives…  Who knows – maybe it is just us!

 Sorry for the long gaps between updates – Now that we have high speed, I will be better, I promise!  Our email was also screwed up for a wicked long time.  It seems that we have gotten everything figured out, so once again we are back in the 21^st centrury.  Drop us a line when you get a chance!  Hope that this finds you doing well this holiday season…  Take care, and MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Check out the latest photos and drop us a line!

2 Dec 03

Unbelievable...  We rolled the family out of Tucson on 3 November for our long journey to Missouri.  I sent Pam and the boys ahead while I finished my outprocessing with the base.  Since I knew that they would have to stop a little more often than I would, I knew that I would catch up to them within a few hours.  It was Alamogordo to be more specific!  The boys were GREAT for the drive!  They hardly even fussed.  Nikolai would entertain Max when he would start getting a little fussy, and that would set Max giggling.  I had it easy - I had the laptop computer in my car, so I just watched movies the whole way here!  Not the safest way to travel, but it did the trick by keeping me awake.  The first night we stayed in the roaring metropolis of Tucumcari, New Mexico.  Not a whole lot going on there, but not a big deal - we were just there to sleep...

The next day we made it all the way to Tulsa, Oklahoma where we met up with KRISTEN DOYLE!!!  We all went out for pizza - a fine time.  We jumped in the car on Wednesday morning and made our way for Missouri.  It only took us about 6 hours to get there, so we were laughing when we finally got there, no worse for the wear.  We were so shocked at how uneventful the whole trip was!

The closing date on our house got moved by 4 days, so we had not a whole lot to do until we got in our house.  We stayed in Lee's Summit for a few days checking the sights out - we relaxed as much as possible because we knew we were going to be BUSY!!!  We made a few trips out to Warrensburg/Whiteman - One time unfortunately to go see the Doctor.  Max was acting/looking drunk - he had a wicked temperature, and he was not sleeping the way he normally did.  Pam suspected ear infection, and lo and behold - the pediatrics/triage nurse was right!  The Doctor gave Max a bunch of antibiotics to make him well again.  On Monday, 10 Nov 03, we left Lee's Summit to close on our new house.  We went to drop off my car (since we were in 2 cars) at the house, and the movers were already there to deliver all of our household goods!  Timing is everything...  We told them to wait there while we went and closed on the house.  We signed our name about a million times, and the house was officially ours!  Woo-HOO!!!!

After that we hightailed it back to the house to start all of the unloading of our stuff.  The movers were very nice, albeit not very organized.  Since we didn't want to be stuck with all of the boxes, they pretty much just dumped everything on the floor.  It only took them 3 hours, but they turned our nice clean house into a disaster area.  We hit the ground running, trying to put everything in its place.  It was a huge pain in the butt!  For the next 2 weeks, we spent a minimum of 12 hours/day getting things put together.  We had bought all sorts of stuff (washer, dryer, weight set, treadmill, stationary bike, entertainment center, TV, etc.) that all had to be put together and hooked up.  We also had to get all the plates in the cabinets, clothes in the drawers, and on and on and on...  Since I have been lucky enough not to have had to move in the last 6.5 years, I had no idea how much of a pain in the ass moving was...  But I rapidly learned!  ouch...

One of the things that we needed done was clearing of some trees so that we could use the satellite internet.  So Puddy bought a chainsaw.  Nice.  Definitely one of the most dangerous things that I have ever done!  I was cutting and slashing, and knocking off the chain, and getting it stuck  All the while, Pam was worried that I would lose a limb in the whole deal! Got through it with only a few minor scratches on my legs.

After the first week, we still had nothing in about 4 rooms, so we got to go furniture shopping!  We went to two HUGE furniture stores, and bought some wicked nice stuff.  We set delivery for Friday, and rushed back home to make sure that everything was ready to go!

At this point, the AF had given me all the time off that they were going to give me, so I had to go to work and meet my new squadron.  Everybody was very cool, and they set me up to go down the right path.  I did a lot of my inprocessing through the rest of the week, figuring out the base while I went from organization to organization.  After I met everybody that I needed to meet, they threw me right into T-38 academics!  It was nice knowing what was important to study vs. what was just fluff - in pilot training I didn't have that luxury!  I pressed through all of the academics, and even scored a 100% on my systems test!  I rule.

The furniture all showed up, and we dropped the kids off at a babysitter for the day so that Pam could get the final touches of the house complete.  Pam did all of the fine details of the house before my parents arrived.  It was unbelievable that in only 2 weeks, we turned this house into a home...  OUTSTANDING!!!

On another note, we now have a TWO YEAR OLD!!!  Nikolai's birthday was on Monday.  And when you ask him how old he is, he will happily answer "2!"  He can count from 1-30, and he knows the beginning and end of the alphabet, but he still stumbles on the middle.  He has loved all the room in the house, he just runs around constantly.  This house has hardwood floors, so some of his sleepers with footies he just slides all over the place - so cute!  He is really playing well with Max now, and Max just LOVES his rough-housing!  We are constantly yelling at Nikolai, "Stop steam-rolling your brother!" or "we don't sit on our brothers!"  Pretty funny stuff - I don't think that Max has really ever cried when Nikolai had been playing rough with him. 

Max has been doing great with the move, too.  He STILL has not cut his first tooth!  We thought he would have ~ 2 months ago, but nothing...  Patiently we wait.  He loves constant attention, and therefore could not figure out why Mom and Dad could not lavish the attention on him like normal...  He is sleeping very well throughout the night, and when he does wake up, a little Oragel puts him right back to sleep.  They are both wicked good kids - and just think - soon we will be outnumbered!  Last week we went to our first OB Doctor's appointment here - A very nice lady - she is a midwife, but she still seems well qualified to perform the duties required of her...  HA!

My parents came out over T-giving as the first real "houseguests."  They loved it!  The only problem was that my Mom and Dad can never agree on a travel time, so that equates to 4 individual round-trips to the airport!  Pain in the butt...  But well worth it!  They loved seeing the boys - we took walks just about every day - Nikolai's favorite past time is to throw rocks in the pond across the street - so CUTE!!!  The only problem is that it is a pain to try and get him away from the pond when it is time to come in.  The neighbors have a great big golden retriever named Tucker who loves to play with Nikolai - it is all the joy of having a dog with none of the responsibility.  Pam made a righteous skoff - here is a picture of the two of us after we were done eating...  Nikolai didn't fare so well, either!  Ha!

Today I flew the T-38 for the first time in 6.5 years!  It was very fast, but a TON of fun...  I have to go study right now, so that I don't kill myself tomorrow...  Wish me luck!

Sorry it has been so long - I have been putting it off, since we have not had the highspeed internet access yet...  I promise I will be better!

We hope that all is going great with you - drop us a line when you get a chance!

And don't forget to check out the new pictures!

27 Oct 03

It is a bittersweet goodbye...  Our time in Tucson has come to a close!  I had my final flight in the A-10 on Friday, 24 Oct 03.  It was a great flight - I went out with Narc, and we barely went over 300' the entire day.  I took money from him on the range, and then we did a wicked VR route (VR239 around Phoenix).  It was sad to think that this was the last time that I would ever be flying down at 300' without being in the traffic pattern, and last time I would ever drop visual bombs.  And worse yet - this was the last time that I would ever fly alone!  Oh well - I will miss it...  But it is now on to bigger and better things!  It was great at landing (with both of my fuel low lights, of course) and taxiing in and having Pam and the kids there.  There were even a few other people that were there to hose me down as is tradition on the final flight!  I got out of the plane and was attacked from two different angles by people w/ fire extinguishers.  I ran, but to no avail - they were faster than me!  HA!

After the fini-flight, we retired to the squadron bar where I got my piece of wood, and then I cleaned out my desk.  It is not so much the squadron that I am going to miss as it is the airplane...  The mighty Warthog has been very good to me - here is the final tally...  That night, Pam and I dropped the boys off at Katie and Mike's, and we went to a halloween party at one of the fighter squadrons.  Pam went as a dairy cow - and I of course went as the dairy farmer!  We had a great time...  There were some pretty funny costumes out there!  In celebration of everything, I got a bit tipsy...

The rest of the weekend was devoted to getting the house packed up and ready to move!  The movers come on Wed, 29 Oct, and pack, then move everything out on 30 Oct.  Hopefully the transition (read: drive) will not be too painful on anyone (read: Pam and the kids)!

It has been a blast in Tucson!  Now it is off to bigger and better things...

Check out the final pictures!

14 Oct 03

We have found our new house!  We packed up the boys and flew out to Kansas City, MO on Tuesday, 23 Sep.  I opted to hold Max on my lap for the first leg of the flight – he slept like a champ!  Pam was holding Nikolai, and of course he slept like a champ too.  The next flight, Pam handed off Nikolai to me, and he was a bear!  He just wanted to run around the whole flight.  Pam had Max and, of course, he slept through the whole flight!  Jedi mind trick strikes again! 

When we hit the deck in KC, we got into our rented minivan (coincidentally the same van that we own back home) and started our drive to Knob Noster.  We got set up with a cool little suite on base, and we put the boys to bed.  They are probably the best traveled kids ever!

On Wednesday morning, we met up with our real estate agent for the search.  With boys in tow (in back packs) we went from house to house to house.  When the agent asked what we thought of a particular house, Pam would reply –“This house is not singing to me…”  And then we went to THE house.  When we walked in, she said, “This house is belting out opera!!!”  It is PERFECT!  Here are a couple of pictures obviously decorated with the current owner’s stuff.  It is a 5 bedroom (plus office) 3.5 bath house with a BAR downstairs!  It rocks – It is only a few miles out of town – 20 minute commute!  Not too shabby.

We made an offer, and 2 counter offers later, we agreed on a price.  After that, we had an inspection and found no show stoppers –SWEET!  The wall painting colors and rugs, everything are EXACTLY how we would have done it…  It is perfect, and we can’t wait to move!

