Palin!

Rarely do I post about political topic in this thread, but here comes an exception to that rule.

I am thrilled with the VP selection of Sarah Palin today. What a breath of fresh air for a Republican candidate to pick this kind of person to be their running mate. For those that don't know, this woman was on the oil industry ethics board and attacked big oil where she found issues in their corporations. That's a brave thing to do given Alaska's reliance on the oil industry for a major portion of their revenue.

The Alaskan GOP is generally know for being very corrupt. She took on two former governors (one in the primary and one in the general election) and beat them both. In addition, she refused funding for pork-barrel projects that the senior Republican U.S. senator had put into some of the bills passed through the U.S. government. That senator now faces corruption charges, while Sara Palin holds a 80%+ approval rating, which is rare for a Republican governor during the Bush presidency.

This selection is really going to energize both the Republican base along with some women voters. Hopefully it will end in a Republican presidency.

Wild parties, U.S. gov't style...........

Yesterday evening, the people at work had an after-work gathering to celebrate a retirement. One of the ladies at work is retiring after 40-some years. From what I've heard, the employees on the government side party hard. I had no idea just how hard they partied.

They left work at 3:00 PM and headed straight to a bar here in KC to have a few drinks and grab some food. After 3 hours at that bar, they headed to another bar down the street to continue the party. One of the ladies, who is in her 40s, is a single woman who loves motorcycles. She's somewhat of a wild child. My understanding is that she stood up on the table at some point in the night, took off her shirt and danced around topless in the middle of a busy neighborhood bar.

Who knew what I was missing when I decided to skip the party and go home to play with Kali 1.6? Goodness.

She's a dancin', dancin', dancin' machine!!!!!!!

Last night, Kali 1.6 and I got home to hang out for a bit on our own. As soon as we got home, she said she wanted to eat, so we got right down to business and had some dinner. She plowed through a plate of carrots and then finished off some fruit and a piece of pizza to round things out.

After that was all done, we sat down in the living room and read some books. Kali loves to read and she loves to dance. I turned on 'America's Got Talent' on the TV. I had DVR'd a couple of episodes. She ignored it for the most part while reading her books. But as soon as some music came on, she'd chuck the book to the floor and off we'd go. Marching and clapping around and around and around the couch. She can't get enough of it. As soon as the music stops, we head right back to the book like the dancing didn't even happen.

Of course, after 90 minutes of reading and dancing, she was all ready for a snack. She ate a small plate of pretzels and then requested some Dora cookies. She followed all that up with a glass of water. She's even getting good at saying 'peez' (please) whenever she asks for something. I used to tell her to say please, but even that is rarely needed unless she's in a demanding/impolite mood. In that case, a brief reminder usually does the trick.

We played a few games of peek-a-boo and did a couple more dances before bedtime. Welcome to my world.

Kali English 101............

Kali 1.6 is quickly adding words to her vocabulary. As she does that, I've noticed that some phonics issues have developed.

One of the most recognizable things that she does is the fact that she sticks a consonant on the front of any word that has a vowel. For example, in Kali English.......

Ice cream is pronounced 'Cice Cream'
Elmo is pronounced 'Melmo'
Ernie is pronounced 'Nernie'

What she does is she takes the a consonant sound that follows the initial vowel and adds it to the front of the word. I noticed this the other day after doing some word recognition stuff with her using her flash cards. She'll figure it out soon enough.

In other phonics news, she pronounces spaghetti as 'getti'. Forget that whole first syllable.

Eating with utensils...........

Here's some more Kali 1.6 videos. First, Kali demonstrates her use of a fork to feed herself........

Eating with Fork 1

Then, she demonstrates what happens when she gets bored with feeding herself.......

Eating with Fork 2

Wave and clap!!!!!

This video provides a good example of some of the interaction that Kali 1.6 has learned through one of her favorite TV shows. It's called 'Go, Diego, Go!'. In this video, you'll see Kali waving goodbye at the end of the show. After that, the theme music comes on where the kids are suppose to clap. Kali does that in spades. Finally, as I moved over in her line of vision, she viciously pursued me, screaming her name and just after the video ended, she tackled me to the ground. She's quite aggressive as you can see in the link below.


Wave and clap!

OK, this is just getting ridiculous..........

I had a college football preview show on that I was watching. My cell phone rang. My friend Rudy was calling me to check up on a few things. After a minute or two, I heard an explosion of sound from the living room, which totally caught me off-guard.

