The zoo stinks (literally)......

Mrs. Lime, Kali 3.2 and Giselle 0.5 all went to the Kansas City Zoo yesterday. It's relatively cheap to purchase a family membership that allows for a full year of unlimited visits. In addition, they have a new membership this year which allows for unlimited rides on the carousel, train, tram, etc.

Mrs. Lime said that Giselle was interested in everything. Looking around, checking out everything on her first visit to the zoo. Kali is a big fan of the elephants usually, but something else caught her eye (or nose yesterday). She went on and on last night about how 'stinky the alligators' were. Even with the smell, she still liked the alligators the most out of all the animals she saw yesterday.

Hopefully this doesn't open up the future possibility of stinky boyfriends down the road.

The management ranks increase by one.........

Over the past couple of weeks, one of the toilets in the house had an issue with a leaky valve, which was allowing water to slowly come out of the water tank. As a result, the toilet would briefly fill every few hours. I knew what I needed to do to fix it, but never really got around to it.

Kali 3.2 would get scared initially when the water noise would occur. She'd freak out until I informed her that it was only the toilet. One day when it happened, I also added in the fact that 'Daddy needs to fix that'. Bad idea.

Over the past 4-5 days, every time the toilet would turn on, Kali would look at me and sternly say, 'You need to fix that!'. I was being lectured by my three year old two to three times a night on the subject.

Finally got the valve fixed last night. No more periodic flushing sounds. Hopefully that puts an end to the lectures.

Passed with flying colors.....

So I had a long weekend with Kali 3.2 and Giselle 0.5. No real issues of note. We went out a couple of times to run some errands, but mostly just hung around the house.

I kept Kali busy making necklaces, playing some games, and watching movies. Giselle was eating a lot, playing a little, and sleeping the rest of the time. Giselle has been sleeping a LOT at night, which is nice. She's been sleeping a steady 12-12.5 hours a night. Sleep is a fantastic thing. I like it.

When good work isn't good work........

We have a different sort of group in my work environment. I generally am a Point A to Point B type of guy. Give me the task and let me know when it needs to be completed and I'll deliver the goods. I'm not big on the incremental updating in-between those two points. In my latest task, I was supposed to replicate a problem on the system, implement a coding change from the developer, and verify that the change corrected the original problem. I had three weeks to get it done because the releases only happen every so often. I finished up work on the above process today, thus having everything done two full days before it needed to be done.

Only one problem. Unbeknownst to me, the lady who assigned me the work had complained behind my back to the manager a day before I completed the work that she wasn't getting regular updates. This lady walks by my desk literally ten times a day. At any time, she could have stuck her head in my office and asked how the progress was going and I would have been happy to tell her. So now there's a brief fuss with the management (which will blow over eventually) that I wasn't keeping her informed DESPITE THE FACT that I already have the work completed well in advance of the due date.

The moral of this story: Doing great work is only considered great work if you make sure to regularly pause and tell someone how great your work really is rather than solely focusing on getting the task done.

A mouth without a filter........

Kali 3.0 went down with Grandma to see Great Grandma and her sister, Aunt Louise last weekend. Kali came back with plenty to tell me with the usual lack of political correctness that only a three year old can get away with..........

Kali: I went to see Great Grandma and Aunt Louise!

Me: You did? That sounds like a lot of fun!

Kali: I gave them candy. Great Grandma put it in her pocket to save it for later.

Me: Probably a good idea. You don't want to eat it all at once.

Kali: Aunt Louise had two teeth.

Me: She had what?!?!

Kali: Aunt Louise had two teeth. But Great Grandma has all her teeth.

Me: (laughing to the point of tears) Yes, sweetie. As you get older, it's tough to keep all your teeth. I think she might have lost them.

Kali: She lost her teeth? She should go find them.

Me: Yes, she probably should!

The wisdom of a three year old in all its glory.

On my own.......

Tomorrow, Mrs. Lime and Papa are heading off to a wedding. That leave me with the kids for the weekend. I'm actually looking forward to it. I'll get to hang out with the girls for a few days. Probably won't get much done during that time, but I'll be plenty busy.

I will need to pick up a new gas container for the grill. Burned through the last part of one the other night. Kali's a big fan of turkey burgers and fat-free hot dogs, so we'll have to get another propane tank before I head home tomorrow from work. We'll have hot dogs and watch the Chiefs screw up another draft.