The boys have been real troopers since we got here.  The weather has been FANTASTIC!  Pam and I have bee psyched that we actually get to wear SWEATSHIRTS!  We are so done with the desert – it will be great to actually have seasons again…  Nikolai wants to run around all the time – I get such a kick out watching his little mind at work – I just follow a few feet behind and see what tickles his fancy.  So much fun!  His language is really maturing too…  He loves when he sees a big clock on the wall to say, “Big Clock!”  Except he can’t figure out how to say the “L.”  Figure it out for yourself…  Pretty funny…

I got wicked sick a few days into our trip – I hate getting a cold!  My ears wouldn’t pop and I kept everybody awake by sneezing and coughing!  Of course – like the good guy that I am – I gave the cold to everyone else.  As soon as I was healthy, everyone else got sick!  Pam now knows what it’s like…  It is also a lot of fun trying to explain to a 6 month old why he feels like crap…

The other day we went to Ross’ house in Lee’s Summit – A wicked house with a HUGE back yard!  That afternoon we went to an Oktoberfest.  Nikolai was having fun with balloons and both kids loved the pumpkins!  Meanwhile, Ross and I were loving the beer…  After the Ok-fest, we went to Jazz – a pretty cool Cajun restaurant – more beer for the beer drinkers!  Then we watched About Schmidt – couldn’t tell you what it was about…  Passed out by 8:30 p.m….

The next day (Sunday, 28 Sep 03) – the Pats lost.  BOOOOO!!!  Me and Nikolai played in Ross’ backyard – Frisbee, soccer, you name it!  And we even flew a kite.  Everything was going great – Nikolai was even holding the kite handle – but then he let it go!  And off went Ross’ kite – with me chasing after it!  It went over the trees with the string getting tangled in the trees.  I was able to retrieve the kite, and I even managed to retrieve the string!  No harm no foul…

Nikolai is getting more and more bold with his words. He will point to things and yell (loudly) what it is…  (i.e  TREE!!!)  He knows what sounds all the farm animals make.  Our favorite is the cow – Instead of “Moo” – Nikolai says, “BOOOOO!!!!”  A very scary cow.  Cracks us up…

Next stop – Connecticut!

The boys were nothing short of angelic on our trip from KC to Connecticut.  We got in the car and they slept the entire way to the airport – pretty sweet!  We checked in all our luggage, dropped off the rental car, and pretty much got right on the airplane.  My Dad met us at Bradley and we went to my old stomping grounds.  That night, we showed my parents the video of our new house, and let them in on the big news – Pam is pregnant!  That is right – we are expecting a third mini-Puddy around the beginning of May.  We are wicked psyched…  Of course this is the LAST mini-Puddy.  We are shooting for a girl, but it is kind of out of our hands right now – we just want another ridiculously healthy baby, just like the first two…  After we broke the news, lots of things started making sense to my parents – why we were evasive with next summer’s plans, etc.  It was a lot of fun letting everybody in on the secret, but it was also fun having it as our little secret.  Oh well – Cat is out of the bag now, and we couldn’t be happier…

In Connecticut, we met up with my brother (who lost ~40 lbs – looks great!) as well as his son.  Oskar is so big!  It was great seeing Oskar and Nikolai play together – that is one big disadvantage about not living close to everybody else – it seems the kids have to re-get to know each other every time we hang out.  My sister and her hubby and kids also descended on the parent’s lair, and I could not believe how much Ashley and Alexis had changed!  They were so helpful with everything that we did, and not to mention how GREAT they were with the boys…  Terri (sister) had mentioned that the age difference between Nikolai and Alexis is ~7 years, the same difference between me and Terri when we were growing up.  And once again, Terri pointed out that she was the one who taught me how to walk…  HA!

Pam, Niko, Max and I also went for a walk around Pond Mountain.  The leaves had not changed too much, but the temperature was perfect.  Nikolai was having a blast touching all of the leaves and trees (since he had never seen them before, living in a desert and all).  And as always, Max was just happy to be there.  At the end of the hike, I took Nikolai out of the backpack and let him navigate his own way down the hill – he loved it!  He didn’t fall once walking down the fairly steep decline – such a difference from even only a few months ago!  Watching how his mind works and how he is developing is (in my opinion) one of the BEST things about parenting…

On Saturday, Jay and Karen showed up from Montreal – they were to be Maximo’s Godparents.  As is standard w/ my fam, we were going to take our Christmas pix since we had the everybody together.  Of course Nikolai did not want to comply – we’ll have to try again some other time!  He kept waking up early since there were so many other people around and other things to do – he didn’t want to miss a thing!  And I can’t say that I blame him…

As we were taking pix, Pam’s family walked in from Mass (right on time), and they jumped into the pictures for their family X-mas pix.  After we made sure that we got a few good pix, I said, “On the count of Three – One, Two, PAM IS PREGNANT!”  (we had not told them yet).  Everybody laughed it off as a joke, and smiled for the next picture.  We had to say, no less than 3 times – “No we’re serious!”  And once they finally saw that we weren’t kidding, pictures were over!  Everybody was up and congratulating, hugging, etc.  We lost total control…  Pretty funny, though.

After that, we went off to the church to rid our youngest of original sin (Christening, for all you heathens).  At the church, we met up w/ Scooter and Karen, and got our little baby baptized.  Max was a champ through the whole thing!  Slept, well, I guess that you could say that he slept like a baby.  Outstanding!  As we were leaving the church, Liz and Rich show up – right on time, guys!  Then Carolyn pulls in right behind them.  HA!  Funny stuff.  Rob and Tara were supposed to make the journey down, but Tara was deathly ill (cold), and therefore unable to travel.  Oh well…

Back to the parent’s casa for some pizza and BEERS!  All that I wanted was a keg in the bath-tub, but my mom said that was unacceptable…  It was great introducing Max to everybody since most had not met him.  Nikolai was quite a bear all day since he did not get a whole lot of sleep the night prior.  He did enjoy playing “let’s see who can push who over” with his (smaller, older) cousin, Ryan.  For the most part, it was a one sided Battle Royale, but Ryan got a few licks in of his own…

The beers continued to flow after most had left, and then somebody got the genius idea to play scrabble.  The teams were Pam and I, Jay and Karen, and Terri and Peter.  Karen’s quote, “Oh – I am an English teacher, so I will be very good at scrabble!”  Then she tried to use the word, “Ern.”  Good job Karen.  Terri and Peter ended up winning, and we all went to bed for some much needed snooze.

The next day (Sunday, 5 Oct 03) Jay and I took a walk, and then everybody went their separate ways – Jay and Karen back to Canada, and us up to Worcester to spend some time with Pam’s folks.  As we rolled into the house, you could tell that there were some seriously hardcore Red Sox fans in our presence.  I am not one much for baseball – but the team that I DO like are the Yankees, not the Sox.  And by the time you are reading this, the AL title will undoubtedly be decided, and my prediction is that the Yanks will take it and leave the curse intact.  Go Bronx Bombers!  Pam says that I am crazy and it is the Sox year……  we’ll have to wait and see!

We had a couple of great days in Worcester – nice and mellow…  The boys are kind of getting tired of traveling and sleeping in different locations every night, so they kind of made a stink every now and then.  It doesn’t help that Max is teething, so he cries uncontrollably every now and then.  Sucks that we can’t do much to help him except give him a bit of Oragel.  Pam’s dad had to be up for work every day at 4 a.m.  This is the die-hard Sox fan to end all Sox fans.  Therefore he did not miss a pitch, even if that pitch was being hurled after midnight!  He was dragging ass after a few days of that…  On Tuesday night, Liz, Rich, Rob, and Tara descended upon Worcester for some wicked pasta that Pam’s mom is notorious for – Yummy!  Big bellies walking around that night.  We also killed the BIGGEST bottle of wine I had ever seen – 3 liters and 2.5 feet tall.  Unbelievable!  It was the tasty LunaDiLuna that I love…

On Wednesday, we took Nikolai and Max out for a walk among the trees and leaves – he loves them, and thank God since we’ll be living among them in no time!  After the walk we went to Target, and I was teaching Niko how to cross the street – I would say, “Look left, then right, then left again.  NO CAR!  Now we can cross the street.”  I said it two or three times, and he laughed every time…  When we walked into Target, there was a guy there who asked if we wanted to apply for a Target credit card Nikolai looked up at him and yelled, “NO CAR!”  (Which sounded like “no card!”)  The guy was taken aback, and I about wet myself I was laughing so hard…

On Thursday, 9 Oct 03, we packed up our stuff, and Pam and I took leave of the boys and headed to Montreal for Jay and Karen’s wedding.  Nikolai knew something was going on, because he kept looking at the car, pointing at the door, and he kept wanting to be held. (Side story – when Nikolai wants to be picked up, he walks up to your legs, puts his arms up and says, “Chump.”  We think he means Jump, and he is always happy whenever we pick him up.  He is so damned cute…) Max, of course, had no idea what was going on.  I restrained Pam from calling home every five minutes to check on the boys, since this was OUR vacation together.  We had a great drive up, even though Pam slept through the majority of it.  It was nice not to worry about fussy babies, changing diapers, or where the binkys are.  Although we both missed them terribly…

We showed up at Jay’s house, had a few beers, (me, not Pam – she’s pregnant – remember?  Try and keep up.) and then headed off to the rehearsal.  That went uneventfully.  It was great to see Bengt and Anne (Jay’s dad and step-mom), as well as Edna (Jay’s mom), Karen and Stu (sister and hubby), Logan (their son), as well as meet Karen’s whole family – a pretty cool group of people!  We went to a BYOB (or wine, as was our case) restaurant that was AWESOME!  It is called Port Greque – a Canadian Greek place – we rolled out of there STUFFED!  Then it was off to catch some Z’s in an un-air conditioned hotel room.  Ouch.  The hotel had turned off all of their AC and did not take into account the Indian Summer that arrived the same day we did.  The sleep was difficult, but we managed by making other use of our time…  Pam woke up once in the middle of the night thinking that she had to make a bottle!  Pretty funny…

The next day, Pam and I took a nice walk (again, w/o kids – woo-hoo!) around a lake – we had a blast…  After that it was off to get fitted for Tuxes, with a wicked Sub from Messina’s in Montreal.  Outstanding!  And then the beers rolled, even though Karen attempted to place a curfew on Jay so that he didn’t stay out too late…  Sorry Karen, not while I’m around!  HA!  Seriosuly, though - Jay was a good little boy and was in bed by 11:00 p.m.

