Daddy Daze

Washout

2009-08-05T18:52:00.000-07:00

It started as a normal Saturday morning. I needed to wash the dogs and shop for the beautiful wife's birthday present and maybe mow a little bit later. Not a very heavy day. I was even thinking I'd have time to play with the girls a little bit in there.
But the washing machine had other ideas.
I got up around 8:30 a.m. when the girls came in and jumped on the bed. I love it when they wake me up with kisses and hugs.
We got breakfast and I let them watch a little TV. I decided to do a load of laundry and start the dishwasher. Then it was time to get the girls ready to go birthday present shopping. I got them dressed after fighting about which clothes to wear.
We yelled back and forth about how they would do their hair and I finally got them into the bathroom to brush their teeth.
With the dogs barking, the children screaming and the dishwasher going, I didn't realize there was a big surprise brewing.
I looked down at the bathroom floor and started yelling at the girls ... "who got water all over the floor?!?"
As I looked around I realized there was way too much liquid for it to have been the girls who did it ... that the water was coming in under the wall.
I ran around the house to the laundry room. I stood there for about five seconds just horrified as water streamed from the laundry room door into the back living room. The carpet was floating like a water bed.
I turned off the water and just stood there for about two minutes.
I mean, what do you do? of course i did the man thing and tried to start sucking it up with a shop vac. I only dumped it twice before giving up that approach.
The Yellow Pages came out and I started going down the list until I found a contractor who was licensed, insured and bonded. They came out and started cleaning it up.
Luckily insurance will pay for all but $500 of the damage.
In the end our house might be better than it was before. ... If only we can live through the process.

A week with the mouse

2009-06-24T18:11:00.002-07:00

What happens when you put four Culps in the sun with a mouse and a bunch of people in air-conditioned suits? The family turns into a big puddle and the mouse picks the money out of the wallets left on the ground.
This analogy aside, our trip to Disney World earlier this month was a blast! it was exactly 10 days away from work and every other aspect of real life.
For those days, we parked the Envoy and left it off -- one quick trip to the outlet mall for cheap gifts aside.
We rode the bus to the parks and spent the days trying to stay cool while meeting as many characters as possible and getting their signatures. This actually worked out well because many of the waiting lines for characters were inside in the air conditioning. The trick was to make sure we were waiting in these lines during the hottest part of the day.
We got to ride a lot of wonderful rides -- big sister's favorites were the runaway train roller coaster at the Magic Kingdom and Soarin at Epcot.
Little Sister's favorite ride was Aladdin's Magic Carpet.
We'll have to go back in a few years when Little Sister can enjoy it better.

A new doggie

2009-05-27T17:16:00.002-07:00

We got Oakley 9 years ago -- about a year after we got married. The cocker spaniel mix was our first attempt at seeing if we could handle children.
Obviously we decided we could take care of children since we now have two.
Oakley is really pretty easy to take care of, but we do have to trim his fur once a month or so. His hair grows out and he looks kind of fuzzy. I have always trimmed him myself since he tried to eat the first person we took him to. Little dogs are the most vicious you know.
The beautiful wife just shakes her head at my attempts to groom the dog. I make his fur shorter, but it often looks a little choppy.
We're getting ready for vacation and the beautiful wife didn't want to send Oakley to sister-in-law's house without a trim, but she didn't want me to do it.
So, we took him to a groomer, the same one mother-in-law uses. She had done such a good job shaving down Bella, we thought we'd give her a try.
When I dropped Oakley off, she asked how I wanted it. I told her "pretty short."
"The ears too," she asked.
"Sure, why not."
We went away and came back an hour later. Little sister was with me. We pulled up and I was horrified, and just knew the beautiful wife was going to hate the cut as the groomer walked Oakley out to the car.
I just shook my head and paid the lady.
we took him home and the beautiful wife and I of course grumped and grouched about the bad haircut.
Oh, well. It will grow back out right?
We were surprised when, the next day, Little sister looks at the beautiful wife and says, "when are we going to go back and get Oakley? I don't like this new doggie as much."
It took some doing, but we finally convinced her the bald doggie is Oakley.

