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Mom: "Emily, don't eat that crayon!"
Rachel: "Nana, it's ok...it's non-toxic."

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What in the world have I gotten myself into?

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Dear girls,

Santa Claus has come and gone, and we're going screaming into the new year, literally. The two of you are at the age where you antagonize each other (and us) and I don't think there's been a single day during this break where at least one of you wasn't crying about something.

And that makes me sound like a mean and angry father, which I'm not. There have been a lot of great things that happened this month, and the two of you also continue to surprise us with everything you know and do, including how well you get along (sometimes).

Emily, in the past month, your speech went from barely understandable to WOW! There have been times over the past couple of weeks where I did a double take because the words that you spoke came out of your mouth so clearly that I had to check to see that it was you who had actually spoken them. You've gone from your toddler abbreviations of words, like "Pahk" for Sparky to actually saying two syllables, "Pah-chee." We were laughing when you started doing this because it seemed like everything you said sounded like "butt cheeks" which you've been saying for a while now, thanks to your mother and sister. You have monkeys on your pajamas: "Mah-chee" Your blanket has become a blankie: "bahn-chee." You get the point.

Rachel, you were focused like a laser on Christmas. You were doing everything you could to make sure that Santa knew that you wanted an iPod this year for Christmas. You wrote a letter, drew a picture, and you made sure to tell Santa when we went to visit him.

Secondary only to Christmas and the iPod was staying up to ring in the new year. It seemed like you'd asked at least once a day, every day, for the past two weeks if you could stay up until midnight. You have an acute understanding now that there is something special about that transition from 11:59 PM to 12:00 AM on the last day of the year.

On Christmas morning, both of you actually slept in. But once you got up, it was on. Santa had left a few things unwrapped, and once Nana and Grandpa got here, we started with the unwrapping. Both of you had quite a pile, and Rachel, you tore into your things like a wild woman. The very first thing you opened was your new phone. Except it's doesn't work like a phone. Santa left you a note saying that he'd run out of iPods this year, but that you could still play games and take pictures with this phone just like you can on an iPod. You didn't seem to mind at all, and you really enjoyed playing with it.

Emily, you opened about three things and decided you were done. You wanted to play with the things you'd already opened and didn't want to both with the rest of it. When you finally did get everything open, you had racked up three new train toys, since you'd really grown to love watching Thomas and Friends over the past month or so. In fact, every time you come out to the living room in the morning you ask us for "Choo-choo train," meaning that you want to watch Thomas.

When New Year's Eve rolled around, we had a small party with just the four of us and Nana and Grandpa. They left around 9, but Rachel, you continued to play games on the Wii right up until midnight. I was really surprised that you lasted the entire night, but you still had energy left when it hit. You even got to learn a little bit about time zones becuase we watched it change to 2012 in New York and hour before it was 2012 here.

Overall, 2011 was a really great year for both of you. As wel roll into 2012, there are going to be lots of changes for both of you. We can't wait to see how you handle them because we love to watch you both learn and grow.

Your Mommy and I love you both very much.

Love,
Daddy 

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We are watching the Cowboys-Eagles game and there's a big helmet to helmet hit on a punt. The ref throws his flag and Rachel says, "Ooooh, he threw a banana on the field!"

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Finally got the tree up and decorated...

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Dear girls,

Your grandparents are here! You were both so excited to see them...even more excited than your mother and I, I think. This has been a month chocked full of new things for both of you, so let's get started.

Emily, you have started learning how to play games on mobile devices. I never thought that a couple of years would make the difference in how you learned to use a computer, but it's amazing. Rachel, you learned how to use a computer by manipulating a mouse, and Emily, you've learned by touching a screen. Every computing device you come in contact with, the first thing you do is try to touch the screen.

That's probably because we have more touch screen devices in the house than anything else. Between our two phones, an iPod touch, and an iPad, you have plenty of things to learn on. And you're learning very quickly. You started by insisting that you turn off the iPod in the morning, so I showed you how to touch the pause button on the screen - the lines, or "yines" as you say it, so every morning when you wake up you ask me to get you out of bed so you can turn it off. You've also started asking for certain games by name - "Ahnie Bord (Angry Birds)? Oopah why (Super Why)?" I can't even begin to imagine when computing is going to look like 5 years from now, and how you'll both adapt to it.

You've been talking up a storm lately, strining together 4, 5, even 6 words to make sentences that we are getting better and better at understanding. You're also starting to use your manners saying, please, thank you, and excuse me (the latter was the hardest to get you to start doing), usually on your own, but sometimes we still have to gently remind you.

Rachel, we discovered this month that you really like math, and you're really good at it! You flew right through the easy addition and started right into double digit addition, multiple number addition, and subtraction. Just last week, we started talking about multiplication. You've been brining us your writing board and asking us to write math problems for you so much that we decided to buy you some math workbooks, and we even got you the first grade level ones! I hope that this love of math continues throughout your life, because it can really take you places if you do well with it.

