AAAAAGHHH

The past three nights, Amelia has woken up about 2 hours after falling asleep screaming wildly. We are guessing this is her second bout with night terrors. Luckily for us, she is able to fall back to sleep after we go up and calm her down. Additionally, I couldn't be happier that these are happening at 10 pm rather than 3 am. That said, it doesn't make a dad feel too well when he hears his baby girl screaming her head off in fear. I'd love to be able to put her in our bed and snuggle to safely back to sleep. Unfortunately, we tried that trick with Sophie once a long time ago and she's served as a furry buffer between Meggan and I ever since

Fiesta Time!

We took Amelia to a place here where they have 1) big slides 2) tacos and 3) ice cream. In other words, Amelia kept looking around for Jesus, because she thought it might have been Heaven.

Sooner rather than later, Amelia will try to drag me to the top for the big slide. For now, she is more than content on the smaller versions...


This is either a really tiny version of Sasquatch or Amelia flying through the playland. The blurry shot makes it tough to tell...


I can't think of a better way to end the day...

Well, I guess Halloween is all set...

It's Time

It's about to get all kinds of horrifically nasty big girl-like up in here. If she ever actually uses this, I'll probably throw up in my mouth get teary eyed with pride.

Happy Birthday!

In honor of Mia's 18 month birthday, here are 18 (okay, maybe a lot more than 18, but it's really hard to pick just ONE per month) posts to walk us through the last year and a half...

Just Before Arrival

Month One

Month Two

Month Three

Month Four

Month Five

Month Six
Month Six Bonus

Month Seven
Month Seven Bonus

Month Eight
Month Eight Bonus

Month Nine

Month Ten

Month Eleven
Month Eleven Bonus

Month Twelve
Month Twelve Bonus

Month Thirteen
Month Thirteen Bonus

Month Fourteen
Month Fourteen Bonus

Month Fifteen
Month Fifteen Bonus

Month Sixteen

Month Seventeen
Month Seventeen Bonus

Month Eighteen
Month Eighteen Bonus 2
Month Eighteen Bonus

Not Nice

You may recall my glowing, well maybe not glowing, but fairly nice reviews of Mia's time at church last week. She must have heard through the grapevine that I was ruining her rep because she made up for it today. In all honesty, it wasn't so much that she was baaaaad. It was really more that she was very vocal. If you don't sing in the choir and you aren't the one delivering a sermon, you probably should not sit in the back of church and practice saying every word you've learned in your 18 months. I think the real high point, or maybe low point, was when the Pastor was giving an animated sermon and began using his hands to point and tell a story of their own. Well, Miss Amelia seemed to think he was scolding someone and began waving her finger and audibly repeating "No No" and "Not Nice". Shortly after, she and I were found sitting outside the sanctuary sharing some crayons and coloring paper with another father/daughter combo.

Free advice is worth what you pay for it...

People ask me all the time how to maintain a happy marriage. Of course, by "all the time", I mean "nobody has ever, ever asked". That said, it is something I've been thinking about recently. First of all, before anyone thinks anything, I have not been thinking about it in any relation to my marriage. Meggan is as much my best friend today as she ever was and her presence remains the bright spot of my day. I began thinking of it because I decided to surprise Meggan by hand delivering flowers to her office and along the way I heard people ask me "what did you do?" and upon delivering them, she was asked "what did you do?". So, on my drive back to work I was thinking of how funny it was that something as simple as flower delivery requires a justification. What did I do? Nothing. I was in the area and I thought it would brighten her day. What did she do? Nothing. I'd brighten her day everyday if I knew how - no reason needed. It made me think about the glaring difference between dating and marriage. Nobody would have asked if we had just started dating. They would have assumed I was doing the obvious...trying to win her affection. But, I ask, why is it expected that we fight to win someone's affection yet we do essentially nothing to keep it? Contrary to popular misconception, just because someone loves you, does not mean they will always think the sun rises and sets with you. Getting married doesn't mean you get to stop trying. Saying "I do" isn't a free pass to say "I'm done". Thus, I arrive at what I feel is the most simple way to maintain a great marriage - don't forget what got you to this point. You have somehow convinced another human to vow to spend the rest of their lives with you. Clearly, they found you attractive, funny, charming, sweet, and a host of other embarrassingly flattering words. It is now up to you to do the best you can to keep them reminded of why they fell in love with you in the first place. Over time we all go through periods of growth and change. This is a great thing. You can't stay 22 forever and I promise your spouse wouldn't want you to. Naturally, these changes can make it very difficult to reconcile the old and new versions of yourself. So, what is the easiest way to know if you are on the right track? Ask yourself if you could currently pick up/woo your spouse if you were to just meet them for the first time today. If the answer is no, you probably have some work to do.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Amelia went to bed at 8:15

