BLEPHAROSPASMODIC

Lily: I wanna snack Daddy.
Me: Do you want to help me make dinner when we get home?
Lily: Um, no. I wanna snack. I want cer-dels (cereal)
Me: Lily, It’s dinner time, we’re gonna have dinner, ok?
Lily: Nooo! I want, um… my tummy aches, ok daddy? - I need a snack!
Me: Well, maybe you can have a little snack, but we’re gonna make dinner.
Lily: No daddy! No ninner.. My tummy aches!
Me: Well, what do you want to help me make for dinner?
Lily: No daddy - listen me! My tummy aches, ok? I need snack!
Me: Ok, Lily, we’ll have dinner in a few minutes.
Lily: Daddy, I want macanonolds.
Me: Lily, we’re not having Macdonald’s for dinner - I’m sorry
Lily: Daddy, my tummy aches. Macanonolds make it better - no ninner, please!
Me: Macdonald’s makes your tummy better?
Lily: yeeeeaaaas! Cheeseburger, apples, milk, Ok Daddy???
Me: Um, no.
Lily: Ok, um, I want Cer-derl
Me: *sigh*

I’ve uploaded some of my favorite pictures from February. You can get to them and others by clicking here The link is also on the left sidebar.

I miss Amanda and Lily… although, I have had a relaxing day since they left yesterday afternoon; I watched movies, took a small nap, read some Bukowski, surfed the net, ate cheese curls and Strawberry Fig Newtons, etc, etc, etc.

I also started thinking as I tend to do during these times. You know, the average person male lives to be somewhere around 75 years old. That sounds like a pretty long time, but then I started thinking how that computed to only 75 summers, and that I’m closing in on halfway there. I’ve used up nearly half of my Falls - half of my Springs, my summers, my winters. Then I started thinking that I need to take more vacations. So I started surfing expedia.com and other vacation sites. Then I realized that we need to save more money. Then I started thinking about paying for private school for Lily, and for college, and retirement. Why does my brain have to work this way? *stabs brain…

Anyway, some places I’d like to go and see before I die:

• Alaska / British Columbia
• The Caribbean
• The Mediterranean
• Mexico
• Boston / New England
• Thailand
• Arkansas (ah-hahahaha - yeah, right)
• Egypt
• Ireland

Of course, I can’t really complain too much: I’ve skied  the Alps, hiked the Andes, traveled much of Europe…  Now I just need to do it with  my family….

Lily: Daddy, i wanna see ‘din-sers murching’
Me: What??
Lily: i wanna see din-sers murching
Me: You wanna what??
Lily: um, see din-sers murching. I wanna watch din-sers-murching, p[l]ease
Me: You wanna watch what now? Din-sers murching???
Lily: yeeeaas. I wanna watch Din-sers murching on the TV!!
Me: Lily, what is “Din-sers-Murching?”
Lily: uuuuumm… I wanna dance - Din-sers - murch.. TV (begins marching and stomping around the room)
Me: Oh… You want to watch “Dinosaurs marching?” (Laurie berkner video/DVD)
Lily: YEEEEAAAAASSSSS!
Me: Well, why didn’t you say so?
Lily: Oh, ok. Din-sers murching on TV now, oKAY daddy????
Me: Yes, ma’am
—————————————-
Lily:Daddy, I want some Cer-der (cereal)
Me: Ok, which cereal do you want? This one?
Lily: No - I want the cer-der my school.
Me: say what now?
Lily: I eat cer-der my school - I want cer-der my school
Me: Lily, we’re not at school; were at home…
Lily: [big overextended fake cry]
Me: What’s wrong Lily?
Lily: I sad.
Me: You’re sad? why, what happened?
Lily: [sniff] I miss my school

While talking on the phone, Lily walks out of the bathroom, pants and underpants around her ankles yelling, “Daddy! I popped on (the) potty!!”

There is an upside and a downside. But she’s been doing great - we just need to remember to constantly ask her, even though she does go by herself sometimes.

The weather was pretty nice today, despite having rained all day yesterday, so I decided to take Lily to the park. We were having a pretty nice time and after a short time, a fairly young guy came up with his two sons and year old daughter. The daughter was in the swing next to Lily, and we started small talking (’nice weather, isn’t it? How old is she?’ etc) It was at this point that things started to get a little strange. Now, I don’t consider myself a scary looking person, or someone that people would cross to the other side of the street if they saw me coming - and maybe having a little daughter with me made me seem less of a threat, but nonetheless, in my book, when it comes to kids, “stranger=danger” That being said….

I know parents love to show their children off, and we have them perform their tricks in front of other people, but this guy went a little too far in my opinion. He asked his son a series of questions, all of which he was able to answer:

1. Can you tell this man your name?
2. Can you tell him your birthday?
3. Can you spell your first and last name?
4. Can you tell him your address?
5. Can you tell him your phone number?
6. Can you tell him where your Mom and Dad work?
7. What school do you go to?

I was waiting for him to ask his son for his social security number so I could apply for a credit card in his name. Maybe I’m a little overprotective, but I think giving out that kind of personal information to a random stranger in the park is a bit odd. I mean, isn’t that where pedophiles and other vagabonds tend to hang out?

However, that wasn’t event the strangest part of my park experience. Immediately after Nick telling me all his private information, he told his dad he had to ‘go poop outside.’ his dad kinda looked at me, and then told his son, no, we’ll have to go to the trash can. And then, yes, he pulled down his son’s pants and held him over the giant blue trash can while his son defecated into it. I stood there in awe watching, giving his daughter a little push on the swing here and there and telling Lily not to look. This looked like a nice family - a new car, well dressed, etc..

We left quite quickly after that.

Lily was very excited about Christmas this year.  She went to see Santa twice and told him that she wanted:
1. A blue toy (whatever that is)
2. A baby bed (for her dolls)
3. A Penguin
4. A CD (of baby music)

There were NO penguins to be had anywhere in town (stupid Happy Feet movie).  Amanda searched everywhere.  Then she gave me the idea to try the zoo (nice save, mom!)  Lily and I went to the zoo to see the penguins, and while she was preoccupied with looking at things in the gift shop, I picked up 3 stuffed penguins.  They even had a slight fishy smell that lasted for a day! yum.   Anyway…

Lily was obsessed with the fireplace and that ‘clause’ was coming ‘down der’ .  She insisted that we open it again and again. She had it all planned out.. she kept telling me all day: “Clause down der, cookies, milk, presents - under tree, baby bed, wake up me!!” (somehow she had it in her head that Santa was going to wake her up.. I don’t know where she got that..)  Anyway, right before bedtime, we left cookies and milk and made sure the chimney was open.  That was the very first thing she checked (as you can see by the video.. she blasted right past her presents to check the fireplace!)

She had a good Christmas.. A kitchen set, a blackboard/white board easel, penguins, a baby bed, books, puzzles, videos, weebles village, a giant playhouse, slippers, and other things.  I’ll have some more videos posted on my YouTube site after I sort through them.  I’ll also have some pictures posted to my photo galleries sometime today…

I hope everyone has a great new year!