Life's a Filet of Fish: Writing Blogs is Hard When Baby

I know it's a lame excuse, especially for those who have multiple children, but...this is my first major disruption to my "routine," such that it was. When I would come home from work, I would expect to spend some time on maintenance and then have the rest of the evening to my own devices. Now I've got a "little tyrant" that dictates my actions throughout the day (Bill's terminology, not my own, but I think it fits).

For those who don't see us on a regular occasion, a couple of months is a long time in baby years. Aren't they like dog years? Except for humans? Wait...I guess that's just normal years. Well, 0.167 years is a long time in any case.

John spent much of it sleeping

We had a couple of friends come and visit during Spring Break, which I didn't really have. Alison had it though, so I burned a vacation day to chill with them.

Getting acquainted with the youngest Reese

It turns out that I'm uniquely inexperienced with babies. Tyler seems to have things well in control.

Our intention was to head downtown and check out the Menil Collection. Unfortunately for us, we chose to go downtown on a Tuesday, which everyone knows is "Menil Collection Closed Day." We learned this when we walked up to the doors to find them shuttered. Nearby was the Mark Rothko chapel, so we made a detour there.

The broken obelisk is supposed to mean something I think. How do I art?

They prohibit photography inside the chapel, so I only got a shot of the outside. There's a very peaceful atmosphere inside, although don't get your expectations set too high. The Rothko paintings are very simple--nothing to really remark upon in terms of perspective or chiaroscuro or the such. As it is, I happen to enjoy simple formations and colors. If you're like me, it's worth checking out. Plus, it's free.

We took a brief stop in the Houston Meteorological Museum, but we decided that $10/head is a bit steep to see a relatively small collection of weather instruments. There's a day of the week where the museum is discounted, but it was not "Menil Collection Closed Day." Instead, I stumbled upon the Houston Holocaust Museum, which I had only heard of but not seen.

A lovely view of its parking lot

There were a lot of interesting stories about European Jews there. It details the history of Antisemitism, up to and including obviously the titular event. I found it interesting that they were so widespread so early in European history--and more remarkable that people felt strongly enough about them to formulate policies discriminating against them in the Dark Ages. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see a whole lot of the exhibit because Mr. John was having enough at this point.

He felt better after eating and getting a change

The museum had a library that was open to the public. We were able to duck in there and do baby maintenance. Just outside was an interesting exhibit about H.A. Rey, who escaped the German occupation of France thanks to his drawings of a curious little monkey. Also a Jew. This I didn't know. It's a very interesting story which I recommend you read about at some point.

The big event of the day was the rodeo. The last time I had gone I parked in the shuttle lot. That wasn't too bad to get into the rodeo, but getting out took about an hour and a half waiting in stifling heat. Instead, I chose to take the light rail and make use of the underutilized system. It was quite slick, even accommodating Johnny's DoomTruck Stroller.

Cowboy Burrito: Chili, potatoes, and peppers. Yum!

We got to introduce Tyler to some of the finer points of rodeo dining.

So...do you use a fork or just fingers?

Just hands with this one.

Johnny seemed to take the hubub relatively well.

Of course, he needed babying too. We let our friends explore a bit while we got him fed and changed again. This time we actually made it in for the rodeo, which I hadn't seen since leaving Mesquite. It's surprisingly fun to watch, even for a bunch of white-collar folks like us. The concert was a bit much for baby ears (and mine...sorry Jason Aldean fans). We grabbed some fried Oreos and Twinkies, and bought enough tickets to ride one carnival ride. By then it was pushing 11 PM. Time to put this guy to sleep.

Not that he looked that tired.

Now, apropos of nothing, baby pictures.

Ooh stop here--this was where we had our Pi Day celebration. Our friends, the Crawfords, moved into a house just a few minutes away from us. Good times! Too good for me to even get any pictures other than this one.