Don't Call It A Comback

Much like LL Cool J's famous opening lines to "Momma Said Knock You Out", Don't Call It A Comeback / I Been Here For Years, this isn't a comeback, I've been doing this for 5 years.  Everybody needs a break...I don't get paid for this and I am not a super blogger like my buddy, Greg over at I'm Just Sayin. He hasn't missed a daily post in a very long time.  I have submitted his name for inclusion in the Blogging Hall of Fame under the category of Blogging's Cal Ripken, Jr.  I could blame having a third child on my lack of blogging but he has 3 kids.  My only saving grace is that he works for the state and I work for private enterprise.  He should start a time management series because I know how much time it takes to blog and that's most of the reasons I haven't been is because I haven't made/found the time.

I forgot more good stuff to blog about that will ever make it in this post.  I think I might try for the record of longest blog post but wouldn't a long blog post just be a short story?  Maybe by the end of this I will be an short story author looking for a publisher.  The only place to start is what I can remember first and go from there.  This will be random out of sequential order so hold on for the ride.

• It was pointed out to be that for the past 13 months that my heading has been incorrect and that Ansleigh didn't have an animal to take care of.  The curse of number 3.  I have corrected the heading and she is now evidently officially part of my family.  It seemed pretty real the past 13 months for LA and I.  As far as the animals, who ends up  feeding and taking care of these animals?  Me but I  understand she needed one so she has gotten a frog (the availability of animals for blogs is short supply these days - appears to be over hunting by super bloggers).  Welcome to the family Ansleigh..

• I do feel like I need to finish up my last post from September of 2012 regarding Clemson after losing on the road at Florida State before moving forward.  Clemson did something they weren't able to accomplish in previous years - beat the teams they were supposed to beat at home and on the road.  They accomplished the task and entered the last game of the year against the SC Gamecocks and lost a 4th in a row them.  Disappointing to say the least but not the last time we will ever play them and it wasn't the final piece that started the end of the world.  Series like these between rivals have ebbs and flows right now they are holding us under the water but still letting us surface for air (occasionally)...eventually, somehow we will get the upper hand back and the world will again be right...hopefully before a five peat happens or it might really be the beginning of the end of times.

• Here's a little preview for 2013 Clemson football - The season opens with the renewal of a rivalry with UGA.  UGA is probably the only team that doesn't just have it's rival game in week 12 (and let's be honest in most years the engineers from GT aren't much of a challenge).  They have at least 5 and some (mainly their opponents) would say 7 rivalry games (Clemson, SC, TN, LSU, FL, Auburn, GaTech).  They have 6 every year. I guess that is what can happen when you are land locked and everyone hates you.  It's not going to be a cupcake in 2013 with Ellington and Hopkins gone but if we get on a role early (which means surviving UGA and NC State) and having FSU at home, it could be a special season heading into the 12th week against our rival - SC on the road.  Lot of hope in the last sentence because it's June and not August 31 at 8:00pm.  By the way it's only 85 days until Clemson takes the field.  Here's a video from Clemson Athletics to get you ready: 

• There are bathroom rules for guys and they apply for all guys even if they are related.  For over a month, I have tried understand what I witnessed but I can't.  I am baffled.  While at Arby's on Main Street in Summerville, I needed to wash off Ansleigh's pacifier and walked to the Men's bathroom.  Upon opening the unlocked door, I took one step in expecting to see it empty (the obvious clue was the door being unlocked) and see 3 grown men (no kids) in an open bathroom - a square with a sink, urinal and toilet.  I immediately backed up and shut the door and thought to myself "Awkward!  Why are 3 men in essentially a single person bathroom?"  There was plenty of room for 3  but there are no dividers/walls -  everything is in the open.  It is a clear violation of bathrooms with multiple toliets but no dividers, only one should enter and lock the door.  For example, if there was only a sink and toilet, you don't invite others in while you are washing your hands or leave the door unlocked.  I can not think of an exception to a bathroom with a lockable door and no dividers.  The only close exception I can find to this rule is large stadiums that have troughs but even then an entire different set of rules apply.  Come on guys, learn the rules.  Here's a beginners test - click here.  I am looking for the advanced test required by the above example.

• A big shout out to faithful reader and followers, Danny and Jennifer who are expecting twins.  Our Life is super excited for them and anxiously awaiting the news of boys, girls or a combination.  I've got all my money on two girls.  An yet another couple with the potential to beat our record to 3 children.  

