LuLu loses her first tooth!

By January 15th LuLu had been complaining that her two (bottom) front teeth had been loose for days. While YaYa had always been eager to yank 'em out when she had a loose one, Lu chose a more sensible path of waiting for it to come naturally. Unfortunately, one of the two was too loose to be kept in use but too attached to come out on its own.

It was time for intervention.







My dental history reads like a visit to Lawrence Oliver in Marathon Man, and so I leave this tooth business to Lisa.

But LuLu met Lisa's attempts with panic and alarm



and so I had to step in. Cashing in on my reputation for squeamishness, LuLu firmly believed my claim that I just wanted to 'feel the tooth wiggle'. A few good rocking motions and a little 'oomph' and the tooth came out.

My little girl had lost her first tooth!

You cannot imagine the look of happiness and pride on her face. "I can't believe I did it!" she announced with awe.









Then, cue YaYa having a crying fit because we were allegedly giving LuLu more attention than we did her first tooth, which is a crock. Her evidence was that she couldn't find a blog post about her own tooth, which may or may not be true; either way tough tata kid, this was your sister's day.

[YaYa would later leave a note on our bed apologizing for her jealousy (her words) and asking our forgiveness. And, oh yeah, by the way can you make me Pop Tarts in the morning?]

For myself, I was stuck running to Target before they closed for the night. The normal Tooth Fairy donation is a buck, but for the first tooth we like to give a few trinkets instead. When YaYa lost her first tooth we were still living in the old, predominantly Mexican neighborhood. When the tooth gave up the ghost - again, near closing time for most stores - I had to run to the local El Rey grocery store and buy some hair doodads and a Virgin Mary necklace to place under her pillow.

LuLu got a [clearance priced] set of lip gloss in a carrying case and a set of two tooth Firefly toothbrushes that light up for a minute so the kid knows how long to brush.

Included with these items was a computer generated note from the Tooth Fairy, duly printed in a pink font.

[LuLu]

Congratulations on losing your very first tooth! I am so happy for you!
Here is a set of lip gloss for you and two very special toothbrushes. They will tell you how long to brush your teeth - I don’t want you to lose the pretty grown-up teeth you’ll be getting now!
I want you to give one of the brushes to your sister [YaYa] because my spies have told me she doesn’t brush enough!

Always watching,


The Tooth Fairy

She loved the gifts. The very next day she lost the other tooth and promptly dropped it in my bedroom, where it was never to be seen again despite an all-out search.
For that one we just left a note explaining the loss to the Tooth Fairy.

Happily, she didn't seem to mind and left behind a dollar for Lu :)

Waiter! There's a fly in my pancakes!

While making breakfast yesterday Lisa opened a 20 oz box of Bisquick pancake batter. The box was new and pristine, and the bag of mix inside was sealed and had no leaks, tears, or holes.

Despite all this, as Lisa was about to open the bag she saw a full grown and very healthy fly merrily making its way among the pancake batter. Remember, this was INSIDE A SEALED BAG.





Argh, hard to see anything in the last shot, but I believe it's crawling around the top center of the bag in that frame.

No matter, here's a video of the oddity.



Not exactly a finger in your fast-food chili, but it made for swell breakfast conversation all the same.

So did we make the pancakes? Of course - but not with that mix. We went out and bought a local generic brand, made right here in good ol' Wisconsin and not that fly-ridden General Mills factory in Minnesota.

"You should write Bisquick and complain," Lisa said as she made some yummy cranberry flapjacks.

"Darn right," I replied. "Why, we could be hundredaires!"

Seriously though, I am going to write them and complain. Yuck.

Lisa and Lu

Lisa and our second-born on Christmas morning.

Some pictures of The. Best. Cat. Ever.

Here's some pictures of Billy and YaYa.

Notorious BIG: Bigger Than Life

"Poppa been smooth since days of underoos"

I was largely oblivious to the infamous East Coast/West Coast rap feud of the mid '90's, since it didn't seem very relevant to a white guy in Milwaukee. If my allegiance could be determined by record sales, I was pure West Coast. I owned a pair of Tupac CD's, and Dre's Chronic was on frequent rotation on my stereo.

Even so it was hard to escape the influence of East Coast rapper Biggie Smalls, a man widely respected by everyone in the industry, even Tupac. That last one says a lot, since the Biggie/Tupac feud was at the very center of the West/East Coast dispute that eventually led to both of their murders.

Notorious BIG: Bigger than Life is a documentary that traces the life of Biggie - aka Christopher Wallace. It is NOT the current feature film based on his life.

It doesn't focus soley on his music career, interviewing many of his pre-sucess friends and showing home movies of Biggie rapping at a street festival. The movie, which runs two and a half hours, also includes an interview with Biggie filmed shortly before his death, footage of the LA radio interview that may have triggered his murder, tape recordings of death threats, and actual fan video of his murder.

I took two things from the film. First, while his interview was only so-so, his personality as shown in candid moments and the home video revealed a friendly and entertaining man. Second, from all apperances he sought to avoid inciting the coastal feud, ignoring provacations and once talking himself out of a murderous ambush set up by a West Coast rapper. He rapped to escape the streets; it appears he had no intention of using his fame to meet the same predicatble end.

An aquired taste I'm sure, but if you have even a small interest in rap or the pop culture of the '90's, take a look at this documentary. Heck, it made me want to see the major motion picture of Biggie, but I'll wait for the DVD.

2.5 stars.

Here's a sample of Biggie's work, Hypnotize. Warning: sexual content and vulgar language. .

Note: some of the lyrics on the video are wrong. 'Speak my peace" etc is written as 'piece', and I believe 'Air Nike' should be "e'ery night"

How I spent Inauguration Day 2009

When I was in kindergarten my teacher, Sister Pat, led us into the music room across the hall to watch the Reagan Inauguration. A short time later she announced that the hostages in Iran were free, and made a point of saying it occurred on Reagan's watch.

