201G Side Project - The Warlords of Freedom

Luke likes to watch me play the guitar. He sits next to me and plucks the strings and sings along and dances... but his favorite thing to do is to take my guitar pick and throw it in my guitar. To him, this is the goal of the game of guitar. He thinks it is hilarious, I find it a bit annoying especially when I'm in the zone thrashing on some Major 7th Arpeggios in "Head Shoulder's Knees and Toes" or my advanced acoustic Legato Technique buried deep inside "Oh Susanna". The album is never going to get done at this rate... But our groupie is hot and she feeds us so we're in no rush.

Luke has his own toddler sized guitar he received as a birthday gift from Martin (I don't know where he gets all this money, he doesn't even have a job and lives on his parents couch) . Since the day he got it Luke has always liked playing that guitar. Playing with it consists of breaking strings, dragging it along the ground, using it as a Maracatar (the musical instrument he invented by putting guitar picks in the body of a guitar and shaking the guitar like a maraca). For the sake of the poor mistreated guitar, we put it away for a few months while I did some Mr. Miyagi training on Luke to improve his chops. We recently reintroduced Luke's guitar to him for another try at a demo of Van Halen's "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love". We're just about to get to the killer guitar solo and... well you'll see...

We are currently looking for a lead singer preferably female and under the age of 3 that can speak to our demographic in a language they understand. We're thinking Gwen Stefani meets the Olsen twins. A ganster rap repertiore is a must. Tryouts will be held in Austin area parks over the next few weeks.

Welcome Winston

Paparazzi snuck into the D'Andrea hospital room and scored this picture of baby Winston. Ok, it wasn't paparazzi, it was me. But here he is! Congratulations Winston, you landed some pretty cool parents and an awesome big bro.

Bug bite, abscess, and needles, oh my!

Before I begin I must warn those of you with weak stomachs that this story is pretty gross. If the phrase "volcano of puss" makes you want to hurl, then look away now. Don't say you haven't been warned.

(Now if you are like me and you read that first paragraph you are thinking, "Sweet! I love a good disgusting medical tale, don't spare me the details!" And so for you like-minded readers, I will try not to disappoint.)

So we begin our saga last Thursday, approximately, with a simple mosquito bite, not unlike any other many mosquito bites we all get this time of year. But this particular bite bit back, and somehow, probably by him scratching it, acquired a secondary infection and started to get a bit red and swollen. We thought nothing of this for a couple of days and treated it alternately with Neosporin and hydrocortisone cream. Jump to late Saturday and into Sunday and the mosquito bite became more and more swollen, hard, and scarlet red. And Luke started to run a fever. Time to see the doctor. Monday morning I paced the floor until the pediatrician's office phone lines opened at 8am and I called and got an appointment with anyone available at 8:30 that morning. We made our way to the office and as soon as the doctor walked in the room she exclaimed, "oh my goodness that is quite a Staph infection you have there". She went on to explain that it is very common to get a Staph infection after a bug bite, scratch, or scrape, but that she wanted to treat it as if it is MRSA- methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus- until proven otherwise. MRSA is a much more serious strain of Staph that is resistant to most antibiotics, and by coincidence (or not?) she had seen several cases of last week. In order to diagnose that this was MRSA she had to retrieve a sample from inside the wound to culture. What followed was one of the most harrowing experiences of my life. While Luke's legs were pinned down by me and his arms held down by a nurse, the doctor squeezed the abscess again and again and again while Luke wailed in pain. Twice she attempted to drain it by using a syringe needle to pop it, to no avail. Luke was screaming "Mommy!! Mommy!!" and I was crying right along with him. Eventually we decided to stop trying to pop it and to try again 48 hours later when it would be more "ripe". (Think teenage hormone fed monster zit times 100. As an admitted lover of popping zits, this would seem as if it were a dream come true to me, but given Luke's obvious horrible pain it was a nightmare.) The doctor drew a pen line around the redness and said if it spread beyond the pen border to immediately bring him in and that we'd probably have to admit him to the hospital for a surgical incision and drainage and IV antibiotics. We left with a prescription for oral antibiotics and one mad and hurting and pen-marked up little fellow.

