During My One Week Course

This week officially started my second-to-last quarter of b-school. Since I only took 4 courses (as opposed to 5) last quarter, I decided to take a one-week course before Q3 started. It's a little intense trying to cram a whole quarter's worth of learning into a single week, but somehow I survived. What's more, the class--The Consulting Process--was actually valuable given my new chosen profession. This "real" quarter isn't going to be much less intense, however. My classes include:

• Mergers and Acquisitions
• Small-Enterprise Finance
• Financial Statement Analysis and Corporate Valuation
• Intro to Real Estate Finance and Development
• General Managers Taking Action

In short, the next 9 weeks are going to be busy, but fun.

While I was worrying about school this week, here are some of the other things that were going on at home.

Let's start with Max. His neck is really getting strong and he does well sitting in the Exer-Saucer, swing, or doing "tummy time." He is improving his coo-ing skills. He's getting better at responding back when you "talk" to him. One of the most adorable exchanges of his life so far occurred Friday night when Megan and he went back and forth for about 5-7 minutes. Megan would make a sound and Max would immediately try to imitate it--even to sticking out his tongue. Further, he's figured out the thumb-sucking thing pretty well by now.

Continuing with the music brainwashing, his shirt says, "I'm with the band " (thanks to Jen for the cute onesie!).

Last week, I may have given the impression that Kaitlyn is becoming quite a handful. So this week, rather than relate the details of her 4 "accidents " where she didn't make it to the bathroom on time, or her writing on Megan's Stampin' Up cards that Megan had made, or her finding and consuming Alison's candy, I thought I'd focus on how adorable Kaitlyn is and why we're so glad she's in our family.

Kaitlyn loves dresses. She loves skirts. She loves anything "girly" (except getting her hair done). On Thursday night Kaitlyn was playing at the top of the stairs and yelled down to me, "Dad! I'm a princess, and I need you to dance with me on the stairs in my palace!"

At other random moments, she's blurted out, "Dad, I'm a princess" to inform me, in case I wasn't already aware. She also walks around taking bows and doing curtsies (as you can somewhat see below).

She's also continued to develop her mad photography skills. Behold this shot of Max, taken at a distance of about 4 inches from his face. I like the way the eyes stand out.

However, one story about Kaitlyn's mischief bears some telling. (Besides, it's partly about Megan too!) We bought a case of juice boxes to put in Ali's school lunches. When we're not looking Kaitlyn will get into it. When Megan catches her, she'll say, "I was getting this one out for Dad for later." Well, Megan had about enough of Kaitlyn getting into the case, so she told me she was going to do something about it. It was time to take some security precautions. This is what she came up with--

BEFORE:

AFTER:

I think I'll just take the case and try to find some room on the fridge for it.

The highlight of Megan's week was buying a new soft and fuzzy robe at Old Navy at the bargain price of $8.00. When she's relaxing before bed, it looks like she's just back from the day spa. However, when I asked about getting a picture for the blog she said, "Are you kidding? The robe adds 10-pounds, the camera adds 10-pounds, and all of a sudden I'm a contestant on The Biggest Loser!"

She also started training this week for a mini-marathon she plans on running on April 19th, and so far, she's totally rocking it. (See how supportive I am.)

Alison continues to amaze me with her learning. We bought her some dry erase markers for her white board, and each day since then she's made her schedule, or checklist, for the day.

She writes the date at the top and then draws a box next to each line item so she can place a checkmark in each one when she completes it. In case you can't read words in the picture above, her list says:

• Go to school.
• Trets (treats) box.
• Go houm (home).
• Do what I'm doing rite (right) now.
• ?
• ?
• TV
• Dinre (Dinner)
• Game night
• Sleep

Aah...the complicated life of a 5-year old.

She's also been looking forward to the 100th day of school. On Friday when I picked her up from the bus stop, she told me that she was excited about the 100th day of school coming up. I asked her what day of school it was and she replied that it was the 89th day of school. I asked her how many more days it would be until the 100th day. She paused. Then the answered with confidence: Eleven! Wow.

She does love numbers. And sports. This week while she was playing pretend basketball in the hall, she yelled to me, with excitement, "Dad! (while still bouncing the ball) I have 366 points. Help me remember that!"

So, here it goes: Ali, you have 366 points.

