Allie News

Allie has her first loose tooth! She told me, "I can even push it with my tongue." She is very excited about having the Tooth Fairy (aka The Molanator) finally pay a visit.

Christmas

Christmas was filled with family, fun, food, and loads of presents. We spent Christmas in Palm Springs with Kristi's family and it was crazy as ever. Allie finally fell asleep at 10:30 because, as Allie put it, "I'm just so excited!" She woke up briefly at 5:00am and wanted to get up to see if Santa brought her a dollhouse. Thankfully, she fell back to sleep and had to be woken up at 7:30. Santa pulled through and brought the dollhouse. Allie didn't get dressed all day because she played with it all day long. Melanie received a new baby from Santa and carried it around the house until it started to cry. That's when she handed the baby to someone to deal with the crying. We ended up turning the sound off. Kristi received several cashmere sweaters and gift cards. But Brett was the winner in the gift category: Guitar Hero World Tour! We've been having a great time being the family band. But I think the neighbors are getting tired of listening to Kristi sing "Band on the Run". However, Allie does a mean rendition of "No Sleep til Brooklyn" by The Beastie Boys. Next stop: recording studio.

Melanie Update

Miss Melanie has given up crawling for walking and started to say some words, which has been quite interesting in trying to decipher what she wants. We can understand when she says "apple", "mama", "dada", "up", "down", "juice", "shoes" and her version of Allie. She signs more, milk, shoes, and all done. She said "nana" for banana yesterday in the market. She makes animals sounds for cow, dog, lion, cat, sheep, and sticks her tongue out for a lizard. She LOVES Elmo or "eh bow" as Melanie calls him. She has become attached to one of Allie's baby, Gabby. She carries her around the house and sometimes to the car. She rocks and kisses her, which is really sweet to watch. She follows Allie around the house and plays with her dolls and other toys. If Allie closes her bedroom door, Melanie gets really mad and tries to tattle on Allie. I can't imagine what things will be like in 10 years.

It's Snowing in So Cal!

Well, not in San Dimas at least. I took the girls up to Mt. Baldy after school to see and play in the snow for the first time. Allie threw snowballs and did snow angels. Melanie just stood there laughing at Allie. Had I planned a little further in advance, I would have brought the camera and weather appropriate clothes for Melanie. Allie and I both had on snow-friendly shoes and heavy coats. Melanie had on her winter coat but only sneakers for her feet. Both girls didn't have mittens but they did have their hats on. I may take them tomorrow but with better clothes and definitely the camera.

Brett's Update: I wasn't sure today would ever come.

I am feeling a bit emotional today.
Tonight is my last class in my quest for a Bachelor's degree. It took four years in the Corps, and nine years of going to school at night to get here. The last couple of years has been the hardest. The seemingly never ending long days; balancing career, school, house, babies, and everything else really wears on you. The constant looming stress of papers, reading assignments, and exams is bad enough, but when you are trying to simultaneously provide for a family and grow a career, it's exhausting. Every weekend, homework. every night (after work), class or reading for the next one. If you take a break, you get behind and the stress mounts. Pouting or even crying kids when you leave, pleading with you to stay and play. Just be here, Dad. Do that for NINE years straight, and I don't know the words to describe how exhausting and daunting that is.

My support has been wonderful. I will never thank Kristi enough for everything she has done to help me. She has shared much of this burden along with me, and sometimes it was probably harder on her. She's the Sam to my Frodo.

I will take the time to personally thank everyone who has helped me along the way. It will take a while because there were a lot. If you are reading this, you are probably one of them whether you know it or not.

After so long, it's kind of hard to believe that it's finally over. I feel like Inigo Montoya in The Princess Bride, who struggled his whole life to avenge his father, once he had done it, he didn't know what to do.

Well, kind of. I do have plenty to do. I am never at a loss for projects or new hobbies. It's just that this quest (yes it was truly a quest for me) has been such an overarching driver in my life for most of my life, and now it's done.

It's done. Wow.

Allie Makes a Sandwich

On Saturday, while Brett was hanging the Christmas lights outside, Allie decided she was hungry and wanted a sandwich. Instead of coming to get me (I was making sure Brett didn't meet his Maker while on the ladder), she decided to make one on her own. I came inside to get something and there was Allie at the counter, table knife in hand, cutting breakfast sausage to put on her buttered bread. I was disgusted and proud at the same time: disgusted by the whole sausage and butter sandwich thing but proud because she collected the necessary ingredients herself, opened a new loaf of bread, cut the bread in half, and made the sandwich herself. Today I told her that I bought turkey for her lunch and she replied, "Yea, that's what I was looking for when I made my sandwich but the sausage looked way better." All this and yet, I still have to help her get dressed for school.