Moving up the rainbow.......

Kali 2.1 has a new addiction: Candy Land. It's only supposed to be for kids 3 years and older, but I bought it anyway hoping that we could ease our way into playing a game with Kali.

She's taken to it very well. She really likes the cards, since she likes to play with my poker cards on occasion. Now, she has her own cards that she gets to draw. Her favorite part is drawing the cards. She'll scream out the color and whether it's one or two squares on the card. She gets really excited with the 'special' space cards like gumdrop, candy cane, ice cream, etc. Our only issue right now is attention span. I try to keep the game going at a very quick pace. If Kali goes too long without drawing a card, she gets distracted. I'm guessing that's where the 3+ suggested age comes into play, but she does alright.

I think the board is a bit jumbled to her right now. She doesn't understand the whole 'path' thing quite yet. She knows to move the pieces to the color she drew, but she just looks on the board for that color space rather than moving down the path to the next occurance of that color. We've remedied that for the time being by pointing to her piece and then pointing to the space that she needs to move it to for her move. Also, I say the color of the space so she knows that it correlates to the card.

It's a work in progress, but she's doing awfully well to have the attention span to play a game given that she's only 2 years old.

Tigers come up one step short.......

Mizzou finished the season 31-7 after a loss to Connecticut in the Elite Eight. Terribly disappointing to miss out on a Final Four opportunity, but the Tigers played very well. It's difficult to find fault with a team that won two more games than any team in the 104 year history of the program.

The future also looks very bright. 9 players return to the program with the majority of them still being undergraduates. A star recruit at point guard from the state of Missouri waits in the wings along with a 6'10" Juco athletic freak. Two more recruiting spots remain available for the upcoming year (2009). The 2010 recruiting class should benefit tremendously from this Elite Eight run.

Only 6 months until practices starts again. **sigh**

Before us lies the mountaintop..............

Exactly three years ago, these words were spoken to Mizzou fans........

"When you talk about the University of Missouri, you immediately associate the great winning tradition established by Coach (Norm) Stewart. Having the opportunity to coach 17 seasons at Arkansas, I am familiar with Norm Stewart-coached teams. I remember their hard-nosed style of play and the passion the fans felt for their teams. Not many programs enjoyed the same type of fan support that we did during our days at Arkansas, but Missouri was one of them. The fan support and passion surrounding this program makes me so excited to call myself a Tiger. There were a lot of reasons to come to Missouri. First was our familiarity with the program and the Big 12 Conference. Mike Alden really sold me on Missouri as a whole. The fan support, the academic opportunities and of course the tremendous facilities. These aspects will allow us to attract the types of student-athletes we need to be successful. Our goal is to win a national championship and that's why we are at Missouri."

Mike Anderson's introduction as new Mizzou head coach - March 26, 2006

Mizzou fans laughed at the lofty expectations set forth by Mike Anderson's final comment. Mizzou a national champion? That's crazy talk. Mizzou is the home of tournament disappointments and fluke losses.

No one is laughing now. Mike Anderson has shown that if you say it and dream it, anything is possible. Mizzou may not win the national championship or even make it to the Final Four this year, but no one will ever doubt what is possible at Mizzou ever again. We can be champions.

Tigers to the Elite Eight!!!!!!

I'm pretty stunned right now. Mizzou just beat Memphis and has advanced to the Elite Eight for the 4th time in school history. The previous 3 visits to the Elite Eight resulted in losses. I'm not sure what I would do with myself if Mizzou won their next game. It would certainly get the monkey off our backs. They're playing well and I hope it lasts at least one more game.

Very proud of the team and Coach Anderson. M-I-Z! Z-O-U!

Numero dos...........

Kali 2.1 is starting to get the hang of what's going on regarding 'pottying'. She's alerting Mrs. Lime every single time that her diaper is even the slightest bit wet or messy. It's resulting in a surge in number of diapers changed in recent days.

I'm also increasing Kali's vocabulary when it comes to the number of ways you can refer to a messy diaper. Sunday at my sister's house, Gwen 1.10 had a poopy diaper. I asked her if she had 'dropped a deuce'. She nodded and said 'dropped a deuce'.

Yesterday, when Kali was over playing with a friend, Kali came to Mrs. Lime and Mrs. Lime's friend Liz mumbling something.....

