Rodeo day

I knew that little girls like horses, so we decided to take a vacation day and take the kid to her first Fiesta de los Vaqueros Parade.

Two hours of nothing but horses and wagons.

She loved it. Jumping up and down loved it.

Guess we have to do it again next year.

Damn.

Well ...

... she loved MOST of it.

The world according to Kaylee

"pineconeapple"

Kaylee's first fire drill

First person accounts from the event:

Is berry loud. I scare. I cry lots.

Is no big deal. Is pretend. I go with my teachers. Go outside.

Leo scare too. He cry lots.

Make me sad. Fire engine make my safe.

Potty training

Good to know I could contribute something to the cause. 

Here's a quote from the wall at day care.

Shopping with Dad

It has been a long-standing tradition that I pick out all sunglasses for "my girls." I don't know how it started, but I'm pretty good at it.

So it is only fitting that I should pick out Kaylee's first pair.

Now if I could only get her to wear them on her eyes.

Dress up.

"I wear Mommy panties. Cheeeeesssseee."

At the Japanese restaurant

"Kaylee, do you want chicken teriyaki?"

"No. I no want chicken yucky."

I am going insane.

Huh?

That one word. That one syllable, is going to be my downfall.

Sometime between me leaving for Syracuse and my return, Kaylee has picked up a nasty little habit. She answers every question with "Huh?" I'm not pointing any fingers, but a certain someone was here during that time. I won't even name her (it rhymes with Schmaggie) because I can't prove that she was responsible. 

But if she knew how much it would bug me, I wouldn't put it past her to mastermind this whole thing.*

Do you want to watch Sesame Street?

Huh?

Do you want macaroni and cheese for dinner?

Huh?

Why are you sticking that in your ear?

Huh?

Why are you wearing your socks on your hands?

Huh?

Do you want to talk to Grandpa Charlie?

Huh?

Are you trying to drive Daddy insane?

Huh?

Do you want to go back inside the box?

Huh?

She huhs me. She huhs her mother. She huhs her teachers. She huhs the damn dogs. It's gotten so bad, I've actually caught her huh-ing herself as she plays. She'll ask herself or her dolls a question and reply with her new favorite word.

I'd pray to be delivered through this, but I'm afraid the one time I got a direct answer from on high it wouldn't be a burning bush, it wouldn't be a chorus of angelic voices - it would be one, little, annoying word.

Huh?

 

* Though that would take a certain amount of evil planning I don't know that she is capable of. She's not DIRECTLY related to me after all.

From the road

If you've been wondering what the he'll is going on with the Twitter feed, I've been on my annual trip to lovely Syracuse, NY. (I'm currently stuck on the runway in a plane with electrical woes.)

As part of the trip I spent a lot of time with the SU journalism students and I've determined a few things. 1) I'm old. 2) I'm not ready for Kaylee to grow up. 3) I don't want her to go away to school. And 4) If she does go away to school, I hope she never tells me stories like these students told me. They were no worse than what I did in college, but that's not the point.

Do as I say, not as I did.

The big news is that apparently, as of today Kaylee has been moved up to the next room at daycare. So I'm sure that means more of an emphasis on ABCs, 123s and a touch of potty training.

That may put her one step closer to frat parties, boy troubles and credit card debt - but at least she'll be wearing big girl panties.

And if I can keep her in Disney Princess Pull-Ups, maybe that will keep the boy troubles to a minimum.

Lessons learned at the ComicCon

Kaylee's getting one last run in the Spider-Man costume today. It barely fits, but we've donned it to better blend with Arizona's geeks.

We're surrounded by Stormtroopers, ninjas and a variety of overweight teens dressed in strange outfits that look more like pajamas than costumes.

I know I'm a dork, I dragged my family to a third-tier comic book convention after all, but there's just something about being surrounded by these people that makes you feel so much better about yourself.

And I think that's the lesson I hope Kaylee takes away from all of this.

You may not have a lot of money, you may not love your job, you may not be happy with the hand life has dealt you. But at least you're not an 45-year-old man dressed as what appears to be a cross between a kitty and a Japanese call girl.

