Friday Free-For-All

• Natalie loves the Wii.  Specifically right now she loves Wii Sports Resort and the Speed Slice or "cutting game" as she refers to it.  In this game you use the wand as a sword to slice through objects faster than your opponent.  Two objects drop on screen with an arrow indicating the direction to slice.  Whoever reacts faster wins.  She is stinkin' awesome at that thing and loves to play it.  At least she will do that on her own and not ask me to drive Mario any more.
• Hallie is a parrot.  She repeats almost everything.  The sad thing is she struggles saying an phrase that is more than one word so when referring to people it is "am-ma", "am-pa", "papa", "emmie", "nick", "eric", etc.  Well the other night they were trying to get her to say "Grandpa Marty" but she fixated on the last word and kept referring to him as "Marty".  It's not as cute on the computer but if you heard her say it you would laugh, I promise. :)  We tried to correct her but she would just laugh and say "Marty".
• I love Fridays.  Especially in the fall.  Maybe it's because of all the football talk and the fact that the high school, college, NFL weekend is upon us, I'm not sure.  I think it has to do with growing up with a dad who coached high school football and then playing high school football.  It just has a different feel even if I have a project or presentation on that day, everything seems better on Friday.
• I love it when God sends a reminder that He truly is in control and everything will work out for His purposes.
• Twitter is awesome.  That is all.
• My pick for the KSU game this week versus Iowa State: KSU 34 ISU 24
• Hallie has decided that every time Natalie goes to the bathroom she needs to as well.  Once Hallie hears Natalie announce where she is going, she immediately starts repeating "potty?" "potty?" "potty?" in the cutest little whine you've ever heard.  She also tugs on her shorts/pants and heads for the bathroom.  This morning she went in the bathroom and I heard the toilet seat go up and her hollering "potty".  Sometimes we will sit her up there just to let her know that she's on the right track but taking off her diaper and then putting it back on just isn't worth it when she never actually goes.  But potty training her is going to be a breeze. :)

Two completely unrelated thoughts

These two could not be any more unrelated but here they are anyway:

• On Friday night I sat behind two dads that I hope to never become.  At a high school football game where Derby was getting trounced, these fools were constantly yelling.....at the PLAYERS!!!  These are high school kids, trying as hard as they can.  Sometimes a team is just better than you.  On every play they said something negative about the boys.  Not the officials, not the coaches, the players.  Seriously.  Grow up.  To top it off dad A says "Man, we're getting beat by a 5A school."  To which the brilliant dad B replies "Not just beat but trounced by a 5A team".  These idiots obviously think they know everything but in those comments revealed their ignorance.  Hutchinson is the SIX TIME defending state champions and took the #1 team in Missouri to overtime last week and should have probably won that game.  They are anything but "just a 5A team".  Pathetic.
• I have been on a weight loss journey for quite some time now.  It started when my wife began running again and that motivated me to get off my butt and do something.  This was 5 years ago before we had any kids.  I didn't do much.  Lost like 5 pounds, thought I was the man and that was about it.  I don't know when it kicked in that I needed to actually do something drastic but it just did and so I started eating less (not anything different, just less), exercised 3 days a week (30 minutes on elliptical) and lost 20 pounds really quick.  After that I kind of hit a plateau, gave up on the whole thing and gained 8 pounds back in about 2.5 months.  Oops.  I picked up again, changed what I ate a little and lost about 20 more pounds, so now I am down a little over 30 and thinking I really am the man.  Again, plateau, quit, gain.  Well, in January of 2008 I finally hit the final push.  I dropped the last 30 pounds I had in mind and was down a cool 60 pounds.  Somewhere along the way I started running.  I hate running.  I don't know what happened.  Well I had fluctuated between 195-200 for quite a while and at beginning of the summer was up over 200 again.  I decided this was just lazy and I wasn't going to be the one to put all the weight back on so I got serious.  I started running again, going about 2 miles every couple days, losing weight slowly but surely.  Somewhere along the way I upped that to 3.1 miles every time I go and now me, the guy who despises running, gets up at 6 to run 4 days a week.  The days I don't go I feel lazy all day and look for ways to do something.  Mostly that involves walking a mile over lunch around our pond behind the office.  Through the course of this I have broken so many barriers it isn't even funny.  Broke 18 mins in a 2 mile run.  Broke 27 minutes for 3 miles.  Actually ran 4.2 miles.  Weighed under 200 pounds.  Today I hit a huge one though.  I broke 190!  I weigh as much now as I did when I was a sophomore in high school!  It hasn't been easy, I know I'm not the fastest or the farthest runner (my wife actually beats me on both counts) but I did it and I'm not done yet.  The best part?  I charted the whole thing in Excel and have a fancy little graph that shows me the big picture instead of week to week which can be depressing.  Once a nerd always a nerd. :)

