The Fowler Family

Our Growing Family

2010-11-07T09:48:00.001-06:00

Most of you know this by now, but we are expecting a new munchkin around May 28th of next year! We had intended for a while to start trying for a baby after I graduated, and we're fortunate to have been successful so quickly. Poor Whitney has been VERY nauseous and we're all ready for Mama to feel more like herself again soon! Yesterday Whitney was 11 weeks pregnant so we think the worst of it will pass soon. We have narrowed down boy names quite a bit but can't seem to find one for a girl (which my sister says indicates that this will definitely be a girl). Any ideas? Here is a picture of our little friend.

We've had a nice couple of months since our last post. Both sets of grandparents came to visit in October and we all had a great time together. Will especially had fun showing Grandmommy, Granddaddy, Grammie and Grandpa his favorite beach and his favorite playground. Grammie and Grandpa were here over Halloween and got to see Will in his train conductor costume. He looked so adorable - it's too bad that he took a face plant into the corner of his toy box the day before! Oh well...you can't be a cool dude without getting banged up every now and then. Will keeps telling me that he's amassing scars to help him pick up chicks anyway. Enjoy a slew of pictures from the past couple of months.

It's starting to get chilly around here, so I fear our beach days are numbered - time to bundle up!

With love -
Johnathan

Oh, right, we have a blog!

2010-09-12T09:48:00.012-05:00

If you forgot that we had a blog, don't feel bad...so did we (literally). We remembered recently that having our blog was a great way after moving to Cleveland to keep everyone up to date with Will stories and pictures, and here we are again halfway across the country. We'll be better now about posting.

We're all moved in here in sunny Myrtle Beach. It's definitely a change from Austin, Texas - the scenery, the accents, the stores, you name it - but so far we're having a lot of fun. There is so much to talk about that I'll have to give you all the summary and not the essay. Otherwise, I'd be typing for hours, and Will simply won't allow that!

First of all, I finally graduated! I figured that I shouldn't turn 31 and still be paying tuition, so I manned up and finished my dissertation, albeit in such a way as to take many years off of my life. What a stressful process - but in the end, I'm Dr. Fowler and that feels pretty cool. Our friends threw us a great graduation/going away party and then my folks threw me a special graduation party and it meant a lot to share those special times with so many of you. Christy even flew down with our cute little niece Casey to join us, and that meant so much to me. It feels so good to be done. I have started my postdoc here and am really enjoying the challenge so far.

Then we moved. Thanks to enormous help from my parents for making the drive with me, and to Whit's mother and aunt for flying over with Will and our annoying dogs, we all made it in one piece. The grandparents and Aunt Liney worked so hard to help make our new house a fun place for Will to come to, and it really worked. Will still calls it "new house" and is loving his new train table (thank you Grandmommy and Granddaddy), riding to the park in his red wagon (thank you Grammie and Grandpa), and playing with his bug collector and other fun toys (thanks Christy and Liney and everyone else!).

Will also already loves the beach and we've had some great times playing in the sand, finding shells, and sitting in the waves. We also have visisted one of the nearby state parks and had fun looking for crabs in the marsh (we saw two blue crabs, which Will calls "bwoo twab"), listening to the snapping shrimp (who ever heard of such a thing?) and enjoying the expansive, relatively tourist-free beaches there. Whitney and Will have already found their way into a music class and a mother's group and I hope they can make some good friends soon.

Last week our little man turned 2 years old. It's really unbelievable to think about how much he has already grown up, and how much change he's experienced too. We're glad that these moves have happened when he was too young to care a whole lot, and hope to really find some roots as soon as we can, wherever that may be. We know we're here for at least two years, so for now, this is our home and we're going to make the best of it. The beach is great, the seafood is unique, and we're ready for visitors anytime.

Sifting through all of our pictures and organizing them by theme seems like too daunting of a task for this Sunday evening, so here are a bunch of them, in no particular order.

A Scary Week for Buddy

2010-04-01T23:08:00.001-05:00

Most of you know that our Will was very sick last week and had to spend a couple of days in the hospital. He is so much better now…and so now I feel like we can post about the experience.

Will had Croup, which I’d never heard of before but is apparently a common respiratory virus in toddlers. Adults can catch the virus but it doesn’t cause the same complications. The cough from Croup is very distinctive and sounds like a seal’s bark. He also sounded like he was having some trouble breathing, or at least was having some asthma or something. After one doctor visit we were told that not much was to be done except to wait it out, use a humidifier, and give him medicine for his fevers. The next morning, though, his breathing sounded much worse. I left for work and Whitney took him in to the doctor again, who noticed how forced his breathing had gotten. They checked his oxygen and found it to be quite low and called the ambulance. Whit called me then and we met up at the emergency room at the hospital.

Most of you who’ve met Will when he’s “in his element” would agree that he’s a really social and happy little guy, but for some reason he has developed a serious fear of going to the doctor. In fact, he even gets upset when the lady at the shoe store measures his foot. He just doesn’t seem to like strangers getting all up in his cheese whiz, as we say at the Fowler house! Needless to say, Will was really upset at the doctor’s office, in the ambulance, and at the hospital. Apparently they were able to calm him down a little bit in the ambulance by repeatedly telling him that they were in a “beep-beep”, which is what he calls my parents’ golf cart, and which he loves to ride in.

From what I’ve learned, they can give children steroid shots and/or a breathing treatment to help with the labored breathing, and of course they can give oxygen too. If I understood correctly, any of these usually work pretty quickly. Over the course of the next 24 hours or so they gave him two shots, two breathing treatments, and a whole bunch of medicine for fever, and he still sounded bad. They told us that it was about as bad of a Croup case as they see. What made it worse was that he got really worked up whenever they came to give him the breathing treatment, which in turn closed his airways more, causing his oxygen to drop. The whole visit seemed like this game where the doctors had to try and balance upsetting him and dropping his oxygen with getting him medicine which would help his oxygen. It was stressful and there was no calming him down. We will always remember holding the mask about six inches from his face and hoping the meds just shot in his general direction while he wailed. They obviously were monitoring his oxygen the whole time, so whenever we kept asking if he was breathing well enough (it didn’t really sound like he was) they would point to the oxygen monitor to reassure us. It was hard to listen to. Will has also gotten extremely attached to Whitney, and wasn’t too interested in Daddy, so poor Whitney didn’t get any rest, while Daddy was fortunate enough to piece together an hour here and there.

He got to come home at the end of the second day, very tired, very fussy, and still running a fever, but on a major streak of adequate oxygen levels. They said they weren’t likely to do anything else for him apart from treat the fever, so they booted us out. Fine by me as long as the buddy was okay! Will was feverish for a couple more days, and clingy/fussy/sleepy/not eating for several after that. In the past day or so he’s finally started eating normally again, and we can definitely tell that his signature tummy has receded a little bit. We’re working on plumping it right back up for all to see. We also have heard since then that Croup is going around Austin. Wash those hands and be careful if you have little ones.

I also want to say thank you to my parents and to Whitney’s mother for being there for us last week. In the big scheme of things it ended up being minor, but we didn’t know that and needed a lot of support. Thanks for being there when we needed you.

Here are a few pictures from last week. I chose the cute/happy ones.

Zonked out after the first shot and breathing treatment, still not breathing well, still holding Dad’s ER sticker (this kid LOVES stickers, or “dih-dih”) proudly:

Will’s first smile came in the ER when Daddy ran home to get overnight bags and toys for Will. Elmo and NayNay were important commodities last week and we thank them dearly.

Will sporting his purple gown and sleeping on Grandmommy:

This last one is a wonderful picture that I took a couple of days after we all got home. I would have loved to join them but I’m not sure there was any more room. What do you think?

Will's First Hike

2010-03-13T21:47:00.003-06:00

Today we went hiking with Will for the first time and had a blast. Whitney's parents got us this very cool backpack over the holidays and we've been waiting for the right weekend to start using it. Thanks Grandmommy and Granddaddy! Today was a gorgeous day in Austin and we went to a park in the hills. Will seemed to really enjoy the scenery and was very talkative as we passed the creeks, trees, and other people with their kids and dogs. Will also really enjoyed it when we handed him sticks and rocks and let him drop them into the water. Mama even tried wearing the pack for a little while. Enjoy the pictures!

A fun day at the park with Daddy

2010-03-08T13:47:00.001-06:00

On Saturday, I got to spend some quality father-son time with Will. I got some great pictures at the park, but this one is my favorite.

The Neverending Weenie

2010-03-06T22:34:00.001-06:00

In this old mid-yawn picture of Penny, she looks just like Gmork from The Neverending Story.

By a strange coincidence, we have said for years that Polly looks like Falcor when she's sleeping! I don't have a picture to prove that connection, but trust me, it's there.

As promised...

2010-02-08T22:19:00.003-06:00

Whitney soaring through the air and her husband making goofy noises behind the camera...

Our Special Getaway

2010-02-08T12:49:00.001-06:00

Johnathan and I haven’t taken a trip by ourselves in many years, so I decided to plan a secret getaway for last weekend. Will stayed with his Grammie and Grandpa for his first overnight without Mommy and Daddy. He did wonderfully and had so much fun! He even learned how to flex his muscles and now says the word “muscles”! Thank you again, Grammie and Grandpa! We love you.

I found a beautiful old cabin to stay in near Wimberley, Texas, a small town in the Texas Hill Country. The cabin was built in 1859 in Missouri and was bought by a husband and wife who moved it to their ranch in Texas. It was completely renovated and decorated beautifully. The front porch had two comfy rocking chairs and a swing and there was a hot tub next to the cabin. We had so much fun looking up at the stars from the hot tub! Johnathan and I had the nicest, most relaxing time at the cabin and will definitely be visiting again. Here are some cabin pictures:

Pretty cabin

Fun Porch

Relaxing in the living room – there’s a small twin bed in the corner as well as a big bed in a loft upstairs

Picture of loft from downstairs

On Saturday afternoon, we went on a Hill Country Zipline Adventure! We had such a blast zipping through the air between the hills and over trees and creeks. What gorgeous views!

I will post a video later tonight of me riding the Zipline. I look pretty dorky.

Needless to say, we had a wonderful time on our weekend away and hope to return to Wimberley soon. We are thinking about a day trip with Will next time. We are also eager to show others our special little town, so you may get invited sometime, too! :)

And finally, some pictures of our precious Will.

With Grandpa on the porch

“I’ll race ya!”

