Just a little bitter.......

There's a lady in my office area who has been divorced multiple times. She evidently was 'lucky' enough to meet her ex-husband's new wife during a child exchange at a local business. She was nice enough to talk about the meeting just loud enough that everyone on the floor could hear her talking about it. Some of the highlights were......

-The new wife immediately reached out to hug her when they first met. Talk about awkward.

-The new wife evidently implied that the divorce was for the best because she and the ex-husband were meant to be together. It was "God's will".

-The new wife told the ex-wife that she "prays for her all the time". The ex-wife responded that she was glad and wouldn't stop her from praying. In fact, the ex-wife said "I need all the prayers I can get".

-The ex-husband met his new wife on a christian dating website. The site claims that it's "love by God's hands" and the ex-wife loves repeating that catch phrase anytime she can.


Ah, divorce. I think the general attitude of our nation's people is a whole lot worse due to divorce. It's just too easy to get married and too easy to get a divorce. There's too many people walking around with resentment towards other people because of broken relationships. I dated my wife for almost 5 years before getting engaged. By that time, we both were aware of all the skeletons in the closet. There was little left to hide, so you knew what you were getting into at that point. While I think you can get to know a person in a shorter period of time if you're older when you enter the process, I think people take far too little time getting to know someone.

I'm just glad Mrs. Lime can put up with me. The thought of meeting her 'new husband from a Christian dating website' is not overly appealing.

Birthday announcement........

Kali 0.2 and I headed out to run some errands. On the way back home, I asked Kali if we should stop and get a milkshake for Mrs. Lime. I couldn't see her as her car seat faces backwards, but I heard her laugh, so I assumed that was her approval.

We went to Maggie Moo's and it was pretty busy. There was a group of 8 people in front of me. They noticed that I was toting around a baby and let me go in front of them, which was very nice of them. I ordered a couple of milkshakes.

While I was standing waiting for the milkshakes, a little girl walked up and started talking to me........

Girl: Hi! How are you?

Me: I'm great! Thanks for asking.

Girl: Would you mind if I talked with your baby?

Me: Not at all. Go right ahead.

Girl: What words does she know so I know what questions to ask her?

Me: Well, she likes to make baby noises and laugh, but her vocabulary at this point is pretty limited.

Girl: How old is she?

Me: She's 10 weeks old.

Girl: Geez! I'm 5 years old and my 6th birthday is this week, so I'm older than her.

Me: Yes, you're definitely older.

The girl waved and smiled at Kali and Kali smiled back. The little girl was very excited to get a smile out of the baby. The girl quickly lost interest (as 5 year old kids often do) and ran over to scream to the world that she was soon to be 6 years old. I looked down and noticed that Kali was still watching the girl and laughing at her as she announced her birthday. Kali was entertained, so I was a happy camper.

Kali didn't have to wait long for new entertainment. A couple of people who were obviously grandparents eagerly came over to talk to Kali. They were both excited as well to get smiles out of Kali. People just love to look at and talk to babies. It brightens their day, especially when they get feedback in the form of a smile or baby talk. Kali has always seemed to laugh or smile when people want her to smile.

She's the official goodwill ambassador of North Kansas City.

A whole lot of nothing......

I'd love to give everyone a blog full of my experiences over the past day or so. But there's not a whole lot to discuss. I worked yesterday, went home to clean up some around the house and then took care of Kali 0.2 for the rest of the night. I'm not even sure that I really did all that much in that regard.

Kali was a bit fussy and I could tell she was pretty tired. I got her to take the bottle and she ate a couple of ounces of formula. I gave her a bath as well to distract her. She eventually fell asleep around 7:00 PM. I sat down with her on the couch and started messing around on the laptop computer next to me. Next thing I know, I wake up with a sore neck with Kali still asleep in my arms and notice that it's 11:30 PM. Guess I was tired as was Kali. In summary, I didn't do a whole lot, but Kali and I got quite a bit of rest.

I'm having parenting issues........