You also started riding the bus to school this past week. It always amazes me how independent you are. You had been begging us for a long time to ride the bus, and now that your grandparents are here, we have someone that can meet you at the bus stop in the afternoon. We decided to give it a trial run coming home one day this week, but you liked it so much that you asked if you could ride the bus to school the next day. So the last half of this week, you rode the bus to school. That actually works out pretty well for mommy since she doesn't have to take you and because the ride to school is easy. There is only one place to get off. We'll see about you riding the bus home every once in a while in the coming weeks.

You both are really enjoying having Nana and "Wompa," as Emily calls him, around. Emily, you're finally old enough to really remember and have fun with them both. You were starting to come into that a little bit last year, but this year, you're really making memories. You and Rachel helped Nana make pies for Thanksgiving dinner, and you've been playing Wii almost every time you go over to visit.

We're really looking forward to Christmas and watching you both open your presents. We haven't gotten a tree up yet, but Emily, you're already fascinated with all of the lights that are up in the neighborhood. Rachel, you've already started on your list of what you want for Christmas, too. One of the first things on your list - an iPod. I don't know if Santa will be able to bring you one of those, but we'll see.

We love you both very much, and as always, we can't wait to see what the next month brings for the two of you.

Love,
Daddy 

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Dear girls,

Fall is here. Halloween is over. Your grandparents arrive in a couple of week. Let me repeat that...your grandparents arrive in a couple of weeks! We've had another adventurous month, and your father actually got out his real camera and took a bunch of pictures of you this month.

Emily, I think we know what you're going to be when you grow up. You're bound to be a lobbyist. This past month, you started lobbying to stay up later. You start you lobbying even before we think about bed time, usually right around the end of dinner. We'll be having a perfectly lovely conversation, or getting you to finish up your food, and you'll turn and look at us with frowning eyes and say, "No night night." You'll repeat it over and over again until you get some kind of response out of us, or some reassurance that it's not even close to bedtime yet.

Your speech has really improved a lot over the past month, and we can pretty much understand everything you're telling us. We still have to use context clues every once in a while, but most of the time, you're pretty clear. At least to us. We'll see how clear you actually are when your grandparents arrive. I have a feeling we're in for a couple of months of translating for you until they brush up on their toddler speak.

Rachel, you've been doing really well at school. You got your report card and it was all great news! Your mother and I had a conference with your teacher this past month and she had nothing but good things to say about you. We're very happy that you've adjusted to school so well. Not that we ever had any doubts.

You are also getting along really well with your dance class. Every time I take you, I watch in the window as your teacher shows you what she wants you to do, then watch as you concentrate to get as close to what the teacher was doing as you possibly can. You try really hard and you're doing a great job.

We've been spending a lot of time outside over the past month, since the weather has finally cooled down a little bit. It's nice to not worry about sweating so much while we're outside, but we have had to use an awful lot of bug spray.

Emily, you finally got your very own hearing aide this past month. You've been using a loaner for almost a year and a half now, and we finally got around to buying your own. You also had another hearing test this month, and you seem to be doing really well. Of course, your hearing aide wasn't turned on for the first half of the test (my fault), but you still did really well.

Rachel, you've been working very hard at reading, writing, and spelling, and now you're starting to blow us away with your mad math skillz. I was worried at the beginning of the year that you'd be bored in school, but you've done a great job and it looks like you're learning a lot. We're very proud of you.

This past weekend, I took the two of you to the air show at Randolph AFB. I always enjoy going to these things, and I was so thrilled that the two of you had such a good time, too. Emily, you were so excited to see all of the airplanes, and it was amazing to you that every time you turned around there was another airplane to be seen. Rachel, you did a great job walking around because I know that it was a LOT of walking. You didn't complain at all, even when your sister got to be carried and you still had to walk. I can't wait to take you guys again next year.

Finally, you both did a great job trick-or-treating, and I'm so happy that Emily decided to go door to door also. Of course, getting free candy is a strong incentive. Rachel, you had a little bit of trouble with tripping over your horse legs, but you did a great job, espeically considering that we walked a lot farther than we ever have doing tricking or treaing before. I hope you both had a great time doing it.

As always, we can't wait to see what the next month will bring. We love you very much.

Love,
Daddy.

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Em stood there yelling at the dogs that were barking for about 30 seconds.

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We got over 2" of rain last night, and the creeks are full.

I went down to the Grissom trailhead of the Leon Creek trail and took these pictures of the trail underwater.

While I was down there, a guy came down on a bike, evidently thinking he was going to ride under the bridge. When he saw how deep the water was and how fast it was moving, he changed his mind.

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Dear girls,

School has started, and fall is in the air. Wait...no it's not. It's still blazing hot outside, and probably will be for another month. We live in Texas, after all. Anyway...here we go with this month's installment of "what you did last month"

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Emily, this has been quite the month for you. I think we're going to refer to it as the "me too" month. You've finally gained an understanding of what everyone is doing around you, and you want in on the fun. Whenever Rachel says she wants to do something, you follow right up with a cheery "me too!" You've gotten very good at communicating what you want, and when you want it. You've also gotten a lot better at differentiaing your words....either that, or we've gotten a lot better at understanding what you want.

