My Photo

Walt's Websites

Blog powered by TypePad
Member since 01/2005

July 08, 2009

Fun on the Fourth!

Wow, that's a cheesy title, huh?  Anyway, it wouldn't be the 4th of July if we didn't pack up and head to Murray for Freedom Fest!  Not sure why, but there's something about spending Independence Day in a small town that just feels right.  Maybe it's the tractors.

DSC_0080

Yeah, that's probably it.  But aside from the tractors in the Saturday morning parade, we also got to enjoy a day on the lake with the fam. 

DSC_0064

Not to fear, that bug-eyed creature in the front of the group is just Walt.  Loves his goggles.

DSC_0071

If DeeDaddy gets any more "help" driving the boat, he's probably going to crash into a buoy.

Then, of course, there were the traditional 4th of July festivities at Aunt Puppy and Uncle Mancil's house.  BBQ and homemade ice cream (orange sherbet w/ pineapple and banana for those of you scoring at home).  Don't look now, but someone (thanks, Mom!) actually took a shot of just Josh and me together.

DSC_0204

And for those of you who want to gawk at THE BELLY, here you go.  (Two months to go!)

DSC_0205

That's my "You-can-take-my-picture-if-you-want-to-but-don't-expect-me-to-stop-eating-this-orange-sherbet" face.

And compared to our country's 233 years, my cousin's 21 look pretty paltry, but happy birthday nonetheless, Kelli!

DSC_0084

The boys capped off the weekend with some last-minute splashing in Gram and DeeDaddy's super-fancy swimming pool before we hit the road on Sunday.  Good times!

DSC_0221

July 01, 2009

Overheard 7/1/09

From the backseat on the way to school this morning:

Walt:  Mommy, why does paper have two sides?

Mommy:  (Silence.)

Anyone got anything for the kid?  His mother is not smart enough for that one.  A co-worker of Josh's helpfully pointed out that a piece of paper actually has six sides.  But the first person who tells Walt that is going to get it. 

June 21, 2009

Hot

Once again, we apologize for the lack of posts.  The heat has melted our brains.  (If this has been spring, I am terrified of what "summer" will bring.)  I will try to pull together enough gray matter to at least post some pictures from the past few very busy weeks.  They have involved a lot of time spent outside, despite the ridiculous temps.

Rock 'n Romp . . .

DSC_0069

DSC_0120

DSC_0057

Dan Zanes and Friends show . . .

DSC_0153

DSC_0180

DSC_0183

DSC_0187

Cooper Young Community Picnic . . .

DSC_0078 

Adam's Star Wars birthday party last Saturday . . .

IMG_0157

Hays' water slide birthday party (same day) . . .

IMG_0161

And in case you missed it on Facebook . . . the player to be named later smiling!

IMG_0164

Finally . . . Happy Father's Day to all our favorite dads, especially the best one on Nelson Avenue!

DSC_0114




June 03, 2009

Invasion of the Dutch People

If it's the end of May, it must be time for a visit from the Dutch people!  Harriet and Richard made it to Memphis last weekend as part of their annual exotic vacation to the mid-South.  We showed them a good (if unseasonably hot) time!  First up, a trip to the RiverWalk.  Getting Walt to pose for any kind of picture takes some trickery, so here we all make mad, scared, and then happy faces in an attempt to get one with him smiling.

DSC_0047

DSC_0048

DSC_0049

Did I mention it was hot?  It was hot.  So, upon arriving back at home, everyone settled in for a short snooze (well, everyone except the six-months pregnant girl who was in the kitchen fixing the evening's picnic . . . such the giver I am).  While I'm sure Harriet and Richard's parents would find the sight of them sleeping still perfectly sweet, it was this scene that captured my attention:

DSC_0055

Yes, they were both actually asleep -- not just faking for the camera.  All rested up (most of us, anyway), we headed over to the Levitt Shell for the first of the season's free concerts on the beautiful lawn.  This is a serious amenity Midtown's got going on now.  Free concerts, four nights a week through the end of June and then starting back up in early fall.  Two miles (if that) from our house.  I think I said it last year, but Mortimer Levitt is my hero.  We're actually thinking of naming kid number two after him.  Morty Spickler has a ring to it, don't you think?  (Who am I kidding, after naming our first kid Walter, who'd actually be surprised if we named the second one Mortimer?)

