Rob's family

from Tracey Rob and I decided last night was a Blockbuster night, and we told the girls at dinner that they could pick a kid movie, too. They immediately started debating whose turn it was to pick the kid movie, and Melinda resorted to the classic "eenie meenie miney mo". She starts pointing to herself thenGretchen then back, etc..... "eenie, meenie, miney, mo, catch a tiger by the toe, if he hollers let him go, eenie meenie, miney...." then "gasp" and a look of dismay on her face as she realizes she's about to lose. Then she quickly starts over. Same result. Starts again. FOUR times she did the rhyme, pointing randomly not in rhythym and still can't get it to turn out her way. Rob and I are just laughing and laughing at her trying to be fair, as long as it works out in her favor. Fortunately Gretchen was in a goofy mood and really didn't care who picked, so they settled on a movie without great battles. We ended up with Tom Cruise's

Prelude I One of my favorite things to do as a kid was snitch sweet stuff ("Duh!" says Rob's dentist this week while replacing the second 20-year-old filling in 12 months). Sure,I know, we all liked to snitch sweet stuff, but I tried everything. Sugar (bland). Packed brown sugar (I was at least part of the reason the brown sugar was always rock hard). Honey. Molasses. Powered sugar (be wary or... cough, gag, choke, as you breath in the fine powder). Powered Quick (a little gritty - see powered sugar). Prelude II We've gone apple picking each year for the last five. Last year, we came back with a whole bunch - and I told Melinda we were going to make an apple pie. I got some good video of Melinda snitching apples, sugar, dough, and flour (takes after her old man). I conveniently stopped recording when I needed to yell: "Keep your dirty fingers out of the flour bag!" After 45 minutes of peeling apples, and 20 minutes of rolling crust (whoops, forgo

Grammy made (is making) her annual visit to Olive in Milwaukee this week. So, we took the opportunity to let our girls get to meet their great grandmother. Now, I remember (vaguely) visiting a great grandmother. I'm pretty sure it was in a nursing home, and it wasn't a particularly interactive visit. This was not the case with this visit. Before we left home, Melinda and Gretchen both drew pictures for Grammy and Olive. Melinda drew one each for Olive and Grammy (and wrote their names on them) Gretchen just drew one, but got around the issue of not having something to give to each, by separately giving the one picture separately to each of them. Melinda and Grammy immediately hit it off. Melinda told her stories about school and cooking and everything she could think of. She wanted to sit next to her while we chatted and again when we had lunch (Olive made a ham - the girls' favorite). After lunch we went to the Milwaukee zoo. Olive stayed home - not so big on walk

I wrote this ~12 months after September 11, 2001. I wanted to remember what I was doing on that day when we heard about the planes. The first I knew that something was awry on September 11, 2001 was mid morning. I arrived at the office - same time as always - 7:15. Some time in the 9:00 hour I happened to glance at my.yahoo.com - my frequent home for news. There was a one liner about a plane striking the World Trade Center. I've read about a B-17 striking the Empire State Building some time around WWII. I recall thinking that it wasn't that big of a deal. I think I tried a couple other sources to see if anyone else had more information - no one did. Within 30 minutes my boss asked if I had read anything, "No, not really" I responded. Site inquiries now just timed out. Everyone was connecting to see what they could see. I think I got one through on chicagotribune.com, but the information was about the same. No one knew much. Someone (my boss Mark I thin

I haven't told a home improvement story for a while, so here goes... It starts with our house inspection - 2 1/2 years ago. During the tour, the inspector showed us a soft spot in the guestroom bath floor and said, "I wouldn't stand there, your foot will go right through." We pointed it out and got a $100 credit. We moved in and found, sure enough - the floor was damaged, likely due to some sort of leak. It was ok though as the room is really ugly - REALLY UGLY - olive green fixtures with nasty olive & red flowered wallpaper. Vintage early 70s. I turned off all the water in the room - we'd deal with it when we needed to. Fast forward 2 years. We have NEVER used this bathroom. Several months ago I was between projects in the house and I was bored. I wanted something substantial to do, but the CFO wouldn't release the funds for any significant projects. As I recall, she wanted to paint or some such nonsense. I wanted to DO something. I've m

