Christmas Time Is Here!

We are doing well now that we are past the croup incident. Dana and I still wake up instantly every time we hear Dylan cough in the middle of the night. Dylan had his 6 month checkup and everything looks good. He is now in the 90th percentile in height (down from 99th) though I am putting the measurement under protest, as his legs were not fully stretched. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Dana and I are in an extra good Christmas mood this year. We are making up for last year, when Dana was in her first trimester. I recall Dana not wanting to put a Christmas tree last year and I have made it a point to reminder her of that numerous times. We have pretty much all of our Christmas shopping done this year. I am not usually a power shopper and it may be just an excuse to get out of the house, but I have really been in a shopping mood recently. After the Christmas season, I will need to think of some other excuse (like the driving range.)

Dana has been on fire with cooking this Christmas season. She made double frosting for her sugar cookies (we always ran out of frosting in previous years) so we are now calling them frosting balls with a little sugar cookie under it.

This weekend and the past two weekends Dana and I have had social gatherings (yes, that’s 3 weeks in a row…a social hat trick.) I can actually bring something to the conversation when a co-worker asks on Monday what I did over the weekend. My weekend recaps are extremely boring compared to some of my younger colleagues who are fresh out of college. That is why they have dubbed me the “45 year old trapped in a 20 something year old body.” I wish I was making that up.

Everything else is going well. We will try to post something before Christmas. If not, Merry Christmas.

Croup, There It Is

Last Thursday started out like every other Thursday night. We put Dylan to bed around 8:30, watched our NBC lineup (the only night we watch TV regularly) and went to bed around 10:00.

This evening, at 10:51, I was awakened by a horrific scream. This was a different scream from normal, which is the only reason I got out of bed to check on him. Being 6 months old and starting to become more agile, I figured he was caught on something in his crib or in a very awkward position. What I found was completely different.

Dylan was laying on his side and his face was red, so I rolled him on his back. Immediately, I could see that he was really struggling with his breathing. I picked him up and started to pat him on the back and looked to see if he was choking. He wasn’t. He was coughing a lot and was really gasping for breath as if he needed a drink of water. I asked Dana to wake up immediately and call 911. An ambulance was now on their way.

Meanwhile, I was holding on to Dylan for dear life. He had stopped crying, but was still struggling to get air. I tried to put him down on the bed while I put some pants on, but he would have none of it. I later questioned how I got my jeans on while holding him. I never did put on a shirt. I wondered to myself, as if I was a doctor, what could possibly make him breathe so hard when, just two hours ago, he was doing fine.

Shortly thereafter, the ambulance came. They checked him and suggested that we go to the Downtown ER, instead of the closer Baptist South Hospital, where Dylan was born. This definitely startled me and confirmed in my mind that there was a big problem on our hands. I hung on to him all the way to the ambulance, where I dropped him off. Dana took the ride with him and I followed in our car.

Remarkably, I was quite thorough with our packing. I was thinking that we may be there for a while, so I packed accordingly. When we go on trips, I never remember everything, even when we have days to plan. This time around, I was on my game, anticipating any and all needs that we may have in the next couple of days.

It was a long and lonely trip to the hospital. How was Dylan doing? For all I knew, he was in the ambulance fighting for his life. I prayed. A lot. I also cried. A lot. I thought about calling someone, but what would I tell them without freaking them out? Besides, it was past 11pm. If I am going to make a call at that time, I better have more details than what I knew.

When I arrived at the hospital, Dylan was getting some oxygen and was looking much better. My anxiety level dropped. The doctor figured out very quickly that Dylan had croup, or the croup, however you want to call it. He said that they would give him some medication and he would be much better in no time.

After the medication, Dylan started to breathe better. We stayed in the ER until about 3:30am. I stayed with Dylan in his room for the rest of the night. He still was struggling with his breathing for the rest of the night, but at least I knew what to do. Fortunately, it was a relatively cool night in Jacksonville, so taking him into the night air helped.

Total sleep for the night: 51 minutes.

Four days later and he is doing better. We are relieved.

So, all of that for…croup? I, personally, had never heard of it. Evidently, it’s quite common in young children. Due to our lack of knowledge, it was a more terrifying event than it needed to be. Welcome to parenthood. Like everything else with parenting, you just figure it out as you go.