Bottle time...........

Today was a rough day for Mrs. Lime. She thought she might have a foreign object stuck in her throat, so she had an appointment to get knocked out to check her throat. All was well (no foreign object).

Due to the drugs used to knock her out, she wasn't able to breast feed for 24 hours. Since we had been considering ending it anyway, it seemed like a good time to cut off the breast feeding. So Mrs. Lime was emotional about that. Giselle 0.4 had already adjusted well to a bottle, so she really didn't see much difference. Only real difference for her was that she wasn't taking naps during the day while feeding on Mommy. As a result, she was ready to crash by 7:45 PM, which is at least an hour ahead of schedule.

Mrs. Lime crashed early as well. A very quiet night in the house.

Invitation to the ball..........

All ready to go meet the Disney Princesses!



Little nervous/excited with Belle.......



Sleeping Beauty meets her twin........



Cinderella drops by.......



Looking a bit more comfortable with Snow White..........



Ariel with legs, not a tail fin........

The junior member of the family.........

Giselle 0.4 is quickly coming out of her eat/sleep stage and starting to open up a personality. This is always an interesting time to watch when you're a dad and I'm able to understand that the second time around. Up to now, the mom is used to cuddling and breast feeding the baby every time it fusses. The baby figures that out and uses it to their advantage. As a dad who is often taking care of the baby on my own, you have to figure out a way to cope with that issue since breast feeding to put them to sleep isn't an option. You become aware of a lot of things that the mom doesn't always get to see.

First off, Giselle is less and less happy with staying up later. Not sure if it's because she's more active while playing or if she's taking less naps. But when 8:30 PM rolls around, she's ready to implode. That used to be more like 10:00 PM a month ago, so her sleeping habits are definitely changing (and for the better too).

She has also started eating rice cereal this week. We learned from Kali 3.2 that there's a point a baby reaches where milk doesn't hold them over and Giselle has reached that point. She had been waking up a couple times a night for a few weeks previous to our vacation. The last two nights I've given her rice cereal around 6:30-7:00 PM and a bottle before she goes to bed. She's been sleeping like a ROCK ever since then.

I've also started weaning Mrs. Lime off the baby monitor like I did with Kali. She's ultra-reactive to any sound that is made. As a result, I turn the monitor down to the lowest setting without telling her. You can still hear the baby cry quite easily, but Mrs. Lime doesn't wake up when the baby turns over or is talking to herself in the crib. Mrs. Lime asked yesterday if Giselle was sleeping really well of late, so I had to fess up to what was actually happening.

Giselle is also talking quite a bit now. I called up my parents on Skype last night with the girls. Kali and I could hardly get a word in without Giselle jabbering at the screen. I felt like I was being constantly interrupted, but I don't think that you can tell a four month old baby that they're being rude. Grandma did complain that the baby wasn't getting enough attention on the blog, yet she continues to act like Facebook is a foreign planet, where a lot of baby pictures are being posted. We're going to have to work on that skill with Grandma since she's likely the only one who thinks Giselle isn't all over the internet.

Giselle is really starting to get some excellent strength. She likes to rock a lot in your lap, which means you're getting a workout just trying to hold on to her while she's doing baby sit-ups. Once she can use her arms a bit more to support herself in a month or two, she'll be able to play with a lot of the baby toys that we have where the baby can sit, bounce, reach for things, etc. You can tell right now that she's very frustrated that she can't do anything. I think it's worse for her than Kali because she sees Kali playing and really wants to do the same things. But soon enough, she'll be doing so. It's only a matter of time.

It's just different........

I usually drop into the cafeteria at my work place once or twice a week to eat a breakfast burrito. I can't eat it every day, but I like to grab one every once in awhile. For the past couple of years, there has been a girl named 'Mo' who did all the grill stuff. She is really nice to the regular customers and often greets them by name. She also knows exactly what you usually order.

While I was gone on our trip to Disney, Mo either left the job or got fired. I can imagine that she'd leave a paying job in this economy, but stranger things have happened. Either way, there was a new lady on the grill. Of course, it just feels different when you go in to order now and it doesn't taste as good. Mo was good at what she did and I'm sure she drew in people because of her friendly nature.

