Christmas was a whirlwind around our house. Even though I had a full week off to enjoy being with the family the days passed quickly. We spent our time going between houses, showing of Riley, and generally having a good time.

For Christmas Riley started smiling. It might seem like a simple thing but babies aren’t born with a smile on their face. For the first 6 weeks he would accidentally smile. You could tell it wasn’t real because he couldn’t repeat it. A few days before Christmas we got Riles up in the morning and to our surprised he gave us this big smile after he recognized us. It was odd because he doesn’t usually acknowledge us much except that we picked him up and he would stop crying. For the first time our kid was excited to see us! He continued to smile at us for a good half hour every time his eyes focused on us.

Ever since then he smiles when we get him up in the morning….Oh, yeah, and right after he drops a load in his diaper too.

For Christmas my parents were kind enough to get both me and Drew video cameras. In between the time of one-upping each other in Wii bowling you’ll probably see a few videos come across our sites. Drew has already started a library of Avery videos.

This is Riley’s web video debut: Riley Rolls Over. While technically he rolls and technically it’s “over”, you’ll notice his style is more of a screaming kick than a planned execution.

I’ll be honest, I gained a few pounds during Court’s pregnancy. I’d like to think it was a little sympathy weight. I mean, it’s hard to control yourself when your wife is craving chocolate. But, to be honest, I think she might have gained a little sympathy weight from me.

At one point in the summer, for about a week, Cold Stone was a staple of our evening dining. The corner gas station even implemented a $4-minimum to use a credit card because we’d go in there for snacks regularly. All the while I used the excuse, “Well, it’s because Courtney’s pregnant.”

The truth? Well, I sort of used her whole comfort food situation to get what I wanted. Yeah, I’m a chocoholic. When I get around chocolate I have to eat it until it’s gone. I would say to Courtney “Hey, I’m going to the store. Do you need anything?” I knew full well that she agree with me that chocolate was a necessity.

So I’m a few pounds heavier than I’d like to be. I still hit the gym regularly so if I can keep the food in check the pounds should come off easy.

After 8 years of vowing to write my own blogging software I have given in and admitted that I will never complete the project. After reading about Jamie’s successful Wordpress conversion I decided to give it a shot myself. A few hours later I was up and running with all my old content ported over. All in all, I’m quite happy with the Wordpress software. It’s very slick and easy to work with.

Because of this, Puckwucker.com received a facelift as well. Courtney no longer has to put up with my rudimentary design skills. She can finally have a decent looking site.

I dub The Decemberists latest album The Crane Wife my favorite album for December. Specifically, the last track on the album Sons and Daughters is worthy of multiple spins during the day.

And if you weren’t aware, Stephen Colbert has accused the Decemberists of riding his coattails after the band issued a green-screen challenge, a homage to Colbert’s original green screen challenge.

The Decemberists retort? A guitar solo counter-challenge.

Pure genius on both parts.

After a tiring workout over lunch yesterday I returned to my desk at work to find a half eaten cookie next to my mouse. Odd, I thought. I peered around my cube discovered my desk had been ransacked. My papers had all been moved around, my stapler had been moved from the LEFT side of my desk to the RIGHT side. Something was up.

That’s when I noticed a trail of tiny Post-Its leading out of cube, down the hallway. I poked my head up to see if anyone else had noticed this. I quickly followed the trail down the hall to the coat closet where the paper trail ended. I took a deep breath and opened the doors. A pair of white eyes peered back at me. “GO NOW!” came a voice. “Who? Who are you?” I questioned. “There is no time!” He shouted, “You must make the voyage now!”

Unfortunately this mysterious voice had caught me at a bad time.

“Where must I go?”

“You know what you must seek. You know your destination. You must hurry!” Riddles, I had no time for riddles.

“But I am working right now. I can’t just LEAVE.” I told him.

“You must send someone then, you have no time!”

I heeded the strange man’s advice. I called my wife and informed her of the strange situation.

She said to me, “If this is about the Wii I want no part.” I told her for the sake of our child this must done now. Luckily she had needed a few things at the store anyways and could swing by to see if the strange little voice was correct, that I might finally get my Wii.

For the sake of my life and humanity as a whole Courtney was able to find the holy grail. When I returned home last night I had finally gotten my Wii. Courtney had endured hours of torturous screeching from the man-child Riles while fending off the oogles of nerds. I owe her a debt of gratitude for her conquest.

It’s no surprise to anyone around us that Riley has been a handful. From the first day he came out screaming and hasn’t stopped since. 7 days ago that all changed.

