To Eat or Not To Eat?

Oda Mae is typically a pretty good eater. She likes vegetables a lot, she used to like chicken. Occasionally we give her a hot dog or a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch if we don't have leftovers or something better to give her, but that really is fairly rare. Lately, she has been becoming more and more picky. Suddenly, she doesn't like chicken. She has never really liked any kind of noodles and now she seems to hate everything we try and give her.

The other day I made a new Mexican casserole (which was really good by-the-way) that had chicken, pimentos and corn tortillas, etc. She wouldn't touch it. A couple of weeks ago we had a Mexican fiesta with tortillas, rice and beans (We love us some Mexican food around here!) She wouldn't eat that either until she saw me putting rice and beans on a tortilla. I noticed that she was trying to do the same thing as her Daden. So I gave her 1/4th of a tortilla with some rice and beans on it and rolled it up like a burrito and she went to town. Ate the whole thing, she did. I tried the same thing with the new dinner a couple of days ago and she got wise. She started taking the "stuff" out, and just eating the tortilla. There went that idea!

So here is my dilemma, do I let her go hungry trying to teach her to eat what is in front of her or do I just give her stuff that I know she likes? I bailed out this afternoon and gave her a tortilla so she would eat something. My gut feeling is to let her get so hungry that she forces down whatever we give her. What do you suggest?

HERE is an mp3 file of some words that Oda Mae has recently started saying.

TRANSCRIPT:
Tortilla (her first 3 syllable word)
Yellow
Blue
Light
Eddie
People
Puppies
Daden
Momma
Uncle


Have fun.

-OD

Santa 2006

We went to the local mall tonight to get Oda Mae's picture taken with Santa Claus. She did very well! We got a picture with her smiling and everything...


She asked Santa for Balls, Pooh, and a Doll. Then he gave her a candy cane.


Some of you may be wondering why I'm not blogging very much lately. (It came to my attention that some people have actually noticed.) Well, probably a mixture of several things...
1. I'm just tired.
2. A bit tired of blogging (not that I'm going to stop).
3. It's the holiday season and I'm trying to get the house in shape.
4. It's the holiday season and I'm working about every other night until after Christmas.
5. My spare time has been taken up by running and practicing (more on that later).
6. It takes a lot of time to get a good post together. (Did I mention that I'm a little tired?)
7. Oda Mae isn't doing anything special these days.
8. Okay, #7 isn't true.
9. I can't keep up with all of the cool stuff she is doing.
10. #10 is true!

It's actually very difficult to decide what to blog about really. Oda Mae is talking a lot now days. She has managed to put together a few simple sentences. At little gym, she is becoming more sociable. All this stuff deserves its own blog entry I know. But, did I mention that I'm a little tired this time of year?

I've lost 14 pounds in the last 3 weeks. I've been running twice a day (most days) in order to get down to an acceptable weight according to the United States Marines. I've got an audition for "The Presidents Own" at the end of January, so I've been practicing a lot. This will be my first audition in almost two years. For those of you who are a little slow, Oda Mae is almost two. There is a reason those two time frames are about the same.

That's all I've got for now. I promise to post more often. :) maybe.

To all a good night.

-OD

FREE NUTCRACKER TICKETS

Got a some comps for the Metropolitan Classical Ballet's The Nutcracker.

EDIT: ALL THE TICKETS HAVE BEEN SPOKEN FOR...THANKS FOR PLAYING!

You can have either Friday night at 8pm or Saturday night at 8pm. I have two tickets for both nights and they are up for grabs. You gotta make sure that you come see me in the pit though.

-OD

I'm Cute!

Okay, here's a hint...Turn up the volume and refresh the Oda Mae blog.

I'm Cute!!!!!!

End of a long weekend...

The Oda Family had a very nice Thanksgiving holiday. My family came over, Oda Momma's family came over and we all ate way too much. Here is the picture we sent in our invitations...

Oda Mae had a ball. She got to see all of her favorite people on the same day. How's this for a crowd of crazy people?