The next day was their big day!  Pam and I showed up at Jay's house for pictures - me decked out all dapper in my tux.  There was a Lebanese photographer named Carla who was quite a psycho!  She had us doing all sorts of ridiculous poses - telling us to give her "attitude."  All it came out as is like Jay and I had lost our best friend!  I'm hoping that her picture taking skills are outstanding, because her organizational skills certainly were not!  She left Jay's house, and then made her way to take the pix of the girls.  At that point, all the boys headed over to the reception hall to ensure that the beer was nice and frosty - indeed it was! 

Off to the chapel, and Jay's gonna get married!  The wedding started at 3 p.m., however Karen and crew didn't show up until 3:23!  Unbelievable - Chalk another one up to the great photographer!  So slow made everybody late...  The girls all walked down the aisle, and the ring-bearer took off for the hills - good thing we had the foresight to not actually give him the real ring!  So scared...  So funny.   Karen came down the aisle looking stellar, and you could see how pumped Jay was for their big day - first class...  The ceremony went off without a hitch!  Except when Jay kneeled down at the altar, the "HELP ME" I wrote on the bottom of his shoes wore off and  just said, "HM!"  People kind of got the point, though...

After the ceremony, the disorganized photographer took over, and booked the wedding party for another 2.5 hours!  Unbelievably painful.  Much quelled by the champagne, though!  After we finished, we headed off to the reception hall where the 80 guests were waiting.  Hardly a sober person stood by the time we got there...  After everybody was announced, the wedding party was seated, and dinner was seerved!  Pam said that I looked remarkbaly sober - She thought we were all driving around drinking champagne before we showed up at the hall!  She was stunned to find that the chick could take so many freaking pictures...

The rest of the night - rather hazy.  Jay and Karen made this wicked batch of wine that was outstanding!  I found it difficult to keep re-filling my glass so often, so I just started swigging straight from the bottle...  Rob and Tara, Liz and Rich, and of course, ED GOW were all in rare form - Pam commented how this was yet ANOTHER open bar wedding she missed!  Oh well - the price is worth it...

Canadian weddings differ from American weddings in several ways.  At an American wedding, you get married at 11, cocktail hour at 12, reception at 1, and everybody is gone by 5 - so the next wedding can have the hall from 6 - 11 pm.  In Canada, it is an ALL DAY affair!  Makes it pretty funny to see the waning levels of sobriety by the end of the night.  Also, in Canada, EVERYBODY gives a toast - Karen was pretty hell-bent about my best man toast not being to long (couldn't have been any shorter than Jay's at my wedding!) - and I couldn't understand why - but then once the mic got passed around.  And around.  And around.  I figured it out - so I kept mine to a minimum - pretty wicked if I do say so myself!

Then there was lots of dancing and even more drinking.  When the reception was over, everybody headed to the cars/cabs to head home.  Everybody except Jay and Karen!  We went back inside and found them loading crates of dishes/silverware/plates/etc. into a service elevator!  The caterers had left this entire portion of their job undone, since they left at 11 p.m. and it was now 2:15 am!  So it was pretty funny to see a buzzed Karen (in wedding dress), and a buzzed Jay (in Tux) doing manual labor...  So we of course helped finish loading the stuff so that they could consummate their marriage...  I got in the service elevator, and it went down ~6" and then it got stuck.  2:30 a.m. and I am stuck in a service elevator wearing my tux...  Ouch.  There was no booze in the elevator, either!  So there I sat for about 20 minutes unitl somebody could finally get me out...  Then off to bed for some much needed slumber!

The next morning was pretty rough - especially since we were staring at a 6 hour drive back to Mass.  It was nice not having the kids around for a couple of days, but at this point we really missed them and couldn't wait to see them!  After a painful drive, we made it to Worcester, Mass' Wal-Mart so we could take some professional pix w/ Pam's brother's family.  We were running late, so we even had to change in the car!  While it was driving down the street at 80mph!  We then ran into Wal-Mart and the first thing I hear is, "DA-DA?"  I look over and it is Nikolai with the biggest smile on his face!  He saw me before I even saw him...   SO CUTE!  Max was also in a GREAT mood and it was as warm of a welcoming as we could have asked for...

The pictures went great (I'll post them later), and it was home to re-pack all of our stuff for our cross-country flight the next day...  I got some much needed sleep for what I knew would be a long day.  Thee kids were actually quite good the entire way back to Phoenix.  Matty B picked us up in the mighty mini-van, and then it was the painful drive down I-10 to Tucson.  I am proud to say that it will be the LAST time we have to make that drive for quite some time!  It was nice that our house was wicked clean from when we left, so we could dump our stuff down and just RELAX!!!

We had a blast - as always!  A hearty high-five to everybody who made our trip so successful...  Take a look at the latest pictures, and let us know what you think!

21 Sep 03

Yeah - the people who are buying our house are a real pain in the a&%!  They had their home inspector come, and he found a bunch of piddly things wrong with the house.  And they want us to fix EVERYTHING!!!  Including $1600 for the roof to be repaired!  The roof is in good condition - they just want a 2 year warranty saying that the roof won't leak - what a pain in the butt!  Since they bid so much, we are appeasing most of their demands, but not all of them.  It is possible (but not probable) that we will lose the sale - If we do, we'll make all of the fixes, and then throw it back on the market for a higher price!  Just kind of a pain in the butt.  It will be nice when it is over!

Max had his 6 month well baby the other day.  He is 21.5 pounds and 28.25 inches.  So cute!  He has been wicked happy lately - works for me!  Everybody is always wondering our secret for keeping such a happy baby.  It's Pam's fault!  She is the great mommy who made these kids awesome...

It was Rachel's birthday this past week (Mike and Katie's little girl).  She turned 1, and partied like a rock start!

Matt and Susan came down yesterday, and we went to the Macaroni Grill (yummy...) and then to a comedy club.  VERY funny stuff!  Maybe it was the fact that I had a bit too much to drink...

Pats won today - woo-hoo!

The other day, Pam was taking Nikolai upstairs to do something to get him clean, but she stopped to check her email first before putting Niko down to get clean.  She heard a commotion from the bathroom, so she left the computer to investigate.  It turned out that Pam wasn't moving fast enough for Mr. Himself, so he decided to climb into the ring - fully dressed!  So funny...  Nikolai knows most of his numbers 1-10 by sight, and gets really excited if he sees a 5 or a 2.  He loves to read, and is a GREAT kid!  Even though he knows how to push our buttons (like any good toddler does)...  Nikolai got another haircut - he is so cute!  We are having such a blast with both of our boys...

Pam got a whole bunch of pictures of the boys this past week - they are so photogenic!  Either that or it is possible that we are the jaded parents who think that we have great looking kids, when in fact they look like the ass of a baboon.  But I don't think so...

We went to the pool.  I thought pictures would be a good idea.  But then I got the harsh slap in the face that I am going bald.  Damn.  Maybe I am the one who looks like the ass of a baboon?!?

More pix!

9 Sep 03

A quick trip out to Claremore, Oklahoma for the Puddys!  That is right – we went to the mighty Will Rogers Claremore Airshow.  The house got put on the market last Tuesday, so we wanted to keep it as clean as possible, and the best way to do that was not to be in the house…  So on Thursday, we packed up the boys and headed for OK.  We went on different flights, since it was cheaper that way.  Pam took Max, while I got the hellion child I call Nikolai.  He did pretty good, but he constantly wanted to run up and down the aisle of the plane – not a lot of fun during turbulence.  We made it uneventfully, and when we met up w/ Spam, she said that Max was a champ!  I coulda killed her.

   KRISTEN DOYLE met us at the airport and drove us to our hotel where we got changed and ready for a big night on the Tulsa town.  While the family with kids (us) went home and went to bed, the boys (everybody else) went out to get hammered.  On Friday, we met up with the jets showing up from DM, and on the way back to the hotel, there was a FRANTIC call from our real-estate agent.  He said that we had 4 bids on the house (3^rd day on the market), and the best was for $6K MORE than we were asking!  WOO-HOO!!!!!  We are so PSYCHED!!!  That set the weekend off on the right foot – NOTHING could get us down!  I even called my boss and he approved us moving on 3 Nov – less than 2 months!  We can’t wait…

   On Friday, we went to Chili’s for lunch – Pam and I got chips and salsa, so Nikolai insisted on eating the chips and salsa just like we did – despite warnings.  He dipped the chip, and then got the look of horror on his face when the spicy bite took hold.  After crying uncontrollably for about five minutes – we finally calmed him down.  And then he went right back to the salsa!  Not very smart.  Takes after his mother…  HA!

   Nikolai had a GREAT time with all of the crew-chiefs – they were awesome with both the boys!  Nikolai learned the name of Chad – therefore, all of the crew chiefs (in black flight suits) were Chad.  It was so cute to hear him in his little voice say, “Chad gone?” after Chad (or any one of them for that matter) left.  Another thing that was funny – the hotel that we were at had a basket of apples at the counter – EVERY TIME we walked by (coming or going) Nikolai would go nuts yelling APPLE, APPLE, APPLE!  And then he would freak out if he didn’t get one.  So the kid ate about 30 apples this weekend.  Then we went to dinner at a college campus one night – there was a huge duck pond and lots of ducks.  So when we were walking outside, we see Nikolai walking with something in his hand – Yup, it was a log of dried duck poop.

