Happy New Year (01-04-2010)

It has been almost two months since i last posted and there is little excuse. Time just seems to fly by with work and family. We are doing great and Rachel is growing both physically and emotionally every day. She is so smart and amazes me daily. Rachel is awesome! She runs the house and (tries) tells us what to do and how to do it. She has a personality and is so humorous. She will laugh with you and try to make you laugh. Rachel is silly.
Here are some pictures from our visit to Cincinnati at Thanksgiving with Rachel and her cousin Jenna. Lisa and Jackie thought it would be cute to dress both girls up in the football dresses of their daddy's favorites team. So Jenna is a Bengal cheerleader and Rachel is a Browns cheerleader. There are pictures from Christmas morning and Rachel opening presents. There is also a few pictures of Rachel in her Santa dress. We kind of forgot to take a picture with her in it until the end of the day. There is a picture of her and me playing peek-a-boo with the covers.

Sunday November 8th 2009

Lisa made it back from Sweden safe and sound. Rachel and i survived and had a great time. There were no horror stories or even any significant problems to mention. Rachel had her moments when she cried for her Mommy, but they were far less than i expected. Lisa came home to a really messy house, but other than that, i would give myself an ' A' for the week.

Nothing else of note is going on here. Rachel got her first application of the swine flu vaccine on Thursday and that went fine. Obviously, she did not like the needle in her leg, but other than that, it went well.

Rachel is still not talking clearly but she knows many words and slurs them when trying to speak. If you spend any time around her, you know will easily figure out what she is saying.

Just off the top of my head, she says - ball, teeth, keys, yes, no, crackers, cookies, banana, feet, book, and dora. She understands each of those words and knows their general meaning.

She can also identify numerous body parts and will point to them if you ask her where they are. Among those are eyes, nose, ears, mouth, hair, neck, shoulders, hands, feet, knees, elbows.

Just out of the blue this week, she started wagging her index finger saying NO NO NO. And she would giggle when she finished.

Rachel is awesome! Here are a few pics i took today after church.

Sunday November 1st 2009

Hello from Virginia. Lisa is currently in an airplane somewhere over the Atlantic ocean heading to Sweden and Rachel is sleeping in her crib. Today was the first night in what i expect to be, a very sad week. We dropped Lisa off at the airport around 3:00 this afternoon and it will be Daddy & Rachel until Thursday evening. Tonight went pretty well but she did keep repeating 'mommy' over and over. But there were really no tears about the lack of mommy (yet!). The rest of the week will be interesting for the two of us.

Rachel dressed up as a lady bug for Halloween and I have included some photos from the past few days. There are photos of her dancing (a jig) , some are her licking her bubble making wand (yuck), some photos after she had some chocolate and it is on her face. There are a wide variety of photos. These pictures are from Friday and Saturday. Enjoy.

Thursday October 8th 2009

When I got home from work tonight, Rachel and Lisa were at the playground at the end of the street, playing on the slide. Here is a video (taken from my iphone) of the 'big' girl. If you turn the volume up, you can hear her say 'Mommy and Daddy'.

Friday October 2nd 2009

We are still alive and doing well. It has been months since i have posted anything and i apologize for that. Our batteries died in our digital camera and I had to order replacement batteries off of ebay because no one seems to make the batteries any more. Best Buy and Circuit City no longer carried them.

Rachel is awesome and is getting taller and skinnier. She eats and eats and is not picky about any kind of food. She will eat anything you put on her plate.

Rachel is still not talking much. She points and grunts at things she wants. But she does say about 20 words, just not clearly. examples are bah=ball, cacka-crackers, buhb=bubbles (she likes to play with bubbles in the yard). But she does say Daddy crystal clear and that is nice. She also likes to say 'Uh Oh' whenever she see something that does not seem right to her. examples of her saying Uh Oh would be when the TV is paused or shut off or when something falls on the floor.

Rachel knows exactly what she wants and how she wants it. It is great watching her develop a personality and grow up. She is very bossy and will come and grab your hand and lead you around the house to do her bidding.

I will post some pictures soon but as of right now, we do not have any because the camera has been without batteries.

Lisa and I still have jobs and do not see that changing anytime soon, so we have that going for us also.

I will take pictures over the weekend and post early next week.

Friday July 10th 2009

Hello. After work tonight, Rachel found (i think Mommy gave her) some pan lids. She was walking around banging them, so i grabbed my iPhone and grabbed a good video spot (on the couch), and here it is. My camera work got shaky towards the end and i apologize for my finger getting on the screen. Hope you enjoy.

Wednesday July 8th 2009

Hello. Rachel is feeling much better and Lisa is on her way. Lisa still does not feel the greatest but she is better than she was this weekend. I am surprised that I did not catch the bug because i am usually susceptible.

I have sold me old iphone 3G on ebay this week. I actually sold it for more than i paid for the 3GS and after paying the fees (ebay, paypal, shipping), i actually made about $15. So I would have to say it was a great upgrade for me. If you are curious as to why the older phone is more worth more, it is because you can take the phone and use it with any carrier and not have to have a 2-year service commitment. With my new phone, i paid $299 for it but had to commit to a 2 year service plan and had to use AT&T. The person who bought my phone now can take the phone and use Sprint or Virgin or whomever they want and not be locked in for two years. For some reason (thanks AT&T) my phone was eligible to be ugraded but Lisa's upgrade would have been $499 and we decided that even though we could recoup alot of that selling her old phone, it was not worth upgrading yet.

My work is going fine. Sales are down but it could always be worse. We could be trying to sell construction material in Detroit. I truly do feel for you peeps back in the heartland. Lisa has some potential changes happening at her work and we are keeping our fingers crossed about that.

Tonight before bed, Rachel was in a very playful mood and here is another video of her dancing. I tried to get her at floor level and i think it turned out cute. I promise i will start using the iphone video for better things than Yo Gabba Gabba dancing, just not yet.