What is this a picture of, a heat map of Antarctica? No, it's Luke's belly

The next day the sore had grown to the size of a baseball and was hard as a rock. Half the baseball was under the skin, half was above. He didn't seem in too much pain unless you directly touched it, so all was as well as could be expected while we waited for the antibiotics to work their magic. Then Luke suddenly broke out in humongous hives. One hive was the size of his entire upper leg. We rushed to the doctors office again while I panicked and feared he was going into anaphylactic shock (which he was not). The doctor said it was a common reaction to this type of antibiotic, and that we should switch him to this other antibiotic and start him on a precription antihistamine. She tried very briefly to squeeze the huge abscess again with the hopes of getting out some puss to culture, but it wasn't budging and Luke was in excruciating pain, so we planned on trying again the next day and we left, again. Within an hour of him taking the antihistamine the hives had started to subside and my nerves were finally starting to settle down a bit.

Now it is Wednesday, today, and the dreaded second attempt at popping the sucker was here. By now our warm heat compresses had helped the sore to come to a white head and it was just begging to explode. The doctor squeezed a bit, stabbed it with another syringe needle and it suddenly erupted like hot molten lava out of a volcano. A huge surge of puss and blood shot into the air literally 3 feet high, no exaggeration. Greenish yellow thick puss and blood sprayed onto the wall, onto my shirt (which, of course, was white), all in my hair, onto the doctor, on Louis and all over the table. It was epic. It was Quentin Tarantino movie worthy. Two other smaller 6 inch to 1 foot high eruptions followed, along with a chorus of "whoa!" by the doctor and me and Louis. Definitely MRSA she says, as no other type of Staph causes greenish thick puss like this. (Of course Luke was screaming bloody murder during all of this, but I know it must feel much better now that so much of that pressure was released.) The doc said she'd done hundreds of these procedures over the years and had never had one squirt out like that. She seemed impressed and surprised, and I think that's saying a lot for a jaded doctor. We later heard her excitedly retelling the story to the doctors and nurses in the hallway and their replies of "ewwww!". She thinks it should all heal up nicely now, and it already looks somewhat better although it is still the size of a ping pong ball and remains hard and very red. But I think he is now on the mend as long as the antibiotics do their job and whip some bad bug butt.

The funny thing about this doctors visit today was that a teenage boy was in the room and had been following our doctor around for the day. Sort of a "so you wanna be a doctor" kind of experience, and he witnessed the entire screaming baby green puss eruption and was obviously slightly traumatized. I asked him afterward if he was ok, and he never really responded with more than a "wow", and I won't be surprised if he ditches the medical school plans and joins a rock band. I'm sure he had quite a story to tell his friends though.

Post volcano, all bandaged up with a Care Bears Band Aid and a big dose of ibuprofen

While growing up my mom always said to us "don't pick that scab, you're going to get a Staph infection!" I never did get a Staph infection and probably thought she was paranoid and over-protective. Hmm, maybe she was right... Don't tell her I said that. I'll never admit to it.

To hopefully dull the image in your brain of a Staph infected wounded Luke I have included a sweet picture of my sleeping beauty in one of his more serene moments. I snuck into Luke's room while he was sleeping (to check for more hives) and found this cute scene- Luke and Koko (the Koala bear) cuddling while snoozing. (His Aunt Yasmine sent him this Koala from Australia when he was born and it's been in his crib since day 1.) Sweet dreams little tough guy. You're a trooper.

End note:

While waiting in line to check out at the pediatrician's office today, my friend, Erin (of Martin's blog http://www.dandreafamilyjournal.blogspot.com/), called with terrific news. Their new son, Mr. Winston Raphael D'Andrea, was born today! Welcome to the world little guy!! And don't pick your scabs!

Cupcakes and Dreams

This weekend we attended a super fun BBQ at the Weiss's house and Luke spent the afternoon hanging with his best buds splashing in the kiddy pool, playing with bubbles, and munching on tasty snacks. After dinner he was presented with his first ever delicious frosted cupcake. At first he was wary...

What is this thing you call a cupcake?

Then his taste buds danced and he realized...

I LOVE CUPCAKES!

Don't fake the funk with a nasty dunk

Here's a video we recorded about a month ago when Luke received his HEB Buddy Bucks Basketball set in the mail. For those of you who don't know, "Buddy Bucks" is a ficticious currency given by the cashier at the HEB supermarket. You get 2 maybe 3 Buddy Bucks per visit depending on the mood of your cashier.