Kali 1.6 had grabbed the remote. She evidently didn't approve of the show I was watching. I noticed right away that she had managed to switch over from the cable TV to the DVD input. Not only that, she had managed to start up an Elmo DVD. She was smiling and running around, delighted with her sudden fortune.

We sat down and watch the Elmo movie. I could never change it back after all her effort to get to that point.

The disappearing act...............

When I was younger, I could get my hand wet and then run my fingers through my hair to straighten it up a bit. Pat a hair down here, pull one over there, etc. Relatively easy maintenance situation.

Now, it's become so much more complicated. Granted, I have less hairs per square inch, but that also entails other issues. When I get my hand wet and run my fingers through my hair, there's always a chance that some water could drip down to my scalp. When I was younger, it wasn't that big of a deal. The decrease in hair has produced a new problem. That water now runs down my scalp and often drips down my face. Like water off a duck's back.

In addition, even if I use water to tap down a hair, there's a good chance it won't stay there. It will likely start to stick back up because there's very few hairs surrounding it to keep it in place. In other words, a total lack of support.

If I lose much more, I'm just going to give it a buzz. Perhaps even go 'cue ball' and take it all off. I'm crazy like that.

Warning.......she's learning stuff.

Some may remember this post from just a couple of weeks ago.....

Who gave her a brain?

In that post, I detailed that Kali 1.6 knew roughly where the letters went, but she wasn't always able to fit them in.

Fast forward to last night. She completed the puzzle three times in roughly 10 minutes without any issues. Note that this is a puzzle for 3 YEAR OLDS. She started working on it on her own while I was sitting on the couch. I didn't want to say anything or bother her because she was obviously deep in thought. After the third time, I got up and gave her a hug and praised her. She was pretty proud of herself.

Mrs. Lime occasionally takes the puzzle with them when they go somewhere. It's a good distraction when needed. She puts the puzzle pieces in a Ziploc bag so they don't get lost.

When Kali finished the puzzle for a third time and got a hug, she dumped out the pieces again and I sat back down on the sofa and watched the Olympics. After a minute or two, Kali headed my way. I looked down to see her holding the Ziploc bag that was on the table. She had put all the puzzle pieces back in the bag and brought them to me since she was done with the puzzle! Not only is she smart, but she cleans up after herself! I'm thinking she's a keeper.

Best impersonation of a bobber.........

Kali 1.6 and I went to the neighborhood waterpark with some of her friends, Macy and Kaylin. The girls are 6 and 4 respectively, so Kali is a big fan of trying to do everything that the girls were doing. Surprisingly, Macy and Kaylin also wanted to do everything that Kali did. Kali played with a fountain in the shallow area and Macy and Kaylin came over to play in the fountain. Kali and I went over to play with the water cannon and both of the girls came over to play with us. Kali got a big kick out of that and helped shoot the cannon.

Kali also noticed that the girls were walking into the deep part of the water (deep meaning 2-3 feet of water). I followed her several feet behind. Kali followed them into the deep end and got up to chest level when she stumbled and went under the water. I pulled her out after a couple of seconds and she was fine. I knew that babies instinctually hold their breath, so no surprise that she did fine for a couple of seconds.

Surprisingly, she didn't even cry when I pulled her up. She wanted back down and started walking right back out towards the girls again. I followed a bit closer this time. Sure enough, she got up to neck level and fell again. I fished her out again and she was fine again. Over the course of the next 15 minutes, she walked out and went underwater 5-6 times. She did learn that she could walk along the wall and stay more stable. Once the girls came back in, she didn't go into the deep end anymore. She just wanted to play with the big girls.

Next summer should be interesting as I'm sure she'll be taking swimming lessons. Given that Mrs. Lime is a big swimmer, I'm sure we'll have a little fish on our hands.

I think she's trying to tell me something..........

The other day, I was sitting on the couch watching TV while Kali 1.6 played on the floor. I turned towards Kali to make sure she didn't need anything. I was greeted with an interesting view of my child.............





Yeah, I think she's trying to tell me that she wants to be a basketball player.

Anything is possible..........

We've got two blind people on our floor in my office. The blind man on the floor is completely blind. He does a surprisingly great job of getting around the building using nothing more than a walking stick to make sure he doesn't run into anything.