Chatting with Grandpa

At the neighborhood park

Drums are fun

I’m little and cute

“I’m not so sure about riding in your golf cart, Grandpa.”

Adorable Will-Will

Getting ready for the big game

2010-01-07T17:52:00.000-06:00

Shoe Hunting

2010-01-05T17:28:00.001-06:00

Today we were looking everywhere for one of Will's "big boy shoes" so
he and Whitney could go to the store. We couldn't find it before they
left, but Daddy just did:

One Christmas Post to Rule Them All…

2009-12-29T13:59:00.001-06:00

The Fowlers had a wonderful holiday this year, including visits to both sets of grandparents an d many, many good times. It was so great to see you all and we can’t wait to see you again soon – and we missed those of you that we weren’t able to visit this year. Will had so much fun with everyone and we got LOTS of pictures. Enjoy!

First, a family picture:

We first visited Whitney’s family in College Station. We are still working on obtaining some more pictures from this visit and will post more soon. Here is Will with his Grandmommy and his cousin Hudson:

Will with his buddy Granddaddy:

Will sported a lovely holiday bow for all to enjoy:

Will really likes playing in grass, and had a blast walking around Janie’s backyard:

We visited Will’s Great-Granddaddy and Will had fun exploring his house. He went up and down the step into the living room over and over again with a huge grin on his face. He also nabbed Great-Grandfather’s shoehorn and used it as a shovel, throwing piles of plant soil onto the carpet. The best part of the visit was looking at many of Whitney’s late grandmother’s original paintings and picking out a handful of pieces to put up in our house. I am amazed at how talented she was and am touched to have some of them for our own. We’ll have to post some pictures of those paintings soon. Here is a picture of Will and Great-Grandfather:

We got an inadvertent Christmas present from Grandmommy in a “Quinny”, which is a *very* nice stroller for Will. It was actually given to someone else who decided that they didn’t need it, and was offered to us instead! Now THAT’s a hand-me-down! Will absolutely loves the new stroller, probably because it’s nicely padded and props him up so that he can view the world in style. Here’s Will in his new stroller wearing some holiday cheer:

Whitney’s folks got me a great gift for Christmas. It’s a really nice hiking backpack with a place for William to comfortably sit. It’s got a lot of back support and is something that Whitney and I have been talking about getting so that we can go on long family walks around Austin and its many trails. I don’t have a picture of it to post but we’re very excited to use it soon!

We next took an all-too-short trip to Michigan to visit my parents, and although I had a particularly nasty cold the entire time, it was a wonderful visit. My sister, her husband, and Will’s cousin Jonny were there too – along with Christy’s new baby bump! After being only 2 hours from my sister last year, it’s been hard to be so far away again. Needless to say, seeing her and her family was really special. Here is Will with Aunt Christy:

Will had fun playing with his cousin Jonny. They got matching pajamas from Santa and strutted their stuff for us:

They played with the blocks together:

Jonny even helped build a block fortress in which to imprison his Grandpa (we let him out a few hours later):

Will and Grammie quickly showed that they’re kindred spirits. Will would often walk up to her and spread his arms for her to pick him up, and Grammie was more than happy to oblige! We also learned that Will enjoys pazelles, a family favorite. Here’s Will enjoying some pazelles with Grammie, and making a nice mess while doing so:

There was a nice amount of snow on the ground at Grammie and Grandpa’s house:

Their back yard has a nice little hill for sledding, and Will got all bundled up for his first sledding experience (cue the “A Christmas Story” jokes):

Will went sledding a few times and enjoyed every one. When I went down with him he laughed the whole time. Here’s Will sledding with Grandpa:

We also spent one afternoon in Frankenmuth, Michigan, which is a German town known for great food, culture, and Bronner’s, the worlds largest Christmas store (open for 361 days a year, too). Will slept through the entire Bronner’s experience but enjoyed the great chicken, noodles, and time with his Grammie. Here are Will and Jonny with Grammie as we waited for our table:

Outside the restaurant, Will enjoyed looking at one of the horses with Mommy:

Santa was too good to us this year in Michigan. My folks got us an incredibly special gift – they met a painter in California who impressed them and commissioned her to paint a portrait of Will (and one of Jonny as well). The painting turned out beautifully and was based upon an actual photograph we took of Will last year near Lake Erie. Jonny’s picture was also painted from a photograph, which was taken among the bluebonnets on a visit to Texas. We are so excited to put this on our wall and to have it forever as a keepsake. Here is a shot of both of the paintings side by side:

It’s official – my son plays with dolls:

Grammie and Grandpa appeared to have some trouble saying goodbye to Will at the airport. Thank goodness they’ll be back in Texas in a few weeks!

Will was pooped on the flights home. He never even woke up between planes, and slept the whole car ride home:

It was a great holiday this year, and we thoroughly enjoyed our time with you all. Most importantly (and clearly, looking at the pictures), Will did too.

Love,
Johnathan

Lots of Pictures

2009-11-30T21:51:00.001-06:00

It was so cold and rainy in Austin today! On most days, Will and I try to get out of the house for a little while, but I didn’t want to get out in the elements today. Luckily, I had plenty of fun activities for us to do! Here are a few examples:

Play-doh! Will learned the colors pink and blue today! He was able to say the words and point to the colors! I couldn’t believe it!! A couple of times he tested me by putting some of the play-doh up to his mouth like he was going to eat it. He held it there and then would look at me to see my reaction. As soon as I would say, “Put it on the table.”, he would put it down. It was hilarious!

Time to clean up!!

We also played with colorful pom-poms. I gave him lots of baskets so he could “sort” the balls. We played with these for the first time several weeks ago and Will ate them, so I decided to put them away and try again another time. He did great with them today!

Our crazy weenies!

Reading with Dad

Reading with Grandpa

Playing in my grandmother’s backyard with Granddaddy

After the mashed potatoes at our Thanksgiving dinner

Crashed out on the couch

Extreme bed-head!

Our Little Dragon

2009-11-03T21:54:00.002-06:00

It’s important to start with a healthy dinner before trick-or-treating. Gotta build up that energy!

Will’s cute dragon bottom!

Even though we told people we weren’t trick-or-treating for candy this year, all three houses we went to insisted on handing Will a piece. He held on tight to his mini-Twix all the way home!

Walking!

2009-10-14T23:22:00.006-05:00

Will is walking! This video was taken this past weekend and already he has improved so much! Will also loves to push around the dining room chairs. Sometimes I find them at the end of the hallway. It really cracks us up.

We visited the Austin Zoo over the weekend. The Austin Zoo is a "rescue zoo" and is small and intimate-just right for little kids. We were able to get really close to many of the animals. There were peacocks, chickens and roosters roaming free. We even saw baby peacocks following their mommies around! I can't wait to go back.

Will and Mommy

This sad goat had the hugest underbite! We couldn't stop laughing!

The goats were very friendly!

We learned that Mr. Tortoise and his cage-mates are in their mid-thirties!

"What are you lookin' at?"

Recently, we have discovered that Will uses his tent as a little private restroom. I don't think he "takes care of business" anywhere else now! I'm kinda tired of it taking up space in the living room, but how can I put away his special restroom?!

And yes, sometimes I put the dog bed in there.

And finally, Will has discovered that sitting in the dog crate is super fun. Sometimes he will throw a ball in the crate, climb in and grab it and then throw the ball out of the crate. Then he repeats! Many times he will just sit there looking out of the holes.

Will is getting his 1 year pictures taken tomorrow. Wish us luck! :)

Happy First Birthday, William!

2009-09-24T20:34:00.006-05:00

We can't believe that our baby Will is one!! He is such a precious, sweet little boy and we love watching him discover new things about his world everyday. He is truly a joy. Occasionally, when I'm rocking him to sleep at night, I get teary-eyed thinking about how much I love him!

Here are just some of the things that Will is doing these days:
1. Will has started saying some words! He has the sweetest little voice. So far, his words are: Mama, Dada, Dog, and Baby.
2. He only says a couple of words, but he knows many more. For example, we can ask him, "Where is the balloon?" and he'll point to the balloon. He'll also respond to commands like, "Clap your hands." and "Roll 'em Over." (Roll 'em over refers to the nursery rhyme, Patty Cake.)
3. Will can tell us the sounds that cows and chickens make. He really loves to eat his chicken and when I bring out chicken or turkey, he says, "Bock, bock". So hilarious.
4. Will is not walking yet, but can get around super fast by crawling and "cruising" around the furniture. We have been thinking he's about to walk for the past several months!
5. He loves books. Will is content to sit for a long time by himself looking at his books, turning the pages and pointing to the pictures. Of course, he loves to sit in our laps and listen to the story too!

Will also likes sitting and reading in the dog bed!

6. Will makes lots of friends wherever we go. He waves at most people and many times they will walk up to us and talk to Will. Sometimes Will is okay with this, sometimes he acts really shy.
7. Will loves music and dances every time he hears it.
8. He loves his dogs and most of the time, they love him. He shows his love by throwing the ball to them, "petting" (more like hitting!) them and yanking on their collars.
9. He is starting to enjoy playing little "games" with Mommy and Daddy, and is initiating them more lately too. He likes to crawl over to a ball, turn around and grin at Daddy, and then throw it, hoping to start a game of catch. He knows how to play the "gonna get you" game and the "thank you" game. They each are silly but fun.

We celebrated Will's birthday twice this week. On his actual birthday, we had a birthday breakfast at The Original Pancake House. Grammie and Grandpa Fowler flew in from Michigan and Grandmommy Roop was able to drive in from College Station. Here are a few pictures of Will opening a present and enjoying his cake:

Our party on Saturday was a big hit. We had a nice family gathering at our house and served Austin's Pizza (yum!) and delicious cake. Will had his own cake made from applesauce and carrots. He was a little timid at first with so many people watching and talking to him, but before long, he had icing in his hair!

Big Birthday Cake

I'll stop bragging about my little sweetie now, but I want to leave you with one more story. We took Will to our new pediatrician for his 1 year-old well visit yesterday. After taking his height and weight measurements, the doc said that Will was "a little guy" coming in at the 10th percentile for height. I commented that this was strange because he has always been in the 45th to 50th percentile. After looking at our charts, he confirmed that our pediatrician's nurse back in Ohio had been plotting Will's stats on the little girl's chart and that Will has been around the 10th percentile the whole time!! Crazy, huh? We love our "little guy"! :)

Will 2.0: Interactive Model

2009-08-02T08:35:00.018-05:00

Hi friends and family. Sorry again for the long delay.

