Touchdown Buddies II

For whatever reason, I couldn't get this picture of Chris to load earlier. Enjoy!

Touchdown Buddies!

I just realized how long it's been since I've posted anything useful here, and I thought it'd be nice to give everyone a quick heads-up as to what's new with the Buddies. Since I'm a little short on time and creativity, I'll go with the good old-fashioned bullet point system:
Chris

• Started potty training late last month, and has since almost completely gotten the hang of it (if you'll pardon the pun...guess I wasn't short on creativity after all!). He uses the bathroom all day, but still sleeps in a diaper just in case
• We've rearranged his room so it feels more like a big-boy room. His bed is out away from the wall now because he didn't have any problems with falling out. The problem NOW, though, is that he likes to get out of bed in the middle of the night and crawl UNDER it!
• You wouldn't believe how much this kid talks unless you heard it for yourself. He's got an AMAZING vocabulary, and can pretty much hold a normal conversation with you if you're patient with him.
• ...couldn't be cuter!

Matthew

• Still working on rolling over. This has got to be the laziest kid on the planet! I swear he'd sleep all day if we'd let him. He does like to bat at his toys and everything; he just can't be bothered to chase them down!
• Started on solid foods this weekend. We started him with yellow squash, and he's working on green beans right now.
• He may be teething a little bit. He's got a bit of a white line under his gums, and he's constantly chewing on his hands. I'll keep updating on this if we have tooth action!
• Sleeping through the night with ease. He'll have a bottle before he goes to bed at about 9:00, and sleeps until about 6:00 most mornings. We'll usually give him another bottle at that point, though, and go back to sleep for a while (especially on weekends).
• ...also could not be cuter!

That's pretty much all for now. Now that I've remembered how to post, I'll need to go back through the notes I've kept about these two and post a bit more. Here are some pictures for everyone to ooh and ahh over.

Until next time...

Picture Time!

Given that The Matthew spent the better part of the first week of his life with wires, hoses, and the like sticking out of his little head like a Snork, there wasn't much opportunity to get a very professional shot of him. Still, the folks at Northside did everything they could to get a good shot of him prior to our leaving the hospital. Matthew was somewhat less than cooperative, leading to a nice afternoon out last week with a trip to Kiddie Kandids at Toys 'R Us.

If you haven't heard of these guys before, they do a PHENOMENAL job of capturing the inherent cuteness of munchkins of all ages. We took the boys (in their matching "Big Brother/Little Brother" outfits, of course) to Kiddie Kandids to fill the photography gap, and what a great job!

You can see the results by clicking here.
To see all the pictures, you'll need the following information as well:
Sitting Number: 564010051
Sitting Code: 2EX32C

Enjoy!

The Honeymoon's Over!

So just when you think Chris is completely enamored with the idea of having "The Matthew" around, the bottom drops out...

We were putting Chris to bed the other night when Matthew started fussing a little bit (time once again for an ever-so-tasty bottle of Isomil!). As we were right in the middle of a story at the time, this made Chris none-too-happy as you might imagine. In a stark contrast to his loving request to keep Matthew, Chris looked at us (completely disgusted and visibly irritated) and said, "Mommy, I want to take Matthew back to the hospital!"

Holly handled it well, of course, but it took everything in our power not to crack up right there on the spot. Guess the little guy is fighting for his right to party... :-)

Back to the Hospital...But Not For Matthew

In an effort to further clothe, educate, and generally enrich the lives of the people at Aetna and the Atlanta area medical community, today we had the pleasure of taking Chris, not The Matthew this time, to the hospital. Nothing to worry about, as it was a scheduled procedure.

Last February we had tubes put in Chris's ears, one of which fell out a short 6 months or so later. The doctors kept an eye on it to see whether his ears would get infected again, and low and behold, they did. Not only did he have to replace the fallen tube, but his other one was well on the way out, too. SO...they replaced BOTH sets of tubes. FUN!

And just for good measure, they threw in an adenoidectomy to boot. I won't get into the details of that...just click the link above and you can learn everything you'll ever need to know. But I will say this...the little guy handled it like a champ. He had to be put under for the procedure, which was a little scary to him, but when he came out he was back to semi-normal in just a couple of hours. I don't know where he got his resilliency, but I'm constantly amazed how well he handles being sick.

Anyway, he's perfectly fine now and back to ransacking the house every chance he gets. Just looking for an excuse to brag about my little guy!