There's also a blind woman on our floor. She uses a walking stick, though she's not completely blind. She's able to see light and blobs of movement, as I quickly found out the first time I passed by her. She looked in my direction and said 'Hi' as I passed her in the hall, so I know she could see me in some vague form.

Today, I saw something that I've never seen before. As I walked down the hallway, the blind woman was leading the blind man down the hallway. Both of them had their walking sticks out in front of them, feeling their way down the hallway.

Moral of this story? Inside the Federal Government offices, the blind CAN actually lead the blind.

I'm everything I hate about Yankees fans........

So I was sitting in my living room on Sunday watching the USA basketball team beat the Chinese basketball team by a pretty sizable margin. I was cheering for every dunk, steal, and block as they beat the overmanned China team.

Of course, the USA is truly the class of the world in regards to basketball talent. We can beat a lot of teams handily and could be considered the bully in the basketball world. But then I had a thought. As a Royals fan, I often lament how arrogant the Yankees fan base. The Yankees always win because they have the best players that they have bought for the highest price. Every time a Yankees fan says they've won 20-some championships, I let them know in no uncertain terms that I could win a lot of championships if I was on the top-end of an uneven playing field.

With that said, have I suddenly become somewhat like a Yankees fan? Doesn't my basketball team have an unfair advantage in regards to superior league, superior training facilities, and other advantages that other nations don't have? Yes, they probably do. I'll justify it by saying that I have to watch the Royals every year, so I deserve to have the option every 4 years to root for a team that I'm proud of AND that wins games, unlike the Royals.

Fun with a laundry basket.............

What happens when Kali 1.6 gets to play with a basket full of Mommy's underwear? You be the judge......

Kali 1.5 picture blowout - Swimsuit edition.......

Ah yes. Keep your 18 month old boys away from the blog. My junior centerfold has arrived........

On her way to the pool.........



Hanging at the pool........



Who turned on the water?



Stomping in the water........





Kali's buddy Alex likes the water.........



Cousin Gwen blows some bubbles.......





Kali switches it up in a two-piece suit....



Cousin Gwen jumps into the pool.........

Who gave her a brain??????

Kali 1.5 and I decided to work on our ABC's last night. She has a wood puzzle that has every single letter of the alphabet. It's intended for kids 3 years and older, but Kali is actually doing very well with it. The letters come out and a picture of an item that starts with that letter is under each letter. Despite the fact that the letters aren't shown underneath, Kali is still able to put the letters back into the puzzle in the right places. She occasionally has issues with rotation of the pieces to get the letters to fit right, but she knows where they all go.

Kali and I started from the top and worked our way down........

Me: A

Kali: A

Me: B

Kali: B

Me: C

Kali: C

Me: D

Kali: C (she got confused with the similar sound of 'C' and 'D')

Me: E

Kali: E

Me: F

Kali: Fa-fa (not sure what that was, but close enough)

Me: G

Kali: Grrrrr! (right sound - she likes the lion and tiger sounds)

Me: H

Kali: Ha! (again, at least got the sound right)

Me: I

At this point, Kali decided that was enough of that. She took the puzzle, turned it over, and dumped out all of the pieces. We started over a couple of times, but it became apparent that dumping the puzzle was a bigger priority than saying her ABC's, so we stuck with that for the rest of the time. Still, it won't be long before she has all of her ABC's down pat.

In addition, she has a deck of flash cards with pictures and letters on them. She's able to look at the vast majority of the cards and say what each card has on it. Granted, some people may need a translator to negotiate the Kali form of the English language, but it's pretty shocking just how much she's learning over a short period of time. Even more frightening is that she loves looking at the cards and saying the words over and over again. Who am I to discourage ravenous learning?

Escorted out the door..........

I finally had the opportunity to put my co-worker out of his misery. The incoming contractor sent him a letter informing him that he would not be offered a position in the new company. Pretty harsh to not have a face-to-face discussion, but I guess that's how things work.

The guy that was released wanted to chat with me about it. He just wanted some reason as to why he was being release. I didn't give him much more of a reason outside of telling him that the government officials were the ones to make the decision. It was a bummer for him as he had been recently hired and really didn't have that much of an opportunity to make an impression. He had a feeling that something might be up, so he wasn't totally surprised.

