Mystery Bag

This is so funny! Thanks, Val!

"Now is a good time to mention that four plus four equals eight, which means that this article has caused me to own no fewer than eight decks of cards. If you assembled these decks together to play a game of war, it would actually take longer to complete than the war in Iraq."

I was at a dollar store myself the other day, shopping for goodies to put in the party favors for Carina's birthday. What do you buy for party favors for a party at which the age of the attendees varies from 7 months to 60 years? Well, our back patio should be a work of sidewalk art once we're done, and everyone likes bubbles. :)

Virgle

Virgle has me nailed.

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Well, you're distressingly normal and could conceivably adjust to life as a deep space pioneer, though we recommend instead that you leave the Mars missions to the serious whack jobs who scored over 130 and instead finish year 3 of law school, tuck your toddler into bed, design Web 2.0 applications, run for Congress or do whatever other normal, healthy, middle-of-the-road thing you're currently doing with your normal, healthy, middle-of-the-road life.

Sploosh

9:47 PM and it actually feels like the middle of the afternoon to me. Missions do strange things to my internal clock.

I'm very much looking forward to the weekend. I'm excited that I'll get to see Gavin for more than 2 minutes. I'm also excited that he'll be there to get up with Carina so that I can get my first 8 hour stretch of sleep since last Friday. I got through this week by telling myself that I went through a worse spell of interrupted nights last June, but you do forget how tired you were with that newborn.

Becca and I went out to lunch today (had the best bread ever at Tuscany Bistro, by the way). By the time I got back home, Carina was getting a little tired, but I needed to take her to the daycare anyway in about 20 minutes. So in order to keep her up and happy while I got her bag ready, I sat her in the kitchen over by the fridge and gave her my car keys to play with. She sat there jingling them for a few minutes while I started making here a couple bottles to take, and then I realized that I didn't hear them anymore. I looked to where she had been, and she was no longer there. I looked the other way, and there she was - crawling very deliberately across the kitchen floor. I proceeded to watch, bottles half made and formula powder everywere, as she crawled straight up to the dog dishes and SPLOOSH! plunged both hands into the water bowl giggling madly at the huge fountain of slobbery water that fountained over her head and onto the floor.

No doubt the idea of my baby daughter playing in the dog water and later sucking on her fingers is just something I'm going to have to get used to. For today, I was unable to restrain my yuk response entirely, and those little hands got dried as soon as the bottles were capped. I think we are officiall into the "getting into everything" phase, though.

Twist and Shout

Unfortunately, this came out a bit dark, but it is hi-larious! Turn on the sound or it will only be mildly funny. :)

Cute Butt

I'm not sure why, but it seems that people greatly enjoy seeing babies in clothing with cute things on the butt. Carina has had clothing with the following things on the butt:

- A giraffe
- A teddy bear
- A frog
- A jack-o-lantern
- The Star Wars logo

The other night at fish night, Sarah took a picture of the jack-o-lantern butt. It is a very cute sleeper.

I sometimes surf the bulletin boards on Babycenter.com, and there is one woman who has as part of her "signature" a collage of pictures of her kid's butt with different patterned diaper covers. No joke. What is it about those tiny little tushies that we love so much?

Sitter Cam Catches Ghost

This was an interesting video. I've always been a skeptic of the paranormal (go science!), but something like this makes me reconsider...

Different Life

As I was putting Carina to bed tonight after dinner out with Becca and Cari, I was thinking about some of the things that changed in my life after becoming a parent. At dinner Carina spit up on me, which caused Becca to make the comment "babies are gross". So started my list of things that change when you become a parent. Any parents out there have ones to add?


Things that change when you become a parent
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Spit-up is no longer gross, but a fact of life.

Milk is no longer something that just comes from cows.

You believe making a fool of yourself by buzzing like a bee is worth it for nothing more than a smile.

Bottles are now evil things that have to be washed with much greater frequency than the other dishes.

"Poopy" becomes part of your daily vocabulary.