A few updates: First of all, we're glad to finally know where we're living next year in Austin. Although it took two trips, we found a nice house to rent fairly close to where we lived last year. We're going to miss Ohio for many reasons but we're so excited to be back by our friends and family in Texas. Second, Mr. Will is growing up so quickly. He's mimicking us more, pointing at everything, and constantly finding new ways to make us run over and grab him before he hurts himself. Here are some pictures and videos of his recent escapades.

First, some videos. We still haven't learned to shut up while filming him (sorry). The first two are from dinner tonight and he was really cracking us up:

The next two are from a few weeks ago when he started pushing around his little cart. He usually gets so excited that he almost starts hyperventilating. The first is just of him "walking" and the second is a good example of the elated face he makes when he does it.

And now some pictures:

I love walking behind my scooter/cart/toy thing and showing off my second tooth!

After ten months of getting the cold shoulder, the pacifiers around here are always in use:

Will has fun with his Mommy on the way to the zoo:

All ready to go see the animals!

It was a hot day at the zoo. Will got really bad diaper rash:

Will practices his monkey pose:

Just a nice shot of Will and Mommy:

Will's hair is getting long:

When Daddy feeds Will, this happens:

Penny and Polly have always liked finding the warm sunny spots on the carpet. Will decided that it was pretty great too. In the second picture you might be able to see him grinning under his pacifier:

Our next post will be from Austin. See you soon...

Attack of the Nosebiter!

2009-06-18T20:53:00.005-05:00

Will has taken quite an interest in our faces lately. When the sharp ridges of his new tooth combine with his colossal amounts of drool, things get very interesting. Here's a good example from the other day!

Back to normal and fun in the sun!

2009-06-09T18:21:00.010-05:00

We're so happy that things are getting back to normal again. After spending 10 nights in the hospital in May, Whitney is back home, strong, and happy to be so. The surgeon said she looks great (which I already knew...hubba hubba...) and the pain in her lungs is almost completely gone.

Mr. William is doing really well. He's taken some time to get back into his normal sleep routine, but the past few nights have been promising.

We have SO many pictures to share with you all, but I only have time to pick a select few thousand. Oh, one more thing, my Dad went skydiving last weekend after wanting to do it for most of his life. I'm proud of him and the pictures are great!

First, from our trip in May to Florida. My folks took most of the pictures but I don't have them yet to post. Here are Great-Grammie and my cousin Ben meeting Will for the first time.

Three generations of Fowler dudes.

Will visited his first beach at a park on Lake Erie. When we went to the water, he was fascinated and just stared and stared - but when I put his feet in the water, the people 40 miles away in Canada heard him screaming. To Will's credit, the water was REALLY cold - my mistake!

Fans of The Office will apreciate these. Christy and Jon got Will an awesome outfit for Christmas, but he had to grow into it first. After he grew, it fit perfectly...that's what she said.

Will is a crawling machine now, and he pulls himself up on everything too.

When Mom and Dad were in town helping while Whitney was down and out, Will had some great fun with his Grammie and Grandpa. In this first one he looks a little too much like Boy George for comfort.

Christy and Jonny came up to visit a couple of times. This last one involved some great play time outside.

We bought Will a little baby pool and used it outside for the first time this Sunday. He had such a great time splashing around. We got some awesome pictures.

Miss and love you all...

Too much excitement...

2009-05-22T19:47:00.003-05:00

As many of you know, we've had a few scary weeks in Northeast Ohio. Whitney has been in and out of the hospital for two and a half weeks now and we're still trying to get everything figured out.

Here is what has happened so far: First, right after we got back from a great trip to Florida, Whitney thought she'd caught a stomach bug. After a couple of days of severe stomach cramping, she went to the ER and had her appendix out the same night. It did burst, and was so infected that they had to do the surgery the old-fashioned way, which means longer recovery and a much bigger scar. She stayed in the hospital for four nights and came home to recover. Within two days she started having terrible pains in her side and went back to the ER. The doctors said that her abdomen was re-infected, and that she now had fluid in and around her lungs. We thought it was something small, but they eventually told us that she had pneumonia. They loaded her up with antibiotics and took some fluid out of her lung, but sent her home after another four night stay. She was home for five days, and the pain that returned was so bad that she went back to the ER yesterday, and of course, is re-admitted. She stayed last night and will at least stay tonight. Today they drained her right lung (gross, I know, but we're so glad they did) and said it wasn't infected like it was last week. They're going to do some more scans tomorrow to check on the fluid in her lungs and on the abdominal infections.

I miss my Whitty :( Needless to say, it's been tough having her feeling so sick, but we've been incredibly lucky to have the love and support of our family and friends. My parents, Whitney's mother, and my sister have all come into town to help with Will at one point or another, and so many others have given their support and encouragement with notes and phone calls. We already knew how lucky we were, but it's been touching and it means an awful lot to us.

Will has been having a blast with Grandmommy, Grammie, Grandpa, Aunt Christy and his cousin and great buddy Jonny. We have a lot of great new stories and pictures from Florida and beyond, but those will have to wait until things settle down for us. A couple quick notable things though...Will is crawling (started on May 1st and gets better every day), pulling himself up to his feet in his crib and a few other places, and is really starting to say a lot. They're not words, but it's great to listen to. Dadadadada is the most common lately, so maybe I'll win the Mama vs. Dada race after all. Either way, he still gives Whitney the biggest and wettest kisses, so I bow to her greatness no matter what.

Will's first visit to the Great Lakes!

2009-04-27T14:28:00.000-05:00

Our Visit to Texas

2009-04-24T20:49:00.006-05:00

Will and I recently made a trip all by ourselves to Texas. Will did amazing on the plane and made many new friends! He's a very outgoing baby! My mom picked us up in Houston and from there we drove to Tomball to see my cousin Meg, her husband, Steven and meet Addison, their beautiful new baby girl:

We headed to College Station after visiting Addie and stayed there for the rest of our visit. Will's cousin, Asher, came to play from Dallas. His mommy and daddy are my sister, Meredith, and her husband, Mark. Will and Asher were very interested in each other and had a lot of cute interactions, but Will had a little trouble sharing his toys:

Grandmommy loved spending time with her boys! In about two months, she'll have

three to hold! (My sister, Stephanie and her husband, Jason, are expecting a boy in June!)

On our last night, Will decided to try this:

Oops! Time to lower the mattress!

Here are some other pictures we took before our Texas trip:

Bath time cuteness...

Riding in his stroller, big-boy style!

Almost crawling! Will has been rocking back and forth on his hands and knees for about a week now. It is cute to watch him try so hard to move forward! But eventually he flops back to his tummy and rolls over onto his back!

I love my new high chair!

2009-04-13T17:21:00.000-05:00

Thanks Grammie and Grandpa!!!

Six Month Check-up

2009-03-26T10:27:00.002-05:00

We just got back from Will's six month check-up. He did really well and is right where he's supposed to be in his growth and development. We mentioned our trouble with Will not wanting to eat solid foods and Dr. Conolly wants to experiment with time of day and time between baby food feedings and his bottle feedings. Cross your fingers for us!

Will also got a round of shots. Yuck! He cried, but got over it pretty quickly. The doctor told us that he would probably react to the shots the same as last time. After his four month shots, he ran a 102 degree fever.

Here are Will's latest stats compared to his four month stats:

4 Months:

Height=25 " (50th percentile)

Weight=13 lbs 13.6 oz (25%)

6 Months:

Height=26 1/2 " (50%)

Weight=16 lbs 8.2 oz (45%)

A little game for you...

2009-03-22T07:13:00.004-05:00

See if you can guess who this is:

If you guessed Will, you did not win the dream vacation. This is Will's cousin Jonny, although I don't know how old he was in this picture. The resemblance is uncanny in a lot of pictures!

Six Months!!

2009-03-20T19:18:00.009-05:00

Our Will turned six months old on March 16th! We can't believe how fast he is growing and learning. It seems like it was just yesterday that I was holding him all night, every night on the couch. (It also feels like another lifetime.) He is such a snuggly, smiley, happy little fellow and Johnathan and I love him more everyday! Here are several cute pictures and a couple videos:

Look at what I can do!

I am such a big boy!

Will has been paying a lot more attention to the weenies lately. He reaches out for everything, and when he gets hold of something, this is what he does:

Will has always enjoyed his bathtime, but he recently started playing around instead of just chilling. He gets so slippery that one of us has to squat next to him and hold him with both hands while the other does the scrubbing. Those really hairy legs are Whitney's:

Will and Ruby

2009-03-14T20:58:00.007-05:00

Today we got together with our new friends, Amy and Jason. Actually, Johnathan knows Amy from high school and recently got back in touch after many years. They have a precious little girl named Ruby who is about 6 weeks younger than Will. Will and Ruby had fun looking at each other and Will liked grabbing her shirt and reaching out to touch her face. Here are a couple of sweet pictures:

"Ummm...hands off, mister!"

"Okay, let's be pals."

"Daddy, girls are cool!"

2009-03-13T18:54:00.002-05:00

Today Whitney got this great video of Will playing in his jumperoo. His legs are getting stronger everyday and he's finding out some fun ways to use them.

William

2009-02-20T19:00:00.003-06:00

Our gleeful little guy wearing his new bib straight from Disney World! Thanks, Amy!

Will's signature camera face....

MMMM..Delicious!

My favorite picture ever

2009-02-13T07:22:00.003-06:00

In the cabin near the toboggan tracks last weekend.

I'm pretty sure this is not a relative of mine .

2009-02-11T22:11:00.002-06:00

A site dedicated to hating him:
http://blog.stephenfowlersucks.com/

And to add insult to injury:
http://blog.stephenfowlersucks.com/2009/02/03/we-have-a-new-word-fowleristic.aspx

That guy sounds TERRIBLE. Did anyone see that episode??

Will Gets Aquainted with his Jumperoo...Thanks, Aunt Christy!

2009-02-10T11:38:00.007-06:00

A fun weekend in Indiana!

2009-02-08T21:04:00.011-06:00

We had a really nice time visiting family in Indiana yesterday and today. Not many people from my family have been able to meet Will yet, so it was special for Will to get acquainted with them. My parents, and my sister and her family were all there too. Here are some pictures from the trip.