I took his badge from him and walked him out of the building. I felt like a jailer or a pastor walking a guy to the electric chair. I've personally never been removed from a job, so it was certainly an experience to do it to someone else. I have to walk him out of the building with the idea that once he's outside of the building, he won't have any access to get back in without passing security. This policy is obviously in place to keep the workers safe.

He understood that it wasn't my decision and I gave him my phone number in case he wanted any references for upcoming job interviews. We shook hands outside and I told him good luck. I felt bad, but it was out of my control.

Kali 1.5 dictionary.........

Here's a translation from Kali talk to English for those who need to communicate with her........

dum = drum
ubale = whale
sish = fish
keen = queen
paple = apple
tatul = turtle
peez = please
tank queue = thank you
tone = phone
pane = plane
tuck = truck
hao = house
te ce = ice cream
gana = iguana
mongey = monkey
bayree = berries
kooo = kangaroo
whit = witch
noba = Nova


Bird, Cat, Baby, Goat, Mommy, and Daddy are all pronounced correctly. Note that this is not a full vocabulary representation, but rather a sample of her vocabulary.

Just got tickets to MU/KU at Arrowhead!

I just picked up 12 tickets to the MU/KU game at Arrowhead over Thanksgiving weekend! Woohoo! I obviously can only fill one seat, so I will be the official ticket broker for my friends that are interested in going to the game. Yes, let me know if you want to go.

Just don't put your hands near her mouth.........

Kali 1.5 is obviously on some sort of a ridiculous growth spurt. Here's a chart of her eating for the day.........

Breakfast - 6 oz. of milk, roughly 150-200 blueberries

Morning snack - Another 50 blueberries

Lunch - 15-20 nacho chips, taco meat, half a flour tortilla, and two fist-size portions of pico de gallo (tomatoes and onions)

Afternoon snack - Full carton of red raspberries

Dinner - A full cob of corn, several bites of chicken, two eggs, and a handful of berries

Evening snack - Two handfuls of pretzels.

My whole day consisted of repeated 'More! More!' yells from my daughter. The good thing is that she's very good at saying 'Please!' now, so at least she's becoming polite with her demands. As I write this, it appears that she's over on the other side of the room grunting and making a disturbed face. I guess she had to fill her pants at some point. All that food has to go somewhere.

Yep, she's still paying attention.........

More proof that Kali 1.5 is watching my every move.

Usually, if Kali is taking a nap or is relaxing, I try to make sure that Nova 8.4 keeps quiet and doesn't bark. If he starts to act like he's going to make some noise, I'll whisper 'Nova!' and tell him 'Ssssshhhhh!'.

Yesterday, Kali and I were walking through the house to go change a diaper. A car happened to drive by the house and so Nova began to bark. Kali immediately stopped in her tracks. She turned towards Nova, put her finger to her mouth, and said, "Noba! Sssssshhhhh! Sssssshhhhh!". She then turned away and continued to walk in the same direction as though nothing had happened.

17 months old and she's already disciplining the dog.

A cruel business............

So today, I sit here knowing that someone in my group is going to lose their job in the coming week. No one in my group knows about it, including that person. Thankfully, I don't have to do the dirty work as it's a decision that my new contracting company is making.

Needless to say, it sucks. Not more than 24 hours ago, this same person came to me seeking advice about what to do in the upcoming days as he was concerned about the changes in our contract. I told him that he should always have a backup option available, but that I was told that everyone would be retained in the new contract group.

Today, I found out that my words about having a backup plan end up being prophetic. He'll be back out of a job after only a couple of months on this job. He just signed a 1 year lease on an apartment and now has no income for the immediate future. I have no idea exactly what he did that warranted his removal. The decision was made above me in the food chain. In a couple of days, I'll have to explain to him that it wasn't my choice and he'll want answers. I can't say I blame him.

Where's the posts?????

I've been busy at work of late. Our old contract ended and a new company was awarded the next contract. As a result, the workers end up basically reapplying for their old job. It's not that big of a deal as far as job security goes, but I needed to update my resume to reflect the latest work in my career. So it's a bit time consuming.

In addition, we have a couple of people in my group that have never gone through this kind of job transition. They're confused by all of the shenanigans that occur when a contract is taken over by another company. For example, the new company can't officially recruit the workers in the departing company for the same positions in the new contract. What they can do is hold a "job fair" where they only invite the current team members to the job fair and then hire the employees back again. It's a really odd system that can be really confusing for newer employees who haven't dealt with it before.