Doing laundry every day no longer seems excessive.

Your criteria for wearing pants again becomes not if the baby spit up on them, but can you tell the baby spit up on them.

You make a list like this and then say in all seriousness - it's great!

Sucks

We're in a station wagon speeding across the plains of Wyoming. Caroline, Jen, and Gavin are sitting in the back seat.

Caroline tosses her Poohbear onto the floor. Gavin sees it fall and reaches across the car to hand it back to her.

Caroline tosses her Poohbear onto the floor again. Gavin ignores it. Jen, who missed the first exchange, gives it back to Caroline.

Caroline tosses her Poohbear into Jen's lap. Gavin chuckles at Jen while Caroline waits expectantly. Jen gives Caroline a sideways look. Caroline looks very innocent.

Jen puts the Poohbear away, saying, "You're going to lose your Poohbear now. Yeah, that sucks, doesn't it?"

Caroline grins and says really loud, "SUCKS!"

As we all laugh her mom smirks in the rearview mirror, "Thanks, Jen."

Caroline

Caroline's been a lot of fun. She sings out loud while we hike through the mountains. She likes to make sure that everyone follows her outside into the backyard or wants to play with her cowboys and princesses. She likes pushing buttons, which I can completely relate with.

Yesterday morning I was relaxing in Jessica and Pat's living room when suddenly I heard a car alarm go off. I stood up, looked out the window, and noticed the trunk of our rental car was also wide open. A neighbor mowing his lawn next door was giving our car an amused look.

"Jen? Where are my keys?" I asked, remembering that I had just heard Jen talking with Caroline down the hallway.

I'm sure the neighbor knew exactly why our car was acting up.

Buttons and Me

I like buttons. Not the ones on clothing. The ones that do something. For example, buttons that unlock the car doors, or turn on the computer. Buttons are neat, and I like seeing how they work. Not just to see what they do, but how they do what they do.

So the following story didn't surprise Jen in the least.

After I helped our neighbor replace two fenceposts, I was ready for a shower before we went out to see a movie. I turned on the hot water, waited for a bit, and hopped in. There was something new in there. Jen has been putting a lot of new things in there this month. She replaced the shower head while I was gone. She added shelves for lots of shower products. Most of which I don't use and I couldn't tell you what they were for.

But there was a new object, mounted right below the shower head. A clear cylinder, filled with transparent fluid. There was a spout on the bottom of the cylinder. And, most important, there was a nice oval blue button facing me. I figured it must be some new soap dispenser.

I cupped my hand under the cylinder. I eagerly pushed the button.

Nothing happened.

I was a little disappointed, but then, that's how things go sometime. I stuck my head under the shower and began to rinse my hair, when I realized I was hearing something new. A beeping noise. I turned off the water, and tilted my head a little. The cylinder was beeping every two seconds. I peered closely at it. Now I could read the warnings on the inside of the cylinder.

"DO NOT ALLOW CONTACT WITH EYES AND SKIN."

Right then the cylinder sprung to life! It revved up and the spout suddenly began to rotate! A strong, wide spray of antiseptic liquid fountained against the shower door and then, as the spout turned, the spray tracked towards me! I was defenseless! There was nowhere to go!

I remember two thoughts that blazed through my head.
1) Why had my wife put some doomsday device in the shower and not even mentioned it to me?!
2) Cover my eyes!

With a reaction speed that Jackie Chan would be mildly impressed by, I covered my eyes as the fountain sprayed over me. I recognized the sanitizing odor as the fountain sprayed the entire shower three times. It smelled like the spray you use on the shower walls when you're done to prevent soap scum build up. I started laughing before the spraying was finished. I cranked the water back on and scrubbed off the cleaner spray, and continued on with my shower.

After getting ready I stepped out of the bedroom and started putting on my shoes. "Something very interesting just happened to me," I began with a wry grin. Jen looked over from the TV and began to laugh as she realized what must have occurred. Come to think of it, she figured it out very fast. So fast, I wonder if she had planned it...