David's First Trip to the Zoo

MIL was in town for the weekend and since it was so freakin' nice outside we decided to take David to the Zoo. The Philadelphia Zoo is the first zoo in America. It's small but one of the highlights is the "Bank of America Big Cat Falls" - it's their newly renovated exhibit with Lions, Tigers, a Jaguar, Pumas and a Leopard.

Here is David checking out the Pumas.


We got to see some really big turtles eating their lunch.





And David had a fun time watching the various water features they had at the zoo. This is the water fall they had in the Big Cat Falls exhibit.



It was a fun weekend and we finished it off with a trip to Perkins this morning! Mmmmm Pancakes!

First Happy Meal:

After the obnoxious ride home on the El (mechanical problems) today from work and the fact the Daddy is working tonight there was NO WAY I was cooking dinner. I had to run to Target for a new shower curtain (our old one was growing stuff) so afterwards David and I stopped at McDonald's.

Check out David eating his very first Happy Meal:

Playing Outside

Last Sunday we took David to the baseball field by our house to run around. He had a lot of fun but it was obvious he wasn't used to the grass. He stumbled a lot but according to the tee-shirt he's just doing his own stunts!

Microsoft

A little less than 2 years ago, Microsoft created this product called the XBOX 360 and rushed it out to market before any other game system so that they could be first and more people would buy it. They decided to skip the whole quality control step of manufacturing, and the result was a defective system. Some estimates say that 33% (yes, that's one in three) will break and need to be replaced. When the box finally goes bad, three red lights flash in a ring. This has fondly become known to the lay public as the "Red Ring of Death".

Here is my story with the RROD.

August 20th - I decide to play Halo 2 to relax and blow some stuff up. The game system freezes. I turn it off, and turn it back on, and am overjoyed to see the RROD. I go online and go through their troubleshooting system, which has some enlightening suggestions to fix defective hardware (it's the unplug it and plug it back in type of advice).

That done, I call customer support. There I get to talk to Max. Let me correct that - I get to have Max talk to me. He tells me to unplug it and plug it back in again. After loudly stating "technical support" and all the variations thereof into what Microsoft thinks is a "voice recognition" program, I eventually get to talk to the Indian guy that speaks a deliteful version of english that makes it so we can barely communicate. After going through the whole process, he informs me that their server is down in an homage to the XBOX system, and that I should call back tomorrow.

August 21st - I call back. I unplug the system and plug it in again. Much to my surprise, it still doesn't work. Eventually, Indian guy gets on the phone and sends me a prepaid box to stick my broken xbox in to mail to them.

August 24th - I get the prepaid box, put my functionally challenged XBOX in it, and take it to UPS.

August 30th - My XBox arrives at the texas border, to be sent across the border where an outsourced repair worker opens it up to take a look.

September 3rd - they decided it's broken

September 13th - they decided to send me a new one. Microsoft does this endearing thing where instead of sending you a new one, they superglue some pieces together from old ones and then put a brand new manufacturing date. According to this, mine was manufactured the week my original one broke. Why it took ten days to ship it? They had to give it a little extra love

September 18th - the XBOX arrives. I plug it in. I turn it on. RROD

I call Max back. He is delightful as always, and suggests I unplug it and plug it back in. Then I get through to Steve. Here's a question - if you were an indian guy and were going to make up an american sounding name, wouldn't you pick something interesting, like "My name is Captain America"?

He informs me that he is sorry that my XBOX is broken (their screen prompts tell them to always apologize at the begining of the conversation, because it will make us feel better, and, of course, it works perfectly). I inform him that I'm glad that I have had the privilege of seeing another XBOX system, and look forward to another one weeks from now.

Actually, that wasn't how it went at all. Why the F%CK can't they check their F%CKING systems before they F%CKING send them out, and if they F%CKING send out a defective one, why the F%CK do I have to F%CKING wait for them to F%CKING get the second F%CKING broken one back and dick around with it again before they F%CKING send me a third, likely F%CKING broken one?

The best part - they have a policy that they keep sending you "refurbished" machines unless your third one breaks. As you could easily google online if you wanted to waste your time too, my experience is far from abnormal.

Please - Friends don't let their friends buy XBOX 360's.

Interesting Choice of Words:

So David has been slow to say any real words. He says mama and dada and sometimes we'll hear a kee (kitty) but we aren't convinced he really understands what he says. He knows the words milk, up, mama, dada, kitty, keys but he doesn't say them.

When David is a cranky butt the Doc will show him all the pictures we have hanging and say the words on them. Recently he repeated one of those words and now says it all the time. We finally caught it on film!

Hard to Handle Now...