Liz: What is she saying?

Mrs. Lime: She's saying she 'dropped a deuce'.

Sure enough, Mrs. Lime checks and Kali has a poopy diaper. The kid's mind is like a sponge, ready to soak up every pearl of wisdom she can gather. That includes saying 'dropped a deuce' evidently.

While I was watching the basketball game.........

Notes from yesterday's get together at my sister's house.

-There were three 2-year olds in attendance. That's three upwardly mobile toddlers loose in the same home for those of you scoring at home. They go everywhere.

-There's nothing funnier than an insincere 'sorry' from one two-year old to another. Much like Bill Clinton, they're sorry they got caught rather than any actual feelings of remorse.

-Even funnier is when one child pushes another child and the offender is asked by her mother to apologize to the little boy. The little boy, promptly apologizes to the offender, not realizing that the little girl is the one who's supposed to be apologizing to him.

-Kali 2.1 had her first experience at a "kids table". The three little kids sat down to eat together. No food was thrown, but not a lot was eaten either. One child got distracted halfway through the meal and left the table to play. That triggered the other two to leave and follow suit.

-Kali decided it would be a great idea to slide on her belly, feet-first, down Gwen's slide. It was a great idea until she reached the bottom and realized that she was landing on dirt and her hands and knees were covered in that dirt. She began to fuss, not because it hurt, but because her hands and pants were now dirty.

-Cousin Gwen 1.10 had a similar meltdown when she misjudged a deck stair and fell into the dirt while holding a tippie cup of juice. There's nothing worse than a perfectly good cup of juice ruined. Thankfully, I was right behind her and able to reassure her that the world was still intact and remedy the situation to her approval.

-I should never go to my sister's house again. I sit down and hear their surround sound and all I can think about is a home theater in my own home. I can't wait until I hit the Powerball jackpot.

Mizzou back in the Sweet 16!!!!!!!

Pretty exciting stuff. Mizzou's basketball team managed to advance to the Sweet 16 for the first time in 7 years. First game was a cakewalk and the game yesterday required some late-game heroics, but they pulled it out. As a result, Mizzou has now won 30 games for the first time in the 103-year history of the school. That's absolutely fantastic, especially given that we were picked to finish 7th in conference before the season started.

Think about this. Mizzou is now in a 16-team single elimination tournament with the prize being the National Championship. Only 4 wins separate Mizzou from a National Championship. Do I think it will happen? Odds are against it. Is is fun to think about that possibility in late March? Absolutely.

Oh, and I've heard through the grapevine that a contract extension for Coach Anderson is in the works to be finalized after the season ends. Every win we get just increases the size of that contract. I don't think the athletic director minds one bit.

Obama is a jerk.........

I rarely go political without a good reason on my blog and I guess I technically won't be right now since this has nothing to do with politics. Last night's comment from Obama on Jay Leno just sent me off the deep end.

Towards the end of his approximately 40-minute appearance, the president talked about how he's gotten better at bowling and has been practicing in the White House bowling alley.

He bowled a 129, the president said.

"That's very good, Mr. President," Leno said sarcastically.

It's "like the Special Olympics or something," the president said.

Are you kidding me? The leader of our country has been blessed with the ignorance to make this kind of comment?

1. I've seen some of the Special Olympics athletes and how hard they work at what they do. Many of them compete at a level that Average Joe on the street could only hope to achieve. Making a comment that implies that a low level of achievement is associated with Special Olympics is blatent ignorance at its finest.

2. I've had the privilege of knowing several kids who have various disabilities. Most people look at those kids and feel sorry for them because they don't think they can do or achieve anything. They're wrong to do that and lowering the standard for those kids is the exact opposite of what most parents of disabled kids do. Those parents expect a lot of those kids and, very often, they are rewarded by achievements far in advance of what was expected.

3. I work with many disabled people in the government, since disabled people are often given opportunities in the federal government offices that they aren't given in the private sector. Most of these people would shock you with how favorably their work compares with able-bodied individuals. I'll be the first to admit that some of them probably have better work ethic than me. I certainly don't feel bad in saying that.