I've now caught myself on more than one occasion doing something I never would have even bothered doing before I had a child. I've caught myself singing songs like "She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain", "Sesame Street" theme song, and some other unknown song that the Peek-a-Boo Elmo toy makes when Kali 0.2 plays with it. It's one of the few things that keeps her busy and entertained, so I have no choice but to listen to it or be faced with a fussy and bored baby.

So if you're hanging around me and I start to sing nursery rhymes, just ignore me. I've got the parent disease.

My hands are tied.......

There are some points where there's nothing you can do to console a baby. Yesterday was one of those days for me. I was in charge of baby care for most of the day. The morning went pretty well and then I played with Kali 0.2 for an hour or so in the afternoon on the floor. After that, something took over my otherwise happy child.

Screams. Loud screams.

I tried to settle her down, but pretty much nothing would work. She was not happy at all. I took her for a walk (which she loves) and she was really quiet. The moment we entered the door again, the screams returned. Oh boy........

After a while, Mrs. Lime had some slow time at work and fed the baby. Once Kali was done screaming, she handed the baby back off to me. Screams. Loud screams. So, out the door I went with the stroller. Kali giggled and was otherwise quiet the whole time. I was just happy that she was doing something other than screaming. We finally got back to the house and the screaming began anew. Temperature check was made. 98.7 degrees F. Ugh, can't even blame it on sickness.

After about an hour of off-and-on fussing, we headed back out the door for another walk. She was quiet and even fell asleep in the stroller. As soon as we got home, she began screaming again. I rocked her in my arms for a half-hour and then, as if by magic, the eyelids became very heavy and she was out at around 8:30 PM. Mrs. Lime wouldn't be off work until 11 PM, so I sat as still as possible with Kali in my arms. Thankfully, she stayed asleep and I was able to pass her on to Mrs. Lime. I grabbed 5 hours of sleep and headed back into another work week.

Get-well card...........

Kali 0.2 heard that her grandma was a bit under the weather. So she wanted to do her part and wish Grandma the best!

GET WELL GRANDMA!!!!!!!!

Kali 0.2 continues to develop.......

Kali 0.2 is doing a lot more things now. She's a lot more active with her hands and has started to suck on her fingers (she hasn't got the thumb-sucking thing down yet). She wiggles a lot and tries to flip over. She's also able to lay on her tummy and lift her head up, though being on her tummy isn't her favorite thing to do.

Kali spend a long weekend with Mrs. Lime away, which has caused a bit of a set-back as far as bottle feeding goes. She screamed for awhile, went asleep and then woke up to scream some more before finally taking the bottle and eating a bit. Eventually, Mrs. Lime showed up and finished the deal. I don't mind it too much. While I never like to have my baby upset, at some level, you don't get nearly as frustrated after awhile over the little things. She'll be back to eating out of the bottle better in a week or two and we'll have her bottle feeding in a few months.

Kali loves to go out for a walk with the stroller. People come up to see her while she's on the walk and she always smiles at them or giggles. She's quickly becoming an attention whore evidently. She loves to smile (unless she's hungry). Last night, she sat in her bouncing chair and laughed for 15 minutes at 'Survivor' on TV. Evidently, she enjoys watching other people's misfortune when they're trapped on a deserted island. I suppose I can't blame her. I found it pretty amusing as well. People will do crazy stuff when they're hungry, dirty, and tired.

Enough with the misplaced blame.........

Time to vent.

There was obviously a terrible incident at Virginia Tech earlier this week where 33 people lost their lives and many more suddenly lost a secure feeling that they used to have at their school or even other universities. It's a terrible thing.

With that said, the media (specifically the Washington Post in this case) has not decided to print an article pointing directly to a video game that the killer used to play as a possible cause of the crime. It's a game called Counterstrike where the player plays the role of a terrorist or a U.S. soldier in battle.

In the 1980s, people blamed heavy metal music for the world's problems. In the 1990s, it was rap music. After the year 2000, the blame has now shifted to video games on a regular basis. People need to realize that personal responsibility should take precedence over any outside influences.

I play video games on a regular basis. I have no doubt that I have 'virtually' killed hundreds of thousands of humans, aliens, animals, etc. while playing video games. Despite the graphic visuals, I can assure everyone that I have never even once considered killing someone or even harming someone (though I do have quite a bit of hatred for the Kansas Jayhawks).

