It Wasn't Me!! It Was (insert name)!!

We weren't sure it would be appropriate for Ally to walk around church or other public places and yell out something like "I farted" or "I burped" or anything like that so we've coined some other phrases as codewords. She refers to a burp as a moose and the opposite end as a buffalo. Now she can yell out "Dad, did you hear the buffalo?" and no one will have any idea what she's talking about. Everyone has their own way of raising kids and this is ours. Well, before we had our puppy Coach we got another named Jackson. He was short-lived as we had to give him back the next day: He was too big for Ally and she kinda freaked. The funny thing about this dog was that he freakin' wreaked. We got him on New Year's Day and he was hanging out with us that night for a bit. I was sitting on the floor and Becky was up on the loveseat. Jackson was laying somewhere between us and I took a whiff of something that made my eyes water. I couldn't believe it when Becky all of a sudden accused me of burning some incense that was long past its expiration date. I was offended by this as I'm NOT known for being a regular culprit in those circumstances. But she blamed me nonetheless. My problem was that I was both laughing and crying so hard that I couldn't say or do anything to defend myself. It took a good while before she realized the origin. Oh but don't worry, that wasn't the only incident with this pooch.

Now fast forward to this afternoon just after dinner. Ally let one rip pretty good and had this embarrassed look on her face. When I looked at her in shock, she simply said "Hey, I didn't do any buffalo. It was Jackson!"

I'm not sure which position she was in at the time of the infraction. Just by the smile on her face, I vote for pic #2.

Greatest Hits

As most of you know, we listen mostly to country in our home. So naturally, Ally has taken a liking to country music as well. When Tim McGraw's last CD came out, he had a song called "Fly Away" in which he laughs part of the way through. We didn't think she was paying much attention to it until she laughed the same exact way right on cue the next time she heard the song. This was nearly 2 years ago when wasn't quite 2 yet. As she's gotten older, she's gotten more into the music to the point where she's singing along to everything and now requests songs by name. Since she keeps asking, we decided to burn her a compilation of her favorite songs. Little does she know that it's really a great way to keep ourselves from having to hear the ABC song or "Ring Around the Rosie" 40 times in a row. So here's how the compilation shapes up:

• Sugarland - Already Gone (she started singing the hook one day in the car, before I had heard the song for the first time myself)
• Sugarland - All I Want to Do (known as the Monkey Song, hear it for yourself to know why. Listening to her sing this is probably the cutest thing. Top requested song.)
• Andy Griggs - She's More (all she needs to hear is the line about green eyes)
• Brad Paisley - Whiskey Lullaby (the Angels song)
• Jason Michael Carroll - Livin' Our Love Song (there's a line where he says "Fairytale Princess" and that's all a 3 year old little girl needs to hear)
• Keith Urban - Jeans On (she likes to clap along to this one)
• Keith Urban - Got it Right This Time [The Celebration] (known as the "Ohh" song)
• Keith Urban - It's a Love Thing (loves singing the hook)
• Keith Urban - Raise the Barn (this is the Hallelujah song)
• Keith Urban - Sweet Thing (do-do-do song... she actually knows the words to part of it. I thought it was great the other day when I asked her how was the big girl class at church and she said that they sang songs, but they didn't sing the do-do-do song. She looked disappointed.)
• Kenny Chesney - When the Sun Goes Down (another catchy hook)
• Kid Rock - All Summer Long (there's something funny about a little girl rocking out to Kid Rock... this is probably the next most requested song on the compilation)
• R. Kelly - Red Carpet [Pause, Flash] (yet another catchy hook)
• Sheryl Crow - Soak Up the Sun (upbeat happy song that she likes moving to)
• Tim McGraw - When the Stars Go Blue (perhaps the song she knows best)
• Tim McGraw - My Little Girl (do I really need to explain this one? There's a line that she likes to sing out loud that goes, "Daddy, love you more! Every time that line comes on or when he says "my little girl," it's necessary that we hold hands)
• Tim McGraw - Last Dollar [Fly Away] (any song that features counting and little kids singing tends to attract the attention of little kids)
• Tim McGraw - Grown Men Don't Cry (features a line that says "I love you, Dad.")
• Raffi featuring Keith Urban - Apples and Bananas (a traditional kids song from an album of Raffi songs performed by country artists. Keith Urban + kids' song = an instant favorite.)
• The Spaniels - Good Night Sweetheart (I got this from "Three Men and a Little Baby" and I sing this to her at night. She now knows the words herself.)
• Lupe Fiasco - Kick, Push (see below)

