Long time, no see...

Since drivers ed a month ago, I have been working extra extra hard on work/life balance.
A lot of that balance involves leaving work at a reasonable time to either pick up the kids or get home to play with the kids.
The girl is at just about the funnest age that I can imagine. She is up for any adventure, any challenge, any meltdown that she can find. I had read in a blog about a concept called horizontal parenting and found it to be interesting. So I will go in to Kat's room, lay down and play games with both kids... Roll the ball, hide the toys, let them cover me with blankets and read to them.
I hope they remember the fun we have together when I ground them in high school.

Wife cooked up a diabolical plan, I helped execute it. We are awful parents, trying to cope with Pink Blanky. Kat has her favorite blanky. There are times that she absolutely won't let that thing out of her sight. I swear, her arm could fall off and as long as she had Pink, she would be comforted. Anyway, Pink was gross. So Jill had me look online to Amana Woolen Mills to see if they still made this particular model of child blanket. They DID! So one Sunday, we made a road trip with our new Garmin to the Amanas and bought a decoy blanket. And we are VERY careful to not let both of them out of the cupboard at the same time. Now we can have one washed and clean for when we need to wash the other.

A couple of pictures here of what I call a playstation. I went to my brother's house and helped finish taking it apart. A buddy came over with his car hauler and we loaded it up and brought it home. It isn't where it is supposed to be, yet. It has a footprint of about 15' x 28' when it is all assembled. But I do have the climbing wall and the slide screwed together. I wasn't going to put up the climbing wall b/c I didn't think it was safe for a 33mo old. However, after I picked her up and put her on a platform 4.5' off the ground, I decided we needed to burn off her energy more than mine. Before I had it completely screwed in, she was climbing it and sliding down. She played on it for over an hour last night.

In addition to her playing on her PlayStation One, I took her to look for antler sheds along the fenced in pasture next door. It was fun for about 400 yards of fence. Then she was all, "HOME daddy, HOME!" So we took the diagonal across the field back to the house. After about 50' of rough pasture, she stopped and said, "UP!" So I carried her the rest of the way home. Pretty tiring and hard on the back to have 30+ pounds carried right in front of me. When we got back to the house, I put her down and she immediately wanted to race. So she took off running down the driveway, down the lane a ways. Until she found some PURPLE flowers. She examined them for a while, then wanted me to race her home.

All in all, last night was a great night for playing outside with the little girl.

What will it take?

I must confess, I feel like I am slipping back to jr. high. There is a girl that I wish would pay attention to me.
Every time she does say a word in my direction, my heart is lifted to new heights. I have tried being very overt, trying to get her attention and engage her in conversation.
I tried getting her to do things with me, maybe find a common interest in which we could spend hours, getting to know one another better.
I have tried subtly ignoring her, waiting to see if she notices that I haven't said anything to her that day; to see if she is suffering in any way from my aloofness. Not that I have ever noticed, so far.
I see that she is so ALIVE and that she is fun-loving and rambunctious. I want to be part of HER circle of friends so that I can be cool, too. She almost always has a smile and is ready to laugh.
I have noticed that she is only moody when she is tired; watch out!
I know that over time, we will interact more. Our relationship will develop on many levels. It seems that it will take so long and I long for her friendship now.

Do any other dads have this angst for their two year old daughters? Kat is SUCH a mommy's girl right now that I don't even get a hug on some days.
Jill tells me that I need to develop a consistent routine, something that is ours so that she is more used to me. I am trying to think of what that will be; a story perhaps, reading to her every night, perhaps a skills exercise working on colors or letters or shapes.
I don't know what it will be, but I cannot wait for my very own daddy's girl.

Water sports

Last weekend, Kat and Kyle were invited to a friends house for a play date. Jill was excited about the idea and packed a bag for me to take them away so that she could garden.
The play date was AWESOME! Kat got to meet (and flirt) with two of the nicest young men she has ever met. They had a pool. The older one was very friendly and wanted to show how good of a swimmer he was. He even fetched the ball and ice fish that Kat threw out. And he showed everyone how good he was on the slip and slide.
These people had ALL the fun accessories. She had SO MUCH FUN! Huge Thanks to Connor and Tyler for a great time.
Now, fast forward to Sunday. Dad went to the farm and fenced. ALL DAY. So Jill had the kids at home. It seems Kyle was well behaved, but Kat...
She wanted to play in the water again. After all, it is Sunday and last Sunday she got to play in the water. So Jill gave her a garden hose and told her to amuse herself. Well, since she didn't have her own slip and slide, she soaked a garden row and then played 'otter' where she slid on her belly in the slippy slimy MUD!
These pictures clearly show the difference between the towns folk water toys and the country bumpkins amusements. The thing is, I bet Connor and Tyler would have LOVED to join Kat in playing 'otter' in the mud, sliding this way and that!