I have no doubt that President Obama will arrange some PR outing where he goes bowling with Special Olympics athletes as a way to smooth this over, but it won't heal the wounds in any way. Disabled people have enough people trying to tell them that they can't do something. They don't need the leader of the free world to do the same thing.

Trouble's a brewin'..........

Last night, we were sitting in the living room catching up on shows we had recorded on the DVR. Kali 2.1 was playing in the living room while Mrs. Lime and I were able to relax on the couch. Out of nowhere, Kali got a grumpy look on her face and looked towards us.

Kali: (grumpy) Time out! Two minutes!

Me: No, you don't have to go into time out.

Kali: (more grumpy) TIME OUT! TWO MINUTES!

Me: Are you putting yourself in timeout?

Kali: Nooooooooooo.

Me: OK.

Kali: (grumpy face returns) TIME OUT! TWO MINUTES!

This went on for some time, with her sitting down and standing back up while repeating "Time out! Two minutes!". For those that are unaware, we use time out with Kali. It works very well. She gets a minute of time out for each year, hence the reason that Kali 2.1 has 'two minutes' so firmly entrenched in her mind.

For the record, she overdramatized my reaction when I put her in time out. I don't look nearly as grumpy as she made me out to be in her rendition of what Daddy looks like when he puts her in timeout. But I give her an 'A' for creativity.

The spectacle begins anew..........

Without question, this is my favorite time of the year and today is probably my favorite day of the year.

Thanksgiving? Meh.

Christmas? It's OK.

Opening Day of the NCAA Tournament? Yes sir!!!!!!!

I'll be relegated to listening on the internet to the opening games this afternoon. But I'll be taking part of the day off tomorrow to watch the whole slate of games in the comfort of my own home (and to give Mrs. Lime the opportunity for a well-earned afternoon nap).

It's also wonderful to have Mizzou back in the tournament. While watching the tournament is fun regardless of who your favorite team is, the game takes on a whole new level of tension when you have a rooting interest. I remember how exciting it was when Mizzou made a run to the Elite 8 a few years ago. What I wouldn't give for another good tournament run. Go Tigers!

WE WON AGAIN!!!!!

Our rec league basketball team won our season finale. We managed to win 2 out of the last 3 games. We'll just pretend that we didn't lose the 13 games preceeding those last three games.

The Missouri Hillbillies.......

Mrs. Lime just called me. She had filled up the jacuzzi tub in our house with water. Kali 2.1 proceeded to get in the tub and 'go swimming'.

Yes, the Beverly Hillbillies don't have anything on us. We don't go swimming in a cement pond. We go swimming in a jacuzzi tub swimming pool.

You talking to me?

Last night on the couch while watching Dancing with the Stars......

Kali: (out of nowhere) Nigh night?

Me: You want to go to bed?

Kali: Mmmmmm-hmmmmmm

Me: OK, if you say so!

Kali: (giggles and runs to go to bed)

I'm not even sure I need to parent anymore. This girl runs on auto-pilot. She's now telling ME that I need to put her to bed.

More big girl progress.........

Kali 2.1 just keeps growing and getting smarter each day. Last night, she had a conversation with her grandma on the phone that was far more involved than anything she had previously done. Usually, she uses gestures or smiles at the phone when someone is talking to her, not knowing that people can't see what she's doing. Last night, she talked all about her big girl bed and a couple other topics with grandma. She even signed off by saying 'bye-bye Grandma' and blowing a very audible kiss to the phone.

In addition, it appears another milestone has been cleared with surprising ease. We've stuck with the binky for awhile when she sleeps, mainly as a reinforcement to know exactly when it's time to go to bed. It has worked wonders with Kali. Once we gave her the 'nigh-night binky', she always goes right up to her room, changes into PJ's, and goes right to sleep without a peep.

The other night was different. We went up to change her diaper and put on her PJ's. I hadn't got a binky yet because I thought we were going to go down to give Mrs. Lime a kiss. It didn't work out that way. Kali put on her PJ's and then ran over to bed and laid down. I hadn't noticed until I had placed a blanket on her that she didn't have a binky. She was smiling and excited to go to bed, so I just gave her a kiss and headed out to see if she'd notice.