Sophie crashed at 8:45

Meggan was down for the count at 9:30

Seriously, I'm going to have to adopt a 12 year old so I have someone to stay up and hang out with me.

Self Defense

Perhaps I have been too harsh on Amelia for hitting these days. When I picked her up from school today she was sporting a nice set of dental records in her left forearm. I'm thinking I will now shift from punishing her for hitting to letting her get some work in on my punching bag in case this biting continues. Hey, a girl's gotta be able to defend herself.

Too cheap to lose

I have mentioned on here a few times that I have a sort of "I want to hit the lottery" level dream of writing a movie. I have also mentioned on here a few times that I am cheap. I have now found myself in a situation that is the perfect marriage of the two. A good friend of mine has spoken privately to me over the last few months about a calling he has felt to help the AIDS epidemic in Africa, possibly through Ministry. He has felt this for the majority of his adult life, but has suppressed it to take a more traditional career path. At this point, he finds himself in a situation familiar to many of us - His career is fine, but not completely satisfying. However, his lifestyle is built upon certain income requirements that don't allow for drastic changes. Over the past few months through our talks, he has started to formulate some ideas on the small steps he can take to get closer to his dream. The first of these steps is to take a mission trip to Africa. This will allow him see what he's up against firsthand. The memories that will return home with him will possibly be exactly what he needs to propel him further and further down his path. In an effort to push both of us to fight against our conservative urges to succumb to life's inertia, I have extended a challenge - A completed first draft of a screenplay or a mission trip to Africa - whoever completes their respective goal first wins an expensive steak dinner from the other. Is a steak dinner enough reward and/or punishment to spark hours and hours of work? Not even for a cheapskate like me. Pride, faith, and ambition will be enough to get the job done. However, it will be a delicious bonus for whoever gets it and I promise the other will be happy to pay the tab to celebrate the accomplishment. Of course, that's easy for me to say...as I know I am too cheap to lose.

Early Accolades

Amelia is such a wondrously brilliant child that American Girl actually named her Girl of the Year while she was still in her mom's tummy. Simply amazing.

When Timeout fails

Tonight, when Mia was sitting around figuring out a fun way to pass the time, she came across the idea of basically beating me and Meggan as if we stole something. We were all on the floor playing when the attacks began. We issued a fairly stern timeout warning to try to scare some sense into her. She quickly responded by hitting me in the head with her favorite chair. My first thought was either to throw her chair into the fireplace and make her watch it melt or to smack her with a newspaper, tell her she'd been a bad girl, and throw her in the back yard. Considering the fact that I don't particularly believe in psychological torture of children, I opted against the chair thing. Additionally, recalling that Amelia is indeed not Sophie, I opted against throwing her in the yard. Enter timeout...punishment of punishments...for parents not quite far enough at wit's end to stoop to beatings. Occasionally, timeout will pretty much break Amelia's spirit and correct all problems. However, tonight, it was about as effective as fighting off a group of ants by pelting them with sugar cubes. She quickly tried to turn it into a game of chase by repeatedly running off her timeout mat. After a few runs, I have to admit, the newspaper and back yard plan was coming closer to being in the picture. Instead of allowing Mia to become the puppet master, we decided to completely ignore her. She then kept herself in timeout for a bit before making an attempt to get our attention. We held strong on acting as if she did not exist and after a few moments of tears, cries, and sorrow, Meggan had a talk with Amelia explaining that she can't hit people. They had a little mommy-daughter hug and all was well again. I guess we'll just have to wait and see if timeout regains its luster. If not, we'll have to figure out something new. So far, Sophie has suggested boarding Amelia for the weekend at her usual pokey.