Friday morning, Oda Mae went with Aunt Sis to go shopping (an annual tradition). Friday evening we went out to the parade of lights in downtown. Oda Mae loved looking at all the floats, horses and lights. She was very tired at the end of the day.

Saturday, we just hung around the house relaxing. Same thing today. We needed a couple of days to recuperate.

Here are some pics of the house this year. I'll have a video up sometime in the next few days. That will show off my electrical/artistic ability a bit more than the pics, but this should tide you over.

I missed my mark this year. I only have 18,701 lights on the house. I wanted 20,000+. Maybe next year. I already have a vision for what I'm going to add next year. It should be fun. Anyone know where I can get an "Eat at Joe's" sign?

We had a very good welcome to Christmas weekend. Hope all of you had a great Thanksgiving as well!

-OD

Funny...

what a difference a year can make...

November 17, 2006

November 17, 2005

Oda Mae....Get to work!

Get all those leaves in a big pile...

Yes, you heard me. Get up there...

We need more lights on that top branch...

Okay, you've got 5 minutes to rest up, then we work on the side of the house...


-OD

Here we go...

Now THIS is what I need. Should I go for the pre-assembled model or should I do it myself and "kick it up a couple notches"?

Check out the PHOTOS.

Alrighty Folks...

It's official, Thanksgiving is only TWO weeks away. Invitations go out tomorrow for the big bash here at our house (start checking your mail this weekend). If you read this blog and don't get one, don't think of it as "we don't want you to come". Think of it as more of a game. You have to figure out where we live and get here at the right time. See, we're just making things more fun for you.



Oda Mae and I will finish the two new dedicated circuits for the lights tomorrow. Then comes the fun part. Oda Mae and I get to get up on the roof and start putting up Christmas lights!!!!! Woo Hoo!!!!!!! :)!!!!!!! Yea!!!!!!!!!!

-OD

P.S. Anybody know where I can buy a snow blower thingy?

The Social Butterfly

Today was "friend day" at the Little Gym. The object was to do the play activities and skills with a friend today (if possible). Now, the "Beasts" class includes kids ages 19 months to 3 years. Oda Mae just turned 19 months and is one of the younger kids in class. Most of these kids (even the older ones) aren't really into playing with others yet. They pretty much play with Mommy (or "Daden" in my case) or by themselves. So, getting any of them to play with another child is just about impossible. Today, however, during ball time, Oda Mae found a friend. We'll call her "Olga" for blogs sake. Olga was sitting down playing with ball when Oda Mae found a little ball and went to give it to Olga. When Olga's mom and I saw this we went in for the opportunity. Olga got turned around and I helped Oda Mae toss the ball to her. For about 5 minutes Olga and Oda Mae rolled the ball back and forth to each other. Olga had to get a little help from her mommy, Oda Mae tossed the ball right back to her every time without my help. Good for her!!!! After they played, Oda Mae decided that it was time to put all the balls away into the container even though it wasn't really time yet. That's her favorite thing to do...put things away.

I knew they were somewhere...

Muahahahahahahah ....

All Hallow's Eve

Oda Mae went as a pumpkin this year, see...

Ain't she so cute?

For a rookie, she did pretty well going Trick-or-Treating.

After we went to the "old man's" house she got kind of scared. We hit up one more house for some candy and walked our way home.

This year I carved a pumpkin in the shape of "Igor" from Young Frankenstein. That's the movie we watched this evening (a classic). It turned out descent. Luckily, I got some pictures of it before some good-for-nothing, low-down, pimple-faced, teenage, hoodlum took off with it while we were watching our movie. They must have thought it was pretty good.


We're pretty tired now that the Halloween weekend is over. We might try to reschedule Little Gym tomorrow and sleep in.

On a different note. I took some time off from blogging. I'm sure you were all waiting by your computers to see when I would post again. Last week's Race for the cure went well. Unfortunately, Oda Mae got pretty sick the night before and was not able to attend. I met up with Aunt Sis though and we didn't come in last!!!! Yea, for not coming in last. We had a great time besides the fact that we got lost. I don't know where all those other people went, but we managed to find our "race mates" eventually.



