Grant,

Tiny little baby,
All wrapped up in blue,
I wonder if just maybe
An angel sent me you.

I love your soft and downy hair,
And your long and curled-up toes,
Your tiny little hands,
And your sweet little button nose.

I love your little chubby cheeks,
And your crinkled, dimpled chin
Your soft little squeaks,
And your soft and fragrant skin.

Every day you're growing bigger,
And soon, no longer a baby will be,
But for right now, I figure
Your favorite person is me.

Someday you'll grow up,
Play and wave to me from afar,
But right now I can enjoy the wonders,
Of the baby boy you are.

Becca,

Little blonde-headed girl,
With a will so strong,
Did you know the world,
Will some day sing your song?

Little blue-eyed angel,
With the pink-lipped crooked smile,
Did you know your sweetness
Would the hardest heart beguile?

Little spinning princess,
With your fancy dancing dress,
Did you ever guess,
That your kisses are the best?

Did you ever wonder,
Why I can't take my eyes off you?
Why I sit and think and ponder
At the fancy dancing blonde-haired princess,
With the eyes of blue?

It's because you are my heart and soul,
My morning sun and my moon at night,
You make my life full and whole,
My little girl so bright.

Mommy loves Rebecca and Grant!

Dear Becca & Grant,
                  We all went down to Mamaw & Papaw's for a cook out last night. I rode on the newest dirt bike trail down there while Mom, Becca and Grant stayed up on the deck. I have no idea what y'all were doing. It was finally time to eat. We had burgers, hot dogs, baked beans, mac & cheese, potato salad, iced tea and cheese cake. Jon, Jake, Rodney and I went down to Papaw's garage to watch the Kentucky Wildcat football team beat the Arkansas Razorbacks. The football team is having a pretty good year this year and that hardly ever happens.
      The week has been pretty typical I suppose. I have started letting Mom go to bed early during the week and taking care of tucking Becca in and feeding Grant by myself. I had a bunch of late nights this past week. Mom deserves her sleep though. She's a hard worker. I know it can't be easy trying to entertain Becca and looking after the needs of Grant.
      I think we had our last swim for the year Friday night. I got in slowly. Everyone said I was crazy for getting into the water. The temperature of the water was 74°, not real cold but certainly not as warm as it has been this summer. Becca decided she was going to get in and she walked up to the edge of the pool and jumped right in. I thought that it would be too cold for her when she climbed out but the only reason she climbed out was to jump in again. We had lots of fun in that pool this past summer and I'm sure we're gonna have even more next summer when Grant will be able to join us and Mom won't be too pregnant to move.
      The new fall T.V. season starts this week. I'm gonna give a rundown on the shows we intend on watching this year. Let's start with Monday. Monday at 8:00 we plan on watching a new show called "Chuck"; we aren't going to be watching them on the day and time they are on. We will be TiVoing the shows and watching them when we get the chance. Anyway, "Chuck" is about a computer geek that works at a Geek Squad type of outfit called the Nerd Herd. Maybe there is no longer a Geek Squad when you read this so let me explain what that is. It's a service provided by Best Buy. The Geek Squad are computer techs who will come out to your house and fix your computer. Anyway, this geek or nerd, if you prefer accidentally downloads government secrets into his brain and he has to become a spy. Monday at 9:00 we'll TiVo "Heroes". That show is about people with special abilities. It was the biggest new show of the year last year. I really enjoy it. At 9:00 "Journeyman" comes on. This show is about a fellow that can travel through time. That's what Monday looks like.
      Tuesday we have nothing we are interested in at 8:00 but at 9:00 our favorite show is on, "House", this is a program about an obnoxious and rude doctor who's hooked on drugs. He is rude to his staff and to his patients but he is brilliant. It doesn't sound like much of a show but it is hilarious and interesting. We love it. At 10:00 your Mom's favorite show comes on, "Law & Order:SVU". This is a cop show.
      Wednesdays we have "Lost"; this show is about people who are marooned on a mysterious island. It's really a freaky show. and then "Criminal Minds" comes on; this show is about FBI profilers. Then a new show called "Life" comes on. This show is about a dtective who spent 12 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit and now he's back on the force.
      Thursday brings us "Survivor"; this is a reality show where they put a bunch of people in a wilderness setting and they vote each other off. Next is "CSI"; thsi show deals with Crime Scene Investigators in Las Vegas and finally we have "Without a Trace" which deals with the missing persons division on the FBI.
      Fridays we will be TiVoing "Ghost Whiperer" which is one of two shows we watch dealing with a woman who talks to dead people. The other one is called "Medium"; it will be coming on on Sundays this year after football season is over. I like "Medium" better than "Ghost Whisperer". Next we have a new show called "Moonlight"; it's about a vampire who is a private detective. Your Mom likes vampire shows and spooky stuff like that. Then a show I like comes on called "Numbers"; it's about a mathematics professor who helps his brother who is an FBI agent solve crimes with the use of math. It sounds boring but it's actually very entertaining.
      Saturday & Sunday looks like pretty barren as far as T.V. goes. I guess we will be trying to watch what we TiVoed throughout the week during these two days.
      What shows were on when I was three and my sister was a newborn like my two kids. "Gunsmoke" came on on Mondays in 1970-71, Hee Haw came on on Tuesdays, "Hawaii Five-O" came on on Wednesdays, "Ironside came on on Thursdays, "High Chapparral" came on on Fridays, "Mission: Impossible" and "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" came on on Saturdays, and Sundays brought us "The Ed Sullivan Show", "Walt Disney's Wonderful World" and "Bonanza". I remember most of these from syndication but there was a ton of stuff on the list I was using for this information that I had never heard of. I just thought that little bit of pop culture history from your Dad's time would be interesting.
      Let's take a look at what was on when your Mom was three. During the 1980-81 season on Mondays one of the best shows ever aired was on, "Little House on the Prairie". I loved that show and still look at it when I catch it on cable. Tuesdays brought us "Happy Days" and "Laverne & Shirley", on Wedensdays we looked at "Diff'rent Strokes" and "The Facts of Life", we had one of the other greatest shows ever on Thursdays in "The Waltons", on Fridays when I was growing up my family loved watching "The Incredible Hulk" and "The Dukes of Hazzard", Saturday was another golden television memory for me because we got to watch "The Love Boat" and "Fantasy Island" and on Sundays, even as a ten year old boy, I appreciated the certain talents of the women on "Charlie's Angels. I've had fun doing this.
      Well, Grant has been asleep all night so I am sure he will be waking up very shortly for a bottle so I will close oit this post. Daddy loves Rebecca & Grant!

