Princesses, Putt Putt, and Pancakes (Waffles Doesn't Start with P)

Ali and Kaitlyn have been counting down the days for October. I'd like to think that it's because they are so excited for their little brother to arrive. However, the reality is that they know that Halloween is in October and they can't wait to get more candy than they can carry. And, to give them credit, who can blame them? We still have some of the leftovers from last Halloween, they got so much! I'm going to have to implement some sort of parent tax. If tithing is 10% and the marginal tax rate for their income bracket is probably 15%, or so, I think I should collect at least 25% of their reciepts, just so they get used to the idea.

But, parent candy-taxes aside, the best part of their Halloween anticipation has been how excited they are about being able to wear costumes. After several years as twin Cinderellas, Kaitlyn is breaking ranks this year and going as Snow White. She's been so excited about it that Megan has already taken her (and Ali, to be fair) out to get their costumes. Kaitlyn reassures me that I can be Cinderella this year. I keep telling her I'll be Prince Charming, but she's not buying it; I guess I'm not that charming.

Since I've been very busy, and since we're all going to be busy once this baby comes, we decided that we ought to go out and do something fun this weekend--as a sort of last-hurrah before Megan and I devolve into sleep-deprived, use-the-TV-as-babysitter parents due to newborn care. So, we decided to take the girls to the putt putt course, aptly named--Putt Putt Golf.

Ali is going to have a monster swing when she's older. She's got quite the swing already! Her baseball playing is really paying off in a coordinated swing. On this hole, she actually whacked a hole-in-one (with no cheating, as on the other holes). Unfortunately, I missed the whole thing taking these pictures:

As I noted in a previous post, I'm quite the culinary artist. This week, rather than try to duplicate my masterful chicken pot pie, I made my famous Tweety-bird waffles. Kaitlyn and Ali really wanted to help make them.

Unfortunately, Kailtyn was more interested in helping to make the waffles than she was in actually eating them. Fortunately, Ali picked up the slack.

Speaking of Ali, have you ever had to sit down with a lawyer to review a contract or sign any documents? Ali had her book fair at school this week and was apparently given a "wish list" to complete with spaces for her to write down 15 books. 15! She asked me to come sit at the table with her, and had pulled a chair up close to hers on the same side of the table. After I sat down, she proceeded to highlight which of the books on her wish list she wanted most--which ended up being only 8 of the 15. A few minutes later, when I was upstairs she came running up to me and said, "Dad, I accidentally really want this one too" as she pointed to a ninth book on her list. I'm glad she only accidentally really wanted it. Fortunately, Megan was able to come to an agreement with her about scaling back purchases at this book fair in exchange for future purchases at subsequent fairs. I really need to find out who the marketing genius is who came up with this racket. I wonder if he/she went to Darden?

You know, I think Ali sums it up well, when she said, this past week: "I'm ready to beat someone up...like Dad."

Recent Events

Kaitlyn is excelling in her negotiation skills. I can tell that I'll be able to contribute significantly in my "Bargaining and Negotiating" class next quarter after having come to several successful agreements with Kaitlyn. Perhaps she could try her hand with the UAW.

For example, tonight we were trying to persuade Kaitlyn to eat her dinner so that she could participate in the FHMM treat. In a very matter-of-fact way she responded, "When I wake up, then I can eat my dinner, OK guys?"

As we were walking home from the field she kept saying "Ow. Ow. Ow." I looked down and asked her what was wrong. She said, "My baby keeps hitting me" as she took the baby doll's right hand and continued pounded it into her own chest. It was so cute and funny, I had to take this picture:



This past week Ali had her first field trip. She went with her class to the apple orchard to pick apples with her kindergarten class. Megan was able to switch babysitting with a friend so that she could go as a "room mother" or "teachers helper" or "mom who wanted to go have fun, spy on her daugther, and take pictures." Ali was very adamant about the fact that we needed to ask her before we could eat any of the 5 lbs. of apples that she picked.


Tonight for FHMM we went to "the field" that is close to our house to play baseball for our activity. Ali is actually getting very good at hitting the ball when you pitch it to her underhand. She can even throw it up in the air and then hit it herself. As we were walking home I said to Megan, "I love it--she loves making cards and playing baseball." Ali overheard and said,"Yeah...now it's my favorite sport."



I needed a thank you card to send to a contact today, so I asked my beautiful, creative wife if she had any thank you cards already made that I could use. After perusing her file of over 150 cards, I decided that pink and purple with flowers and ribbons, probably wasn't the most business appropriate card to send. So, I decided to make my own card.

Here it is (there is nothing on the inside):

I told Megan that she should use my design at one of her next card parties. She said I've really got talent and should consider becoming a demonstrator.

Weekly Rant

Last Sunday, I was going to rant about BYU's loss to UCLA. Rather than compounding that by ranting today about both that loss and last night's loss to Tulsa, I'll just summarize with two thoughts: 1) I'm glad that Max Hall is only a sophomore. 2) I'm glad that Austin Collie is only a sophomore. I expect good things from both of them over the next 3 years.