I don't remember if I knew what any of it meant at the time, but I must have. I look at my girls, who are roughly the same age I was then, and they have depths of understanding that would seem unbelievable to someone who's never had kids. I imagine it was much the same for me back in 1981.

So I'm a little disappointed that neither of my girls were given the opportunity to watch Obama's inauguration (no word yet on whether Smiley's school showed the event). Not that I like the guy or buy his rhetoric - I think that's obvious - but it is history, and a shining example to the world that even after 200 years we still believe in a peaceful transition of power to the opposition.

28 years from now it would've been grand for one or both of them to blog about their memories of today.

[By the way, I received an email asking why I closed comments on the Bush post. It was meant as a . . .heartfelt message more than anything, and if I'd had a way to do it I would have made that entry 'private'. It wasn't intended to spark a debate and so I made sure it didn't. We'll all argue about him another time :)]

As for me, I listened to about five minutes of the speech while on the way to change a flat on my Escort. My wife had loaned the car to her friend Chris, aka She of Negative Car Karma, and in ten minutes time she'd managed to all but shred the right front tire. What's worse the car was parked on a wide swatch of snow and ice, and I foolishly failed to dig out a base for the jack. Result? The jack slipped and the car dropped, ruining the jack.

While I waited by the Escort she took my van to go pick up another jack. She called a few minutes later to say that she couldn't start the van. I told you, cars hate the woman. It turns out she had just locked the wheel and it was a one second fix.

At two I took Lump into the doc for her checkup. She is 33 inches tall and weighs 24 pounds. Those numbers place her in the 90th percentile for height (meaning 90% of girls her age are shorter) and in the 25th percentile in weight (meaning 75% of girls her age are heavier).

In other words, she's tall and skinny.

The doc thinks she has allergies, since her runny nose is perpetual, and gave us a prescription. Other than that, she's perfectly healthy. She didn't cry or even flinch during the *four* shots she got, but bawled and fought over the blood test.

Here's the part I don't like. When I tried to report in the results to Lisa I was told the doctor had already called and told her everything. This is the second time a doc from that office has done this; the first time a Doctor flat out said she didn't trust me to properly relay her findings because she 'knows how men are'.

WTF???

Mind you, this is one of the most respected and learned pediatrician offices in the city. But the reverse-sexism explicit in their calls just galls the hell out of me.

Speaking of doctors I fear I'm going to need one. My sinuses have been clogged for weeks now and now I'm staring to get very minor nosebleeds. It kind of snuck up on me. It took Lisa pointing out the amount of time I've had the problem to realize there was a problem at all.


By the way, Lump's nickname is staying for the time being. The only other option would be the discarded Smiley nickname of 'Maker of Trouble and Mayhem'. She is 100% hell when on the loose in the house, just destroying everything in her path. I took her out of her crib the other day and on the way to the floor as I put her down she grabbed two items off a shelf and threw them across the room. Anything and EVERYTHING she touches is meant to be eaten, thrown, dumped down the stairs, broken, or tipped over. There is not a Cheerio's box in Milwaukee that she hasn't scattered across the floor and I weep for my home when I see her on the prowl.

Tonight it was dance class for the kids and Lisa and wonder of wonders, when we got home the kids made it from the van to the house without tears, screaming, or violence.

It was like winning the lottery.

Thank you Mr. President

"The true history of my administration will be written 50 years from now, and you and I will not be around to see it.”

It was my pleasure, sir, to have campaigned for you twice, to have seen you speak in person as both Governor and President, and to have witnessed your second inauguration.

On behalf of me and my wife, and our children - all four of whom I'm proud to say were born during your administration - may God bless and keep you.

Thank you.

How those Breakfast With Santa Crafts turned out

Oh, you were dying to know weren't ya? Here's some pics from that weekend.





Even Lump wanted to help her sister. Don't worry, she was in the center of the table with someone on guard to watch her movements.





and here's an example of LuLu's bracelet craftsmanship.

RAM, Swing, and Football

I'm back online, courtesy of a buddy of mine who came over and tweaked this and that and whatchamacallit. He also installed 512 MB of RAM into my desktop, bringing it up to a whopping 1GB of memory. Whoo-hoo!

In addition, I have my TV back, via yet another buddy who stopped by a week ago and wired in some new speakers. Now not only do I have sound, I have better audio than before the kids knocked it out of service.

So, thanks go to: Tre, for the comp fix. Erv, for the repair of my beloved TV, Jeanne for the donation of the RAM, and my sister C for the speakers.

* * * * * *

New Guilty Pleasure: tuning in the the Music Choice channels of my cable system and listening to Big Band as I go about my evening. Jack Teagarden anyone?

* * * *

How about those NFC/AFC Championship Games?

At the conclusion of the Steelers game I turned to Lisa (well, actually I had to hunt her down, as she'd boycotted the room during the games) and said I was spooked. It's unnatural, I said, for both teams I wanted to win to actually pull it off.

Arizona and Pittsburgh in the Super Bowl. Wow. Kudos to them both. I'm happy for Kurt Warner, who may just seal a trip to Canton with this, and for Mike Tomlin, the coach of the Steelers, who may just outdistance the ghost of Bill Cowher after all.

FYI

My desktop crashed again this morning. While it's now up and running it refuses to recognize any means of getting online, and I'm so sick of working on it I'm willing to forget the web for now and call it a day. I've grown pretty good at troubleshooting the beast, but this is beyond me.

So . . I may be back online on my home computer by this time tomorrow, or it could be down for weeks. We'll have to see. I'm assuming the former will be the case, but if not . . .take care and stay warm :)