Tubby Time!

Another quick cuteness update on The Matthew...

Saturday night we gave the little guy his first bath. What a cool experience! We have this little chair for him that's got a million little holes in it, so water pretty much drains right through. We just plunked down a towel underneath and got to scrubbin'...

He actually handled things pretty well, and managed not to pee on anyone. Take it from me, that's a pretty big accomplishment. Any time you can get his diaper changed or have him be momentarily naked and NOT get peed on, you should consider yourself extremely lucky...

Since he was such a good kid, there's really not much else to report. Basically this whole story was just an excuse to show off the crazy-eyed shot of our little monkey. Meanwhile, he's still cute, and we still love him!

Can We Keep Him?

So I'm not sure when it happened, but Holly told me the funniest story about something Chris said to her last week...

Chris was peeking at Matthew, and Holly asked him, "Do you like Matthew?" In his typically adorable little voice, Chris replied...

"Yeah. He's cuuuute! Can we keep him?"

Just thought that was too cute not to share...

Mama I'm Coming Home (Revisited)!

Yesterday was such a wonderful day!! We finally got to pick up our little guy from the hospital...

Mom and Dad came down for the big day, as did Holly's mom Nancy. Of course, Chris came along. He was so excited about the whole deal that he was practically bursting out of his skin! We had to leave them all in the waiting room while we collected all of Matthew's goodies, and I came out at one point to go get the car. When I got to the waiting room with everything Chris came FLYING around the corner screaming at the top of his lungs, "BABY MATTHEW!!!" Completely adorable...

We finally got everything together and the nurse wheeled Holly and Matthew out of the nursery. Not sure why they have to wheel you out when you've been out of the hospital for 3 days, but whatever... Anyway, here we come rolling down the hall to a welcoming wall of smiles, hugs and camera flashes, as well as continued screams of "BABY MATTHEW!!" from Chris. What a cool experience!

The whole situation reminded me a bit of when Annie and Hope (my sisters, who are adopted and from Korea) arrived on their respective airplanes to Houston, where we lived at the time. You could cut the excitement in the air with a knife, and it was a great experience for everyone.

After we finally left the hospital, we went out to lunch with everyone. I know, I know...everyone tells you that you should wait two months or some nonsense before taking your baby out in public. What I can tell you from our experience with Chris is that has to be BS. We took him out when he was a week old, and haven't stopped since then. He's turned out absolutely wonderfully! But I've gotten off the topic...

We went out to lunch at On The Border, where Holly and I met and fell in love, and where most major events in our lives have taken place (met, fell in love, got engaged, first meals out for both of our kids, etc.). Lots of fun, and we ran into an old friend that I used to work with, so we got to show off the boys.

We also made a quick stop at work to show off everyone, then finally made it home by about 4:00. PHEW! We were exhausted! More to come later...

Mama I'm Coming Home!

WHOO HOO!! Just got a call from the doctor, and she said Matthew is looking great and will be ready to come home sometime in the late part of tomorrow morning! Can't wait, and I'll be sure to upload pictures!!

Movin' On Up!!

GREAT NEWS!! Last night at about 10:30 or so, my parents were down visiting Matthew when they overheard one of the nurses say, "The Johnston? Yes, they're up here...Oh! Just bring me one of the wooden cribs, then, please." To the average person, that probably means about jack...but to us, it meant that it was time for Matthew to leave the ICU and head to the transitional nursery!!!

Naturally this news caused Holly and I to jump in the van and haul ass down to the hospital so we could see him sans wires. And what a great trip it turned out to be! Not only did we get to spend nearly two hours with him, but we got to feed him, change him (twice!) and take his temperature, too. It was just like having him home (except for the whole institutional sterility thing)!!

He's slated to pretty much just spend today in transitional room, and we should have him home tomorrow!! Needless to say, we're overflowing with excitement. Can't wait to bring him home to meet his litle brother!

Hittin' The Bottle!

The day just keeps on getting better!! Not only did we get the call this morning that the numothorax was completely gone, but this afternoon we got to bottle feed him!

We went up to visit this morning at about 10:30, and the nurse on duty gave us the rundown. She told us that she'd like to keep an eye on his SATs (oxygen saturation levels...typcially between 90 & 100%) and his respiration to see how things went, and then would consider bottle feeding.

