Normal Tuesday, except I cried

Around our house, like millions of other homes, we have a night time routine that we try to adhere to. Libby puts Paige to sleep around 7PM. A little before 8PM Lucy goes in the bedroom with an evening snack to watch a recorded episode of The Berenstain Bears or Caillou. While she does this, I typically finish cleaning up the kitchen, have a beer, and catch a couple sports scores. When Lucy's show is over we read some books, use the bathroom, brush teeth, and then turn off the lights.

While this is the ideal plan, more nights then not there is at least one curveball. From wanting two snacks instead of one, not wanting to put her pajamas on, or not wanting to brush her teeth we feel like we have heard it all. If you are a parent you know the delay game and all its inner workings. Paige even got in on the act last night. At 7:45PM Paige, who is usually asleep for the night, woke up and decided she wanted to hang out for a couple more hours!?!?! It is amazing to think that some day these kids will be teenagers and we will be begging them to get up out of bed, but I digress.

The reason I mentioned the night time routine is because on the night of Tuesday, January 12th, during the 20 minute window that Lucy watches cartoons I started watching President Obama's memorial speech in Tucson, AZ. Without diving too deeply into politics I will admit that I am fan of the President. He is a gifted orator and I enjoy listing to him speak.

When I tuned in he was eulogizing those who were lost in the terrible, terrible shooting in Tucson. The last victim that he discussed was nine year old, Christina Taylor Green. As he described her activities that included gymnastics and swimming, I couldn't help but think of my girls. Lucy is currently taking a gymnastics and swimming class. Christina's interest in meeting her representative made me think of the excitement Lucy has when she is learning about something new or preparing for an adventure.

I am not sure if it was fatigue from a long day or what, but I started to well up thinking about Christina and her parents. The President then went on to discuss that earlier in the evening Representative Gabrielle Giffords had opened her eyes for the first time since the shooting. I had never heard of this Rep. Giffords before the incident, but that didn't keep me from losing it.

I am not someone who cries often, so I found myself asking myself, why are you crying, what is wrong with you. In addition to trying to lean on fatigue as an excuse, I concluded that this is what parenting does to you. Parenting has made me feel emotions (including happiness and stress) at a stronger level then ever before. The incident reminded me of the depth of the love parents have for their children.

Before the president had concluded his remarks, Lucy was yelling, "Daddy! The show is over." Quickly I was brought back to the present moment and back into our nightly routine. As I headed into the bedroom I tried put myself together, but was quickly greeted by looks from Lucy and Libby that said, "What the hell happened out there?"

I briefly explained the situation to Lib and before we could discuss it too much, Lucy had a couple questions of her own. First she asked if I was ok. When I replied that I was, she quickly moved on to more pressing issues. These issue included, but were not limited to, finding out how much older Brother Bear is then Sister Bear and why Papa Bear always wears the same thing.

January 12th by many accounts was a very normal Tuesday. I will look back and remember this day not only because I turned into a blubbering mess after watch a few minutes of a speech, but because in the midst of our normal routine I was reminded of how much I love the routine and those I do it with.

Beard Update

This post has nothing to do with my facial hair or "no shave November". This is about my three year old daughters various pursuits of facial hair.

Before I dive into Lucy's beards, I want to celebrate the Twins resigning our favorite mustached pitcher, Carl Pavano. In addition to winning 17 games and striking out 117 last year, Carl found time to grow a thick, dark mustache. I am excited to have him and his 'stache back for two more years.

Early last winter Lucy used a black marker to draw a beard on her face. I blogged about and posted a picture last December in a post titled The Circus was in Town.

This updated beard picture was taken during a bath last week. Typically both of the girls get bathed together, but for some reason Lucy has the opportunity to take bath by herself. We/She celebrated the occasion by filling the bath with bubbles and doing what kids have done for generations...gave herself a beard.

