Daddy Daughter Days

Once again my busy life has gotten in the way of putting pen to paper or fingers to keys.  So I come to you late on my second consecutive week.  It didn't mean my day was any less enjoyable.  I hope you agree.

Ana wanted to start the day with a refreshing shower.  She has yet to figure out how to open the shower door, but that certainly won't stop her from trying.

Cream cheese on an English muffin.  Grace loved it.  Who would have thought?

Erin got a balloon for her birthday from one of our family friends.  The girls spent the morning fighting over it.  Actually Ana would smack it and run away.  Then she would try to take off with the plastic weight that keeps it from flying away.  Grace wasn't having that, so she played keep away from her sister.

Yes, I could get her down instead of taking the picture.  But I'm thinking of you dear readers.

When they girls go down for their nap, it is clean the house time.  If the kitchen is cleaned quickly enough, it becomes TV time for Dad.  I figure it's for the best to not subject my kids to zombies.  That's more of a year three kind of thing.

Grace woke up from her nap first, but she was feeling lonely.  She figured it was time for Ana to be up too, so she started reaching through the bars on the crib to get her up.

I love this kid so much!  Erin bought be a new Ireland hat.  Grace found it and actually put it on herself then started walking all over the house with it.

We went shopping all over.  We went to Ulta to buy Erin a new curling iron (Yes, I am an awesome husband.  Thanks for recognizing.).  Then we were to Home Depot for some stuff for around the house.  Finally we went to Target.  As I pulled Grace out of the car, she started saying "BALL" very enthusiastically.  I wondered what the heck she was talking about until I turned around and saw this in front of the Target.  Good call Grace.  It was a big ball.

Erin's birthday is around the corner.  It's Oreo's 100th birthday.  They have special edition Birthday Cake Oreos.  I had to purchase them.  They were amaze-balls of deliciosity.  Seriously.  Cake batter flavored Oreos.  Purchase them.  Now.

Have a great weekend everyone!  See you next Thursday.

Valentine's Day

It seems like there are two extremes when it comes to Valentine's Day.  Women totally hate it because of years of disappointment, not having someone special on the day or they are in constant state of judging their husband or boyfriend.  Or they totally love it because the husband or boyfriend makes them feel special or does something romantical, comes through after 364 days of letting them down or pissing them off or just isn't stupid in their eyes for one day.

This of course is based on my scientific research of scanning Facebook statuses throughout the day.

Notice how I didn't include men in my V-Day spectrum because we don't really care about it like women do.  And we shouldn't.  Sure it's nice to have a good dinner with your significant other or to get a gift, but this day isn't for us and everyone knows it.  Thusly we have no expectations when it comes to Valentine's Day.  Maybe getting lucky, but beyond that we don't really need to feel special on V Day.

I don't want to toot my own horn, but I look at Valentine's Day as yet another day to show my wife how much I love her.  I like to make it special too, but it isn't just a day to buy flowers because everyone else is doing that or FTD told me to.  I try to put some thought into it.

This year was no different.

I actually had a gift picked out very early on in the process.  I don't know if you're familiar with the traditional wedding anniversary gifts.  Basically there are different materials that serve as symbols for each year.  For example, year one is the paper anniversary.  I gave Erin the lyrics to our first dance song printed out and framed.

This year will be our fifth anniversary, and the theme is wood (I hear you snickering Kim).  I knew exactly what I was going to do.  One of her all-time favorite songs is The Dreaming Tree by Dave Matthews Band.  Dave Matthews started his own winery called Dreaming Tree Wines.  I planned on buying her a few bottles because wood and trees seemed like a good fit.  Not only that, but one of their wines is called Crush (another one of their songs).  It turns out that I couldn't really hold onto that secret for another 5 months, so I decided to do it for a Valentine's Gift.  She loved it.

I also put together a CD for her full of love songs that remind me of her.  I put a lot of thought into stuff like this because, as was covered in High Fidelity, I'm using someone else's poetry to tell a story.  The story of course being how much I love my wife.  It took me a couple of weeks to really hammer out the exact playlist.

Here's the playlist in case you're curious:

1. Faster - Matt Nathanson
2. Just Say Yes - Snow Patrol
3. Give Me Love - Ed Sheeran
4. Count On Me - Bruno Mars
5. These Arms of Mine - Otis Redding
6. Hold You in My Arms - Ray LaMontagne
7. Makin' Out - Pomplamoose
8. I Missed You - Joshua Radin
9. Hey Mama - Mat Kearney
10. I'm the Man Who Loves You - Wilco
11. Science & Faith - The Script
12. The Blower's Daughter - Damien Rice
13. Something in the Way She Moves - James Taylor
14. She - Elvis Costello
15. Can't Take My Eyes Off of You - Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons
16. You Are My Joy - The Reindeer Section
17. I Won't Give Up - Jason Mraz
18. Until I Die - Ben Kweller
19. Ordinary People - John Legend
20. I've Got You Under My Skin - Frank Sinatra

I also hedged my bets a little bit and bought her the new Twilight movie in case she didn't like the other stuff.