OK. Now I'm ready to update.

Pretty sure I got the short end of the stick in this slipper exchange.

Now with 100% more fun!

I just realized that I haven't updated the blog in a while.

Not that I'm going to start now.

But I haven't forgotten about you – I'm just waiting for the next big event. Perhaps Kaylee's first car or her high school graduation.

Parenting tip #134

If your child is eating yogurt – and sneezes – do not wipe the yogurt off her pants and lick it off of your fingers. It might not be yogurt.

Shhhhhhh ...

... Mommy's sleeping.

Kaylee's new word

"But I AM Napoleon!"

At Grandpa Charlie's

"Ah eat da cheez."

Happy New Year 2

Oh, and Kaylee really enjoys bowling.

Happy New Year

We're an exciting bunch.

Knitting and writing performance evaluations. What a magical night.

Baking breakfast

Grandma Cindy knows how to entertain 2-year-olds.

Let them make a mess and call it breakfast.

At Grammy's 2

Piles and piles of toys (and boxes) make for a happy Kaylee.

And Grammy seemed to have fun too.

Dad just kicked back and watched for the most part.

At Grammy's

Illinois is pretty damn cold.

Even if it is in the middle of a freak heat wave.

Guess who's ...

... an Apple girl?

iPod + Little Mermaid = easy flight.

Another Christmas in the books ...

"A BICYLCE! A BICYCLE! I ryde it?"

"Oh, dere more? I open stocky?"

"I rip da papers."

"GLITTERS!"

"And Spyer Man."

"I get big dinosawr. Santa bring it."

"I take dinosawr for ride."

HERE COMES THE FIRETRUCK

Santa brings awesome (loud) toys.

Merry Christmas

Presents: opened.
Turkey: eated.
Christmas crackers: cracked.
Paper crown: weared.

More pics soon.

After

Yeah. Not so happy now.

Before

Very excited to see Santa!

Can you tell

... which cookies are Kaylee's?

The best part about baking Christmas cookies

... is eating them before they've even been in the oven.

This has nothing to do with Kaylee

But it was too good not to share.

I'm not sure how...

But Kaylee manages to keep her kitchen MUCH cleaner than we keep ours.

Of course, plastic food doesn't make nearly as much mess.

Really. She's smilng. I swear.

Guess who's getting a photo for Christmas?

Future cheerleader (or coach)

TUTSDOW CAHCAGO BEAHS!!

Small things

Kaylee managed to eat an entire yogurt this morning without making the
slightest mess.

So there us a small chance she didn't inherit her mother's messy gene.

Maybe.

Tis the season

We've officially been Christmas lighted.

Kaylee is almost as excited as Rae.

Happy Birthday

It only lasted two hours (give or take) but it took weeks of planning (and procrastinating) and ended with Rae crashed out on the floor and me with a migraine. But food and toys were strewn about the house and Kaylee was sound asleep, worn out from hours of running and screaming in excitement.

I think her birthday party was a success.

We opted for a dinosaur theme (one of the many non-girly things my awesome kid enjoys) and here's my attempt at free-handing a icingasaurus. Not the easiest medium to work in. Kaylee thought her "alligator cake" was pretty cool - but only took a couple of bites. She opted instead to destroy it with her fork and "Monkey George" birthday candle. It was like a L'il King Kong vs L'il Godzilla.

This time, King Kong won.

"What do you mean I'm in trouble for liking the store-bought cupcakes better? I've only eaten four of them."

We were smart about one thing –
our party favors made NO noise.

It's next to impossible to wrangle 18 guests AND be far enough away from the action to get a shot of everyone (which you know isn't going to happen if you've ever been in my tiny house) so you'll just have to settle for a photo of four of the five people under the age of 20 who attended.

Just for Maggie, we had stickers.
And we're saving a strip of them for your February visit.

Wishing we were there ...

... or you were here. Either way.

Emergency rescue

I have a feeling that bath time is about to get a little crazy.