   On Saturday, the airshow started – a VERY small show to say the least!  They didn’t have all the acts they wanted, so the HAWG flew twice – I didn’t think my voice was going to hold up!  But it did…  We even got to meet Frank Borman - a retired AF Colonel and Astronaut!  After the airshow, Doc Baldwin set up a flight of 4 T-6s for me and 3 of the crew chiefs.  I got some pretty wicked pix of the formation flying.  It was a GREAT day for flying! 

   Sunday – more of the same airshow, but on this day, I got a flight in a Breezy – basically a lawnmower with wings!  Very cool – out in the wind with pretty much nothing beneath – kicked a lot of ass!  I even locked Spam in an A-10.  On Monday, we packed up a pair of screaming kids and headed out to the airport, and jumped on the plane – on this leg we flew back together,  It is such a relief to not have to worry about selling the house!  All in all we had a GREAT weekend.

   Max started solids today (soupy rice cereal), since he had been waking the Spaminator up twice every night to suck down a bottle.  He was pretty funny to watch…

We hope all is well w/ you!  Take care and check out the pix…

3 Sep 03

Had a kick ass time in Canada...  A little Bachelor party action, and some quality time spent w/ my folks...

The boys are doing great!  Max is rolling over like a mad-man now (all of a sudden), and Nikolai is still on his mission to destroy the world.  We have no pix of them from this past week since I was in Canada.  The house is now on the market...  We had a bunch of calls on the first day, so it should hopefully go well...  While I was partying it up in Canada, Spam was here taking care of the 2 kids as well as cleaning the house from top to bottom.  I cam home to a different house - It looks AWESOME!!!  I hope that the house sells quickly so we can put the anxiety behind us...

We hope that everyone is doing well!  Drop us a line...

13 Aug 03

As always…

 The computer is F$#%ed.  It took lotsa work (convincing Pam), but we got a new computer.  The only bad part is that we lost all of the pictures that we had taken while my sister was in town.  Good thing that she took a mess of pictures!  I’ll get those published as soon as I see them…  Fortunately I had been saving all of the pictures and the website backup on DVD.  Could’ve been way worse!  Sucks that we lost the pix of/with my sister – there were some pretty nice ones…

 Other than that, we’ve been having a ball!  Last week we took Mike and Katie’s little girl for Friday night while they watched our boys on Saturday.  We went to eat sushi and then to the drive in!  We saw American Wedding (Very funny), and Johnny English (Not so funny).  Date nights are awesome!  It is nice being away from the boys, for just a little while, but it is always nice to come home to them too…

 This past week, Pam, the boys, and I jumped on a plane and went to an airshow in Elkhart, IN.  Lots of fun!  The boys did pretty well on the flight out – Every time I had a whiny kid, I would hand him to Pam, and the kid would be asleep in about 30 seconds!  She has this Jedi-mind-trick thing going with the boys. At the airshow, there was a jet powered bi-plane – one of the coolest things I have ever seen.  It rapidly jumped into first place as the best aerial demo I’ve ever seen.  Just wicked…

 One of the days we went up to Lake Michigan to show Nikolai his first beach to go swimming.  He loved it!  He has no fear – he went right into the water, and kept on walking.  I was right there to keep him from falling in – he did not want to leave, but even SPF 50 wasn’t enough to keep him from getting tanned.  After that, we swung by the cottage that we used to vacation as a kid.  My mom and her sisters built the cottage with my grandfather many years ago – it brought back tons of memories being there!  Very cool…

 We took a walk in a park one morning where we all had fun on the slides.  Nikolai loves the swings and the slides and he never passes up the opportunity to climb….

 Nikolai is as defiant as ever, but he is just adorable!  The kid loves to run around.  Unfortunately he wants to hit Pam all the time, too.  He never hits me, and he doesn’t hit her hard – but enough to piss us off!  He knows when he is being bad, but he does stuff anyway – knocks stuff off the table, climbs on the couch, not coming to us when we tell him to, etc. He is getting very used to being in time-out.   But he is still a blast!  We had a ton of fun at the airshow.  We got pictures of him in the A-10, on a quad, and even on a firetruck!  I promised Pam that I wouldn’t take him over 5 mph on the quad, but we went a smidge faster… 

 Nikolai also walked through the whole airshow saying “hi” to any and everyone who would listen.  ADORABLE!!! He would stop in his tracks occasionally, look up at the sky and shout “Airbonn”!  (His word for airplane).  He kept falling, too – ripping open his knee – repeatedly…  His favorite display at the airshow was a gas powered generator.  I don’t know why, but he was very upset when we left.  So we got him a big beer, and he was all better.

One of the cooler things for the weekend, I was asked to swear in 103 people into the military - all 4 branches!  I did the oath, and then my friend Ross did a fly-by in the B-2!  Very cool.   And then I had a couple of AWESOME narrations...  AND LETHALITYYYYYY!!!!!

It is amazing at what Nikolai is picking up now.  He grabbed my contact lens case, touched it, and then touched his eye.  When we were at Olive Garden, he even ripped a breadstick in half and dipped it into spaghetti sauce!  It was a bit hot for him, so we traded the sauce for Bruschetta juice and he was just as happy.  Until he started throwing his food.  We are not quite sure why he does it, but that signifies when he is meal-complete!

 On the way home, we stopped in Atlanta and got some dinner at TGI Fridays.  Nikolai was content with his grilled cheese, until he saw that we were drinking with straws – he got pretty excited about that.  He wanted to pull the straw out and play with it.  I said, “why don’t we just put it in the ketchup bottle – he’ll never be able to get ketchup out through a straw!”  Turns out I was wrong.  So funny!  Never in my life did I expect to see Ketchup shooting up through a straw into his mouth.  I think that he was pretty surprised, too.  What a look on his face – Pam and I almost wet ourselves…

 Max is the life of any room we are in.  He is so fat and cuddly it is incredible!  We got the cutest picture of the future HAWGDRIVER - Seems like he knows what he's doing already!  He didn’t like the noise of the jet-powered bi-plane, but other than that, he was very responsive and oh-so-cute!  His cheeks must’ve been pinched a thousand times…

 We had a blast!  And we took a ton of pictures…  Just too bad we don’t have the pics from when my sister was in town.  Hope all is well! 

26 Jul 03

My sister is in town!  She dropped in (without her hubby and kids) just to hang out for a few days.  Haven't seen her since October, and she looks great!  Had a pretty tame week at work, so I got to spend a lot of time with Terri and the kids.  I love those little guys!  Pam and I even had a date night last week.  We went out to a nice dinner while Katie and Mike watched the boys, and then we went to a drive in movie...  Fun stuff!  Date nights are here to stay!  We even got dressed up before we went out - something we haven't done in a long time - She is such a hotty!  And I don't look too bad either, if I do say so myself...  Pam has stopped breastfeeding Max, so she is allowed to have a few beers now.  I forgot how much fun it is to booze w/ her!  I picked up my sister in Phoenix on Thursday night, and last night after work we watched a movie.  A few (dozen) rum and cokes later - we were feeling no pain!  Before we knew it, it was 3 a.m.!  This morning was pretty rough, but at least the boys were asleep all night, so that made things a little easier. 

Nikolai is getting into a destructive mode.  He will openly defy us, so he loves his time-out.  Quite a handful!  It is going to be a nightmare when Max is older and they can collaborate against us.  Scary!  Max is sleeping a whole lot longer now that he is on formula.  Great for us!  Nikolai's new little trick is to climb out of the place where he gets clean when we aren't looking and take off down the hall at top speed - butt nekkid!  He looks like Calvin with his cute little wet toddler butt... Still obnoxiously hot in Tucson, so we are doing our best to stay cool...  And as always - taking a bunch of pictures!

19 July 03

I am just getting over a cold...  I hate being sick.  This past weekend, I went to Missoula, Montana for an airshow!  Montana is a great state - We are going to go there again as soon as possible.  2 years ago, Pam and I drove through Montana from Stew and Karin's wedding in Calgary.  We ended up at Yellowstone Park on that little trip, and we had a STELLAR time.  Montana is absolutely beautiful, and I had a great time driving around one day.  I went to the National Bison Reserve - Bison can kill you!  It was nice to drive around.  Nice up until I got a flat tire.  Made me late for the airshow!  Not a whole lot I could do about it, but I mustered up the gumption to change the tire, and head back to the airport.

The show was uneventful, but my cold (among other things) kept me down while in Montana.  On Saturday afternoon, we jumped in a little puddle jumper and went to Seattle for the McChord AFB airshow.  Of course it rained the entire time we were in Washington.  We had a pretty good time while at the airshow, but I couldn't wait to get home.  I arrived home Monday afternoon, and home never felt so good. My cold was disappearing, and it felt like I had a new lease on life!  Always good to come home, but this time felt particularly good...

The boys were pretty happy to see me!  And I was more than happy to see them...  We played our hearts out...

Nikolai is getting quite talkative - of course nobody can understand what he says except him!  When you ask him to repeat - he repeats the exact same jibberish...  He can say things like cat, dog, eye, toes, and the like - He understands just about everything - but that does not prevent him from testing us at every stretch...  He is getting quite familiar with Time-Out!  He is starting to climb on things now, and it is only a matter of time before we walk into his room with him out of his crib playing on the floor.  He is going to walk out of his room one day and meet us downstairs, and our jaws will be on the ground...

Max is loving his big brother!  He just sits and watches Nikolai's every move.  He laughs all the time now, and smiles at us whenever we look at him.  He is adorable!  Getting fatter every day with the most kissable cheeks you've ever seen...  He has also stopped his grunting - he now cries like an actual baby!  So nice that the era of the whiny, grunting baby is gone...

We hope that all is going great with everybody!  The Puddys are doing just fine...  ;)

Check out the newest pix!

28 June 03

Where the hell have we been?!?  Well let me tell ya'!  I just returned from 10 SPECTACULAR days in Paris, France w/ my Dad - while Pam brought the kids to Massachusetts to visit with her family.  Great trips all around!  To check out my Paris stories (complete w/ pix) click HERE.  To read about Pam's adventures - click HERE.