• Speaking about kids and parents - There will be an entire post forthcoming about baby stuff for expecting parents and new parents with Our Life product recommendations.  We might not be perfect but we have almost 5 years of being in the trenches.

• If you want to see your kids teachers panic, walk into your kids room and ask to pick them up and they look around and realize they aren't there.  You can let them off the hook when you realize what day it is and that the other parent has already picked them up.  

• We took the kids (w/out Ansleigh, crazy yes, stupid no...I would have had to hire a Sherpa to carry one of the kids...humans have limitations and carrying one kid at Disney is difficult enough and 2 would be impossible for an average man like me) to Disney World/Animal Kingdom in February for 3 days (we should have planned for at least 2 more days).  We stayed at Art of Animation in the Cars building.   Wyatt and Aubrey loved the room and we  had a suite that had plenty of room for all of us.  We saw ALL the princesses, had two character breakfasts - The Crystal Palace with Winnie the Pooh and Chef Mickey.  For food selection the winner is The Crystal Palace not even close.  For characters the winner is Chef Mickey by a nose.  We had a princess character dinner at the Akershus Royal Banquet Hall.  We rode all the rides the kids were big enough to ride thought we accomplished as much as we could have including pushing our kids well past there bedtimes and waking them up early - stayed for Magic Hours until 11pm and had them up at 6:30 to make a character breakfast.  We all survived and are looking forward to our next trip in a couple of years before Ansleigh turns 3 (she's free until then).  A couple of observations:
• If you are standing in line to have a picture taken with the princesses and you are over the age of 18 (actually the age is 15), you might want to pinch yourself or your family needs to have an intervention.  These are not real princesses, they don't live in a castle and a prince didn't rescue them.  This whole place is a KIDS fantasy world.  All these princesses drive to work in a car (not a chariot or on a horse) with similar clothes to yours and they change clothes and dress up as princesses to make KIDS dreams come true.  When their eight hours are over they change and go to a home just like you to a house.    
• We rode Goofy's Barnstormer roller coaster multiple times with our hands waving in the air (like we just don't care - couldn't resist).
• The kids favorite ride by far (although multiple rides were similar) was Aladdin's Magic Carpets.  We shut the park down one night on that ride and closed the night out the next night on that ride.  
• My personal favorite was the Buzz Lightyear Ride.  
• I am not going to reinvent the wheel - Here are 12 lessons for Disney by Clay Travis - He is right on track here.
• He also ranked the princesses so I didn't have to and get in trouble with my wife (who will always be my Queen).  I don't know if I am in total agreement but it's a pretty good job.
• I am sure we could have saved $$$ by staying off property, brought food, and hundreds of other ways but it was nice being on the property and having a card to swipe for all our meals and snacks that was prepaid.  We felt like we were cheating the system as we ate dinner and got snacks and drinks, swiped the card and it said amount due $0.  It wasn't but it still felt good and I didn't have a huge credit card bill to face 30 days after the trip.  The bus transportation worked out great and we seldom had to wait more than 5-10 minutes for our bus.
• My suggestion for those planning a Disney trip - go in the Jan/Feb or Oct/Early Nov and avoid any holidays during those months.  Plan on 5 days, you need it.  I would recommend a Saturday, Sunday or Monday arrival this will help avoid peak crowds on the weekends.  Even what Disney call a light day can be a busy day by my standards (yes, I have standards (shocking, I know) and lines over 30 minutes for kids under 7 is unbearable).

• How do I explain this?  Remember in movie Dumb and Dumber when Harry and Lloyd pickup the "stranded" motorist and ask him if he wants to hear the  most annoying sound in the world - Here's the video:


• Compare Lloyd's to Ansleigh's most annoying sound in the world: 

• Sounds similar...how long could just you and her be in a car (or house) with her making that noise before you drop her off at the grandparents or friends  (see below for which friend) house?  

• At what age does pool water temperature become a factor in deciding to swim or watch from the edge?  Evidently it is sometime after 4.  Aubrey could swim in ice cubes and not complain and Wyatt didn't like it last year but flipped a switch this year and it doesn't bother him.  And a further puzzling question is what's the difference in the temp of bath water and swimming water?  You get the bath water a degree one way or the other and all you hear are chattering teeth saying "It's too cold" or screams of "too hot, too hot". 