Will talked about manly things with his cousin and close buddy Jonny. Here they are "putting out the vibe":

Will loves his Grammie and Grandpa:

Brenda and Jessie welcome Will to Indiana:

Will ate his toes at every opportunity:

The family at the hotel:

Today on the way back we visited a blast from my past and rode the toboggan run at Pokagon State Park. When we visited family in Indiana (usually over Christmas break), the cousins would go to this park. It has a quarter-mile long dual sled track that is refrigerated for several months of the year, so it runs even if there's no snow or if it's above freezing.

Whitney the Southern Belle had never ridden a sled of any kind before today - please enjoy her silly noises as she enjoys her maiden voyage:

Finally, some cute pictures that my mother took in the "warming house" by the tracks:

A rest stop picture...

2009-02-08T13:11:00.000-06:00

Sleep Training

2009-02-06T18:11:00.010-06:00

As most of you know, we've had sleeping issues with our little boy from day one. It seemed like we'd tried everything...swaddling, bassinet, swing....until, our friends Derek and Karianne sent us a wonderful book called, Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Dr. Marc Weissbluth. Dr. W. emphasizes the importance of sleep training and gives instructions on how to set up effective sleep habits. I could really go on and on, but the the best part is that we think it is working! Our Will set a new record last night. He slept in his crib for 5 1/2 hours straight! Yea!!

Here are a couple of recent pictures of Will:

Give me that camera!

Will's still not swallowing much (if any) of his rice cereal, but we try every morning. He either spits it out right away or stores some under his tongue and then spits it out with another bite! During the last two feedings, Will has sneezed with a mouthful of cereal and his mommy has gotten a nice rice cereal facial!

Will likes to play in his rainforest!

Will decided he really doesn't like to be on his tummy. He hasn't learned how to turn back over to his back. Just look at those cute little ears!!

Grrrrrr.....

2009-02-05T21:22:00.006-06:00

When I said the following things to Whitney, she said, "Oh my gosh. Please don't blog about this". She knows me too well!

There are two things that are recently making me really angry: Candy Land and that store where you can get pet supplies at. I'm not sure what it's called.

See, that's the problem. For a while I wondered if it was PetSmart, or instead, PetsMart, or maybe even Pet'sMart. Each of those would make perfect sense, right? For clarification, I looked at the sign, and it ended up just putting me in a bad mood. The sign is in two colors, which by itself would be a big help, because PET is in red and SMART is in blue. Case closed? No. They have some weird bouncing ball thing above the letters that looks like it might be an apostrophe, and where is it? You guessed it - right between the T and the S. That is annoying, but I just resigned to the fact that the different colors have to trump the bouncing ball - but wait a second! Damnit! Underneath the store near us, they have another sign that advertises their pet boarding service, and it is called, in all capitals, and in one color, PETSHOTEL. That negates the entire idea of the two colors, right? If it really is PetSmart, then the boarding service would have be called PetShotel. There is no such thing as a shotel - but wait a second - ah, crap. Apparently a shotel is a curved Ethiopian sword. Problem is, they don't even sell those there.

I apologize for wasting your time with this, but as I told Derek, one thing about a good company is that you know what it's called. Grrrr....

I'm also annoyed by Candy Land. I'd be able to look past it but sometimes I have to play it with my younger kids while we talk. I'm sure you have fond memories of this game, but it's perhaps the worst game ever to attain huge popularity. That and War. In both games, you don't ever make a single decision, and that's why it stinks. Before you even open the box, the winner of Candy Land is determined! Let's open up a box, look at some cute pictures of people living in candy landscapes, and turn over cards that tell us exactly where to go until the game is over. Again, I could probably look past it, but I have to listen to kids tell me that they're "really good at Candy Land." I'm all about self-esteem in children, but no one in history has ever been good at Candy Land. That is a weird thing to say about a game, but think about it, it's true!

Grrr...

I feel like Peter Griffin on his "You Know What Really Grinds My Gears" segments.

To me it look like a leprechaun to me!

2009-02-01T12:52:00.004-06:00

Many of you have probably seen this already, but Whit and I were watching it again this morning and howling and thought we'd share it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nda_OSWeyn8

If you think that there aren't millions of people in this country alone who openly believe things just as crazy as this, I will politely disagree with you :)

In other news, the tourney was rough yesterday and I still have a bad taste in my mouth from it. Mostly because they fed us Funyuns. But seriously, I paid for a 4 game tourney and only played 2. I had a bye in the third round, which meant I only was going to get to play 3, but also that I would have to wait around for over 3 hours for my final game. It was annoying. I understand that an odd number of entrants will cause that problem, but I was the only person in my group to pre-register for the tournament - you'd think that'd get me a better setup. I politely complained and they said it was random. Oh well.

The worst part was that I played much like a turd sandwich would play, which is pretty badly. I was nervous and wasn't paying close enough attention in my first game, and I lost a knight on like my 6th move. That, folks, is not easy for even a beginner to do. So, I was really ticked off and had to calm myself down. I even got up and left for a few minutes and had to convince myself not to just resign and go home (it was a good lesson in sportsmanship for me). Adulthood can suck at times! Part of the problem was that my opponent was very good in comparison to me (rated 1598) and I knew I was already done for, after all of that anticipation. I calmed down and told myself that he'd win and that was fine, but I was going to make his brain hurt in the process - and I did. Afterwards he told me that he could tell I was nervous and that he was impressed with how I sat back down and gave him a really interesting game. That was pretty nice of him to say. We also replayed the whole game in the hallway and talked about the moves. He's a retired truck driver, probably about 50 years old, and had some good pointers from me. He said something to the effect of, "You said you play almost exclusively online. I bet not being used to looking at a large board with a person on the other side really felt different and made you play a little differently too. You'll get much better and will gain a lot of points by playing in person more often." My thoughts exactly.

Game two was against a man around age 75 who insisted he had no chance of beating me. I appreciated his kindness but it was also annoying, knowing that he actually had a very good chance. His rating was below mine but he had the white pieces and played extremely well. I actually was more impressed with his play than with my first opponent. The game was straightforward (or "boring"). Neither of us made any blunders, both of us had good goals for every move we made - he just outplayed me very slowly and created a weakness around my king that he did a nice job taking advantage of in the end. He told me it was an interesting game. I'm not so sure - but he was very nice.

I was still disappointed, however, and with Whitney preferring my help at home to about 5 more hours of mall-dom, I told them I was leaving. They have a tourney every month. I said I'd be back in February :)

1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.e3?

2009-01-31T07:52:00.008-06:00

Today I'll be playing in my second rated chess tournament, believe it or not, at the mall. There is a store in one of the malls (store link here) that hosts tournaments, gives lessons, sells equipment, etc. Unfortunately, it's a little out of the way, and I don't really have the time to be a member - but it's still cool that it's there. In December they had a noted Grandmaster (not you, Grandmaster Ashley, although we'd love your expertise as well) come and give a free lesson and then a 15-game "simul", wherein he played 15 games at a time with cash prizes for anyone who won or drew a game. I was traveling that day and couldn't go, but next time I hope to play. By the way - one expert player drew one game, so GM Yermolinsky went 14.5/15. They also have lessons given by the multiple US championship winner GM Shabalov. He's currently the 12th best player in the country! Considering how much I've gotten into chess, it seems silly not to be a member - but it just doesn't make sense right now with Will/work/travel. Either way, I'll try and participate in their events as much as I can, which leads me to...

Today I am playing in the House of Chess Open. I'll get 4 games in the 1600 and under section (since I'm in it they may change the title to '1600 and WAY UNDER'). 45 minutes per side, per game. This will mean shorter games (90 minutes max) than the ones in the Austin tourney from last summer, which could last about 135 minutes apiece).

Probably none of you have made it this far in the post, so I could just say anything and no one would ever know! So here goes: I've decided to become a Scientologist! It just makes so much sense and is so LOGICAL. Immortal alien spirits inside of me? Well, of COURSE.

Moving on. The title of the post is an opening I've been studying and it seems like it's not incredibly popular or supported by really good players. I'm going to play it anyway today, because I've been having fun with it online and I think it fits my style pretty well. If I get demolished in my two games as white, I'll never play it again, but why not live a little. My goal for tourney #1 was to draw one game, and i won one. My goal today is just to have fun and not be so friggin' nervous.

Whit, Will and a couple friends will be stopping by the tourney later to silently cheer me on. The winner of each section (read: someone else) gets a hundred buckaroos and eternal fame. The most I plan to earn is an enjoyable day out and some Pretzel Bites from Auntie Anne's. Care to join me?

Our laughing, thumbsucking, breakdancing baby!

2009-01-27T21:47:00.014-06:00

Here are a few videos from last night and tonight, and then a bunch of pictures. This first video is the first one we've gotten of him laughing. He has a silly laugh and randomly decides what is funny, and then will laugh at nothing else. Tonight, Whitney was putting lotion on his face and saw a patch of dry skin on his knee. She asked him if he wanted some lotion on his dry spot, and this time around, Will decided, "That's pretty darn funny!"

Daddy shaved his goatee off for the first time in a loooooong time. We asked him what he thought of it:

Will has been kicking his legs around pretty well lately. Last night, he must have broken some kind of record. If you think he's kicking fast, keep watching. I'm actually surprised he didn't take off into the air:

Next, some pictures! Will can't keep things out of his mouth lately. His favorite things to eat are his fingers, then his thumb, then anything he can grab. He grabs whatever you put in front of him. He's taken the glasses off of my face and put them in his mouth on several occasions. This new habit also leads to a considerable increase in drool.

"Ahhhhhhh...."

Will adores his mobile and so do his parents, because it's the one place we can put him down and have at least some confidence that he'll be content on his own for more than 30 seconds. An added bonus is the fact that laying under his mobile sometimes makes him drop a major load.

Random cute closeup:

Finally, a couple of snowy pictures for you all. This is outside of our front door:

Lake Erie looks like this right now:

Reading Already!

2009-01-26T21:39:00.006-06:00

A nice work distraction...

2009-01-25T23:01:00.004-06:00

This post is not about Will. I'm allowed, right? No?

I was just in major need of a break from my paperwork that I'm so behind on, and was looking at pictures and video from Austin City Limits Festival in 2007. I got to see one of my favorite bands, Iron & Wine, and got some great pictures and video from the show. My man Sam was sporting his usual caveman beard and sounded unbelievable. Enjoy a picture I took as well as the full video of the song Naked As We Came. I was really moved by the accordion, which isn't used on the CD version, so it was totally unexpected and really gorgeous.

At about 26 seconds into the video, there is some screeching feedback - it only lasts a second, don't turn it off! Enjoy :)

I made a funny!