A week ago, I made a chicken pot pie for Sunday dinner. Now, I don't normally cook. That is to say, I don't cook. I'm more of an eating man myself. But, with Megan being at t-minus 4 or 5 weeks and all, I thought it was high time that I step up to the plate and make Sunday dinner for a change. Surprisingly, it actually turned out pretty well. Perhaps a little too well, in fact. Megan wanted to be sure to document my achievement and, I'm sure, to have something to use for blackmailing purposes later:


So, now I'm getting in to the regular rotation. Tonight's entree: Tweety Bird waffles. I need to tone it down a little. I can't be too fancy.

Alison is continuing to enjoy kindergarten. We went to Parent's Night at her school on Tuesday, and found out that after she's tired and comes in from recess that she sits down to rest and starts spilling all of the beans to her teachers. Her student teacher, Ms. Casanova, whom we met only briefly a couple of days before school started, came up to us at Parent's Night and said, "So...Ali says you're still deciding whether to name the baby Max or not. And, I guess Kaitlyn is liking her 'big girl bed' now?" We were glad that that was the extent of the leak after Ms. Casanova also told us that some of the other kids in the class pretend to talk on the phone and say things like, "It's dinner time. Why aren't you here yet? Get home now!"

It turns out that kids are always listening--so you have to be sure you're setting the best example possible.

On Saturday morning, it was uncharacteristically quiet in the morning. When we went downstairs we discovered that Alison had been cutting papers for her "card party," complete with neatly stacked and organized piles of pre-cut pieces ready for assembly just like Megan does for her "real" card parties. This picture really doesn't do it justice. It was so cute!

Kaitlyn is just our little girly girl. Every day she wants to wear a skirt--the exact same pink skirt! We've been trying to help her learn that clothes in the hamper are dirty and shouldn't be worn again until they have been washed. We're still working on it.

In other news, it has been fascinating to watch Kaitlyn sit and play in one place with her dolls and her Polly Pockets for long durations of time. She also loves the fact that Alison brings home a new book from her school everyday, and they get to read it together. Hopefully, Kaitlyn will become a great little reader like Alison is (who happens to be standing right next to me right reading each word that I type aloud).

I would post some pictures of Megan if I weren't scared for my life of what she would do if I did that.

But, Megan is glad that we have our nursury, changing table and rocking chair all set up. She has definitely been going through "nesting" and wanting to have everything prepared for the new baby. She ordered a new car seat and some new baby clothes. She bought some little baskets to use as drawers for baby clothes storage. I think we're about ready. Now we just have to let the little guy simmer for another couple of weeks, and be born precisely on a day when I don't have class and am not in the middle of first quarter exams. I'm sure he'll be a highly obedient and cooperative boy and arrive on our schedule.

Unbearably Slow Internet

For the past week, we have had unbearably slow internet service. And, when I say slow, I mean SLOW! Worse than dial-up slow. (Believe me, I tested and timed!) We've called Comcast at least 3 times, but each time they haven't been able to do anything about our service over the phone. They are sending someone out on Tuesday, so hopefully we'll be able to survive until then.

It's funny because before we moved back to Virginia, Megan was actually talking about not getting internet. I thought, "I wonder how many days she could actually go without it." This past week, I got the answer to that question: zero. She is constantly on-line to check email, to find out what is on TV, to read the news, to do eBay, to do Stampin' Up, to look at baby products, and more...

I, of course, am at school all day, so my connection is fine. But, isn't it funny how things become necessities? We seriously cannot live without it. Each day, at some point, Megan and Kaitlyn (Ali is at school) come over to school to do some of the above-mentioned required daily on-line activities.

Since I don't know if this will actually post (due to the intolerably slow dinosaur connection) I think I'll call this post good.

Don't let me forget to rant about the BYU game, and talk about my chicken pot pie.

FHMM--Family Home Meem Meem

We had Family Home Evening tonight, and Alison gave the lesson. The last few Sharing Times in Primary have relied heavily on the object lesson. So, when Ali gave the lesson this evening she brought down a blanket, a ball, a bat, a magazine, her scriptures, some crayons and a bucket. In her lesson she asked, "What if someone took your crayons that you got at the car place and put them in their basket similar to this one? What should you do?"

I'm not quite sure where she was going with it, but we did end on the fact that it would be important to talk to a parent or a teacher at school if you saw someone taking things that weren't there.

Then, during our "treat", Kaitlyn was making a mess and getting it all over her shirt. She said, "Dad...it's okay. It's washable! The markers are washable; the ketchup is washable."

It's the little, cute things like that which make learning how to price an interest rate swap all worthwhile.

What Charlotte Was Like

I thought it would be interesting to post some pictures and talk about our summer in Charlotte.

