Schools Out!

Hooray! I have taken my last final and DTS has let out for the summer. I have been pounding the keyboard for the last couple days, catching up on projects that have languished in my inbox for far too long. I talked to Melissa Dewey yesterday and she commented that things must have been busy during the semester because I didn’t post much on my blog.

Not having a television, it is hard to imagine where all our time has gone. However, throughout the day, this breathtaking little beauty comes crawling or cruising into the room insisting on attention. She is quite pleased to absorb every spare second we will give her. She is still a perfect little angel. Quite honestly, it is hard to be the least bit objective about her. After all, she is so much more cute and loveable than anything else.

When Jen and I are not working, Kayla enjoys keeping our keyboards from experiencing any loneliness.
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We also have a few games she enjoys playing. A favorite is peek-a-boo, which sounds a bit like pah-poo. We now have a number of words, including da-dee, ma-ma, uh-oh, and mmm. The later is just what you’d guess, “Yo, big people, how about sharing that food down here, eh?” Speaking of size, she has gone from 19″ (birth) to 25″ (6 mos) to 28″ as 11 months. It is good to see that all the food she eats is going somewhere other than into the Diaper Genie.

About a month ago she became highly mobile (crawling and cruising) so now she gets into everything. We like the toilet paper to stay on the rolls so the bathroom doors stay closed. We let her play in all the cupboards that don’t have glass or toxic cleaners in them. The cupboard doors used to have little pads on them to keep them from slamming. While unattented, she enjoys removing them, so now we don’t have a door left with them. They got in the way of, slam, slam, slam, which is far more fun than, dull thud, dull thud, dull thud.

When we are not otherwise occupied with Kayla, our work, or my homework, we learn how not to destroy Kayla’s chance of ever having a “normal” life. We have graduated from What To Expect When You’re Expecting to What To Expect: Your First Year. Now that Kayla is in her 11th month and the shelf of baby books is full, its time to step up a notch. I have started with with Making Children MIND without Losing YOURS by Kevin Leman. He’s the same guy that wrote Sex Begins in the Kitchen which is another book I enjoyed reading.

Kayla got a present in the mail today from Mike & Deb Surls. It was a small box which alone provided a good 25 minutes of entertainment.
Kayla's Present

The contents were a little more mysterious. Enclosed was a very cool Aerobie Superdisc (frisbee) which I suspect was for Jen and I. However, also enclosed is a package of blue washcloths and a blue receiving blanket. Our theory is that the blue items are the first gifts for Junior 2.0, and the Surls are rooting for a boy. I would like to have a boy and if we get one this time around I won’t have to twist Jen’s arm for number three. But if its a boy, then daddy gets the big snip snip. I am of two minds.

There is more news to post, but there’s also 173 emails and two inches worth of papers to finish dealing with.

two chicks

Last week we saw a hot new chick in the neighborhood and I’ve been trying to get a photo of her ever since. We’ve seen her fly by a few times but yesterday was the first time she held still long enough for us to get a good look, and did we ever. Jen ran for the binoculars and I grabbed the camera and the 400mm telephoto lens.

Lucky for ya’ll, she held still long enough for me to snap a couple candid shots. In addition to the shot above, I also got one of her dropping her drawers to take care of some business. In the interests of moral sensibility, we’re not publishing that one. Today we saw her again, and she was at the top of her game. She was with some guy, and she had her claws sunk deep into him.

And the two were becoming one flesh, literally. We watched for 10 minutes trying to see exactly she had laid her claws into. Unfortunately, she was outside the range of my 400mm lens and our binoculars. Our best guess is: a cat.

And here is the other hot little chick in the neighborhood.

Eight months

Our litle bundle of joy will be 8 months old on Saturday. She isn’t quite walking yet but given a couple fingers, she’ll happily follow our lead. She’s very keen to do anything we do. (Monkey see, Monkey do) If we’re eating it, she wants some too. So, in addition to feeding off mommy, she eats just about everything else that we do. She has two front teeth coming in.