Put it back

2009-05-13T14:50:00.002-07:00

It started about two months ago -- actually about the time I blogged last. Big sister was getting jealous that all of her friends had lost teeth. Some had lost two or three -- and her teeth weren't even loose!
She would come to us every third day or so and ask, "is this tooth loose?"
We'd check it assure her, no, but you will lose one in God's time, not yours.
Finally, on March 23 one of her teeth was actually wiggling just a little.
Tiny bit at time over the last two or three weeks, that tooth got looser and looser.
Then Thursday night she got a bug in her head that the tooth was coming out. Big sister holed herself up in the bathroom in front of the mirror.
We could hear various grunts and groans for about half an hour.
Then ... all of a sudden it was, "Wahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh."
Big sister came running out of the bathroom, blood running down her chin and tooth in hand.
There was a wild scared look in her eyes as she screamed, "PUT IT BAAAACCCKKK ... I DON'T WANT TO GROW UP!!!!"
Through my laughing and the beautiful wife's stifled laughs, we managed to calm her down and get her to bed .., granted it was about an hour late.
All was good the next day when the tooth fairy had left her a note, $2 and a silver whistle with the intials TF emblazoned on the side.
At that point all was good, though, I really don't know where she got the idea for the silver whistle.

What's fair is fair -- I think

2009-03-22T16:25:00.000-07:00

MOOOOOOMMMM, he's touching my side of the room!!!!!
I can't tell you how many times I probably yelled that, or conversely my brother or sister screamed the phrase about me.
My mother's reaction was normally pretty consistent. She would pause, shake her head and give a great big old sigh. These days, and as we got a little older, we recognized that sigh as the sign that we had better do what she wanted.
The next step was likely to be something unpleasant.
But my young self wasn't quite so smart. I got the unpleasant consequences many times before I even started to learn. I never understood how she could be so unfair and not always side with me.
I mean, my brother, or sister, was the one who had done it. They deserved what they got.
Now as the parent of two little screamers, I understand a little better that you can't just take the side of one or the other.
Since you can't be in all places at once, you never know what really happened.
Little sister likes to run from one room to the other right yelling, "Big sister pinched me?"
The problem, Big sister is at school.
Big sister will sometimes sit in her room and scream at the top of her lungs until we come running only to discover that Little sister is sitting on the floor looking at her wrong.
It doesn't pay to overreact.
I just sigh, shake my head and hope I don't have to resort to anything unpleasant to get them to mind. (By unpleasant I mean time outs of course. Nothing severe. It's just that it all makes my blood pressure rise.)

Queen of the declarative sentence

2009-03-05T16:34:00.002-08:00

"I don't like you daddy!"
Life with my 2-year-old means hearing this phrase almost hourly. I really have to laugh, because within minutes of saying it, Little sister can turn around with the longest eyelashes known to man and bat away all the hard feelings.
It's funny, because she doesn't say it to the Beautiful wife hardly at all. Big sister was the opposite. She and her mom had, and still have, some real knock down, drag out screaming fests.
But Big sister tends to be pretty good for me.
All bets, however, are off if Grandma is anywhere within hearing distance. Then, both sisters like only grandma and everyone else is chopped liver.
Grandma is the cure for all hate with those two.
Little sister has picked up a few other choice phrases as well:
"Fix my TV!" She says this every 15 minutes when Sponge Bob advertises or 30 minutes for Diego.
"I want my mommy (daddy)" she says this to whomever is trying to put her in the car. If it's me, she wants mommy, if it's mommy, she wants daddy. Frankly, I think she is just stalling because she hates being buckled in the car seat.
"I want to talk." This phrase come out whenver the phone rings and is repeated at increasing volumes until you give in. Imagine the confusion of the phone salesman when I hand the phone over to the babbler.
"Get back!" Big sister has this phrase screamed at her constantly because there is some sort of magnet in little sister's back that makes her sister want to push her on the ground, or pick her up.
And finally, "I want my milk!" She says this often, because she would drink milk from sunup to sundown if we'd let her and never eat a morsel of food. So she only gets milk when she gets up or goes to bed.