Weekend Update

Kaitlyn is so mischevious yet so adorable at the same time. For some reason, she likes to get right in Max's face and yell "Boo!" when he's sleeping. (She's also taken up walking around the house yelling "Ariel!" in random moments at the top of her lungs doing her best Little Mermaid King Triton impersonation). A couple of days ago, after I expressly asked her to leave Max alone, I caught her red-handed trying to bother him in his crib. I cannot explain, however, why she is wearing a swimsuit around the house in the middle of freezing cold January. I get a strange feeling that this may just be the start of many disagreements regarding her wardrobe.

Of course, yesterday she was in "adorable" mode. She carefully set out the pink plastic plates, cups and utinsels and put animal crackers at each setting. She then found Megan and I and announced proudly, "The tea party is ready!"

Megan especially enjoyed it. She has also enjoyed spending time this week working on scrapbooking my 2008 calendar since I didn't have class. The calendar is one of my treasured possessions each year; it tells me all of the important dates that I need to worry about--birthdays, holidays, and the number of months we've been married.

One of our new favorite pastimes is trying to get Max to smile and/or laugh. His little smile and accompanying uncontrolled, enthusiastic full-body movements are enough to brighten our mood no matter what is going on.

We're also excited because Max's neck is now strong enough to be able to sit in the Exer-Saucer. He doesn't really reach for any of the toys or understand what they are for, but he seems to enjoy all of the colors that surround him; it's fun and/or great to watch him turn just his head around from side to side as he carefully observes each object.

Alison has continued to enjoy playing the board games that she got for Christmas. I think we've played more Game of Life this week than I've played in my entire life up to this point. I do love, however, that she now knows how to make change for $100,000. She's also developing a keen interest in becoming a banker, since they have all of the money.

Yesterday, she had a friend from kindergarten named Joseph over. They wanted to play Disney Monopoly Jr. "They were a team and I lost." (Last sentence voiced by Ali on my behalf.) Additionally, Ali just sang the following correction in my ear after reading along: "Disney Monopoly Jr. is wrong. It's called 'Monopoly Jr. Disney Edition!"

The Things That Last

We had a wonderful Christmas in Indiana. By wonderful, I mean each person in the family took turns with the flu. My turn fell on Christmas Day itself. I was well enough to watch the kids open their presents and then spent the rest of the day in bed except for a few times each hour when I wasn't in bed. This gave me a lot of time to ponder about things that I haven't taken time to think about in some time.

Alison and Kaitlyn had a great Christmas and received more presents than they really knew what to do with. Kaitlyn was the best example of this. She asked to go downstairs and watch TV before she had even finished opening all of her presents! I thought of the money that we spent on trying to buy things that would make them happy. I also thought about the things that money absolutely cannot buy: the sincere love of a wonderful wife or the pure love of our kids for us, their parents. For example, Kaitlyn gave me mermaid stickers for Christmas and Ali gave me a "fuzzy poster" to color in and decorate. You literally cannot buy the sentiment that those gifts to me represent. Even though they were $2.99 apiece, they are worth significantly more than that. Plus, it keeps up the family tradition of giving others the gifts that you really want for yourself.

I was a little sad that I missed out on the rest of the day (especially the homemade Cinnabon rolls), but I'm glad that I had time to think about the "big rocks" (or ornaments, depending on the version of the story) that "go in first."

Kaitlyn had a great birthday a couple of days later. We asked her what she wanted for her birthday and she replied, "Nothing! Just cake." So, we made sure she got a princess cake with real toy princess decorations that she could play with afterwards. She absolutely loved them (in fact, more than the doll she had asked Santa for). She's so sweet.


She's also quite contrary. This evening at dinner she was having a fit over some trivial thing. I said, "Kaitlyn, we are having prayer. Sit down, close your eyes, close your mouth (meaning 'please, be quiet during the prayer'), and fold your arms." Surprisingly, she did all of those but she sat there at the table during the prayer with her eyes closed and her quiet mouth as wide open as she could get it.

Ali loved getting a few board games for Christmas and has gone undefeated at the Game of Life in the two times we've played in the last week. It's been good practice for her to do math by adding and subtracting hundred thousands rather than just tens, and has also helped her to better understand that you get money by going to college to get a career. I don't think she's quite gotten the hang of insurance yet though--and we haven't pushed it.

Max's smile is to die for. My favorite pastime of late has been to rub his enormous belly really fast just to watch his face light up with pure enjoyment. And, it's contagious.

