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Nicholas had his 6 month birthday yesterday. I would have posted about it then, but he had his doctor appointment today, and visited his new school, and generally had much more to do. Besides, yesterday was about reflecting on his past six months, and today is about looking to the future.

This being the first day of the rest of his year, or perhaps because he realized that he’s now closer to birthday cake than he is to the womb, Nicholas had an absolutely outstanding day. He didn’t want to wake up at first, but once he did, he was all smiles. We dropped him off for his last day at the ABC Learning Center, and everything pretty much went as scheduled.

Candice and I went to work, and at 11:30, I took the bus to Vet Med to get the car to go pick up Nicholas, then go back to Vet Med to get Candice, and then go to CDL (his new school) for new student orientation. As soon as I walked in to pick him up, Nico was ecstatic. This isn’t entirely unusual; I’ve shown up in the middle of the day before, and Nicholas gets pretty excited. But the smiles just kept on coming.

Back to Vet Med, and then to the CDL, and Nicholas was laughing and talking the whole way in the car. We found a parking spot (a not entirely legal one, but no ticket, so all’s good) and went to his new classroom. Teachers Bonnie and Daniella and Amy were there to greet us, as were most of the other parents and children. Unfortunately, all the kids were asleep, except for Owen, who is 8 months old and crawling. At last, Nicholas has someone to look up to!

I liked Owen immediately. He was presented with a bunch of different toys, and he selected a sling ball.

Now, I’m not saying that ABC is a bad place to leave your kids. But, it’s not exactly high quality day care. About every two weeks, there’s a new teacher, and they never introduce themselves. We just figured out his head teacher’s name, and this week, there was a new teacher. We asked his teachers once if any of the kids were crawling yet. They didn’t know. How do you not know if the kids are crawling? For the first two weeks, every day there was a new form that they forgot to have us sign. It was just plain disorganized.

But today is about looking to the future, and that future is bright. CDL is a very nice place, the people are certified, and best of all, because they need the parents’ permission to do experiments on the kids, they have to keep the parents happy. And it doesn’t cost any more than ABC. In fact, it might cost less; ABC supplies diapers, but makes up bring our own food. CDL makes us bring diapers, but provides all the food (including formula). So if Nicholas eats more than he poops (he does, otherwise he wouldn’t be able to grow at this phenomenal rate), then we come out ahead.

After our hour visit to CDL, we went out to Culver’s for lunch. Nicholas still wanted to play, so Candice and I took turns holding him while the other one ate. Nicholas really wanted some of Candice’s chicken. I was so proud. Almost as proud as the day that he picked up his first 2 liter bottle.

After lunch, Nicholas was tired, so he took a nap before his doctor’s appointment. He woke up after an hour, ate a bottle, and then went BM. This holy trinity of activities combined to make Nicholas even happier as we headed to the doctor.

The new hospital is way out in Urbana near Philo Road and Windsor. I was able to take country roads the entire way, and it took just 10 minutes door to door. We went in, and Nicholas’s name was called right away. Nicholas weighed in at 20 pounds 11.5 ounces, and 27 inches tall. If he took the 9 month old development exam, he’s have passed it. He was screaming with delight so much that nurses from down the hall came in to see him.

And now, because we’re looking to the future, he won’t get polio. Because he got some shots. He of course didn’t like getting the shots, but the nurse was very quick with the sticking (slower with the band-aids, but that’s OK), and then I picked him right up and he got happy again. He started a nap on the way home, and finished it when we arrived. And when he woke up, even though he was crying, he was still bouncing off the walls excited. I gave him a bit of baby Tylenol, and carried him around the house, and he quickly settled.

After all that, Candice was finally ready to come home from work, so we went to pick her up. And now, we’re home, and Nicholas is just finishing his bed time bottle. I don’t think anything can top his wonderful day today, but we’re sure gonna try tomorrow! Perhaps we’ll go for a walk….

So in about 2 weeks Nicholas will be six months. I have captured video footage of the little man nearly every week of his life. However, I haven’t gotten around to posting any of it because to anyone besides me it is probably pretty boring. By his first birthday I will edit all the videos and images to create a lovely montage. For now you will have to live with this short clip that I took yesterday.

Click here for the video: nico08-09-081

As you can witness from the video above he is not yet crawling but he moves in many other ways. He rolls from front to back and back to front, sits up unassisted, grabs large and small objects and can hold his own bottle for feeding. He loves to smile and laugh out loud, trills, blow bubble, when you sing or make funny sounds, ceiling fans, lights, being outside, his toys, two liter bottles and people. Ok there isn’t much Nicholas doesn’t love.

