Happy Birthday

Sophie: Hey Baby, guess what...today is my birthday!!!

Amelia: Oh yeah? That's great. How old are you? Like 6? 7?

Sophie: NOOO. I'm only 4!!

Amelia: Hmm. I only guessed older because you are so wise.

Sophie: Thanks

Amelia: And because I noticed some gray fur the other day.

Sophie: What?!? Where? Is it on my nub? I thought it was looking light back there. Are you messing with me?

Amelia: When do you plan on moving in with Rose, Blanche and the rest of the Golden Girls?

Sophie: Knock it off. My age is really starting to bother me.

Amelia: If you threeeeewwwww a partyyyy...iiiinvited everyone you kneeewwww...

Sophie: Seriously, Baby, don't make me eat you for the sport of it.

Amelia: You'd probably break a hip chasing me.

Sophie: You've been walking for a few weeks and now you think you can outrun me? Do I need to remind you there is a reason I am Head of Security around here.

Amelia: Yeah, maybe because you bark at anything that moves. Yesterday I saw you bark at a butterfly for 10 minutes. Did your "security" radar go off? Was that a particularly dangerous butterfly?

Sophie: You can never take any threat too seriously. Besides, I thought that was a bat.

Amelia: Well, the eyes ARE one of the first things to go as you age.

Sophie: Damn it! I am not old. I am only 4!!!!!

Amelia: Quiet down or we'll put you in the doggie nursing home. 4 in people years is like 60 in dog years.

Sophie: Actually, it's like 28 - basically the same age as mom and dad.

Amelia: THAT's your argument?.... that you are only as old as dad? That's like saying something only stinks as bad as a turd.

Sophie: When you put it that way, I can do nothing but hang my nub in sadness.

Amelia: Cheer up, pup. You are one day closer to collecting Social Security.

Home again

Well, my guys' weekend beach trip was cut a day short due to fatherly duties pertaining to Amelia's newly re-acquired case of Croup. This time they put her on steroids, so here's to hoping her 'roid rage and five-oclock shadow go unnoticed. While abbreviated, it was still a fun weekend full of varying levels of juvenile debauchery. If any of the other guys' wives are reading this, don't worry, YOUR husband was a perfect gentlemen, it was the OTHER guys who were causing all the trouble. This goes quadruple for my wife. That's my story and you couldn't bribe, threaten, or torture anything else out of me. As much I enjoyed the trip, it's still great to be home around my ladies. I can't particularly think of anything I can do to help Mia feel better, but if I can alleviate any of the stress from Meggan, it is worth missing a night of my vacation...even if it was primed to be the best night :)

Away from home

I am currently out of town on a beach trip with several friends of mine. This is the first night I have spent away from Meggan and Amelia. As much as I enjoy hanging out and doing traditional "guy" things, I miss my family more. On night one, I think I can safely say having Amelia has changed my opinion of what is fun versus what used to be fun. I'm sure I'll settle more in to vacation mode as the weekend moves along. Until then, I am actually glad I have this blog to look over to get to see her.

Trouble

So, it has been brought to my attention that Amelia has a boyfriend at school. Silly me, I didn't think I'd have to deal with this for a while. However, I suppose I didn't account for a particularly loving boy in her class that comes over to her and gives her a hug every morning when she is dropped off at school. I was also informed by the school's director that Amelia "has all the boys after her, but she isn't interested". I explained to her that Mia and I went over the pitfalls of getting involved with boys each night after bath time. Because he is an older gentleman (judging from his beard and tattoos, we're guessing he's between 15-18 months), it seems like it is time for me to have "the talk" with this young man the next time I drop her at school. If he's going to be pulling up his shirt to show her his belly and giving her hugs all the time, I'm going to need to know his ultimate intentions. Let's just say it would behoove him to have the right answer.

Pics

I suppose it wasn't working out too well to post pictures side by side. I just realized that a few of my last posts had pictures cut off from them. Oops!

Shopping Buddies

While I know I cannot hope to compare to Meggan when it comes to the ability to shop, I am willing to challenge her to having a better time doing it than Amelia and I do. Here, I submit two samples of how we roll (Please pardon the poor quality of the photos. They were taken on my old, brick of a cell phone) ...

Who needs Rogaine?