When she checked him for his 11:00 assessment, though, she found out that he was way ahead of the curve, and decided to lessen the amount of oxygen she was giving. We gave this a few minutes' worth of testing, and she thought his breathing was great. That being the case, she offered to let him try the bottle. Cool!

Holly got to hold him while he ate, and he drank like a champ! Even got his burps out without any assistance...guess he really IS a Johnston! :-) Holly continued holding him for almost two hours after that, which gave us ample in-between time to make it feeding time once again at 2:00.

MY TURN! I got to hold and feed Matthew this afternoon, and loved every minute of it!

Holly's getting her staples taken out right now, and we're slated to leave the hospital in about an hour or so. We're trying to figure out whether we want to risk the emotions of going back up to see him one more time, or whether it'd be better to check on him tomorrow when we come back for CPR classes...guess we'll have to see!

It's the Easter Buddy!!

Yesterday I finally got to hold my little guy! What a wonderful experience! Up till then, I'd only gotten to hold him for a minute or two in the OR after he was born. They pretty much took him straight from there to the NICU, though, so it wasn't much. Yesterday, though, I got him for almost an HOUR!

Things progressed pretty well yesterday, as the "Lorax" is now completely gone, and they're looking into bottle feeding him sometime today or tomorrow. I wish like crazy that I could say that he'll be coming home with us this afternoon, but it's just not in the cards. The good news, though, is that the doctor we talked with this morning said, "He should be home with you in a few days." That's the first time anyone has given us any kind of timeline, so it's encouraging.

Holly's doing well, and the pain is starting to subside nicely. It'll be nice for her to get to spend some time with Chris, I think, as it'll remind her what we're waiting for. The whole fam damily came down yesterday, and Holly's mom made a really nice Easter dinner including ham, potatoes and all the fixins. We hijacked a private dining room in the hospital cafeteria and celebrated Easter right here at the hospital. That sure got a few funny looks!

After lunch we had a quickie visit from the Easter Bunny in our room for Chris. He got a nice basket of toys and candy, and promptly went to work destroying the Easter grass from the basket. Even put some on Annie's (his aunt's) head (see picture)!

Anyway...we're going home this afternoon at about 4:00, so we'll leave Matthew in the capable hands of the NICU staff and look to hear more from them as he progresses. As I get more information I'll post it here. Thanks for visiting!

Happy Easter...No More Lorax In Matthew's Thorax

What a great morning so far! We got a phone call this morning from the NICU doctor informing us that the numothorax (I misspoke before when I called it a hemothorax, but I still don't know the difference) is almost completely gone!! WHOO HOO!

Please excuse the title of today's update. My sister Hope came by to visit yesterday, and said something pretty funny. When I asked her if Mom had filled her in on Matthew's situation, she said, "Yeah. He's got a Lorax in his thorax or something, right?" Loved that! Guess we'll have to buy the book now...

Anyway, they took off Matthew's Astroboy helmet thing this morning at about 10:30, and replaced it with nose plug thingies. They're providing him with an oxygen mixture of about 30%. Normal air is about 21%, so he's almost there as far as what he needs to be doing.

They'll start feeding him sometime late tonight or tomorrow, we hope. They're holding off on that for right now because they want to see how he handles being off of the strong oxygen. All in all, a pretty cool day!

The Elephant Boy Returns...Followed By Astroboy!

This morning we went up to visit Matthew, thinking that we would see him looking much the same way we left him last night...cool with his little nose plugs. Much to our dismay, he was back to his old tricks with the elephant nose tube.

Apparently, he crashed a little bit overnight as a result of a hemothorax. That's a small bubble of air located just outside of his lungs that takes away the oxygen that they've been pumping into him.

SO...we spent most of the afternoon worried sick about our little guy, and finally got the chance to go back up to visit at around 4:30. When we got there, he was still an elephant, but they had chest X-ray scheduled to see how the hemothorax had progressed/regressed. The picture was a scary one, as it looked like this thing had actually INCREASED in size. The nurses called the on-call doctor, who ordered another X-ray shot from a different angle. This made all the difference, and the hemo had actually DECREASED a bit.

The doctor was so pleased with this, coupled with his apparent rallying in terms of the oxygen he needed, that she is going to take off his elephant nose and go back to his original form of oxygen...the Oxymask. This is a cool little contraption that looks an awful lot like an astronaut's helmet. It sits over his head (with a little hole where his neck sticks out) and provides him with oxygen.