During one of our baby classes an instructor mentioned the book The Happiest Baby on the Block as a good resource for parents. It’s chock full of tips and techniques for soothing a angry baby. At our wits end, we picked it up last week.

The main technique the book outlines is a 5 step process for calming your baby down. Court gave it a whirl last week and had the kid quiet within minutes.

We were absolutely astonished how well the techniques worked. For the last week we have been practicing them religiously and Riley seems to be responding to them. We had started feeling like we were failing as parents. When your kid will only give you the stinkface for 3 weeks straight it’s hard not to take it personally.

One week ago, today, Riley was waking up 3 times a night. He never went longer than 2 1/2 hours without fussing. We had a hard time putting him in is bassinet because he cried every time he was out of our arms.

Last night Riley slept for 5 1/2 hours straight, in his crib. I was flabbergasted this morning when I woke up at 3:30am. I did a double-take to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. I was so excited that I couldn’t fall back asleep.

The short version of the Wii struggle is: I still don’t have one. There’s no need for me to bore you with the details. Let me just say that it’s been a very frustrating hunt this weekend.

Wednesday night I thought it would be great to wash Dottie’s dog bed. Over the past week she’s had some “issues” that had left her bed a little worse for wear. Her bed is so big, though, that it cannot all fit in the washer at once. I got a great idea to take the polyfill out of the bed and wash it separately from the cover.

An hour after the washer began I came down to a smoke filled laundry room. It seems that I had filled the washer too high with the polyfill and burnt out the washer engine. Wednesday night we went washer shopping.

This capped off a week (a short week nonetheless) of situations where Courtney had suggested that I not do what I was about to do. It started on Sunday when I was about to give Dottie some ibuprofen for her hip. Court said, “Are you sure that she is supposed to have that?” “Why not?” I said. One trip to the vet and $350 later I discovered Courtney was right, dogs aren’t supposed to have ibuprofen.

The ibuprofen caused Dottie to start having bladder and kidney problems. These problems caused her bed to be soaked in leaked pee. The soaked bed was the reason I was trying to wash the polyfill. Court asked me before I started dismantling Dottie’s bed so I could wash it, “Are you sure you should wash polyfill in the washer?” “Why not?” I said. One trip to the appliance store and $450 later I discovered Courtney was right.

So I vowed after this weekend to listen to Courtney more. She seems to have some good ideas, or at least cheaper ideas than I have.

Yesterday the Nintendo Wii was released. I had hoped I would be able to waltz into the local Target and swipe one up. Unfortunately, that was not the case.

I started my half-hearted attempt at procuring a Wii about a month and a half ago, on the pre-order day at Gamestop. I ran into a Gamestop at 7pm, and asked “Am I too late for the Wii pre-order?!” I was greeted by curious looks by the pimply-faced employees. I was told “Yeah, uh, about 10 HOURS too late!” Their suggestion (and this is a direct quote), “Maybe if you had a time machine you could get one.” Followed by the most helpful advice yet, “Or you could go back even farther and get one when it was called the ‘Revolution’”

Fast forward to Sunday morning. Rumors abounded all week about a decent stockpile of Wiis at most retail outlets. I wasn’t about to waste too much of my life on being one of the first with a Wii but I figured it would be nice if I could get one. At 7am I handed a screaming baby back to Courtney, bundled up and headed over to my local Target.

There was a very decent sized line in front of Target. Unexpectedly to me, there was even a few tents. With coffee in hand I joined the end of the line. Not wanted to get my expectations too high I asked the guy in front of me if the person count was above 20. “Yep,” he told me. Crap, I knew my chances were quite dire. My Target only had 24 of them.

5 minutes later a Target employee came out and handed out tickets to the lucky few and I was not one of them. The last guy to receive one had been out in the cold since midnight. So I didn’t feel so bad about not getting a ticket. At least I slept in a warm bed.

Not content with my efforts I wandered over to the local SuperTarget in hopes of striking it rich a little later in the day. As I was walking towards the electronics department with Riles (yes, I take my children on my crazed tech hunts) I heard a gaggle of employees have the following conversation:

EMPLOYEE 1: “What are they all doing?”

EMPLOYEE 2: “They probably looked it up on a site somewhere.”

EMPLOYEE 1: “Well, someone should tell them”

EMPLOYEE 2: “Yeah, I know”

EMPLOYEE 1: “We don’t have anymore”

After that exchange I figured my chances were slim. I was correct. I had struck out again on my hunt for a Wii.

Today, Monday, I am Wii-less. I don’t plan to stay this way for long. My hunt continues.