Video games consoles are in nearly 85% of U.S. households and PC's likely are in the rest of the homes. I have no doubt that any killer under the age of 40 at this point has likely played a violent video game at some point in their life. The correlation between video games and killers has a whole lot more to do with the widespread popularity of gaming systems than it does any actual correlation between violent games and the thought of killing another person.

Violent video games also do not help to teach a kid how to use a gun. I have shot pistols, rifles, machine guns, bazookas and flame throwers when playing games. I can assure you that I don't know how to use any of those weapons at even a basic level. I'd likely shoot myself in the foot before I was able to actually shoot someone else. I'd argue that my weekend outing to play paintball would likely teach me how to shoot a gun better than playing video games.

People need to quit blaming others or external influences for their problems. This kid didn't kill people because he shot a gun in a video game. This kid (and other similar young killers) shot these people because he was a deeply disturbed individual who obviously had some major psychological issues. He had no one to turn to and felt alone. He blamed the world for the problems that he had in his own life. The ironic part is that this kid was at a college with a chance to make something of himself, which is a chance that many people in this world that he so resented don't even get. Family matters often cause issues in these situations as well, though his sister graduated from college, so it couldn't have been that bad.

Enough with the 'straw man' arguments of how something as irrelevant to the situation as video games is the cause to a problem. If anything, it might have been a good outlet for this kid to find a way to be productive and socialize with others. Also, there's just as much violence on TV (which I think should be equally protected as free speech), but I don't see people saying that the kid likely watched too much CSI. Put this kid in the 1970s in the same situation without video games and I can guarantee that the same thing would have occurred.

Duck!!!!!!!

I headed out yesterday to try something new. I decided to go along with some friends to play paintball. I'd never done it before, so why not give it a whirl?

I was, by far, the 'veteran' member of the group. At 32 years of age, I was at least 10 years older than any other member of our group. There were 5 women and 5 men who were all college age. Thankfully, this didn't hurt my chances. What I lacked in youth, I made up for with determination and blind stupidity.

I slapped down my $25 in the main office and received a mask, a gun and 500 'balls of death'. I got geared up and wore my old jeans, a sweatshirt and some old tennis shoes. I pretty much looked like a killing machine. We got the basic rules:

1. Don't remove your mask anywhere outside the safe zone near the office. Your eyesight is gone if you get hit in the eye with a paintball.

2. You're hit and out if you get a quarter-size paint spot from any hit.

3. Keep shooting (OK, that was actually my rule).

The paintball fields were laid out over a large portion of land. There were probably 10-12 different battlefields to choose from. They actually had castles built that you could storm. They had large land fortifications where you could storm a hill with defenders at the top. There were all kinds of different defenses.

We started on the 'City' battlefield. Having never played, I wasn't sure what to do. I ended up being the aggressive player, trying to move up and create havoc by flanking the other team and slowing down their strategies. I had mixed results. In the first game, I did a pretty good job by sneaking up on the side and surprising two of the other team members. I was knocked out in the process, but taking out 2 was pretty rewarding.

We next went over and played on the 'Lego' battlefield. It had all kinds of different colored blocks for defense, hence the Lego nickname. I made a great rush up the side on one of my battles and had a guy lined up without him even knowing. Unfortunately, just as I was about to fire, I suddenly went blind as a paintball hit squarely in the middle of my mask. It's quite a surprise to see a paintball smack you in the face. I later had one hit the lower part of my mask. Since there are spaces in the lower part of the mask, I ended up with some paint splattered into my mouth. Totally harmless, but not exactly a tasty food substitute.

Later in the day, I ran up on the flank and had a guy laying flat on the ground and pinned down. Unfortunately, one of his buddies saw it and snuck up on me and nailed me right in the neck. It left a nice little hickey mark on my neck. That's never a good thing when your wife has been out of town and comes back to see a large red circle on your neck.