She loves her pink blanket (aka "pink b"), she loves her Po stuffed animal. She loves her red lego guy (Po). She loves "her friend" snoopy sniffer. She is very attached to everything. Several weeks ago, we were out in the cul-de-sac and she and Melinda were picking dandelions. She wanted to bring them in the house, and so I permitted a single dandelion. It was close to bed and wanted to brush her teeth holding on to it, then ultimately take it to bed. I tried to disuade her - "Gretchen, it's going to get squished!" To no avail. "OK, if you want to sleep with your dandelion, it's ok with me." I should have clued Tracey in... Gretchen woke up the next morning screaming. "I have worm in my bed!" Ayup, the dandelion lost it's head and got mashed into a "worm."

I have a St Patrick's day tradition for forcing my wife and children to eat corned beef and cabbage. I used to force Tracey to make it too, but I've since taken that part over. We got up yesterday morning and Tracey commented that she thought the meal took ~8 hours to cook (crock pot), so if I wanted to eat early (2pm), I should get it in. Turns out it takes 9-11 hours, which pushed us back to regular dinner hour. Throw all the vegetables and corned beef in the pot, turn it on low and forget about it. I also make Winnie's Irish Bread (aka cake) for St Paddy's day. This year, I had both girls "help" me. Melinda scooped the flour and sugar and Gretchen held the measuring cup. Once enough was spilled on the counter to make it worth their while, both girls started pushing it onto the floor and into their mouths, making sure to leave some on their green clothes. After 15 minutes of assistance, Gretchen got bored (I think I may have raised my voice one too

Now, I know I'm prone to stretching the truth to make a good story. We've got guests coming for the weekend - starting tomorrow afternoon actually. Guests coming is generally the forerunner to cleaning. Cleaning for me means bathrooms. Now that I've finished the guestroom, it means four bathrooms (the project that keeps giving). To distract the kids while I clean bathrooms, I give them a sponge each. In the past, this has meant that they unclean the bathroom I'm working on. As of late, they go off and unclean a dirty bathroom - not such a big deal. Tonight, I gave them their sponges as I started my second bathroom. Walking upstairs, I met Melinda, naked, dripping water on each stair from a sponge. As I walked upstairs, I noticed that there was, in fact - water EVERYWHERE. In 10 minutes, they had managed to soak the kids bathroom, drip water on every stair, have a potty accident (Gretchen), pour a gallon of water on said accident (to clean it up). After I had fin

In November, we got our quarterly publication from the Park District (local government group that does classes for kids and adults) Tracey signed Melinda up for Preschool, and Gretchen up for an art class. Then she asked me, "Would you like to do a Daddy-Daughter dance thing with Melinda." "Sure." I said. Several months later (early this week), Tracey reminded me - "Daddy-Daughter on Thursday night." I wasn't apprehensive, but I wasn't sure what to expect. Well, Melinda got all dressed up. Red-white-and-blue theme, so she wore her red dress. Hair bow, fancy shoes, to the 9s. When I got home from work, she was dancing around, and was VERY excited about the dance. As an aside, I need to get some video of Melinda dancing. She kicks up her heels and jumps from one leg to another - very cute and energetic. The Park District did a really nice job on the dance. DJ, pizza and ice cream for desert. We danced to wedding songs - hokey pokey, chicken

Gretchen is starting to play. She has always been great at playing quietly by herself, but over the last couple weeks she's starting interacting with us as she plays. This weekend it was playing picnic. She had great fun setting up dishes and serving food to Po, Pooh, Timothy (me) and baby elephant (Gretchen). Two other possible players to that game are Dumbo (Melinda) and Mrs. Jumbo (Tracey). Melinda likes that Gretchen will play with her more (and actually play), but she's a little demanding when Gretchen won't do what she wants her to do. "Gretchen - I said, [fill in with your favorite 4-year old demand]!" Behold a typical dinner conversation. Melinda: Gretchen, you're a poopy diaper head! Gretchen: I'm not a poopy diaper head, I'm Gretchen. Yes, we're pretty excited about Melinda learning how to tease :-( In happy news, Melinda and I did some wood working this weekend. She wanted to make her new doll - "Baby Goo" a bookcase.