The kid has never really had a problem taking a bath before. She's wild about it actually. (As long as she's playing in the water and not getting clean that is.)

Well, tonight she was particularly dirty. Chunks of food in the hair dirty. And when you wash a chunky-food-haired-kid, the water tends to get a little gross. As in bits of food floating around in the bath water.

Well, Kaylee noticed the chunks. And they floated around. And seemed to move. And dance all around her. And they freaked her out.

"Izzindawater?"

Not quite sure what I was hearing, I replied "It's a monster?" thinking that's what she said.

But it's not what she said.

But she got the answer to her question. They were monsters. Monsters in her bath water. And they were all around her. And they were going to get her.

And she screamed.

And she cried.

And she practically flew out of the tub.

I don't think Rae is going to let me be in charge of bath time anymore. If the kid ever takes another bath, that is.

Kaylee sings.

Too. Damn. Cute.

Cue Nancy Sinatra ...

These boots were made for walking ...

... but that ain't easy to do ...

... and one of these days ... aw forget it.
Just enjoy the photo.

"Dinner"

Take a look at this plate from our evening meal and see if you can
figure out why my daughter is so skinny.

When are the cooks coming to visit?

Monkey George

I'm a little weirded out that Curious George gets caught up in:

Kidnapping.
A near drowning.
Puking up fish.
Smoking.
Prank phone calls.
Prison time.
A prison break.
Theft.

And that's just the first book. Don't even get me started on George's
experimentation with prescription drugs.

What an awesome children's story!

"Ahm tyhred."

That's how Kaylee greeted us this morning.

Hmmm. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that she fought taking a nap yesterday for an hour and a half. (And ended up sleeping for about 20 minutes.) Or it could be that she fought going to bed last nite for about an hour. (And asked for about 20 drinks of water.) Or it could be that she got out of bed several times during the night and had to be chased back to bed.

I know that's why I'M tired.

Tonight is shaping up to be better. So far she's only gotten out of bed because she pooped her diaper. *

I guess that's a valid excuse.

*UPDATE: We have one post-bedtime appearance already. Sigh.

All Souls procession

Tonight was the All Souls procession through downtown Tucson. It's one part Day of the Dead, one part political protest, one part freak show – but it's 100% Tucson. You know – I've talked about it before.

This is the first year we've been there from start to finish. The start of the procession was lead by masked figures sweeping the ground. Apparently our streets are filthy and they were afraid of getting the little glowing man dirty.

Or it could be symbolic of something. I'm not sure.

This is the urn – the centerpiece of the event. The urn is filled with photos of and messages about / to the deceased. People are encouraged to come up and throw in their notes as it passes by. The urn is then taken to the artsy (OK, this is Tucson - the artsyER) part of town, hoisted up in the air and set ablaze by the aforementioned little glowing man.

At first, Kaylee wasn't sure about all of this. Lots of strange people in makeup and masks - and none of them were handing out candy.

But pretty soon the sheer number of puppies and drums got her into the mood. She even started to get excited by all the skeletons in the crowd.

We ended up marching along with the procession near one of the groups of drummers – bounced and jumped and danced on my shoulders the whole way ... and I'm going to feel it in the morning.

This is what it's all about. Tucson is a city of pyromaniacs.

In the upper left corner you see what's left of the urn. On the right – those are acrobats suspended by another crane twirling in the air with fireworks and flares.

Basically, EVERYTHING is on fire. Hell, there's even a giant torch (like the thing in hot air balloons) that is only there to add MORE fire.

Maggie – this is officially where you start kicking yourself for not being able to make the trip this year. Awe-some.

A new favorite family portrait. Even though we all have red-eye.

Try to look at this photo and not hear Kaylee saying "cheeeeeeeezzzzeeee."

More zoo fun

Monkey, I'd like to introduce you to Monkey.

Her favorite things include combing her hair, playing outside and bananas.

And over here, we have Monkey – who enjoys bugs, running around and making a mess.

You two have a lot in common. I'm sure you'll get along great.