2009-01-23T21:23:00.001-06:00

Will has really bad gas tonight. Sometimes he farts multiple times in a kind of rhythm.

Get ready for it...

...I call it the William Smell Overture.

I Don't Know About This......

2009-01-23T19:32:00.001-06:00

Holiday Pictures

2009-01-18T08:27:00.011-06:00

Greetings! It's snowing large, wet flakes as the white winter wonderland of Westlake gets whiter by the minute. There is well over a foot of snow and it's gorgeous. We had the coldest week in the history of weather (which apparently has been around for quite some time) and I'm just glad to emerge with all of my appendages. Luckily, Will stayed in for the entire week, although I did make him help me briefly with the shoveling. It builds character, son! Here is an image I saved from weather.com from one night this week. Legal disclaimer: After viewing this image, your head may explode:

Now that the temperature is back up to a toasty 22 degrees, my fingers are able to type again and I will share with you some pictures of Buddypants from his trip to Texas over the holidays. Some of you have heard the story if his airplane diaper blowout, which I won't go into here. Suffice it to say that Will picked a most inopportune time to completely clear out his colon. Other than that, however, Will did really well on the plane.

First, it was really special to finally meet our new nephew Asher and to see the boys playing together. On a related note, congratulations to Stephie and Jason for finding out that they too are having a boy!!! Testosterone abounds in the Roop household! Okay, back to business, here are the gals and their boyz:

Granddad was excited to see his grandson for the first time since he was a newborn:

Tired from his big trip:

We went to Austin for a couple of nights, which was awesome. It was special to see everyone, although it was a very short trip. First we hung out with the Kurths, and strangely enough we don't have any pictures of them or their beautiful children, Kaeta and Jonah. My only picture of them involves Derek and a very odd hat - which I won't post without permission. We put Will in their Bumbo and he did pretty well, although his head slowly fell to one side and had to be held up a bit:

Will also loved meeting his Aunt Janet and Uncle Kevin! Will was very smiley with them and also enjoyed getting to join them at our favorite Indian restaurant in Austin:

Will got some great toys from Santa, and his favorite seemed to be this one, which he likes to grab onto and pull up to his mouth for exploration:

Baby Asher got one too:

Lately we've enjoyed seeing a lot of "firsts" from William. He now loves grabbing his feet, and tries desperately to get his toes into his mouth. He's so close! Sometimes we help him out and that makes him very happy. He also started eating some rice cereal on our trip, and he is very confused by it:

We have many more pictures of our trip, but I want to keep this post reasonable. We had such a wonderful time with friends and family and we really miss and love you all. Hopefully we can see you all again very soon. I will leave you with some pictures from this morning. Will seems to prefer this toy lately. He turns on his side to look at it, then grabs it, rolls back onto his back, then pulls it up to his face and rubs his face with it or puts the wings in his mouth:

Much love to you all.
-J

Wow.

2009-01-16T02:31:00.003-06:00

It's 3:30 in the morning, and I've just gotten done taking out the dogs. Can anyone guess the temperature? If you said -9 degrees with a wind chill of -24, you were right! You win the prize, which is a shivering pair of weenies and an angry bearded man!

Many new pics of Buddypants to come in the next couple of days. We have misplaced our camera's battery charger and can't download our pictures until we find it. It's too bad, because I have a great shot of Whitney trying out for American Idol in a bikini.

Watch Me Roll Over!

2008-12-22T21:14:00.003-06:00

Will turned 3 months old on December 16th. He rolled for the first time just 2 days later! It is so cute to watch him work so hard to get from his back to his tummy and then cry as soon as he is on his tummy because he doesn't like it! Poor guy! It's like his little baby brain is telling him to roll, but he doesn't know why! He can't flip back over yet, so we rescue him from his misery only to find him rolling over again seconds later.

A Joyous Occasion

2008-12-21T20:36:00.003-06:00

A few years ago, Johnathan's mom picked up some prints from the drugstore and found this beautiful picture nestled in with her own. She has no idea who these people are or why they look so unhappy!
We've named them Victor and Maria Hernandez. Check out the man in the background! Is he announcing them as man and wife to all of the wedding guests or is he Maria's father protesting the marriage? We can only speculate.
Johnathan and I have kept the picture because we love it so much! Someday I will make it into greeting cards! Enjoy!

A Christmas Disco Dance from the Five Fowlers

2008-12-19T09:06:00.001-06:00

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/VDQt6j6pS5Fv6zxR

A few cute pictures for you to enjoy!

2008-12-14T11:14:00.005-06:00

Sadly, I have yet to see a penguin.

2008-12-07T05:35:00.002-06:00

Greetings from the frozen tundra of Westlake, Ohio! Yesterday afternoon and evening we got what I'd consider our first real snow, meaning that the ground is covered and the world is white. It's really beautiful. I'm not so sure the dogs like bouncing around in it, but they're getting used to it. Will is indifferent because he stayed inside all day and cried anytime somebody opened the door (and understandably so - it was in the low 20's and felt like 8-9 degrees). I don't have any pictures yet, since it's still dark outside. There are icicles hanging under all of the cars, it looks cool.

Master William (William sounds so regal, it just works, okay?) had a really good day yesterday. He ate almost what a normal baby should eat, and I say that because he's had a difficult time taking his food for quite a while. He'll eat a couple ounces here or there, but we've had to supplement his formula with other liquids to keep him hydrated when he's not willing to keep eating. It's been strange and frustrating, but we've gone by the doctor's orders to make sure everything is fine. Anyway, yesterday he ate a lot, and as a result he's sleeping pretty well right now. He slept for 2.5 hours, then another 2.5, and now he's been asleep for 45 minutes and hopefully many more. It doesn't sound like much, but let me tell you, it's a HUGE improvement. Those of you with babies sleeping 7 hours a night, you are lucky!

Oh, and how could I forget? Will laughed for the first time this week. It was unbelievable. We got him to repeat it several times that evening by making fart noises with our tongue. That's what still makes ME laugh. He is very much like his Daddy.

Thanksgiving and Other Pics

2008-12-05T10:22:00.011-06:00

Johnathan, Will and I ventured up to Michigan for Thanksgiving this year. Johnathan's parents live in Sanford, a small town outside of Midland. It's about a 4 1/2 hour drive from us...5 hours with baby! We had such a wonderful time and got some much needed rest thanks to everyone helping to take care of little Will. Here are a few pictures from our trip:

Will and Aunt Christy (Johnathan's big sis)

Will sleeping soundly in his "Sweet Pea" bassinet

Will loves his Grandpa Fowler!

My friend Angel, who lives next door, took these great pictures of Will while she was babysitting him. Now, why can't I get pictures like these? I always seem to snap the picture right after he smiles!

So precious.....

This is Angel's 5 month old little boy, Isaac. He and Will are great friends! Isaac linked arms with Will as they were laying on the floor together for pictures!!

Will's 2 Month Check-Up

2008-11-20T11:19:00.000-06:00

I was so anxious about Will's doctor visit today because he had to get his first round of vaccinations. He got two shots in one thigh and one in the other and as soon as the first prick was over, he let out the most pitiful scream and his face turned beet red. Luckily, the nurse was super fast and did all three shots within a few seconds. Then, I scooped him up as quickly as I could and loved him up until he stopped crying. He was fast asleep before we even left the doctor's office!

One of the not-so-bad things about going to the doctor is getting to find out how much Will has grown. Check out how big our boy has gotten:
Birth: 8 lbs 12 oz and 18.5 inches long
Two weeks: 9 lbs 2.8 oz and 19.75 inches
One month: 10 lbs 10 oz and 21.5 inches
Two months: 11 lbs 3.6 oz and 23 inches

First Taste of Winter

2008-11-18T10:42:00.000-06:00

It's been snowing this week in Westlake, Ohio! Johnathan said that people who "know snow" will laugh at my excitement over this little bit. Here are some pictures of the area around our apartment:

And of course, some pictures of baby Will...........

Another Weenie Dog in the Neighborhood

2008-11-16T12:07:00.000-06:00

We have some new neighbors a couple of apartments down and they happen to have a new baby weenie. He is so adorable and is named Mr. Brown. Mr. Brown is brown and cream dappled and has one blue eye and one brown. After meeting the new weenie, I decided to pull up a couple of pictures of baby Penny.

First day at home. Penny weighed less than 2 lbs!

First of many smooches...

Gosh, I want another one! Just kidding!!

Visitors from Texas!

2008-11-13T10:30:00.000-06:00

Hello everyone! This is Whitney and I am proud to be posting for the very first time. I don't know why it took me so long!
The Fowler family has been very busy lately. Will had six visitors from Texas last week! My mom, sister Stephanie and grandmother Janie flew in on Halloween and stayed for five days. Then, my cousin Ashley and her two adorable children, Zandt and Lexi, flew in from Dallas.
Here are some pictures from the visits:

This is Janie (Will's great grandmother!) holding Will for the first time! This was so special for me because Janie and I have always been very close.

And my mom getting a nice snuggle from Will....

What a cute guy!

Big cousin Zandt and a smile from Will!

Ashley and Zandt with Will. Will is wearing an outfit that Zandt wore when he was a baby!

Here are some other cute pictures:

It's about time!

2008-10-11T18:56:00.000-05:00

Hello friends and family! I'm sorry that we haven't posted pictures on here yet. We've been very busy and we can't believe it's been over 6 weeks - still, no excuse for not posting anything yet. More to come soon.

We're all doing well. Will is somewhere around 11 and a half pounds and appears to be healthy, although this past week he's developed colic, which has been kind of rough. We've had to take him off of breast milk and are trying some special formula to ease his tummy - cross your fingers!

Without further ado, here are several pictures of William, a.k.a. "cutest kid ever". I acknowledge that the previous statement may involve some bias. These will be kind of random until I can get the pictures more organized. Enjoy :)

This is the first closeup of his face. They were still cleaning him off (sorry for the goo) and I don't think he was too pleased to be out of his warm, snuggly house inside Whit's tummy.

Will quickly learned to pee all over the wall while he's getting his diaper changed. Since then we've gotten good at covering him up:

Will's first sink bath:

Penny and Polly are lonely!

Getting prepped for the winter:

First smile caught on camera!

Will is nice and squishy:

We've upgraded to real baths now - Will loves them!

Ready and waiting!!!