He's also managed to escape numerous run-ins with his older sisters unscathed, such as this time when we walked into his room at nap-time only to find both girls in the crib with him:



In conclusion, we've had a wonderful (seriously) Christmas, and I've enjoyed partaking of the little, priceless things in life that money cannot buy but can only provide the illusion of.

Mischief and Merryment

This past week, as I wrapped up my 6th quarter at school, I had occasion to reflect on the past year and half. I looked up in my closest at my pile of cases: double-sided 8x11's in 10 to 12-point font reaching almost 3-feet high, and I've read every page in it. I thought the picture nearly perfectly encapsulated the tremendous challenge that business school has been, and the amount of work I've had to put into it.

But, since this past week was also exam week, it meant that I actually had time to spend with the kids. Rather than prepare 2 or 3 cases per day, I had a week to complete only 2 exams and 1 paper at my leisure. As a result, we really had a great time together as a family this week. On Monday night we had pizza with the Vance's (since it was exam week for the first year MBA students as well). On Thursday night we all went and saw the movie "Enchanted." On Friday night, I left Megan to host a Stampin' Up calendar party and took the kids to Ali's school for to hear the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade classes perform songs that they wrote--like "Maybe My Phone is Broken, Not My Heart." Saturday afternoon, I took the kids out to lunch at the playland.

Being home also meant that I had more time to help around the house. I got to work on the house, and Ali really wanted to help. So, I told her that she could vacuum. To my surprise, she enthusiastically agreed and volunteered to do the computer room. I wanted to be sure to document it, since I don't expect her enthusiasm to continue as she gets older.

This wasn't just an isolated episode. This week Ali has been as polite and kind, saying "please" and "thank you," as she has ever been in her whole life. The motivation that Santa inspires by only taking presents to the good kids is really remarkable.

Unfortunately, I did have to go to school to work on things a couple of times during the week. During one such time, I received a phone call from Megan to inform me that our "sweet Kaitlyn" had taken advantage of Megan's showering time to open EVERY present under the Christmas tree. Megan came downstairs expecting to find Kaitlyn watching Disney Channel, but found this instead:

Fortunately, Megan was to collect everything and pack it away quickly, although we now have significantly more wrapping to do in the next few days. Kaitlyn had also taken as many of the Santa keepsake ornaments off of the tree that she could reach and lined them up on the ground to make a train (despite repeated prior warnings from us to leave the ornaments alone, and that the Christmas tree was just something to look out to decorate our house and to remind us of the season).

This morning, just as we were getting ready to leave for church, Kaitlyn came running in to me with my iPod which she had found and proclaimed, "Dad! I'm going jogging." (She's seen Megan take the iPod with her whenever Megan goes jogging. In fact, Megan doesn't really like to even go jogging without it.)

Finally. I thought I ought to pass along that we have formally accepted the offer to join Accenture Strategy. I think the fact that I had a job in the bag, may also have contributed to my comparatively peaceful exam season. We are really excited about the opportunity.

Now, we haven't received the signing bonus check in the mail just yet, but since it's coming, I figured it was in everyone's best interest to go ahead and pick the up natural mahogany finish Gibson Les Paul Studio.

So I did.

Max's Big Day

Today was Max's blessing day. Both Megan's parents and my parents came to Virginia for the express purpose of participating in the blessing this morning. (Ok, so seeing Ali and Kaitlyn too may have had something to do with it as well.) Max was so good during the blessing--he didn't cry at all.

That really isn't much of a surprise. Max has been such a good-natured boy so far. He's not bothered by the usual loud noises such as the vacuum or Kaitlyn's screams, and he doesn't even cry after Ali's occasional accidental full-body squishes ("Sorry...I didn't see Max there"). Max is definitely a male through-and-through; he only cares about being fed and being comfortable. (Soon enough he'll also care about playing the drums, but first things first.)

Since it was Max's big day today, we offer the following collection of photos:

Not To Be Outdone

My favorite Ali story of the week occurred right after our Friday night married institute dinner-and-discussion class. I'll skip the boring specific details about how I accidentally pulled the fire alarm and had to deal with a group of firefighters who showed up in quick time in a fire engine, and cut right to Ali.

She had just finished her third half-donut and was jumping around wildly--flailing her arms and legs in every direction and yelling incoherent babblery. I asked her what she was doing. She responded (as exactly as I can recollect), "Sugar! Sugar! I've had too much sugar today! Aah! Sugar!" Classic Ali. Too clever for her own good.