10 June 03

Manitowoc, Wisconsin is home to some of the most brutal looking people I have ever seen!  They were all very nice, but I don't think that I have ever seen a collection of more homely people than I have in Manitowoc.  I was at the Manitowoc (pronounced MAN-i-twok) airshow narrating for the A-10 demo team.  Fun stuff!  Lots of beer and Brats...

29 May 03

First things First!  Check this OUT!!!

Ouch.  That is all that I have to say about my last 168 hours.  Ouch.  For those of you who want to read about my San Diego journey, click here.  Everyone else, here is the standard update.  I ran off to San Diego after being home from Muskogee, OK for only ~2.5 days.  I had planned the journey months ago as the boys weekend out - well before I got on the demo team.  I was hurtin' from OK, so the quick turn to San Diego was pretty rough...

Needless to say, Spam was not overly excited about having me do the touch and go back away from home, but she is a fairly understanding woman.  A man needs to go drink more than he should at times!  Oh well...  I'll be around for more than a few weeks this time...

While I was gone, Pam was dealing with two kick-ass kids!  Max is so responsive now!  When he is not eating or blowing bubbles, he loves to have me sing to him.  Not so much for my stellar singing voice, I'm afraid - but he just likes to hear the different sound inflections of my voice.  So far he likes the Refreshments, Tom Cochrane (Dreamer's Dream, specifically) and the Cure (Friday I'm In Love.)  As long as I can keep him smiling/laughing/loving life - just like his old man (I never said I was a good dresser)- then I am doing my job.

Pam says that while I'm away, Nikolai is a great kid!  Never complains, whines, or acts up.  But when Papa-san comes home, Nikolai thinks that I am intruding, and he can't have any of that!  He is still being so good with Max - every time we put Max on the floor, Nikolai will run over to him and give him a hug.  It is not so much a hug as it is he just puts his head on his chest - but it is as good of a hug that an 18 month old can muster!  Nikolai is getting really good at stacking blocks now, too!  As always, he is just adorable, and even when he acts up, it is damned near impossible to stay mad at him for any period of time... 

Max sometimes thinks he is the devil, when other times he can look as innocent as can be.

Something that we have noticed about Max is that he has the most beautiful peepers we have ever seen (on a baby, that is...)  We got a pretty good shot of his eye - they are a grayish/blue color that are going to breaking hearts for years to come!  It looks like there are lightening bolts in his eyes.  They are very intriguing...

Otherwise all is quiet on the western front!  It is now well over 100 degrees every day in this brutal Arizona heat, so the trips to the park are now unfortunately fewer and further between - unless we want to wake up at 4 in the morning!  Here are a few more pictures!

21 May 03

More airshows for Puddy!  This past weekend I went to Muskogee, Oklahoma for Airshow Oklahoma 2003.  Pretty cool - and I even saw some Okie's from Muskogee.  This wasn't a big airshow - about 6000 people total came over the three days that the airshow was going on.  Perfect!  It allowed us to get in the crowd and talk with the people who don't get to see the A-10 too often.

The Army's Golden Knight's were also there and we got into a "Zap" war.  We have stickers that say, "A-10 Demo Team" on them, so when they were up flying, I put a few (30) on their cars.  Pretty funny stuff, I thought!  Then when I went out to my car the next morning there were no less than a hundred!  Bastards...  All in good fun, I guess! 

There were so many red-necks in Muskogee it wasn't even funny!  It was pretty cool that they had a whole bunch of toys that I was not used to playing with.  Since we were the headline of the show, people were bending over backwards to make sure that we had a great time.  And we did!  The first day I was there, I got a ride in an Extra-300 - a wicked sweet aerobatic plane capable of positive 10 and negative 10 G's!  Pretty cool.  After that I got a ride in a Yak-52.  Sweet!  Then they had 4-wheeler's galore!  Kicked ass to drive around in those, too...

And while I'm off partying with the rednecks, Pam was hanging with the cutest kids in the world!  We had our professional pix taken a few weeks ago, and we finally got them in.  They look great!  Pretty psyched...

Nikolai has had a bit of trouble sleeping through the night, but Max is doing great!  Rarely a night goes by where Max doesn't sleep for a 5 hour stretch.  Nikolai is much better at playing with Max now - he is very gentle and gives Max kisses on the cheek.  Cute!  Max is a smiley little guy now, too!  He is really developing his own personality.  We put him on the floor and he kicks his feet like he is trying to run a marathon, all the while coo-ing up a storm.  We are blessed to have the two cutest kids in the world!

I was changing Max's diaper today, and he peed on me.  Just in case you wanted to know.

Nikolai loves his books and always wants us to read to him.  He is getting more confident with his speech, and says the words he knows (Dog, Ball, Banana, etc.) Loud and Often!  No problem here!

We had Max's 2 month Well-Baby and he tipped the scales at a beefy 15 lbs, and 23.5 inches!  Nikolai had his 18 month and he was 29 lbs and 33 inches.  These kids are not tiny!  The Tolmoff's breed them right...

Nikolai watched Max get his shots, and when Max started to cry, so did Nikolai!  Very cute that he didn't like seeing his brother get hurt...

As always, we have a bunch more pictures!  We have more pictures of Max this time because he is way easier to get on the camera - he is not always running around like a chicken with his head cut off!  Take care and drop us a line when you get a chance!!!

6 May 03

Wow - We've been busy!  Pam certainly moreso than me...  Nikolai celebrated his 2nd Easter, and Max his 1st.  They are so cute!  The Easter Bunny brought Niko a basket, and it had a couple of books, and his favorite - an Orange!  Nikolai tore into that like a hungry person into a Twinkie!

Max is growing at an alarming rate!  He is so cute...  He still grunts a bit, but he has usually been putting about 4-5 hours of snooze under his head at one stretch.  He is now starting to smile a whole lot more - so adorable...

This past weekend, I flew an A-10 out to Ft. Lauderdale, FL for the biggest air show in the country.  It was kick ass!  There were 4 million people there over the course of 2 days who watched the show.  Because we were with the demo team - we had a pass for everything.  We even met some people whose whole purpose was to ply us with free drinks so that we would want to come back next year!  Consider it done - It was OUTSTANDING!  Unfortunately (but more importantly) Pam kept the camera behind to keep the boys well photographed...  While I was in FL I even got to party with Glennard and Sue who came down from Tampa to hang with the old Pud-ster.  They demanded pictures of the boys, but never visit the website - if only they knew!

It was pretty rough for Pam to listen to me complain about how hungover I was while she was going on no sleep dealing with 2 screaming kids.  She is the ultimate trooper and I couldn't do without her!  And for those of you who forgot last year (Ahem...  Ummm...  I mean...  Never mind...) Mother's Day is THIS coming Sunday - 11 May!

Pam had two wicked funny stories for my return.  The first - Pam was doing something to Max to get him clean on the kitchen counter, right next to the sink.  Niko was standing in front of the fridge (about four feet away) when Max determined it was time to unleash a torrent of pee.  4 feet this pee arced.  One would have thought it was from a drunk man at a ball park - not a 7 week old.  Anyway - the pee arced across the room, and landed right in front of Nikolai.  He was not quite sure what to do about it.  Once the arc ceased, and Pam was laughing - Nikolai decided he had to step in the now-huge-puddle of tinkle.  One step, and he slipped and dropped like a sack of potatoes on the tile floor - with a nice loud crack.  One second - all was going great for Pam, and the next, she had a nekkid baby in the place where babies get clean, and a screaming toddler laying on the floor in his brother's urine.  Funny stuff...

The second - Nikolai wanted to take a sip of Pam's cup.  she demonstrated how to do it - nice and slowly.  Nikolai figured he had the hand of it, so he pushed her hand away - He took command of the cup, slowly lifted it to his face, and then rapidly dumped 20 ounces of water into his face until he about choked.  Once again he looked up at Pam as if she had failed him!  He is a great kid who is digging his independence, but it is a lot of fun to watch him learn by trial and error...

Other than that - the Puddy family is still loving life!  Pam is out taking the boys to the park almost every day, and I am still having a blast in the HOG!  Life is ok...  Ironically - Nikolai is screaming right now, though.  Oh well - Comes with the territory!  We hope that you are doing well...  Check out the newest pix...

21 Apr 03

Wow - As of today - Max has been alive for 37 days - and of those 37 days, we have had houseguests for 28 of them!  Hokie-Smokes!

But no longer.  This morning my Mom and Dad took off back home.  They were here for a great 10 days!  It was pretty sweet to see them, and for them to see their grandkids.  We went absolutely nuts with pictures, too!  If you think I am bad with the camera (taking a lot of pictures) - my Mom beats me by 100x!  Always a camera in your face.  No problem for me - I never think you can take enough...

We did a lot of fun stuff while they were here - we went to the park a few times, saw Katie, Mike, and Rachel, and we also went to a pig roast!  Pretty sweet.  Can you dig it?  Other than that - there is not a whole lot new to report on the baby front.  We've found out that long-baby Max doesn't like when Spam eats eggs - He is a tootin' heathen after a re-processed meal of eggs.  His baby acne has all but gone away, and the resemblance between Nikolai and Maximo continue to be astounding...  I'm sure that I am biased, but I think that we have the two cutest kids in the world!

We also took Max and Niko to get their picture taken with the Easter Bunny, as well as got Niko a haircut!  As long as we gave Niko a banana, he was happy!  And he ended up with one hairy banana.  So to speak.

I have also been on an elusive quest to find a portable .mp3 player.  I am on my fourth one now, and I think I have finally scored!  I had the Archos Multimedia for a few days, but the technology was not ready for primetime.  Battery life too short, skipped, etc. - but the idea was a good one!