2008-09-13T14:56:00.001-05:00

It's two days before the official due date and we're still waiting for Baby Will to give us a clue as to when he'll emerge. The good news is that Whitney is progressing, according to her doctor, and he seemed to think that labor before Tuesday was a possibility - so we're definitely in "any day mode".

Here are some pictures of how big Will has gotten, and of his crib and changing table that were finally delivered yesterday. We have a safari theme, and the pictures above the crib are ones that my Dad and I took when we went to Kenya in 1998. If you can see it okay, the big picture in the middle has a grown elephant with a baby elephant slightly visible behind it, basking in the sun. It's a great shot (Dad took that one) and a nice thematic one too :)

So now all we need is our son...and we're so excited to meet him.

We're on pins and needles - we'll let you all know when we know something!

Random Stuff

2008-08-15T11:01:00.000-05:00

1. The other night I was at WalMart at 1:30 a.m. buying...some things. As I approached the register with my two items, I had to make a goofy joke about them, because that's what I do. I said, "Just the essentials, a plunger and some golf tees". The lady behind the counter said, "Wait, are you using both of those for the same purpose?" I just shook my head and said, "You don't want to know". She did not respond.

2. The tees were for golf, which I played yesterday. I shot a 39 on the front 9, the best nine holes of my life. Yeah, okay, it was par 35 on the front, but if you want to make something of that, you can go suck an egg. With a 47 on the back 9, I was extremely happy with my 86. I haven't shot that low since probably 2003 or so. Plus, I got to play by myself, a real luxury in the golf world. I didn't have to pair up with random men and make the obligatory pseudo-macho comments. Good ball, Jim. That one sounded good, Bob. Don't touch me there, Joe.

Have a nice Friday.

Preggy Pants

2008-08-14T17:05:00.000-05:00

Well, each week brings us closer to meeting our little guy. We're both extremely excited to start our lives with Will. It's been an interesting process, getting mentally ready for the changes that are coming (very soon), but it's been an important one too. I have always been excited to be a Daddy, but I think recently I started to feel ready, and that's a big shift. Or maybe not. I've never done this before!

Will is growing rapidly, and wiggling all over. Sometimes he gets the hiccups and you can see Whitney's shirt moving every couple of seconds. Sometimes he turns over and you can see Whitney's tummy do a sort of wave-like motion. Sometimes his foot gets up near her ribs and you can literally feel his foot if you press your hand against her side. He tends to move it away pretty quickly. Maybe he's ticklish.

This weekend we have two long childbirth classes at the hospital, which I know we'll both really benefit from. I admit that I haven't done a lot of studying about what goes on at the hospital, but apparently there's some screaming, some crying, and lots of goo. The more I do read about it enlightens me as I become better acquainted with a key idea: Mommies have to do all of the hard work. If anyone has suggestions about how to be a good "hospital hubby", I'm all ears.

Here are some pictures we took last weekend:

We had fun at the Cleveland Zoo on Saturday:

Apparently we also live in a zoo, because the road that winds around behind our apartment is constantly producing deer for our viewing enjoyment. Sometimes we'll see six or seven at a time, with babies and everything. I stopped on the side of the road and watched this one for about five minutes. When I talked to it, its tail moved around, so either it liked me or it had a fly on its butt.

Whitney told me she'd seen a beaver a couple times, and yesterday we saw...something. We noticed it didn't have a beaver's tail, so we decided maybe it was a woodchuck, although we didn't really know what a woodchuck was supposed to look like. We looked it up later, and sure enough, a woodchuck it was. That made me think: How much wood could a woodchuck, ah crap, nevermind. A question for you though: Are woodchucks and groundhogs the same animals? I would have said no, but look it up:

Finally, a couple weeks ago, Mom and Dad came down to Cleveland to visit us in our new abode. We had a great time, especially at Malley's, an ice cream parlor and chocolate shop right around the corner from us.

Dad helped me put the stroller together. How do we look? All we need now is a little buddy to go with it. Talk to you all soon.
-Johnathan

Guess the birthdate!

2008-07-29T13:49:00.001-05:00

http://www.expectnet.com/games/FIVEFOWLERS

Our first few weeks in Ohio

2008-07-29T10:57:00.000-05:00

Hello friends and family! Sorry that we haven't posted anything in so long. We've been busy, sort of, but most of all we've been enjoying the free time that we have before my internship begins and before Will joins us! We're loving it here in Ohio, although I think we've each had some homesick moments this week. Everything is going well, though. Whitney is healthy (although no longer comfortable, sleeping, sitting, standing, doing TaeBo, etc.) and the baby room is finally coming together. I've been informed not to post pictures of the baby room until it's one hundred percent complete - who am I to disobey? The weather is beautiful, the lake is wonderful, the town is friendly, and the dogs are annoying. Anyway, this post will cover a ton of things we've done since moving to Ohio. Enjoy the pictures!

First of all, we had the pleasure of having Anne stay with us for a week after we got here. She graciously helped us unpack and get settled in, and we ate a LOT of good food. The day before she went back to Texas, Christy and Jonny came up to Cleveland for the day and we all had a really nice time together.

Here we all are playing at a nearby park. You may notice the large baby that's growing inside my wife's uterus:

Back at our place, Jonny showed us his new crawling and climbing abilities. He was really fast!

After Anne went home, Whitney and I spent a long weekend in Michigan with my parents. It was VERY relaxing and nice. We sat out on the back porch and watched sunsets, had some good home cookin', and spent a lot of time on their new boat. I even went water-skiing and Dad and I went tubing. I also went to the casino with my mom and played some poker - quite a weekend! I'll post those boat pictures soon (I don't have them quite yet), but here are a couple from that weekend that I took with my cell phone. The first is from their back yard and the second is from an awesome hole at Bucks Run, where Dad and I played golf. I put TWO in the water from the tee box here. I was threatening a sub-90 round on a tough course (which for me is great) until I posted a seven on this par three. Oops!

Moving on...Our laundry area is upstairs at our townhome. Does that create any worry in anyone's mind? I wonder what would happen if...hmmmm...No, surely, we wouldn't flood our townhome within the first two weeks of living there. However, if we did, after we had walked in to find water POURING THROUGH THE CEILING, once the GALLONS AND GALLONS OF WATER had been sucked out of the carpet, and the ceiling had been poked so that the excess water would drain out, and the drywall had been left to dry out for a week before they replaced the whole ceiling, that ceiling MIGHT look like this:

All of our stuff is fine - just a big scare.

I had the pleasure of taking Whitney's cousin Courtney to Cedar Point last week. We had a blast, although we had about a 2 hour "resting period" as thunder, lightning and hail attacked us from all sides. Until we braved the storm long enough to run to the nearest arcade, we were stuck under a canopy with picnic tables and about 25 other people. The picture doesn't do the storm justice. And then here are my shoes under a black light (random?!).

This post is almost over, don't worry.

Just kidding, here's some more. Before you look any further, see if you can guess which of these is not true:

1. At a nearby beach, there is an official sign that says you aren't allowed to defecate in the water.
2. The local Sears Grand has items on sale for 7 percent off.
3. Also at Sears Grand, the internet stations have signs that explicitly warn you against chatting with "girls" that are "12 years old" that are really old men.
4. On more than one occasion I have seen "Pop" on a restaurant menu.
5. Penny loves to swim in Lake Erie.
6. Polly loves to swim in Lake Erie.

What did you guess? Look further for the answers!

Does this crack anyone up besides me? Did they have to put this on the sign? I'd hate to be a guy with open sores and wounds who likes to defecate in the water at beaches. What a buzzkill this sign would be...

What, was ten percent too much to take off???

Obviously I support the idea behind this sign, especially if these stations are primarily used by children. I just thought it interesting to have a sign full of essentially the same warning, over and over again, only to just come right out and say it.

Hey, let's go to Meijer and get some pop. Vernor's and Mountain Dew for everyone!

We were AMAZED when Penny's first beach experience involved running straight into the water and swimming around. People at the beach probably wondered why I was giggling uncontrollably.

Every time a big wave came, Penny would move back about a foot. It was hilarious. And many of you probably guessed correctly- this is the farthest Polly ever got:

Finally, I'll leave you with a shot of my three ladies (and one gentleman). Much love to you all :)

Cleveland rules!

2008-07-09T22:49:00.001-05:00

...wait...what's the saying again? Oh wait, I got it. Cleveland is neato! No, that's not it. Grrrrrr.....

Today we pulled into Cleveland to move into our new place, and by we, I mean myself and Steve (Whitney's dad). We drove 1390 miles in around 23 hours, which isn't too bad considering the fact that we had a big U-haul truck towing a car. Gas was painful but Steve graciously offered to buy many tanks of gas along the way - an extremely noble gesture that was much appreciated. The trip was strangely uneventful, until we got to Cincinatti last night. We had four hours left, and a hotel room already paid for, but decided to go on through to Cleveland for a victory that was purely psychological (we couldn't move in until today, no matter when we got there). We decided to try and meet up with Christy (my sister) for dinner in Columbus, which we did. As we got out of our vehicles Christy pointed out that my Santa Fe had a deflated tire. It was a pretty bad flat, and Christy offered her house to us, which we decided was an offer we couldn't refuse - and it was really great to get to spend more time with her, Jon, and Jonny Mike. Jonny Mike is crawling all over the place and has learned to wave to people. It was completely adorable. Anyway, this morning we took the car to Goodyear and found out that the tire needed to be replaced (due to a horribly misplaced nail in the tire). I ended up replacing both back tires and we got out of there in time to sign the lease at noon in Westlake.

Things are moving smoothly and we're anxously awaiting Whitney and Anne tomorrow evening to tell us what to do with all of this crap we have amassed over the past five years. Plus, I miss my baby boy. I realize that he's just a blob in a womb but I still miss him.

Finally, a short note on Austin, Texas. Leaving Austin and saying goodbye to the many friends we've made there was a difficult thing for both me and Whitney. As our great friend Kevin put it, it's not goodbye, but rather a 'see you soon'. Still, we already miss, and will continue to miss, our dear friends in Texas.

So, Cleveland it is. For how long, you may ask...and I'd answer, "Who knows?" Maybe just the year, maybe much more. We'll see where life takes us, and specifically, where I can get a good job for my family after my internship is over....and yes...Cleveland does rock.

One more thing for tonight....

2008-07-02T00:37:00.000-05:00

In case any of you didn't know yet, we're going to name our son William Allan Fowler. We plan to call him Will.

