It was almost worth the wait...

Hey there, everyone. Glad to see me? Aw, I'm glad to see you all too. Thanks for hanging in there with me for a slightly delayed post this week. It's not for lack of trying. I meant to get 'er posted yesterday, but Blogger wasn't allowing me to upload the photos, so it was pretty much a no-go. Hopefully today will see more luck come our way.

**LATER: No, there is no better luck today than there was yesterday. D'oh! I only got four photos loaded before it stopped working again, and I just can't devote my entire afternoon to sitting here waiting for Blogger to work. So I'm going to keep what I've written so far and the few photos I have up, and try for another posting later on in the day. Sorry.**

To start off this week, let's do something different, shall we? I said in my last post that it was my sister's grad this weekend. Apparently if you're a nurse you get two grad ceremonies. One of them is the usual cap-and-gown affair, and the other is your "pinning." I learned from going to this event that the tradition of the nurse's pin has a long and distinguished history (anyone want to insert a Top Gun quote there? Just checking) going all the way back to the Crusades. And really, any tradition that draws from the Crusades must be good. Anyway, nurses get a school pin to indicate where they graduated from. I take it that it's a little bit like a high school ring, but way cooler, and I'm sure there's much pin envy happening in hospitals everywhere. Okay, I'm rambling. Here's the photographic evidence that we were there. First off, a nice family shot.

Four generations represented in that photo, folks. Here's one of Steph, Theo, and me with Laura (Laura's the one in the cap and gown).

And finally, a nice picture of my mom and my sister that I'm putting on here not because of its relevance to today's discussion, but more so because I think they both look great. Oh yeah, and because my mom got to pin my sister because she's a nurse too. Maw. So cute. There wasn't a dry eye in the house.

But you can tell what Theo thought of this whole affair:

So let's get back to the topic at hand, shall we? How is Theo? Well, in a word, better. In more than a word, getting better all the time (a little Sgt. Pepper there for all you Beatles fans). His colic seems to have subsided, for which we are extraordinarily grateful. His personality is coming out; he's playing more, gets bored very easily, and has located his tongue for the first time. He's also getting the hang of sucking his thumb, but he's still not quite there yet. We're getting good smiles out of him pretty much daily, and he's started to try to laugh and babble a little bit. Oh, and he followed something with his eyes for the first time too.

With all those milestones, is it any wonder why I couldn't post on time? And with circumstances conspiring against us, I still can't get anything going! So I have to stop here--this is as many photos as I got up before the aforementioned technical difficulties kicked in. Check back again tomorrow to see if I've had any luck. Thanks all; see you soon!

Oh shoot, sorry...

Yikes, they go by fast. The weeks, I mean. I find myself at yet another Friday, attempting to do my blog posting, but finding that I'm completely out of gas. So you'll all have to accept my sincerest apologies and wait another day or two for a new posting with pictures. Sorry.

But man, do I ever have some good pictures this week! Holy moly. I know I've said we've had cute ones before, but these ones just absolutely take the cake. I'm not kidding. Seriously. You'll just have to come back and look at them.

On a personal note (and why not take this time to talk about me for once?), things have been crazy this week. Like, insane crazy. However, it's all been good. Things are looking good for me in the job front, as I've been working towards an internship opportunity. It hasn't gone through yet, but I'll let you all know when it does (and more about what it is). For now, please keep praying for us, as this job is really an excellent opportunity that I'm really looking forward to. Also, I passed my Class 6 driver's test on Thursday, which means I am now fully certified to ride a motorcycle. Sweet. If anyone wants to go for a ride, you know where to find me--I'm always available (ha ha). Plus I polished off another final exam this week, which means one more course is about to bite the dust. All told, it's looking pretty good.

Okay, off I go. By the way, if you want someone to blame for the lameness of the post today, please place that blame on my sister Laura's head. She just had to graduate from university this weekend. Congratulations, Laura. We're really proud of you (and I can't belive you beat me--I'll get you yet). The health care system is lucky to have a nurse like you.

More soon, I promise, including photos. See you then.

Is It Friday Already?

Here we are again, another Friday, and you know what that means, right? More pictures! I know, it's the best part of your week. And just to reward you, this post has, I think, the most pictures I've ever put in a blog posting. Hooray for you!

Before we get started on the rogue's gallery, let's have a little bit of an update, shall we? I'm happy to say that the colic monster is slowly retreating, and more and more of little Theo's big personality is starting to emerge day by day. He's done sort of half-hearted smiles before, but as of, well, I guess yesterday he's started to full-on social smile. Let me tell you, that's just the greatest thing ever. If only he would hold the smile long enough or smile on cue so that we could get a picture of it. In due time, friends, in due time.

So yeah, the colic is going away. He's really only had a couple of crying fits over the past week, and all of them have been of the consolable type, so it's much easier to deal with. The only remaining issue now is his major separation anxiety. Because he was a nursery baby, he hates to be apart from mom and dad (I know, you'd think it'd be the other way around, but it's a long and complicated psychological process that I won't get into here because I'd have no idea what I'm talking about--just trust me on this one), and that doesn't bode well for, oh, let's say, sleeping on his own for longer than an hour. But it's fine--if that's all we have to deal with, our lives are peachy, thank you very much.

Speaking of peachy, how about those NHL playoffs starting tonight, huh? You know what that means--hockey every single night of the week for the next two months!!!! Sing with me: "It's the most wonderful time of the year!" Plus, our Vancouver Giants are starting their third round playoff series tonight against Everett. At least we've got one winning team in Vancouver. Oh, snap!

Anyway, enough blabbering; on with the pictures. You know, when life gets tough, there's always time for a nap:

Okay, what's out of place in this picture of Theo's room? This could be a little game like the old "One of these things is not like the other" on Sesame Street. Look closely:

Aha, I think I've found the problem.

I told you our cat's starved for attention. She still hasn't resorted to allowing us to put a diaper on her though, so there's still room there. Okay, here's a good one. This is him all bundled up in his carrier:

Ahh, the life of a baby. Eat, sleep, poop, sit around...

Ironically, this is what I'm going to look like about two weeks into hockey playoff time.

Like I said above, Theo's starting to get much more social and interactive. This has meant that he's really into playtime now. In fact, he loves it when daddy plays with him. I'm not sure what's funnier about this picture--Theo's wave or my expression.

Whatever. It's not the last time I'll make a fool of myself. Sometimes when mommy and daddy just aren't doing it well enough for Theo, he likes to jump into his little chair and kick at the dangling toys. I have to say, this all just transpired this morning, so you're getting some pretty hot-off-the-presses pictures. Hmm, pensive Theo.

"Help, I'm lost in a jungle of toys!"

And here are a couple more that I just had to include. They were taken about five minutes ago. In fact, I was just proof-reading my posting in preparation for publishing it when Steph called me downstairs to take these pictures.

Can this kid get any cuter?

Yep, things have definitely improved at the Carroll household. In fact, things have gotten so much better that I've actually been able to take pictures of things other than Theo. I know this is his blog, but he's such an attention hog that I have to share some other photos that I took this week. I'm really proud of our garden this year (my Dutch heritage is shining through), and especially some of the tulips we have growing (does it get any more Dutch, really?). Check these out.Okay, so that's all for today. It's been a bit of an epic posting today, so thanks for sticking with it all the way to the bitter end. As always, comments are more than welcome, as are emails. See you all next week.

Mark (and Theo).