• For Halloween, the kids dressed up as the 3 little pigs.  They were super cute and got lots of candy.

• Aubrey, Wyatt and Ansleigh got a playset for Christmas and they are enjoying in along with their friends.

• So Aubrey and Wyatt have stock that I didn't know they purchased (or even knew that they knew what stock was).  They evidently own Johnson and Johnson because of the number of Band-Aid's we go through.  I am pretty sure they would cover their entire body in them if we let them.  I instituted a new rule recently.  They can not come running to me or LA about any boo boo, scratch, cut...etc and ask for a Band-Aid UNLESS there is blood (red stuff) running from the boo boo, scratch, cut...etc.  If you own J&J I would sell.  I would suggest then buying Proctor and Gamble because there is no way to describe the amount of paper towels and toilet paper we use.  

• How good of friends do you have?  It really pretty easy to find out once you have kids.
• Will they take your child to the restroom?
• No - your just acquaintances
• Do they qualify 1 or 2 with each child before taking them?
• Yes  - Do you really want a friend that doesn't unconditionally love your children? - just let them be acquaintances
• If child says number 1 but while in the restroom, says "gotta go number 2, also"?
• They run out the bathroom to get you - a sleepover at their house probably isn't a good idea
• Takes care of the situation - Friend for life, they will do anything for you.  Don't screw it up with them.
• Aubrey recently looked up at a friend of ours while on the potty after going number 1 and sneaking a number 2 in on them, unrolled and folded some toilet paper and said "I went number 2, your going to have to wipe me, I can't do that."  They took care of the situation and actually laughed about it when telling me.

• Ansleigh has been and continues to be one of our most active kids.  She has potential to be busier than Aubrey (not sure she is Ellis Cate busy, but she might be up for the challenge).  A friend was recently over and asked if she needed to watch Ansleigh or could she play on her own.  We assured her she would be fine playing by herself and with Wyatt and Aubrey, I'll check on her every so often.  After a few minutes or so we started looking for Ansleigh and she wasn't anywhere downstairs.  We assured our guests not to panic, this happens all the time she is only 13 months, its not like she can drive a car.  She had sneaked upstairs and was playing.  Maybe, you might want to keep an eye on her for us.
• The first time Ansleigh ever climbed up the stairs, she was downstairs (of course) Parent A was downstairs with her and Parent B was upstairs reading a story and putting the kids to bed.  In the middle of the story Parent B, hears a noise and dismisses it.  Parent B hears another noise and looks at the end of the bed and Ansleigh is staring at them with a big smile.  Parent B inquires Parent A where Ansleigh is.  Parent A assures Parent B that she is downstairs with them. Parent B asks Parent A if they can see Ansleigh.  Parent A replies "No".  Parent B say "that's because she is staring at me upstairs".  In about 3 minutes she had eluded Parent A and made it upstairs without a fear in this world.     

• So since I last posted, I turned another year older (wiser)...definitely just older.  I am another year closer to AARP membership and being the envy of all my younger friends...joke now but don't expect to tag along in my savings (you need vitamins at a discount (especially you, Danny)).  Here's a couple of things:
• 50 isn't in the neighborhood, it's right around the corner
• I just found out the other day that my best days are not ahead of me....well at least for another 14 years.  Evidently from 50 -60 is just 10 years of survival.  If you make it out of those years healthy then you can look forward to the best days of your life.  I guess 50 is the end of  your bodies warranty and if you survive to 60 you get your bonus years.

• If they want to solve the male pattern baldness problem, then start investigating why at older men (including myself) can grow hair in new places as thick as a new lawn.  It can be that hard to figure out why those place lie dormant for 40+ years and they start growing like wildfire and then apply the findings to a man's head.  I've got some friends that would love to have their hair back.

• So as a parent you often find yourself in a situation with your kids that puts you in a bind.  At their current age they should not be saying or doing certain things and your correct them but it is while your are trying not to bust out laughing or telling yourself they really are correct - should I celebrate it with them or correct them..when in doubt correct them.  
• Aubrey did a number 2 and looked up at me and said "Look at that turd".  How do you respond to that?  She is 100% correct and while keeping as straight as face as possible, I correct her and told her we don't say that word (and under my breath continued "at your age").  I will go on the record and tell you that I am sure she has heard and then repeated many things from LA and I that are not appropriate for her age but that is not one of them.   

