Hurricane Lincoln

I was eating lunch and when I turned around I realized just how wild Linc had been. This only took a few minutes. he cleared that table, moved it, got out all the toys, threw them around and then ran away.
I found him upstairs doing the same thing with my bed. The charging station is askew on my nightstand, there is nothing left on the bed, and he was rolling around reenacting Where the Wild Things Are! Emma is disgusted with him. I better go pick up before my wife gets home.

Jellyfish!

If you were inside our house this morning you may have thought you heard a swarm of killer bees. WRONG! We made some jelly fish and Linc ran around trying to "sting" Emma with an electric "ZZzzzzzzz."

Pizza Time!

We made pizzas for lunch today. Ham, tomatoes, and cheese. The only mozzarella cheese I had was string cheese. Turns out this isn't the best melting cheese. After I pulled the pizzas from the oven I remembered trying this for myself before. It tastes fine but the texture is like taffy and it won't pull apart so every bit has to be cut. Fine for me. Not so much for two kids. I've never seen kids take the cheese off of a pizza. Now I have. You can see from the photo that they like string cheese. Linc couldn't refrain long enough to actually top the pizza. In the end everyone was satisfied but next time I will opt for an actual ball of mozzarella.

Starcraft II

Shots of him sleeping on my hand DURING game play from two different angles. The volume was up and the room was full of explosions!

Blizzard recently reopened the Starcraft II beta and released a patch. I haven't played it since I was initially invited to join and figured I would log on and see all of the new achievements and features. Of course that meant I had to play a game... or two. Linc really wanted to watch so he hopped up on my lap and cheered me to victory during the first game. I asked him if he was up for another and of course he replied with a few enthusiastic head nods. We jumped in and right as I crippled the enemy economy by destroying all of their SCVs with a Reaper rush his head hit my hand. I thought he was playing around so I laughed a bit. Five seconds later his head was still on my hand. I know I'm not that great of a player but I figured I couldn't actually be sleep inducing. I leaned around and peaked. He had actually fallen asleep!!! The obvious conclusion is that he stayed up just long enough to see that I had locked in a V and quit just like my opponent did. I wrapped up the game with a few awkward clicks, logged off, and carried him to bed.

Fruit Salad

Today Emma and I made our favorite dish. Fruit Salad! It tastes great and is a lot of fun to make because all I have to do is cut up fruit and let her do the rest. Today's mix consisted of plums, cherries, nectarines, mandarin oranges, bananas, blueberries, and grapes. Pour a cup of vanilla yogurt over the whole thing, sprinkle on some cinnamon, mix in a bit of honey, and let her stir until she can't resist eating it.

As we were eating it I said "Wow this is our best fruit salad yet." I always say this. She responded with "Yeah this fruit salad is OFF THE ROOF!" I don't know if this is like "off the hook," which neither her mother nor I have ever said. It may have been a mistaken take on something like "raising the roof" or "blowing the roof off." I don't know. It was probably a combination of the two or it might be something she just came up with. Either way it was pretty funny and she was excited. No photos as my phone is dead due to accidental charger theft.
I need to go. Lincoln is trying to feed his salad to Jabba... Honest. I'll put up a pic asap for clarity.

4th of July

We had a fun 4th. I don't know how we would have managed if we didn't have the 5th to recover. We spent the 3rd at my parents because both of my brothers were in town. It is always fun to see the little cousins running around and it reminds me of when we would visit our cousins as children. That was a late day but the 4th saw both kids up even later until about 11. They walked into their rooms and were asleep by the time we walked across the room and closed the door. By Monday afternoon it was nap time for just about everyone in the house and it seemed like there would be no end in sight. I think we actually woke both of them up. For some reason Emma decided she didn't want to sleep last night. She came out of her room about three hours after tuck in to ask us what she should use as a pillow.This was an easy decision. "Use whichever you think is more comfortable but if you come out again I will choose one to use for MY pillow and then you will be stuck with whatever is left." She went to bed.

Kung Fu Kids

Well, not my kids doing kung fu but they did watch me play Kung Fu Panda for a while. We have been playing one level each day. I've been playing and they tell me what to do. It is pretty fun and I am padding my gamer score along the way.