I had to talk a couple of my employees off a ledge yesterday. Both of them had been in the group for only a few months, so they weren't prepared for the chaos surrounding a contract change. I just simplified the discussion as best as I could to help them understand that everything was likely to remain the same. It seemed to work. They settled down and were much happier with the situation afterwards. Crisis averted.

Hopefully this will all be resolved in the next week or so and I can get back to blogging about stupid, meaningless things again.

What are you saying?!?!?!

I was busy playing with Kali 1.5 the other night. She was doing her usual routine of bringing over books to read, coloring in her coloring book, playing music on her baby piano, etc. I was sitting in the couch with my arm hanging over the armrest on my left.

After running around for awhile, Kali 1.5 disappeared behind the armrest on the coach. After a minute or so, she yelled, "BI BI!!"

Now, 'bi bi' can mean a lot of different things. It could mean belly button and it could mean binky. I told her without actually looking at her that she couldn't have her binky. After 15 seconds, I heard her again........"BI BI!!".

I leaned up to where I could see her and told her once again that she couldn't have her binky. She looked back at my hand which had been hanging in front of her the whole time. She pointed at my hand and said, "BI BI!!".

Confused, I looked at my hand. I then remembered that I had a blister on my hand from yard work and had put a 'Sesame Street' Band-Aid on my blister. On the Band-Aid was a picture of...........Big Bird!

"Yes, honey, Big Bird!", I said.

She smiled and walked off to grab another book, happily knowing that Daddy had noticed that she recognized Big Bird.

Role models.........

It's natural for a person to see a larger-than-life sports star and think how great it would be to be famous. You could be a hero to millions of people. You could make millions of dollars doing nothing more than playing the same game that we all play, recreational or otherwise.

I watched a HBO show last night about Mickey Mantle. I was amazed after watching the videos just how great of a player he really was throughout his career. He could run like the wind. He could hit the ball over the fence in one at-bat and then bunt for a hit on the next at-bat. His fielding ability was unbelievable. Millions of fans loved his bashful persona and warm smile.

While he was playing baseball, his wife and 4 kids lived in Dallas, TX. They interviewed her and she talked about how rough it was to spend 7-8 months out of every year alone raising four boys. Meanwhile, Mickey never really grew up. He went to parties and bars with his teammates nearly every day. He began to drink a lot, mainly because he was a bashful person and he though people enjoyed being around a drunk Mickey Mantle. I guess he thought it 'enhanced' his personality.

After his career ended, he went back home. The only way he felt he could really relate to his kids (who were now all grown up), was to have a few drinks with them. As a result, he had 4 alcohol-dependent sons. His wife lamented in the interview just how difficult life was living with 5 alcoholics.

Eventually, Mickey's body gave out from the years of alcohol abuse. He actually realized the error in his ways in his final few months. He presented himself to the public as a role model that you shouldn't attempt to follow. Simply put, he said, "God gave me all these gifts and I blew it."

It's easy to want to be everything in life. I don't have anywhere near the physical gifts that Mickey Mantle has (though I still attempt to prove otherwise on occasion). Watching Mickey Mantle's story showed me just how big of a hero I really am. I'm raising Kali 1.5 the best way I know how with absolutely no regrets as to how I'm doing it. Mrs. Lime and I are creating positive role models for Kali that will last her the rest of her life. Not only that, I think she'll be a better person for it, rather than be burdened with issues that were not self-initiated.

It's OK to avoid being humble every once in awhile and give yourself a pat on the back. You may be your own worst critic, but you're also your own best friend.

What kind of threat is that?

Over the weekend, we went to a restaurant in the area. The wait to get a table was 20 minutes or so. We all sat down and I bought a drink for Mrs. Lime and I. Kali 1.5 was left to enjoy her toys and a few animal crackers during the wait.

While we were sitting in the waiting area, there was a group of people from out-of-state that came into the restaurant. They had a pretty large group and were quoted a wait time of 40-45 minutes. One of the teenage boys in the group started complaining about having to wait that long for a table. His dad got after him pretty good and the kid was verbally firing back. His dad then shot off this gem......."You're going to get sent back to San Antonio if you aren't careful!".

Now I'm all for some form of discipline, but when did parents earn the right to make ultimatums that literally have no chance of being enforced? So this guy is threatening that he'll send his kid back to San Antonio. How exactly does he plan to do that?

