No Way

Just before school started last week we took a quick trip to Kentucky Lake for a vacation. A full blown write up about that experience is coming. In the mean time I wanted to write about something funny that happened while we were there.

At the beach there was a big pirate ship with a slide that the kids were playing on. Besides the slide the most notable feature was this cool ramp leading up to the ship. It had rope hand railings and really added to the pirate ship look.

At some point Luke was blocking the ramp and Alyce was wanting to get up on top of the ship. We told her to use one of the 3 other ways of getting up on the ship that were available to her. She would have none of that she was focused on one way only. Mom and I then told her to ask Luke to step aside so she could go up. She repeated what we said and Luke replied "no way!" as he stuck out his hand in a stop sign motion. We erupted with laughter. Luke was smiling because we found something he did to be funny. Alyce didn't see the humor as much as we did.

Eventually she did make her way up to the pirate ship.

Day at the Zoo

Saturday we spent the day at the zoo. Surprisingly it wasn't too crowded. With the nice run of weather and school being back in session we figured there would be some pent up demand.
We were happy to see that the hippo exhibit was open. Last time we were here it was closed due to cracks in the aquarium. I could see why the zoo management would want to avoid a few thousand gallons of water and a hippo greeting their guests first hand.

A quick ride on the train and some lunch and before we knew it we were looking at some penguins. It was a pretty warm day outside and walking into a fake penguin habitat at 40 degrees was quite the shock. Mom and I enjoyed the weather however Alyce did not. I held Alyce close to save some body heat and we managed to see all of the penguins and puffins hang out on shore and swim in their tanks. Penguins are pretty cool. They look so clumsy on land yet fly like fighter jets when in the water.

After the penguins I took the kids for a ride on the carousel and after that we needed to leave. We had to leave  early because nap time was fast approaching and we still needed to see GiGi; she's at the hospital. Alyce was not too happy about this because she wanted to see the giraffes and we hadn't gone past the giraffe enclosure. It didn't help that the giraffe area was on the opposite side of the zoo, up a hill, and the point farthest from our car. She whined for a bit but gave up before we got to the car. She was dragging pretty bad on the walk back and I had to carry her about half the time.

It was a good day even if the kids were a bit whiny at times. The zoo is always a blast and with free admission you can't go wrong. Being a zoo friends member is also a boon. Free parking and train rides make the trip even easier.

Learning to Swing

A great byproduct of us having our new playground is that Alyce has learned how to swing! She isn't great at it yet but does well enough to get some momentum and keep it without adult interaction. Mom and I have been trying to teach her how to do it for some time by telling her to move her legs but she didn't "get it" or she didn't care to learn as we would just push her. Now that she can do it all by herself we only have to push Luke and he doesn't want to swing as nearly as much as she does.

Sibling Cuteness

I managed to grab a few cute pictures of the kids while they were out playing on the swing set. The swing set so far is working out great. The kids are always asking to play on it and make use of swings, clubhouse, and slide. If we can get a few years of use out of it I'd say that we got our money's worth.

First Day of School

Wednesday was Alyce's first day of her second year of preschool. She isn't going to the same school as last year as we moved last winter to our new town and school district. It is unfortunate that we had to pick her up from a known environment to something completely new and strange.

The first day of school this year was a bit hectic. Not really hectic for Alyce but more so for Mom and I. The day before we had just gotten back from a mini vacation and were not really prepared for school. Mom filled out all the necessary paperwork the night before. Also because we were gone we missed orientation for her school. I don't think we missed much but not knowing exactly where to go the first day is a bit unnerving.

Just like in years past we took pictures of Alyce on her first day with her new backpack on her shoulders all excited about what was to come. Luke managed to get into most of the shots but that's ok. I think he was excited for her. He'll get his turn soon. His school starts in September.