Dear Becca & Grant,
                  We had planned on nursing Grant on the breast. We had heard about all of the wonderful advantages of breast feeding and all of the "breast is best" slogans and we bought into it hook, line and sinker. It was supposed to be better for baby's immune system, cut down on the chances of obesity, it promoted bonding with the mother and a hundred and one other great things that breast feeding was supposed to do. I am sure that all of these things are absolutely true but they failed to mention the drawbacks to breast feeding. Poor Mom had been in a zombie state since she got home with Grant. He was nursing every two hours for at least and hour and sometimes much longer; day and night. She hadn't had any sleep and she was becoming quite unpleasant to be around. We bought the breast pump but Grant was always on her breast and when he wasn't she had so many other pressing concerns to attend to that she never had time to pump and when she did she wasn't getting enough to allow me to help pick up the feeding slack. That was another thing I personally didn't like about breast feeding. It may very well promote bonding with the mother but as the father I felt like I hardly knew my son at all because there was nothing I could really do for him. I so enjoyed my time with Becca feeding her and I think that we bonded in that way. Becca is a strong, healthy, intelligent and beautiful child and she was bottle fed so while the breast may very well be the best, formula isn't the evil substance that the breast feeding propagandists would have you believe. The other day I came home from work looking forward to a nice relaxing evening with my family and when I walked through the door my poor wife was sitting in my chair looking like she hadn't had any sleep for five days, my daughter had every single one of her toys strewn about the living room floor in addition to her bed covers and the house was in a state of disarray. Mom is a wonderful house keeper so this was not like her at all. I encouraged her to allow us to switch to the bottle. She balked at first because she had had her heart set on breast feeding Grant. Eventually she relented and so he is now a bottle baby. He seem to be thriving on the bottle just as much as he did on the breast and I am just now getting to bond with my son by being able to take part in the feeding process. Mom finally got a good nights sleep Friday night. She slept for twelve hours and looked like her usual beautiful self Saturday.
      I also sat up with him all night last night and I couldn't seem to get him to sleep much at all and now Becca is up and I want to go to sleep so I am going to close this post out, go get Mom up and go to bed. I wanted to post a nice long post but every time I would sit down here he would cry. I have been working on this post since 1:00 this morning. Daddy loves Rebecca & Grant!

