Dayton's Blog: A pimple on the ass of the Internet.

Today, we had our first "Blame the Sibling" moment.

We're sitting in the living room after dinner, and Michi brought out a container of fruit for the kids to eat as a dessert (blueberries, raspberries, etc.). She set in on the coffee table, and the kids proceeded to chow down. Addy was having fun dancing and whatnot to music on the TV, and in her enthusiasm she knocks the thing of fruit to the floor.

Michi: "Addy, who knocked over the fruit?"
Addy: "Erin."
Erin: (Doesn't say anything, but her expression is totally, "WTF?")

Naturally, that was set straight pretty darned quick, but that didn't stop us from laughing as we marked the occasion.


"She did it."
"Don't go to sleep tonight."

"How old are you?"
"I'm dis many."


Happy Birthday to Addison, 3 years old today!

....here. Look at pics of my kids.


(Click to enlarge. Warning: Cuteness Ahead.)

New pics from Sunday.




That cheesy grin of Addy's cracks me up. What a ham.

"Addy, how does Daddy pay for your day care?"

"Daddy, I wanna watch Cappin Kirk."


I mean, really: Does it get any better than this?

"Daddy, I wanna watch Batman."

That's right. Addy, my oldest daughter and all of 2 years old, is a Batman freak. Thankfully for her, her father is a nerd and a Batman fan from almost the same age, and has exploited the advantages of modern home video entertainment in anticipation of this day.

It started with her sitting down with me to watch the first two episodes of the new Batman: The Brave and the Bold cartoon, which I'd recorded off of Cartoon Network. After that, she wanted to see more. So, I set her up with several episodes of Filmation's New Adventures of Batman. She dug Scooby-Doo Meets Batman and Robin, and as I type this, she's currently watching a DVD of The All New Super Friends Hour.

She even walks around the house, singing "Dih nih nih nih nih nih Batman!"

Mommy, as you might guess, is less than thrilled.

Shameless Daddy stuff:



And yes, in case you were wondering, Addy does indeed like spaghetti.

At 2, she's still on the young side for full-blown trick-or-treating, but she was still able to participate in a party at her school, and Michi took her around to several friends' homes on Halloween night. Michi and her mother conspired to put together her costume, which of course owes a lot to the fact that Michi's mom is Japanese:

Trick or Treat!

Of course, when they weren't looking, I added my own embellishments:

Why Daddy's not allowed to help.


I'm already thinking about next year....

So, we've been gradually acclimating Addy to toilet training during the past couple of months. It started slow, with Michi taking her to her little chair in the bathroom in the mornings after waking up, and after her bath in the evenings before bedtime. Now that she's in the 2-3 age group at school, the teachers are also incorporating it into her routine along with all the kids in her class. Ask once an hour, let 'em do their thing, etc.

In the evenings after her bath, Addy is taken to the other bathroom by Michi where her chair is, and the two of them are in there with the door shut while Addy sits, reads her Elmo book, they talk about boys, or whatever. Recently, Michi's taken to bringing Erin in there, too, since she can now sit up unassisted, and the three of them are in there, gabbing and laughing and just having a grand old time.

And then, it hits me.

This is how it starts.

Right here, before my very eyes and ears, I'm witnessing the imprinting of behavior upon female DNA which will, in years to come, be directly tied to why women always go to the bathroom in packs. You can't help it, ladies; it's burned into your brains.

I fully expect to come home one day soon and find couches, fresh plants, reading lamps, and soft music in there.

Son of a bitch.

And just in time for football season, too!



What I'd like to sit down and figure out is just how many hours of sleep I've lost during those two years....

....Daddy continues the corruption of his firstborn.


"Here, Daddy: Let me show you how not to suck at this."

Now I just delegate the material to my trusted assistant....

"A fork? For cake? Fork that noise!"

Shameless promotion of a different sort....




For those wondering, Addy's shirt reads "Captain! My diaper can't take any more!"

...insufferably pleased with themselves as they finalize their fiendish plot to rule the universe.

Michi's doctor gave her the okay to leave the hospital this morning, and the doctor minding the babies in the nursery cleared Erin soon after. I had everybody home just after lunch, and now we're settling in to life with the new family dynamic. The dogs are curious as to the strange little human in their midst, and Addy is fascinated by this tiny version of her. Check out the resemblance:

The first pic is Addy, the day after her birth, compared to Erin just a few hours after she showed up:



Weird, huh?

She's ready to kick all kinds of Sith Lord ass.




That's right, Anakin. Run, like the punk you are.

I did it.

On a whim over this past weekend, the Mrs. and I decided to get our hands on a copy of the Schoolhouse Rock 30th anniversary DVD, which just arrived in today's mail from Amazon.com. For some reason that I can't remember now, Michi and I broke into the "I'm Just A Bill" ditty while being silly, and that was all she wrote. It's the latest in several fits of nostalgia I've had over the past year, looking for stuff I enjoyed as a kid that I can share with Addy (and the Player To Be Named Later) when the time's right, as well as finding the requisite copies of certain books, Disney movies and whatnot.

(:: pauses to listen to his library and DVD collection's collective gasp of horror ::)

It's almost time to take another pic of me reading a Trek book to Addy. So far, we've had The Truth Machine and Mission to Horatius. Any suggestions?

A heartfelt "Thank you!" to everyone who wished Addy a happy birthday, either in the blog or via e-Mail.

It's been an interesting year, to say the least. It took a while, but I think that Michi and I have found the new balance that was required of us in order to fulfill our various obligations, all while making sure that Addy was the #1 priority, of course. So far as my writing is concerned, I know I've still got some adjusting to do, mostly because through a variety of circumstances, I've not yet faced writing a full-length novel on deadline since she's come along. I've written short stories, magazine articles, novel proposals and such, but the first true test of my ability to juggle all of these new responsibilities still looms ahead (hopefully sooner rather than later....Hello? Editors?). I guess we'll just have to see what we'll see.