Preddy | Blog

I apologize for the long draught between substantive updates. Of course, we remain pretty busy with Project Patrick, and his presence made the recent holidays pretty awesome. Not just for us, either. I think most everyone in our family and friends were stoked to have him around.

He doesn’t really know about Christmas, or why Mommy and Daddy put up a tree. And then took down the tree. Or why he received a bunch of presents. Or what presents are.

 
But he’s got a lot of potential as for as Christmas spirit goes. At the very least, he’s got the good cheer part down.

Patrick plays his first piano with some help from Uncle Scott.

We’re excited our picture quality should be improving considerably in the new year. Jordan’s dad bought us a new camera: a Nikon D5000, and while we’re still learning the ropes, even its autofocus function is a big improvement over our old Canon point-and shoot.  Witness the great shot above, which is probably the best pic from our batch of holiday photos.

We were pretty excited to spend time with our extended family, in Bastrop and in Houston, and as expected, we had a blast:

 We wore awesome new Christmas / Winter clothes.

 
We met some new friends.

We ate like kings (and queens).

Jordan baked dessert.

 
We opened presents. The grandparents got just what they wanted: PoP (Pictures of Patrick).

And we bridged generations, with great-grandsons and great-grandmothers.

Pretty great, huh? But it’s always a stressful time, too, during the holidays. And sometimes money is tight. And sometimes it’s hard driving around to see everyone and deciding where to spend that first Christmas morning with the baby.

And sometimes the wind blows so hard that it threatens to wreck your temporary outside dining room, where you were planning to feed 25 people who came into town for what might be her last Christmas.

But as we’ve seen recently, nature can do much worse.

Here’s to you and yours. From ours. Blessing your first Christmases. And your last.

Wishes for a Newborn.

Sorry it’s been so long since we posted.  We’ll have a real update for you soon. But Jordan sent me this comic, and I had to share. Click to super-size.

Man, I hope not. Also, I’m fairly certain that our crib isn’t intended to support my 6’3”, 185 pound frame + a baby Patrick.

In any case, we haven’t made the transition to crib yet. Patrick’s sleeping in something called a co-sleeper next to our bed, which we needed because he quickly outgrew the 15 lb weight limit of our bassinet when he was still 2 1/2 months old.

Did I say sleeping? He’s not really sleeping there. We put him in there to start the night, but he usually ends up in bed with us, either on top of—or right next to—Jordan. And once I get out of bed around 5:30 or 6, he takes up residence on one entire half of the bed. He loves it. Not sure whether he likes because he can be close to mom, or whether he thinks our bed is just more comfortable than the relatively hard mat inside in the co-sleeper.

We are talking about moving him to his crib, which has a much softer mattress that he may like better than the co-sleeper. And he loves his room. I take him in there whenever he’s fussy and quickly starts smiling again. But we’ve tried to get him to take naps there by himself, with decidedly unhappy results.

Whatever his preference, either for us or for soft bedding or both, I fear a rough transition. A future of the crying Patrick, standing in his crib, wondering why one of us isn’t crawling in there with him to hang out for the night.

It is perhaps well known that I play in a rock band. Indeed, I’ve got two shows this weekend. If you know me well, you’re probably even aware that I’ve been playing with the same drummer for close to 12 years, one Jeff Senske.

What you may not know is that Jeff’s wife, Dani, is AWESOME. I only found out recently myself. Sure, I’ve known her for nearly as long as I’ve known Jeff. And I knew she was pretty cool. Knew she was a school teacher. That she was into a bunch of the same alt. country music I’ve always been into. And that she is the dynamo behind Jeff’s success, taking care of their two great kids. I knew all of that.

What I did not know is that Dani knits and crochets and sews all kinds of wonderful things. Take for example the incredible cap and booties she made for Patrick.

Pretty great, huh? And she didn’t stop there.

She also sewed two of the most radical, bad-ass quilts you will ever see. I realize that’s not the language you normally associate with baby gifts or quilts. But you haven’t seen the quilts.

YES. THOSE ARE FLAMES AND SKULLS. Because they are made for a future rock star.

Some might say “is that really appropriate for a little baby?” Jordan and I say, “yes, appropriate and awesome.” She takes one of them to her Birth, Baby, and Beyond motherhood group every week. So now that we’ve finally sent Jeff and Dani a thank-you note (yes, we’re very slowly working through them), we thought we’d thank her again in our blog.

Speaking of blogs, the links above are to posts in Dani’s outstanding blog. The photos above are also Dani’s. Jordan and I have both become avid readers.  And even if you don’t know Dani, you should read too. In addition to her outstanding kraftwerks, she’s writes about cooking, sports, and her kids. All in a voice that’s refreshingly taut and funny.

Dani’s been a huge fan of our band for years. I’m only too happy to return the favor.

Patrick had a busy day Saturday, as we showed him off at no fewer than 3 events throughout the day. At the last party, we even took some photos showing off his cuter than cute bat costume.

Before we left.

With our pal Janess, who was also our hostess.

Notice the Manny Ramirez costume in back? Nice, huh?

Jordan baked a few cupcakes, as well.