Scenes from the Shell:

DSC_0057
Richard and Harriet taking in the show.

DSC_0058
Walt and Mer are the two barefoot urchins in the olive green and spring green t-shirts right in front of the singer.

DSC_0063
Lyndi and sweet Hadley (you're sweet too, Lyndi!).

DSC_0070
Mer shows some southern hospitality to the visiting Dutch guy by fanning him while he enjoys the show.

DSC_0068
Walt shows some of his four-year old toot-headiness.

Thanks for paying us a visit, Harriet and Richard -- we promise to try to have cooler weather next time!

May 23, 2009

May Madness

I'm sure that the NCAA or CBS or somebody has a copyright on the words "March Madness" but I'm thinking about getting one for "May Madness" because it always seems to be the best description of our Mays.  The fifth month of the year is a big one around town because of Memphis in May -- that annually sodden welcome to Spring in the mid-South -- but apart from a trip down to the World Championship of Barbecue by Josh, we don't much participate in the other aspects of the festival anymore.  Still, we always manage to fill every hour of the month with various outdoor activities.  Gotta get it in before the heat of the summer forces us back into the cool embrace of the air conditioner.

In addition to our normal May activities, this year Walt and I decided to throw in a quick trip to South Carolina to crash Gram and DeeDaddy's beach vacation.  Our trip there included an unscheduled night (sans luggage) in Charlotte, NC, after we missed our connecting flight to Hilton Head.  Good times.  But hey, if it hadn't, we might not have this cool picture of Walt with the Jeff Gordon car that was parked in the airport.  Totally worth it.  Ahem.

DSC_0002

Once we got to the beach, I was an absolute slacker with the camera -- maybe Gram or Aunt Mimi will email me some of their good ones -- but here's at least one.  It was seriously windy on the beach that day.  So much so that we ended up spending the rest of the day at the pool.  But not before Walt and Collier got in some sand time.

DSC_0013

We followed up the beach trip with a stop in Macon, GA, to attend the wedding of my first cousin John Sawyer to his lovely bride, Amy.  The theme of this trip was my extreme neglect of my camera, so I have no pictures of any wedding event, but rest assured that we had a terrific time.  The highlight of the weekend was the rehearsal dinner (a low country shrimp boil -- one of my all-time favorite meals) where John and his band, The Deacons of Disaster, rocked the house.  John is a Presbyterian minister, a job to which I know he was called and is very good at, but this guy totally could have been a professional singer.  What's the age limit for American Idol again?

Back in Memphis this week, Walt had his final week of school for the spring semester, which is always finished up by the Spring Program -- a musical production in a slightly different vein from that of The Deacons.  Mainly it involves the teachers and a few of the kids who aren't too star-struck by all the parents' flashing cameras singing selections like "Waltzing Matilda" and "Have a Happy St. Patrick's Day" (in May).  Typically, Walt was on the back row of the risers behind a kid taller than him, so I've got no decent pictures of the actual performance, but I did manage to snap a few at the festival that followed.  'Cause nothing says festival like farm animals in a rolling cage in Midtown.

DSC_0055

DSC_0063 

DSC_0068 

As if singing and pony-riding weren't enough for one day, Walt also had his swim lesson "graduation" that afternoon.  Parents and grandparents were treated to outstanding displays of athleticism, such as jumping through a hoop into the pool, holding on to a bar and kicking around in circles, and for the finale, jumping off the side and swimming to the teacher!  It's going to be a whole new ballgame at the Rhodes pool this summer.

DSC_0073 

DSC_0098 

DSC_0102 

Look out, Michael Phelps.

May 13, 2009

R.I.P. Slicky

There comes a time in a boy's life when he must learn about loss.  These are good times to learn about that, but despite us showing Walt our 401(k) statement every month, he never seemed to grasp it like he did last week when, you guessed it, Slicky went missing.  This was a day we all knew was coming.  We've had many close calls, many trips across town and many janitors manipulated into granting access to closed buildings.  But Slicky has finally succumbed to the rigors of constant companionship to a four-year old.