Thanksgiving Gluttony

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.

Despite the Detroit Lions doing their best to put a damper on the day, (I am numb to their terrible losses by now) my family had a wonderful day. The leftovers lasted throughout the weekend. Just when we thought we had taken gluttony to a whole new level, my wife, requested Five Guys on Saturday night after church. Remember the Tommy Boy clip, “Eeewww, I can almost hear you getting fatter.” That was the reality of Saturday night as we each crushed a burger and fries.

The good news: 2 “Junior” (yeah, right) hamburgers, 1 regular order of fries, and 2 waters equaled $11.39.The bad news: The above also equaled to 2 full additional pounds today when I weighed myself. I don’t think it was 2 lbs. of muscle either. I will have my work cut out for me at the gym this week.

Here are some cute pictures of Dylan in his monkey outfit. More about Thanksgiving and time with Grandma and Grandpa Mohr to come...

Brief Feelings of Paranoia

Ummm... sorry, my bad.

I had a brief week-long episode of unreasonable paranoia over having pictures of Dylan on the World Wide Web. Bryan has calmed me down. I think I have been reading too many newspapers or watching the news too much - lots of crazies out there doing wacko things and fear drove me into psychotic over-protective mommy mode. Here is a conversation:

Dana: I don't have a problem with agoraphobia.
Bryan: Will you listen to yourself? You're keeping our friends from reading our blog. Why do we even have a blog if no one can read it?
Dana: Can't we keep him in a bubble?
Bryan: This is ridiculous.
Dana: It will keep the swine flu away.

We also realized that as soon as the blog was "protected" that we completely lost the motivation to write anything. So, please accept this apology to those of you who did not have access for this past week. The good news is that we usually only post once a week at the most, so you really haven't missed anything at all.

Dylan Likes Carrots

Vacation

Working for a bank has many advantages; one of which comes every Columbus Day when we get the day off. I extended the long weekend to a full week in order to spend some quality time with Dylan. Dana has exhausted all of her vacation (and then some.) So, it was the boys at home.
The good news out of this week is that no one got seriously injured in the process. We both made it to the weekend in one piece. That is a victory in and of itself. I told Dana at the end of the week that, despite the fun we had, I needed to get back to the office to kill something.
Here is a recap of the week’s activities:
Monday
Dylan wakes up every morning a happy baby. It is such a treat to see that smile first thing in the morning. After his first feeding, he is back to sleep within 90 minutes of waking up. This long morning nap allows for some Bryan time. Bryan time these days involves watching Sports Center and Squawk Box on CNBC and catching up on email.
We went to historic downtown St. Augustine in the afternoon. We had lunch at Madre’s. I loaded him into the Baby Bjorn and walked through St. George Street. He was all smiles as the people gawked at him. This wore him out as he was sound asleep by the time we made it to the car.
Tuesday
We went to the driving range in the afternoon. It was perfect weather and Dylan was wide awake to see his Dad hit some golf balls very poorly. He has watched enough golf on TV to know better. He has graduated from cooing and has found this high pitched shrill (the kind that makes your ears ring) and was using it on the golf course. I had to leave my bucket half way through as my gallery was a little too loud.
Wednesday
Dylan had his 4 month checkup and shots in the afternoon. He, again, was all smiles to the nurses at the doctor’s office. This boy can really turn on the charm when he wants. The charm ended when she pulled the needle out and gave some shots. We stayed in the room for a couple of extra minutes and ‘hugged it out.’ He was very tough and I walked a very proud father. Why so proud? Well, it’s because he is in the 99th percentile in length! Coming from a slightly vertically challenged family, this is great news. Coach Izzo, are you reading this? I can come up with the scholarship paperwork by the end of the week.
Our doctor came in and asked me if I had any questions. I am not sure what the normal response she gets, but it’s probably not what I did. I pulled out a folded piece of paper and a pen and proceeded to go down our list of questions. Halfway through the list, the doctor politely asked if she could tend to Dylan while I continued to pepper her with questions. From suntan lotion (hey, the bottle says less than 6 months old, ask a doctor) to swine flu symptoms, I think we got all of our questions answered. We got our money’s worth during this visit.
Thursday
Dylan was a little groggy today from Wednesday’s shots. He did a lot of sleeping. We made it out to do a little shopping and people watching at Panera Bread. Actually, the people watching changed to being watched by people when Dylan burped up half of his bottle on my black shirt. What a mess. I packed an extra outfit for him, but not one for me. I’ll know better next time.
Friday
We saved the best for last today, at least that what I thought. We made it to the beach just in time for the rain to come down. We stayed out there for about 15-20 minutes before heading back to the car. Not the beach trip I had imagined in my head, but it was fun while it lasted.