Last Friday Whitney had her last OBGYN appointment in Austin. We got to listen to Will's heartbeat (strong and just the right speed) and Whitney got to drink a super-sugary drink to test for gestational diabetes. She passed. I think she made it all up just so that she could drink some loaded Kool-Aid.

Pictures, Part Three

2008-07-02T00:06:00.000-05:00

Each year, for the past four or five years, my father and I have met in Las Vegas for a father/son trip where we manage to squeeze in golf, good food, a show, and LOTS of gambling into a few great days. This year, because of internship interviews, dissertation, and a little thing called Baby Will, we had to postpone the trip. Since we only had a couple of days this year, we met in Tunica, Mississippi for two nights last week. It was a great time, we had lots of fun, and much success at the tables as well!

One fun thing we did was to go to Willows Sporting Clays, which offered a range of clay pigeon shooting experiences. Neither my Dad or myself have much gun experience, so it was educational as well as exciting. The experience went like this: A guide drove us around in a golf cart from station to station, and at each station there were three different shots to take. The guide had a handset with three buttons, one for shot A, one for B, and one for C. They each corresponded to a machine somewhere out in front of the shooting area that shot a clay pigeon through the air for us to shoot at. Some were high lobs moving away from us, some towards us, some shot across the ground, and some went VERY quickly from left to right or right to left. The degree of difficulty varied greatly from shot to shot, but we each got 8 shots at each station, no matter what.

Oh, if you're wondering, the answer is yes - we bet against each other. Here are some pictures of the fun!

Golfer meets Hank Hill?

Our guide, at the first station, showing Dad how to load the shotgun and call for his shots.

An action shot right down the barrel.

I just realized that I'm wearing the same shirt as when I shot guns at the Roop farm a couple weeks earlier. If you see me in that shirt, watch out, pardner.

This picture is currently the wallpaper on my laptop.

Smokin'.

Can you see the machine that shoots out the clay pigeons? This was only one of three at this station, but it's representative of how hidden many of them were. You say, "Pull!" and out shoots this flying orange disc. (Hint - it's on the right behind some trees).

The grounds were covered with shells. It was a great day. I won't reveal who won the bets. It was so close that an analysis of variance run in SPSS said that there was, statistically speaking, no significant difference between the means.

And moving on, here are a few of the pictures I had time to take before the chess tournament started. First, the kids played in classrooms set up like this:

The adults played in the library:

And finally, we had a hilarious experience the other night. The dogs were being REALLY snuggly. Penny was laying down and Pollywas resting her head on top of Penny's back. Sometimes they lay together, but this was out of character for them. I tried to sneak a picture, and this is what I got:

But then Whitney saw why they were being so snuggly:

They started walking around and looked really pitiful. They were almost scared by it! They had no idea what was going on. I even took some video of them walking around, and then was about to unhook them when they came apart on their own. Funny stuff.

That's all for now! One more week in Austin. The goodbyes are in full force now and are getting pretty overwhelming. We have some very special friends here and we'll miss them a lot.

Pictures Galore, Part Two

2008-06-30T17:37:00.001-05:00

I meant to put this one in the last post. It's Whitty with our very favorite nephew, Jonny Mike Lyons! Is he the cutest kid or what? I recommend visiting Christy's blog here and checking out more pictures. He just went to his first Indians game in Cleveland and the pictures are awesome.

Last weekend I got to visit my good friend Jai in Dallas. It was great to spend time with him and his family. That's Ansley on the left and Callen on the right. We got play tennis with Callen, and I was amazed at how good he was! He just turned four and he was returning shots over the net, in play, from behind the baseline. They're really cute, happy kids.

Ashley and Max (and Whitney's tortilla chip) at the quirky and tasty Texas Chili Parlor in Austin. This was already one of my favorite places to eat in town, and then Ashley and Max finally made me watch Death Proof (I'd actually wanted to see it for a long time), which had a very memorable scene at the TCP.

Probably one of the coolest dachshund pictures I've ever seen. I was taking Max's picture with Penny, and *during* the flash, Ashley captured this one.

That night we went to see the bats in Austin, on a boat. Every year for about six months, the bats that live in the First Street Bridge leave every evening to eat. This is the quiet time of year, so *only* 750,000 leave each night. In August that number rises to about 1.5 million. When they leave it looks like a tornado cloud coming out of the bridge, and it's a constant stream for about 40 minutes. These pictures don't do it justice - it's amazing to see. Every night the bats eat around 20,000 pounds of insects (!). This picture was better than the ones I took of the sunset (hence, Ashley took it). Check out the bats:

From a distance. If you lick the picture you can see the stream starting far away and trailing way over to the left.

A look to the left.

We went under the bridge and my flash got a good shot of the stream of bats. Imagine these things flying fast out of the cracks in the bridge, constantly, for forty minutes.

This was the view we had as we pulled up towards the bridge. I liked the way the silhouettes looked against the warm blue sky.

The next batch is coming soon - pictures of my trip to Tunica with my Dad last week and some other random stuff.

Pitures Galore, Part One

2008-06-30T14:40:00.000-05:00

Here are a ton of pictures that I need to share - I'll have many more coming in the next couple of days. First, let's start with Whitney in Cleveland, and some tummy updates!

Next up is our recent trip to College Station, and Ashley and Max's visit to Austin! Some of these were taken by Ashley. The easy way to tell is, if it's a good picture, she took it.

This is Ashley and Max. Ashley is Whitney's cousin. Max is Ashley's boyfriend. They aren't quite as frightening as this picture would suggest...and yes, that's four guns and a bottle of rum. We went out to the Roops' farm and shot a bunch of guns that Whitney's aunt and uncle brought with them. It was really fun!

I couldn't hit ANYTHING.

That's the four of us (I'm behind the camera, obviously) along with Whitney's cousins Travis (from L.A.) and Dylan (from Austin), and my buddy Steve, sitting outside at the Hula Hut. One can never have enough Negra Modelo.

All done...zzzzzzz.....

2008-06-28T19:05:00.001-05:00

Man, I'm tired.

I lost my fourth game, and it's the only game I played today that left me feeling disappointed. I'm anxious to go back through the game and see if I was doing as...okay as I thought I was doing. I was playing a pretty tight game and was even up a pawn, but my opponent (another unrated player, a UT student) forced me into a really weak pawn structure. That meant that while I was trying to put an attack together, I had to defend all of my loose pawns as well. The reason I'm disappointed is because I worked hard to get back into the game, and I even had some good attacks going - but in the end, I was a pawn down and it ended up costing me the game. I was fighting for a draw, then got the lead, then was fighting for a draw again. I even considered offering a draw earlier in the game - I wonder if he would've accepted. I should have asked him after the game.

So, all in all I posted one win and three losses. Considering the fact that my goal was to get a single draw, I can't really complain. I learned a lot and played over 6 hours of chess across 4 games, and maybe most importantly, I learned some things that will help me get better. And I talked to the mother of the two kids that beat me, and she said they both told her I played very well for an unrated player (verifying that they meant it when they told me - and yes, I'm hanging by the compliments of ten-year-olds). The people were really nice, in general. Actually there was a pair of hooligans that were college-aged and cocky and loud, but I didn't have to play either one, thankfully.

I was there from 8:45 am to 6:15 pm - kind of ridiculous! Some of my online chess friends told me to get plenty of sleep, to eat well, to stay away from caffeine until the afternoon, etc., all of which were great recommendations. I can't blame my last game on being tired, though, because my opponent and I talked before the game about how exhausted we were and how much the level of exhaustion surprised us both! It's too bad I didn't burn any calories along the way.

The tourney was a great experience for me. I'm proud of myself for jumping into it without anyone there with me, and I hope to play in another tournament sometime soon, maybe in Cleveland before my internship starts. Anyone who wants to see my games (read:Derek), let me know.

I have much else to post, starting tomorrow, with pictures from Ashley and Max's visit to my trip to Tunica with Dad. Have a good weekend!

Identical Whippings

2008-06-28T15:42:00.000-05:00

In round 3 I drew the identical twin of the guy who beat me in round 1...talk about psychological leverage. I immediately expected to lose, since all I could think was, "This guy beat me this morning." It didn't help that his rating was 27 points higher than his brother. He must be the older, wiser twin.

The game was awful. I made a bad move in the opening (not terrible, but one that lost me time soon afterwards) and instead of fixing it right away and losing tempo, I changed my strategic plan - to a worse one. It was a learning experience! Afterwards he told me that I'm "a lot better than most unrated players." A very gracious winner - although I felt like I finished the game terribly.

More on game 2 - that was an absolutely exhausting experience. With the 5 second/move time delay, our game took over two hours, and I had to focus my brain the entire time. Even in the last few minutes, with me up a rook, the guy made it very hard for me to finish. My heart was pounding! I had 3:00 left and he had 1:12 when he resigned, due to a queen fork of mine that forced him to trade queens with me. It was a great moment for me - and more intense than you would think. We were also the 2nd to last game to finish the round, so we had a group of people watching us. SCARY.

Round 3's game, we were the third to finish of 14.

One more game - I hope those kids weren't triplets.

Whoah!

2008-06-28T14:07:00.000-05:00

I won my second game - very surprised at the comeback win. Gotta run and eat!

Round one results

2008-06-28T11:15:00.000-05:00

Well well well...I just lost my first game to a ten year old boy (who was forced to play with the adults because of his 1596 rating). I was outclassed from the beginning, but made some decent recoveries that gave me some counterplay. He was up a pawn after about 12 moves, which I never recovered, but I was able to trade queens and activate my pieces (a very purposeful decision on my part) to balance things out. In the end I had a strong threat, but he was able to answer it well and maintain his own attack. He had me in a forced mate and I resigned after about 70 minutes of play (each side has 60 minutes, not 30 like I thought).

Many funny things happend during the game. I forgot to hit my clock twice (losing me about three VERY precious minutes), and twice I accidentally knocked my king over (the gesture of resignation). The kid was a great sport and very understanding. After the game he said, "you played well." I don't know if it was honesty or simply good sportsmanship, but it made me feel good.

For next game, I need to move faster. And I really have to pee. No more water-chugging before and during games!

First impressions

2008-06-28T09:12:00.000-05:00

This is about as intimidating as internship interviews were - the feeling that everyone knows more than you - although it's surely more accurate here than there. People are very nice but they are sharing tournament stories and making chess jokes. All I can say in return is, "How about them Astros?"

Blank stares in return: "The who?"

One guy just told me, "Internet players usually get crushed." Thanks buddy.

The coolest thing is all of the kids. They all know each other (so do the parents) and seem excited to play.

