LOTS TO REPORT...


Okay, so the weekend caught up with me and lots have been going on so I apologize to anyone who may be reading this on a daily basis (the few.. the proud).

Two major news events to report in the life of my daughter. The first was last Saturday when we attended the birthday part of a neighbor's child up the street. They had farm animals. Lots of farm animals. I saw my next door neighbor there and immediately cornered him in the yard and made him pledge, on promise of death, that he would never ever have an animal themed birthday party. This just sets bad presedent and would eventually mean that the rest of the parents in the cul de sac would have to follow suite. This would not be good for the rest of us. :)

However, we were able to enjoy the ducks, sheep, mice, kitties (I think they had them drugged but I can't prove it), pony and bunnies while being scorched by the summer beat bearing down on us at a lovely 95 degrees with no breeze. See below.











Then, yesterday, Katie had her first haircut. As you recall, Katie's bangs are getting quite long and since she is quite uncooperatiave in having any sort of berets or anything holding her hair up, mom finally broke down and got her bangs cut. For the most part she was fairly cooperative, although the pictures are priceless!

Crazy Horse

IT WAS A GOOD IDEA AT THE TIME...

So we had gathered all of this stuff from over at my wife's grandparents place from this past weekend. Some of which was toys from when she was young. We thought it would be cute to see Katie on it as long as it was in good shape. One of the items was a horse that you ride and it's supposed to bounce a little (I guess). So I pulled it out of the garage where we had it stored, cleaned it off to get rid of any old germies that might still be on there from years of storage and presented it to Ms. Katie. Not only did she like it but I thought it would be cute to start dragging her around the house on it (it has little wheels on it that allows you to move the horse forward). Katie really enjoyed it.. No really. She REALLY enjoyed it. To the point that she would start crying when I woud stop pulling her around the house with it and would almost demand (in the only way a 16 month old can) that I start pulling her again. Great idea Mike. Entertain the kid and become a permanent pack mule! Fortunately, I had to be the "bad" daddy and put the horse in the other room for a while. She was getting really cranky and my nerves were getting realy frayed. But hopefully we can continue this safely outside. So, the good news is that she likes it. The bad news is that I better be careful in what I ask for the next time I get a bright idea.

WHY?

I'm sure some people would ask me why I'm a stay at home dad. I mean, I'm sure that being in sales, if I worked really hard for someone else and bring in some really big accounts, that maybe I could make the money to hire someone to watch over Katie. Or maybe I could bring Kim home, but I would just have to travel a lot (but it would all be worth it, right?)

For me, every morning when I wake up and I see that smiling beautiful face look up at me with all the trust and love that little body can muster, it gives me the greatest responsibility in the world to make sure that that little girl gets the best opportunity she can possibly get and I know that her mom and I are the ones that can give that to her. My goal is to not only be able to bring home my wife so that she can experience the same amount of joy that I get to experience every single day but to show the opportunity to others to be able to experience life as it should be experienced and to not have all of your energy sapped away by some lifeless building, all so you can get a meager existence of a paycheck and very little of a so called life. There HAS to be and there IS a greater hope out there for every single one of us and sadly, corporate america is not where it is. We have been failed way too many times by the false promises of "career advancement" and a "3% raise" plus some slap in the face bonus maybe, if we're lucky, at the end of the year. It's time that, one by one, we take our families back and we take our time and our freedoms back to the ways it used to be.

Honestly, how many people out there can say that in 20 years, they'll have stories to tell of the "good ol days" of having mom bake cookies when you get home from school or that family vacation you all went on when dad made you get up at 5:00 in the morning and you all crammed into the back of the car but got to stay at week at the beach? How many less people will be able to say they remember the times they got to toss the ball around with dad in the backyard because dad actually had time to spend with them? Sadly, most will probably have the story of the video games they played and that "I guess mom and dad loved us but we rarely saw dad and mom was always so tired that if we were lucky, we'd get a home cooked meal once a week."

I'm trying not to be pessamistic. I've really become more of a realist over the years. I just look around and see the facts all around me in my neighborhood. A dad that's gone an entire week because he has to work out of state to make money to support his family. I see a soon to be couple that is about to have twins and who are already looking at working into their 60s just to be able to have the extra money needed to make ends meet. I see a couple that passes like two ships in the night, because one has to take a 3rd shift job while the other works 1st shift. Please stop me if you've heard any of these or if any of these sound familiar. Wake up America! Sadly, this isn't a dream. This is a cold splash of reality hitting you right in the face. It's time for all of us to take our families back!

Children's Museum of Winston-Salem

Our friends have been telling us about this place for quite a while now and Katie and I had the opportunity to go yesterday, thanks largely in part to our friends Karen and Sara. Sara runs a rather large stay at home mom group here in Winston Salem and Karen is a Super-Mom that is always kind enough to drop little tidbits of info like when you can get into a place at a discount. <:D

So Katie and I went there (twice actually) yesterday. Words cannot really describe it other than it's the perfect place for kids as young as babies that haven't learned to walk yet up through probably most of middle school. What's really great is that it allows the child the freedom to be able to roam around and explore without real restrictions (I mean, you can't just let them go running through there screaming their head off, destroying everything in site but it does allow for a lot of ineraction with their surroundings). It has everything from the 3 little pigs house to a room dedicated to the alphabet, with large animals as examples for each letter. Katie was particularly fond of the lions (L for lions!).

Sadly, I did not have my camera with me but I am well convinced that it is worth the $95 to get the year long membership to go and let Katie be a kid while hopefully allowing her to learn a few things along the way. Mucho imresso!!

Katie Takes Corporate America...



Friday, Katie and I went to tour her mom's new digs at her new office. Needless to say, it was quite the adventure. Between all the ewwing and ahhing that all the women gave, Katie managed to become a world-class sprinter between pods (modern day ofice cubicles/human gerbile carriers) and was able to let out multiple screams and loud noises that kept both mom and dad ducking for cover while trying to clamp a hand over her mouth. I think more than one person made the comment how the company is getting younger and younger people to do the work there (only at the sweat shops!) :)

It was pretty fun. That place needed a jolt that only a 16 month old can bring and besides, it was a Friday before a big holiday, so as if anyone was working anyway....

Katie was able to impress the ladies by taking silk flowers and bringing them back and forth to each of the women. And where was dad in all this? I think I was somewhere between awkwardly holding the diaper bag in the background and anxiously looking around to see if any VP stuff white collar types would come by and ruin the party. Hey, the reality right now is that mom's job bring home the bacon. My job is to raise the kid and not rock the boat.

Saturday we went down to my dad's for his birthday. Katie seems to be a little overwhelmed by the dogs (all four of them) but always seems to enjoy herself stalking the cats (who always end up under the bed). All in all, many relatives got a chance to see her and to spend time with her, which is a nice break for her mom and I. Hey, we love our daughter but whenever we can get a chance to breath and be ourselves for just a moment, we take it. Gotta stay somewhat human, I suppose.

I still can't believe it's been three weeks now. Tomorrow we're off to the pool during the morning. Not quite sure what the plans for the 4th are going to be. Hopefully I'll remember to bring the camera for some new shots!