news from da crib: The New Blog Post is Here!!! The New Blog Post is Here!!

So I got this new blog thing you should check out. It’s called “News From Da Crib”. It’s pretty cool.

Yeah, I know it’s been awhile since my last post to here, but with good cause. I haven’t had time. It’s the return of the blog tho! Ashtyn’s been in the lab with a pen and a pad thinkin of some new stuff to write on and this might end up being the longest blog post of all time today - not best, just the longest. So with that, lets take a trip into the time machine and look at the summer that has been so far……

HE GOT GAME

McQuades weekend was Ashtyn’s coming out party as she attended most of the games and slept through them like a champ. Not that she’ll remember, but it was probably her only chance to see her dad play at a mildly high level still – by the time she can comprehend things I’ll be playing in the 50 and over wood bat division. 6 games in 2 days resulted in a 4th place finish for the Starion Financial buzz-saw in spite of the play of their 2nd baseman in the first round game. I think we could have done better, but we kind of mailed it in for the 3rd and 4th place game.

BORN ON THE 4TH OF JULY

4th of July weekend was chaotic, fun and over much to quickly. Ashtyn finally got to meet her cousins Rhett and Megan as well as her Great Grandma D. It was also her first chance to get to go take a stroller ride in the zoo and she slept through most of it. I also bought us a season pass so we can go whenever we want…….. this will come back to haunt me later in the post.

Here is a pic of Grandma and us.... Man, that is a sweet looking suit.

And here is a pic of Nephew Rhett sneaking his prey before the fireworks. If you can't see him, it's because he's camoflauged.

Speaking of zoo’s, I’ve never experienced the 4th of July on the west side of the Missouri river and that alone will make me think loooooong and hard about where our first house might be located. If they don’t let you do something in Bismarck, chances are, they’ll let you do it in Mandan. Fireworks are nice and all, in fact I’ve written previously on the subject click here, but fireworks at 4:00 a.m. aren’t that nice and are even less nice when your kid jumps every time one explodes right outside the apartment. I imagine Mandan that night to be something like downtown Bagdad. If there’s a recession going on, either Mandan didn’t get the word or people chose to spend their next 10 years disposable income on fireworks this year.

To top things off, we had Ashtyn’s baptism the next morning at 9:00 a.m. so even though she got a little sleep, mom and dad spent the night waking up at every explosion and checking to see if she woke up as well.

MR. DRESS UP

Sunday the 5th we had Ashtyn baptized and in retrospect, probably should have waited until the 11:00 mass to do that, but because of her restless night she sacked out for the better part of the service. Right up until the priest dunked her in the water 3 times. Then you could see the look of “whoa, not bathtime yet people!” “where’s my rubber ducky?!?!” She pulled through like a champ though and then we got a chance to put on a picnic for 47 people at my brothers house. I know I flipped burgers and hot dogs for a good hour and a half straight and of course the wind always blew the grill smoke into my face no matter where I stood. I felt bad for Katie and her mom cuz it was the first time they’d ever tried to plan for a group that large, but luckily we’re Millers and will eat anything that’s put in front of us and the food was all good!

DADDY DAYCARE

Just when you think things will slow down, they speed up. We had a daycare lined up, but couldn’t bring her in until mid-July, so I took the week after the 4th off to do some daddy daycare. For those of you waiting to hear of the disasters that ensued, I’m sorry to report that things went smoothly. The mornings started off with us watching the Outdoor Channel and ended with mom coming home at 7:00 and finding us still watching the Outdoor Channel. Kidding. We learned plenty about what shooter bucks are, but we also took some walks, went to the mall and sat around having staring contests as well. You can't beat a 2 month old in a stare down in case you were ever thinking of trying.

Wednesday of that week was the big day, her 2 month checkup and her first real round of shots. We were nervous all morning and we talked at length how it might sting a little, but we’d feel all better in no time. Our little talk did no good and she howled pretty loud after the shots were done. 5 minutes after mom picked her up though, she was smiling again and never got the fevers or swelling so that was cool.

Thursday afternoon was a biggie as well. It was our first day of daycare! Mom kept inquiring if she could just quit her job and stay home 24/7 with her, but unless I win the lottery this week, we don’t see that happening. It’ll be good for her though to get out and be around other kids and start interacting with them. Her daycare lady, Tracy is really nice and of course Ashtyn takes 3 naps and 3 bottles right on schedule for her. Now I just wish we could get her to do that for us.

ZOOLANDER

As I mentioned before, we had bought a zoo pass so that we could go there whenever we wanted, so of course I’m going to make sure we go there at least 7.8 times in the next year to make sure that we get our money’s worth.

I’ve gotten a lot more confident since our daddy daycare week about being able to take her out to places and since mommy had to work the weekend and it was 75 with no wind on Saturday, we loaded up the Wagon Queen Family Truckster and headed out for a zoo stroll that morning.

There are certain sounds you don’t like to hear coming from the stroller and the big one is the sound of regurgitated liquid from you baby. Yep, 10 steps into the zoo, Ashtyn puked. I went right into action tho – assess the situation, locate the bathrooms, pretend like nothing is wrong and hurry to clean the puke.

Babies aren’t like adults. When adults puke it’s like “Whoa, am I sick? Should I go to the doctor?” or in Auntie Kaylan’s case, “Yeah, I didn’t really need that last shot at the bar”. Babies take it all in stride tho. She sat nice and still, laughed a little, squirmed a little and within 10 minutes we had a new outfit on and a stroller full of pukey clothes and blankets.

Question: How can a baby that only ate 6 ounces of milk, puke out 12 ounces?

I thought for a moment of turning the stroller towards the pickup, but I wasn’t going to let a little mishap ruin the day for us, so we went over to the Aviary in the shade and hung out until she got hungry then munched down on some more milk. We didn’t overdo it this time though. Eventually she started to nod off so it was time to do what we came there for. Dad wants to check out the Elk, Deer, Speed Goats, Swamp Donkey’s and Ditch Parrots and get some pics of them. This is a North Dakota zoo and I’m sure I’m by no means the only guy that’s ever walked by the deer pen and field scored the Whitetail buck there. I’m gonna say he’ll score about 134 this year once he rubs his velvet off.

You know there’s going to be a return trip around mid September for us to do a final scoring for the year……

Mobile Baby

This coming weekend we head down to Herreid for our friends Arnie and Dena’s wedding. I’m sure there’ll be plenty of pass the baby going on and she’ll get completely out of her routine, but it should be a good time. The weekend after that we plan on headin up to Sherwood to see Grandma and Papa Miller and also to let Katie try shooting some guns. Katie wants to start hunting, which is fine with me, cuz that just means more Pheasant in the freezer every fall!

I’m thinking of letting her start off with something small, like my Weatherby .300 Win Mag. If that goes good, we’ll go in and get her fitted for a .416 Rigby or .500 Nitro Express. Kidding. The shockwave from the .300 might scare her away from ever hunting. We’ll start off with Ol’ Reliable, my bolt action .22 with iron sites. The gun has counted coup on many a gopher and if you miss with that, it’s your eye’s that are off, not the sites.

Ok, so thats things in a nutshell. Couple random pics for you here to close things out.

WHAT YOU TALKIN BOUT WILLIS!?!?