You've also started changing up some of your words this month. In the last week, you've changed from calling us Mama and Dada to Mommy and Daddy.  Actually, Da-tee. You also started calling bananas "nanny" instead of "nana," while referring to your Nana the same way (nanny). So that confusion is still present and we have to use context to figure it out.

Rachel, you've been doing well at school, but your teacher tells us that sometimes you don't finish assignments during the day. We are going to have a conference with her in October, but I'm not sure if you're not finishing because you're a perfectionist, or because you're talking to your friends, or what the deal is. I do know it's not because you can't do the work, though.

The 10th anniversary of the 9-11 attacks was this month, and there was a lot of TV coverage about it. I remember when it happened and the discussions we had at my school about whether it was appropriate to talk about it with the youngest kids at the school. We knew that those children had seen a lot on TV, and now, as a father of a kindergartener, I can understand the concern so much better. Rachel, you were very worried about the people who died in those attacks and asked a lot of questions about airplanes and tall buildings. I can't imagine what those kids who witnessed those attacks as they happened 10 years ago must have felt. As adults, it's very hard for us to understand why people would do such horrible things, and your mother and I have tried our best to reassure you that some people are just not nice, but that you shouldn't spend you time worrying about it because we are going to do our very best to keep you safe.

Along the lines of keeping your safe, you also started worrying about earthquakes and thunderstorms a lot more over the past month. We had a tiny bit of weather which made you scared, but you spent an entire weekend worrying about earthquakes because there was one in the news early in the month. It's very interesting to see you try to process the things that adults take for granted every day, and to watch you worry about things that no one has any control over.

And for something you do have control over, Emily, you've started going potty in the toilet quite a bit now. You still don't usually tell us when you need to go, but when we sit you on it, you will make a little tinkle for us. You're not afraid of it like Rachel was at your age, and I think it won't be long before you're ditching the diapers altogether.

Your Grandpa Rick came down for a visit at the beginning of the month, and the two of you were so happy to see him. Your grandparents have decided to come to Texas a little earlier this year, so you'll see them again before Thanksgiving!

Your mother and I love you both very much, and can't wait to see what the next month will bring. We also can't wait to see what you both want to be for Halloween!

Love
Daddy

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Since it was going to be another hot day, I decided to take the girls to Sea World to cool off.

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19.1 miles. Just under 2 hours. I rode almost the entire Leon Creek Trail, but turned around about 4 miles from Loop 1604 because I was beat. It felt good to get back on the bike...it had been about 4 months since I'd been on the trail. Saw the remnants of a brush fire, lots of dry areas that usually have water, and a few very skinny deer that had ventured out in the middle of the day.

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Dear Girls,

Aaaand, it's back to the "normal" routine. Everyone is now back to work, school, and day care. And while I'm glad that we're back into some sort of routine, I really am going to miss the relaxed feel of the summer. What I'm not going to miss is the heat. It has been an absolutely brutal summer - probably one of the worst I've ever experienced in Texas. It's been so hard to do anything outside, and I'm looking forward to a break in the heat so that we can start to play outside again while the sun is up.

Rachel, you have finally started kindergarten. You're so excited to be in school, and I can see your love for learning every day, even if you are doing things you already know. You have already made new friends, and you're getting the hang of being on your own at school. When you were in ECE, someone walked you into school, took you to lunch and sat with you throughout, and basically held your hand through everything. You have to be a little more independent in kinder, and you're doing great with it. We had a friend help you out during the first week, but since then, you've been taking care of yourself.

You're also back to taking dance classes, which you really seem to enjoy. Since they're on Saturday mornings now, I can take you. We've added a new piece to the routine of going to dance class, and that is to stop in at Panera before we go. You have fallen in love with their chocolate chip bagels, and Daddy or Mommy gets a little morning pick-me-up.

Emily, you are back at Miss Rosalinda's and you have become quite the Chatty Cathy. You're pushing your sentences to four words or more now, and we are getting really good at understanding exactly what you're telling us. You still speak in that toddler talk that only family members really know, but we know that soon, we'll be able to stop translating for you.

You seem to have finally warmed up to talking to your grandparents online. Every time you see me taking my laptop back to the bedroom (that's where we talk to them from), you'll start chasing after me, asking over and over again, "Nana? Nana? Nana? Nana?"

There isn't really a lot to say about the rest of this month. We spent most of this month trying to stay cool...so much so, that just about the only pictures I have of both of your are in the kiddie pool or playing in the sprinkler.

It also doesn't help that I've been so completely crazy busy at work that I'm not even writing this until the middle of September, and trying to remember the things you both did 6 weeks ago is really hard. I promise I'll be better about that in the next few months. As long as things at work slow down a bit.

Your mother and I both love you very much, and we're looking forward to watching you learn and grow over the course of this school year.

Love
Daddy

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