WoW!

Oda Mae and I are looking forward to going out to the Concerts in the Garden many times this year. If anyone wants to go with us, just let me know and I'll tell you when we're going. This Friday is opening night! We'll be there. The 4th of July concert is just around the corner and I'm sure the orchestra will play The Stars and Stripes.

Here is a little something to whet your appetite.



-OD

Memorial Day Activities...

Yesterday was Memorial Day. Oda Momma, Oda Mae and I didn't have anywhere to go so I sent the two ladies out to spend the day with a friend and Oda Grandma. While they were away I had the whole day to myself. What did I do, you ask? I worked in the yard. Finally a day to spend cleaning up! I also bought some new plants and flowers to spruce up the yard a bit. This morning Oda Mae and I watered everything in. Oda Mae got wet...





Then she wanted to play on the slide...




Then it was time to come in for lunch...


-OD

Nite Nite

Here is Oda Mae in her Ed Grimley PJ's.....

Congratulations Graduate!

Today was my nephew Chris' high school graduation. The whole Oda Family went out to the ceremony and to lunch. We all had a very good time. Oda Mae was excellent during the ceremony and is to be commended. She missed her morning nap and lunch. After some animal crackers and a stroll around the convention center towards the end she was in prime condition for a nap. Two minutes into the car ride to lunch, she was out. After a nap in a cool car we went in to eat. Again she was very good. We got home and she took another nap and we're all caught up for the day. Thank goodness for a good baby!!!!

Congratulations Chris!!!!

Lookie what I found!

I found this at the "ReStore" for pretty cheap. We needed more cabinet space in the kitchen, so I'm going to start refinishing it this weekend.

14 Months Today

Oda Mae is 14 months old today. She is getting so big. And what about the appetite on that girl. Last night Aunt Sis came over to babysit while Oda Momma and I went out to see The Da Vinci Code (which by the way was pretty good I thought). I bough a pizza for them to eat for dinner. Aunt Sis said that she ate the toppings off of 2 slices of pizza, a bowl of broccoli that Oda Momma made sure was available, a couple pieces of watermelon, and apple pie with ice cream for desert. This morning Oda Mae ate a large bowl of oatmeal and a whole banana for breakfast. I was going to eat what she didn't eat of the banana. Good thing we have two more on the counter.

So is it normal for a 14 month old to eat that much? Geez!



-OD

All better now..

Almost, anyway. I had been feeling quite a bit better and then, last Friday I had the splints removed from my nose. Talk about an experience....I had begun to get nauseous waiting for the Dr. to come in and take a look at things. Then I started getting really sick. They gave me something to drink, got me going again and then proceeded to take them out. I didn't even know they were in there. We're talking a hard straw type thing that was about three inches long up each nostril. Oda Momma took me home and I slept the rest of the day. By Monday I was finally feeling like doing something again. That's a good thing because Oda Momma had to go back to work and Oda Mae needed tending to. I got two stitches out on Monday as well. I get the other two out on Friday...yeah. I should be pretty much 100% within the next few days.

Cousin Chris came over Monday to take me to the Dr. and to watch Oda Mae while I was there. I made him put Oda Mae in her car seat in case he had to strap her in and come get me after I was done. Now, Cousin Chris has very little "baby" experience since he's the youngest and about to graduate from high school. He was trying to buckle her in and was tipping her all around trying to get things right when Oda Mae started giggling at him. I think Oda Mae wants to marry Cousin Chris some day; she likes him pretty well. Someday she'll understand that the 18 year age difference and the fact that they are 1st cousins will make that more than just a little improbable.

Here is Oda Mae riding her car...



Someday, she'll be riding one of these bad boys...


-OD

Recovering...

I made it through the surgery. Went to sleep Tuesday morning and the next thing I know, I've got a swollen nose that even Marcia Brady would be proud of. Oda Momma has been taking very good care of me and the Oda baby all at the same time. Not an easy task. I ended up with a few stitches on the outside of one nostrel because apparently the Dr. said that something was pretty crooked and he couldn't do every thing he needed to do unless he straightened me out first. So now my nose is straight. I didn't know it was crooked before. I expect GQ to be calling me up any day now to model for them because of my fantastic profile. I've been on an all liquid diet since Tuesday afternoon and I'm starting to get a little hungry. Maybe now would be a good time to try that lemonaid diet that Carter was on. Okay, well, maybe not....

Oda Momma was on vacation for a couple of days and had to go into work this afternoon and evening. Oda Mae and I are trying to keep ourselves entertained. It would be easier if I felt like entertaining, but I'm sure we'll make it.

