Another fun evening playing with the kids. Sammy is still on a mission to climb to the top of everything in sight.

Okay, I haven't been on here in awhile. Turns out having two kids and a job with no set hours can really eat up some time. I need to get back on here though for my own good. This is an experience I'd like to remember a little about someday. So, here are some pictures and such.

This one's from March. Anna the little pizza chef. She loves putting lots of different toppings on one, but she really only likes eating a regular cheese pizza.

Also from March: My tiny Princess is also a tiny artist.

My three favorite people. I really like this one. I made a black and white of it too.

Sammy's room, shortly after I finished it in late February or early March. It looks empty, but his cradle was in there. He slept in his cradle in the living room for his first 3-4 months. I began completely remodeling his room before he was born. Naturally, I ran into more problems than I anticipated when I took the paneling off. 90% of the drywall had been ruined by three different types of glue on paneling that had been installed over the years. So the whole thing had to be re-drywalled. It took awhile, but it's about the nicest looking room in the house now, even though to save time, I didn't prime the walls before I painted them. I'm still pretty happy with my drywall work, and even more-so with the way the trim turned out.

Hello!!!

I've been laying down on the job with this thing. Okay, so just 5 minutes ago: Me: Anna, what's your new classroom toy thingy doing? Anna: It's music-ing! So cute. Made my day. Now she's talking to her little brother while he sleeps and calling him "Little Sleepy Sammy." Gotta go. Time to take the trash out and play with the kids.

"We have a moon at OUR house too."

Driving in the car today, Anna going along with Daddy for a busy day of running around for a couple clients, she looks up out the window and says "I see a little thing in the sky."  "There's some little thing up there."

Then again, and she asks me what it is.

"What color is it?"

"White."

"Well, it could be a little cloud, or sometimes during the day, you can see the moon."

"We have a moon at OUR house too," she says delightedly.

Whenever we all get home from somewhere like a family thing or a restaurant after dark, I take Anna to say goodnight to the moon before she goes in and gets ready for bed.  It helps transition her to go inside when she is grumpy (We know how much this kid likes to be outdoors).

It makes for a lot of fun little moments to spend with her.  She says goodnight to the moon, clouds, bugs, tree-frogs and sometimes the trees.  And occasionally, "goodnight airplane-star." 

So, not only was it cute when she told me today that we, too have a moon, as we drove through Lebanon, it was nice to see she is trying to learn and doesn't forget when we say goodnight to the moon.  I was one happy dad today.  

Usually, I explain little things like that to her, but today, I was totally content with her thinking for a little while that we have our own moon that she looks at with her daddy. 

It's a boy!

Well, I'm about three weeks late posting this, but the title speaks for itself.

My little girl still doesn't understand that she will have to share her Mommy with this little guy.  She knows she's going to be a big sister.  She knows she's going to have a little brother.  But she still says the "baby's mommy will come back and get him."

We're pretty excited about it all.  I'm a little overwhelmed, still cleaning out the hoarder room (mostly, Tammy is cleaning it - better organizational skills.  I'm just doing the heavy lifting).  

Our little boy is a kicker.  He likes to try to reach out and respond to my voice when I talk to him.  Just like with Anna, I always end with "This is Daddy, and  I love you."  Anna was really comfortable with her Daddy's voice (as well as her Mommy's, of course) from day one. 


So far, we've found he either really likes the song Heart of Gold by Neal Young, or he really hates it.  Either way, he is very responsive to music and voices.  I'm pretty excited about that.  It's just normal development, but with a little baby, that's exciting stuff.  I'm so thankful to God that our little guy is doing well and is healthy so far, and that our little girl is so excited about being a big sister...even if she doesn't yet realize that she and little bro have to share Momma and Daddy.

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4th of July Weekend

Neither of my parents have ever been the type to invite everyone over for a 4th of July cookout.  And that's okay.  We get to do plenty of fun things with them throughout the year.  But Tammy and I manage to find lots of fun to be had with our little family.  One year, her friend and former college roommate Allison drove out from Ohio and stayed with us for about a week around Independence Day, and we all had a blast going to other people's cookouts and watching small towns blow up thousands of dollars worth of fireworks.



This year, we started off with the usual Friday routine of being tired and eating pizza.  Very relaxing.

Saturday morning, Tammy, Anna and Lillian (Tammy's mom) went shopping, and I visited a semi-reclusive friend and worked on my truck.  We met up in b-burg for lunch and went to our friends' 4th of July cookout/going away party/birthday party for their middle daughter.  Matt (a good friend) and I headed out shortly after we got there to line up for the parade.  Matt was riding in a 76 El Camino that his dad finished restoring, and I was riding my company's float.  After throwing candy and enjoying a small town parade in the blazing heat, I headed back to the party, and Tammy dropped Anna off with her grandma for a nap.



It was time for waterball.  In Pittsboro, waterball isn't a firefighter competition.  It's open to anyone who can come up with 4 players and sign a waiver.  Waterball is NOT what you find if you search for it on Google.  This is a form of backward tug or war with fire hoses.  A big steel ball about 24 inches wide hangs on pulleys from a horizontal cable and teams try to push it into their opponents' territory or their side of the playing area.   You try to have better aim, better angle, and overwhelm your opponent and force the ball onto their side.   You also get a goalkeeper with another fire hose in case you get into trouble.  The team who pushes it into the opponents' side the longest after the match ends (3 minutes in our case) wins. 
It was over 90 degrees, so waterball was the perfect activity/spectator event.  We went 1-1 and had a blast.
That night, it was time to take Anna to the fireworks.   She LOVED them last year, but we weren't sure if she would react the same this time.  She quickly erased any doubts about her affinity for brightly colored aerial explosions.

Sunday, we relaxed, got some house work done, and then kept Anna up late again for some backyard fireworks.  She was delighted.  After she went to bed we visited with some friends around the fire and the grill until around 3 AM.  Lots of noisy story telling and goofing off.  I'm glad I don't live in one of those neighborhoods with houses all around.  The few neighbors we have know they can be noisy on the weekends whenever they want  as well.

Right back up on Monday, the actual 4th of July.  Tammy, Anna, and Lillian went maternity clothes shopping and came back for nap time.  Then Matt and I headed up to Kokomo to look at a 64 F100 from California for sale (I can't help it).  We got back and went to the Downtown Indy fireworks show: Tammy, Anna, myself, Ben, Lillian, Matt, Marie, Jennette, Jeff, Clive, Travis, and Clayton.  What a way to put an exclamation point on an already awesome weekend.

July 4th weekend set the bar pretty high.  Next Saturday, Anna might be a little disappointed that not every weekend henceforth is going to be so packed with fun.

Well, off to bed I go.  I've gotta go be a work from home dad in about 6 hours.