Book a plane ticket? That would work. It might set the guy back a few hundred dollars. Also, the problem-causing kid would then be in San Antonio without parental supervision, which doesn't sound like any better of an idea than keeping him in Kansas City.

Dad drives him home? That would get him home and Dad would be there to supervise, but how would everyone else in KC get home without a vehicle?

In the end, his threat was just as intelligent as the old standby "Stop crying before I give you something to cry about!" phrase. And they wonder why certain kids turn out like they do..........

Never a dull moment.......

One of the people I manage uses a cordless mouse on their work computer. While that shouldn't be a big deal under normal circumstances, we work for the federal government. So, when you switch out any computer components, they get their feathers a bit ruffled.

One of the tech people came by her cube a few weeks ago and noted that she was using a cordless mouse. At that time, they told her that she really wasn't supposed to be using that mouse without proper approval from a tech person.

This lady on my team is not the kind of person that backs down from any discussion. She's very set in her ways and has no apprehension about stating her mind. It's great in the sense that she's a very independent worker and very reliable. It's not so great when she disagrees with someone.

Fast forward to yesterday. She had requested to have a new monitor installed. A different tech guy than the previous visit came by with a new monitor. Unfortunately, this tech guy has a similar personality to her. He immediately noticed that cordless mouse is hooked up to her computer. He confronts her about the unapproved accessory on her computer. Long story short, they end up yelling at each other in the middle of the office. She eventually became so angry that she stormed out of the building and went home.

So I get to spend part of today calming her down while smoothing over any other issues. Management is bliss.

Mizzou Tiger fans lose a great friend...........

Very few of you know Sarah Becking. But at the same time, all of you know Sarah Becking. Sarah is renown for her photographs of Mizzou sporting events. The reason you don't see her is because you usually see things from this angle......

The photo below was taken by a friend of Sarah while she took the above photo.



Sarah Becking died July 8th at the age of 36 due to complications from cancer surgery. She has two young kids and a husband. That kind of thing hits a lot harder when you have kids of your own. Below is a link to her husband's blog entry.

Jason's Blog on Sarah

Worse yet, Mizzou fans will miss all of Sarah's great photos from the various sporting events that she covered. Below is some of her body of work.......

MU scoring a touchdown against KU in 2006.

Chase Daniel's first game as a Tiger QB.

MU ends the Nebraska winning streak.

Kinney makes a big play against Nebraska in 2003.

A pre-game flyover at Faurot Field.

Tiger player during pre-game.

Overhead shot of Faurot Field versus Nebraska.

MU coaches Larry Smith and Curtis Jones (Corby's father) enjoy a laugh. Curtis passed away unexpectedly after that season (just before Corby's senior season) and Larry Smith passed away last year.

The Golden Girls on gameday.

Tigers celebrate their 2008 Cotton Bowl victory.

2008 Cotton Bowl trophy.

Brad Smith on the way to the end zone in the Independence Bowl.



Gameday shot of Faurot Field. Great view of the students all in gold on the right hand side.

KU/MU 2007.

They're mine! All mine!

Send me that Vehicle Title!!!!!

Just made the last car payment on my car, effectively ending my slavery to Ford Credit. I now have a SUV with 78,000 miles on it and a car with 50,000 miles on it. Both are paid off. As long as they hold up pretty well, we don't plan on getting rid of them anytime soon. My car works well for my commute to work, while the SUV provides a lot of room for Mrs. Lime when she's hauling around Kali 1.4 along with the strollers, bags, groceries, etc. What we have works pretty well and considering they're both paid off, you can't beat the price.

I'm sure my Ford dealer would love for us to head down to get a new car, but we're likely going to hold off for awhile. We've got some other home improvements that we'd like to save up for in the meanwhile. We'll worry about getting another vehicle only after one of our current vehicles call it quits.

We have a sentence.....well, not exactly........

Kali 1.4 continues to toss out new little tricks here and there. Kali and I were sitting downstairs reading some books and laughing at each other. Out of nowhere, she suddenly exclaimed, "Baby bye-bye Daddy!"

Now I'm not sure how to translate that phrase. Either she wanted one of her babies or stuffed animals to leave or Baby Kali wanted Daddy to leave. Either way, I just tossed a bunch of praise her way for saying her first big phrase. I'm sure she'll take that praise and run with it. She'll be talking my ear off in no time.