Bryan and Dylan were enjoying some football together. Like father, like son.

At the pumpkin patch. Dylan "tolerated" it. He was mesmerized by the pumpkins.

For Halloween he is a baseball player.

Dylan was really enjoying some rice cereal. He loves to eat.

Hotel Foltice Peak Season

German Guests

Hotel Foltice has hit a busy spurt thanks to our German guests. We had Sven and his friend, Marcel, visit for a couple of days in September. Sherin and her boyfriend, Eddie, came for a couple of days last week. We feel very blessed to have such great friends and it is always great to see them. We can go for years without seeing each other and pick up right where we left off.

Dana stayed at home with Dylan while I took Sven and Marcel out for the night. Our night was highlighted by the Orange Park Dog Track. That alone tells us two things: 1. Jacksonville is not the most exciting place to be on a Friday night. 2. I am not the best night life tour guide. I never was a night club person and I don’t do bars unless it’s trivia night. Nevertheless, we had a good time.

Due to Dylan’s teething and that fact that it was a Tuesday night, we stayed at home with Eddie and Sherin. Actually, we stayed home to watch the Tigers play the Twins in the play-in game to earn the right to get destroyed by the Yankees. I never knew how complicated the rules of baseball can be until I had to explain to Eddie and Sherin from scratch. We got the basics down (3 outs, 3 strikes, 4 balls, 9 innings) though we didn’t get much further than that. How do explain a force out at second base to someone watching baseball for the first time? (Editor's Note: The actual reason we stayed home is because the dog track is closed on Tuesdays).

After the baseball game, we brought out the Wii. Eddie killed us in all of the sports. Note to self: We need to practice before bringing it out with our friends. Our performance was embarrassing. I was smiling on the outside, but was really upset on the inside. I cried myself to sleep that night. (Editor's Note: Our neighbor's boyfriend, Thomas, who is from Berlin is over right now and is heckling Bryan in Tiger Woods Golf on the Wii. I can tell Bryan is upset by the swift inhale sound through his teeth that he makes after each hole. Maybe in general we just suck at Wii games since people who don't have a Wii come over regularly and kick our butts. PS. Thomas just said they should play for money. I'm getting separate checking accounts.)

Work / Life Balance

Ha! What a joke. Balance is the furthest thing from the truth at this point. Work / Life Blur might be more accurate. Dana and I have the routine down now that she is back to work. I take care of Dylan in the morning, while she makes sandwiches and takes care of Oscar. Dana puts Dylan to bed a night.

After work, one person makes dinner, (hopefully it’s Dana) and the other takes care of Dylan. Dinner may not come until 9pm and it may come in the form of hotdogs and rice if I am in charge of dinner for the night. Like I said, not very balanced.

We will definitely need to improve on this balancing act, because it will only get tougher when Dylan gets older and if there are any new additions to the family. (Editor's Note: That is not a hint that there will be another addition soon. Some day...)

Vacation

That is why I took a week off for vacation this week. Dana had to work, so it’s just the three boys. I will give you an update on how things went over the weekend. Hopefully, everyone will be alive and in one piece by that time.

Teething Time/ Swine Flu Scare

Teething Time

Dylan is starting to get his first teeth. In the process, there has been some great discomfort. We noticed this when he started to really cry hard after we exhausted our top three options: Feed him, hold him, or sometimes, change his diaper. When none of those worked, we figured something else had to be bothering him.

Our doctor, aka: Dr. Google, implied that he might be teething. We got him some Ora-Gel and Baby Tylenol and that seemed to help. He has gotten much better this week, though we don’t know how many more times he will go through this. Sounds like our next Google search.

