They'll Never Take Me Alive

Emily has been asking forever for us to get this Dora couch thingy for Brenna, and it's already paid for itself a thousand times over. No more yard ape crawling all over us on OUR sofa, she now has her own and is quite proud of it.

I have the dubious chore of staying up tonight monitoring for ATM/debit card activity for two customers, as they've rerouted where it goes and how it reaches us. One credit union is tiny and I don't expect to see anything from them until the sun comes up, the other has members that work overseas, but nothing from them yet either. While I'm waiting (and downing as much caffeine as I can stand), here are a few more things of note:

- It reached 102 here today, the first 100 degree day of the year (yippee). We're 17 days late based off the yearly average, so that's nice. It's supposed to be 108 Monday and Tuesday, but then a late season front will be pushing through, and according to The Weather Channel (and I'll believe this when I see it), it's going to be 95 on Wednesday, and 79 on Thursday. Yes, 79 for a high in late May. Ha ha, I can't wait to see that happen (he chortles sarcastically at the thought of that).

- We're going to Albuquerque for Memorial Day weekend, and even though it's barely going to be 90 degrees here, which is again unheard of, it will be bordering on chilly over there. The same front that's coming through here mid-week will be hammering them a day later. This Saturday their forecast high is 73 w/ 20+ mph winds and Sunday it will barely make 80 and again, windy.

- Speaking of heat, the last two days I've come in out of the garage from running on the treadmill smelling like week old road kill. On the positive side, there's nothing quite like purging yourself of toxins by running for a mile in a hot, stuffy garage. I've managed to run six miles total over the past seven days, and have whittled my time down about a minute to 8:45. That trend I can guarantee you won't be continuing, breaking nine minutes about broke me down these last two days, and I may have to shift to distance running if I get mired in the eight minute range for a while. This nifty site, http://www.runbayou.com/Wavacalc.htm, has a cool calculator for how well you're doing with your time for your age, based off some data they've accumulated, and at this point I'm in the 45th percentile with my lightning quick 8:45 time. I guess I shouldn't complain for having just started back up running again for the first time in two months.




I like this lounging around in our underwear picture. It was that kind of a day.





Like father, like daughter.

Brenna Sandwich

Evening. It's blog time again.

You ever seen a coin like this before? Neither had Emily or I until it showed up in the collection at church a few weeks ago. An interesting story about this company, if you care to look them up on the internet. Basically they produce(d) alternative currency to what the Federal Reserve prints/issues. Go figure, who knew such a thing even existed, I certainly didn't.

Below is a 2003 issue of a .999 pure silver coin, at the time issued at $10 face value (when silver was worth about that). Because of the underground interest in these coins by people who believe the world is coming to an end, and the fact that the federal government last November raided this company and confiscated all of their belongings (I hear they're back in business now), we sold this coin for $23 on EBAY for the church.

We're taking Brenna to her allergist on Tuesday to figure out what else other than eggs she's allergic to now. She still from time to time wakes up in the middle of the night arching her back and screaming, sometimes uncontrollably. Emily has a friend online who has a child about Brenna's age that has the same problem, and for him/her it turned out to be reflux plus an allergic reaction to something else. Emily has cut out wheat in addition to eggs, fish and nuts, and Brenna still seems to he having issues. Dairy may be the issue as well, but we won't know until a blood draw is done (yippee). Stay tuned for more news there. Funny enough, Brenna sleeps just fine during the day at daycare because she sleeps elevated in an old stroller (which supports the reflux thing).

We just bought Brenna this Dora sleeper sofa for the living room. It seems to be a huge hit and beats her standing right up next to the TV and/or sitting on a basket full of her toys.

Here she is about to pounce on her cousin Rachel. We're still working on training her that it's not polite to beat on people and/or gouge their eyes out, and Emily is constantly trimming her nails so she doesn't draw blood on the other kids at daycare. We enjoy wrestling with her at night to wear her out for bedtime, and are trying to distinguish for her the difference between that and sneak attacking people for no apparent reason. She's a smart cookie, and we're teaching her to say please and thank you (and she's started telling us that she loves us, which you just can't beat).

I barely found the energy to post this blog tonight. We typically both will lay in bed with Brenna while she's going down for the night, and inevitably we both end up falling asleep, which makes it difficult to get back up and do this. With a Starbucks Mocha Cappucino, and some Black Crowes on the iPod, I've managed to get through this. I highly recommend the Amorica album, as well as their new one, Warpaint, glad to see this great band get back together finally.

I also have recently bought a serious pair of running shoes for the treadmill, as my others were wearing blisters in my arches (not good). While a storm was blowing through here yesterday afternoon (see the Hoes blog for more on that, ah, I love seques), I shaved another 30 seconds off my mile (down to 9:05).

And with that, my Brenna sandwich is complete. Fin.