Superman lives in my shower

2009-02-16T18:04:00.002-08:00

We do our best when we buy new toys to get both girls the same thing or similar things so as to reduce fights.
It doesn't work.
No matter what we do, Little sister always wants what Big sister has -- even if it is identical to her own. Little sister also tends to be the more aggressive of my two children.
Though she is half Big sister's size, Little Sister is a bully.
Little sister will start screaming and we'll run to see what is wrong, she normally has Big sister in a corner -- pinching her, hitting her or otherwise subduing her.
To her credit, Big sister doesn't pick back.
The fighting is normally over a toy -- again, even if it is the exact same one as the one she owns.
So, at Christmas I decided I would buy a present for Little Sister and and Little Sister alone.
It was a Superman punching bag. You know, the kind you punch and it bounces right back up.
I thought maybe she could get some of her aggressions out on something that is meant to be punched.
Of course she doesn't punch the punching bag -- she dances with it. She twirls and dips and even does throws. She loves Superman.
But like all good toys, there will eventually be a fight when Big sister wants to play and Little sister isn't finished.
So I did what I always do. I took it away for a week.
There is no where in the house really big enough to keep Superman, so he now lives in my shower.
Of course it is a little crowded in the mornings -- but it's better than screaming girls.

Here today ... melted tommorow

2009-02-08T16:36:00.000-08:00

It was gone in less than a day.
14 inches of snow practically immobilized our entire area for nearly three days and blanketed the town for more than at week.
But just one day of warm weather and it was all gone. it's a shame too.
Big sister had been waiting for a snow even half that big for two years. It was two years ago the last time we had a snow big enough to go sledding and make a snowman. So we were due.
The came down on a Tuesday night into Wednesday. I wouldn't have even gotten to work if we didn't have a 4x4 vehicle. I came home early and right away we went to the hill at the park to sled.
It was little sister's first real experience sledding. It wasn't a big hit for her. She went down once and stayed down with the beautiful wife. Big sister and I went three more times before the snow started to melt.
The last time we went, Little Sister did get brave and went down a couple of times with me. She really had fun once she realized we could start half way down the hill.
there was one thing little sister really wanted to do though -- she wanted to make a snowman.
Problem is, the snow was too dry. So, we waited a couple of days.
When we finally got around to trying again -- the snow was too wet.
We managed anyway -- but it wasn't the traditional snowman. Rather than making a snowball and rolling it bigger and bigger, we had to pile snow and try to shape into something resembling a snowman.
We didn't do half bad if I must say so myself. But now it's gone -- just three days after we made it and Little sister looked out the door this morning and said, "where did the snowman go?"
Until next year -- or maybe the year after ... she'll have to wait.

100 of everything

2009-01-26T18:11:00.001-08:00

One hundred. It sounds like a lot when you're 6 years old.
It takes a lot to understand the concept of just exactly how much that is. So, kindergarten teachers across the country use the 100th day of school to help their students understand the concept.
I took the afternoon off today to help celebrate this milestone with big sister.
Last week she had created a snowman using 100 cotton balls and on Saturday we decorated one of my undershirts with 100 stamps. She wore the shirt to school. It took a few minutes for the beautiful wife to convince Big sister that, while, yes, it was big enough to be a dress, she had to wear clothes underneath.
It was a pretty cool shirt and a really cool snowman. In fact, the shirt was so cool, they grabbed her and put her on the morning announcements.
The day involved stations in the classroom, manned by parents, where students got to see just how much 100 is. They had 100 pennies, 100 stamps, 100 paper clips, 100 stackable blocks and most importantly 100 snacks.
My favorite part, however, was the end when the teacher gave them a fake $100 bill and asked what they would buy with it if the money was real.
"100 puppies," "1,000 cars," "a hummer."
And big sisters answer -- a bigger house.
If only $100 would buy that.

Don't pee on Dora

2009-01-18T12:50:00.000-08:00

Big sister came potty trained. I don't remember ever really having to worry about how we were going to do it. Just one day, she stopped wearing diapers.
I know, it just seems like that to me because at the time Grandma was watching her five days a week. Grandma did nothing but pay attention to Big sister when they were together and it was very easy on our end.
It was like getting a big raise the day we no longer had to buy diapers. It also came very early on. Big sister was potty trained at about 1-1/2 years old. And boy, was she fascinated with the potty. We had to stop at every potty within walking distance of whatever store or restaurant we were visiting. Often the beautiful wife and I had to each take her because she truthfully wanted to see both bathrooms.
Little sister is a much different story. She's at 2 years and four months and has shown no real interest in potty training. She seems perfectly willing to continue using diapers.
Well, we're tired of using diapers and she's getting too big to change very easily. So last week, the beautiful wife told Little sister that they don't make diapers her size any more. She had her pick out panties -- she picked Dora.
And now we realize we were taking the wrong tack in motivating Little sister. All we really needed to have done was tell her, "Uncle Mark will be really proud of you if you wear big girl panties."
Little sister has always had an infatuation with my little brother -- who is actually about 2 inches taller than me and has a few extra pounds of muscle too. He's also very quiet and kind of shy.
So we've been cracking up all week because the first thing she said when she got home was, "call Mark, I tell him about my Dora panties."
She did finally get ahold of him and talked for about 10 minutes -- and yes Dora panties were the subject of the conversation.