I love my wife.  I love showing her how much I love her.  Valentine's Day gives me another excuse to do that, so I appreciate it.  For all the guys out there, that's all your girlfriend or wife wants on February 14th.  Unless she has some crazy, ridiculous standards and is just a judgemental jerk, but the effort isn't worth it if she is.

Twitter Machine Tuesday

I know everyone else is writing Valentine's Day themed posts since, you know, it's actually Valentine's Day.  That just isn't my style.  Because if nothing else, I am a creature of habit, and my habit is doing Twitter Machine posts on Tuesday.  So I'm not breaking that tradition today.

I'll bare my soul and confess my Valentine's related love for my wife tomorrow.  Plus then I can openly discuss her present without ruining any surprises.

For now I'm doing what I do every Tuesday: My fake Twitter Machine.

Enjoy

-Whitney Houston's death was only slightly more shocking than the Michael Jackson death
-I only say that because there wasn't an MJ story that would actually shock me
-100% of the pressure of Valentine's Day falls on the husband or boyfriend. Wives & girlfriends? Show up.
-Any time she says "We don't have to do anything for Valentine's Day", she is lying.
-Even if she swears up and down not to buy her anything, ignore her and do something anyways #itsforyourowngood
-My favorite thing right now are geeky Valentines like LOST, Parks and Rec and The Office themed
- For example, Chris Traeger Valentine: You are LITERALLY my favorite person EVER! #parksandrec
-Reese's Hearts are great but only serve as an appetizer for the Reese's Egg which is the greatest invention ever
-Didn't watch the Grammys. Was too busy having a fabulous dinner with my wife's family. More on that later this week.
-Pro-tip: Get her flowers for any other day BUT Valentine's Day. She'll appreciate it a lot more.
-I've caught a case of Lin-sanity
-I've never been a fan of the SI swimsuit issue, but I also was raised in the Maxim generation
-I do find it funny that the SI swimsuit issue comes out around Valentine's Day
-Ice cream in the middle of the work day should be a weekly thing
-Hell or even a daily thing
-I don't want to get too invested in new TV shows because it will just take away from my West Wing time
-Compromise: a settlement of a dispute in which two or more sides agree to accept less than they originally wanted
-What people actually think a compromise is: Just give me everything I want and I'll be happy
-Most overrated holiday candy: Conversation Hearts or Peeps?
-Pro-tip: The Princess Bride makes for a great Valentine's Day movie that you can both enjoy
-Ed Sheeran has been on repeat on my iPod. May be time for another criminally underrated.
-Why can't the government make breath mints mandatory?
-The only time I wish I lived inTennessee is when they announce the Bonnaroo line-up
-Pro-tip: Notes/Voice Memos are on the iPhone so you can remember the random shit she says she wants
-Normally I cook dinner for Erin for Valentine's Day. Working late has killed that tradition.

I'll have a Valentine's Day recap tomorrow.  Have a great V Day all you love birds.

The Grace on the Couch Series

As a bonus I'd like to present my collection of photos of Grace on the couch.  She loves being on the couch.  She is still figuring out how to get herself up there, but she sure loves it when you help her out.  These are some extras from Daddy Daughter Day.

Enjoy!

I love her!

Daddy Daughter Days

I know that I'm a few days behind on my normal Thursday post.  This is what happens when you work open to close on a Friday and have no time to write.

But you don't care about my excuses.  You just care about pictures of my children, so I'll get on with it.

I love when they "read" their books.  Grace speaks in gibberish as if that is the sentence structure in her colors or counting books.  Ana slams her hand against anything she likes and says "doggy" or "happy happy happy".  Yes it is as adorable as it sounds.

We broke out a new toy this week that is basically a modified leaf blower...in elephant form.  It shoot balls our of it's trunk when you push a button.  Ana likes to push it and run away.  Grace likes to push it and keep her hand over the trunk, so she can grab the ball.  They've also figured out where to put the plastic balls to have them shoot in the air.  And after a few days, they figured out the air coming out of the trunk will blow in their face, and that makes them laugh.

They both decided to take turns wearing their mom's fuzzy hat.  By taking turns I mean that Grace saw Ana wearing it and chased after her until she could get it off her head.  Later when Grace inevitably lost interest in it, she took it off and Ana kept trying to put it back on Grace's head.

Ana also pulled it over her own eyes and got the hugest smile on her face.  It's the little things I guess.

With Valentine's Day coming up, the girls and I decided to go shopping for Erin.  I love then planning and execution that goes into giving gifts.  I always try to put a lot of thought into the process and really consider what people want.  Even if they didn't really know they wanted it.

Grace is ready for pitchers and catchers to report.  Bring on baseball season already!

Our new Thursday tradition.  We play in the back yard.  We throw the ball up in the air as high as we can.  We climb the bridge.  At one point Grace lost her footing and tumbling off the bridge into the grass.  I had a mini-heart attack.  She just looked up at the sky and started laughing.  Glad to know she tries to find the humor in things at such an early age.

I'm taking part in the February Photo A Day challenge on Instagram.  Thursday's prompt was front door.  I tried to get a picture with the girls from outside our front door, but that turned into a herding cats situation since the both just wanted to run in opposite directions.  Instead I took a photo of what we have above our front door.  It's Gaelic for "a thousand warm welcomes".

Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend.  See you next Thursday.