The environment at this school is different than her old school. At her old school the preschool room was a little cabin separated from the rest of the elementary school. It kind of had a Mr. Roger's feel that made you think you were part of a family rather than in a class. Whereas at the new school the classroom is in the lower level of the main building and the walls are cinder block. It has that "classroom" feel to it. Not to say it isn't inviting but you get the impression that they mean business. I may have that all wrong; it was only the first day.

When I got home from work that day I asked Alyce how her day at school went. She skipped and jumped towards me and said it was "awesome!". So I'm guessing she had a good time. I asked her what she did at school that day and she said that she played in the pretend area and pretended to be a cleaner. I'm not sure what that all entailed but more power to her if that is what she wanted to be.

Mom talking to her teacher got the scoop on her day. She said that Alyce had a good day, that she was really sweet, and played in the pretend area. While in the pretend area she tried on some fancy shoes. She went on to say that at the end of the day the class had a big bear hug and that kind of freaked her out. Mom and I weren't surprised to hear that.

Finally I heard from Alyce that one of the girls in her class had the same backpack. If this were prom that'd be horrible. However, I think Alyce thought that was pretty cool. The girl with the same pack pack, her name was Lana or Dana. I can't be sure which one it was because she was an identical twin. That should be interesting.

Lego Time

During our trip to Disney World we visited the Lego store at Downtown Disney. I'm not sure all that they had in stock but it seemed like they sold every active Lego set available. One set I picked up because it was rather unique and because I hadn't seen it any place else was a Lego Sea Monster.


The sea monster set was a replica of a giant Lego monster outside the store sitting in a lagoon. When Mom and I went to Disney World on our honeymoon we took the below picture. Now that we are back with the kids I thought it would be neat to have a Lego statue of it.

I waited until we got home to assemble the set; I didn't want to lose any pieces. Upon seeing the box Alyce was excited to help me assemble it. I was hesitant at first to let her help. I wanted it for myself and because I wasn't in the mood to find every piece for her and to tell her where they go. This all took place the day we got back from Disney World and I didn't have the energy to fight against her demands. So just before she broke into tears (she was exhausted too) I relented and let her help put it together.

Alyce did a really great job putting the set together. There were lots of little pieces but they were standard Legos and not weird ones so it was easy to find what we were looking for. In addition two of pieces of body were identical so after finishing the first one Alyce cruised through the second. Most surprising to me was how well Alyce handled the instructions. Once I showed her the pieces that were needed she would compare the current picture vs the previous and was able to put the pieces in the right position.


What I thought was going to an exhausting frustrating time turned out to be a pretty neat father daughter moment. Alyce isn't ready to graduate to big kid Legos yet but there's a preview of things to come.

Rock n Roll

Last weekend while Mom was at a spa night with some ladies from the neighborhood I took the kids over to Josh and Tammy's house for some fun and dinner. I use dinner lightly because between both kids they managed to eat about 4 bites of food. They were having too much fun to slow down enough to have a bite to eat.

Post dinner Alyce got up on the fireplace to entertain. She grabbed a guitar and sang some songs. She used an electric guitar at first but took a liking to the acoustic. Most of her songs were her babbling words and humming but there was one song about rock n roll where she just said "rock n roll" over and over again.


I had to take a video just in case 30 years from now when she's a big star and on the Jay Leno show they can pull up this video showing her humble beginnings. It's a long shot but you never know.

New Swing Set

Today we finished enough of the kid's swing set for them to finally get to play with it. I think they really enjoyed it. I started work on finishing the set morning. After a bit Alyce came out to help me. She drove in a few screws and served up some pretend cookie dough ice cream. After a while Alyce said she was getting hot and needed some "cold ice water". She left me to go inside and a few minutes later she came back with bottle of ice water for herself and one for me. Never had water tasted so good.

The rock wall still needs to be attached and until I do that we'll have to hold it for them as they climb up. Later, Papa helped me get the swings installed. Immediately after the kids ran out to make use. Alyce didn't have any trouble getting on the swings, however, she was having a lot of trouble keeping her flip flops on. We didn't mind that she wasn't wearing them but she certainly did.

