Soaking up love

Another weekend draws to a close. Several loads of laundry. A couple runs through the dishwasher. Wife cleaned like a maniac Friday evening, after tossing the Kat to me. Saturday, Mom came up and watched Kat while Wife and I did stuff around the house. We got a wild idea to go see a movie since Mom was here and went and saw Tina Fey's new movie. We laughed and laughed all evening long. Pretty corny, very predictable, easy laughs through the whole movie. A nice relaxing time. After Mom left and it was Wife and I trying to get the Kat calmed for bed, we sat on the couch, the three of us. My favorite part of the day with Kat. She knows it is bedtime. We have a routine. Part of that routine is for her to not calm down. Just ask her, she will make it clear that SHE is not ready for bed. So she climbs all over me. She starts on the floor, wanting up on the couch. Then she is in my lap, arms around my neck, trying to see out the window. Then she has grabbed the back of the couch and is trying to climb over the couch, almost as though she wants to lay on the back of the couch and stare out the window like Maddie does. During all of this I take the time to smell her hair and hold her close to me. I feel her heartbeat and take in the essence of my precious Kat. All to soon she will be 11 years old and way to cool for her old man. So I soak up all the play and love that I can, while I can. And I treasure that very moment, when she has been caught in my arms and I cuddle her to my chest as she finally winds down. That very moment when she falls asleep and her entire body falls limp. One moment she is still resisting the peaceful slumber, the next, she is a limp little girl asleep in the most protected place in the world. Her fathers arms. During that moment that I anticipate so much, I feel so important. My life has such meaning to hold, protect, and nurture this little being into a person. At that moment, while I look forward to and anticipate Kat growing into the woman she will become; at that moment, I don't want anything to change from the little girl asleep in my arms.

flat spaces

Ok. I am not quite a slob. But I do have a problem with organizing and putting away my stuff.
And it isn't fair to Wife, who desparately wants a neat and tidy house, to have to guess where to put my stuff so that I can find it again when I need it. We communicate pretty well. And after 15 years of marriage, I have a good idea of how she thinks about some things. So I can usually find things after 10-20 minutes of looking.
But I need to do a better job of sorting, filing, putting away or throwing away. Instead of just laying everything on a flat space that is convenient.

typical (?) evening

I am now done with school. For now. There may be things I want to learn or get certified for. But until Wife is done with her school, I am done with school. So I get to have my evenings to myself. Sorta.

Wife has class on TTh evening. So I race out of work at 430 and drive like a maniac to get the Kat. And I swear, I don't learn or remember anything from each experience. Every evening is like a new adventure for me. Last night I ran errands before picking her up, then got her and took her to WalMutt to pick up milk and cereal and a couple of other goodies. I knew I was done shopping when she told me so. I was looking for a footed sleeper for her (couldn't find one, she slept in sweats last night. again) So she kinda whine howls at me that she is ready to go, ummm, NOW. Check out, install her in the car seat and get her home. Once we are at home we have the adventure of eating. Feeding her went really well, food wasn't too runny and she was HUNGRY and ate her puree'd peas and drank her formula and was ready to play.

So we played. crawled all over, and I read her a book. Crawled some more, I read her goodnight moon. Let the dog in from the rain and then Kat and I played with the dog who REALLY wanted to play. She was bouncing around in front of Kat, nosing her then spinning around to nose her again, only to bound away and back. Kat obliged by waving her hands in the air, all excited by the goofy dog in front of her.

Then came bedtime after only an hour of play. The challenge and adventure of changing and dressing for bed. She was in better form this time and actually escaped. It was harder to get the diaper off, and when I did, I ended up wiping her while she was standing and putting her diaper on while she was standing! Little stinker. Then dressed her in sweats, cuz we don't have sleepers that fit her. but when I tried to lay her down for bed, she stood up and howled at me.

Now comes the good part.

I picked her up and went and got the bottle I made while she and Maddie were playing on the porch. I carried her to the couch, her all wrapped in the blanket her G'ma made her, snuggled her in my arms and let her have the bottle. She drank 3 oz and passed out. In my arms. On my lap. I took the bottle and gave it to Maddie to finish and just held her there. In my arms. Her angel face asleep so peaceful in my arms. Holding onto my arm, snuggled in my armpit like her mother does. breathing deeply and peacefully. In my arms.

The emotions that swirled through me were overwhelming. I am still in shock that I have a daughter with fine, soft hair and a button nose. Me? God has trusted me with this little person, this miracle of curiosity and energy? I hope I am up for the task, because all I can offer her is all of my love. I know I don't know anything about raising a person into an adult.

Then I lay her in bed.

wrasseled a b'ar

Or at least that is what I feel like. She may be 90% for height and 50% for weight, but she is all energy and does. not. want. to. stay. DOWN.

Wife tells me that bedtime routine is change the diaper and put her in her sleeper. after the FIASCO of the other night, I had to find a sleeper that had snaps, not buttons.