Lucy's white beard seems to be showing her age!?!?! All white beard jokes aside, it is amazing how much can change in a year. Lucy's development continues to keep us on our toes and occasionally turn some of our real hair grey, but more frequently then that she amazes us and makes us laugh.

You can call me Walleye

Happy New Year everyone.

One of the things I love about blogging is that there are no deadlines or limits to vacation days. With that said, if I would have known after my December 9th post that I wasn't going to post again until January 6th, I would have a least turned my out of office on.

As I settle in to 2011, I am excited to get back in the flow of posting regularly.

I kicked off the new year by keeping a traditional alive that I participated in for the first time last year. I jumped into Lake Minnetonka. The temperature outside was around 4 degrees and it was windy. Not a good day for swimming.

The Lake Minnetonka Ice Dive is a great fundraiser for the American Lung Association, and despite the weather the event had over 900 jumpers again this year. Before you complete your first jump you are labeled a guppy. After you complete one jump you are a minnow. Footage of my first jump was posted last year during a post titled First name I got called this year. After two completed jumps you are a Walleye. With two jumps completed...you can call me walleye.

The goal is to complete 10 jumps and earn the title of shark and a cool bathrobe. The cool shark bathroom, while not pictured, is much nicer then the one I used this year. See for yourself below.
I really enjoy the novelty as well as the comradery of this annual event. I also enjoy the symbolism of kicking off the New Year with a real "slap in the face, let's get pumped up, have a great year" shock to the system that jumping in a frozen Minnesota lake provides.

Tales from the Changing Table

When we were kids we all had parents, aunts, uncles, and grandparents make comments about how fast we were growing. I even recall some mornings my mom telling me, “You look like you got taller overnight.”

In my youth I remember feeling like these comments were odd. Of course growth was happening, when I was born I was roughly 20 inches tall and fortunately somewhere along the lines I grew. (The fact that the majority of my growth in the last 12 years had been more of a widening than getting taller is a different story altogether!?!?!?) As I kid I just never believed my parents could observe growth from one day to the next.

As a parent I can see where my aunts, uncles, and mom were coming from. I can recall multiple mornings feeling like one of the girls had changed overnight. I also have moments that the speed of their development simply shocks me. A few examples include Paige holding her dinner bowl to her ear pretending it is a phone and then laughing because she knew she was being funny or Lucy teaching me how to scroll through the applications on mom’s smart phone.

Another example of this struck me while I was changing Paige’s diaper. The first observation of her development filled my senses as soon as a peeled back the diaper. As Paige has increased her intake of solid foods her dirty diapers have significantly increased in smell and size.

About once a week she celebrates her bowel productivity with a complete blowout diaper. Typically these changes mean a lost outfit and a diaper pad cover change. After those items are out of the way I just start wiping below the armpits and work my way down until she is clean enough to go in the bath.

Paige also seems to be “filling” more and more of the changing table daily. As you can kind of see from this picture our changing table has sides. I often feel like her head and feet are getting closer and closer to those sides.

My experience observing the girls’ growth now has me saying, “You must have grown overnight.” This leads me to agree with my mom observations from years back and conclude with another common phrase of our youth, “Mom knows best.”

Different ways to raise awareness

As I have discussed in a few previous posts I was the sole participant of a self titled “No Shave November” which was preceded by a no shave October (just doesn’t have the same ring). While I was growing out the facial hair I had a couple of people ask me if I was doing it for Movember. At the time I responded that I didn’t know what that was.

I have since learned that Movember is an organization that is working to raise awareness of men’s health issues, specifically prostate cancer. To raise awareness they invite men to grow a mustache during the month of November. It is a unique idea. Although I didn’t follow the specific participation requirements this year I did shave to make it look like I did. Next year I hope to participate by the book and collect a few sponsors. Consider yourself warned about both me asking you to sponsor me and me growing a mustache.

A much, much more traditional event to raise awareness that the whole family participated in back in September was an Ovarian Cancer walk/run. We have a family member whose mother was/is battling ovarian cancer. Our family member has been a volunteer at this event for years. There was a kids fun run that Lucy participated in.