Swine Flu

There has been a lot of the swine flu going around our area these days. It is a little scary when you have a 4 month old around. We had him outside on our deck for a little while on Saturday. He saw a couple of the neighbors and got some fresh air.
The next day, our neighbor came over telling us that her daughter, who was over the day before, came down with the swine flu. When I came downstairs, Dana was really stressed out and was frantically disinfecting anything she could find.
I told her that she needed to calm down. This is the first time we really had to worry about him. I told Dana that it certainly won’t be the last. It would be nice to keep him in a bubble, but we can’t worry about things we can’t control. We will have to go through this for the rest of his life. I can already picture him asking us to go to his friend’s cottage on the lake after prom when he is in high school. My blood pressure just went up.

Babies Grow so Fast!

Dylan is approaching his 4-month birthday so I recently looked back at some photos from June. He doesn't even look like the same baby! I can't believe how fast he has grown and how much he has changed. Here are some comparisons.

Above: Dylan is about 1 day old. He's always been a peaceful sleeper.

Below: So glad they make large swaddles. Don't know what we're going to do when he grows out of it.

Above: Dylan is about 2 weeks old. He's just discovering the Monkey Gym.

Below: The Monkey Gym is still a favorite, only now he tackles, yanks, swats and kicks it.

Above: Dylan is about 1 week old. I think this was the first time we put him on his tummy. He can't lift his head at all. Bryan says he looks "Chinese."

Below: Dylan loves his tummy. He can lift up on his arms quite a bit.

Baby's First Cold

Last Sunday, Dylan started to snort quite often after we arrived home from church. At first we thought it sounded kind of cute, until it occurred to us that he was getting sick. The rest of the day his snorts, coughs and sneezes became more and more frequent. Our little guy was becoming sick for the first time.

As first time parents, we did what we always do when we have a parenting question: Google it. This time our search was, ‘what to do baby has a cold.’ The best search result told us to call the doctor immediately and get an appointment for Monday morning because he was under four months old. Other results told us to get a humidifier and saline drops for his clogged nose.

Dana went out to our friends Kevin and Gara’s house, who were having a Jaguar party for their game against the Indianapolis Colts. Other new mothers at the party stood in astonishment when Dana told them that her sick baby was being taken care of by her husband. Why is that? We hear mother after mother tell Dana how they can’t believe I can stay home with Dylan for more than two hours, let alone a sick baby. They tell her that they could never leave their children home with their husbands for any period of time. Come on new Dads! It’s not that difficult and, trust me, I am not the most qualified Dad in the world.

Dylan had a full on cold by Monday. I stayed home with him and worked from home during the day. We went to the doctor’s office in the afternoon. Boy did he put on a show for the nurses. Sick or not, he was all smiles as they all fawned over him. That’s my boy!

While the doctor was seeing Dylan, I showed my inexperience as a father. You know how we say, ‘there is no such thing as a stupid question.’ Well, I really pushed the envelope when I asked the doctor how to use the ‘nose sucker,’ referred to as a nasal aspirator by most educated people. You know you are asking a dumb question when you have to preface before you ask, “Now, you know I have an advanced degree, but….”
Squeeze in, put in nostril, un-squeeze so it’s sucks the snot out. Someone is getting paid hundreds of thousands of dollars per year to tell this to people like me.

Monday afternoon, after the doctor’s visit, was the peak of Dylan’s cold. He cried so much that he was hoarse the next morning. Meanwhile, I was trying to bang out some work from the laptop at the dining room table. Each wail pulled at my heart. By the time Dana came home around 6, I was fried. I was out the door to start our new Financial Peace University class. I couldn’t get out of the house fast enough.

Since then, Dylan is just about back to 100% (as of Friday morning.) Dana and I have our first child sickness under our belts (except now both of us are sick). We can only hope that our questions (and Google searches) get more intelligent with experience.

Post Labor Day Weekend Update

Dana is back to work as of last week Monday. We are still adjusting to life as DIK's, Dual Income with Kid (oh, that sounds bad.) We are getting the routine down, though we fight for Dylan's attention when we come at night.


