We’re baaacckkkk!! Do not give us a hard time. We’re not even sure there’s anyone checking this anymore.

It’s been so long now, that I can’t remember everything that has happened since I last blogged. Mallory is trying to talk more and more. She’s still along way from creating her first acceptance speech, but she is making progress. At least now, she tries to imitate you. She loves to say “dog”, even though it’s hard to distinguish from “da” (a.k.a. “dada”). But that’s okay. I am “mama” but only when she really, really wants something, and it’s hard to tell the difference between “mama” and “mine”. Yeah, she learned that one at daycare. Now, everything belongs to her. If you don’t believe it, just ask her.

She won’t say “more” or “eat”, but she will use the signs for those together to let us know she wants more food. This comes from an understanding that “more” doesn’t just apply to food anymore. But the cutest thing so far has to be “ah bah””¦which means “all done”. She loves to say that.

At one point, Kylie decided that she didn’t want to be called “kaka””¦mostly because Johnathan laughed at her being “poop”. Instead, we started calling her “lala”. Unfortunately, much to Kylie’s dismay, Mallory has learned her “k” sound before her “l” sound”¦so she is “kaka” anyway. ;) Ah, this too shall pass. I think Kylie is okay with it, as long as she calls her something. Also, she is trying to distinguish between “mama” and “mimi” and is doing well so far.

Kylie is starting to apply to colleges. She is taking an ACT prep class to help her get a couple more points when she takes it again. That will give her a state scholarship. I think she is applying to 5 schools. It’s exciting and scary at the same time ““ exciting for her, and scary for me. I’m just glad to see her get serious about it.

Last night, we went to her last band competition. They have one more this month, but she can’t go because it’s the same day as the ACT test”¦and her parental units have deemed that more important since she has to do all of her paperwork before the middle of November. I think she has mixed feelings. She seems to be all excited when band starts each year, but then she burns out about halfway through the season. They have a couple more football games, so she’s not completely done. But no more Saturday marathons. Maybe she’ll use that extra time to study math”¦yeah, right.

Sorry, folks. That’s all I have for today (gotta go make dinner). I have uploaded new pictures and videos for your viewing pleasure. There are some in Kylie’s folder as well as Mallory’s (14, 15 and 16 months). Wait till you see the “big girl” slide. Who says mommy’s not tackling her fears?

Let us know you’re still visiting. It’s easier to get motivated if we know someone cares. sniff, sniff

My mom came for a visit last week. She and Mallory had some great bonding time. Because Johnathan works near the airport, he retains the dubious honor of picking mom up at the airport. In the spirit of “dividing and conquering”, I asked them to pick Mallory up from daycare, while I ran a couple of errands. So mom got to see toddlers in their natural environment. Gotta tell ya – that is a fun sight. Then, I worked from home one day. Mom got to chase Mallory around while I attended conference calls. It was all she could do to keep little hands from banging on the office doors.

On Saturday, Kylie’s band had a mini-camp at the school. They take a break from 12:00 to 1:30. Parents come and set up tables of food so the kids walk around just taking whatever they want. It’s like one big tailgating event where everyone shares. It’s great. Mom was glad to be here for that. And Mallory had a blast. We have video of her running all over the place and playing with LaLa (a.k.a. “Kylie”). Those two had so much fun playing with the wagon and walking on the track.

Mallory is starting to pick up words now, slowly but surely. Good thing, because we go to the doctor tomorrow morning. She can say “hi”, “duck” and “dog”. I think she is trying to say “shoes” but it sounds nothing like “shoes”. (By the way, she is totally my daughter; she loves her shoes. Daddy is already starting a shoe fund for the teenage years.) She says some goobly gook sometimes and looks at you like, “Do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth?” The word she uses most though is “up”. There’s no “p” sound at the end, but you absolutely know what she means because she stands at your feet, reaches her little arms up, opens her mouth wide and says, “U..U..U..U..U”¦” until you pick her up. Also, she is really starting to come along with her sign language. She can do “eat”, “more”, “milk””¦and “I want”, which is really just reaching out and squeezing her hands at everything”¦and saying “that”. ;) But the most fun one is something that mom taught her this weekend ““ “uh oh”. Now, when she drops something she says, “uh oh”. Last night, she dropped her fork. Of course, as usual, we just said, “You dropped it, you don’t get it back.” But then she said, “Uh oh.” Fun stuff. Johnathan relented and handed her the fork. But then she gave him the funniest look; my kingdom for a video camera that captures all. She cut her eyes at him as if to say “eat stuff”. I think she already knows that she has her daddy wrapped.