What all this means is as yet unclear, but at least it appears to be progress. Plus, now we'll get to see his face again! We've been talking to a lot of other folks whose kids have had similar problems, and all of them say that their kids were out of the hospital in under a week...that'd be ncie!

I'll update again after we visit him tonight.

Bungee Baby (Or, The Return Of The Snorks)!!

Quick update...

The nurses in the ICU were concerned that Matthew's IV was starting to irritate his hand, so they started looking for alternate veins elsewhere. They tried his other hand, as well as his right foot, but to no avail.

Ultimately, they ended up sticking it IN HIS HEAD!!! This left him in the unfortunate position of resembling a Snork, those lovable undersea creatures from back in the days of USA's Cartoon Express. Either that, or he kind of looks like he's got a bungee cord attached to his head...you be the judge:

Matthew Update #1

The day started off pretty well for our new little guy. At about 12:30 last night, he got his first visit from Mommy, who spent about an hour and a half just looking at him and stroking his hands and hair. There wasn't much change in his status, so he still had his little elephant trunk on (that's what we called his air tubes...check out the picture). We finally left the room at about 2:00 and conked out until the morning.

We had a great surprise when we woke up today...Christy & Thor had baby Katelyn at around 2:30, just about the same time we were getting to sleep! She weighed in at 6 lbs, 14 oz, 19 inches, and is absolutely beautiful (see the next picture). Congrats to the Thors!!

The big moment of the day came at about 12:15 this afternoon...Holly was finally allowed to go up and hold Matthew. This was particularly exciting because she hadn't had any opportunity to hold him up to this point. What a wonderful way to kick off the day. The nurses put a surgical gown on her, unplugged all of Matthew's various monitors and passed the little guy to Holly. She was SO pleased to finally give him a hug, and he seemed to be thrilled to be in her arms, too!

The grandparents (minus my dad, who had to run out of town last night and will return this evening) came down this afternoon and brought Chris along. The poor little guy hasn't really even seen his brother up close, except to see him through the windows of the nursery. He doesn't really get what's going on, and it's hard to fill him in without scaring him. We just keep telling him that Mommy and Daddy are going to visit the doctor when we go visit Mattew. He's really excited to meet his little brother, and I can't wait to see how they get along.

The grandparents naturally went back to visit with Matthew, and everyone's completely enamored with him (not surprising...). I think they're really looking forward to holding him, too. It's really been tough to be in the "no touching" zone.

On a positive note, the doctor took Chris's goofy elephant hose off today and inserted more standard nose-plug-style air hoses. They're going to lower the level of oxygen that they're giving him, and plan on trying to feed him a bit through an IV this evening. The new air hose is under a 12-hour test period, and then we'll see what happens next. Can't wait to see how that works out! I'll keep updating here as things progress!

And Then There Were TWO!

Walking farts and contractions be damned!

The new little guy arrived this afternoon at 12:08 PM. He weighed in at a hefty 7 lbs, 12 oz, and is 20 inches long (that's the same as his height, not what you're thinking sicko!). He's absolutely beautiful, and looks so much like his big brother that it's almost scary...

The sucky thing is that he was whisked away from us shortly after being brought into the recovery room. His oxygen levels were a little low, so the nurse in there thought it would be good to send him up to the transitional nursery.

And it was a good call, too...apparently the little monkey has fluid in his lungs, and they need to keep him chock full of oxygen to help eliminate it. They say it's nothing to worry about, and that he'll be just fine in a few days. Still, it's been really rough on Holly to not be able to hang out with him, give him hugs and generally love on him.

She's really been a trooper though. She's fighting through the pain of the C-section, and dealing with all of the fun things that come along with that. All the while trying to entertain the various guests who've dropped by.

The crazy thing is that another one of our friends actually went into labor this afternoon, too. She was originally due sometime next week, and her doctor hand't given her any indication that things would happen any sooner, but here she is in the labor and delivery room while we're sitting in our recovery/post-op room. Guess our little guy'll have a nice new girlfriend to play with!

All in all, a stressful but extremely memorable and wonderful day!

A Little Gentleman (or, Chivalry is Not Dead)

Just when you think the world is going to Hell in a handbasket with kids generally being arrogant little bastards who would sooner slap you than help out in any way, along comes a two-year-old to put things right...

A few weeks ago we were getting ready to put Chris to bed, and Holly was having a hard time getting up...being 8 months pregnant will do that to ya'...