Time to go find something that will keep her occupied for the next 6 hours.

-OD

Going's on...

So the Oda family has been pretty busy the last few days. Oda Momma and I had to work several evenings last week. Thanks to all the grandmas who helped out with Oda sitting. Oda Mae is teething really bad right now. She is pretty inconsistent with her mood. She is fine one minute and suddenly starts crying and screaming. Lot's of those big teeth starting to come in.

Of course yesterday was mothers day. Oda Momma had to work so we brought home Macaroni Grill when she got home. She got to spend some fun time with Oda Mae after that. Oda Momma has a great little Mother's Day post on her BLOG. Go check it out. It's really amazing how much Oda Mae has grown since last Mother's Day. What is even more amazing is how much she has grown since yesterday.....

They grow up fast don't they! :)

On another note....tomorrow is the big day for me. I'm going in at 9:30 in the morning to have my head cleaned out. Gonna have a deviated septum repaired, a uvula trimmed up, and the snot sucked out of my sinuses. Sounds like fun, don't it? The good thing is that there won't be any scars, cause they're not gonna cut me open on the outside....Hmmmmmm, I wonder how they're gonna get in there? Anyway, wish me luck. I'm just gonna sleep through it all, and probably through the next couple days as well (thank God for liquid Hydrocodone!!!)

-OD

Tagged....

I hate these things......!!!

Here it goes....

What's in the fridge?

Here I've got milk, water, butter, lite sour cream, eggs, carrots, onions, butter, cheese. Oda Momma has a grape soda back there and that pink stuff is my practice frosting. MMMmmmm I'm having leftover grilled chicken for lunch.

What's in the closet?
Pretty standard closet, crammed with clothes and a wooden bowl that used to belong to my great-great grandmother that I need to send off to my great aunt. I'm the family historian don't ya know.

What's on the nightstand?
Picture of Oda Mae, clock, lamp, baby monitor, "I Know This Much is True" by Wally Lamb (so far it's pretty good), and kleenex.

What's in the car?

Misc. papers that need to be filed away, YoYo Ma/Bach cello suites, Gerry Mulligan quartet w/ Chet Baker (my favorite jazz trumpeter), Dolly Parton/The Grass is Blue (great CD!), Dvorak (New World Symphony) I'm playing that piece this weekend, and an air pump for Oda Mae's jogger stroller that has a slow leak in one of the tires.

In the trunk we have two music stands, tile spacers, diaper bag, stroller, and some car wipy things.

And now you know.

-OD

Just because...

Turns out, my child is a ham.

Learning new stuff...

I had a very nice little chat with my MIL tonight. She's gonna start up a "I can do it if you don't have the time" business. Sounds kind of fun. We were talking about how little kids learn so fast and I was reminded of a couple of stories that I wanted to post.

We've been teaching Oda Mae the different parts of her body. We'll ask her stuff like: Where is your head? Where is your tummy?, and she'll show us where it is. That kind of stuff. The other day we were in the car going somewhere and we were stopped at a red light. Oda was getting kind of tired and a little cranky so I decided to play our little game with her while I was setting there. So I asked her where her head, tummy, ears, and tongue were. She's really good at all of these already so I decided to try a new one. I asked her where her feet where and I grabbed her feet and told her "here are your feet." She laughed and giggled. After a couple of times doing that I asked her "Where are your feet?" and she reached down and grabbed her feet. Now she's got it. All this just sitting at a red light. Just amazing!

Yesterday, we also started learning how to use our fork and spoon at dinner time. She did really good for a first timer. I helped her with her spoon a few times and she started to get it after a while. The fork was a little more tricky. We have to make sure that we "stab" the meat and not Daddy's hand. I think she'll get the hang of it pretty soon.

So, yes, it's really amazing to me how much she learns and how fast she is able to learn it. I am positive that she can learn more than I could possibly teach her in a day. Daddy's just trying to stay a head of the game.

Thought for the day...

"I never quite thought that one of the things I would appreciate the most in life after having a baby would be going to the bathroom by myself."


I know this picture is terrible blurry, but the expression is very funny...

"All I want to do is Singggggg"

Just hanging out...

Here is Oda Mae playing with her car...
Here she is playing with Oda Momma after she gets home from work...
Not a whole lot to blog about today. Oda Mae does have a new game she likes to play with us. I'll try and get video of that today and post it sometime soon. It's CRAZY fun!

-OD

Guess who's back...

I was going to title this post "Guess who came out of the closet" but that sounded kind of weird. We finally got the repair part for Oda Mae's musical chair. Some of you may recall that a while back there was a recall on this chair that I posted about. (I just used the word "recall" twice in the same sentence with two different meanings....Ha) See February 7, 2006 Oda Mae was very happy to see him again.