While not pictured, as soon as she crossed the finish line she stopped turned around and gave us a look like, what is next. It made us laugh and effectively blocked a portion of the finish line with numerous other children heading straight for her.

The St. Paul Saints maschot paricipated in the run, as you can see.

DUDE REPORT: Twins off season requests

Major League Baseball is holding their annual winter meetings in Orlando. I wanted to take a moment to discuss two requests from the Tale from the Homefront. These two requests are understandably not the organizations top priorities. The organization should be focusing on pitching (specifically the bullpen) and the middle infield. As a fan my two requests are to have Jim Thome brought back and Todd Coffey added to the bullpen.

I really enjoyed watch Jim Thome hit for the Twins this year. After years of watching him hurt the Twins as a Cleveland Indian and Chicago White Sox, it was enjoyable to see him put 25 over the fence as a Twins. During a game I attended with my father-in-law he hit a ball that bounced off the flag pole in right field. He certainly outperformed my preseason projections ("If Thome hits 10 HR’s and drives in 35 in 130 AB’s I will be ecstatic.") and I would love to see him resigned.

From all accounts he is a very nice person and seems to be a good fit in the clubhouse. He is originally from Peoria, IL. Libby and I, with my sister and brother-in-law, completed a memorial seven hour road trip to Peoria for a family wedding. Having memories of that trip brought up by thinking of Thome is a bonus.

The White Sox were rumored to be interested in bring him back. They have since signed Adam Dunn and expressed interest in bringing Paul Konerko back. I am optimistic they are out of the Thome running. The Twins picked up Jason Kubel’s option for $5.25 this year. While I don’t disagree with that decision I am concerned that too many lefty bats could lead the Twins to tapering their pursuit of Thome.

Bill Smith and others are paid the big bucks to make the tough decisions and they certainly know better than me. A “Thome is my Homey” t-shirt is on my Christmas list and I will be a fan of his next season where ever he plays (except Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland or Kansas City) I just really hope it is Minnesota.

My second request is for the Twins to add Todd Coffey to their bullpen. Like the Thome request it is from the heart of a fan, not the head of a front office member. With that said Coffey does have fastball in the mid-90’s and a good slider. I want him for non-pitching reasons. I want him because it is simply difficult to put a price on seeing a 6’4” 240 pound man sprints from the bullpen to the mound. Some of my family members are Milwaukee Brewer fans and I know they looked forward to Todd Coffey appearances.

Just thinking of the green grass of the major league ballparks and having a beer outside on a summer evening makes me smile!

Let the countdown begin

Lucy seems to have inherited her mother's love of numbers. She loves to count everything from the number of crayons in her hand, to the number of animals in a picture, to the number of jumps off the bed with dad catching her that she has negotiate. Typically five is the number of jumps we find mutually acceptable. As she jumps she likes to track her progress. After the first jump she will hold up four fingers on one hand, which is the jumps left, and on the other hand she will hold up one finger, which is jumps completed.

We have tried to capture some of this number loving by creating countdowns to special events. For her birthday we did a good old fashion paper chain. Each morning she woke up very excited to take off a ring and know that her bday was now one day closer.

With the help of Nona (Lib's Mom)we have started the time honored tradition of an advent calendar. Much like the birthday countdown, Lucy starts each day by opening one of the numbered red boxes pictured below. Inside of each box Nona has prepared a little present. To date Lucy has opened bubbles, stick on earrings, and jelly bracelets. Lucy enjoys counting the boxes that are left, although things get pretty fuzzy between 10 and 25, with a lot of fours, thirteens, and nineteens being said. Eventually she gets to 24 and 25 and we take the opportunity to discuss the birth of baby Jesus and the reason for season.

With the calendar reading December 3rd I would be interested in knowing what is going on around your house to get your kids and/or yourself into the holiday spirit. Happy Holidays and best wishes during this time of preparation.