Found her calling

2009-01-11T15:16:00.000-08:00

It was a fight from the beginning.
"NO! daddy, you have to ask them."
No, Big sister, we're not going unless you do the work.
With lip quivering ... "but I don't want to."
So I promised that I would walk up to the door with her, but she had ask ..."
We started with houses of people we know -- the neighbor to the right. She was too shy to say anything, which really made me laugh because we know the neighbor really well and Big sister plays with granddaughter all the time. We made a sale even though no words came out of the little girl's mouth.
The second house was a couple that we wave to every day during the spring, summer and fall as they stroll by in front of our house.
Big sister knocked on the door and mumble,"wwwould, yyyou like to bbbuy, some......"
Luckily, the neighbor saw the form in her hand and was really excited.
The third house and fourth house were witness to slightly braver selling attempts.
Today when we went out, we stopped at the first house, and with a great big smile Big sister belted out ... "Would you like to buy some Girls Scout cookies?"
We've sold 47 boxes in two days, nothing like the 80 or so I'm told her uncle has managed to hock, but all in all a good showing.
If anyone in the Morgan County area (or family outside of that) still needs their yearly fix of Girl Scout cookies feel free to e-mail me your name and phone number and we'll help you with that.

A whole year!

2009-01-04T17:25:00.001-08:00

I know, it's really a week late to do the look back at 2008, but I'm just a few days away from the one year anniversary of this blog.
So, I thought I would do a little ruminating.
It's hard to believe just how much two little girls can grow in a year. As sad as it is, Little sister has lost her baby looks. When I started writing she was still a chubby cheeked grinning baby, now she's a full blown toddler. She speaks in full sentences and does everything her big sister does.
Big sister was a preschooler a year ago. She knew everything back then and now that she's a kindergartner she knows even more.
We've had daddy daughter dates, gone to the museum about 20 times made messes -- with Easter eggs, mud and food.
Little sister went from crosseyed, to the cutest little girl with glasses you've ever seen. She's also gone through six sets of frames. We've gotten as much value as possible out of that warranty we bought.
Big sister has bloomed into a social butterfly -- and with good reason. She's beautiful and sweet and kind to everyone she meets. She loves her Daisy troop and has become a socialite with all the birthday parties.
It hasn't all been good. We've struggled through flooding and the death of my grandma.
Mostly, though, despite the challenges -- 2008 wasn't a bad year. And I have it all chronicled right here.
Here's to a happy 2009.

Making up for lost time

2008-12-13T19:57:00.000-08:00

The last couple of months have been stressful and I've worked a lot of extra hours. I had a few days of vacation left, so I thought I'd make up for lost time.
Here's just a little bit of what I did:
On Thursday night I went to Disney on Ice with the beautiful wife, Big sister and her Daisy troop.

We left straight from kindergarten on Friday to the Children's Museum so that we could go down the Christmas slide.

We hurried from the museum to the Pepsi Coliseum at the state fairgrounds where I started teaching Big sister to ice skate. That was fine until she fell and hit her head. Then it was over. But overall, she did really well. I think she'll get the hang of it -- if we can get her back on the ice that is.

From the Ice Rink to Diva central, we went to Greenwood Park Mall and Libby Lu, where six little girls had their princess fantasies lived out.

Finally this morning we went to wrap presents for families that Big sister's Daisy Troop adopted.

Phewwww....

I've got one more day, then it's back to relaxing work.
Just kidding, I can't imagine a better time than the last three days with my girls.