Considering we have already given her FOUR "bob" haircuts, I'm pretty sure no 13 month old should have hair this long.

Date with Dad

While Meggan was at the gym today working on her fitness, Amelia and I had a better idea...



contrary to the look on her face, we both thoroughly enjoyed sharing a big, fat ice cream.

Virtuoso?

Being a parent means many different things to many different people. To me, it is not merely about protecting Amelia and helping her become an adult. It is also about challenging her to discover herself to the fullest and making it possible for her to do so. I think virtually all parents love their children dearly. And many parents do all they can to provide food, shelter, and life's basic necessities. However, it is the rare parent who puts an emphasis on finding what makes you happy and running with it. It is a gift for a child to be able to explore life's options without bias or judgement, without pressure, and without restraint. I want Amelia to chase any dreams she has for as long as she wants to chase them. Too many people follow the common path of life simply because it is the easiest one. Naturally, I want Mia to go to Harvard, become a doctor, and win the Nobel prize. That said, I'll still be happy if she chooses to bring the world pleasure as a writer. How great would it be if she shaped the world as a teacher? Perhaps she will paint? crunch numbers? litigate? simply raise a family of her own? Ultimately, it doesn't matter to me. All I want her to do is to find something she loves and attack it with the vigor that passion deserves. Who knows, maybe she's already begun to find her calling on Meggan's old baby piano?

Tough Lesson

Amelia learned a very valuable lesson today... when falling down, DO NOT use your lips as a mechanism to break your fall.

Pics....Finally

I previously posted that we had taken some pictures at the park. However, once I got a chance to look at them, there weren't many worth posting. We really need to get a camera that can take a good picture without perfect lighting. Also, as I sat down during the time I carved out to upload pictures, the camera died. It was strikingly similar to a few weeks ago when I threw all of our meat on the grill only to disappointingly find out we were out of gas. These, my friends, are perfect examples of lack of preparation. Luckily, I was able to get a couple of them off before it shut down on me. I'll try to get the rest up shortly.

Apology and Acceptance

I apologize for so often saying on here that Amelia has been relentlessly fussy. Additionally, I accept the fact that I have now indeed fallen way behind in my quest for Father of the Year. We had to take Mia to the doctor today and found out that she has......the dreaded Croup. So, all this time I have been wanting her to stop whining...sick. All this time I have been saying she is hoarse from crying like a baby....sick. All this time I thought she was making it rough on me for the fun of it....sick. Sooooo, I suppose I have learned a very valuable lesson here...don't challenge Amelia to get really sick because she will rise to the occasion.

Computer has virus, daughter has attitude

Tonight will have to be a short post instead of the pictures from our trip to the park that I had intended on posting. Those pictures will come after my computer once again becomes virus free. In the meantime, I have to use Meggan's laptop, which is similar to the result of crossbreeding an old-school Atari and a typewriter. If it had Internet capabilities, it would likely be faster just to use one of my old graphing calculators from high school.

Amelia went through the first meaningful time change of her life yesterday. Obviously, by "meaningful" I mean "quick way to absolutely screw up a perfectly functioning schedule". I don't think it helped matters that she is battling a slight cold and still offering up the afore-blogged about episodes of crying/whining. Today, she has actually cried so much that she is now hoarse. When she whines it sounds like she just got done with a marathon screaming session while smoking a pack of unfiltered Camel cigarettes. We have once again checked all her vitals and she is perfectly fine. Pain? nope. Illness? nope. Teething? nope. Sleepy? yep. Emotionally in need of constant attention? YEP. I know she'll come around eventually. For now, we just have to be patient, give her a hug, and try to ignore the fact that it is now still daylight out at bedtime.

Picture Day

Today was the day for Amelia's 1 year-old pictures. We hadn't gotten any professional shots done since she was 6 months. We were very excited and did the traditional cheesy thing of wearing pseudo-matching attire for our family shots. We also had a couple of really cute outfit changes for Amelia - one for Spring and one for a more classic look.

Here is the family photo we got...


Here is Amelia in her Spring outfit...


Here is her in a dress....


