November 1 – Back home after a nice weekend up north. And then we came home and tore the house a new one by rearranging furniture so the little man has a nice play room to roam around and create his own version of the opening scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark. I swear he is setting up booby traps for me and Mrs. Shife is going to come home with me hanging from the ceiling.
November 2 – I think Quincy has elevated Baby Shife to a full-blown terrorist now. Baby Shife discovered his dog food and doggie door today. Good times.
November 3 – The play room is all set up and ready for him to destroy, errr, be creative. Unfortunately my new TV room is going to need some work.
November 4 – I could spend $100 on a toy for him but he is much happier playing with measuring cups and a popcorn tin. He likes to bang on the popcorn tin and make noise. I thought about buying him a little drum but he likes the tin much better. And we get some popcorn out of the deal so it is a win-win.
November 5 – I was putting dishes in the dishwasher while Baby Shife was crawling around the kitchen floor and he tried to give the detergent dispenser mouth-to-mouth today. Another thing added to the watch list.
November 6 – We get free Internet radio through our Blu-Ray player so Baby Shife and I spent the morning rocking out to some of my favorite songs. It was fun dancing with my son while singing a song to him. I am not a good dancer or singer but the little man didn’t seem to mind. Oh how much I love him.
November 7 – Baby Shife got to play in the leaves today and his lovely momma got some good pictures of him. Unfortunately we didn’t get as many as we wanted because he spent most of the time trying to put the leaves in his mouth.
November 8 – It is just amazing how his giggle and smile can make your day. I truly do feel blessed to have such a wonderful son.
November 9 – I feel so fortunate to be able to stay home with Baby Shife every day. And I hope I do help influence and teach him to be a wonderful little person, but ultimately I think he is the one that is going to change my life.
November 10 – Very trying week with my patience this week when it comes to Baby Shife. One day he takes great naps, and then the next day he barely sleeps. Not quite sure what is going on but the duct tape might get broken out so he strapped to his bed and goes to sleep. Lately he seems more interested in practicing in his Ninja assassin moves on Dexter his stuffed animal dog.
November 11 – It also appears that sleeping in past 7:30 during the week is completely out of the question. As soon as Mrs. Shife heads out the door to work, just like clockwork the little man is up and ready to start his day.
November 12 – A quote I saw about being a Dad, “Until you have a son of your own ... you will never know the joy, the love beyond feeling that resonates in the heart of a father as he looks upon his son. You will never know the sense of honor that makes a man want to be more than he is and to pass something good and hopeful into the hands of his son.”
November 14 – So Baby Shife is using my leg hair as leverage when he tries to pulls himself up when I am standing by him. Feels really, really good. Better than waxing.
November 15 – Baby Shife got to go furniture shopping with Mommy. I tried to explain to him that it is only going to get worse as he gets older because some day he will go shopping with a woman and have to spend his money.
November 16 – Baby Shife got his flu shots today, and also got a mouthful of dog food. He snuck in behind me while I was adjusting his high chair and had himself a little snack at Quincy’s dog food dish. I don’t know how much he ate but he had a handful of food when I caught him.
November 17 – Baby Shife has said a lot of words but unfortunately the baby translator is broken so it only sounds like a bunch of gibberish to us but he does seem real close to saying “ma ma.”
November 18 – I am trying to teach the little man some sign language. The only one he really seems interested in is the sign for dog. And giving me the bird when it is nap time.
November 19 – Moving on up … Baby Shife is now wearing size 3 Huggies. I also forgot to mention that when he got his flu shots that he weighed in at just about 16 pounds.
November 21 – Baby Shife whacked his head on the computer desk so he has another nice bruise right in the middle of his forehead. I have a feeling he is going to get a bunch of bruises there.
November 22 – We are working on the Christmas card picture for 2009. I think it will be a picture of a certain little baby wearing nothing but a Santa hat and maybe a cod piece. OK no cod piece. They are not in style anymore.
November 23 – I forgot to talk about this last week but Captain Mudbutt took his first shower. He took a dump that defied gravity and went up his back so he had to jump in the shower with me to get all cleaned up. He didn’t like the shower as much as taking a bath.
November 24 – Someone knows how to give his daddy a high five now. Pretty cool.
November 25 – All the boy wants to is pull himself up and walk. I have limited experience in the baby raising department so I don’t know how normal this is but I swear he is determined to walk by Christmas.
November 26 – We are on the road to the Tri-Cities for Thanksgiving. Baby Shife has not gone on an extended road trip in a long time so we shall see how he does. It is about a 4-hour trip so hopefully he will do OK. And no visits from the mud butt fairy would be nice.
November 27 – Baby Shife’s first Turkey Day was a good one. The long car rides are not his favorite as he had a meltdown or two but for the most part he did well and it was nice for him to meet more of his extended family. It was also nice having more people tell us how cute he was.
November 28 – We got the Baby Shife Christmas card completed and it turned out pretty good. It is hard to go wrong with a cute baby, a big smile, and a Santa hat.
November 30 – 8-months-old and it is almost time for him to start working on his Christmas wish list. And Baby Shife gave the fat basset a nice birthday present today by not stalking him for about 10 minutes then it was game on.
And here is a picture of the 8-month-old baby boy showing off that sweet smile ...

P.S. Sorry but I had to turn on the word verification for comments again because I have been getting bombarded with anonymous comments on a lot of my older posts. Hopefully this will keep them away and I can turn it off after a bit. Thanks for your understanding.