I arrived  home from work one day last week to the always idyllic setting that is our kitchen in the early evening: Ginger pleasantly working on dinner in her pearls and heels and Walt drawing would-be masterpieces at his little craft desk at her feet.  But I knew it was all a delicate charade with the first glance from my wife.  "What's wrong?" I said.  "S-L-I-C-K-Y is M.I.A." she said cryptically.  Uh-oh.  

We skated the thin ice well enough that evening, and I made an unannounced visit to school first thing the next morning since it was an off day.  The APB was issued and all trash cans were examined, as was the giant plastic hippo on the playground where it was said Walt was "hanging out" the day before during recess.  Nothing. 

 (As an aside, a couple of points about Harry the Hippo: 1. I know where all of that tuition money is going.  $679 for a giant plastic hippopotamus? 2.  Harry's internal organs are labeled . . . in English, Spanish and French.  Really?  Talk about specialized knowledge: the Spanish word for "hippo gall bladder.") 

Anyway, Slicky no esta en Harry.

We muddled through another bedtime, but after I got to work last Friday morning, I got the following email from Ginger:

"The reality of Slicky's absence set in this morning.  Rough time.  We both cried."

After brushing back a small tear of my own, my protection instinct shifted immediately into high gear resulting in phone calls to high powered lawyers and other contacts amassed during my almost ten years of legal practice in this city, contacts usually reserved for the most dire of circumstances like impending life sentences and escaping jury duty.  

We had a replacement by lunchtime.  

Some photos:

DSC_0146

Acting on some sort of premonition, Ginger recently staged a Slicky/Walt photo shoot.

DSC_0148

Poor Slicky never had a chance of avoiding the trash can once she was spotted by any self-respecting janitor.

DSC_0172

R.I.P., Slicky.  You were a good lovie.

DSC_0171

Attention readers at the Center for Disease Control: we promise she's really gone and no longer in frequent contact with people.

DSC_0188

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present New Slicky.  Special thanks to Autumn Chastain and the folks at Mango Street Baby for the damage control.  Let's just hope he loses it before freshman year of college.

May 05, 2009

Things I'm Looking Forward to About Having Another Baby

DSC_0065

Tiny little toes.

DSC_0066

Wrist creases.

DSC_0070

Sweet little ears.

DSC_0095

Buddha belly.

DSC_0084

(Thanks to my very cute model, Micah Grisham!)

May 01, 2009

Things You Should Know About Walt

Back in the day, we used to do monthly updates (amid our regular posting of Walt doing exciting things like spitting up and cooing) of what Walt was up to/in to.  Now, it's more like just monthly posts.  It's not that Walt is less exciting than he was back then . . . on the contrary, I personally find him way more fun now.  But one, he's less cooperative with picture taking than he was before he became more kid-like and less baby-like, and two, he doesn't go to bed until close to nine most nights, leaving us with a precious hour or, at most, two before we both conk out.  After a solid twelve hours (no naps anymore, so I mean SOLID) of Waltiness, we're usually not chomping at the bit to rehash the day in print form. 

However, I know that one of these days I won't remember what made Walt tick at age 4.25 and I also know that I'll want to.  So, in that spirit, here's a list:

DSC_0144
1.  He still carries "Slicky" (that shredded, grayish rag-looking thing in his hand) around wherever he goes.  And has no shame about it.  Occasionally, he will pick "her" up and squeeze her with all his might and say, "I just love Slicky SO much!".  She is on the verge of completely disintegrating and I'm not sure what will happen then. 

DSC_0124  
2.  Coming in right behind Slicky in the treasured belongings category is his collection of roughly two dozen toy NASCAR cars.  He knows the name of every one of their drivers, which almost earned him an invitation to Daddy's guys trip to Talledega last weekend.  Almost.  He stages races around the house every single day, and always comes to ask me who I want to win before they start.  Sometimes my pick does win, but when it doesn't, he actually seems kind of remorseful.

3.  He eats a (previously frozen) pancake with peanut butter and a touch of syrup almost every single morning for breakfast.

