Introductions Part 1

Our first stop in Boise was with Judes and crew. While the grandparents had already met precious baby Max, he was now five weeks older and extra, extra squeezable.

Lidia meets Max and just wanted to touch him so much, but we had to watch her because she is still so little herself and has not mastered the tender touch.

Abigail, on the other hand, became very skilled and giving Max nice and soft touches on the face. She loved Max. Cousins united!

We went that night to The Cheesecake Factory for Carley's birthday. As you can see, there were a "few" salads ordered...complete with sauces galore.

Birthday girl and Jonathon await their delicious meals.

And after the food - birthday celebrations thanks to the TCF. Nice touch TCF with the writing.

Then we went to the mall to find Carley presents. Abigail tried to play with her Papa, but he was wayyyyy to tuckered out for games. So she would turn to her fallback buddy - me.

We played a lot of hide and seek/tag with my camera. Abigail would try to hide and run away from my picture taking, but I would capture her.

You can run but you can't hide ABS!

Meanwhile, Papa chills with Lids - a more relaxing affair.

The next day we watched the Super Bowl at Jonathon's house and he spent the evening rubbing the score in Caitlin's face...until The Saints passed by Indianapolis and Caitlin had the last laugh. The commercials? Mediocre.

I spent a lot of the time watching Max. He's more entertaining then football, let's be honest.

He looks, he scores!

Then on Monday it was Carley's actual birthday, so we took her to Costa Vida for lunch. We got their early and decorated our table with birthday surprises.

Happy Birthday!

Serious party favors man...that was our plan. We were fortunate to be in town for fun events like birthdays. More to come with Pam's birthday and other adventures from our trip to Boise.

A New Turn In The World of Chubb

You've heard of a playlist, right? Well, this is my munchlist from our most recent trip to Idaho.

Papa Murphy 4 times

Taco Bell 2 times

Cobby's

Pollo Rey 3 times (including my 9 fish tacos)

Red Robin

Costa Vida (Cafe Rio knock-off) 2 times

Tango Empanadas

Mai Thai Food

Burger King

1 Dairy Queen Blizzard (large)

Black Gold Cookies at the Boise Coop

The Blue Moose

Mongolian BBQ

3 large bags of Peanut Butter M&Ms

Lemon Bars, Cherry Bars

Red velvet cupcakes and cake

this goes on and on and on and on and on...

And for that reason, Caitlin and I have returned to Evanston 100% committed to loosing weight. This is no empty promise. We have very specific rules about what we eat and calorie intake. The first I did when I woke up this morning is throw away a garbage bag of ice cream, chocolates and chips away. I'm serious....we mean business. I have gained like 14 pounds since Caitlin got pregnant.

Here are some rules for (me at least):

- No regular soda for a month, and only one can of diet soda a day

- three bottles of water minimum per day

- Only chicken and fish for a month

- I can eat as many vegetables and fruit as I want, but no desserts over 100 calories per day

- No rice or noodles for a month

My goal? 155 lbs. (basically what I weighed in Brooklyn). I'm at 170 now. I own this.

Das is Gut Blog

The Wortley's are on the blog scene! Holla! For those of you who decide to follow these Minneapolisites, then here is the link.

Just a warning, these two are kinky, dirty and raunchy at every single corner. Oh, and don't forget their propensity for bad language.

Here is their blog

Blessed Be The Name of Max

Max gone done get blessed yesterday in church. Me, his dad, gave him the baby blessing and I am proud to say that while I was tearful and tender, I did not sound like a blubbering idiot during the blessing and we did not drop him. Success. I think I blessed him to be a Olympic gold winning downhill skier...I think I might be a little caught up with the Olympics right now. After church we rocked a Max focused party at Pam's house.

Lids pays her respects. It was like a wedding reception...we made people line up and congratulate him. But let me pay some respects to the peeps. Caitlin's friend Julie and fam came to party with us. Please note that they are way ahead of us in terms of procreation. Babe, we gots to hurry up if we are going to catch up.

It was Valentines Day, so his cake was love focused. Plus, we love you Max. Red Velvet goodness. We also enjoyed ginger lemon cookies, lemon bars, cherry heart bars, fudge and chocolate covered pretzels. Yeah, I'm a Fat A.

And tender cakes lead to tender moments of men feeding each other. Some of you may not know that Phatwood was once our brother and lived with us in Phoenix. Mike and he reunited to share this moment of cake deliciousness.

Any time Mikey is around, moments of shame are shared and we argue as to which one of us was the "bad influence" on the other. Pam must have been hanging her head in shame in this moment over something Mikey did back in the day, not me.

Carley and Jonathan were ecstatic about Max! And cake.

The ladies and their new favorite guy Max. Lids and Abs - you gals are so cute its scary.

This is why we went to Boise for the blessing instead of Chicago - family. it was great to have both sets of grandparents there.

Mike's new hot hottie of hottness Bree. She rules, particularly because Max loves here and she made me delicious foods. She's awesome and Mike better nab here because she's a hot ticket item.