Another move is happening for Nicholas at the end of the month. Nicholas will be leaving the ABC Learning Center and starting at the Child Development Lab on campus. We’re excited for him to be on campus and in a more structured environment.

Our recent travels have wrapped up, so now I have a long (90 day) stretch of time where I won’t be away from home for more than a day. That means it’s time for the next round of P90X, considering that I’m only a third of the way to my overall goal.

Today I started the Doubles routine. This routine is the same as Classic, except in Week 5 you start doing an extra cardio workout 3 times a week. In week 11, you start doing an extra cardio workout 4 times a week. I did the Lean routine last time, which added an extra cardio workout and replaced the plyometric workout with some additional core stuff.

During my time off, I didn’t do any workouts. I was supposed to do Yoga once a week, Ab Ripper once a week, and one other routine of my choice once a week. That would add up to less than 3 hours a week, but I didn’t do it. Well, one time I did ab ripper. I was very sore the next day. I went down stairs in the morning, and I couldn’t get back up stairs.

I bet you’re wondering how my pretest scores (and overall fitness) compare. Actually, I don’t care if you’re wondering, I’m wondering. So I guess I’ll share.

Resting heart rate: down from 108 to 92
Pull-ups: up from 0.75 to 2
Vertical leap: up from 15 inches to 21
Pushups: up from 19 to 40
Toe touch: up from -1.75 inches to 4
Wall squat: up from 1:08 minutes to 1:10.2
Bicep curls: up from 15 to 25, but decreased weight from 25 to 20 lbs
In and outs: up from 30 to 60
Heart rate immediately after 2 minutes of jumping jacks: down from 196 to 186
After 1 minute: down from 186 to 175
After 2 minutes: down from 178 to 161
After 3 minutes: down from 170 to 155
After 4 minutes: down from 168 to 143

And the summary: I’m in better shape. By a wide margin. My target heart rate, by the way, is between about 150 and 175.

If you’re wondering how my measurements did while I was on hiatus, well, that’s inconclusive. I lost inches in some places, and gained in others, in no particular pattern. I gained weight, but lost body fat percent. I decided to start using a more complicated method for determining body fat percentage, and it’s not going so well. I might need to stop by the gym and see if a personal trainer can show me how to properly use the body fat calipers.

So, today was my first workout. It was chest and back. That workout is slow paced, but grueling; you alternate back exercise with chest exercise. There are 6 sets. The chest parts are all pushups, in different formats, whereas the back exercises are a mix of pull ups and weight lifting. After you finish all twelve, you do them again. Then, you get to do the ab ripper. All exercises are done to failure.

Starting in week 5, you do the same routine in the evening, but do an hour long cardio that same morning. This routine is EXTREME. Hence, the X.

I am very sore. Tomorrow, I get to do plyo for the very first time. Starting in week 11, you do a cardio on Thursday, then a weight routine (varies by week) in the evening, then the next morning you do cardio again, and then Friday afternoon you do plyo. That…is…going…to…suck.

In addition to the workouts, I’ve decided to try my hand at the diet this go-round. Unfortunately, I didn’t remember that this afternoon, when I got a free lunch from a vendor presentation, and ended up eating a large gyro with all sorts of crap on it, and a basket of fries from Zorba’s. I’m making up for it with grilled chicken sandwiches for dinner, instead of my usual beer and an entire package of Zatarain’s.

Hey, when you’re working out to this extreme, you need your calories!

Heroes, arguably the best show on television in the past three years (higher tier cable, such as HBO and Showtime excluded because I don’t get those channels, though I am watching The Wire on DVD, and it’s GREAT), will be coming back this September. This according to ads on G4 while I watch the Heroes marathon. I imagine this means it will be on network TV (NBC) first, and then reruns will air on G4, but wouldn’t that be something if the writer’s strike knocked one of the best shows on TV all the way to freaking G4? Holy crap, producers are dumb.

Also coming this September to G4, Lost 2.0. The “2.0″ tag on G4 means you get all sorts of extras in an around-screen box. They have previously done Star Trek 2.0, where the original Star Trek episode gets surrounded by quizzes, chat updates, and Pop-Up Video style funny facts. There was even a Spock Ticker, where they show you the going rate for things like Tribbles, according to how things were progressing in the episode. They did a similar thing for Cops, but I never watched that. I’m really looking forward to the Lost thing though, especially since ABC already did some pop-up versions, in an effort to get new viewers caught up in the midst of the serial drama.