Missing Mia
Mia has been gone this week visiting Grandma and Papa Hyde and while it's nice to relax without the responsibility of being a parent, the house is too quiet and and I'm really looking forward to having her back. She recently made the transition from crib into a "big girl bed" and the photo is of her while helping Mick to paint it.
I also uploaded about 40 new photos to Flickr if you haven't seen them already.
Mia-Speak
Over the last 2 years I have become bi-lingual. I speak fluent English and passable "Toddler." The tricky thing is that "Toddler" is not a standardized language and there are many dialects. In fact its probably safe to say that just about every kid from the age of 0-4 has their own personal dialect (some adults too...).
When this all starts its about as hard to learn and understand as Elvish in Tolkien novel - but with time and a good amount of paying attention you start to figure it out.
With this comes a challenge: Can you match the toddler speak to the song titles below that Mia requests over and over?
- Bom Bom Ding
- Do bop a do bop
- Hammerhamham
Answers:
- U Can't Touch This
- I Can See Clearly Now
- Orinoco Flow
Good Luck.
Future Blackmail in the Making
Since shifting my business model to be more focused on my name rather than that of my company I google my name every so often to see where I am in the rankings. It's also a good excuse to do a vanity search...
For the past couple of years the top entries on almost every search engine were related to a soldier by the same name who had died in Iraq. This was quite eerie when it first happened because the soldier also happens to be from Colorado. Since I switched to Wordpress I have noticed my ranking climb higher and higher and now I am the number one ranking on Google, Yahoo, and others.
While doing this I thought I would see where Mia and Mickie ranked. They were number one as well which wasn't a huge surprise because those names are less common than Josh. What was surprising was the text that went along with Mia's entry.
So when she's 15 and being belligerent I can pull out this picture and let her know that at one point the biggest search engine in the world had a conversation about her underwear as it's number one ranking...
In case you didn't read it, google is referencing a post I made a bit ago about how on a trip Mickie and Mia switched suitcases and ended up with each others clothes. You can read about it here.
Fortunately these things are volatile and should change soon.
Conversations with Mia
Mia: What's this?
(pointing to her wooden replica of Noah's Ark)
Daddy: That's Noah's Ark.
Mia: No it's not. It's mine.
Anybody Hungry?
I have long been annoyed with raving lunacy of PETA.
I understand that we shouldn't tie firecrackers to a cat's tail, but boy would it be somethin! No seriously I like most animals but I draw the line at giving them more special treatment than most humans. Since my birthday is coming up in a few months I wanted to give you all a head start on my gift. Don't bother getting me the vegitarian starter kit because I would much prefer this t-shirt...
Click for larger image
Oh, and in other news Mia recently converted to Judaism...
Happy Birthday Mia
Dear Mia,
Today you turn two. I can't believe how fast it has come. I always hear other parents older than me talk about where the time has gone, and even though I roll my eyes at the tired cliche, it is very true. I still can't believe God would allow me to be responsible for someone so precious. I pray every day that I will be a better dad than yesterday.
You have taught me so many things already. I have learned how to have more patience, I have learned to be gentle, I have learned to keep an eye on you at all possible times...and I have learned to love more.
I can't imagine life without you. Just a couple weeks ago you and your mom were gone for several days. I thought at first it would be nice to have some time to myself to get things done, but there was an incredible emptiness in the house. It was then I realized how much I love you and how much I love being a father.
Your sense of humor is amazing. When you fall down particularly hard you look up and say, "bonk" and then keep on doing whatever you were doing. And the cool thing is, you know when you are being funny. You know that every time you put that bucket on your head and run into things your mom and I will laugh our heads off.
My heart wells up with pride every time I see you accomplish something new and you never cease to amaze me. Just the other day you climbed all the way up the ladder at the park with no help, you can change a DVD in and out of the player and then proceed to naviagate the menus to get it to play...(what???). You will always amaze me and I will never stop being proud of you.
My favorite thing however is when you say "Daddy lay down?" which translated means: "I'm not quite ready to go to bed yet so will you lay down with me for awhile?" And we do. You tell me stories about your day and I sing your song. You just recently have been handing me a pillow saying, "here you go buddy." That cracks me up too. And after we have laid there awhile you stand up and give me a big kiss, normally on my chin and say "own bed?" which I hope means: "Thanks for hanging out with me daddy. I feel safe and loved now and I am ready to go to sleep." Maybe.
I love you so much and I can't wait to see what you will do and become in the years ahead.
Happy brithday princess.
love,
Daddy.
Bye Bye Miss American Princess
I hate it when I miss really funny and new stuff Mia does. There are always pro's and con's to working from home, but one of the awesome opportunities I have had is to have been at home for most of her life. Being away at a "real" job is probably the hardest thing about it. My time with her and Mickie is cut down drastically. But enough whining...
Today at Wendy's Mia decided that everyone in the place needed to be told "bye." And it was not just an ordinary "bye." It was a "people in Mexico heard her yell BYE." And she had to do it over and over and over again! And then if that wasn't enough, Mickie asked said they were going to pray before they ate and Mia folded her hands and closed her eyes - and then proceded to want to pray the rest of the meal. I guess she could be doing worse things.
Too bad I missed it.
"ByE!" BYe!" "bYE"
New Videos
I have just posted several new videos in the video gallery. Guess who they star? This is sort of experimental and there a few bugs I am still working out - so be patient. The videos are optimized right now for broadband connections. Sorry to those of you with dial-up. I will work on getting a dial-up section as well. For now it is my way of trying to push everyone forward to better technology. The world is so much better with broadband... Anyway, enjoy.
That Thing She Does
It's every father's job to tell everyone how cute and adorable his daughter is and I am no different. As I think back to before she was born and we thought she was he I could have never imagined having a girl. Now I can't imagine what life would be like if she had been a boy. (does that make any sense?)
Nevertheless, in the car tonight she was making a screeching noise. The noise was one that if a little louder could be quite annoying, or if it had kept on, but each time after the warble left her voice she would tell herself "no no" be quiet for a couple seconds, and repeat.
It was one of those time where you smile to yourself and force yourself not to look back. Thank goodness for rear view mirrors.
I hope to post some new video soon of our dancing queen. She's got a routine that gives Napolean Dynamite a run for his money.
You might have noticed that the sidebar on the right is getting a little fuller. I joined google's adsense program. More for the novalty I guess, but maybe I'll make a little money. It is a free program that pays me everytime someone clicks a sponsored link. So if you would like to help feed a hungry mouth...or put little Mia through college, go ahead and click. That's it just click.
I have even come up with a fun game for the ads. Google places ads relevant to the content on the site. So the challenge is to figure out what newsletter entry was the refference for that particualr ad. All right, it's not Frogger but it can still be fun.
And now for the thought of the day........"Laugh and the world laughs with you. Cry and the world laughs harder."
You've been great. I'm out.
Some New Photos
Mia and Regan at the LongsI just finished uploading almost 4gb of photos from the past year and beyond to flickr. There are 4 new sets that were not on the old site.
The new photos include: Caleb's Graduation, Abi's Graduation, Our 4th of July trip to Indiana, and our Summer Vacation to Winter Park.
You can view the photos by going here.
Enjoy!