It's a great lesson for me in what a cohesive and good staff can do for the popularity of your establishment. If people feel comfortable around a manager and their staff and get to know them, there's an increased value to those customers even though it doesn't cost you anything more to be friendly.

Duck! Flying bacon!

We went to Norway (not the REAL Norway) in EPCOT last Monday to go eat breakfast with the Disney Princesses. Kali 3.2 was terribly excited to go meet them in person and had been for the previously couple of months before the trip. As Mrs. Lime noted, these are Kali's idolized 'rock stars', so this was a big deal to her. She was sleeping well, but when I tapped her and told her we were headed to eat breakfast with the princesses, she bolted up and headed straight for the bathroom to get ready.

Giselle 0.4 was her usual smiley self and Mrs. Lime laid out a 'Princess' outfit for her to wear for the big day. Kali wore a Sleeping Beauty costume. When we initially got to the banquet hall in Norway, Kali was a bit disappointed that it 'wasn't a princess castle'. We explained to her that there was a banquet hall inside where the princesses were holding a party for us, and that seemed to curtail her frustration.

We got into line to be seated and were actually the second group in line. Kali seemed relatively unimpressed up to that point......until Belle entered the room. She had a mixed look of excitement and total astonishment. It's one thing for Kali to tell her that you're going to meet a princess. It's another thing to see that princess walk into the room in full ballroom gown smiling and waving to you. Belle was very complimentary of Kali's dress and tiara while signing Kali's autograph book. Belle sat down on the floor next to Kali so they could be at the same height for the picture. Kali, still shocked, saw Belle sit down and followed suit. We had to tell Kali to stand back up a few times because she was so shell-shocked being next to Belle.

After a few pictures with Belle, we were taken over to our table for breakfast. We were told by our server that the door immediately to the left of Kali was where the princesses would come out to greet their guests. As a result, Kali would be the first one in the entire room to meet every princess. We started eating while we waited for the next princess.

Kali's a huge bacon fan. They served the breakfast family-style, so Kali was thrilled to see a giant pile of unlimited bacon available for breakfast. As Kali was starting to bite into one of the many pieces of bacon that she ate that morning, Cinderella strolled out from the door behind her. Kali immediately tossed the half-eaten piece of bacon in the general direction of her plate. It actually went over the plate, landing on the table. Kali scrambled for a napkin while saying 'Book, Mommy, Book!'. She wanted to make sure to secure Cinderella's autograph. Kali was once again complimented on how beautiful she looked this morning. More pictures followed.

As breakfast progressed, Kali managed to handle the emergence of princesses a bit better. Food was laid down rather than tossed. Autograph book was at the ready as Ariel, Sleeping Beauty, and Snow White all greeted her. Kali was just hanging out with idols.

I have little doubt that her meet-and-greet with the princesses has planted a seed that will require regular visits to Disney over her lifetime. She's going to be hooked. I just hope the bacon stays on the plate in future visits as it's not very princess-like to send pork products airborne when another princess walks into the room.

Back into the saddle............

We're finally back from a long vacation in Orlando. Plenty of excitement with it being Kali's first visit to the Magic Kingdom. She got to meet several princesses, Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, and Pluto. She rode several different rides and had a blast doing it all. I'll have pictures in the upcoming days showing the happiness in all its glory.

10 years and counting........

On April 1st, 2000, we were married. Today is our 10th anniversary.

Some people openly wonder how time has passed so fast. I don't feel that way. I guess I don't really think about it all that much. Only reason I know that time has passed is that my hair follicle count has been drastically reduced since our wedding and I've got two rugrats keeping me busy. Other than that, it all seems the same.

I suppose I've mellowed a bit. Sports mean less and kids mean more. I've learned to adjust to situations even if I believe it's not the way I would have done something. Friendships have been added while some remain the same. But one thing that is constant is my wife. She's supporting, encouraging, and caring. My daughters and I need all of that.

I rolled over to wish my wife a happy anniversary this morning at 2:53 AM. That's when she came to bed after getting done with work. That's the odd world our marriage exists in. But we make it work and I think we make it work pretty well.

Who knows what our life will look like in another 10 years? I'm in no hurry. I'm sure it will all go just fine.