Photo gallery

The iPhone's camera is pretty crappy – but it's pretty handy. And since I wasn't carrying around a REAL camera at the time, I guess we should all be thankful I was able to catch such great moments, despite the lack in resolution and color balance issues.

This was intended to be a picture of Kaylee pigging out and licking all the jelly off of Rae's toast. But what we ended up with was a picture of Rae learning just how many teeth the kid has. I just wish you could see her eyes – think  Arnold Schwarzenegger in "Total Recall".

Kaylee finds Dad lurking underneath the playground equipment.

Taking a break at the park – and very proud of the fact that she's stolen Mom's Sprite. (That's the remains of Mom's toast all over her shirt.)

Just a photo to prove that even when she looks ridiculous, she's still pretty darn cute. (Why Rae gave her a highlighter to play with still baffles me.)

To Kaylee goes the spoils

Grandma Della decided that Kaylee had to have a sandbox. (Despite the fact that we LIVE in a sandbox.) And to make certain that she got it – Della left Mom and Dad with a little cash to make it happen.

Well – Kaylee got her sandbox (or an upright equivalent) and Della was right. Kaylee loves her sandbox. I have never seen that kid scream and fight as much as she did when Rae made her go inside.

So thank you Grandma Della. We all miss you already.

Eggs!

Silly Kaylee – you can't eat that yet.

First, you have to CAREFULLY place the eggs in the dye.

Then you take them out to dry.

Then the Easter Bunny or some similar deity comes to your house in the middle of the night, takes the colored eggs out of the fridge and hides them in the front yard for you to find. It's an Easter miracle!

Maybe the bunny should have been more careful where he hid the eggs. That doesn't look very baby safe.

Then you look over your haul to see what the ratio of shattered to solid eggs is. (About 3 to 1)

Then you pose for Dad with your toe perfectly cocked so he can get the perfect "look how cute my little girl is" photo.

And THEN you eat them.

I'd like to point out ...

I can count on NO hands the number of times I've let Kaylee run around without a diaper and let her pee all over the carpet.

NONE.

Rae is getting pretty close to that second hand right now ...

Hangin' with Grandma Della

We've had Della with us since Friday. I don't know who's feeling more spoiled - Della, who gets to spend all kinds of time with the kid; Kaylee, who has an all-day playmate for the week; or us, we get a free baby-sitter for the week.

Personally, I think it's a win-win-win situation.

This is either Kaylee saying good-bye to Della after a wonderful week. Or it's her "get that paparazzi camera outta my face" pose.

And now for something completely different

Happy (early) St. Pat's Day from The Monkey House.

Shhhhh ...

Kaylee doesn't like it when the dogs next door won't shut up –
and she's not afraid to tell them either.

Video time.

Kaylee was cute enough this evening to make me break out the video editing software. Maybe I'll cut together a few other videos I've been sitting on while I'm at it.

But probably not.

It's all about the shoes.

So remember I mentioned that Kaylee loves her shoes? And my shoes? And Rae's shoes? Well, she got a pair of little wooden shoes for Christmas from her Aunt Becky (no, that's Ant Becky – this is Auwnt Becky). She loves to play with them – bang them together – but she's never tried to put them on.

Until tonight.

She took them off the chest – like any other night – but instead of playing with them, she decided to sit down and try to put them on. So being the helpful father that I am (quiet you – yes you – you know exactly whom I am addressing) I proceeded to cram her size fours into what might be a three and a half.


Keep in mind that not only are these things too small, they are hard to walk in – AND MADE OF WOOD. (Even at this young age, she knows that the most fun shoes aren't always the most comfortable.) But she had a great time running around the house – making all kinds of noise on the hardwood floors. As a matter of fact – she was rather PO'd at me when I finally took them off of her.

I have a feeling that she inherited her mother's first love.

Back at the Doctor of Babies

Monday was Kaylee's 15-month checkup and I got the pleasure of flying solo with her at the doctor's office. No big deal, I take her places all the time. So I got out of work a bit early, headed over to day care and drove her in.

All is good. We're signing her in. We're playing with those tables with the beads on wires all over them. We're looking at fish.

Then we go to change her diaper. And all hell breaks loose.

It seems that she remembers the Doctor of Babies' office. And she remembers that when she gets naked – she gets a huge needle crammed in her leg.

So I fought with her and her diaper for five minutes before we finally got things taken care of. As soon as she was dressed again she was fine.

Until we got back to the examination room. There she had to get stripped down again to get weighed and examined. And as soon as the first shoe came off – the waterworks started. It was 15 minutes of torture for me – and I can't imagine what it was like for her. But based on her screams it was somewhere in between being burned alive and being mauled by a large tiger with dull teeth.

But again – as soon as the clothes were back on everything was fine. She jabbered all the way home.

Exam-wise all is good. She's finally hit 20 pounds - which puts her in the 15-25th percentile in weight for her age. So she's going to be a tiny kid. I wonder where she gets that from?

This has nothing to do with Kaylee

But this website is too good not to pass on.

Overheard ...

"The way she was playing with my belly the other day – I really think she'd love to have some Play-Doh."

Rae – who realized as soon as she said this that it would end up on the blog. Poor Rae.