Natalie is confused

Sometimes I wonder if Natalie thinks she is Hallie's mommy or her big sister.  This morning I went to wake up the girls to start the process of getting ready for the bus ride with grandma.  I woke up Natta J first.  Her being the amazing morning person she is was quite perky and I asked if she wanted to help me wake up Hallie.  She said "Oh, sure.  (Changes voice pitch to a little higher, with more dripping babytalk overtones) Hallie Bear, oh Hallie.  It's time to get up.  Do you want to go see mommy?  Do you want your juice?  Hallie Bear, time to wake up."  It's really cute but COMPLETELY different from how she talks to her when Hallie wants to play with her toys. :)  After grandma got there, they were giving daddy the required hugs and kisses and Natalie walks over to Hallie, puts her hand on her shoulder, leans down to look her in the eye, and says (same voice as before) "Hallie, will you go give daddy a hug and kiss?"  Ok, my description isn't doing it justice I can tell, I am going to have to get a video of this while Natalie isn't looking.

Return to the blogosphere

Since it's been a year (almost) since I last posted an entry, I decided a change of format would be okay. I will still post about my girls and their silliness and life at our house. But I will also add some random entries offering my thoughts on a given topic. It could be anything from something serious (Koran burning....really???) to sports (go State!) to just random musings. I have often thought "I should blog about that" because I love reading other peoples blogs so maybe there is someone out there who wants to read mine. And if not....who cares, just close the web page! :)

• Natalie's soccer games/practice are a riot! Everyone should come to a game sometime. The kids are getting soooo much better. They are all going a little faster and kicking the ball a little harder now. Can't wait to see where they are in a few weeks.
• Coaching 4-5 year old soccer has been everything I thought it would be, both good and bad. We don't have any kids with bad attitudes on our team. They all listen, but they're 4 and 5 for goodness sake so the attention span leaves something to be desired. This last Tuesday I was the only coach there for about 15 minutes and in one drill I looked at the back of the line and Natalie and two other kids were playing ring around the rosy! Complete with spinning, falling and a lot of laughter. We have the one kid that every team has, much more in to picking grass and weeds then kicking a ball around. But the joy on their faces when they do something right or listen to the devotion at the end is worth every second I spend with them.
• Hallie is a hoss! She will eat all of her food and then polish off whatever Nat doesn't finish. Then she will run around the house, knock Natalie down and jump on top of her. Putting that kid in a princess shirt or nightgown just doesn't look right. The nickname Hallie Bear fits better than we EVER could have imagined!! When we take off her clothes to give her a bath we can't help but chuckle at her belly. Especially because she will stick it out and rub it with both hands and smile at you.
• Hallie loves to talk on the phone, even if what she has isn't a phone. Last night she was using grandma's portable alarm clock as a phone. If she catches Sara or I on the phone she will walk up, stick out her little hand, and say "talk?" When we tell her no she will whine "taaalllk?" When we tell her know again she stomps around in just about the cutest temper tantrum you could ever imagine. If we do let her talk she will just stand there listening to the other person and maybe answer questions if she's in the mood. So if you want a good chuckle, give us a call sometime and ask for Hallie.
• I had a case of deja vu the other day. We drove by the bus barn on our way to church and I heard from the back seat "bus!!! bus!!!! bus!!!!". I thought "wow, Natalie is a little old to be still saying that, she used to say that right before she turned two...." It wasn't her. :)
  
• Football is back....that is all.
• I read this statement the other day and it really struck me: As Christians the world knows what we are against, isn't it about time we let them know what we are for?
• I have been going to a great bible study with 6 other guys on Thursday mornings. It started after the men's retreat and has been going for 3 weeks now. God has great things planned for our little group, I can tell. It will be interesting to see where God takes us and the impact we can have on our families, communities, and church.
• The Kansas State Fair is one of the most underrated events around. Taking my girls is one of the highlights of my year. We have been the last two years and had the best time checking out all the animals, riding the train, eating Pronto Pups, and riding rides. I highly recommend it!
  