Strabismus Update

Before our trip to Disney World Alyce had her annual eye checkup. As mentioned earlier Alyce was diagnosed with Strabismus at an early age and had surgeries to correct it. Now every year we take her in for a checkup. I'm not worried about her eyes no longer aligning but the checkup also consists of a vision test so we know that Alyce's vision is tested annually by an expert in the field.

This year's visit wasn't without some excitement. Turning onto the road leading to Children's Hospital our car with Mom and Alyce in it was hit broadside by a driver that had run a red light. To see it in text makes it seem worse that it really was. Both Mom and Alyce had no injuries and 2 weeks without our car and $6,000 later (paid by his insurance) we were made whole again.

The worst part about these appointments is that you are always waiting. Waiting for the initial test. Waiting to get eyes dilated. Waiting for the dilation solution to work. Waiting to see the head doctor. It's all very frustrating. The whole thing took the better part of 3 hours and we were probably face to face with a care provider a grand total of 15 minutes.

Pushing all of that to the side Alyce's eyes are doing great. Her vision (focus) is fine and in the doctor's words "Alyce is the text book example of a successful eye muscle surgery". We were really pleased to hear that.

Alyce will always have a few hitches when it comes to her vision though. If she puts her head to one side or the other her eyes can go misaligned and it looks kind of weird. The doctors told us in the past there isn't anything they can do to correct that without affecting her normal heads up vision. You take what you can get I guess.

Alyce Helping With Her Swing Set

For the past few weekends I've been working on building Alyce and Luke a swing set. We purchased the set some time ago but were waiting on some concrete work to be done before it was to be assembled.  Now that Alyce is getting older and wants to be a builder I thought it would be fun to share the experience with her and she'd learn how to use some tools in the process.

The first few steps in construction I completed with my friend Josh's help.  The pieces were large, required some lifting, and we were under some time constraints so we kept Alyce away. Now that I'm nearing the end I wanted to include Alyce.

One night this week after dinner Alyce came out to help me.  The goal for the evening was to assemble and install the two seats for the club house and to assemble the rock climbing wall necessary to get up to the second floor of the clubhouse.  The first thing we did was to go over the instructions for this step and for me to show her what parts we needed. Alyce helped locate the tubes for the seats and helped get them in the right locations. While I was holding the pieces, she would run bolts through the holes, and I would tighten the nut on the other end.  Alyce got her first experience with a crescent wrench and its ability to adjust its size with swipe of a thumb. Getting the seats on the tubes was a little difficult. So much so that Alyce couldn't even turn the screw driver. She was a bit disappointed with that but after some encouragement she moved on.

Next we assembled the rock wall. This required lots of pieces of wood, some measuring, and driving of lots of screws. Alyce was a lot of help for me on this one. Together, working off the instructions we were able to get all of our wood lined up. I drove in a few screws to get everything lined up and after that Alyce and I shared the work. Alyce would hand me a screw for when it was time to drive in screws on my side and when it was her turn I'd start the screw and she'd use my cordless drill to drive it in the rest of the way. She didn't hold the drill correctly but I didn't mind. I also taught her the basics of reading a tape measure. I showed her how to count inches to see how far apart something was. I left fractional inches as a lesson for another day. When the wall was assembled Alyce found the rocks in the big pile of materials all by her self. By this point she was getting antsy to try out her new ladder so I rushed ahead and installed the rocks myself.

When finished I took the pieces and her out back to the assembled structure. I need to do some modifications before I can permanently affix the wall to the club house but it was still usable enough for Alyce to climb up top. She seemed very pleased with herself, however, without the slide being attached she didn't know what to do up there and wanted to get down after a minute or two. I need to hurry up and get that slide installed.

I'm really enjoying spending time with her. Sure it slows down progress but sometimes the journey is as important as the destination. I doubt she'll remember this instant but the next time Alyce sees a tape measure and knows how to use it it'll be because I've left a piece of myself with her.