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What’s that you say? You’d like more pictures? We’ve updated our Flickr site with tons of new pics, including some new additions to Patrick’s Greatest Hits.

Also, last night, Patrick rolled over for the first time. We captured it on video, and uploaded it to our new YouTube page*.

*Please note, we’re turning off YouTube in favor of Vimeo. We’ve replaced the video on this page accordingly. Also, we’ve added links to our other videos on the right-hand sidebar of the blog.  Yay!

It’s unavoidable that people just meeting Patrick will take sides in determining which parent he best resembles. We in the Preddy household support these evaluations. We do it ourselves. You may be surprised to learn Jordan thinks Patrick resembles her, and I tend to think he favors me.

These disagreements amongst friends and family have not yet come to violent blows. But it is only a matter of time. In the interest of peace and stability, we have decided to release a few baby photos of our younger selves, which you may now compare with our superior offspring. With the aid of this objective evidence, the answer should become quite clear. Perhaps we might even end the uneasy debate once and for all.

Patrick

First, here are a few reference photos taken this Saturday, as Patrick enjoyed his first Texas Longhorns telecast.

Jordan

Now, here’s a few of Jordan.

That’s her on the left with her Grandma Jean and her cousin Wallis. 

Marshall

Now here are two of me. I hope you’ll forgive my immodesty in this first pic.

Me as a very young newborn.

Now that you’ve had a chance to view the evidence, ladies and gentlemen, I think the answer is self-evident.

Note: Thanks to our Moms Linda and Sharyn for sharing the photos.

Here at the Preddy household, we don’t really watch Saturday Night "Live" anymore. We catch it on our Uverse DVR the next morning. And that’s what we’re doing this morning. I mention this because Jordan and I are now both of the opinion that Lady Gaga was pretty awesome last night on SNL.

Here she is “performing” with her spiritual predecessor, Madonna.

Goofy? Yes.

Fun? Absolutely. We dig it.

And although I don’t have a sanctioned clip, her musical performances from last night were what really impressed. Kids these days could do much worse as far as pop stars go.

Now, you probably weren’t expecting a short review of SNL when you fired up our blog. And we’re not here to disappoint. We know who you want. You want this guy right here:

He’s 5 1/2 weeks today, and as the title suggests, we’re gaga over this kid.

I know you’re probably thinking, “is he old enough to sit in one of those things? He can’t even hold his neck up yet, right?” Yes, you’re right. It was only for a moment. But these Bumbo things actually provide a bit more neck support than you remember. And his neck is crazy strong. In fact, at 12 lbs 4 oz, he seems to be extra healthy and strong. Able to hold his neck up for long stretches and use his powerful legs to push away from my belly.

Anyhow, not much has been happening. We’ve had a fairly uneventful time since Patrick’s birth. Which is a good thing. We’ve not been getting much sleep. Sometimes he sleeps well during the night. Sometimes not so much. Jordan has been a champ about doing what it takes during the difficult nights and letting me get some sleep.

She’s still breastfeeding almost exclusively. And Patrick’s only had breastmilk from a bottle a few times. Once was on my birthday when Jordan’s folks came over and babysat so that we could have sushi at Osaka (OMG, best sushi in town).

The next day we had all the grandparents over for Patrick’s 1-month birthday party (and my 35th birthday, I guess). That was a great time. My Mom made spaghetti for everyone and my dad and step-mom forgot the dessert they made, and got stuck in two hours of traffic on the way over to our house. On their detour through the Heights, they ended up driving by Dacapo’s Pastry Cafe and getting a Pecan Brownie Pie that was the best pecan anything I’ve ever had. Holy moly that was amazing.

Aside from that, we’ve had a pretty quiet time.

We still walk Hank twice a day.

We’ve been watching a ton of football on our lazy weekends.

And I got a new iPod touch for my birthday (thanks Grandmama and Granddaddy). It’s basically an iPhone except it doesn’t have a phone or a camera. But it’s great for checking my email or Facebook when I’m on the couch. It’s particularly useful because I only need one hand.

The other one is holding a much bigger miracle than any thing Apple could dream up. 

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If you want the latest photos of Patrick, you should totally keep up with our Flickr account. We’re adding photos all the time. All Patrick-related photos are available here. You can check out his new Greatest Hits set here.

One
After Patrick was born, Jordan’s dad gave me this mug:

Two
My pal Ty who’s a veteran father and surly genius had this to say on the subject:

Ty:  did i tell you my thing about fatherhood?

me:  no.

Ty: its like falling in love but the fear of rejection is replaced by the fear of everything else in the world

me:  that seems scarily accurate

Ty:  I may be dumb but I can see a thing or two

everything is now electricity and sharp corners

A few days ago, I promised you more photos, and here they are. Well, some of them. There are more. These are, in fact, just the shots from Jordan’s sister, Jessica. She took more than 400 photos, and we’ve whittled them down to 81 of our faves. Jordan’s sister is kind of a semi-pro photographer, so we we’re lucky and extremely grateful that she was able to capture the entire birth with her fancy Nikon. And although I’ve said “entire birth”, be assured that the following photos are all safe for work.

The same photos are also available via our Flickr site.