Actually getting into our place in Charlotte was an experience in itself. We took a weekend in March or April to make the 5-hour trek down to North Carolina to find an apartment with a 3-month lease. We drove all over the city and found what we thought was a nice, yet affordable, complex. Four days before we were planning on moving, Megan happened to be reviewing apartment reviews on-line and came across some shocking information: our future complex had recently had all kinds of home and car burglaries, a murder in the parking lot, and a shoot-out at the pool. I guess you can't tell just by looking at some places over one weekend!

That left us scrambling at the last minute trying to make arrangements with our second and third choices. Fortunately, we were able to get a place (although it was on the 3rd floor) at our second choice--and this time we did all the research to make sure it actually was nice.

Megan really enjoyed Charlotte. Just a short walk from our non-criminal apartment complex was a little lake with a sidewalk all the way around it. We loved going for afternoon/evening walks as a family. But, I think that the real reason she liked Charlotte so much was because she became friends with people with incomes--and that meant scrapbooking parties! In fact, during the 3 months that we were there she did 6 parties! It's amazing what having friends with incomes means to a Stampin' Up business. Most nights after the girls went to bed, this is what our front room looked like:

Alison and Kaitlyn had a great time there as well. I would guess that they spent almost half of the days we were there at the pool. I've never seen such tan little girls! Unfortunately, we couldn't bring very many of their toys with us, so they had to make do with what we had: Ali learned to work the touchpad on my laptop in order to play pbskids.org and both of the girls loved to play dress-up with our clothes!

First "Real" Attempt at Posting

It turns out that just having a blog doesn't necessarily mean you actually post to it--frequently, or ever. However, now that we're back at school and life is so much more planned out, hopefully I can consciously schedule a time on Sunday nights to post.

We jumped back into school with both feet this past week! We spent Monday unpacking, cleaning, and running errands after being away for the past 3 months. Even though class didn't start until Wednesday, I forgot that that meant that I would have to spend most of the day on Tuesday preparing my cases for the next day--just in case I got "cold called" (which I did in my first class of the morning).

Wednesday was quite the day.

Alison officially started kindergarten. She's been talking about it for the past 6 months at least--and the big day finally came. We all woke up bright and early and walked down to the bus stop together. Ali was ecstatic; I was terrified. A trainload of questions started pouring through my mind as we stood and waited for the bus to come: Am I really old enough to have a daughter starting school? Is the bus safe for a 5-year old? What does it take to be a bus driver? How will I know that she actually arrived at the school, and had a safe day? How will she know where to go when she gets off the bus?

When the bus arrived, Ali hopped right on, turned and looked at us with a slight moment of hesitation, and then sat down in the first seat and waved goodbye. I considered getting in the car and following the bus from a distance, but since I had 8:00 a.m. class myself, I decided against it.

I hurried home at 3:00 p.m. to make sure I was there at the bus stop along with Megan and Kaitlyn for when Ali got home. I don't think I've seen Ali grow up so much over the course of just a few hours. She came home with more self-confidence than I've ever seen. She told Kaitlyn all about what it was like to go to school: cheeseburgers for lunch, art time, library time, backpacks, cubbies, and the like. I was just glad that she wasn't traumatized for life after the experience.

Although Kaitlyn enjoyed hearing about Ali's day, I think she was starting to feel a little neglected. She started talking about how she went to school that day too. Megan made a special effort to make sure that she and Kaitlyn went out and played and did whatever Kaitlyn wanted so that it would be a special day for her too--but I guess it didn't go as well as we had hoped.

When we got home, Kaitlyn again started talking about how she went to school and learned ballet. She started spinning around and around in our living room until she was dizzy. The ottoman from our rocker had just been moved a little bit more to the center of the room than normal. Kaitlyn lost her balance and hit a corner of the footrest just above her right eye! Kaitlyn sure got the attention she was wanting!

BEFORE:

AFTER:

It didn't seem quite deep enough for stitches once we got it all cleaned up--although she fought with everything she had during the whole cleaning process. After about 30 minutes, she settled down and actually fell asleep (nap time + physical exertion fighting the clean-up).

Since I had class, and since things seemed to be OK, I asked Megan to text me at 5:15 p.m. if Kaitlyn had any issues waking up--which she didn't. When I got home, Megan said that Kaitlyn's eye had continued to bleed off and on. So, we decided to take her in to the Urgent Care center to make sure everything was OK--which she was. Ugh. What a day!

Now...remember, how I mentioned Ali's self-confidence? The next day she commented to Megan in the morning, "I love my new short hair." Upon closer examination, Megan discovered that Ali had given herself a haircut! So...we had to take her to the real barber to get it evened out--which was quite the challenge since Ali had cut pieces indiscriminately.

She's so cute with her new haircut, but it certainly wasn't something that we had planned on.

I'll have to post another time about Alison and Kaitlyn sneaking treats into their bedroom as they said, "I love you Dad. We're just going to go into our room and close the door to play nicely together."