Dylan is growing like a weed. He was in the 86th percentile in weight and height at his last checkup. I told Dana that I have never been 86th percentile in anything, especially physically. She laughed and thought for a moment (I could hear her mind grinding away) and then went silent. My point exactly.


We are having a lot of fun, though. Sleeping through the night = a lot of fun. Dylan is sleeping through the night now, which eliminates our 'passionate discussions' of who will do the overnight feedings. Mom and Dad like their sleep and are willing to fight for it!


Dana had a birthday a couple of Wednesday's ago. We went out to eat at an eerily quiet Italian restaurant. Maybe you only notice these things when you have a baby with you. Dylan was quiet, thank goodness. Her present was a shopping spree at DSW (Discount Shoe Warehouse.) Dylan and I people watched at Starbuck's while she spent 90 minutes there.


Work is going well. Dana and I are leading Financial Peace University through our church this fall on Mondays. Anyone in town should come.


That pretty much covers all of our updates. Here are some cute pictures of baby D.

Wear Leather Pants, Get Rid of Wife

So I was checking our Analytics report today for our blog (this shows me how many visitors have come to the site, where they are coming from, how long they stay - basically stops short of giving me your name and address) and saw that an awful lot of people were visiting from the blog jonalysis.wordpress.com. I had never heard of this site before and thought "Oh, it must be one of Bryan's friends who has added us to his blogroll."


I visited the site to find the subhead read "The World is Different Through the Eyes of a Fetishist" and realize that the site is dedicated to men in leather pants and a post about Bryan's Rock and Roll Weekend is leading things off!

The comments add to the hilarity. My favorite reads:

Perhaps Bryan does not have a particular desire to wear leather pants. Perhaps
the leather pants were just a part of a clever scheme for Bryan to have a night
out without his wife Dana and their infant Dylan. You see, Bryan’s outfit was one of the reasons why Dana was not going to the concert with
him. Perhaps the title of this post should have been “Wear leather pants, get
rid of wife”.

Hmmmm. This person has a good point. Perhaps Bryan knew that I did not want to be around him in his leathers and therefore wouldn't go to the concert with him? Perhaps he came up with an extravagant excuse to ditch Dylan and I for the weekend so he could get a full night of sleep in a hotel room instead of sharing the nighttime duties (Dylan was not sleeping through the night at that time). This has given me a lot to think about.

What are your thoughts? Please comment.

Lots to Smile About

Ok, now that Bryan has his late 20's quarter-life crisis out of his system (aka: Rock and Roll Weekend), we have lots to smile about.

First, Dylan has started to smile back at us more frequently and it is SO CUTE! I, of course, have my camera out and try to capture as many of those smiles as possible. There will be a Dylan smile montage at the end of this post.

Second, my sister Robyn came to visit for a few days and meet Dylan for the first time. She has some friends who have been completely stressed out parents, which leads to stressed out, fussy kids, so being around a baby for an extended period of time wasn't at the top of her list. We gave Dylan some pep talks before she arrived to be on his best behavior - "Son, if you want cousins some day you better behave while Aunty Robyn is here." We ended up having a fabulous time. Dylan was excellent - he did not poop in her lap or spit up on her one time (he left that for me), and she grew quite attached to her little nephew by the end of the weekend. Dare I say she even uttered "Let me know when Dylan is up tomorrow morning. I need some more Dylan time before I leave." Mission accomplished.

Third, and probably the biggest reason to smile, Dylan has started sleeping through the night! Praise the Lord! Hallelujah! We've gone about a week now where he's slept from 10:30/11:00pm to anywhere between 5:30/7:00am. What a difference sleep makes!

Smile Montage... Ready, Set, GO!

Rock and Roll Weekend Part 2

I learned on Thursday night that Whitesnake cancelled their tour due to David Coverdale losing his voice, so Saturday night was looking bleak for us to go (see previous post on my thoughts of the other two bands.) We only had one night to make it a good rock and roll weekend. Our one show did not disappoint.

I ran a running mental diary of Friday night's show. Here’s what transpired:

Road trip to Tampa

I get out of work around lunchtime. I am not about lying to my manager, giving a fake excuse for leaving early. I cut a deal with her that I had to post a picture of me wearing leather pants if she lets me out early. (Don’t worry, it’s coming.)