Anyway, she's sitting there struggling to right herself, and Chris walks over to her and says, "I help you Mommy!" He reaches out his little hand and starts pulling for all he's worth. Of course, there's not much pull in him since he's so small, but it was a really cool gesture for such a little guy, and it made me proud to be his daddy.

Irrational Fears

So I understand that kids have all kinds of irrational fears, but this one officially takes the cake...

The other night we were putting Chris to bed, and we follow our nightly ritual of "blowing the light out." Chris puffs up his little cheeks and blows with all his might toward the lights switch. The overhead light goes out, and the nightlight kicks in. This is where the trouble started...

Chris starts to whine and points at the nightlight. I ask him what the deal is, and he says, "There's a monster in there, Daddy!" Thinking he must SURELY be pointing at the closet like a normal kid, I say, "You mean in the closet, buddy?" "No, Daddy," he says, "in the light! Make it go away!"

No lie, we had to turn OFF his nightlight to get him to calm down! I've heard of kids being afraid of the dark...but afraid of the LIGHT? That's got to be a first...

Put My Lips Back On!

The other day I did something that I once upon a time promised myself I'd NEVER do...I gave my son a spit bath. So I'm wiping the strawberry goop from a NutriGrain bar off of his face and lips, and he starts absolutely SCREAMING his head off.

It scared the hell out of me, so I asked him what the deal was, and he says, "Put my lips back on, Daddy!" I'm still not sure what his problem was, but all it took to calm him down was poking his lips again ala putting someone's nose back on when you "steal" it.

Sort of reminded me of a Family Guy episode where Peter steals Chris's face...Can't find a picture of that, but it's hilarious!

Apologies to a Puzzle

Here's another one for the "you really had to be there" file...

We were at my folks house not too long ago, and Chris was up to no good. He'd been pretty cranky all day, but the final straw had officially been reached and he'd completely lost control. He absolutely refused to sit still, wouldn't pick up his toys, and was generally being a typical two-year-old (shocking!).

In an effort to calm Chris down, my mom offered him a small 4-piece puzzle...the type you might find in The Dollar Spot of your local Target store. Instead of graciously accepting said puzzle with a nice, "Thank you Grandma," Chris proceeded to throw the puzzle to the ground and stomp away.

In what can only be described as a "Why the hell would anyone say THAT?" moment, I chased him down and grabbed him only to follow up with the following:

In the most stern and angry-sounding voice I could manage (I was already laughing pretty hard at his complete inability to be rational), I said, "Grandma was very nice to give you that puzzle, and you just threw it on the ground. Now you go APOLOGIZE TO THAT PUZZLE RIGHT NOW!" At this point the entire family lost their capacity to maintain straight faces. The room erupted, and I darn near dropped Chris as I was laughing so hard. Tears streaming down my face, I attempted to regain my composure and lecture the demon-child.

But the damage was done... Chris now knew that we couldn't keep ourselves together, and proceeded to pick the puzzle up only to throw it down once more for comedic effect. This went on for a good five minutes before we finally just picked the damn thing up ourselves and went on our merry way.

Again, you really had to be there. Still, it's yet another notch for the "I can't believe I just said that" column.

Forced Farts and Fun

So the other night we were putting the finishing touches on Matthew's (# 2's) room, and Chris comes strolling (or toddling, as the case may be) in for a visit. We spent the appropriate amount of time cooing over him to assure him that he's not going to play second fiddle to the new baby or anything, when I suddenly felt an old familiar rumble. Leaning back and grinning like a lunatic, I launched a rather substantial fart. Holly was naturally disgusted by my ass blast, and turned up her nose in protest. Chris, on the other hand, found this to be hilarious and nearly fell over with laughter.

He stretched himself out face-down on the floor and, with a mighty arch of his tiny little back coupled with a Maria Sharapova-esque grunt, launched an equally impressive ringer of his own! Laughing hysterically, he looked over to me and said, "I toot, Daddy!"

For some reason, his fart was rather less irritating to Holly; she could barely hold herself up... Guess it's that whole maternal instinct thing. You know...it's cuter if it's coming out of something that you carried around for 9 months and whatnot.

Regardless, it was one heck of a proud parenting moment.

Beer For Babies...Revisited!

As a quick follow up to my original Beer For Babies entry, I'd like to submit the following story...