Now that David is a pro at walking it's all he wants to do. He used to be so easy to take anywhere. Now it's a project. He doesn't want to stay in his stroller when we go shopping or in the highchair when we go out to eat. He wants to explore.

Oy Vey!!

Last night we went to a really nice Italian restaurant in center city and he just wasn't his normal well behaved self. He was fussy trying to wiggle his way out of the chair. It wasn't until we gave him the crayons that he settled down. I wish I had thought of it earlier but usually he tries to eat them. Check out his masterpiece below.

Take Me Out to the Ball Game...

We took David to his first Red Sox game this weekend. Unfortunately it wasn't at Fenway Park. That will have to wait until we move back to Boston. The Sox played the Orioles this weekend so we headed to Baltimore to see them play at Camden Yards. It's a really nice ballpark and the fact that there were so many Sox fans at the game it sorta felt like we were at Fenway!



Sunday night was disappointing as we watched Dice K walk in two runs and then let up a grand slam to a rookie who'd been 0 for 8. But yesterday's game, despite the heat, was awesome! Not only did our seats have a much better view of the park, but we got to see Beckett pitch and Papalbon go for the save.




David was great considering how long he had to sit and how hot it was. It was funny to watch him clap when the fans cheered, although sometimes at the wrong team, it was still cute! He also enjoyed dancing to the music they played in between innings.

Who Needs Toys When You Have a Flip Flop

Sorry to everyone who bought David a toy for his birthday. He would much rather play with my car keys, cell phone, TV remote and my flip flop. I almost died when he actually picked up my shoe and put it in his mouth. Ick!




Thankfully there are times when he will sit quietly and play with his toys. He loves them all. But here's what I want to know - why do children's toys have to be so annoying for the parents. The songs, the sounds, the noise, noise, noise. I go to work singing the songs form his toys or hearing the sayings. Maybe I shouldn't complain about flip flop....at least it doesn't make any noise!

28 - Not So Bad

First let me start off by saying - the Doc totally made up for what is known as the Mother's Day Debacle of 2007. We had a fabulous long weekend birthday celebration. He had to do a day float shift on Saturday and Sunday but he was home by mid afternoon so we were still able to celebrate.

Saturday: David and I went shopping at my favorite store New York & Company. They were having a really awesome sale. David as always was on his best behavior in the store. He loves to look at himself in the mirror of the dressing room.

After we shopped we headed to the food court for some Chic Fil A (best chicken sandwich ever). David loves the waffle fries. After we ate we headed home to meet the Doc. We hung out for a while and went for a walk. It was so nice outside.

The best part of the day was an email saying that Charlie got the job to handle the SSAR phone to coordinate admissions on Labor Day. He got to be at home (just had to have access to a computer) and he made 50 bucks and hour. It was from 8am to 8pm so that's $600 big ones!

Sunday: Since Charlie was going to work on Monday and had to be able to access the computer we changed our plans to have my birthday dinner on Sunday after he was done with work. He got home about 1:30pm and we headed out to center city to get burgers at Five Guys.

They must have known I was celebrating my birthday because it was the BEST burger I have had there. It was juicy with just the right amount of melted cheese, mayo and pickles! YUM! After we ate we walked over to Love Park to let David loose! He thought it was so cool to be able to explore and watch the fountain.



After David went to bed - the Doc went to Cold Stone Creamery to get ice creams (in lieu of birthday cake). While we ate our ice creams we finished our DVD of Heroes. Loved it and would highly recommend it!

Monday: David and I did more shopping - this time at Old Navy (see the post below) where I got David some fall clothes and a some Tee's for me. We both got gift cards for our birthdays! Then I went to the grocery store came home and picked up some lunch. The Doc sat on the couch and made 50 bucks and hour! It was awesome!

I opened my presents that he wrapped while I was out and got my TiVo! I can't wait until it arrives. It's taking FOREVER to ship. I want to check it out. It's such a fun gift. He also got me a new photo album so that I can continue David's second year!

Tuesday: Best day of the year! Had to work so that is why we celebrated before! Gotta love it when your birthday falls on (or around) a Holiday weekend!

Mom's Bad Purchase

Pam went on a shopping binge a few days ago with birthday money and decided to buy David some more PJs. Here is a set that she got cause she liked the "sound sleeper" on it. I guess she was so enamored with the words that she forgot to look at the rest of the PJs.

This is our child in his spandex pjs. We couldn't stop laughing. I actually shed a few tears. At least David is too young to understand that while he was laughing WITH us, we were laughing AT him. Our laughter got him so excited, running up and down the hallway squealing in delight, that we couldn't help laughing harder.



(Pam would like to defend herself by saying that the clothes were in a box and she couldn't really get a good sense of them. Typical - wanders around the store touching the same damn thing like five times but never takes a closer look.)