We played for about 3 hours. I will say that it was really good exercise. Running away from paint balls doesn't give you time to think about the fact that you're tired. It's just survival instinct at that point. I had a lot of paint on me (too many kamikaze runs), but the paint will wash out of the clothes. The cost is not exactly cheap ($30-35 a person depending on how long you play). I'd do it again. It was a lot of fun and provided a good distraction.

Language lesson........

I played a round of golf online this morning. There were three people in the group. It was an international group. One of my partners was a 28 year old window washer from England and my other partner was a 9 year old girl from San Paolo, Brazil. The English guy was relatively quiet. The 9 year old girl was a chatterbox.

She started talking a lot very early on. Initially, neither of us talked with her and she acted a bit frustrated. So I started talking with her to keep her busy.

I started off by talking a bit in Spanish. She started giving me some words and what they meant in English. I was a bit confused because some of the words she told me I knew the Spanish equivalent, but her version was slightly different. I asked her if it was Spanish and she informed me that Portuguese is actually the native language of Brazil.

She was a really smart girl. She didn't know a whole lot of English, but I was amazed at how smart she was for a 9 year old. She asked me if I liked Burger King or "Mc Donalds" as those are her favorite restaurants. She said she wanted to grow up to work at Burger King so she could eat their hamburgers all day. She also asked me if I liked "peps or coca". That's what they call Pepsi and Coca-Cola. I told her I was a 'coca' fan.

She taught me several Portuguese words. Here's what I learned today:

no = nao
yes = sim
para = stop
de = the
falar = talk or speak

There were a few others, but those were the ones I remember. I finished out the golf round (which I actually won) and wished my new Brazilian friend well. She thanked me as well and we headed back into our separate lives.

A poker session to remember.........

I had to put up all this info as soon as I got back from the casino. I'm afraid that if I don't put it up now, since I've been up for 21 hours straight now, I may forget it all.

I met Rudy around 6:30 at the casino for a night of poker. I originally sat down in a small no-limit game. The play wasn't very fun and the guys playing were even more boring. Rudy showed up a bit later and ended up sitting down in a limit game. I decided to move over and play with Rudy.

We had a really fun table. Lots of characters. One of my favorite characters that I've become familiar with from my few visits to the poker room is a man named Leon. He's an older guy with a great personality. His favorite starting hand is Ace-two. He owns a couple of grocery stores and often comes to play poker. Leon knows all the dealers and a lot of the players and goes out of his way to give them grief all the time.

Early on, we had a dealer named Jorge come to the table. Jorge is a really nice guy. He's of Argentinian descent, has a very heavy accent, and was born in Detroit of all places. You can hardly understand him at times, but it doesn't matter in the end. As Jorge sat down, Leon laid right into him......

Leon: See this guy, Jorge? You'll be lucky to understand a single word he says!

Jorge: (laughing) You're one to make fun of people since you can't even read!

Leon: (laughing) I thought we weren't going to discuss that!

Me: Leon, how long ago did you learn how to read?

Leon: 3 1/2 years ago.

Me: So you've been playing poker longer than you've been reading?

Leon: (sarcastically smiling with a wink) Yep!

These two went at it for most of Jorge's time at the table before a new dealer moved in. They loved it and I'm sure it made the time pass quickly for Jorge. Also, it's always good to have a fun table as people are more likely to bet on bad hands, which is better for the bottom line.

I had a pretty slow night overall. Around midnight, I was not getting hands and was probably about $100 down. I was resigned to the fact that I wasn't going to break even for the night. But that was fine. I got to have a great time with Rudy for several hours and we'll just write it off as quality entertainment time.

But then, 'it' happened.

I raised the pot with Ace-Three of Hearts. I was called by three other players.

The flop was King-Queen-Jack, all Hearts. I had flopped the top flush. Excellent! I bet and someone raised me. This is great because now I have someone who has a good hand, which is always something you want when you know you have the best hand at that point. I just called.

The turn card was the Six of Clubs. There's no way that helped his hand. I bet and the other player just called.

The river was the beautiful Ten of Hearts. Yes!!!!!! I had just hit the mother of all poker hands. I had a Royal Flush!!!!! I bet and, much to my surprise, the other person raised. What did he have????? I reraised with the best possible hand. Then, the other player did something amazing. He actually said, "Do you have the Ace of Hearts????"