The return

After quite a hiatus, we finally made our return to church this morning. It had been far too long since we were able to attend. Actually, it wasn't that we weren't able to attend. It was that trying to keep Amelia still and relatively quiet for an hour is about as easy as getting Sophie to act civilized when a rabbit goes hopping across our back yard. Basically, it's just not going to happen. So, this time, we armed ourselves with every possible tool we had at our disposal - a pacifier, Elmo, seats in the back of the church, enough cereal to kill a man, etc. After all this careful preparation, Mia decided to surprise us. Sure, like clockwork, she took her "we just walked into church so I probably should fill my diaper" dump. I suppose she figured she didn't get all dressed up just for funsies. However, after that, it was pretty smooth sailing. She listened to the music, ate a pound of cereal, and eventually snuggled with Elmo and nearly fell asleep. The sermon was a very powerful lesson and completely re-energized me and Meggan. It was a real pleasure getting back to God's house and I am looking forward to testing Amelia again next week. We'd better stop by the store and stock up on that cereal.

Eat, Pray, Suck

Meggan and I were fortunate enough to go on a little date. We decided to catch a much hyped showing of Eat, Pray, Love. In all fairness, there was eating, praying, and loving. So, I can't deny that. However, what they forgot to put in the movie was depth, emotion, or a protagonist that you actually give a damn about and/or root for. In order to be good, a movie like this, which contains virtually no action outside of normal daily functioning, requires a rich ebb and flow of emotions. You need to connect to and rally behind the main character. In this film, I actually felt while they were treated as though they were on Earth solely for her discretionary use, every ancillary character was more interesting and more easily empathized with than the hero, who comes off as an unsatisfiable whiner. Now, I did not read the book, which I am sure is much more complete and enticing. And, I really do hope if any of you see the film, you will come away with a much different view. All I know is, for me, the best part of the two hours at the theater was when I dozed off.

Amelia: Doggie, what is a thong?

Sophie: Uhhh, Baby, why would you ask me that?

Amelia: Well, I heard Dad singing a song about them the other day so they must be cool.

Sophie: Dear Lord, don't ever mention 'dad' and 'thong' in the same sentence again. My soul is now forever scarred with that image.

Amelia: They are that bad?

Sophie: Not by themselves, just combined. Basically, they are freakishly uncomfortable looking pieces of underwear girls wear.

Amelia: If they are so uncomfortable why do girls wear them?

Sophie: Not sure. Probably because they think boys like them.

Amelia: Do boys like them?

Sophie: Boys are very, very simple creatures. They like any and all underwear.

Amelia: Particularly those damn snazzy Huggies Jeans

Sophie: Uhhh, yeah...something like that.

Amelia: Do you ever wear thongs?

Sophie: Baby, when you look this good, you don't need to resort to gimmicks. You just rock your red collar and the boys come barkin'.

Amelia: Should I?

Sophie: I'm contractually obligated by threat of starvation to answer any question you ask regarding boys and what you should or should not do with the following line - Boys are bad. They have cooties and smell like burnt hair. You should do all you can to avoid association with them until after you graduate medical school...at a minimum.

Amelia: Hmmm, either way, I should probably wait until I'm potty trained.

Sophie: Please do.

Turning point?