Over at my school they held a family Christmas party earlier in the week. Alison took that opportunity to tell Santa (who happened to be there) that all she wanted for Christmas was "a book." She's used to being poor. Maybe that's why she also took the opportunity to try her hand at a desk job. She sat behind the receptionist desk at the front of the building and said, "Can I help you? Do you have any questions?"




Kaitlyn has certainly had a great time with her grandparents here. Megan's parents had to leave immediately after the blessing to drive back to Indiana; they couldn't stay for the end of church. As we drove out of the church parking lot, with my parents following in the car behind us, Kaitlyn asked, "Where's the other Grandma and Grandpa?" She knows that "there's two grandmas and two grandpas" (her words) but I guess she's still figuring out how the naming thing works. Before my parents arrived on Friday night, Kaitlyn announced her exitement to see "Grandma Mary Lee and Grandpa Mary Lee."

This afternoon Kaitlyn climbed up on Grandpa's lap only to swipe the glasses off of his face and take off running. I tried desperately to capture a picture of her running around with them on, but this was the best I could do:

Trips, Trains and Tumbling

Megan and I spent Thursday, Friday and Saturday in Chicago at Accenture's "sell" weekend, where they did their best to convince us that accepting their offer was the best choice we could make. To be honest, we were leaning that way to begin with, so it probably wasn't that hard of a sell. We used it more as a "confirmation" weekend, to meet more people at the firm and to meet some of the people that I might be working with.

We took Max with us, but Ali and Kaitlyn spent time with the Hughes, McLaughlins and Sorensens who were incredibily gracious and kind for taking them for a couple of days (and for suffering through various meltdowns from each child).

Megan and I had a good time as well--when we weren't worrying about the girls. I think our highlight was eating at the Signature Room on the 95th and 96th floors of the John Hancock building. The views were incredible. Megan's parents were also very kind as they volunteered to drive up to Chicago from Indiana to watch Max so we could attend the dinner in the John Hancock building, although we ended up hiring a local service and everything worked out great. This picture is from our hotel at night, and doesn't really do justice at all to the kind of clear and amazing view we had.



Through it all, Megan decided she's not much of a big city girl. She didn't enjoy taking taxis everywhere or waiting in traffic. On the other hand, I decided that I'm not a huge fan of bitter cold made worse by blowing wind and airport delays due to impending blizzard conditions. That said, it looks like we're taking the job and will be adding Indianapolis to our list of places we've lived.

Max keeps getting bigger and bigger. Today he weighed in at 15 pounds. To put that in perspective, at 20 pounds (and 1 year), by law you can change the carseat from rear-facing to forward-facing. I'm guessing he'll hit the 20 pounds well before he hits the year mark.

Prior to our Thanksgiving and Chicago trips Max was sleeping about 6 hours straight at night, making both Megan and me (but especially Megan) very happy, and less tired. But, since our trips he's gotten out of the rhythm and has taken a few days to get back into the swing of things. I've been getting less and less sleep with an increasing workload at school (given that I didn't do anything during our trip to Chicago).

Kaitlyn is getting more and more creative. The other day she laid out all of the blocks in a long procession and declared it a train. I like how she grouped like-colors.

Kaitlyn is also getting smarter. We had stake conference yesterday. After following the directions to "get on Route 33 and drive over the mountain" we made it just in time to sit in the cafeteria of the high school where the meeting was held and which was being used as overflow. There were 2 closed circuit TV's which were set up so that we could watch the proceedings going on inside the auditorium. The girls didn't pay much attention, so on the way home we thought we'd see if they retained anything.

We asked Kaitlyn, "What did you learn at church today?" Kaitlyn's response, "The earth." Apparently, we missed that because they talked about Christmas and attitudes to have, and about the newly reorganized stake presidency. I followed up, "Anything else?" Her reply, "Monson." I guess church on TV (regardless of the location) means general conference, and I guess we've quizzed them all a little too much on who the general authorities are.

Alison is enjoying various and sundry adventures. The other day before bed, I walked in to find that she had set up the grocery shopping toy as a hurdle between her bed and Kaitlyn's bed and was leaping over it by springing from one bed to the other. I thought it was pretty funny and ran downstairs to get the camera. (What a bloggable moment!) However, perhaps I shouldn't have been so encouraging. A couple of jumps after taking this picture, she didn't clear the hurdle and ended up with quite a bruise on her little behind (which is still there).

I guess I should have shown her better technique. Use pillows.