Why is that amazing? Because he actually read me correctly and just called and turned over the 9 of Hearts. He had the second best hand in poker (King-High straight flush) and yet he realized that he was actually still behind and didn't waste any more money. You don't realize just how good of a play that was until you were put into his position. He saved a lot of money.

The casino has a royal flush progressive jackpot. So in addition to the money I won in the hand, I was given $462 for getting a royal flush. So I ended up way up for the night because of one lucky card on the river. It's a great feeling to hit a royal flush. I've done it before once online and once at home. Of course, it paid off quite a bit more when I hit it in the casino. Rudy kept telling me how ridiculously lucky I am.

We hung out for a couple hours more and then I headed home to beat the snow that's headed our way right now. Yes, we're going to have snow in April. Tell Al Gore that global warming is officially over in Missouri.

College advice for an incoming freshman.......

I heard this from one of my friends. I think it's pretty sound advice, but I'm not sure what point the grandpa is trying to make.

My son was heading off to college last fall for his freshman year. His grandpa took him aside and bestowed some pearls of wisdom on my boy........

Grandpa: Son, when I was your age me and my buddies made it our goal to drink Budweiser out of business.

Grandson: (laughing) Seriously?????

Grandpa: Yes, it's actually true. But do you know what happened as we attempted to drink them out of business?

Grandson: (puzzled) No.

Grandpa: They opened more bars.

I should openly complain more often........

Obviously, I need to complain about my Royals and specifically, our can't-miss rookie 3rd baseman more often. The Royals won 9-1 last night and Alex Gordon (the previously mentioned rookie) smashed a 2 run home run last night. I unfortunately missed the home run as Kali 0.2 was fussing and needed my attention, but I saw a replay of the home run later on the news after Kali got to sleep.

I have to reinvent the wheel every day it seems as far as how to handle Kali. One night, I have to do things a certain way. The next night, that doesn't work and I have to do something totally different to get her calmed down. It's a constant learning experience, but she's just not happy with level of parenting skills. I can't say I blame her. I suppose I'm much like Alex Gordon at this point. I feel like I haven't quite got into a groove yet as far as parenting, but then occasionally I do something right and it's pretty rewarding. So I at least have the motivation to get back in there and do it again despite the repeated failures. I'm hoping all these experiences will pay off in spades if/when we decide to have another child. I'm hoping I'll be a 'subject matter expert'.

Not again!

So, it's mid-April again. That means warmer temperatures and baseball is back! The Royals went out and got a couple of new starting pitchers and brought in some good young players to hopefully get things going.

Well, one week in and we're 2-5 and the more things change, the more they look the same. Our new pitchers are now 1-3 through their first 4 starts and our can't-miss prospect who hasn't hit less than .300 at any level in college and in the minors, suddenly can't hit anything. He was batting .040 last I saw with at least 9 strikeouts. SO frustrating. I'm sure he's just as frustrated and it showed last night. I watched him strike out on a pitch way out of the strike zone and you could just see the look on his face. It was pretty painful.

Ah, well. Here's to hoping they go on a good run soon and get things going again. Hope is all Royals' fans have to hold on to most of the time.

Kali 0.2 is definitely loved.......

Kali 0.2 gets plenty of attention from everyone involved in the family and extended family. There's no shortage of love and attention for this baby. However, there is someone that doesn't often get credit for his contributions.

Several of the people were worried at how our dog, Casanova, would handle the transition from only child (dog) in the house to a situation where the baby was getting much more of the attention. From what I've seen, he's exceeded expectations.

He always gets up with Mrs. Lime when Kali is crying and needs to eat. He goes to Mrs. Lime's feet and waits until the feeding is complete. Once the baby is back in the crib, he usually comes back with Mrs. Lime and stays in the master bedroom. Occasionally, for one reason or another, he lays down in the hallway between the nursery and the master bedroom or just lays down in the nursery to sleep.