DSC_0122
4.  Walt has quite the fascination with numbers these days.  I think it might have been prompted by the NASCAR thing.  In this picture, he is lining up the numbers to keep track of how many laps to go in his race.  He also uses the numbers to create pit areas for his cars, so they'll know where to pull in and refuel.  Then, yesterday, I came into his room and he was creating his very own leader board (or whatever you call it in racing) to show who was winning the race.  When one car pulled ahead, he would dutifully move that car's number to the front of the lineup.  His races transpire rather slowly, as you can imagine.  But apart from the NASCAR connection, he wants to know what numbers on anything he sees mean -- the car dashboard, telephone poles, measuring cups, etc.  MIT, here we come.

DSC_0124 

5.  It doesn't happen often, but he cleans up real nice.

DSC_0116 

6.  Walt hasn't yet met a sport he doesn't like.  He played soccer at a local church in the fall, basketball in March (pictured) and gets out in the yard with Daddy at every chance to swing for the fences with his new baseball bat.  I'm not even kidding when I say the kid hits better than I do.  Which is not saying a lot, I guess, but he can hit an overhand-pitched ball more often than not.  I find it pretty impressive.

DSC_0060

7.  He makes a very effective security guard at yard sales.  We had no incidents.  (Okay, I might have just thrown this one in so I could post this hilarious picture.  Sue me.)

DSC_0108 

8.  Though he is capable of entertaining himself quite well, he really loves playing with his buds.  Luckily, our neighborhood is chock full of little boys.  I am scared for all of our windows as they get bigger and stronger.

9.  Walt likes to talk.  A lot.  (Not pictured.)

10.  If his baby brother is half as great of a kid as Walt, we will feel like the luckiest parents in the world.

DSC_0109

(If not . . . well, one out of two ain't bad.)

April 18, 2009

What's It Gonna Be?

The big ultrasound was this week and you'll all be happy to know that Mike is trucking along just perfectly, measuring just right for 19 weeks, which is exactly what I was on the day of the ultrasound.  A big sigh of relief around Walt's World.  So, thanks for checking in.  How are things with you?

Oh, wait . . . was there more information you were hoping for from the ultrasound? 


Because we Spicklers don't do anything without a big production value:

April 07, 2009

Spring Sprung

Apart from all the pollen floating around, coating our nasal passages and cars, it has been a lovely spring so far.  Well, until yesterday when some horrid cold front blew in and threatened to freeze all the blooms right off their stems.  But thankfully, it didn't get quite as cold as predicted, so hopefully the flowers and crops will make it through unscathed.

Around Walt's World, we've been taking full advantage of the nice weather to get out and stretch our winter-weary limbs.  We've had a trip to the zoo, an Easter egg hunt, and of course, several birthday parties.  Here are the highlights.

DSC_0061

Walt and Meredith outside the zoo.  They were SO excited to go in.

DSC_0067

Monkeys watching monkeys.

DSC_0098

Mer in front of the sea lions.  Or seals.  Despite seeing the show approximately fifty times and being told the difference, I still can't remember which they are.  Wait, I'll ask Walt -- he'll know.  Sea lions it is.

DSC_0099

Adam and his entourage (Mandy the Mommy and baby brother Micah) joined us about halfway through the visit. 

DSC_0126 

Close-up at Will Wright's birthday party.

DSC_0097 

Uh, yeah, we forgot his Easter basket, so that's a paper sack full of Easter eggs at the neighborhood hunt.

DSC_0099 

Last year, Josh had the distinct honor of dressing up as the Easter Bunny for this particular hunt, but he (conveniently) had a work commitment this year and got out of it.  Despite the fact that it was dear old dad under the suit then (not that he knew that), Walt was absolutely petrified of the big bunny.  This year, he'd psyched himself up for it and was definitely braver.  Though we couldn't get him to scoot any closer for the picture than this.  Still, progress.

Finally, in case you're wondering, all is well on the pregnancy front.  I'm almost 18 weeks and we'll soon find out if we need to stop calling the kid Mike and switch to Michelle.  Walt's rooting for a boy, but I'm sure he'll be equally annoyed by it, whatever it is!