Sitting on Santa's lap

2008-12-07T17:16:00.000-08:00

I don't remember sitting on Santa's lap. I'm sure I did at some point. I probably told him I wanted Legos or a remote control car or some other toy.
The beautiful wife remembers asking for dolls and Barbies.
My work Christmas party was Thursday. during the party Santa always comes to find out what the children want.
It's funny because they're all so excited when he walks in the door. This year he was a little late, so the anticipation was higher than normal.
We had gotten a camcorder during the crazy Thanksgiving sales (OK, the beautiful wife did it, I was asleep in bed), so I pulled it out and got it ready.
They called Little Sister's name and she went up to Santa, and started screaming. Big sister took the package and walked it back to mommy and the sniffling toddler. The crying stopped as soon as she realized the present was for her. It was a big baby doll, which she has played with nonstop since.
Next it was Big sister's turn. Now, I was proud at what she had asked Santa to bring her to the party. It wasn't typical 6-year-old stuff, no, but it showed her excitement for learning -- she wanted a math activity book.
You could tell from the wrapping, that was what she had gotten.
All that was left was for her to sit on Santa's lap and tell him what she wanted on Christmas morning.
"A baby doll, a CD player, CD holder and ... a stapler."
A stapler? What does a 6-year-old need with a stapler?
Oh well, to each her own. I'm sure someone will get her a red Swingline or something. I just hope she doesn't staple her eye out -- or worse Little sister's eye.

Happy Birthday to me!!

2008-12-01T16:44:00.004-08:00

I turned 32 years old on Sunday.
You know you're getting older when all you get for your birthday is a mixed CD. And, you know what, it's one of the better gifts I've gotten in a while.
I must preface this blog by clarifying that I requested no presents for my birthday this year. It's so close to Christmas and we're trying to save for a trip to Disney World for our 10th anniversary. I would just rather us save the money. Besides I'm at that point in life where I don't really need much I don't have.
The beautiful wife was a little upset that I told her no gifts. But she honored the request and put the money she had saved for it into the vacation pot.
So, when we got up, I got a kiss and a "happy birthday." My children of course didn't really even know it was my birthday because I hadn't talked about it at all.
But when my father-in-law got in the Envoy to go to church he gave me a sly smile and popped a CD in the player.
At first I just gave him a weird look because he never plays music while we're all in the car. In fact, we always turn off the radio.
When Stevie Wonder began playing I really didn't understand -- that's just not his style of music.
But then I realized it was a happy birthday song.
He had spent hours Saturday night putting together a mixed CD with happy birthday songs. The best one was a personalized song he had found at a Web site that included my name.

Charlie Brown lessons

2008-11-25T17:33:00.000-08:00

My children have always been well spoken. We've never talked to them with baby talk. I think that for the most part The beautiful wife and I have taught them to communicate very well.
At 3 years old, Big sister tripped in a hole in the yard, looked up at us and said, "this yard is not conducive to running."
At her two-year check up, the doctor asked if Little sister talks in two and three word sentences. We had to laugh, she tends to talk in five and six word sentences. "Daddy, I want my chocolate milk," is one of her favorite sentences.
All this isn't leading up to me telling you how smart they are because they can talk, though.
The point is, we think we communicate with them very well.
So, we had to laugh when we were watching the Thanksgiving Charlie Brown. Big sister asks, "why do the adults sound like, 'wah wah wah wah?'"
The beautiful wife explained that it is representative of how children and adults don't understand each other very well and that often, that is what children hear when adults talk.
"I just hear, 'do this, do that, do this,'" Big sister said.
And now I'm thinking, if that's all I heard, I suppose it would eventually begin to sound like, "Wah, wah, wah, wahwahwah." In fact I know it does.
Maybe we need to rethink the way we talk to our children.

A new exercise

2008-11-19T16:22:00.001-08:00

I have various pieces of exercise equipment in the garage -- free weights, Total Gym, medicine ball, punching bag. Nothing I have found, however, is any better at keeping me in shape than using a 50 pound weight named Big Sister and a smaller one named Little Sister.
They are the perfect size right now to give me the right amount of resistance.
Push ups with Little Sister on my back are challenging, but give it that extra burn. Big sister is the perfect size to walk on my back and also to stretch out my legs.
They have a lot of fun doing it too. I'm just a big jungle gym to them.
After a while that gets a little boring, just doing pushups and such. So the other day, after cleaning the garage, I realized the Total Gym has a bunch of pulleys and ropes.
I hooked up the pulleys and ropes to a hook in the rafters. Then I found a harness for Big Sister and we have a new exercise machine. Only this machine allows the sisters to fly like Peter Pan from the ceiling.
I know, it sounds dangerous, but there's nothing around for them to run into and the ropes and everything are in sound condition. I don't think I'd do it once the are past 70 or so pounds, but for now ...
There is one problem. I'm not in as good a shape as I should be, or would like to think I am.
After the first time using the sister machine, I was just a little sore and didn't think a whole lot of it.
But after I did it on Tuesday, I can hardly move my arm above my waist.
Flying might keep them young, but without a lot more building up, it's tearing me down.