So I find the sleeper, lay out the clean diaper, open the wipes container, and pause. Pause long enough to find some jOLT cola left over from college and wash it down with RED B*LL. And now it is my eight seconds of exertion.

Lovingly lay her down like I am her loving father. She bounces back up like one of the ladies of R.A.W. So I flop her on her back like I am roping and tying a calf. She twists out and kicks my arm out of the way and gets a leg over the rail of the crib like an olympic freestyle wrestler. TWO POINTS for that escape and she is off and running around the crib like this is a high dollar endurance match and all she has to do is outrun me for two minutes like one of the 3 stooges. I intercept her in the corner, spin her around like dancing with the stars, put her into a dip with all of the panache of a ballroom dancer and drop her on her back like a sack of potatoes. Manage to hold her with one hand while I pick up her legs with the other hand, then take my other hand and rip off the fully LOADED diaper. Then I grab a wipe with the other hand and wipe, while holding her legs up in the air so she cannot escape. I get her all wiped (smearing myself only a little, thanks Kat) and fling her back down on the clean diaper I laid out - quick, attach the side stays and adjust the cheeks for coverage AND I AM DONE! Now to get rid of the diaper as we both race for it (it is a prize, don't you know) and I win (?) and toss the diaper outside.

She has rested those critical minutes and stares me down as I pick up the sleeper.

"Good luck!" she seems to say, "give it your best shot. You are old and tired and I am young and fast"

I hate to admit she is right. I resort to brute force to wiggle her legs into the sleeper and stuff her arms in the sleeves, then flop her on her back and quick snap it up.

It only take five or six minutes, but it is as intense of a workout as any person could take on.

sheesh! and she looks so cute! I really feel like I rode a pro rodeo bull for 8 seconds or wrassled a b'ar, Daniel Boone style. I am gonna need a nap before I go to bed.

74 feet below Ft. Lauderdale

Attached is a picture of me from my dive on Sunday in Ft. Lauderdale beside the wreck called "The Scutty" I am at 74 feet beneath the surface. Or as the Dive Instructor pointed out, my feet are about 75' below the surface, my head was 68.5' below. As you can see, everything is "O.K."

I had a great time diving. I had decided to begin dives for my advance open water certification. In order to get that, I need a navigation dive, and a deep dive (deeper than 60') along with three other adventure dives such as night dive, drift dive, wreck dive, boat dive, computer aided dive. There are more, but in this one dive I actually completed the wreck dive, boat dive, deep dive, and the computer aided dive. Mike the instructor only signed off on the one dive, the deep dive. Since the purpose of diving is to get more dives, he didn't want to sign one dive as four. Makes sense, as I want to dive more, anyway.

This picture is of the captain of the second wreck we swam on during our deep dive. Before the dive, Mike told us that when we got to the wheelhouse that there would be a 'cuda hovering inside. When we got there, Mike looked inside and gestured that the captain wasn't in. About that time I noticed the biggest 'cuda I had ever seen. With eyes as big as saucers, I pointed out that the captain was over the wheelhouse. The picture doesn't do him justice (Bekah was afraid to get to close, I think). The captain is over 6' long and as big around as my thigh. And I would judge that he had a solid foot long jaw, FULL of teeth. Very impressive.

The picture at the end is of my fin and the fish that followed me across the bottom. Bekah said that this goofy fish followed me around like a pet. It hung around long enough for her to get a picture, which takes awhile.

We were supposed to have a nigh dive Wednesday night, but the weather didn't cooperate. Since the three of us hurled on the boat when we finished our dive (and those were only 4' waves), Mike called the trip Wednesday which saw 6' waves.

wonderful Monday evening

I got home before Kat tonight so I was able to quickly microwave some leftover lasagna (Wife makes the BEST lasagna!) and then follow it with applesauce before the cutest daughter I have ever had descended upon me to spend the evening playing. She likes to play the game of climb over dad and escape from dad.

She has found that there is alot of dad to try and climb over. But she doesn't give up. She has her mother's determination and is pretty much convinced that there isn't any obstacle that she cannot conquer.

She has also discovered that dad's armspan nearly covers the width of the living room. Kat looks all cute and sneaky, then tries to crawl as quick as a Kat and get away from me. I let her get away until she is juuuusssst within arms reach and then hook her by the ankle and drag her back. We can play these two games pretty much all evening until bedtime.

I am so glad to be home to play with her.

dog and kat meet

As promised from a long time ago, here is the picture of one of the first times that dog and Kat met each other. Certaintly not the only time. Nowadays, dog wants to play with Kat in the worst way. When Kat is on the floor, dog will jump around and throw toys at Kat, hoping that Kat will throw them around the room for dog to fetch and bring back. The result is usually three way catch. Dog drops the toy near Kat. I take the toy and throw it, then dog bounds to fetch it and bring it back to Kat. Once in a while Kat will throw a ball or a block and the dog is in heaven! A chance to play with the baby!