Amelia is now rapidly approaching one and a half years old. She can say several words, she can answer 'yes' or 'no' questions, she can even pick out matching pairs of shoes with flawless accuracy. In other words, she's basically grown. As has been well chronicled, she is obsessed with Sesame Street. While we are actually getting a little concerned about overexposure to TV, we are happy she likes such an educational show. At this point, she has started copying some of the acts - she sings "La la la la la" along with Luis, she goes around saying "walk walk walk" when the song "I've got a new way to walk" comes on, etc. When she participates, not only does it make me laugh, but it makes me proud. However, this also makes me feel that perhaps we are approaching a turning point in terms of what we can expose her to. I don't need her running around quoting scenes from Entourage or acting out any fight scenes from the Bourne movies. Plus, I'm not even going to get into what she may have heard when "The Thong Song" came on XM radio the other day and we obligatorily cranked it up.

Fun - Revisited

We had such a good time with Mia at the playground the other day, we decided to take her back again. This time, there weren't as many doggies to chase around, so we decided to let her take the ultimate plunge and play in the water fountains. It went something like this...

At first, she was just testing out the situation...


Once the water came, she decided the best option was to haul...ummm...tail...


She finally settled in...





Ahhhh, another successful play date with Mom and Dad...

There's something about Mia

This spiked hair moment reminiscent of Cameron Diaz in There's Something About Mary brought to you by the combination of Amelia + macaroni and cheese - silverware....

Love in the park

We took Mia to a playground area near our home tonight so she could play with one of her friends. She had the time of her life walking around with the big kids, chasing doggies, and climbing anything she could find. To my surprise she wasn't shy about anything. She walked up to strangers, rubbed another girl on the head, and even tried to grab a purse and someone else's diaper bag. For the most part, Amelia and Connor were too busy seeing everyone else to actually hang with each other. However, by the end of the night, they were enjoying the evening arm in arm.

Doing it right?

Frankly, Amelia feels if you're watching Sesame Street without your favorite Big Bird and Elmo dolls tightly in your grasp....well, you're just not doing it right.

Sweet, Sweet Weekend

Friday evening arrived with about as much anticipation as Christmas Day. What were my big plans? Absolutely nothing. Actually, all I did tonight was eat pizza, plant roses, and watch When Harry Met Sally. Wow, when I see it typed out like that, it really does wonders for my masculinity. Anyways, I may have had the Friday night of a recently single woman, but it sure beat the hell out of my Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights this week. There wasn't a spreadsheet in sight and that was more than enough for me.

A few pics from the week

Just when I thought you couldn't actually rock pigtails AND a pseudo mullet...




Amelia doesn't just watch tv, she straps on her hard hat and does work...




Making great use of our little free time together this week...




Hopefully, through her great teaching, I'll learn how to read one day...

Be back soon

Today was my third consecutive 8:30am to 11:30pm day of work. After that, I don't have much left to write the blog with. Also, other than bath/bed time, which I make it a point to attend each night, I haven't seen Amelia. So, I actually have to turn to old videos and pics on the blog for my Mia fix as well. Luckily, I should be back on here soon.

what happened to 9 to 5?

By the end of tonight, I will have already worked almost 30 hours this week....it is only Tuesday. Where the hell did I go wrong?!?

Looks like Pebbles...

Amelia is known to have her hair pulled up like Pebbles Flintstone on many occasions. However, what many people don't know is that she may look like Pebbles, but she's as strong as Bam Bam. Today while we were shopping for roses, she decided she would start hanging off the side of the cart. Naturally, as a father, I was equal parts concerned for her safety and proud that she is freakishly strong enough to pull her legs up and hang at 17 months. We actually had to change types of carts we had because she would not stop doing it and if she fell, it really would have hurt her. Luckily, I did what you are supposed to do when you see your child hanging for their lives with dire possible consequences....I pulled out my cell phone and took pics (too bad I couldn't get any while she was way off the ground).