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Tonight I looked back at what I tweeted during Jackie’s birth in December of ’08. Here’s a screenshot of the twitter archive; the entries are listed chronologically from oldest at the bottom, to newest at the top.
- Tweets from Jackie’s birth
This is the image linked to the post-birth tweet shown above, “Love”.
I speak for Katie, probably not Jackie, and certainly not Baxter and Robah, when I say we are giddy with excitement about meeting McLain.
In less than six days, Katie will give birth to McLain Moore Jones. Unlike Jackie’s birth, this one will be a scheduled c-section. We know that McLain will be extracted at 7:15 a.m. on Tuesday, September 14.
Here’s the PR plan for McLain’s birth. Friends and family, if you want to know how things are going on Tuesday, choose one of these info-dissemination options:
This brief post is sort of a test…I’m trying the WordPress app for Android on the EVO 4G I’ve had for a week and a half now.
So far, I’ve been really pleased with my transition away from “the cathedral,” to “the bazaar.” The hardware and OS are killer. If Sprint delivered better 4G coverage, the advertising hype would match reality.
Oh, and the picture of my boys fighting over a stick was taken with the EVO.
Last Saturday, Katie, Jackie, and I went to the mall. For the record, I dislike the mall. It’s actually worse than dislike — I’m not comfortable in the mall. When you combine Sbarro, Hot Topic, Cheesecake Factory, Brooks Brothers, Cinnabon, and kiosks peddling airbrushed hats with a lot of people walking around inside a huge building, it spurs anxiety for me. I feel this discomfort in every mall store except for Sears. Sears, I can deal with.
But, since JBJ came along, the mall has become a more enjoyable place. There’s something truly fun about seeing her reaction to all the different people and wall after wall lined with stuff.
On Saturday, we were browsing shoes and I found some fly pink Vans in a size 5. We secured Jackie’s little feet with the velcro straps and helped her to the floor so she could try them out. She walked directly to a handbag display, deliberately plucked a lavender purse from the rack, and proceeded to the floor-to-ceiling mirror. Katie and I watched on as she admired her couture for several minutes; we finally had to coax her away from her newly-accessorized reflection. Here are a couple of pictures.
Katie and I are baffled about the source of these designer genes. Neither of us care much about fashion. Granted, Katie is beautiful, as is Jackie, but that’s much different than being fashionable. My father (from whom I stole the title of this post) confirmed that my Granddaddy Buck liked tailored suits, but no other Jones would belong anywhere near a Milan runway unless an Alitalia 747 was involved. There isn’t an obvious high-fashion influence in Jackie’s daily life.
If she asks for a credit card for her second birthday, the answer will be “no.”
Jackie and her cohort Drew had their first real taste of snow after several inches fell in Raleigh last night and this morning. Of course, 20 minutes of getting the little ones ready led to only 15 minutes of good sledding before the youngsters got cold and ornery, but we really had a blast. I’m proud to say that Jackie and I held our own in head-to-head racing with the Blair duo from down the street.
Big thanks to Sarah B. for scoring sleds and snow boots for us to use — it wasn’t easy for new parents to find these high-demand items in the Triangle yesterday, but she came through for us.
Thanks to Sarah Shanahan for flying down from NYC to visit us the weekend before last. We thoroughly enjoyed catching up with her, and it took very little time for Sarah to endear herself to Jackie (see the pictures below).
Sarah, a nutritionist, also tolerated a lot of food and health-related questions during her stay. You would think that having a health-wise visitor might inspire us to put our most wholesome foot forward, but this was not the case. Instead, Katie and I introduced her to some of the most decadent cuisine Raleigh has to offer (pizza at Lilly’s and BBQ at The Pit). At least we didn’t offer some ridiculous flavor of Vitamin Water, like Essential or Rescue, to go with her English muffin at breakfast.
Standing practice can be fun
Jackie, doing her best innocent expression
Katie with Sarah, Sarah, and Sara
This post is a special long-distance hug to Nana, whose sickness this week has prevented her from coming to Raleigh this week like she planned. I realize how difficult life can be for grandparents when illness gets in the way of time with a grandbaby.
Katie and understand that Nana must be really ill; it probably took a lot of self-control and a CDC injunction to keep her off of I-85 North. Maybe the pictures below can be some sort of consolation in lieu of quality Jackie time.
Get well soon Nana!
Jackie loves the song "French Navy" by Camera Obscura.