On one occasion the other day, Kali was fussing. Mrs. Lime was downstairs at work and I was in the bedroom, still asleep. Nova came in whining and was trying to wake me up. At first, I just thought he was wanting to go out. Turns out that Kali was awake and crying and no one was checking on her. He whined at me until he finally got my attention and we headed in. He was very happy that she was taken care of at that point.

On another day, I was actually taking care of Kali and she was crying and hollering because she didn't want to eat off the bottle for one reason or another. Mrs. Lime was working in the adjacent office with the door closed. Nova assumed there was something going on and didn't think I was doing a good enough job evidently. So Nova went over to the office door and began knocking at the door, trying to get Mrs. Lime to come out and help. She eventually came out because she was wondering what was making the banging on the door. Eventually Kali took the bottle from me and everything was just fine.

Yesterday, we were driving back from my parents' house. We had all gone down to see them for a day. Roughly halfway through the trip, we stopped to get gas and feed the baby. Mrs. Lime went in to the shop and I started to fill the gas tank. Kali and Nova were inside the car and Kali was asleep. I just had to run into the shop to get a bottle of pop, so I locked the car and ran inside. I was gone one minute at the most and came back. Nova was looking out the driver's side window and his ears were back. He was upset about something.

I opened the door and found that Kali had woke up during the brief time I left and started crying. Nova had become so upset that she was crying and no one was around that he actually sprayed in the car. For those that don't own dogs, they have a spraying gland just under their tail that sprays a rather smelly liquid. So Kali was crying, Nova was upset and we had to drive home with a terrible smell in the car. So that will be the last time that I assume nothing can go wrong if I'm away from the baby and the dog for a minute or less.

I had to give a bath to Nova last night so he didn't stink and had to clean up the front seats of the truck so it wouldn't stink. So Kali, years from now, you can read this and know that your dog loved you a whole lot.

DEFCOM Level 1.........

Kali 0.2 and I were doing our usual weekend morning bonding time while Mrs. Lime got in a few hours of work. We were sitting on the couch watching a story about the Cuban Missile Crisis and what actually occurred on both sides of the standoff. It was actually very interesting. They told the story of the brave pilots that did low-level spy missions over Cuba, sometimes roaring across the Cuban landscape as low as 100 feet high to take the incriminating snapshots of the missiles that they would later use in the United Nations when the Russian representative denied they existed.

The show also discussed in detail the various levels of DEFCOM. It's basically gauges the level of readiness that the military is at in any given situation. As the Cuban Missile Crisis moved forward, the DEFCOM level continued to move up until the situation was eventually diffused by diplomatic discussions.

As Kali and I were watching the show, Kali suddenly looked at me with a pretty determined look. I started chatting with her about nothing in particular. She kept looking at me without breaking her stare. Suddenly, a very loud noise came from her diaper.

"Uh oh, I think we've just entered DEFCOM 1, Kali", I said.

She continued with her determined look and I went back to watching the show. About 2 minutes later, another very loud noise came out her diaper.

"Kali! Did we just move to DEFCOM 2????? This could be an international situation!"

Never one to attempt to diffuse a situation, my daughter continued on with her same stoic look. It was obvious that Adlai Stevenson (US secretary to the UN during the Cuban Missile Crisis) may be needed to keep this problem from boiling over.

Then it happened. A nuclear explosion of massive proportions straight from my daughter's britches. This situation had reached critical mass. I had to do something.

"Kali, I fear we've reached DEFCOM 3. We're going to have to make sure that this doesn't cause global war!"

I quickly ran upstairs and changed the overflowing diaper. Crisis averted.

True love.......

Seriously, is there anything greater than having a baby look at you and smile?

My answer is yes, there is one thing greater than that. It's when a baby looks at you and smiles and then proceeds to spit up all over themselves while still managing to keep smiling. Now that's an example of true love.

Daddy 1, Kali 0..........

I had another night with Kali 0.2 last night on my own. Granted, Mrs. Lime is only working in the next room over, but I'm trying to be an independent parent as much as I can while she's working. I'm slowly learning, but progress seems painfully slow at times. As I told Mrs. Lime, if she wants to get the feeling of what happens when it's me and the baby, just take care of the baby without using her breast and see how much things and tactics change.