Oh wait, that's right. There aren't ANY photos from today because after giving it the old college try for over an hour, they suggested we reschedule due to the fact that it is hard to take photos of a child who is continually laid out face down on the floor screaming. It was like a birthday party redux. I told them to go ahead and just get the shots of her crying and we'd send them out to everyone. Apparently, there is some sort of professional integrity thing that would not allow that to happen. Oh well, maybe next time.

Snake Bitten

We went to a restaurant tonight to have dinner with friends of ours. When our waiter came up, he said "Hi, my name's Snake". Not only did I think this was weird, but I thought perhaps it was not the best sign of how the night would go. It appears I was correct. This was probably the worst service I have had in a long time. As you can guess, with Amelia's very limited patience, we can't afford terrible service. At one point, Meggan had to flag down our waiter as he completely ignored us. I have to admit, it sounded weird to hear her call a grown man "Snake", but what can you do? This was all to no avail as every request seemed to take forever. It finally got to the point that I got up and walked to the kitchen and awkwardly said "Excuse me, Snake, can you please bring the babies some small plates?" Eventually, we got plates, got dinner, and finally our checks. Once the checks came, it became a little more clear why he was ignoring us. The four of us apparently heard incorrectly, he didn't say "Hi, my name's Snake" like we all agreed upon and discussed all throughout dinner. He actually instead mumbled "Hi, my name is Nick". Oops. I'm pretty sure if my name was Nick and a table of crazy fools with two babies had called me Snake all night, I'd be less than inclined to offer prompt and deliberate service to them as well.

----

There will be no blog post tonight as I am in a temporary period of mourning after the Gators lost their basketball game. Amelia has behaved tonight. Sophie has behaved tonight. Now, the Gators took their turn to be babies. Oh well, tomorrow is another day and I am hopeful.

Taking Turns

Well, Amelia was better (for the most part) tonight. The only real mishap was when she threw all of her green beans off her plate and onto the floor. However, I suppose since she took the night off, it was Sophie's turn. When we returned from dinner, what did we see all over the floor? A pack of cinnamon chewing gum and a fingernail file. What kind of dog digs through a purse and pulls out chewing gum and a nail file to chew to bits?!? Apparently, a tiny rat-like jack russell-poodle mix does. Who knew??? What I do know is that it is getting old. I'm hoping we can have a night or two this weekend in which BOTH the little ones in this house actually take it easy on us. I'm hopeful, but not counting on it.

Communication

Is it normal that the majority of the sounds coming from Amelia these days are whining/crying??? I know she is going through quite a bit with the transition at school and seemingly eternally teething, but daaaaaaammmnnnn. She doesn't appear to feel bad in any way. I don't think she is in any pain or under the spell of any illness. It seems like she has an attitude and is grumpy at all times. If you give her a bottle she doesn't want, she'll throw it on the ground. If you take her plate away when she is playing in it, she'll start crying. If you sit her on the floor instead of hold her, prepare for some screams. In some ways, it's as if my baby girl grew into a toddler just to become a baby. When she is not upset, she is incredibly fun. I just wish I could get more of that Amelia.

Bye bye

The tight grip of two tiny little hands on your shirt as you try to pry your baby girl off of you at daycare so you can go to work is NOT a good feeling. I'll admit there is a split second positive emotion in feeling how much she loves you and doesn't want you to go (or at least feels like you are tough enough to protect her from the 'big" kids in class). However, that feeling is pretty fleeting as you have to walk away watching her cry. I'm sure it will get better as she gets more used to the new class. In the meantime, let's just say it doesn't increase the urge to rush off to work.

Had I been born and raised in Los Angeles, would I be a screenwriter instead of working in Finance? Had I never moved as a teenager, would I have attended the same university where I met my wife? Had I never originally moved from Florida, would I now have friendships that date back 25 years? Clearly, there is no way to know the answers to these questions. However, these questions are precisely the kind that circle my mind as I contemplate my future. I'm not concerned with how these decisions, mostly career and location related, will affect me and Meggan. We are an enduring unit that will thrive regardless of circumstance. I worry about the impact any decision I make will have on Amelia. In my field, there is endless money to chase. This chase, however, comes at a steep lifestyle price. Outside my field, there are dreams to run down. These dreams, however, come with the unenviable risk of financial insecurity. I know I want to give Amelia the best life she can possible have. What I don't know, is what it takes to provide that life. Is it the money that allows her the opportunity to take risks she otherwise could not? Is it having parents who walk the walk to show her those risks are worth taking? Is growing up in one place rather than moving here and there required to build a foundation? There surely is a required balance between these things. However, striking that balance often proves to be the hardest part of parenthood. Having a child is a dream, but it's not supposed to replace all the other dreams you had. In terms of moving, sure, a tree must develop roots to survive. However, what good is a tree if it is never going to branch out?