The ladies. Two beautiful women - you are a lucky dog Max.

And then there are the grandpas. Look closely and you'll see that Max is mad. He was like, "listen, I was an angel during the blessing but I am not going to let you just hold me like this all day dudes. Hands off."

Grandmas with their little boy.

I bought Caitlin our wedding flowers for Valentine's Day as I do every year. Baby boy blue.

And then we started taking pictures of Max in his blessing outfit. Please note that me, Michael and Stephen were all blessed in the same outfit. Max looked adorable in it.

That's my boy.

Here's the full body shot. I loved the blanket that accompanies the outfit.

He gave us bones.

Big D jumped in to take part in the action.

Then I got jealous and had to get in on the action.

And then Mike had to get in on it. Four silly dudes. I love Max's face in this picture. He's like, "really guys? Get over it."

Ham'n it up for the camera.

the parent's and their precious boy. We were so proud of him and the blessing was great. I didn't even drop him!

Mulcocks feelin' pride in the boy. We just couldn't stop taking pics. Thanks to everyone who came to support Max in his blessing. We feel fortunate to have so many people that care about him. We are also so glad to be in Boise for a while to be with family. It has been awesome.

Evil Babies

I would never thought Max was evil until I read this amazing, amazingly hilarious post that was forwarded to me from Renee. I think she just has our best interest at heart and wants to make sure we don't give Max the upper hand. You just don't know what he is capable of.

Please note that if you have an aversion to cursing, this blog post about babies is not for you!

READ IT HERE.

To The Annoying Chick in Back

Hey US Airways flight 343 stewardess,

Are you daft? Do you not realize that on a 7am flight from Chicago to Phoenix some of us might be extremely, crazy tired? Particularly do you not realize that as we are desperately trying to rock an angry baby to sleep who hasn't slept since 8pm the night before that your ridiculously annoying cackle laughter every 5 seconds for the four hour trip might be a little annoying? Each sound you make is a piercing stab wound to my heart, mind and soul.

Would I like something to drink? No, but I certainly would love to buy you a tall frothy glass of shut the hell up.

There, I said it.

Passenger in the back row

I HEART IDAHO

This post is titled "I heart Idaho" for two good reasons. The first is that as of this moment (meaning you can't stop me even if you tried!!!! bwahahhahaha!) I am on a plane with Caitlin and Max headed to Boise for two weeks. While posting will not stop because of this trip, it might be lessened. We are excited about a change of scenery from our apartment. We are also excited to bless Baby Max in Idaho where more family can attend.

The second reason is because today Caitlin and I guest posted on our friend Sparklebot's blog about love. We were asked to guest blog about our thoughts on love, and I think we are spot on. Go there and read and enjoy the goodness.

I heart stuff!

Aunt Beef and Unky Bodge

Hooray for the visit of Aunt Beef and Unky Bodge. This is a picture of Beef as she holds Max for the very first time. As you may know, Max is the first nephew/niece born into my side of the family, so it is monumental. Beef quickly took on the role as aunt, though it took her a while to get comfortable holding Max. She became a pro.

Unky Bodge classically demonstrates his skill as a child-holding dude. Max was like, "oh man, this guy thinks he's the shiz." You can see it in his face.

While holding and loving and adoring Baby Max was the primary purpose of the visit, there was also much time spent relaxing chillaxing in our apartment. Yeah, its a little tough to take Max out much as a 3 week old in 20 degree weather, so we chilled. Aunt Beef demonstrates her ability to relax in this super nice, overexposed image.

But we did get out, so don't judge. We went to Flat Top Grill, which is awesome, for all-we-can-eat Mongolian BBQ.

We love this place, particularly for their roti pancakes. Oh man, I want one right now.

I believe it was a hit with Aunt Beef as well. Please note that she is wearing our Christmas present to her as well. Super cool! Aunt Beef got lettuce wraps to hold her delicious food products.

I completely showered my BBQ with delicious Indian and Thai curry sauces to create an explosion of Asian in my mouth.

We also went to brunch at Orange in Roscoe Village. I definitely took some time to play with my camera while there.

Max went with us on all these excursions, often sleeping in his little car seat. Occasionally we would expose him to the harsh sun and he would recoil like a vampire. Sorry little dude...

We got a delicious flight of pancakes to share, including creme brulee, German chocolate, and pineapple turnover!

Oh man.

Tender shots of Unky Bodge and I were taken in our Christmas shirts from Little and Stephoin.

I love Orange's pesto eggs Benedict. Can you deny that that sounds amazing?

More awesome shots. I like how this shot came out.

But in reality, we spent a lot of time in the apartment loving Baby Max. He absolutely adored his aunt and uncle Nelson.

Hahahahahaahahahahahahahahahaha. I love this shot. Hahahahahahaha oh man it kills me!

Caitlin, don't hide behind your Udder Cover. Motherhood looks good on you.

Stretch it little dude.

Close up of that shot shows how at peace he is in Unkey Bodge's arms. Hallelujah! We were so glad they could come up to join us in Evanston for a few days. Max can't wait to see them again.