I'm sitting on the couch the other night watching TV and enjoying a drink of some kind when Chris, sippy-cup in hand, trots over and says, "Cheers Daddy!"...and clicks his cup to mine. I looked at Holly in shock, and she just shook her head.

We still have NO idea where this came from, but I'm willing to bet that we can blame a grandparent or two. Dad or Mike...anything on this one?

Driving With Crackers

As anyone with a child older than 6 months can tell you, you're never able to go anywhere without one of the following snacks at your disposal: Goldfish, Cheerios or some sort of granola bars. Chris is actually very fond of what he calls "Breakfast Cookies," actually just thinly-veiled generic brand NutriGrain bars, but that's another blog for another time. Back to the story...

Holly's folks came to visit during Christmas, and of course took Chris out of a day on the town. Following the cardinal rules of snack-to-child ratios, the in-laws naturally took along the aforementioned goodies. In their case, though, the snack du jour was some of those little Lance crackers that come in super-shrink-wrapped six packs (you've heard the song..."I've Got Lance In My Pants!"). Not a bad choice, to be sure.

Anyway... As is his custom, Chris predictably began asking for a sample of these lovely snacky cakes about two seconds out of the driveway. My mother-in-law, being a sucker for a cute two-year-old, acquiesced and hooked him up.

It's important to mention at this point that Chris has serious idol worship when my Dad father-in-law are around. Something about being grandpas just makes them extra cool, I guess. In that vein, Chris is big on repeating everything they say as well as copying everything they do. This is where the story ends up...

A few minutes after distributing said crackers, my mother-in-law turned to check on Chris. Instead of a happily munching munchkin, though, she was greeted by Chris holding onto his little round cracker with both hands. He was moving his hands back and forth in a steering movement, and happily "beeped" as if he were honking the horn. When asked what he was doing, Chris happily replied, "Driving, Mimi! (his name for my mother-in-law)."

Just another lesson to be learned here...kids catch on to EVERYTHING we do, and they'll do everything they can to be just like us. Gotta' love 'em!

Beer For Babies!

This year Holly and I continued our annual tradition of December 26th shopping with a day at the outlet malls. We took Chris along with us (duh!), and everything was going swimmingly until we ventured into the Harry & David store.

For the uninitiated, Harry & David stores are purveyors of fine foods, coffee, tea, candy, etc. While the clientele in the north Georgia mountains isn't exactly high-brow, they're not exactly inbred mountain folk either...but I digress. The point is this...

We were checking out at the cash register, and were prepared to leave when Chris noticed a Dr. Pepper can that Holly had left behind. While a normal child may have just let this pass, ours is a little different. Case in point, the following tale:

Over the summer Holly and I traditionally throw what we call a Birthaversary party in celebration of my birthday and our wedding anniversary which, coincidentally, fall on the same day. During this year's festivities Chris managed to find himself a (closed!) can of Miller Lite, which he clung to for the remainder of the day and referred to as "My Beer!" He even traded up for a colder version a couple hours after grabbing the initial can. Quite the proud moment for any father, as you can imagine. Of course, what we didn't expect was that from that point forward, every can of ANY beverage would be known as "beer." Which leads me to another amusing anecdote...

We had decided going into the summer that we'd like to try to have another baby (read, have lots of sex and see what happens). Since married men get sex only on their anniversary and their birthday, I'm sort of screwed (so to speak), and only get it once a year. Thankfully it took and Holly and I are expecting a baby boy in the spring. She is, of course, showing at this point and looks rather like she swallowed a smallish balloon rather than beached whale comparison that some other pregnant women draw. This may seem to be beside the point, but kindly read on...

Meanwhile, back at the day after Christmas:
So we're at Harry & David's, and Holly has left behind her can of Dr. Pepper. Chris notices this, and before we can even THINK to grab the can and silence what we know is inevitable, he shouts at the top of his lungs to my visibly pregnant wife, "Don't forget your your beer, Mommy!" This drew immediate looks of scorn and disdain from the snootier clientele, but infinitely more disturbing were the knowing glances and nods of approval from the somewhat less than savory customers. Holly was of course quite embarrassed, and I was of course quite pleased that my little man had proven to the world that his parents had raised him right.

The moral of the story, folks, is this:
If you're going to teach your kids about the wonders of beer, do it quietly and in the comfort of your own home. And make DAMN sure that they understand that not ALL canned beverages are beer...it can get a little embarrassing!