This is how you relax

Amelia has a new favorite place to sit. For the last week or so, she has really starting taking to crawling between your legs and making herself at home. Occasionally, she will lay back in complete relax mode. I have to admit, as simple as it is, this is probably one of my 5 favorite things she's ever done.

Here is the two of us, watching a little Sesame Street and enjoying some tasty Gerber crackers and juice -

Lessons

Two quick points that stemmed from tonight's screaming version of bath time -

1) Screaming and crying will not get you out of getting your hair washed. In fact, if you are already screaming, I really have nothing to lose.

2) Speaking of crying, it takes more shampoo to wash my one year-old's hair than it does my own. Damn you male pattern baldness!!!!

Rest, at last.

I'm sitting on a swing on my back deck right now, enjoying the combined splendor of wireless Internet and a cool, sunny, Southern day. I can literally see at least 20 birds of varying color. They all seem to be singing the same tune. The crispness of the breeze is offset by the warmth of the sun creeping around the swing's canopy. It is the kind of day they'd put on the brochure. I stayed home from work today because I wasn't feeling great. A short nap in this Bob Ross setting might be just what the doctor ordered. It's a gorgeous day, Amelia is at school, Meggan is at work, what could stop me now?


Apparently, this little mongrel that won't quit bringing me her damn squeaky toy, that's what.

Sophie: And, due to busy work schedules, here we are again as guest bloggers.
Amelia: And as usual, we have nothing to talk about.

Sophie: We'll wing it. So, how's the new class at school going?

Amelia: It's going about as well as a diaper rash on a summer day.

Sophie: That well? What's wrong?

Amelia: You know how you lay around sleeping all day, snacking on your favorite foods, licking yourself at your leisure?

Sophie: I also protect the house all day.

Amelia: Yeah, whatever. Anyways,I used to have an awesome setup like that. Now, I have to do so many things for myself. I'm not even sure what we are paying them for.

Sophie: Well, someone has to make sure you don't get hurt and,until you learn to go in the back yard like I do, change your diaper.

Amelia: It's not as if they have to watch me like a baby, I'm ONE!

Sophie: Soooo, you complain about doing so much on your own and yet you don't want to be watched like a baby because you are a grown 1 year-old? That sounds like when dad complains about his fat gut over a nice cheesy, greasy slice of pizza.

Amelia: You're right. This transition has just been tough on me. I'm not handling getting older that well. I was up at midnight last night dancing and playing, I'm getting teeth everywhere, I think I even started having hot flashes.

Sophie: Hmmm. I'm thinking that hot flash thing won't come until later. So, you don't want to be a toddler, you don't want to be a baby, what do you want?

Amelia: I don't know. Being a dog seems like a pretty sweet gig.

Sophie: Don't be ridiculous, you can't be a dog!

Amelia: why not?

Sophie: You aren't good looking enough, you aren't smart enough, and you aren't hairy enough...actually, scratch that last one.

Amelia: I'm not smart enough?!? I'm NOT the one who ate a pile of rabbit turds from the back yard!

Sophie: Good point...your diet isn't culturally sophisticated enough to be a dog.

Amelia: Yeaaaaah, smart, sophisticated, and good looking, that's EXACTLY how I would describe you.

Sophie: Thanks.

Amelia: I was being facetious.

Sophie: Aww, I love you too.

Amelia: What?

Sophie: Did you fart?

Amelia: No, that was you.

Sophie: Wow, that Rabbit souffle isn't sitting well.

Amelia: Yeah, let's get out of here.

Photography

In an effort to make the blog more appealing and to be honest, try to take it to another level, I am hoping to incorporate much more and much better photographs. This won't happen in earnest for a few months as I weigh different options to accomplish this. I really don't want to spend tons of money on a new camera, so I have been working hard with my current camera to adjust various focus and lighting settings. I think I am really getting the hang of it......








Or not.