Wrestling Video

For those of you that have not seen the Brenna flip yet, here you go.

Brenna Sings A Song

Here are a few videos of Brenna from last night. Before I could get the camera, she was singing every word to the Taxi song they're playing on Noggin these days.

For those of you that would like to follow along with Brenna's abbreviated rendition recorded here, these are the lyrics

Taxi, taxi, riding in the back seat

Roll the window up, roll the window down

Put the money in the slot, see ya later, thanks a lot

Sure beats walking 'cross town

I think that about covers it. Brenna sings most of this, I'll make another attempt to get the full version at a later time.

I've also updated the Art Gallery and the Hoes blog today, so sit and stay awhile.

Sunday Happenings, Pt. 2

Brenna's mood changed for the better once we got home from church and she was free to roam around. She had hugs to share with everyone.

Soon I'll be posting some new Brenna tub art on her art gallery blog (she's drawing some pretty good circles these days), and a video of her singing a new song they're playing on Noggin about taxis that she has every word down. Stay tuned.

Sunday Happenings, Pt. 1

Here are a few shots of Brenna from Sunday before going to church for the baby dedication, and during, when she got a wee bit crabby.

Saturday Vegging

Here are a few pictures of Brenna watching an episode of Diego that came on Noggin earlier today. Her Diego figure must be clutched in her little hand when the theme music comes on, or there is a mutiny to follow.




Ok, so we do interact with our daughter. Man, from the looks of this picture you'd expect to see a trail of drool running out of her mouth and cobwebs forming around her. I promise she's a very active little girl, really. Typically we limit the Diego to an episode a night before bedtime, but we couldn't pull her away from the TV quick enough when this one came on today.




There are actually two posts today, but only keep scrolling if you're interested in my hair. There is no more Brenna to follow this cute picture, proceed at your own risk.

Ferrets On Sabbatical

This morning the two ferrets that were taking up residence on my dome, Harry and Curly, vacated for the summer. With 100 degree temps forecasted for early next week, I woke up this morning with an overwhelming desire to make a clean start.

Seriously, my hair hasn't been this long in the front, well, ever. It was curling, laides and gentleman, in the FRONT. If I had held out until October, I could have pulled off a mean Kramer for Halloween, but it would have been a LONG, miserable summer.

Here is one final look at the hair, pre-cut.



Emily stopped mid-shave to suggest that we make this the final product, you know, a new fashion statement, Zoolander-style, but we pressed on despite the urge to make history.



Hmm, pondering the final result.



What have I done????



Our daughter, by the way, was very amused by this process, although she ran away when I asked her if she wanted her head shaved next. I can't imagine why.

Stop, Fart, And Roll

Hi again. Been a while. How are you? Great.

We're still hear, I somehow took a four or five day hiatus from posting here. I can't say as it was that busy a week, but here it is Friday night/Saturday morning, and all I have to share are some leftover pictures from last weekend and some other assorted nuggets.

Brenna continues to have some issues sleeping at night, constantly interrupted by tummy problems (hence the title of this fine post). Emily is making some modifications to her diet in hopes of alleviating some of the symptoms, and we're going in on the 20th for a check up with the allergist to see if wheat or dairy are now causing problems for our little one's digestive system.

Outside of that news, there isn't much else to share. My greatest accomplishment this week was ridding myself of an old file cabinet that had been haunting our garage for the last couple of years (it finally made it's way out in the trash). Wow, how is that for newsworthy?

Ok, so Grandma Becky is still feeling much maligned for my choice of pictures of her in this blog. I'm told I tend to find the most unflattering pictures imaginable, where she appears to be dumbfounded, or otherwise stoned out of her gourd.

Hey, here's a much better picture. Everyone is happily riding along on the ostrich mobile, and even my out of control hair is cut out of the frame. Everyone wins on this one, right?

One of the guys from Hanoi Rocks was in the aviary with us last weekend, he's behind Brenna feeding one of the moochers with wings. Our daughter is a little concerned with having one so close to her (the bird, not the guy with the weird hair... okay, I'm one to talk).

Seriously, something must be done about the hair, it must be stopped before it takes over the world. This is a neat picture of Picacho Peak, one you don't see from the Interstate (and certainly not graced by ostriches and family members). I think Grandpa Ron might even have part of an ostrich in his hat, I can't quite tell, but it sounds good, I can't imagine a better place for an ostrich to be than in someone's hat.

Please come back, it's not always like this here. I promise some new pictures of Brenna soon, she's getting dedicated this weekend at church, that should make for something worth sharing. And there's Mother's Day, that's always good for a kick in the pants. There will be grilling... smoke, fire and meat are pretty photogenic. It should be pushing 100 this weekend, sweaty faces are good for blogging as well. If the stars align, I'll post a picture of sweaty people wielding grilling utensils with dripping meat hanging off them, with a raging fire in the background. Ah, if only...