My neighbor, Lane, his daughter, Stephanie, and I all pack into his truck around 1:30pm. On the way to Tampa, Lane pops in Cheap Trick’s Greatest Hits. First of all, I had no idea this was possible. If you only have two albums in circulation, can you really come out with a Greatest Hits album? Maybe they should rename it, Cheap Trick’s These Don’t Suck as Bad.
After listening to I Want You to Want Me, I decide there is no way we are watching them. I will make sure of it.

We make it through that CD and I request the Def Leppard/Poison prep CD that I had given them a couple of weeks ago. I made them a CD with all of the songs that they will play during this tour, so they could be prepared for the songs that we’d be hearing. This is possible as we are not dealing with Dave Mathews Band; Poison and Def Leppard stick with their set lists.
I hear Steph singing along to all of the songs in the back seat. I am really encouraged by that. Lane is in the front seat talking about the members of Def Leppard by their first name. “Rick was 16 when Pyromania came out in 1983, so he must be only 42 now.” I thought I was the only one who talked about them band by their first name. I am now really excited for the show.

Pre-Show

We check in the La Quinta Inn around 5:00pm. We chill out in the room for a while. I am in no rush to get out to the show. I know that Cheap Trick starts at 7:00pm, so I keep telling Lane to take his time and have another drink. (This would come back to haunt us later.)


We get to the concert around 8pm and tailgate in the parking lot for a few minutes. We figure we could tailgate until we hear the music when Poison starts. We never do hear the music. On our way in, we buy our tickets from a scalper for $20 (face value $30.) I love a good deal no matter what city we are in.

Poison

We arrive in the lawn just as Poison is starting to sing, I Want Action. There is plenty of action. We jump into the concert head first. It immediately starts to rain. My shirt is off by the end of the song.

My leather pants have become one with my body. We could be looking at 1-2 weeks before they may come off. I contemplate Deutsche Bank’s leather pants policy. Could they pass as dress pants? How would HR address this?

Poison sounds great. I notice that the show is not very loud. I remember that when we were living in St. Petersburg five years ago, there was a big lawsuit by the residents of Tampa against the Amphitheater. Sounds to me like the people won that battle. (I later confirmed this with someone from Tampa during the Def Leppard show. I thanked him with a man hug. )
(Sidebar: Somebody told Lane to “knuckle me” while he was standing in line for beer. This was a new one. Still confused? I’ll use it in a sentence, “You drove all the way to Tampa from Jacksonville for this show. That’s so cool. Knuckle me.” (show your fist and prepare for bro pound) I think I will start using it.)

Cece Deville is playing the guitar out of his mind tonight. His guitar solos actually sound like the recorded versions. This is much different from his cocaine days, which sound more like a person trying to play Guitar Hero for the first time. I am very happy that he is clean.

The people around us are not having much fun. I am not sure if they simply don’t know the Poison songs, or if they are just wet. I dawns on me that we are not in Detroit Rock City. An 80’s concert in Detroit is like a holiday. I am hoping for better things from these people during Def Leppard.

There is a frat boy dressed as Rob Dyrdek dressed as Bobby Light from MTV’s Rob and Big show. That’s not a typo. He dressed as somebody trying to dress like somebody. Not very original. I am not impressed, nor are any of the ladies around him.

Poison wraps up their set. Overall, they were OK. The more I think about it, I have seen them more times than the previously mentioned five times. They do not change their sets, so it has become a little stagnant. Expecting more from Def Leppard.

Between Sets

The time in between sets goes by remarkably fast. We people watch and talk about what the people sitting around us were doing earlier that day. Were they in school, working on cars, seeing patients, writing blog posts at their investment bank job? If I were a betting man, I would put my money on working on cars. That’s my final answer.

Def Leppard

It stops raining when Def Leppard hits the stage. They hit us with four classics right off the bat. During this time, I make my traditional call to Pip during the end of Rocket and the beginning of Animal. It ended up lasting over 5 minutes and consisted of me singing the songs at the top of my lungs. I am sure he liked that in his voicemail inbox. I believe that he may have caught the best part of the show.