Kali's new trick is to begin screaming her head off and refuse to eat if I offer her a bottle after 8:00 PM. It's her little rebellion to say, "I want the breast!!!!".

Lately, I've been trying to work my way through it. The first few times last week, I'd just hold the bottle in her mouth so she'd know it was there. She's to the point where the bottle nipple in her mouth actually encourages the screams rather than encourages her to eat. She's just having none of it as it gets closer to bedtime.

So last night, I tried something different. The first couple of times I left the bottle in her mouth as I had done before and had only more screams. The next time, I put the bottle in her mouth and she began to scream. This time, I pulled out the bottle and set it down. She yelled pretty good for a couple of minutes, but then she backed off it a bit and started staring me down while slightly whimpering with a rounded mouth.

Now I know people might call me crazy for suggesting this, but I firmly believe that my daughter, despite only being 7 weeks or so, is far smarter already than some might give a 7 week old credit for. This child knows already what buttons to push and I had been giving in to some degree by allowing her to breast feed at certain points.

I watched as she continued to whimper a bit. But then, I finally got her. She started to whimper louder, but smiled occasionally as she was doing it. Eventually, after about 15 minutes of whimpering, she went to sleep. This little baby figured out that the game wasn't going to end latched to a breast, so she finally just gave up and went to sleep. But she didn't go to sleep before smiling at me almost as an acknowledgment to me that I had finally won a battle with her.

I was very excited to have finally put her to sleep without giving in completely. She did wake up later and she did breast feed before heading to bed, but for at least one time, Kali figured out that she might not be winning every battle, even if she does flash that smile at me to try to sucker me in on occasion.

Kali 0.2 picture blowout......

To satisfy any craving that friends and family may have, I'll stuff several pictures in the post.....

A couple of crib pictures....





Up close and personal.....



Showing personality in her 'Miss Personality' shirt.....







A picture with her new favorite buddy. He usually goes just about everywhere she does. He even sometimes stays in the nursery with Kali even after Mrs. Lime comes back to bed........



Finally, a picture of a proud Nova with his birthday bone (he just turned 7 this month)......

Chaotic weekend........

We had a VERY busy weekend. Saturday, Mrs. Lime worked for 4 hours in the morning, so I was on duty. Shockingly, I think I may be getting the hang of this parenting thing. Kali only had one meltdown on my watch and a bottle quickly rectified the problem. The only reason she even had a problem was that she thinks I should produce a bottle instantly when she's hungry. While her mom can do that the old fashioned way, I take a couple of minutes to get the bottle ready. Hopefully, she'll be more patient as time goes along, but I think that's a pipe dream.

Also on Saturday, I organized a poker fundraising tournament. Everyone had a great time and we raised enough money to add a scholarship for this year. Really excited that it went so well. Most of the food that we put out was eaten and about 1/2 of the donated beer was drank. We sat down afterwards and watched the college basketball games.

Meanwhile, Kali 0.2's g-ma and g-pa came over and babysit. Mrs. Lime termed it a success, though it should be noted that we set the success bar rather low. We said we would term the babysitting duty a success as long as they didn't drop the baby on the head. Hence, when Mrs. Lime got home to find the baby intact, it was immediately termed a success.

Sunday, Mrs. Lime worked in the morning again and then we headed out with Kali for a baby shower. There was lots of kids and stuff going on at the party. We had a lot of fun and everyone was happy to see Kali. She moved around between myself and Mrs. Lime for the most part. The highlight of the day was when 5 of the men were upstairs with Kali. She had just taken a nap and was smiling and laughing at all the guys. She also ripped a large fart, which received unanimous kudos from all of the men in the room. That's my girl!

We got home around 6:30 and sat down in the living room. Mrs. Lime fed Kali and I laid down on the floor. Next thing I know, I wake up at 9:30 and find Mrs. Lime and Kali asleep as well. Guess we all needed a 2 hour nap! We went upstairs and fed Kali one more time and then went to bed. Kali slept for 7 hours again (she's now slept 7 hours straight for 4 out of the last 8 nights). Mrs. Lime and Kali were both smiling when I left this morning, so the extra sleep seemed to help everyone involved.