Dear Becca & Grant,
                  Today started out pretty nice. Becca and I went to the McDonald's playland over there in front of Wal-Mart at Nicholasville Rd. and Man O' War. I had a Big Mac that I had to send back because it was prepared wrong. I asked for no pickles with extra onions and I got no onions with extra pickles. No big deal; I'm used to sub par service at all McDonald's in general and that particular McDonald's in particular. Becca played and had lots of fun. I don't think she was quite as into it as she has been in the past. As a matter of fact she eventually told me she wanted to leave. So we did.
      We headed out to Hamburg where we went to Target. When we walked through the door Becca informed me that they had popcorn there and she wanted some so we got popcorn and watermelon icees. My favorite flavor of icee is blue Raspberry. I purchased Becca four turtle neck shirts; one each in black, white, pink and purple. We hadn't been able to find turtleneck shirts at Wal-Mart this early yet. We also got for Becca two packs of socks, two sleeper outfits, a set of overalls, a giant floor sized tablet of Crayola drawing paper, two bottles of conditioner and a horizontally striped sweater. While we were at target I smelled a foul odor and checked Becca's pullup and I wasn't very surprised to see a huge poop in it. I didn't have the pull-ups with me in the store so we left. I figured I would change you in Babies "R" Us. We then made a fruitless stop at Rack Room Shoes to see if we could get Becca some brown boots. I guess it may be too soon to get fall shoes just yet.
      We got to Babies "R" Us and Becca found the cutest little toddler bed. She crawled right in. I told her to take her shoes off and she did and she also informed me that she would be careful not to get poop on it as well. I had forgotten about the poop. We went straight back out to the Explorer and got her wipes and a pull-up. She had one of the biggest stinkiest poops I had ever handled. Surprisingly enough it cleaned up quite easily. I wish she would get potty trained. I think maybe Grant has set her back some in that regard. She then went back to the toddler bed. She took her shoes off and crawled into be. She climbed under the Dora covers and all. She informed me she was going to take a nap right there in the store. I had to drag her away from the bed. I saw a beautiful dress and had already decided to purchase it when I saw the neatest looking pair of jeans. They were pink, light grey and white camouflage Levi's brand jeans with flared legs and sparkles. I decided she would get more wear out of the jeans. We also got two velcro swaddling blankets for Grant, some Crayola bath markers for Becca, a bottle warmer, some new tooth paste for Becca, a brush for Grant, a package of triple A batteries and an Aquafina bottled water.
      We then went to Culver's and got us each a vanilla frozen custard cone. I absolutely love frozen custard. It's like ice cream only five times better. We ate our cones on the way to The Shoe Carnival where things really got out of hand. I was going to see if they had some brown boots for Becca there. As I was searching she disappeared around the corner. I hollered at her to show herself or call out to me. She was gone. I assumed she was close and wasn't overly concerned. I quickly looked down all the aisles in the kid's section but she wasn't there. I was frantic by now. I was running through Shoe Carnival calling out for her. People kept asking me what she was wearing so they could assist me in my search and for the life of me I couldn't even remember what she were wearing. I was in a frantic haze by this point. Eventually a man approached me and said that his wife had her on the other side of the store. I went and got her and I walked her back to the kid's section where I sat her down and explained to you that things had changed in the way she behaved when she was out with us and that when we got home she was going to take a shower and go straight to bed. Becca didn't think much of that. She could tell I was fired up. She apologized and hugged me and kissed me and all the little things she does to melt my heart. She knows what she is doing when she turns on the wounded little girl charm but I wasn't going for it this time.
      We left and went to Wal-Mart. I told her she was riding in a cart and there was to be no discussion on the subject. Much to my surprise she didn't put up any fuss at all. She knew she was in some of the worst trouble of her life. She even tried some reverse psychology on me. She told me she wanted to go to bed when she got home because she had yawned. She eventually asked to get out of the cart but I told her that wasn't going to happen until she was fourteen years old or so. I was seeing red I was so mad at her. I bought one of those toddler leashes while we were there. We had had one earlier but I don't know what happened to it. We have always given her a lot of freedom when we would go into stores. As long as she stayed close to us and in our sight she was allowed to walk about on her own. Those days are over. Either she will be riding in the cart or on the leash. We went to Wal-Mart to buy some bread and in addition to the bread we got some milk, some more socks for Becca, you can never have too many socks, a wand to go with Becca's fairy Halloween costume and the aforementioned toddler leash. I let her choose between the monkey leash or the dog leash. She chose the dog.
      I realized on the way home that Becca hadn't had nay supper so I stopped at the new Kentucky Fried Chicken and bought her a kid's meal. We got home and I sat her down at the table with her food. After she finished eating I gave her a quick shower and then we put her to bed. She only went to bed a half hour early or so but she knew it was early and she knew she didn't get to watch any television before she went to bed. She gave a very very weak protest and then she was down for the count. She was worn out.
      Becca lost some privileges yesterday and it will be quite some time before she earns them back. I am still pretty upset with her. She had a previous incident with Mamaw along those same lines. Mamaw wore her little hind end out. Spankings are all well and good and I spank Becca on a regular basis but I remember spankings working better on me than they work on her. I'm going to have to start revoking privileges when she acts out in addition to a good old fashioned whooping.
      I had a pretty good time, none the less. I absolutely love buying cute clothes for my cute daughter and dressing her up in all the wonderful things I bought for her. I know that may not be a manly past time but if I had the cash she would have more clothes than she could ever wear. I am still sad I wasn't able to get the boots. In addition to a pair of brown boots I want to get her a pair of black sneakers trimmed in pink. We got her a black jogging suit trimmed in pink at Wal-Mart in Lawrenceburg early this past week and those shoes would go perfect. See, that last sentence had no hint of testosterone about it at all.
      Well, that's been mine & Becca's day. I am going to have to have a talk with her tomorrow on the new privilege revocation punishment plan. I know she won't get much out of our talk but maybe after she loses her television, which she probably shouldn't have anyway, or about half of her toys she will start getting the picture. I hate having to punish poor little Becca. She's always been such a good girl and it hurts me to get cross with her and it absolutely kills me when she hugs and kisses me with tears in her eyes when I am angry with her. I love her so much and I don't want her acting like a little hellion. I know this is just a stage and I hope Grant is as easy as she has been these past three years. I am proud of both of my kids. Daddy loves Rebecca & Grant!