The people around us have come to life. They are singing all of the words to the classic Def Leppard songs, not just the refrains like a fair weather fan. We are feeding off of each other. I am loving the lawn.

I wince when they played Nine Lives. I did not wear leather pants to hear one of my favorite rock bands play a country song. This was the theme song for the Redwings Stanley Cup win last year, so I try to stay focused on those good memories.

I take my restroom break during Love Bites. I know it’s a popular song, but I don’t like it and I know the men’s room line will be short. Another reason to check the set list beforehand is to plan bathroom breaks. This can be done with a little will power and a large bladder.
Lane goes to the bathroom around the same time as me. We don’t see him until after the show.

The worst part of the night happens when they play, Rock On. “Hey kids, rock and roll, rock on. Hey shout, summer time blues, jump up and down in my blue suede shoes” You get the point. Isn’t there a Baywatch montage out there on this song? I sit down and pout the entire song, literally. I send a message to Pip, “h8 life. Playing Rock On now.” These antics were very well received from the people sitting around us who felt the same way.

Def Leppard picks it back up, cranking out some of their best stuff. Phil and Vivian play the guitar solo, Switch 625; which is now probably better known as the music for the Bryan Foltice basketball video. I may or may not have played air guitar through that. There are no photos that can confirm it.

They finish with Pour Some Sugar On Me, Photograph and Let’s Get Rocked. “I’ve got a question for you, Tampa…Do you wanna get rocked?” We go nuts. I am high fiving and hugging everyone around us. I am now hoarse.

Joe Elliot caps off the show with his traditional, ‘don’t forget us, Tampa, and we won’t forget you!” I am still waiting for him to say the city wrong. He is now 8 for 8. Yup, it's actually 8 Def Leppard concerts and counting now.

Post-Concert

After the show, after everyone stumbles out, Steph and I find Lane clear on the other side of the theater. He was talking on his phone to Stephanie, but she had hung up about 3-5 minutes earlier. I still don’t know how he got lost. We were in the second row of the lawn and about 10 yards from the main steps. I don’t get it.

On the way back to the hotel, I scarf down an inordinate amount of Wendy’s before going into a food coma (ala Dylan) back at La Quinta. “Good night, friends. Don’t forget us and we won’t forget you.”

Rock and Roll Weekend Part 1

Rock and roll weekend is right around the corner. I have been looking forward to it for most of the summer. I have also been building up "love equity" all summer to be able to leave Dana at home with Dylan by herself for a day and a half. Dana realizes now that those offers for back tickles and unsolicited loads of laundry did not come without a price.

Here is the itinerary for this weekend.

Friday

• 1pm- Leave for Tampa



• 5pm- Arrive in Tampa



• 8pm- Cheap Trick, Poison, and Def Leppard concert

This is not a typo, it’s actually the concert lineup. And yes, I am only 28 years old, not 42, like the concert lineup would suggest. This will be the first time seeing Cheap Trick. Not looking forward to this set, really. If we get caught in traffic or are tailgating out in the parking lot, I will not be disappointed. I have a feeling that my neighbor, Lane, will have us there in time. He has mentioned his excitement to see Cheap Trick more than once.

I am hesitant to mention this in a public forum, but this will be my 5th time seeing Poison and my 6th time seeing Def Leppard. Boy, that looks really ridiculous in writing. Both shows are always a good time, though.

Saturday

• 10am- We will spend the night in Tampa and travel back up to Saint Augustine.



• 2 pm Saturday afternoon will be a good time to regain some of the aforementioned "love equity" back. The PGA Championship will also be on, so hopefully I can multi-task. It won’t last for long because we will be back out the door for another concert.



• 6 pm St. Augustine- Pop Evil, Whitesnake, and Judas Priest concert

I don’t know anything about Pop Evil, except that they are from Grand Rapids. I think I saw them once in college at The Intersection (the old location for you Grand Rapids natives) when they were a Rage Against the Machine cover band. I really should remember this; I didn’t party during my college years.

Whitesnake is the real reason why we are going. I have only seen them once about 7 years ago, and have wanted to see them again ever since.

