When in doubt, blog about music...

Cynical Dad blogged recently about his Top 100 albums of all time (to see his list, start here).

I used to be pretty big on music. In fact, listening to music, thinking about it, and talking about it used to take up a good portion of my time before I worked full-time and later, had kids (at which point my "coolness" factor on music officially became null and void - but I'm still not popping in any flippin' Celine Dion). My renaissance was in the '90s, when a young high schooler or college student can devote her time to these things. It was beneficial - A and I first bonded over music when we met almost nine years ago.

So, in the spirit of Cynical Dad and in honor of my music-snob past, I present my top albums, in no particular order:

• Altered Beast, Matthew Sweet - Sweet at his moody, poppy best. "Devil with the Green Eyes" "The Ugly Truth" and its sister, "Ugly Truth Rock" and "Knowing People" make this an album worth having.
• Sha Sha, Ben Kweller - Kweller's first album, to my knowledge. The rock songs have energy, the slow songs are honest with a neat Texas vibe. Kid puts on a great live show too. "Family Tree", "In Other Words", and "Lizzy" stand out on this one.
• Ben Folds Five, Ben Folds Five - Love their other albums, but the first was their best. "Best Imitation of Myself" is my favorite song, namely for the line "Do you think I should take a class to lose my Southern accent?".
• Blacklisted, Neko Case - She has the most haunting voice out there. Art school meets alt country.
• Weezer's Blue Album - I think this song is on a lot of top-album lists, so I won't explain further.
• whitechocolatespaceegg, Liz Phair - OK, most would pick Exile to Guyville. Cynical Dad chose Whip-Smart as his #52. So why do I choose this album, her third. I don't know that I truly know, but something about this album hit at the right time for me. Right as I was graduating college, getting a job, planning a wedding - something about a settled-down Liz Phair hit a note with me.
• Songs for the Deaf, Queens of the Stone Age - want a new version of metal? Something you can just rock out and bang your head to on your way to...wherever?
• Sublimal Plastic Motives, Self - I can't explain why. The guy - assuming he still tours - is AWFUL live. But I've always loved this album.
• Unchained, Johnny Cash - The man in black covers Soundgarden's "Rusty Cage". And records some other great ones - the wedding-worthy "Memories are Made of This"; Folsom-worthy "I Never Picked Cotton" - just pick this one up if you don't have it.
• Youth and Young Manhood, Kings of Leon - something a little newer to put on the last. It's good, but too early in the morning for me to explain why.
• And which Foo Fighters album to select? Trying to choose between The Colour and the Shape, There is Nothing Left to Lose, and their most recent, In Your Honor, was so difficult. To be honest, I only listen to the rockin' disc one of In Your Honor. I'll give the edge to The Colour and the Shape. Again, it's too early in the morning for me to explain why but trust me on this one.

There you have it. It's now 6am and Tucker's threatening to wake up. I'm sure Jack won't be far behind.

Still around...

Blogging is hard with two boys! Scratch that - life is a serious adjustment when you go from one kiddo to two. Don't get me wrong, it's awesome - I love these boys more than I ever thought possible - but it's a serious adjustment. Personal time is VERY hard to find these days - life is very full.

I was telling my friend the other day that you forget about how life is with a newborn. Much like childbirth, you just kind of wipe that out of your head. I think God did that so we'd keep on reproducing... You forget so quickly about those 1am diaper changes, about getting hosed during said diaper change, about surviving on so little sleep.... But with a second child (or third, fourth, etc...) you have a better feeling about it - a knowledge that he will grow so very quickly, that the newborn phase will pass by in a blink, and next thing you know, he'll be walking and talking.

Jack has been adjusting famously - better than I thought he might. He loves when Tucker is in the bouncy seat - Jack will turn on the bouncy seat and its keyboard and just watch... There's been very little reverting - wanting to watch the Baby Einstein DVDs again (all the time), and some more "yelling", which sounds like Tucker's crying - Jack's a smart cookie, and I am sure he has realized that Tucker's needs are met almost instantaneously.

Speaking of Jack, speech therapy started about a month ago, but by that time Jack had 50 words! He now has about 150 words, and strings them together quite well - ex. "I get ball", "Mommy do it" (his favorite sentence to say these days). So the speech therapist is primarily concentrating on pronunciation.

Anyway, I'm probably pushing it by posting so much - the boys are napping, but Tucker is quite the voracious eater and I'm sure he will be up any moment - but here are some photos:

Ever seen jaundice? That's what it looks like. Cleared up within a couple of days, but boy did we have a little pumpkin there for a while...

My Boys....

Tucker arrived at 2:02pm on August 1. He and his Daddy share a birthday, which is pretty special. He weighed 8 lbs., 8.6 oz. at birth - he's sucking formula and pumped milk like it's going out of style though, so he will definitely be growing fast! He has dark brown hair and brown eyes.

After some hesitation (he first saw me holding Tucker and said "Bye Baby") Jack is adjusting well to life as a big brother. It's going to be a lot of fun watching these two grow up together!!