Nikolai is getting cuter every day!  His independence is raging.  My Dad liked that when you'd tell him "no" about something, he'd hit his head like Homer Simpson!  D'OH!  Funny stuff.  We are constantly trying to keep him out of trouble, and he is constantly trying to get in it.  That is his job at this stage, I guess!  We have also learned that Pam and I have slightly different philosophies regarding his safety - I am of the mindset of, "If he doesn't fall out of the tree on his own, how is he ever going to learn?"  And Pam's is the direct opposite.  Not too shabby considering this is the first real difference in thought we've had!

My website provider is giving me guff about the size of my website.  They say I am only to have 100mb of storage space, but I am tipping the scales at 943mb of space.  I think I'll have to set them straight.  Again.

I will leave you with a combination of pix from mine and my Mom's cameras!  Take care, and let us know what you think!

13 Apr 03

This has a been a great past two weeks!  First, we went in and completely thumped Iraq in about 2 weeks time, and returned with only ~150 coalition losses.  Not bad comparing to how bad things could have been!  I have a lot of buds over there doing some great work!  Also - went to Corpus Christi, TX last weekend for my first off-station airshow.  We had a total blast!  I got to sit in a Mig-17, and went on Bob Hope's old jetstar.  It was pretty sweet!  Also saw the Blue Angles perform.  They are the Navy's demonstration team, like the Thunderbirds are for the USAF.  The Blues were FANTASTIC!  They were doing a lot of stuff that I wouldn't ever dream of!

And as always - my jet broke.  2 extra days of fun in Corpus - living in a hotel right on the beach and getting full per diem...  While Pam was home alone with two screaming kids!  Pretty rough being me for sure...   I got home Tuesday night, and my Dad flew in on Wednesday evening.  Great having him around!  I tracked his flight across the country on a flight tracker - I love technology!  My mom then flew in on Friday...

Yesterday we went to Penny's wedding.  Penny is a guy (I know - terrible name for a guy) that I fly with.  He is the demo pilot, and I am his narrator.  He is the one who affords me the luxuries of flying around the country and breaking jets!  My mom watched Nikolai, and we took Max.  The wedding was a non-traditional wedding, in the sense that everyone was wearing "island attire."  Very nice not to be sweltering in the Arizona heat!  Lotsa beers and Margaritas for good old Puddy!  Thank God Pam is such a great Designated Driver...

Today we went to "Freedom in the Park."  It was put on by a local radio station - kind of a "Support Our Troops" kind of deal - quite a good turnout!  Katie and Mike also made the journey with their daughter, Rachel.  Nikolai was the hit of the show - there was a band playing - every time they would start the music, he would dance away!  Everybody was laughing...  Fun stuff!

Max is just like his big brother - he hates to sleep!  Not so much that he hates to sleep - it is just that he sleeps at the wrong times.  I am a proponent of the binky - and Pam is against it.  So far - she is winning!  We'll see if she cracks...

My Mom is probably the one person on the planet who takes more pictures than I do!  We combined all of our pix together over the last few days - here are what we've come up with!  Tell us what you think!

1 Apr 03

Giddy up!  This weekend, we took Nikolai and Maximo to the airshow at Davis Monthan AFB.  It was sweet!  Especially now since Niko knows what an airplane is!  Except he calls it more of an Air-bone.  Oh well - he is learning!  There were a ton of demos at the airshow - the A-10, F-15, F-16, F-18, Thunderbirds, Tora Tora Tora, and Patty Wagstaff - just to name a few.  I also broke my Demo Cherry by narrating the A-10 Demo.  I tried to make it sound like a Monster-Truck Rally.  The masses said that I succeeded...  The sun was pretty hot, but we were hooked up w/ VIP seats right at show center.  Nice!

Matty B and Susan came along from Phoenix, Mike and Cousin Katie, and of course the little brother Charlie was on hand.  Everybody had a great time - except for the fact that it was a bit warm, and there were more than a few red faces to be seen by the end.  Matty B and Susan were ready to get out of the sun, so they left right before the Thunderbirds (last act), and then spent the next 1 hour+ looking for their car!  Pretty funny...

Max is doing great!  He is one grunting little boy, though.  We have him sleeping in a bassinet next to our bed, and even with earplugs in, I can still hear him grunting away.  He sounds like a warthog rooting for food.  I don't remember Nikolai ever doing that, but I am sure that he did...  Max is doing way better in the sleeping department than Nikolai ever did.  We are being very careful not to let him sleep on us too long - turns out kids like to be held when they sleep!  Go figure.  Every time he falls asleep, we put him down.  When he is awake, he is very alert and soaks up his surroundings nicely.  Nikolai tries to get in his face at every opportunity.  He then yells, "BAY- BEEE!!!" (However sounds more like "BAH-BEEE").  When we try to get him to say, "Max," he laughs and calls him baby again. It is as if he doesn't call him by his name, then he won't stay around.

Pam's parents left on Saturday after 2.5 weeks.  It was great having them around, but it is also nice to have the new addition all to ourselves.  Pam was alone with the two boys for the first time yesterday while I went to work.  She did great!  As always...

Nikolai likes to see all the pictures in our house - we pick him up and carry him to each picture and then describe for him what/who is in the pic.  Every time we get to my nieces (Ashley and Alexis), he puts his head down on your shoulder.  Not quite sure what that means...  Only he knows what is going on in that little melon of his!  Another one of his favorite words is, "CHEE-O."  We have no idea what that means, but he says it often!  When I asked him to bring me a Chee-O, he brought me one of his little blocks.  He does it consistently, so it is very possible that we cracked the code!  Just bizarre that he would name a block a Chee-O.

Nikolai is also into testing us.  We tell him to do something, and he will openly (and blatantly) defy us to see what we are going to do!  So far we have only had to put him in Time-out a few times, but he is learning what he can and can't get away with...

Still loving life, even though it has gotten significantly more busy!  Pam is doing great taking care of the boys, while I am out trying to bring home the bacon...

Here are a couple of pix from airshow!

20 Mar 03

Today, the war started in Iraq.  God Bless our military - we wish them a quick victory with minimal casualties...

Everything still great on the home-front!  Max is adjusting very nicely to his life in the outside world.  Nikolai is still adjusting well to Max being in his life, too.  We finally got a couple of good pictures of the boys together.  It is amazing at how much Max looked like Niko when Niko was his age!  When I look down at Max, it is if I was looking at Niko 15.5 months ago.  So cool!

I am just starting to feel better from a wicked bad cold.  My head pounding, constant sneezing, as well as a cough that wouldn't quit!  I could barely move around, and I did not want to get Max or Niko sick.  I pretty much just existed while Pam took care of the boys...  And she did great!  It still helps that Nikolai is sleeping through the night.  Max has no idea when day or night is, so he just wakes and sleeps and eats whenever...

Today we are going to take Max to get a repeat PKU done at the clinic on base.  Going to be a pain in the butt to get on the base due to the war!  Better safe than sorry, I guess...  We are also going to get Niko looked at - he has had a bit of fever since yesterday, and he has not been acting himself.  Probably a combination of the new baby, as well as the bad virus' in the air from Daddy.

Still great to have my two boys!

Good luck to the troops.

Check out the newest pictures!

17 Mar 03

Happy St. Paddy's Day!  Things here have been going great!  We are learning that Nikolai is going to be a great big brother to Maximo.  He is so cute giving him hugs and kisses!  The only problem is that we can't get him to pose for a picture...  I think that we'll get a good one in the near future, though.  The best thing so far, is that Nikolai has been sleeping the night!  If you ask him if he wants to go to bed when he is tired, he will walk to the stairs, put his arms up, and then shut his eyes the second he hits the crib.  Kick ass!  We were very worried about this - but he has been sleeping between 8 and 10 hours at night, most nights not even waking up at all!  And in the morning when he is finally awake, he will sit quietly in his crib until somebody goes to get him...

I am sick.  Not just a usual sniffles kind of sick - I am talking sick, coughing, sneezing, dizzy, ache-ey, can't do much of anything sick.  It sucks.  Therefore I haven't even gotten a chance to hold my new son the past two days, because I don't want to get him sick!  Not the best, but I fell like I am getting better...

Pam is doing great putting Max down to sleep, rather than holding him like she did w/ Nikolai.  He is doing great!  He is very alert like Niko was at that age.  He looks around, and licks his lips a lot...  Just adorable!  Yesterday we gave him his first [something to get him clean!]  He was not a big fan...  Nor is he a big fan when we change his diaper!  Nikolai will start to cry if Max is crying - I think that he thinks we might be hurting him...  Good mutual support from the big brother!

Max and Pam have had no problem getting into the breast-feeding ritual.  Definitely easier than with Nikolai, because now 1/2 of the participants know what is going on!

Pam's parents have been a HUGE help here - Especially with me being sick...  My one big regret is that I can't booze with her Dad feeling the way I do..

14 Mar 03

Allow Me to Introduce Maximo Zane Tolmoff

Wow – what an interesting night.  Pam was admitted on 12 March at 7:45 a.m. to be induced.  Just for a frame of reference, we went in 15 months ago w/ Nikolai, started the induction at 9 a.m. and the kid was born at 5:33 p.m.

 This time, not so much.

The induction started just fine, with the drip going, however the “internal plumbing” had not made it’s way into launching position.  5:33 p.m. came and went with no kid.  By the way, the nurse we had was kind of a gimp for the majority of the day.  We had not seen the doctor once because she said Pam was not dilated enough to warrant a visit.  Thanks.

At about 9 p.m., the doctor finally came in and broke her water.  They expected the labor to increase rapidly from that point (as it did with Niko last year).  What happened then was not too much fun.  The doctor, upon inspection, noted that the umbilical cord was hanging out of Pam’s cervix.  Since the baby had to come out of the cervix, the cord was definitely in the way.  So from then on, every time she had a contraction, it would pinch the cord, and the baby’s heart-rate would plummet.  Ouch. 

By this point, we had a nurse worth a damn, and she was excellent with everything.  At one point, the baby’s heart-rate was decelerated for almost 4 minutes.  It was a scene out of ER.  Definitely a helpless feeling from both of our standpoints. 