Not only is she absolutely adorable, but we’re continually amazed at how pleasant her disposition is. She is a treat to have around. People ask how I get her to smile for the photos. The secret is, I don’t have to. She’s just happy all the time. Maybe it’s because she knows she’s beautiful?

click for more photos of Kayla.

“All I want for Christmas…”

I’m six and a half months old and all I want for Christmas is my two front teeth. Yesterday I touched and discovered mommy’s teeth and now I want my own. I thought about it sooo much that I think it’s happening. This morning mommy and daddy got excited and kept trying to stick a finger in my mouth to touch my gums. I didn’t like that and kept pushing it out. Anyway I do, I do, I do have one or two lower front teeth coming in for Christmas.

Here’s a picture of me practicing poses for the Christmas family photo.

Them Germans

Background: Jen and I enjoy cooking. When we met, we both had a full kitchen. We even had his and her Kitchenaid mixers. When we consolidated, my sister Martha was quite pleased to receive our extra for Christmas. We kept mine because it was the heavy duty beast, which I use on occasion to make bread.

I was quite fond of my Kitchenaid and it got a lot of use. However, it has come to my attention that they simply do not hold up to prolonged heavy use. I have mine repaired once and it is in need of repair again (same problem). Since they aren’t cheap to repair or replace, I did a bit of research. What I found was that lots of people that use their Kitchenaid for making bread have the same problem. So what’s a guy to do?

After some research, I discovered the Bosch Universal Kitchen Machine. Unlike the Kitchenaid which can be used to make bread, this baby is designed for it. Surprisingly, it’s actually cheaper (retail) than the Kitchenaid. I found quite a number of very positive reviews from people using them for bread making and then found the biggest problem with them, they’re hard to find! Guess what I got for my birthday?

So far I’ve made 5 batches of bread and I’m quite pleased. Like my Jetta, it seems to be a very well engineered German machine. I expect time to prove it’s durability. Tonight I did something my Kitchenaid can only dream of. I mixed four loaves of whole wheat bread at once. The ‘ol Kitchenaid creaked and groaned when mixing just two. Kitchenaid, this is eBay, eBay, Kitchenaid.

And what post would be complete without a Kayla photo?



the big 5

Today I’m 5 months. Mommy said so. What is a month? I can’t talk yet but I can type and daddy loves it when I “help” him type. Today is my birthday and my parents didn’t get me a thing. I think a few 5:00AM wake-ups may help them remember who runs this show.

Grandpa Ruby did remember my special day and sent me Halibut. You can click on the photo below to see larger photos of me enjoying the Halibut.

Grandpa, you sure know how to treat a lady! I’d write more but I’m about to be carried off to bed.
Love, Kayla.

A bird lover?

Would you fall asleep like that? Me either. And what might that be in Kayla’s hand? If you guessed “chicken bone”, you’d be right. Kayla was watching with keen interested as Jen and I ate chicken wings for dinner. So, I offered her a bone, literally. Jen was a bit unsure, but Kayla loved it. It was her first popsicle and provided a fair degree of entertainment value for her and us.

The shirt off my back.

Yesterday, a cold front settled across Texas. Unlike more tolerable climates, a cold front here means that it dropped into the 70s. There is now hope for the masses who come innocently looking for a Kayla photo and are subjected to the spectacle of my shyly clad body.

What you can’t see from so far away is just how hot it has been here. Until yesterday, it was in the 90’s, and frequently above 100, every single day. The weather people say this was the hottest September on record. I’ll take their word for it. We’ve survived by setting the thermostat down to 81°F, and wearing very little.

This has practical consequences, like fewer publishable photos. Another is that our electricity bill for the last month was “only” $280. While that is a 700% increase over our summer electric bill in Michigan, it would have been more if we cooled down to a pleasant 78°. This is (tongue in cheek) offset by doing less laundry. I talked to a couple home efficiency experts here and have been told that is normal and it will decrease significantly when winter finally arrives.

A few of you asked about Kayla’s exercise plan. She was a bit jealous that I would go to a gym to work out instead of spending every possible minute with her. We struck a compromise that lets me go to the gym on school mornings (Tu,Th) while she is still sleeping. Every other day we stretch together.