-OD

The Race is On

Yep, that's right you've got less than 12 hours to sponsor Oda Mae and me in the RACE FOR THE CURE.

If you decide not to donate. That's okay. Oda Mae wont cry for long...

BUT, if you decided to donate even $5.00. She would be soooooo happy...


You can watch the race tomorrow morning on FOX. Oda Mae and I are due to start at 7:45am.

Thanks again to those of you who have made a donation!!!!!

-OD

Hee, Hee.....

She used to not have any hair....

This one made me laugh.
-OD

Happy Hump Day

Had a little photo
shoot today.

Nite Nite

Oda Mae and I are feeling much better now. Oda Mae seems to have a constant runny nose though.

Guess that'll stop some day...unless she's like me and it doesn't stop until you're 32.

We had a nice day today. We went to a Little Gym makeup class. We'll have to make up another class for the Thanksgiving week as well. Then we came home ate lunch and took a nap. Tonight we went out to do a little shopping and then to eat.

Fall is here it seems. The leaves are falling, the weather is under 90 degrees and it is raining every once-in-a-while. Time to start working on the Christmas lights for this year. We start inventory this week and I'm going to install two more dedicated outlets. Last years total was 16,754 lights. I'm curious to see how I do this year!!!!

We are also beginning to plan for Thanksgiving. For those of you who don't know, Oda Momma and I have both of our families over to our house for the big celebration. A couple of turkeys, a ham, lots of sides. We love having everyone over. After the big dinner a couple of naps and a football game we go outside to see the lighting of the house. It's Clark Griswold at his best.

Oda Mae and I are almost at 50% of our goal for the RACE. We run next Saturday (one week to go). Please help us raise money for the 2006 KOMEN RACE FOR THE CURE by donating a little something at our web page. It's easy, and it's for a great cause!!!!

That's all for now. Gonna go waste the rest of my Saturday on the couch. Nite, Nite...

-OD

Thank You!!!

To those of you who have already donated to the "Oda" Race for the Cure! We are off to a good start. I've bumped the donation post up so that it appears near the beginning of the blog.

Oda Mae and I are a bit under the weather today. She's getting over some teething and I pulled a lot of snot out of her today so she should be good to go in another day or so. I'm just starting, so I've got a couple of days of misery to get through. Fortunately, Oda Momma is feeling pretty good these days, so she'll take over when she gets home. :)

Aunt Mitzy and Aunt Linda did GREAT at the costume contest yesterday here are some pics...

Aunt Mitzy won the Cutest Costume Award as a Red Hat Lady

Aunt Linda should have won Most Elaborate Costume as a Princess

Here are some of the other entries...
Go TEXAS!!!!

MMMmmmmmm Hot Dogs!

Boo!

The Race

Please consider donating to the 2006 Komen Race for the Cure. Oda Mae and I are signed up to go for the gold or the "Pink" rather. Please help Oda Mae raise money for a cure.

You can CLICK HERE to go to our page and make a donation. We have a personal goal of $150.00. Can we do it? Only with YOUR help. Come on Oda lovers!
-OD & OM

Saturday Fun

Oda Mae and I went to a flea market this morning. Guess what we found...




All for about $9.00!!!

Oda Mae is doing some teething these days. We're working on the back teeth now. I have to say that I've heard horror stories about teething, but Oda Mae seems to be taking everything well. She didn't sleep real well last night, but during the day she is happy as usual. Tomorrow we're going to a costume contest. Not for her, but for her Aunt Linda! We'll have pics up tomorrow.

Speaking of costumes. Oda Mae is going as a pumpkin this year for Halloween. She is very excited!

Last week I played a church service over in Dallas and they have posted the service on their website. CLICK HERE and click "Listen" for the October 1, 2006 sermon and listen to the hymns(@ 3:50, 32:20, & 1:05:30) and the anthem, "Thou Art the King of Glory" (@ 43:45). Not bad, but my pitch was a little off from the organ. The second service was better.

-OD

Odaville

Where the little people are friendly!