You (I mean your child), takes the buck, puts it in a skill-crane type machine and moves the joystick above a pile of plastic bubbles with a sticker inside. You hit the button on the joystick, the crane falls, grabs a plastic bubble (hopefully), and drops the bubble into a door where your child can grab it. The stickers have numbers on them and when you collect enough points you can trade them in for sweet booty like pencil sets, graham crackers and loaves of bread (seriously). The kids go nuts over this and there is usually a line three deep waiting to get their snotty hands on the machine.

Anyway, Luke has been saving his Buddy Bucks for a while and finally had enough points to "buy" a basketball set. He loves to dunk the "ba ball". This is your warning that if you try and get between him and the hoop, he'll "posterize" you...

My favorite aspect of this video is that it looks like Luke is taking direction before the camera starts rolling. It's like you can almost hear us saying (although we weren't) "Alright Luke, this time, give us lots of energy. Quiet on the set! OK, roll sound... roll picture... and..... ACTION!"

All this with no pants and never dropping his milk. I'd like to see Michael Jordan try that trick.

Jamaica-me-crazy

Catamaran cruise off the coast of Negril, Jamaica

Louis and I jetted off to Jamaica over Memorial Day weekend for my friend Jaime's wedding. This was our first trip away from Luke for more than one night at a time. While we did miss him a lot, we knew he was having a blast with his Nana and Grandpa in Houston and we were having lots of fun in the sun in Negril. The wedding took place right on the beach to a beautiful backdrop of blue water and bright blue skies. Afterward we spent the next few days frolicking around the resort and taking full advantage of the all-inclusive gourmet food and yummy drinks. We went on a snorkeling trip, a catamaran cruise, got massages, went sailing, played tennis, and made fast friends with the bartenders at the beach bar. We also did a whole lotta nothing at times and it was great.

Meanwhile Luke hung out with his grandparents and played in the kiddy pool, played lots of bubbles, and racked up a major bill at Toys R Us. Suckers... and they loved every minute of it.

Bubble swallows toddler, or Glinda the Good Witch says "there's no place like home"

Finally, Luke would like to welcome his newest friend to the world, Mr. Brody Thomas Herman born May 14. Congrats Nicole and Brian and sisters Faith and Bella! Brody- Louis grew up with two older sisters and he has lots of tips and tricks for you!

Stuff We Do

What kind of stuff do we do around Austin? We do lots of fun things and especially like the ones that involve lots of room and opportunity for Luke to run around and play. In other words, he can be a psycho energy ball and we prefer places that can accomodate that. We can often be found hanging out at various parks and playgrounds and other such places that are sturdy enough for his romps.

We like to go to Town Lake to walk along the water, feed the ducks, feed the birds, look at the sunning turtles, watch the dogs running and swimming, and pay homage to the Stevie Ray Vaughn statue and big guitars.

A view from the top

www.gibson.com/AustinGuitarTownWebsite

Here birdies- 1 Cheerio for you, 10 for me

A few weeks ago we went to the grand opening of a new Babies R Us location for the free cake and balloons and celebrity sightings of Clifford the Big Red Dog and the Cat in the Hat. Luke loved seeing the big red "woof" from afar, but up close he wasn't as excited about the idea. My camera phone came in handy that day.

Alright woof, that's close enough.

We like visiting the children's museum too. There are lots and lots of cool things to play with there and lots and lots of other small kids to drown out the screeches of your own. There is a mini Austin City Limits stage complete with tv cameras and music and Luke likes to bang on the drums and slam the wooden guitars into the floor. He's a true rock star in the making.

Catch my act at ACL Fest 2025

Tunnel o' Luke

Daddy hogging the slide

Maamaa, let me out, I promise I'll be good

How about stuff we no longer will do? That list includes allowing Luke to run laps around tables of shoes and jewelry at Dillards while screaming at the top of his lungs. He was happily doing this seemingly harmless activity last weekend while mom shopped for jewelry. Dad was watching, and while we may have been the recipients of other people's eye daggers, we figured that he was happy and enjoying himself and that is a whole lot better than whining and crying, so hey, what could go wrong. Well... Luke was running past one table that was about three feet high and on top of this table was multiple precariously perched two foot high metal jewelry stands stocked full of earrings and necklaces. He suddenly stopped running, gave the jewelry stand a good look and purposefully pushed the entire stand off the table before we could stop him. It landed with a horrible loud crash and jewelry went flying and I waited for Luke to scream out in fear, and possibly in pain... but no, he just laughed. A big, evil, belly laugh full of naughy self satisfaction. We hastily cleaned up a bit and hightailed it outta there before the "you are bad parents" looks burned holes in our backs.