She can now show you her nose, ears, eyes and mouth. She can brush her hair and do her “frog face” for you. She can blow you kisses, give you kisses (with lots of slobber) and wave bye. Last night, she found her belly button while she was in the tub. I started teaching her “toes” and pointing out the difference between “nose”and “toes”. That one might take a little longer”¦but she kept pointing her toes at me to play with them. Who could resist that? We did “Little Piggies”. She would squeal with delight until we got to the little piggy that had roast beef”. . .maybe she’ll be a vegetarian.

There are so many things I am learning. I knew that Mallory would be a little person and have her own personality”¦but I was totally not expecting it at 14 months. She has the most impish little grin when she is about to do something that she knows you don’t want her to do. She tests me when I tell her not to do something”¦but she can already tell when I’m really serious. Johnathan got on to her last night for doing something”¦all it really took was a couple of words and a stern look. She cried. Hopefully, that means that punishment will be less necessary when she gets older. (Yes, I’ll hold on to that hope, thank you very much.) When he picked her up at daycare yesterday, her actions said, “Hey, dad. I’m really happy to see you, but I have these Goldfish crackers over here that I would like to finish before we leave. Thanks.” I don’t think it hurt his feelings too badly that she was having trouble prioritizing him over food”¦see, I told you she’s my daughter. ;)

A couple kind of funny stories to tell, but I’ll keep them short. Yesterday I was trying to get out of the house fairly quickly. I put Mallory’s juice cups in her bag and sat it by the back door for Angie. As I’m walking out the door, I see Mallory head over to the bag. I paused, because I wanted to make sure she didn’t get into something she shouldn’t be getting into, but laughed when she picked up the straps and put them over her shoulder, and the proceeded to carry/drag the bag behind her toward the front door. Just an example of the little stuff that she picks up on and then tries to immitate.

Then, this morning I get a call from Angie while I’m driving in. I’ve been having to get to work earlier lately (and sometimes stay later) so we haven’t been car pooling. She dropped Mallory off and while she was talking to Ms. Rita (Mallory’s teacher) she noticed that Mallory was walking around with a basketball. A few minutes later, she heard a big bonk, and turned around to see that Mallory had apparently fallen and bumped her head on the doorway that separates the “sleeping quarters” from the play area. At this point, any normal person would have expected screams to errupt, but Angie just asked Mallory if she was ok, and after a few grumbles (maybe it’s ok that she doesn’t have too many words right now), she got up and continued playing. I haven’t seen her yet, but Angie said she’ll probably have a place right in the middle of her forehead. I think we have reached the point where pictues will no longer be clear of blemishes.

BTW… her pictures came back. Just let us know when you are stopping by to see them. :)

The company that I work for, Willis, puts together a team to participate in the Heart Associations annual Heart Walk in Nashville. We are consistently second place (though currently third this year) in the team fundraising, which is great considering that the #1 team is from Vanderbilt and get’s a lot of big corporate donations.

Last year, Angie, Mom and I walked with Mallory and had a great time. I hope Kylie is able to come this year, but it’s September 27th, which is during Marching Band season. Our team lead at Willis has a daughter with DiGeorge Syndrome which has caused her even just in the last year to have a heart valve replaced. She was a trooper. If you are interested, you can see more about what she (and the family) went through on their blog at http://courtneyheart.blogspot.com/.

I’d like to ask you to consider sponsoring our walk this year. Donations of $25 or more can be given through the website below. If you would like to give less or mail a check, please feel free to send it to me and made payable to the American Heart Association. Anything you might give would be sincerely appreciated and will go directly to the AHA.

Here’s the link: Click here for my page

Here is a link to our team page:
Click here for the team page