Green beans? Yecch.
Green beans = nasty
Strawberry mustache? I know...it's kinda weird.
Jackie with Mom in the pool -- the baby is doing her best Dick Jones imitation.
Jackie and Dad tasting pool toys
Jackie and Dad lounging
There’s good news and bad news. The bad news first: Jackie and I did not make the trip to Tennessee this weekend for Sarah & Eric’s wedding. Katie went, but we felt the ten-hour trip with one day between travel days would just be too much for the little one.
The good news is that Jackie and I were able to make the fourth annual Tour d’Coop, which showcased more than 20 different urban chicken coops inside (hen-side) Raleigh’s I-440 beltline. Six of the coops are within a one-mile radius of our house, so Jackie and I set out on foot/stroller to check them out.
I’ve had an interest in having chickens of our own for a couple of years now, and it was great to see the diversity of fowl-friendly accommodations so close to home. Like any type of pet, the chickens and their dwellings reflect the people who own them. Some coops were elaborate, even to the point that they matched the architectural detail of the adjacent houses. Other coops were simpler and less ornate. Every chicken owner we met today had a simple process for feeding, egg-gathering, and composting. The really interesting part was the small backyard footprint that each coop required — some had three or four chickens in less than 100 square feet.
Today’s tour convinced me that as long as there’s no co-mingling with Baxter and Robah, chickens would be a great addition to our family. I hope to start working on our coop sometime in the next year. On the other hand, Katie has already reminded me of the other changes we want to make to this house. For some reason, she seems to think that home-improvement endeavors might be higher on the list of priorities. Katie’s flan was killer; I think the only way to make it better would be to start with home-laid eggs.
I’ve added some pictures we took while Katie’s grandmother, mother, and sister were in Raleigh.
Katie’s grandmother, mother, and sister visited us in April, and I think the baby was held and adored continuously, every hour of every day, until they left Raleigh. This kind of doting is not uncommon when Nana Burns is on premises, but to see the four generations of Burns/Jeffcoats women oohing and aahing in unison was something to behold.
At one point, Katie, Mawmaw, Holly and Janet had a conversation that lasted several minutes, but they never once made eye contact with each other. Each woman’s gaze converged at the same focal point — their eyes were fixated on Jackie the entire time they were talking.
Holly and Mawmaw drove all the way from Louisiana to spend time with us. Judging by her interaction with Jackie, it’s obvious that Holly will make a great mother herself one of these days. As for Mawmaw, we knew she would be able to make the long trip from Simsboro, but we didn’t expect her to be so spry when climbing up and down the 18 steps in our staircase.
She didn’t come out and say it (or anything else for that matter), but I know that Jackie loved meeting her great grandmother and her aunt. Thanks for making the trip!
Katie’s father also drove to Raleigh, and we enjoyed our time with him. He earned a gold star and a steak dinner for removing ivy from the sides of our house on the day after his birthday. Thanks Ben!
Baxter, Robah, and I had an epic frisbee session today. No records were broken, but that’s primarily because I didn’t push them too hard. Their individual and combined records are detailed below:
Consecutive catches by Baxter: 11
September 25, 2007
Avon Drive, Raleigh, NC
Consecutive catches by Robah: 6
December 6, 2008
White Oak Road, Raleigh, NC
Consecutive alternating catches by Robah and Baxter: 10
October 10, 2008
White Oak Road, Raleigh, NC
If you’re not impressed with these numbers, keep in mind that a single frisbee route is in the range between 70 and 90 feet. In a single session, Baxter will run around 50 routes, and Robah around 30 routes. That’s the equivalent of Baxter sprinting a mile-and-a-half. Robah runs close to a mile during a session. Our poor grass.
Here’s a diagram that illustrates our playing field:
I did, however, have to pull Robah aside today and talk to him about never taking a play (or throw) off. It’s not that he has a bad attitude or the kind of prima donna approach to the game that seems so common among today’s elite receivers. But, there are times when he doesn’t finish a route and he’s been known to take his disc to his favorite patch of grass and rest for awhile in the middle of a session. His brother Baxter, aka Psycho B, is a frisbee-chasing machine; his motor never stops. I wonder how Roy Williams handles it when Hansbrough is running circles around a teammate in practice.
I haven’t set up the camera to record Bax and Robah snagging frisbees, but Katie did capture Baxter’s weird sleeping position a couple of weeks ago:
I think I spent the dog food money 