Playing In The PJs

Here are a few pictures of Brenna playing last night before bedtime.

Ostrich Farm!

Someone in the family got a wild hair to suggest that we all round up and go to an Ostrich farm today. Go figure. In the end it was quite the hoot.

Where we went was about 50 miles north of Tucson, the first picture is of the monster truck that took us on a tour of the facilities.

Here is Emily bravely feeding these nasty creatures. They're not too polite in taking food from you, Rachel got bitten on the hand (to the point of drawing blood) while attempting to feed them directly, rather than though the chute you see below in this picture.

Brenna was a pill most of the weekend, but she enjoyed this place for the most part. Seeing grandma cheered her up, here the two of them are walking up the giant ramp to board the tour truck.

So far, so good, as Emily and Brenna pose while on the tour, which took us through feeding facilities and some other places.

Here's an ostrich protecting it's eggs, this was also along the tour route.

Something must be done about my hair, and this is Exhibit A. Here we are rolling up and down some bumpy road on the truck. In a few places we caught some air going down dips and over hills.

Emily and Brenna took some time to feed the deer, they were pretty polite with the hand feeding.

Exhibit B, a bird building a nest in the clump of dead ferrets on my head.

Our daughter is becoming rather fond of picking her nose. You'll see more pictures like this in the future.

See, I told you so.



One of the better shots in the aviary. Brenna wouldn't let any of these guys land on her, but enjoyed them from a safe distance.

One More Look At Chattanooga



Here are a few more pictures from our trip last week. Brenna's bottom two canines came in at seemingly the same time, so to say she's been a bit on edge this weekend so far would be an understatement. Needless to say we won't be posting any pictures of her until her mood changes a tad. In the meantime, let's go back to the past for a bit.

Here's a nice shot of Brenna after she wandered through the fountain at the park, I posted a shot of this fountain a few days ago.

Here's Brenna after playing peekaboo with her washcloth, she was very pleased with herself.

Here we are on the back porch watching it rain last Sunday. Brenna insisted on taking her giant (on loan) Winnie the Pooh with her.

Another shot of Brenna at the water exhibit at the discovery museum. Grandma H is looking on.



They had a cool dinosaur dig exhibit at the museum, Brenna and I are looking for bones in this shot.

The observation deck at the top of the museum was closed due to the "bad weather". It had rained the day before and was a tad windy when we were there the following day, but it was pretty nice, all in all. I didn't see the sign, so here's a shot of Chattanooga from the deck. Bad Tom.

Still at the museum, Brenna is checking out a neat car in the home living exhibit. They had a huge play kitchen, but she was more interested in this thing and going down a slide that they had in there.

Finally, still at the museum, despite the weight of ten pounds of hair on my head, I managed to pull myself up via this pulley system. Wonders never cease.

Brenna Skills

Here's a nice video of Brenna counting to eleven, ala Spinal Tap ("Why don't you just make Brenna louder at 10? This Brenna goes to 11"), identifying numerous shapes and colors. We seemed to be rather fixated with the number 8 and yanked mama's chain when asked to identify the color red. Anyway, see for yourself, it's a long one, but worth the watch!

BTW - I just watched this uploaded on the blog and there seems to be a pretty good lag between the audio and video, so you may have to take my word for it that she's properly identifying her colors (except red, of course). After Emily draws a spitting image of myself, the audio starts to lag pretty bad, maybe it's my connection.

Flying Home

Here are a few pictures of Brenna flying home yesterday from Nashville. She did well on the ride back to the airport from Chattanooga (other than going postal about the prospect of getting french fries at Wendys only to be turned away when they weren't taking plastic).

Emily bought Brenna the Diego and Dora beanie collection to keep her occupied on the plane, and that more than did the trick (plus our portable DVD player, which was a lifesaver all the way around).

Here Brenna is holding Diego and baby jaguar while standing at Emily's feet. We were thankful to have a free row to ourselves coming and going (flying mid week each direction probably helped).

There's a trend you'll see in these pictures, Diego is firmly in our daughters hand at every turn.

Here she is being a big girl, strapped into her own seat, and watching who else, but Diego on the DVD player.

And here she is finally at home, showing off her floral headdress thingy that she got at the Ren Fair in Atlanta.

To date, in her 18 months here, our little girl has:

- Flown to Nashville from Phoenix two times

- Flown to Pennsylvania from Phoenix (via Chicago)

- Ridden from Nashville to Chattanooga to Atlanta twice

- Ridden from Phoenix to Las Vegas

- Ridden from Phoenix to Colorado Springs

Quite a number of miles under the old belt! Next year we'll be trying Hawaii in the Fall (and we'll be buying a second battery for our DVD player for that six hour flight!).