Daddies don't do hair

2008-11-15T17:59:00.000-08:00

Dad used a lot of straw for the pigs. On all that straw was a lot of twine. In fifth or sixth grade I took that twine and braided it into a big huge whip like the one Indiana Jones used.
My cousin Jason made fun of me when he caught me braiding the twine one day.
But I think it must have been good training. I'm not perfect by any means, but I can do my girls' hair if need be.
And every Sunday morning, I have too get them ready for church. The beautiful wife made the sacrifice shortly after Little sister was born of working weekends. She works Saturday, Sunday and Monday in exchange for being off four days a week. It's a pretty good deal, but she really misses going to church with us -- and helping get the girls ready on Sunday morning.
At first it was hard and we barely made it out the door on time to pick up grandma and grandpa.
But now we have it down to a science.
My alarm goes off, I hit snooze (OK, I hit snooze twice) and then I get Big sister dressed and do her hair. Somedays it's a simple pony tail, other days I have to curl it and help her put it up in or bun or some other hairstyle.
She really doesn't ask for much from me. In fact it was only recently that she even let me touch her hair.
But Little sister will let me try all kinds of things. I even figured out how to french braid. I still need some practice on that one. My fingers are just a little too big I think.
I get it done though and I have to think that my time making Indiana Jones bullwhips didn't hurt. Who knows, maybe somebody up there was helping me prepare for two little girls in my future.

Time flies when you're scared

2008-11-07T18:21:00.000-08:00

Yes, I am a week behind. I have had every intention of blogging more than once this week. But between preparing for the election and trying to catch up from spending 24 hours at work on Tuesday I never found the time.
Here's what you missed:
In case it's hard to tell from the back angle they went as Dorothy and the Wicked Witch of the West.
I tried to convince them to dress little sister as a flying monkey, but I was out voted.
Next year's costumes are already planned: Big sister will be Supergirl and she wants me to dress as Superman.
I think I can pull it off. An editor I used to work for always told me I looked like Clark Kent.
Of course I'm missing a few of the signature traits like a square jaw, blue eyes, big muscles and of then there's that flying thing.
I can't fly.
But I can wear my underwear on the outside of my clothes. So I guess that will have to do.

12:30 a.m.

2008-10-29T11:53:00.000-07:00

When I was little my mom and grandma had a tape that they would send back and forth. Grandma Dodd lived in Michigan and at the time long distance was expensive.
so, we would send this tape back and forth with recordings of our voices. I don't have any idea what we talked about. It might have been the weather or how much we missed each other.
I think I remember grandpa reading me books sometimes.
At some point that tradition went by the wayside. I can't recall when or why, but sometime in high school, after grandpa Dodd passed away, I found one of those tapes.
I listened to it and ended up just a puddle of tears thinking about all the good times we had, playing superman and going to the tridge.
In more recent years cell phones have made sending tapes back and forth rather unnecessary. You can hit one button and the person is on the other end.
For a long time I called grandma just about every other week. She resided in an assisted living facility in Anderson close to my mom and I should have gone to visit more often.
But it was easier to pick up the phone.
For the first few years things were like they always had been. We talked about life and she always assured me everything would work out. And she always ended the conversation.
"Brian, I love you."
And I would always say "I love you grandma."
As the years wore on, the talks got shorter and shorter and eventually consisted of me telling her about the girls. She didn't have much to say.
I don't even know when it was that she finally stopped really being the woman I grew up with and loved, but somewhere in there she gave up. So, when they diagnosed her with cancer for at least the third time in her life in February we all kind of knew it was over. They gave her less than a year to live sometime in June.
I still called her on and off, but not as much as before.
The last time I saw grandma she was in a nursing home bed this summer. I'm not sure she knew who I was and she definitely didn't know my girls. She looked at Little sister and said, my daughter's "granddaughter has glasses."
Now I wish I had more tapes of our conversations. I wish I could go back and hear her voice again. I wish I had gone to see her more.
But it's too late.
She died this morning at 12:30.