On another note....here is a quick dinner for all of you stay-at-home people (or all of you non-stay-at-home people). If you like the old frito pie, you'll really like this little casserole. This is for those days when you forgot to make dinner and your wife is going to be home in 25 minutes.

Sour Cream Chili Bake

1 Pound Ground Beef
1 15 oz can Pinto Beans
1 10 oz can Red Enchilada Sauce (MILD: Oda Momma won't let me use the hot stuff)
1 8 oz can Tomato Sauce
1 1/2 cup Shredded American Cheese (divided) (We like cheddar)
2 Tbs instant minced onion
1 6 oz package Corn Chips (If you can find a 6 oz bag of Fritos, let me know. I can only find 10 oz)
1 cup Sour Cream

In a skillet brown ground beef (thaw it out in the microwave first 'cause you forgot to set it out); drain off fat (or don't; it depends on how much of a hurry you're in and if you're trying to lose some of those calories from that bowl of ice-cream last night).

Stir in drained beans, enchilada sauce, tomato sauce, 1 cup of the shredded cheese, and instant minced onion.

Set aside 1 cup of the corn chips; coarsely crush remaining chips (Your kids will love this part, give'm a rolling pin and let them have at it). Stir crushed chips into meat mixture.

Turn into a 1 ½ quart casserole. Bake, covered, at 375F for 30 minutes (I usually forget to cover it, so I don't think it really matters).

Spoon sour cream atop casserole; sprinkle with the ½ cup cheese. Sprinkle reserved chips around edge of casserole. Bake, uncovered (again), 2 - 3 minutes.

Stick a salad on the side and maybe some corn and you got a pretty good meal. And Oda Momma is happy too!

Give this a try and let me know how you like it. I usually double this recipe so we have plenty of leftovers.

Next time, I'll come up with something a bit more healthy.

-OD

New teeth...

Oda Mae has been cutting some more teeth the last few days. She has been kind of fussy, though I can understand why. Two teeth have broken through on the left and right side of her uppers. I'm pretty sure she's got one on each side of her lowers coming in as well.
Here on the home front, things have been going alright. I was able to repair the washing machine the other day for $20. Tomorrow I'll get a part in for the refrigerator and hopefully I can fix it without any problems. I figure I'll save at least a couple hundred bucks by doing all of this repair work my self. I've turned into quite the handyman. :) Oda Mae of course helps with everything!

Yesterday, I made a cake for one of Oda Momma's coworkers. See....

Mr. Versatile, that's me.

-OD

Planted some trees...

Today Oda Mae helped me plant a Bald Cypress and a Shumardi Red Oak in our front yard.

I think she ate some dirt.

She seemed to be doing okay at the end of the day so I've decided not to worry about it.

-OD

How to Stop a Baby from Crying...

I stole this from Nonchalant Savant

I hope that this technique will keep some SAHD from going completely insane someday.


I'm tempted to go wake Oda Mae up from her nap right now just to see if it works for real. Well....maybe not.

-OD

Field Trip....

After our run this morning, Oda Mae told me that she wanted to go on a field trip. So we went to the Botanic Gardens.

Having a good time.
Smelling the roses. Hut 1, hut 2...

Walking around. Playing with the water.

At this point she was saying "Ni, ni" which translates to "Night, night". And we came home and took a nap.

We had a good morning.

-OD

It's "officially" Spring

We made it to Easter, yea! Oda Mae had a wonderful day. After I played my three Easter services (btw, I'm good on going to church for at least three weeks now.), we went over to Grandpa and Grandma's house for an afternoon of BBQ and egg hunts.

We decided not to color any eggs this year:

1. Oda Mae is only ONE.

2. She doesn't understand why you would want to color eggs.

3. If "we" were to color eggs, Oda Mae would be playing on the ground with her blankets while Oda Momma and I were coloring the eggs.

4. She dropped the plastic eggs a lot. Need I say more.

I'm sure that we will have many years of coloring eggs when Oda Mae will have much more fun.

Oda Mae had a lot of fun finding eggs until she got tired. Then we came home.

On a somewhat different note...today is TAX DAY! I have to admit, I didn't finish my taxes until Saturday. Being "self employed" makes it kind of a drag to do my taxes, BUT this year I had at least one very good little tax deduction. The US government says that Oda Mae is worth $1000.00 to me and Oda Momma. For the first time since we've been married we actually get a refund!!!! Woo Hoo for Oda Mae!!!!!

-OD