Under doctor’s advice, Pam got an epidural just in case she had to have an emergency C-Section.  If she did not get the epidural, then she would get a General Anesthetic, and I would not be allowed in the room whilst they extracted the baby.

For the next 4 hours, the baby’s heart rate periodically decelled until Pam could move to a different position where the head would ease up on the cord.  It was very stressful at first, but then we got into a pretty good routine of moving her numb lower half around and then we’d watch the heart-rate climb!  Certainly not the easy delivery that we had w/ Nikolai.

At about 1 a.m., things stabilized quite a bit, so they started the pitocin drip again.  The first contraction sent the baby’s heart-rate down again, but after that everything was normal.  Since Pam was on the epidural, they now had to take her blood pressure every 5-10 minutes.  Pam started to drift off to sleep (I was already in la-la land), and at one point her blood pressure got down to 84/36.  Needless to say she set off all sorts of alarms, and the nurse came in to wake her up.  I got a few good hours of snooze.  Pam?  Not so much…

 Pam’s parents came in around 2 p.m. on 12 March, expecting to have a new grandson in a few hours.  More than they bargained for, I bet!  HA!  They woke up at 3:45 a.m. Tucson time on 12 March, it was now 8 a.m. on the 13th, and have not had any sleep to speak of since, with none visible in the near future.  Coffee anyone?

 So now we are at the 24 hour point, and they expect her to be ready to push the kid by noon.  So I tell Spam that I was taking her Dad, and we were going to run to Dunkin Donuts (Mmmm... Donuts) to get some coffee.  Pam says no prob - just make sure that I bring my cell phone.  We are off.  While I am in line getting my burrito (standard), Pam calls to tell me that they did an internal peek, and she is at 10 cm and ready to push.  HOLY CRAP!!!  I grab her Dad (after I got the burrito, of course), and we jump in the car and head back to the hospital.  I then get another call - "I gave one very small push, and you can see the kids hair.  You'd better hurry."

Oh Dude.

I make it into the hospital w/ moments to spare.  Actually - I had quite a bit of time, since the doctor was not even there yet.  So I started to eat my burrito, and it was tasty!  The doctor got there (a cute little oriental chick) when I still had half of my burrito left.  She then told me to suit up because I was the one catching the baby. 

Oh Dude. 

So then I got on the gown and the gloves - I *was* George Clooney (Where are those paddle things?!?).  I got down to catch the kid - Michael Irving would have been proud.  The kid came out in 4 pushes.  And I caught him.  It was the most kick ass thing I have ever done in my life.  And he was 8 lbs, 12 oz. of  PERFECTION!!!

WOO-HOO!!!

The rest of the day was spent getting to know our new little guy.  He looks IDENTICAL to how Nikolai looked at birth - my guess is that they will end up looking the same as they grow older.  Check out the uncanny resemblance!  Max's hands and feet are just enormous, and he can already hold his head up - The Doctor told us there would be no lasting effects from the heartbeat deceleration, and that he is as normal and healthy as he could possibly be!  Great to hear...

Pam's parents left in mid-afternoon after Katie and Mike dropped off Nikolai.  He didn't get to see his little brother, because he was in the nursery getting his hearing tested.  After they left, Pam, Max, and I had a little quiet family time.  Unfortunately the recovery room they put us in had two beds, with the rudest, loudest, illegal aliens I have ever seen (seriously - they were illegals - we got the story from the nurse that they snuck over here to have the child born in the good old USA.  For free.  Then they were going to be deported.  YGBSM!)

Since Pam was in a double bed-room, I could not stay the night.  I left a little after 8, and went straight home to see if I couldn't get a bit of a snooze.  I did - and it was nice...  Pam was not so lucky.  For one, she had to listen to the "neighbors" jabber into the night, and for two, Maximo had some different ideas...  He would feed, then cry - and not necessarily in that order.  Pam finally called a nurse to help her out - The nurse took Max out to the desk while Pam got some shut-eye.

I showed up back around 8 a.m. with coffee and burritos - never missing a beat!  Then we took Max to the dreaded pee-pee snipper.  I got to witness that (not highly recommended...)  We then got a real cute professional picture of Max which I will post in the near future.  Mommy and Baby both passed all the tests that were required, so it was homeward bound for the family!

I never realized how much you can grow to love a kid before he is born.  That kid came into the world as loved as someone can be!  And thank God he is healthy...

Welcome Maximo!!!

Here are some pix we took over the last 48 hours.

We'd love to hear from you!!!

9 March 03

Unbelievable!  It seemed like just yesterday when Spam and I found out that we were going to be having a second baby.  Now, that day is only 3 days away!  That's right - The doctor decided to induce Spam on 12 March.  Dr. Tran said that she is still clamped shut with no sign of opening.  Her due date is 16 March but they are going to do it early because Nikolai was so big and the Dr. doesn't think that she will go into labor on her own.  Pam is such a great incubator that the kids never want to come out!  It works out perfectly - last year Pam's parents came out for 17 days, and Pam didn't have the baby until after they were here for 13 days.  This time, she is getting induced the same day her parents show up in town!  It will definitely be nice to have them around to help out once our house becomes a zoo...  Nikolai senses that something funky is going on, but he is not quite sure what yet.  He plays with Rachel very well - I just hope that he doesn't beat on his little brother too badly!

Last weekend was a lot of fun - I got to do my first narration of the A-10 demonstration at the Heritage Flight conference - sounded pretty good to me!  The only time I tripped over my words, I meant to say, "Veteran Pilot,"  But what came out was, "Veteran Pirate."  ARRRRRGGGHHH!!!  Oh well - if that is the worst I do for the year, than I am pretty happy w/ it!

G Miller also rolled into town last week!  Cool to see him - Fetus had sort of a "welcome back G Miller/Adios to Chickenhawk" party.  Everybody ended up hammered and in the hot tub - Fun stuff!!!

Nikolai is loving the independence that walking brings him.  He is getting VERY tough minded, and his least favorite word is "no."  He does listen for the most part, but it doesn't keep him from pushing the limits at every opportunity!  We go to the park several times a week where Niko loves to flirt with the girls and ride the swings.  We also found out that he is very anal when it comes to cleanliness - As he climbs up the stairs to the slides, he constantly stops and picks up whatever piece of rock/woodchip/whatever and then hands it to us.  Nikolai is starting to repeat words, and can say things like up, dog, cat, Mommy, Daddy, and out.  His little voice is so cute!  He still babbles early and often, but that is fine by us!  I just can't wait to get in his little head and figure out the thoughts that are actually going on in there...

This weekend, John Sheehan (Secret Life Of...) flew in from Dallas.  Friday night was (the last) boy's night out and we went to Frog and Firkin, then over to the Wildcat House.  The Cat House is a dance club that  I used to frequent when I first moved here.  I have not been in a few years, and I now remembered why!  The first clue is when they "wanded" me for weapons upon entry...  Life is certainly changing!  And not for the worse...

Other highlights of the weekend were cleaning the house and painting the F-ing door!  The homeowner's association had a fit when I painted our front door red over the summer.  We've been getting weekly hate mail ever since, so we FINALLY got around to painting it.  OK - Pam did it.  And she did a helluva job!  2 weeks ago I turned on a light in our bedroom and fire shot out of the light 3 feet down and made a horrendous noise!  Needless to say we didn't turn the light on again (at the risk of Great White-ing ourselves), so yesterday I put in a new ceiling fan.  Not too tough for the average man, but it took me about 3 hours, for I am well below average...

The next entry should be us telling about our new addition!  Wish us (Pam) a lot of luck.  This kid is probably going to have a his daddy's melon...

Drop us a line!

More Pictures...

23 Feb 03

What a weekend!  This weekend we went to go see Matty B up in Phoenix.  I had initially planned on going solo, but Spam had expressed her interest to go with me, and I was more than happy to have her along!  We left after work on Friday, and met up with Spam's old roommate (from her San Antonio days) Leah who flew in from California.  After that we headed to Macaroni Grill where we had dinner w/ Matty B and Susan.  We then picked up some beers and drank them back at Matty B's house.  Pretty low key night - But lotsa fun with some kick ass company...

Saturday was fantastic.  We did breakfast, then went to a park where Nikolai had his first taste of a SWING!  He loved it...  I got some great pictures of it.  He was smiling from ear to ear as everyone took turns pushing him.  Matty B and I took our leave and went to go see the movie Old School whilst the women (and Niko) ran around a mall.  Old School was a RIOT!  Highly recommended...  Yeah - it truly does seem that we should start a fraternity instead of living in the real world.  College was outstanding!

On Saturday night, Matty B's girlfriend Susan had a housewarming party.  With all the red wine that I had - the house certainly felt warm to me!  We were looked at a bit strange as the only people who brought a baby to a party.  No sweat though!  Nikolai was (as always) a big hit...

Today we hit the park again and I ran around w/ Andy - Matty B's roommate who sold me the minivan - while the women pushed Nikolai on the swing again.

Great weekend as always!  And some more pix to boot...

Also - A kick ass B-2 movie...

17 Feb 03

This has been a busy week!  Aside from the boy running around like a whirling dervish, I even flew 5 times this week!  Nothing like getting back in the saddle.  Nikolai's walking skills are skyrocketing!  It is great to see him toddle around - his confidence and stability are much improved, although when he starts getting tired, he immediately reverts to his drunk sailor-hood.  So cute!

On Saturday we took him to a park with Charlie (little brother), Mike, Katie and Rachel.  He had a tennis ball in one hand and a wiffle ball in another, and he just walked around looking at everything.  It is so cool that everything is new to him!  That night we went to Chuy's restaurant for dinner and then rented the worst movie ever - Undercover Brother.  Sucks.  Save your money.  The highlight of the evening was Nikolai playing with Rachel and making her laugh - so cute...  The other highlight was watching Mike get ripped off Guinness and Cider.  I guess I can't talk, because I fell asleep before everybody left...