Judas Priest is a concert that I feel I just need to see once. I haven’t seen them yet live, so why not this weekend? I just read that they are going to play all songs from their British Steel album in celebration of it’s 30th Anniversary. I guess that’s cool. I don’t really care. Maybe I’ll have a better attitude about him/them after I see the show.

Not to get too far ahead of myself, but Stryper is coming to Jacksonville on my birthday in October. I am as giddy as a 40 year lady at a Whitesnake concert. I will bring you update/highlights next week.

Note from Dana: Here is a photo of what Bryan plans to wear to the concerts. Yes, that is a cut-off Def Leppard shirt. Yes, those are leather pants (which Bryan bought on E-bay just for this occasion). And, yes, those are Converse All-Star shoes. This outfit is one of the reasons why I am not going to the concerts with him. There is not enough "love equity" that can atone for those pants. I also think I should mention that it is August and we live in Florida, which means that it is in the mid-90s and extremely humid every day. Both concerts are at outdoor amphitheaters, which means those leather pants are going to get awfully tight, sweaty and stinky by the end of the weekend. Bryan better pray it doesn't rain or those puppies aren't coming off.

Got Time?

I did this weekend, so I updated my college basketball highlight video. All of my crazy dunks are still hidden in the archives, but this is what I have so far. This one is only 3 minutes. Just play the video below to view:

Celebration Church CD Release Party

Two weekends before the official rock and roll weekend, the worship team at our church came out with their 2nd CD in as many years called, Make It Loud. They had a CD release service Saturday night. You better believe that we were there, though I resisted wearing my black leather pants. If Dana's Mom putting in ear plugs were any indication, they did Make It Loud. It was awesome.

You should check out the tracks by clicking the below image.

Hotel Foltice - Open for Business

It certainly has been an interesting summer since the arrival of Dylan Scott. Our sleep deprivation comes in waves, with some days feeling great and other days feeling completely worthless.

Dana normally doesn’t know what day it is, she only knows time (1, 4, 7, and 10 o’clock.) She only knows it is Saturday/Sunday because Oprah and Ellen are not on TV. Those days, she makes me do an Ellen ‘dance party’ so she can get her fill. This is really sad for three reasons:

1. 
   Dana enjoys watching me do it.
2. 
   I know what a ‘dance party’ is after watching Ellen every day on vacation/paternity leave.
   
3. I am actually pretty good at it, even down to the drop into the chair fake out back to the dance. Dana goes wild (with laughter) when I straddle our coffee table and dance across it. (If you don’t know what I am talking about, good for you. That means you are probably doing something more productive at 5pm.)

We have been able to go out and about with Dylan. This means running to a restaurant while he is sleeping in between feedings and going to church on Sunday morning. This actually works pretty well and gets us out of the house.

We have also done trivia night the last two Wednesday’s. A first place finish last week made it even better to be back. You might be competitive when winning trivia makes you happy for the next two days.

We won even after blowing the first question: Which 20th century president was known as ‘Dutch’ and the “Great Communicator?” My brother Pip, who was in town with his girlfriend Laura, immediately answered FDR very confidently. So confidently, that we reluctantly went along with it. When the answer was Ronald Reagan, Pip suddenly lost a ride home and was dead to us until he redeemed himself. He did, bringing him back into the family and gaining transportation for the night.

By the way, there is a running joke about walking home if you blow too many questions. I have a feeling this will happen and will make for a great blog post.

Hotel Foltice has suddenly entered into peak season. We had the aforementioned Pip and Laura were here for a week last week, Dana’s Mom is back in town for a few more days, Dana’s sister, Robyn, is coming in Mid August. We have some other unconfirmed reservations as well. We say, bring it on.

The way that I am able to sell Dylan feedings and Oscar walks makes me think that maybe I should be in sales. Somehow, I try to make our guests believe that I am doing them a favor by letting them feed Dylan at 10pm or walk Oscar at 7am. By the way, Pip, if you are reading this, you owe me big time for letting you and Laura take care of Dylan while Dana and I went on a date.

I hope everyone is having a great summer.

Here are Laura, Dana and Pip with our trivia answer sheet and $30 gift card! Go Trivia Newton John!

Laura with Dylan.

Unky Pip with a sleeping Dylan.