Enjoying every moment

When Hallie was born, I told myself that I was going to enjoy every stage of her life. With Natalie it was easy to just think "okay, she'll grow out of this". She won't always be unable to sit up on her own. She won't always be unable to roll over. She won't always have to be fed by you. She won't always be unable to crawl. She won't always be unable to walk, to stand on her own. I didn't really relish those times like I should have. Heck the first bath I gave Natalie was when she was almost a year old and until Hallie was born, mama did it pretty much every night. I did feed her, but not bottles, and I did change her diapers. So along came Hallie and my attitude was ready to go. I thought about all of the phases we had with Natalie and how I managed to survive them all so this time I should enjoy them. I was excited for the nights when it was my turn to be up with her, I was excited to feed her every chance I got, and we alternate bath nights for the girls. One night I do Hallie the other night I do Natalie. I love it.

There is one area however that I haven't enjoyed. I knew it was coming. I have thought about it since the hospital really. It was torture for Natalie when she went through it and thus it was hard on us as parents. It seemed like it took forever. In reality it was about two months. I told myself that it wouldn't be THAT bad, it couldn't be THAT bad. I was wrong. I could change my attitude about alot of things but one thing still is no fun to go through. Teething. That's right teething. The runny nose inducing, fever causing, extra gross diaper resulting process that seems to take forever with our girls. We could feel them on Hallie a long time ago. The doctor showed us how you could see them dropping in her gums. Well they never broke through, and never broke through, until this week. Hallie Bear officially has one tooth. You can't see it but you can sure feel it. Now if only those other ones would hurry up and get here....

Natalie

I was informed that I might have exaggerated Natalie's behavior a little too much so I just want to pass along a story from this morning on the way to school that made me smile. We pulled up to the school and I got out of the car to go open her door. Here is the conversation that ensued:

N: "Daddy, I was just praying."
D: "Oh, really? That's good."
N: "I was praying to God."
(pause)
N: "I prayed that he would bless me."
D: "You did? How sweet. What did you pray for?"
N: "Um, Snow White and Ariel"

Only from the mind and mouth of a three-year-old. :)

The drought is over

And we're back. I could give you all the lines about "oh, I promise to do better", "I've failed as a blogger", "no excuses, sorry I haven't posted more", etc...but I will spare you from reading those. Let's just leave it at "I'll try and do better" and call it good.

Natalie loves school. She gets up excited every morning, right up until breakfast. See, Natalie has been going through the "I'm 3, you can't tell me what to do" phase. She will eat when she wants, what she wants, and however much she wants. She will play where she wants, when she wants. She will get dressed when she wants. It's not pretty. Unfortunately she has taken that to school with her. She cries when she doesn't get more snacks. She doesn't get in line when told to. We have talked with her about it and the teacher says she is doing better, but still it's embarrassing as a parent that the one who is supposed to be the "peer model" is the crier. Never been on this side of the parent/teacher relationship. It's stressful when you want your kid to do well and be well behaved only to come home and hear that the teacher talked with your wife while she was picking up the kid and the kid's not following directions. To Nat's credit she is doing MUCH better and even is at home, except when it's time to eat. So strange. Wilson's don't cry over the beginning of dinner time, we cry when it's over! I didn't mean to make her sound like a problem child, because she's not...at all. She still plays well with other kids, shares toys, and says please and thank you.

Hallie Bear is gross. Okay so she's cute, cuddly, adorable, chubby, beautiful beyond description....but still gross. She spits. Alot. And often. We took her to the doctor and she looked at our 20 lb 6 oz chunker of a 7 month old and verbally said "oh, I think she's fine, a tablespoon of spittup isn't worth worrying about", but what I heard as the daddy was "why are you bringing this perfectly healthy baby around this office with all of the flu going around, just so you can spare the laundry???" Or something like that. Besides the spitting, she is wonderful. She is crawling, pulling herself to standing, and gabbering like a monkey. She cries too, mostly when she's been up for more than two hours in a row. That seems to be about the limit. Some nights between Hallie crying from being tired and Natalie crying over not enough snacks, I just want to scream. But I don't, because it's all part of being a dad and I wouldn't change a thing about either of them, except for the spittup. Its just so gross. :)

Every morning on the way to school Natalie and I solve the worlds problems. There are three corn fields we drive by every day, and Nat has commented on them every single day. Well yesterday they were all harvested and so Natalie says "Hey, someone cut all the corn and took it home...AND ATE IT FOR DINNER!" in a slowly rising voice. Sometimes I don't know how I don't crash the car. She is a riot. Like I said, I wouldn't change a thing!