• We have had a few things happen in the last few months health wise with the kids that I will get you up to speed on:    
• It all started after BASH one evening while Aubrey was picking up the Rogers and Horres kids.  While taking a bath (thank goodness it was a bath night), LA and I noticed something different about Aubrey.  Our parent and later Grandmother diagnosis was that she had a hernia.  We had the diagnosis confirmed by her primary doctor and later with a pediatric surgeon.  After contacting our insurance and giving the names of the responsible parties to them (Horres, Rogers and Bethany UMC), we went ahead and scheduled the surgery.  Actually, they were not at fault and probably assisted in finding something that needed to be corrected - thanks Horres, and Rogers.  Aubrey was born with an inguinal hernia.  She had to have surgery to repair it and it was done as an outpatient at the best lowcountry hospital for kids - MUSC.  The entire pre/post op staff,surgical team were awesome and treated Aubrey like a princess and made the whole process easy.  She was a rockstar and had no fear (probably because of our super parenting preparing her for the procedure).  LA and I were hoping she would be down a few days but it ended up only being about 1/2 a day before she was back to normal.  I am pretty sure that same surgery on me would have knocked me out for a week and I would have still been complaining months later.  Aubrey has strict instructions not to pick up the Horres or Rogers kids anymore.



Before - This isn't so bad - playing with Barbies and watching  TV in bed.






After - What did you do to me?

• Ansleigh loves cords and has been constantly pulling them and playing with them every second she can before we stop her.  She learned a hard lesson at day care when she pulled the cord of the bottle warmer and it along with the warm water fell on her head.  She had some minor burns and we had her treated at MUSC - once again excellent care.  She has recovered nicely and there was no permanent damage from the burns.  (We don't own a daycare center either, sorry Danny and Jenn.)
• Ansleigh is now rocking the cutest pair of pink glasses made.  She has Strabismus which sounds terrible but is the medical term for "crossed eyes".  It turns out that she is more farsighted than most kids her age and she is crossing her eyes attempting to focus on objects.  Hopefully the glasses will correct this problem and by age 8-12 maybe grow out of it.  The transition to the glasses was as easy as the doctors told us.  We were expecting her to be constantly taking them off but she has done great.

• My nephew, Carter got married to his best friend Katie Parks in November in Savannah, GA and Wyatt and Aubrey were the flower girl and ring bearer for the wedding.  They did awesome.  Carter and KP are now living outside the ATL and we are super excited for them and all that life has in store for them.  Aubrey and Wyatt had a blast at the reception.  Especially dancing machine, Aubrey.  The aftermath looked something like this before we left the parking lot of the reception. 

• As I mentioned earlier, we have kicked off the spring/summer swimming season and Aubrey is doing great swimming without her puddle jumper and jumping off the diving board and doing cannonballs (with her puddle jumper).  Wyatt was slower to adapt but is now back jumping off the diving board like last year.  He is self teaching himself water safety and has learned that he sinks like a rock without his puddle jumper on (ok not like a rock, but on his tippy toes he can barely keep his mouth and nose above the water - think Chinese water torture.  
• Parenting Lesson - When you turn around and see your child without his puddle jumper on but holding onto a noodle and staying above the water don't shout his name in a way that he knows he is in trouble.  Evidently that is the trigger to let go of the noodle and start the Chinese water torture.
• Parenting Lesson 2 - When attempting to be dad of the year and throw your daughter higher and farther than ever before remember physics class - what goes up must come down.  Aubrey currently has the best belly flop for 2013.  I will keep you posted if anyone beats her (pretty sure it won't happen).  After she leaves your hands, as my friend Tim says "there are somethings that have been set in motion, that you can stop" - it's a bad feeling, happens in slow motion and there nothing you can do but be there to pick them up and remember that was a bad idea for the next time.

• Ansleigh completed the trifecta this year by being baby Jesus in lastyears Living Christmas Story at church.  Looks like it will someone else's job to be pregnant Mary and Joseph and Mary and Joseph and Baby Jesus.  The good thing this year was LA lasted the entire shift and we didn't have to get a stand-in Mary or plastic baby Jesus.  

• Wyatt had a train themed birthday party this year for his 3rd birthday.  He had lots of family and friends over and got a bike and helmet along with a bunch of other great gifts.  He loved his helmet but a friend of LA's passed down a baseball helmet and that has now become his "bicycle helmet".  

I am 3!