Baby Shower

Tot Teetering Teeter-Totter

I got to hang with some of my oldest bestest buds on Saturday and all of their kiddos. My friend, Nicole, of "Faith and Bella" blog fame, is due in May with her third child, a boy, so we got together for a baby shower and for party time afterward. Party time pretty much means the kids ran around like berserk-o-heads, frolicking and having a blast while the parents sat in lawn chairs drinking beers. My kind of party. We had a great time.

From left to right sit Luke, Bella, Andrew, Faith and Ally
Two handsome men, three lovely prinsesses... Good odds, boys.

Biiiiike!

Look at me, ladies! I've got my own wheels now!

Last weekend we bought Luke his first tricycle, which he calls his "bike". He adores it. It is a super cool Radio Flyer trike with a handy basket on the back and very masculine tassles that hang off of the handlebars. We bought an old fashioned sounding bike bell for it and attached it to the front (not pictured) and he rings it while he cruises by. He rides it up and down our street and can now hang with the cool big kids and their bikes. They all play together in the culdesac and they like to show Luke all sorts of big boy bike tricks like popping wheelies and catching air off of their ramp. He's not quite to that skill level yet, but he practices every day. Bikes are the coolest!

Here mama, let me haul that away for you.

Easter Egg Hunt

Here are some pictures from our visit to Nana and Grandpa's house over Easter weekend. The Easter bunny visited Luke there and left him all sorts of goodies. Colorful plastic eggs full of treats were hidden in the grass and bushes, and Luke seeked them out like a professional treasure hunter. He had a blast and we had just as much fun watching him. We don't know why the Easter bunny didn't leave us bigger kids anything- must be age discrimination.

Here is footage from Luke's first training session for hunting Easter eggs. Looks promising...

Alright Luke, this is the real deal- This is where your training has brought you. It's YOU vs the Easter Bunny... GO!

And the young human stalks his prey, then attacks!

Wow, there is stuff inside the eggs! So... bunnies lay eggs of goldfish?

Wait a minute... bunnies lay eggs of ducks? I'm so confused...

The Easter bunny also brought Luke an awesome Easter basket!

Sweet, a basket of toys and snacks! How does the Jesus part fit into all of this?

Bluebonnets and Bubbles

Hurry up Mom, these flowers are itching my bum

It's that time of year where the bluebonnets are blooming! This is a monumental time in Austin, where even the newscasters report bluebonnet sightings so that the wildflower enthusiasts can catch a glimpse of their beautiful blanketing of hillsides. A couple of weeks ago we took these pictures in the first crop of bluebonnets on the sides of the very romantic drainage ditch near our house. We plan to get better pictures soon now that the rain has subsided and all of the Texas wildflowers will be in full bloom any day.

Here Dad, this bluebonnet tastes delicious

Annual required bluebonnet pose. Pretend like you like it and smile.

And here are some other pictures from that day...

If I close my eyes nobody can see me... peekaboo!

Luke and Dad in matching outfits

Me and my shadow enjoy some quality time together

Where's Lukey?

Mt. Bridgeway, elevation 2

Luke and Martin knock back a couple of cold ones

Luke loves to blow bubbles. If he sees the bubble container in the house, he is unrelenting in his demand to play with the bubbles. He points to the container and clearly says, "Bubbles! Bubbles!" and it's pretty tough to resist, so we play bubbles a lot. He runs around the yard chasing them, squealing "Bubbles! Bubbles!" and it is very cute. He likes to blow them himself but often ends up with the wand up to his mouth and the bubble soap all over his lips. And then he is able to blow bubbles with his mouth which he thinks is a pretty neat trick. Almost as neat a trick as blowing bubbles in his milk or in his yogurt, which makes much more of a mess and is, therefore, the most fun trick of all.

Bubble boy

Mom said these two bubbles resemble mitotic cell division. My mom is a geek.

Don't make me choose between going to see the train or watching bubbles!

Nude Painting

Apparently tummies are the preferred canvas of toddlers

Luke's teacher sent me this picture of him and his buddies painting. I thanked her for the great picture and for stripping off his clothes before this activity. Just glad I wasn't the one to have to clean up that mess.

Bad Hair Day

To the moon, Dad! You did this to me!

Louis gave Luke a haircut today. He's done it before with decent results. The plan today was to leave the top long-ish and just trim up the back and around the ears, which was getting long and wavy. We don't know what was different this time, but somehow the haircut turned out reeeeeally short. And he shaved a big bald spot above one of Luke's ears- check out the picture below I took as evidence.