Lupe Fiasco is actually a Chicago rapper. I don't know much about him except that he's into skateboarding. This song is actually about skateboarding... kicking your foot out and then pushing with it to gain speed, get it? Anyhow, the hook basically goes "Kick, Push, Kick, Push, and Coast." She's not really into skateboarding or anything but this song has now become her theme song for potty-training. Grammy became one of her first students so you can ask her about it. See, what she does is she'll be sitting on the toilet when she needs to poop and she'll teach you that in order to do the business that you need to Kick, Push, and Coast. She uses the leg motions and everything. This doesn't end at home as she taught class at Sweet Tomatoes the other night as well. My one question regarding this is why does everyone look at me as though I'm the one who taught her this? Can't you see from the picture above that I'm raising a perfect little princess?

I'm going to be searching for new material before she wears out this CD. Any suggestions?

It's a BOY!!!

We’ve got some big news! And we figure it’s time that we share it publicly and let everyone else in on it. As you know, we bought a home a few months ago and now we’ve got all this extra space to fill. We went from a 2-bedroom apartment to a 4-bedroom house, and we’ve only got 1 kid. That means we’ve got 2 extra rooms. So what are you supposed to do with that ratio? Well, only 1 logical choice and that’s to fill in the cracks and even things out.

We’ve been considering the possibility of an addition to the home and it’s something we’ve been planning for a while now. We knew we wanted our family to grow and have the type of fun we’ve been having with Ally all over again. Now that we’re settled in our new home and we’ve kinda figured out the dynamics of the home, we decided it’s time for something to happen. So word came down today of what we were having and... ta-da!! It’s a BOY!!! Here are the initial first pictures.



So this is our new little boy, Coach. He's a purebred pomeranian. he's currently 4 months old and has more energy than the 3 of us put together. He likes to chew on whatever he can fit in his mouth. He had a hold of my sock while it was still on my foot. So I lifted my leg (no, not like he would do... get that out of your mind) and he held on and started spinning around. It was actually rather funny. He still needs a little more training as he's only had 1 class so far. We just got him this afternoon so we were not there for the training but we plan to continue on. He even arrived with puppy diapers and everything. We're playing paper-scissors-rock later to see who changes him first.

The previous owner lived in an apartment so he was couped up inside. You can imagine how much of a little fireball he was when he got his first taste of the backyard. Not sure how we got him to settle down long enough for these pics but we managed. It wasn't easy.

Well, there you have it: The first exclusive look at Ally's new little brother. If you thought anything otherwise at the beginning then I apologize for misleading you. It was never my intention. I say that with all honesty and without a smirk. The same goes for that last line. So til next time, rock on and... gotta go, he's going after the remote. Toodles!

Trial Run

So for those of you who may remember, I used to have a lot of fun writing a weekly newsletter of my daughter Allyson. It featured a few pictures and a description of each picture as well as a few updates of what we were up to during that particular time. This became a weekly ritual that took place every Sunday (usually) night. I guess you could say that I was "blogging" so I figured... why not just start a blog? This way, folks don't have to spend 3 days trying to open an email containing 3-4 pictures. Thos who have still use dial-up I'm sure will appreciate that. So I'll pop in every now and then and see what comes to mind. I can almost guarantee you that it will almost always have something to do with Ally. In fact, here's a preview of the type of thing you may find...

A couple days ago I went to the grocery store with Ally. They have a Red Box just inside the door. If you're not familiar with Red Box, it's just a DVD rental kiosk that costs $1 to rent/day. Ally's under the impression that we're getting a movie every time we hit the grocery store so naturally she asked if we could get one. She recognizes Batman and is dead set on watching the Dark Knight with me one of these days. No, I have not let her watch it. I know it's too intense for her and some of the movies I rent tend to be higher than a G rating so I watch them after she goes to bed. So as we're approaching the door, she tells me, "Daddy, can we get a movie? I don't want one of those bad ones that you watch after I go to bed." I'm not sure what was running through the minds of the 2 little old ladies walking beside us who began chuckling but I didn't exactly want to see the look on their faces either. If there's a moral to this story is just be sure that you know what you're doing when you decide to have kids. Be prepared to handle being embarassed in public on numerous occasions. This is why I may choose not to have more than 2 kids; 1 kid to a parent or you're outnumbered. Best form of birth control? Try raising a monkey like the one we got.

I'm sure this will improve over time as I get used to this and learn more about how all this works. But until then, enjoy...