On Sunday we cleaned like mad-men.  Pam's "nesting" is kicking into overdrive!  Very nice...  She got all of Nikolai's infant clothes out and ready to go when the new baby arrives.  Her belly is so big now!  It looks bigger now than when she delivered Nikolai!  And she still has 4 weeks to go...  My guess is that the baby is going to be 22" and 9lbs 8 oz.  Pam guesses 21" and 7 lbs 9 oz.  We even had a guy at Costco guess the weight and length (he offered - we didn't ask) - he said 7 lbs 8 oz, and 23 inches!  We are going to have one long skinny baby if that is the fact.

Pam thinks that she is going to go into labor on her own rather than be induced again.  I think there is no prayer of her not having to be induced.  I think that she provides such a good home for the boys that they never want to come out!  We shall see...

Today, I took Niko to the park.  He made his first girl cry - she was probably 18-24 month, and Nikolai went up to her and started babbling, and she started to get the "unsure" look on her face.  So Nikolai screamed right in her face wicked loud, and she busted out crying!  Funny as hell...  Then the girl ran over to her mother - Nikolai added insult to injury by following and laughing the whole way.

Then he wandered around the park and I took a million pictures of him, and I even got a movie of him walking around in circles.  So cute!  He climbed up on the jungle gym (with a little help from Pop) and slid down the slide.  By the time we got back in the car, he was exhausted - sound asleep before we even made it home!  His toddling phase is the best so far - I can definitely relate better to a kid who can walk, rather than a screaming poop machine that just sits and cries - although we will have one of them in the house in the near future!  And I can't wait...

Check out the newest pictures...

9 Feb 03

Where have we been, right?  Well - it has been a busy month to say the least...  I was in Albuquerque, New Mexico for Flight Safety Officer's School, and I threw Pam and Nikolai on a plane to go see her parents in Worcester, Mass!  Overall - it was a BLAST! 

Remember my spiel on Squadron Officer School?  Well, this class was more oriented toward the operators of the Air Force (Pilots & Navigators).  There were 30 people in my class from all different types of airplanes/backgrounds/operational experiences.  A bunch of people who *understood* the Air Force.  We learned a ton of stuff primarily oriented toward aircraft mishap investigation - now I am on the hook for any Air Force plane crash to go out there and find out what happened.

Matty B has been calling me Van Wilder this past month because I kept bitching about my classes, my hangover, and my teachers.  He told me I was never growing up!  No kidding...

A good road trip whilst I was away leaving from ABQ to go to Colorado Springs and Denver.  Caught the playoffs, and met up with Jed and Ross.  Good stuff!  Don't get to see the boys all that often, so when I do it is drunken debauchery!  Also ran into Fernald (now Kelly), Forti (now Hileman) and Wesch (still Wesch).  I went with a dude from my class who goes by Marky Mark.  A six hour drive and 6 hours of stories!  Each way...  And there was still more left to tell.  We even Drunk-Dialed Jay the Canadian while we were in Denver - and Jay has yet to respond.  I don't know what has happened to Jay - but now he is just a big wuss...  HA!

Pam and Nikolai had a great time for 3.5 weeks in Worcester with her parents.  Nikolai got re-acquainted with his cousins Angela and Ryan.  Ryan is a month older than Nikolai, but Niko is about 5 inches taller than him.  Pam's Dad said that he was going to have to get them Boxing gloves because they were constantly at each others throats.  They had a lot of fun playing with each other!

Rob, Tara, Liz and Rich even made a quick journey out to take part of the Rossi hospitality.  Wish I could have been there, but the timing worked out well for Pam to enjoy her time with her family.  The Rossi clan even traveled to Maine, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island - Nikolai's state total is now tipping the scales at 29!  Not bad for a 14 month old...

My Mom and Rosie (sister-in-law) even made a road trip from Connecticut to see Pam and Niko.  Nikolai had a blast hanging out with his cousin Oskar, and it was great from my mom to get to see her grandson - even if for only a day!

It was a great homecoming for me returning from ABQ (even though I DID get a speeding ticket - standard).  I was mildly afraid that Nikolai was not going to remember me (I got to thinking about it - Nikolai is 14 months old, and I have been gone for almost 1/4 of his life on TDY - that sucks.)  Turned out that I had nothing to fear!  Pam (being the great Mommy that she is) kept showing him pictures of me, so when I got home there were no questions as to who I was!

He is so much fun!  He actually listens and does stuff that we ask him to do.  His favorite game now is still thumbs - He grabs onto my thumbs (or whoever's thumbs are around,) and then he gets you to violently shake him.  He digs it!  I am not sure why, but whatever makes him happy.

He is walking so well now!  He tries to run everywhere, and is also content to walk around the house for hours and hours.  He is making some attempts at talking, and it is very easy to fall into the trap of letting him say whatever he wants to get his point across, even though what he is saying does not make sense (kind of like that sentence).  But it is still fun to see him point at things he wants and bring books for you (me) to read.  He is so cute!  I can't believe he is already over 14 months old.  And I can't believe that we are going to have a 2nd son here in 5 weeks!

Very excited.  Once again (as always) life has us on a pretty good path!

Unknown  as to the deployment situation for now.  It is to be determined if I get sent anywhere.  I would be more than happy sitting here playing with the boy, though!  And I am guessing that Pam wouldn't want to send me away just yet.  Maybe.

I got to fly on Friday.  WOO-HOO!  It was nice not flying for about a week - then I was ready to get out of the classroom and into the air.  I also found out that I was the squadron Top Gun for the last six months!  That means that I had dropped the best bombs of any on the 40+ dudes in my squadron consistently over the last six months.  I rule.  HA!

Yesterday we went to a chili-cookoff for my squadron.  None of the chili's were all that hot, so I continually mentioned that everyone made WEAK chili.  Then the organizer got me and 5 other people to eat raw jalapeño after jalapeño until the last man was standing.  I ate 3 and thought I was going to die.  One of the dumbest things I've ever done!  The winner had ~8.

Nikolai was having fun playing with the other kids and just walking around the park outside.  We followed him around for over an hour as he explored his surroundings.  He has never really gotten to play in the grass or sand before, so when he fell on the ground, he didn't want to put his hands down to get himself up because the texture was different.  Pretty funny to watch.  He'd land on his butt and then just hold his hands in the air saying, "pick me up!!!"  So we would...

There was a soccer ball and a kick ball that a couple of the kids were playing with (Nikolai was the youngest of three kids - the other two were 18 & 24 months), and not one of them had any concept of sharing.  One would pick up a ball and start walking away while the other two cried, then he would drop it, somebody else would pick it up, and the whole thing would start all over again.  VERY funny!

That about sums up the last month!  Got some more pictures.  Hope to hear from you soon!

4 Jan 03

Happy New Year!  Wow - have we had a busy holiday season!  On 28 Dec 02, Rob from Boston made a visit.  Pam (in only the way a Rossi - Ex or present - can) made a killer vat-o-spaghetti-sauce.  We had a couple of people over, and the beers flowed!  A fine time had by all.  Next day, Rob, Matty B, and myself went for a killer hike in the great Sabino Canyon (do you get the idea that I am getting buff?  I'm such a beefcake I can't even get through the door...)

A couple of days of rest and relaxation ensued.  We watched the Patriots narrowly squeak out a victory against the Miami Dolphins (In OT by the way...), but then the Jets also won which knocked the Pats out of the playoffs.  BOO!!!  Oh well - not a whole lot we could do about that!

I took Rob to the base and we checked out the sights of DM.  He even tried to fly the sim!  A bit more difficult than people expect...  Tuesday morn (Jan 31, 2002) We went for a 9 mile hike (Sabino again) so that the New Year would not be fraught with guilt.  A quick nap, and then the masses showed for the rumpus.

We had 15 people show up (Puddy, Pam, Matty B, Susan, Liz, Rich, Rob, Tim, Annie, Marianne, Bryant, Cousin Katie, Mike, Fetus, and Marsha) got to the O'Club to ring in the New Year.  The only problem was that we lowered the average age in the club down to 94 years old.  Pretty brutal crowd, but we certainly spiced up the party!  $50 for a lobster/steak dinner, party favors, champagne, midnight breakfast buffet (much to Matty B's Chagrin), and an OPEN BAR!  Unbelievable.  And this bar was open for business!  Shots, top shelf, you name it - they had it.  And I drank it.  Got pretty banged up - Thank God I had a built in DD w/ Spam!  Seriously - a fine time...

After the rumpus, we picked up Niko from the babysitter's house (a Dr. that Spam used to work with) and headed home for me to pass out. So very tired.

Next day Nikolai wants to play at 7 a.m., and could not be talked out of it.  I lost the coin toss and had to take him.  Ouch!  Liz and Rich slept until ~1:30 p.m.  We ate, then went to Colossal Cave.  Pretty cool cave!  I got some killer pictures.  That night I was in bed by 7 p.m.  I woke up on 2 January feeling like a cold was coming on!  Boo...  Pam took Liz and Rich to the Desert Museum while I had to work.  I tried taking a nap, but my body was going downhill fast.  Something that only NyQuil could fix!  I slept 10 restful hours, yet woke feeling sicker than the night before.

But it was 3 Jan.  My birthday!  Yea me!  I am now a ripe old 29.  Got a lot of good stuff going on in my life for a 29 year old - that is for sure.  We then took Liz and Rich to an A-10 demonstration that I narrated (I did great - go figure), and then to the Simulator and Boneyard.  We even found them a nice little Cactus to mail home!  And a Kokopelli statue for you-know-what...  Dinner at Macaroni Grill (Yummy) rounded out the evening, capped by the Fiesta Bowl (College Football's National Championship - Ohio State beat National Champs Miami - Woo-hoo!)

On Saturday, I had to take myself off the flying schedule so I could SOF (Supervisor of Flying), since I was feeling less than par.  No sweat.  Liz and Rich left to go see Sedona and Flagstaff, so it was back to life as normal.  But overall, a kick ass holiday season!  Hope that everybody had a great New Year!

Check out the new pictures!