Daddy Dan

My wife is down for the count with a fever, chills, headache, etc.  I think she may be getting the flu.  Anyway, with her in bed it fell on me to get the Babito ready this morning and take him to the babysitter’s on the way to work.  Usually my wife handles most of these things in the morning, as she leaves later than I do and we usually let the Babito sleep as long as possible before we wake him up.  All I can say is that I have a renewed sense of appreciation for all she does.

As an 18-month old (on Friday), the Babito has become very mobile.  A new, fun game he’s developed is to try to be fully uncooperative when you’re trying to get him ready, either in the morning or for bed.  For example, it’s guaranteed that when you remove his clothes and diaper for a bath he will take off at the speed of light and you end up chasing his little naked butt through the house, with him giggling all the way.

This morning, things went well until I took him downstairs and tried to put his jacket on.  That little boy is quick, I finally got him to stop and put his jacket on by telling him “Bye, you can stay here with the doggies.”

He was in a great mood on the way to the babysitter, laughing, talking, and pointing to everything we were passing.  His other new thing is to name everything he sees.  Anyway, when I got to the babysitter and went inside to drop him off I swear he had a look on his face that included sadness, confusion, and, worst of all, disappointment.  It broke my heart to leave him there (it ALWAYS does), and I was so tempted to take him with me and ditch work to go to Disneyland or something but didn’t because I am way too busy at work.

It’s really hard to be away from him so much.  I can’t wait for summer to get here and for work to slow down a little so I can spend some real quality time with him.  An hour or so each night and all weekend is just not enough time.

Once again we revisit the wonderful world of the 1979 Sears Catalog.  Tonight we’re looking at the latest fashions for men…..

Lets start out with the Corduroy Coordinates.  Now THIS is the look that said WINNER back in 1979.  A full corduroy suit with “simulated leather buttons.”  The look isn’t complete without the five button corduroy vest and the polyester floral shirt with open fashion collar.  Damn, this suit must have been HOT!  It comes in two fashion colors, baby blue or tan.

Who didn’t want to be the Urban Cowboy back in 1979?  Sears made your dreams come true with their “trend setting, authentic western shirts in three sure to please patterns.”  My personal favorite is the shirt with the yellow rose of texas on the shoulders.  Gorgeous!  Plus, the shirts appear to be unisex.  You can hit Gilley’s with your special gal in matching shirts!  Yee Haw!

Last, but not least, is Sears’ award-winning workout line.  You don’t want a beer-belly hanging out of the bottom of that 5-button corduroy vest or that authentic western shirt. Sears offers two styles, velour or the polyster-silk look.  I’d recommend the silk look.  As the catalog states, “forget the game….you’re already a winner in polyester running sets with the look of silk!”  As an added bonus, sure to impress the ladies, are the “three contrast leg stripes that accent your moves.”  Those suits just scream comfort and style!  I can’t wait for them to come back into style!

I hope you enjoyed our visit to the 1979 Sears Catalog.  Next time we’ll take a look at the sexy sleepwear for women!

Today, I’m going to start a little regular feature looking at the 1979 Sears Catalog.  I know I’m plagiarizing ideas here like Barack Obama, but I don’t care.  I think it’s so fun to look at stuff like this.  I was a mere elementary student in 1979, and looking through this catalog brings back a lot of memories.

Let’s look at some of the stuff I owned.  Click the picture to see a larger version.

I had the bedspread on the right on my bed back then.  I don’t remember having either the matching curtains or pillow cover.  My parents were cheap!

We also owned this TV, or at least one very similar to it.  Look at some of the exciting features!: 

• Sensor-touch lets you change channels at the touch of a finger!
• Beautiful wood paneling!  I believe we had the Colonial style.
• A remote control that lets you change channels (in EITHER direction!) and lets you turn off the TV from anywhere in the room!
• 12 whole channels of viewing fun!
• All of this for the low price of $699.95!   (Wow, that’s like $4,000 in 2008 dollars!)

We had a lovely houseplant sitting on top of ours. 

In our next visit to the 1979 Sears catalog I’ll take a look at some of the latest fashion trends.  I found these pictures at Wishbookweb.com, where they have catalogs ranging from the 1940’s to the 1980’s.  Go check it out!

One fun thing to do with a toddler who’s just learning words is to get him to say a number and, just before going around others, repeat it several times so that number is stuck in his head.  Ask him questions (when you’re still alone) and after asking the question say the number.  For my example below I used the number 6.

Once you’re around others, you say “Do you want to see how smart The Babito is?  Then begin to ask him questions.  You ask him “What is 4+2?”  He’ll say six.  Then ask him another one.  “What is 3×2?”  Six.  “What is 18-12?”  Six.

Depending on how bright the person is, they usually figure it out after two or three questions, but it’s funny to see how amazed they are at first.  Try it!

James Lileks has a great blog site, you should definitely check it out when you get a chance.

One of his regular features is to share a page from the 1973 Sears catalog.  You can check it out here.  All I can say is thank God I wasn’t growing up back then.  Too funny.

Please review the top ten movies in our Netflix queue. I’d appreciate you letting me know whether any of them are crappy. Also, if you’ve rented any movies lately and loved them, please leave a recommendation! Thanks!

1. Waitress
2. Gone Baby Gone
3. Superbad
4. The Kingdom
5. 3:10 to Yuma
6. Deja Vu
7. Rocky Balboa
8. Once
9. Children of Men - I read the book and loved it. How’s the movie?
10. Bobby

Well, we had big plans for this past weekend and the only plans we kept were the plans for today, staying in and relaxing. The Babito was sick with a fever all weekend. No other symptoms at all except that his first molars are starting to come in. WebMD says that teething does not cause a fever, but I’ve heard it from so many other people that there has to be some truth to it. Anyway, his fever was gone when he woke up this morning, Thank God. We were planning on taking him to see his pediatrician today if the fever persisted.

The rest of our weekend was shot. Our plans were to go to Disneyland on Friday, the Orange County Marketplace (a swap meet) on Saturday, and Victoria Gardens on Sunday. Instead we never left the house all weekend, and it was nice, except for the whole fever thing.

My wife and I got to watch several movies together while the Babito slept, including ‘Little Children,’ which I reviewed below. We also watched ‘Flags of our Fathers’ and ‘The Departed.’ They were both great. As you can see, we’re really behind on our movie-watching.

We’re just thankful the Babito is feeling better. I hope you all had a great holiday weekend!