Rob's family

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. ...

Melinda was pretty psyched about the whole thing. Tracey's Dad came over to watch Gretchen (Tracey had a bow-making class), so my leaving (normally a tragic affair) was hardly noticed. Melinda skipped to the car giving me directions about everything - she's four after all - she's a woman of the world. As we walked in, Melinda happily led me to her classroom. A couple Dads & kids were waiting when we got there. "That's Eric, Dad. And that's Colleen." I had informed Melinda that I wanted to meet all of her friends, and she was very good at letting me know who everyone was. School opened and after hanging up her coat, Melinda went right to the "kitchen." Over the next 17 minutes, I met everyone in her class (the fifteen other kids that came). "This is Bridget, and that's Molly and Madeline." We flitted from activity to activity. I actually got a couple minutes to talk with Mrs. Karen and Mrs. Mary. "Is she always this happy at...