She slept all night. I did the same routine the next night to see if the previous night was a fluke. Nope, she slept all night. We're now going on three nights of sleep without a binky. So I plan on relocating the binky stash when I get home today and Kali should be done with them. I'll say one thing for Kali......she's made a lot of transition points in her young life awfully easy. Outside of a 12-18 hour hunger strike when switching from breast to bottle, we haven't had any issues with life changes. Thank goodness.

Big 12 Tournament Champions!

Has a nice ring to it, eh? Really excited about how well Mizzou has done this year. They're now 28-6 in a season when they were predicted to finish 7th in the conference. That's why you play the games.

Any good run in the NCAA tournament is just gravy on top at this point. It's been a wonderful run for the Tigers and their revived fan base. I'm glad it happened this year because I don't know how many more bad seasons the fans could take.

She's blushing........

Every morning, Kali 2.1 hangs out with her mom in the bathroom. She likes to do big girl things, mostly involving things like washing and makeup.

Yesterday morning, Kali managed to get a hold of the blush powder container. Kali was frustrated that there was no brush in the container to apply the powder. So, she did what any woman would do when she didn't have a brush handy. She proceeded to grab Tinkerbell 0.5's fluffy tail, and rub in in the powder so she could apply it to her face.

She eventually figured out that wasn't going to work so well, so she then rubbed the powder container directly on her face. Desperate little girls sometimes have to do desperate things in desperate situations.

JAIL BREAK!!!!!

Mrs. Lime has just reported to me that Kali 2.1 broke out of prison this morning. Kali decided to bust out of her bedroom and go get Mrs. Lime out of bed.

In related news, I'm going out to purchase a padlock during my lunch break.

Tuck-in time........

With Kali 2.1 now being in a bed rather than a crib, the bedtime routine has changed.

-One blanket is now no longer enough. In the crib, she always had me cover her up with her favorite blanket. There's now an addition to that routine. Per the usual, I cover her up with her favorite blanket. But now, she points to the base of the bed after the first one is in place and says 'another blanket'. So I have to put a second larger blanket on top of that one to satisfy her ever-increasing demands.

-In the crib, we'd give kisses before I laid her down in the crib. Now that routine is reversed. She lays down, gets her blankets in order, and THEN gets a kiss.

-She's been very excited about going to be lately. Before, it was just routine. Now, I think she believes it's the best place ever. Amazing what a fairy-themed bed can do to a child's thinking.

Let the dancing begin!

Kali 2.1 and I finished participating in/watching the season premiere of 'Dancing with the Stars'. A few notes.......

-Kali mentioned a few times that the ladies were wearing 'princess dresses'. The girl loves glitter.

-Kali's favorite part of dancing is spinning. She's like a whirling dervish when the music starts.

-When the spinning stops, it's usually followed by a 'Whoa!' as she realizes her head is still spinning. The conclusion usually involves falling to the floor.

-She's still very cordial when the dance finishes. She always claps for the dancers.

-A new reaction has been added to the repetoire: Booing. She figured out that the crowd says 'Booooooo!' when the judge gives negative feedback. So she's started to boooo the judges with the crowd.

-We've turned the scoring time into learning time. As the judges reveal their score, we repeat each number as the judge says it. Good number practice for the learning sponge otherwise known as my daughter.

Good times. We're obviously going to be hosting toddler watch parties of 'Dancing with the Stars' in the near future.

Bloggable.......

We have a new word that has entered our life in recent years. 'Blog' or 'Bloggable' are now commonly used words in the Lime household. If things happen around the house, they are usually cited as 'going into the blog' or a 'bloggable offense'. You don't realize just how many stupid things happen on a daily basis until you start writing a blog and look to document some of your daily occurances.

One thing I have quickly noticed is how easy it would be to become a comedian if you were observent of the world around you. When comedians tell jokes about family, friends, food, etc., they are talking about real stuff. There are things that happen around you that are far funnier than anything that could ever be made up. All you have to do is look around. You could fill an entire comedic routine with the goofy things that happen around your house.

Without question, my home is currently a comedic breeding ground. I may have to start renting a spare bedroom out to any aspiring comedians looking for material. My nuthouse could turn someone into a star.

Everything is 'big girl'...........