Not his new bike - but his "new" bicycle helmet

• Speaking of birthday's, Ansleigh had her 1st birthday with lots of family and she was a mess pot most of the day and didn't want anything to do with her cake at her party.  However, she did pretty good on her actual birthday with a cupcake - Wyatt got the assist on blowing on the candle (he made sure Aubrey didn't get to help - the little stinker).

• Here's a picture of 1, 2, and 3 playing in the kitchen making dinner.

• Here's number 3 helping mommy in the kitchen or waiting for the crumbs to fall:

• Ansleigh took her first steps on her birthday at day care and followed up at home with a few wobbly steps  at home (who needs to walk when you can crawl as fast as she can?)  She has also mastered the difficult one leg walk, knee drag).  She isn't too interested (translation - lazy) in walking (why should she - mom and dad carry me or I crawl everywhere I need to go).  

• My friend Greg at I'm Just Sayin' just completed in May the 421 top books that he has read and he ranked the 66 books of the Bible.  He also included a top 5 list from select readers.  I am impressed with his list because I could barely come up with 5 and most of them were from high school or college.  If he had done a list of books I started and fell asleep, I would have not had any problems.  I now have a list of books to read.  Now I just have to get started without falling asleep.

• LATE BREAKING NEWS:  In case you missed Sportscenter, on Tuesday evening at the Gahagan Sports Complex in Summerville, SC something almost unbelievable happened - I hit two home runs and made all three outs in the inning.  Let me set the stage for you.  In the first inning, I hit an in-the-park home run which being 46 is a story in itself but not unbelievable (it has happened in the past and had already happened earlier in the season).  In the second inning, I came to the plate with a man on first, no outs.  The pitcher was throwing his best stuff (as evidenced by me batting again in the 2nd inning) and I waited on my pitch (the second pitch, which is shocking because I typically don't take a lot of pitches.  I have never seen a softball pitcher throw a ball that I could not hit..ha!ha!).  I hit a long fly ball to left center and it kept going and going, the PA announcer was saying back, back, back, it's out of here, home run, a two run shot for #17.  As I approached first base, my teammates were laughing and the umpire said end of inning.  You see in the league rules they have a rule on the number of home runs allowed in each game and we reached the limit of 2 in the first inning.  I knew we had reached our limit but let's be honest, shocking I know but I don't exactly have home run power.  I have toothpicks for arms.  As a matter of fact, I don't even remember ever hitting the fence in my baseball or softball career.  My only weapon was speed.  It took 46 years for me to hit my first and probably my last home run and it didn't even count.  I take that back it counted for 3 outs.  I am probably the only person with 1 career home run that didn't put runs on the board.  I have been called to the league office for performance enhancing drug testing.  I personally would check the ball or the bat.  ESPN sports science called this morning to do a story on how someone my size could possibly hit a home run and I actually declined because you see I told my wife about my awesome/epic evening when I got home and she laughed about the events and then said "You probably hit it out because of the extra weight you are carrying" - end of story.

• As you can see by the countdown clock at top of this blog, The 3rd annual Hootie and The Blowfish/Babypalooza end of summer concert is confirmed and preparations are already underway.  The only real question is who is having babies as a result of this event?  We are plus 2  already (Danny and Jenn) and we are over 80 days out.  One minute your singing "Only want to be with you" and 9 months later your having babies.  HBF are the single largest reason for the lowcountry population explosion - check the facts.

• So the constant question we are asked is "What's life with 3 like?"  The better question is "What is life without 3 like?" (it is so quite, LA and I almost don't remember how to act - for example, getting ready to go somewhere is 2 hours of work with all 5 of us, just LA and I 45 minutes).  We sure don't have it down pat but life with 3 hasn't been a horror story.  I would say number 3 learns to cry a little bit longer but gets spoiled more than 1 or 2.  You loose a little fight with each child on the what seemed like major battles with the other kids.  You surrender the little battles to get quite time, sleep...etc.  Things that didn't seem like a big deal with 1 and 2.  

• LA and I have decided to pull the plug on number 4 and are going to leave that up to the Horres, Wright's or Woods.  It was a tough decision but we have been blessed so much with 3 healthy kids and I am not the youngest blogger out there.  If I could walk up and pick up number 4 at 2 years old, I might would consider it.  I know there are ways that can happen but right now we are going to focus on loving and teaching the 3 we have.  It seems like a full time job plus overtime.  If God leads us in a new direction later, we will follow.