Waking up CRANKY

Lets see... wouldn't eat supper and got to bed late last night.
This morning was LOADS of fun.
Daycare says the little girl ate two bowls of macaroni at lunch.
Thank goodness she eats there, she ate only the green beans from her supper and wanted down.
wash, rinse, repeat.

Summer Fun

I have a feeling that the daughter is giving her mom and I a glimpse of what this summer is going to be like.
I found myself last night at 820 trying to convince her to eat something before I put her into bed. And she was WAY too tired to eat.
When she got home with Jill yesterday, she hopped out of the car and began to explore the yard, the shed, the water pump, the radio tower, the bushes, the woodpile, the cows next door, the barb wire fence, and on and on and on. We interrupted her activity to bring her in and TRY to feed her - she would have none of it. She howled as we brought her in and wouldn't eat a thing. "Down.... Down... Down!" So we let her loose again in the front yard. Explore the bushes, the trike, the porch, the rocks, the grass, the dandelion...
She didn't stop until we finally brought her inside. I should have just given her a bottle of milk and thrown her in bed. But I tried to get her to eat something. Nope, too tired.
It is going to be fun waking her up this morning.

Tubes & Ads

Friday morning at 4am I felt Jill's knuckle digging into my back.
"get up" she hissed as she shut off the alarm clock.
Ugh. If I were going turkey hunting or fishing, I wouldn't have really been asleep.
This time, however, I was getting up so I could take Kat to Iowa City to have tubes put in and adnoids taken out. The instructions were to be at the Ambulatory Surgical Center at 0545 to begin checking in.
Since there was surprisingly little traffic, we got to the ASC at 0530. The sign on the door said they opened at 6am. Meanwhile, Kat sat in her carseat and yowled. I think she was hungry and thirsty.
When they opened the doors and let me register, we took a seat in their waiting room. Just then, Mom walked in the door. You should have seen Kat's eyes light up! She was out of my arms in a flash! The relationship between my mother and my daughter is incredibly close. If they don't see each other once a week I think they both become depressed and lethargic.
Anyway, after Mom showed up, they lead us back to an exam room and we gowned Kat. Then she got to play in the toyroom until the gas passer came to meet her and take her to surgery. He was really cool about it. He came in the first time to meet her. Then he came back with a big warm blanket and wrapped it around her and picked her up.
You could see in her eyes that Kat was scared to death, but she made not a sound.
then she was gone into a doorway that we could not follow.
We went to the recovery room to wait for the Dr. to come and tell us that surgery had gone well, then for the delivery of my precious little girl.
I sat in the easy chair after the Dr. came in to tell us that the ears were REALLY full of fluid and that her ads were swollen and irritated.
When the nurse came in with her, I was ready to receive her. The nurse set her in my arms and told us how good Kat had been. She didn't cry when she woke up, we were told that 85% of kids cry.
Kat looked around the room and saw my mom and whimpered. I wasn't going to let her go, though.
Kat fell asleep in my arms, her neck stretched around so she could see Mom.
When she woke up, she struggled and fussed but didn't want to drink.
Mom stood up and told me that she might be able to get Kat to drink. So she sat down and held Kat. For the next 4 hours. Kat was so happy to be in G'ma's arms. G'ma read to her and sang to her and gently got her to drink the 4 ounces of water she needed so that we could be discharged. Kat even ate raspberry jello, which made the nurses very happy.
Saturday, we couldn't keep her "quiet and calm" like the discharge instructions said. Kat has been running around the house and wanting to play with everything. She did take a 4 hour nap in the afternoon.

one year older and cuter

The picture of Kat in red is from last December.
The picture of the Kat chipmonk in pink is from yesterday.
It is hard to believe how much she has changed in a year
Yesterday was her first time on a sled. Mom came up to play with her and I improvised a sled because I am too cheap to spend $11 for a plastic sled.
Kat didn't care, she obviously had fun.






Postscript - I don't know what it means, but this is the second day that Kat has slept past 8am after going to bed at 8pm. I don't know enough to be concerned but I do know that Wife is jealous. She was up every 2 hours to pee.