A jump on things

2008-10-25T18:11:00.000-07:00

Guess what I did today.

Bounce, bounce, bounce

2008-10-23T18:09:00.000-07:00

I don't normally endorse anything or mention businesses or products, but tonight I had one of the most fun hours I've had as a parent.
Several months ago we went to a place where you can play games and bounce in giant inflatables. Of course at this place the children can go in and you have to just sort of watch them and hope they come out the other side.
We had heard about a place a while ago called Pump it Up Party, but not really thought about it. Well, Big sister asked the other day to go back to the giant inflatable place and it decided it was time to try the Pump it Up Party.
All I can say is WOW!
Yes, it was $14 for the two girls and we got there late, so we spent that for an hour, but I'm not sure I could have done two hours.
The adults can go on these inflatables, which meant the beautiful wife and I got to slide down the slides and race the girls through the obstacle course. I got to help Little sister dunk a basketball.
Big sister got to climb a climbing wall and she got all the way to the top.
We're all exhausted now. What a great time.
http://www.pumpitupparty.com/

Nodding off

2008-10-20T18:15:00.000-07:00

With few exceptions, especially since school started, bedtime is 9 p.m. Big sister can argue all she wants, once the little hand hits the nine and the big hand is straight up, it's time to go down.
But she has recently wanted to be rocked right before bedtime because she knows we rock little sister to sleep.
So, we ask her about 15 minutes ahead of time if she wants to go rock. She always says yes. During that time I tell her stories and we talk about her day at school and other things.
Having had a few hard days at work last week, I nodded off a few times during our rock time, which upset big sister greatly. I mean, after all, that is her time.
The beautiful wife asked Big sister if it was time to rock. She said yes, but only if you do it mommy.
Rocking big sister to sleep isn't exactly the beautiful wife's cup of tea -- "you make my legs go to sleep," she said.
"Yes," big sister said, "but daddy's head goes to sleep."

Apple of my eye

2008-10-15T17:37:00.000-07:00

I was born on an apple orchard. Well maybe not actually on the orchard, but I spent the first two years of my life there at least.
After dad died mom remarried and moved away, but all through childhood we kept going back to the orchard. Of course my church had an apple festival there every year, which always took us out there many many times.
Many of my best memories revolve around those experiences -- collecting apples for applesauce, which my mom made and canned to have all year long; make pies for a pie contest, and competing with my dad in those contests; cider, unpasteurized, which you can't find anywhere anymore.
So, when the beautiful wife suggested six years ago that we should go to the orchard in her hometown and create a family tradition, I certainly didn't argue.
It's only fitting that my daughters should have the same pleasant memories and feelings about apples and picking them.
Hopefully they will always remember playing hide and seek in the trees and having papaw lift them up to grab that apple above his head. And we will never forget Big sister chasing the apple down the hill.
This year's time was a little warmer than normal and the trees were bare, but memories were still made. I can't wait until next year.

Battle wounds

2008-10-10T18:52:00.000-07:00

It's been a hard week at work. We switched computers and upgraded software, meaning that everything this took about 15 minutes longer.
I was feeling particularly rushed and frustrated around noon today, trying to hurry, but not mess up so that I could get home in time to take the beautiful wife and girls to the store.
I had just finished telling the beautiful wife that I likely wouldn't get home in time so I wanted to try and surprise her.
There was no need.
The phone rang and showed my home number. "Hello, I just thought you should know I'm going to the hospital," she said very nonchalantly. At first I was just a little confused because she's been spending a lot of time taking her mom and aunt back and forth recently anyway. so the next sentence was a shock.
Little Sister "needs some stitches."
What?!
At that point I realized there would be no shopping trip, but no the sense of urgency was a little different.
I knew there was no way I'd get done in time to actually be any help, but I still wanted to get home.
Once there, Little Sister came bounding around the corner like nothing had happened, "DADDYYYY."
The Bandaid didn't look too big or scary. So we played, had dinner and went about our business.
It wasn't until right before bed that I actually got to see the wound.
Not too bad for a first trip to our town's newly opened ER.

Oh yeah, I can't forget the best part. The glasses she just got on Wednesday? Mangled. Not so bad that they couldn't be repaired, but it figures.