Louis says this is how the kids wear their hair these days

It could be worse. It's not tragic. Just unfortunate. Sorry dude... It'll grow back, eventually.

March Madness

So here are Luke's picks for the NCAA Basketball tournament (or 'Ba Ball' as Luke calls it). As you can see from the results to far, they are not so hot. He was pretty adamant about a Maryland and BYU final and I can't really understand where he went wrong. Maybe you guys can. Here was his strategy for his picks:

1. #1 seeds automatically win their first game (because he can stick 1 finger in the air and sort of say "one")
2. The name of the team (he's a big fan of teams with "mama", "dada" or "wawa" sounds which is why he has Maryland winning the whole thing)
3. The seed number of the team (his favorite number is "deux" so "2" seeds got picked a lot)
4. He's a fan of Texas and Texas A&M (because he recognizes the Longhorn sign and Gig 'em sign when I presented their match ups)
5. Everything else was either picked because he was either annoyed with one of the team names I presented to him or he was bored and wanted to read his favorite book "Clap Your Hands" that I was using as a writing surface at the time we were making the picks.
   

This was his first tournament so we're not going to be too hard on him. Next year we're expecting results.

Here are some recent pictures. In this picture he demonstrates one of his favorite activities of climbing on large sized items we just bought from the store. His favorites include mega packs of toilet paper, 12 packs of Coke, and this big bag of dog food. If you ever wondered how that toddler sized footprint got on the Cheerios box at our house, now you know.

King of the hill

A couple of weekends ago the Jumalons were in Austin. Luke got to visit with his bud Vince and enjoy the awesome view of the lake from the house they rented. Behold the future point guard and power forward of the Houston Rockets.

Louis, Luke, Vince and Jen J on Lake Austin

Here is a pic of Luke's good friend, Martin, on St. Patrick's day at our house. We had the D'Andreas over for a Irish themed evening including green attire, Irish cheese, Guinness, Jameson Irish Whiskey, and two very shnockered blokes by the end of the night. (And I don't mean Luke and Martin. Their part of the fun ended at their 7pm bedtime.)

Martin cuts the cheese

Luke loves to drive at high speeds all over the house on his scooter. He drives forward, backward, and upward by picking up the whole thing to ride over anything that gets in his way. And on days that we bring home those big items just purchased from the store, he drives over them as well. I see monster truck rallies in his future. GIT 'ER DONE!

I rule this living room

This La Croix is la crushed

Peter Pan's Revenge

This weekend, Luke's Aunt Kim and Uncle Scott came to visit him and we all had a blast. The weather was absolutely gorgeous and we spent lots of time outside. Saturday morning we visited our favorite local South Austin breakfast joint, Taco Xpress. We dined on delicious breakfast tacos and migas and Luke showed us all how to properly don an empty paper food boat. You wear it on your head, of course.

Mas tacos, ahora mama.

That afternoon we enjoyed a fun game of miniature golf at the Peter Pan Golf Course. The four adults used regular golf putters and Luke was given a special big boy blue plastic putter. This game was a rematch a long time coming for me and Kim. We last visited this course over twenty years ago during a family trip to Austin in the summer of 1986 where Kim famously smacked me square in the bridge of my nose with a golf club as she rared back for a long shot down the mini golf fairway. I've been exacting my revenge ever since and she knows it. Being the good boy that he is, Luke beat her bad at golf that one glorious afternoon and properly righted a wrong from long ago. What a good son. It was straight from The Godfather.

Well actually, the way it happened is that Luke beat us all bad at golf that day. He's a genius and proved it by showing us all a much more efficient way to get the ball in the hole. Why whack at it in frustration all day with a long metal stick? Just pick it up and place it in the hole by hand. Duh. Luke scored a twenty, which has got to make even Tiger Woods jealous, especially since Luke isn't even two years old yet. He's a true prodigy. (Takes after his mom.)

Peter Pan Golf Course, the rematch

Here Luke, let me show you how to do it

No Dad, let ME show YOU how to do it

No fear

Svoboda Castle

Relaxing at Shady Grove after a long day on the links, Luke with chicken in hand.

Finally, Luke would like to welcome his two newest friends, and future girlfriends, Vivian and Eleanor, aka Ellie. Click their names to view their blogs. Luke says he's single and looking, so watch out ladies!