We survived the first weekend in a 'big girl bed'. Kali 2.0 actually slept very well both nights. The first night, she fussed for about 5 minutes in the bed. The second night, she didn't make a peep. Even more impressive is that some big thunderstorms rolled through the area the first night in the new bed and she didn't wake up. Storms never seem to bother her. Even I woke up a few times due to the loud hail. I'm surprised Kali didn't do the same.

The 'big girl' trend has also moved to the stairs. Since I usually tell Kali that she's a big girl for walking on the stairs all by herself, she's taken that term to heart. Every time she's walking on the stairs, she says 'big girl stairs' over and over again. It's pretty important for her to be a 'big girl'.

Kali's cousin, Gwen 1.9, came over to eat pizza and play with Kali. They ate a lot of crackers, salad, and cheese bread. By the time the pizza came out, the girls had lost interest and were 'playing' the SpongeBob Racing game while my sister and I were left to eat pizza. Once we got home, Kali picked 'Beauty and the Beast' to watch with Gwen. Kali had some sharing issues that we had to deal with a bit. She didn't want to share space on her couch with Gwen. We'll have to work on that a bit, as it was mostly Kali's fault. The princess occasionally has a 'me' mentality.

The Tinkerbell Bed has arrived.........

As a result, I'll be spending a good portion of my Saturday assembling a bed so Kali 2.0 can begin her conversion from crib to bed. I'm sure that the moment she realizes what it is, she'll be very excited. Hopefully, she'll be just as excited when I put her in the bed and leave the room the first time we give it a try.

So this is what happens when you send a Kali to do a man's job.......

Kali 2.0 is at the point where she's ready to move into a bed. We have a queen size bed in another bedroom. So I headed over to a local store to buy a kid rail for the bed so Kali could use that bed for sleeping.

Everything was going well........until we walked into the store. Neatly displayed on an end cap (in retail terms, that's the display areas on the end of each aisle) was a perfectly assembled Tinkerbell bed, complete with a canopy and purple railings. Kali went into immediate 'attract' mode. I went into 'Oh, I'm screwed now!' mode.

Kali: (climbs into the display bed and rolls around with a grin on her face)

Me: You like that bed?

Kali: (giggling) Yes! Yes!

Me: If Daddy gets that bed, would you sleep in that big girl bed?

Kali: (still giggling) Mmmm-hmmm!

The bed was complete sold out in all stores in the metro area (evidently Kali's not the only Tinkerbell fan), so I got the relevant retail info and headed home. Kali proceeded directly in to Mrs. Lime's office where she was working. Kali was bouncing up and down while laughing as she told Mrs. Lime about the Tinkerbell bed. Long story short, a Tinkerbell bed will be arriving at my door in 6-12 days.

One more?

Kali 2.0 usually goes up with me to play video games in the guest bedroom. She always demands that we lay down while playing games and she always wants her own controller. A few weeks ago, I even purchased an old Dora The Explorer game out of the bargain bin and she LOVES playing that game for obvious reasons.

Another thing we regularly do is that she knows when a game level ends. At first, she'd always say 'All Done' when we got to that screen. I'd either reply that we were all done or that we'd play one more. Lately, she's caught on to the significance of those two terms. So, as long as she's content playing, she'll keep saying 'one more' while holding up a single finger. When she's tired of playing, she'll switch to 'all done' to let me know she's bored. If she says all done and I say one more, she'll occasionally relent to one more round, but usually, all done means all done.

Her ability to reason and use logic in her conversations has gone through the roof of late. It's amazing to watch.

WE WON!!!!!!!

That's right! After going 0-13 over the first season and a half of our existance, the Brick Layers finally got their first win in rec league play. We actually played a young and quick team who we thought was going to cause us some major problems. As it turned out, those young kids didn't like to rebound too much and liked to shoot a lot of three point shots. We got it inside a lot and killed them on the boards to win by around 17 points (think the final score was 61-44).

Mrs. Lime and Kali 2.0 celebrated the win with me when I got home. Mrs. Lime clapped and said 'Daddy won!'. Kali was excited and clapped too. It isn't often that I come home a winner.

30 minutes after that, we were sitting there watching TV. Kali was walking across the room and spontaneously began to clap and screamed 'Daddy win!'. It was great. Just don't let Kali know that Daddy's team is now 1-13.