We're running late and won't start until 9:30, and which round wll be a bye for me isn't determined yet. Maybe five byes would be the best for me...?

J'adoube?

2008-06-28T07:53:00.001-05:00

I'm off to the chess tournament now. My brain aches in anticipation of the suffering it will endure today. I can only hope that there's some good action in the Dungeons an Dragons side games in the hallway. If not, there's always some good hustling to be done with my Magic: The Gathering cards. Oh wait, those are over in the storage unit - dang!

Seriously though, I'm very excited about today. I set this up to email a few of you (my family and Derek) when I post results and comments, so this should have been emailed too. Hopefully that makes it easier to follow along today. Here comes the Fever Gambit / Kurth Variation!

Test email 2

2008-06-27T19:00:00.000-05:00

And now with a picture:

Yup, that's me.

test

2008-06-27T18:52:00.001-05:00

this should be posting from my phone

The Fever Defense

2008-06-11T17:10:00.000-05:00

On June 28th, I'm going to do something I've always wanted to do - play in a live chess tournament. Although I'm probably an average player at best, Ive really gotten into the game lately and it's been far and away my favorite hobby for a while now. I've been trying to read up on the game, and have been playing a lot online, but nothing will be quite like playing face to face with really good players.

The tournament I'm playing in is called the St. Andrews Scholastic Chess Tournament, although I'll be playing in the Open section (not the Scholastic section). I'm really excited to see all of the kids playing chess together. It's going to remind me of all of the fun competitions I took part in as a kid, like Odyssey of the mind, Spelling Bees, Academic Track, etc. Yes, you guessed it, I'm a big nerd. Seriously though, what a great way for kids to exercise their mind, have fun, meet people, and in many cases, do some family bonding. I've noticed that several parent/child teams are going to play in the tournament, which I think is really cool. Hopefully there won't be any people like Joe Mantegna in Searching for Bobby Fischer. I may have to punch a guy like that...although I chuckle when I think of the fact that, having your own parent floundering in the tournament, the chances of getting berated for a tough loss probably go WAY down.

To enter, I had to join the US Chess Federation. So far, I'm the only registered player that doesn't have an official USCF rating. In other words, I'm the only newbie. I'll play four games, no matter what, with each game having a time limit of one hour (30 minutes per player). I'll be delighted if I even draw a game, but four losses will still be fun. I hope to learn and just to enjoy the day.

You can read about the tournament here.

Once I'm done I'll have a provisional rating (read: zero). I'm not sure how many I'd have to play to get an actual rating, but I would guess it'd be something like twenty games. I plan to play in one more tournament before I start my internship in August, so I probably will still be provisional for a long time. I don't think I'll really have time to do this again, at least not for quite a while, but why not enjoy it while I can? I definitely plan to pick it back up when things calm down with school and baby.

I'll be posting updates on here throughout the day to let you know how I'm doing. I can post from my cell phone, so I'll try and include a picture or two.

Nerds unite!
J

Weenie Golf

2008-05-17T21:34:00.000-05:00

Penny and I could make our own commercial for Nike.
Move over, Tiger Woods.

It's a boy!

2008-05-14T20:03:00.000-05:00

We found out last Friday that we'll be having a little boy. We're both really excited about it and I can't wait to meet my new buddy. He's growing (seemingly by the minute), and I've attached some pictures to show you just how big he's already getting.

At the sonogram we learned that the baby is now 15 ounces...of pure manliness. It was an amazing experience as we were able to see all of his fingers and toes, many bones (radius, ulna, tibia, etc.), and even a lot of internal things. We could see all four chambers of his heart, his brain structure, and of course, his little baby businesss down there. In fact, Whitney, in her eternal bluntness (which we all love her for) made a comment to the sonographer how amazed she was that we could see "his junk". The rest of the conversation went like this:

Johnathan: Whitney, I'm not so sure that "junk" is a medical term.
Whitney: No, probably not.
Doc: Well it's not any worse than what I usually call them when I see them on the screen.
Johnathan: Oh yeah? What's that?
Doc: Weapons of mass destruction.
Johnathan and Whitney: [confused and frightened laughter]

In other news, our closing date on our house got pushed back a week, but everything still seems on track for us to sell it. We'll be in a cramped hotel room for about two months in Austin, but it'll be worth it to have the house off of our minds. Most of the packing is done, and we're ready to move forward.

Love you all -
Johnathan

More baby bumps than Us Magazine

2008-04-17T22:59:00.001-05:00

Here are some pictures for your viewing enjoyment:

Check out this pretty lady and her new accessory!

Adorable...

A family shot for you (Penny has no modesty whatsoever).

What if there wasn't a CD player?!

2008-04-17T13:58:00.000-05:00

I had a fun idea today that basically hitchhikes off of the "Deserted Island" movie game - you know, the one where you have to pick three movies you'd take with you if you got stranded on a deserted island? It got me thinking...what if I had to create one CD of songs, knowing that I could never listen to any other music for the rest of my life? In other words, if I could take one mix CD to a deserted island, what would be on it?

What's interesting to me about this idea is that I would probably have to take more than "favorite songs" into consideration. Often I listen to a song that I don't think is that valuable musically, only because it's highly nostalgic. They say the sense of smell is the sense most clearly connected with memory, but for me, listening to "Don't Treat Me Bad" by Firehouse or "Friends" by Michael W. Smith puts me in a time and place like little else can. Then again, I wouldn't want to fill up the CD with music that didn't excite me musically; and certainly I'd want a mix of genres to sate my different needs for different states of mind.

Long story short: I'm going to do this. Would you like to join me?

Some of you know that Derek and I have done a series of "song weeks" together, and I think we're going to try this idea together, where we'll each make our personal CDs, swap them with each other, and then record a few covers from the other's CD. I'd love to hear Derek make an acoustic version of Baby Got Back - oh wait, he already did. And Sir Mixalot may *just* miss the cut for my CD anyway.

So, as I think about my CD and what would be on it, I already know a few songs I would include. Part of the problem is that my CD would probably be different every day, but at some point I'll have to decide for good what is on the track list and what gets sacrificed to a black hole of abandoned music. Surely after I press record I'll say, "Doh! How could I have forgotten _____?" At this point, though, I already know that my CD must include:

1. At least one of my original songs ("Ricki Lake..." is not in the running)
2. At least one of Derek's original songs (would've been on there even if Derek wasn't involved in this)
3. "The World Has Turned and Left Me Here" - Weezer (do you believe what I sing now?)
4. One Dave Matthews song (Crush/Stay/Dave+Tim=TwoStep come to mind)
5. One Christian song for nostalgia purposes (Caedmon's Call or Jars of Clay a good possibility here)
6. One 80's song (Poison anyone? Warrant or Bon Jovi, perhaps? so many choices...)

Oh, CRAP. Who packed the Discman and earphones? I thought YOU were bringing it?!

Baby, House, Dissertation, Oh My!

2008-04-08T20:29:00.000-05:00

I was about to write that, not to worry, I don't feel the need to come up with a punny or silly name for every post on this website. But that's not true - I do feel the need. My sincere apologies.

Well, we put our house on the market this past Friday, and the weekend was pretty lucrative. We had 6 visits through Sunday and have had three or four more since then - but the biggest news is that we got our first offer today! We don't know what the offer is yet, since we can't meet our realtor until tomorrow, but it's certainly a good sign and takes away some of the worry of having a house on the market forever. It's like hearing from the first place that granted me an interview for an internship position - it didn't need to be "the one", but it meant that things would probably work out.

Tomorrow, Whitney has another check-up, although no more sonograms until early next month, when we hope to find out the gender of the baby! Get your votes in soon, any late votes are considered cheating and will be reported to the dean of the students.

My long-lost brother

2008-04-03T22:03:00.000-05:00

Tonight at work my friend Octavious told me that he is a Fowler too. He has a different last name but his father's last name is Fowler and he still has many Fowler relatives that he knows. And you know what? It all made sense! We get along really well, we are both in the mental health profession, and let's face it, we look SO MUCH alike. To quote Tommy Boy, brothers don't shake hands...brothers gotta huuuuuugg!

There are some minor differences between us that must be due to random genetics:

1. Octavious played offensive line at UT and in the NFL (Raiders and Falcons), NFL Europe, and XFL, while I starred in the ninth grade play at my intermediate school.

2. Octavious is 6'5" and weighs about 345 pounds, while I'm 5'8" and, okay, I realize I'm moving up towards him in the weight department.

3. Octavious does a wonderful job getting the football players to get their acts straight, both by giving them the ex-player perspective and by being really good at what he does, while I usually drive home crying because the guys called me a teeny weeny poopoohead.

4. Octavious can palm a basketball; I can palm a jelly bean.

But in all seriousness, I'm so glad that I have Octavious as a friend and this is just one more thing we have to talk and joke about. Octavious is doing his social work internship and has a lot of experience with kids involved in gangs and with marital therapy and sex addiction counseling. He provides an amazing example for the football players of life after football and the UT football program is extremely lucky to have him back in the building - and we mentors are extremely lucky too.

Do you need some Kleenex?

Johnathan

It was a joke, until it wasn't.

2008-04-02T01:08:00.000-05:00

For years uncounted you wove your mesh,
In the cold and darkness of my tummy's flesh.
Taking not a day off, not a singular vacation,
Always matching my vest or my sweater's coloration.
Breathless to show me the life you hoped for,
You were heartlessly tossed in the drain, on the floor,
And parting our ways you would yearn for rebirth
As you Swiffered away to the ends of the earth.
But for each battle lost, a battle is won,
And under my tees a new life's begun.
Fear not, my dear friends, for in truth I tell you,
My bellybutton lint has started anew.

It all starts now...

2008-04-02T00:43:00.000-05:00

Hey family and friends,

My sister Christy inspired me to start a blog so that you could stay up to date with all of the happenings of the Fowlers, all five of them, hence the name fivefowlers.blogspot.com.

I've had enough unfinished websites to know that promising to constantly update this thing is just a waste of time. It is, however, my goal to use this blog to post updates about our move to Cleveland, maybe a little music and fun, and most importantly, to post stories and pictures of our growing little munchkin whom I like to call "Mini-Fev".

I'm not going to put much up to start, just a few pictures of our lives right now and probably some other B.S. too...I wrote a poem about bellybutton lint, perhaps I'll start with that!

Love,
Johnathan (and Whitney, Penny, Polly, and Mini-Fev too)