Emma and I picked the game up at Hollywood Video for $3. At first she refused to play because she said the movie was too scary. Linc hopped right in and picked up the controller. I need to pick him up his own controller. I should buy him a blue 360 one but I want a 2nd for our PS3 and both Target and Costco have packs with a controller and game for only $5 more than the controller. Emma really wants the full version of Little Big Planet as she is pretty much finished with the demo. Sooner or later she got frustrated with him just running in circles and cries of "let me show you how to jump up there" rang throughout the house. Flashback to Super Mario in our house 1989! Only 6 levels left!!!

Just woke up from a nap.

Nothing but school and Carebears for us today. You can decide who did what.

Linc's Naptime

I have a lot of studying this week. No words...only video.

Five Fingers

These are my new Vibram Five Fingers and while it feels good to run in them my family, cat included, are utterly freaked out. Shanna is fine with me wearing them and she understands why I have them but she thinks they are weird. Emma thinks I should only be allowed to wear them at the beach. Linc is disturbed simply due to the fact that they bother his sister. The cat actually runs away from me when I come near her in these.

Apples to Apples

Why do they make it so easy for toddlers to pull the lids off? -Emma after Linc made a mess.

Testing out the new phone

I was playing with my new phone today and Emma wanted me to take a photo of her to show off her outfit.* Linc decided that if she was gonna be in the picture then he was too. Check out that face! He was making his real determined and threatening face. He looks like the cop from Terminator 2. The fact that he is out of focus actually makes him look even creepier like he is a ghost or something that isn't visible until you develop the photo.

After this we went to Toddler Play at the library. Fun was had by most. Emma was fine and she practiced writing. Linc ran around deciding he wanted to play with whatever toys other kids had. I made him give a little girl a turn with a school bus and when she was done and tried to give it back he decided he didn't want it any longer. She was insistent that he take it but he was adamant. He can't really speak so he was just grunting and saying "NOOOOO."She started crying. The mom understood the situation but I think she was a little upset that he didn't say anything. I prompted him to say "No thank you" or "Sorry" but he can't really speak. He actually tried to say "thank you" but she didn't catch it. Oh well. Both kids were OK in the end. After the play session Emma showed him how to jog the trail path around the library.

*Note the dolphin hat.

Homework stinks.

My first real post and it's pretty much nothing. This morning instead of letting the kids watch a few cartoons we played so while Linc is napping Emma could watch a movie and I could study. Lately Linc has been putting a blanket over his head and chasing us. The funny thing is that as long as part of the blanket covers his eyes he figures he is "in costume." This usually results in him waddling a few steps and then stumbling over all of the bunched up blanket. Undeterred, he will get up and chase us for another few steps growling his little growl before falling again.

Later I let them watch a couple minutes of the first Spider-Man movie. They love Spider-Man cartoons so I thought it might be a real treat to see what the "real" thing looked like. Linc was like a deer in headlights. I think Emma prefers the cartoon. The movie is PG-13 so it will be a while until we revisit that DVD. It is amazing how dated the movie looks. We have a 46" LED TV with a PS3 and you can really tell the difference between what is real and what is computer generated. Sometimes I feel like the current HD content looks great on a modern setup but anything from a couple years ago suffers.

And so it begins. I think...

My daughter Emma just finished preschool which means two things. Next year she will be in Kindergarten and for the next three months she isn't in school. She is home with me. I decided to put this blog up as a way to chronicle our Summer together. I currently work nights but by next Summer I hope to have switched careers and be working days which means this may be my last Summer home alone with her. If you know anything about my family you are probably wondering about the missing Linc. I am sure my son Lincoln will show up from time to time but for the most part I expect him to be napping while Emma and I do our best to keep this thing updated. I don't have any plans for this thing beyond getting a post up every weekday. 1 down 2 to go. Hey, it's Wednesday(technically it is Thursday but" today" and "tomorrow" is all relative when you get home from work after midnight) so I figured I could get an actual post regarding our activities up tomorrow and Friday to finish out the week. We'll see you in 12 hours.