Dear Becca & Grant,
                  Here I am again. I haven't had as much opportunity to post as I would have liked these past few weeks. The main problem is that I usually post from out laptop while sitting in my chair in the middle of the night. Grant, your Mom is just as crazy with you as she was with Becca. She didn't want you alone when you first came home so she put you in your swing in the living room from your first night on. She also doesn't think you can sleep with the light on even though you sleep all day and even outside during the middle of the day with the sun putting out all that light. Anyway it's been dark in here as I have tried to play on the computer and I am a hunt and pecker type of guy when it comes to typing so I have to see the keyboard and I can't do that in the dark. She says I could go in the kitchen and post from the desktop but I'm spoiled with the laptop. I haven't posted like I should for that reason and that's my story and I'm sticking to it.
      Becca started preschool two weeks ago. She seems to really enjoy it. She is always excited to go. I can never get any details out of her as far as what went on at school though. She's mentioned a few names and talked about playing freeze in gym, playing computer games and singing a hello song. I wish I was a fly on the wall at her school so I could see how she is getting along. I was able to take her to school all last week and on Tuesday of this past week. Monday was Labor day. I had been off on Family Leave on account of Grant being born. She goes to school at Southside Elementary Monday through Thursday from nine in the morning until noon. Her teacher's name is Ms. Dykes or Mrs. Dykes, I don't know which and her aide is Mrs. Bush. Auntie Lynn gets a big kick out of her teachers being named Dykes and Bush. Auntie Lynn is silly. Preschool is costing us $215 a month plus a dollar a day for breakfast.
      Grant has gained a pound and an inch since he was born so apparently the breast feeding is working out as far as Grant is concerned. We went to Babies R Us last weekend and purchased a Playtex breast pump system for $200 and it works pretty well from what I gather. Mom still can't pump as much as she would like because when she's not feeding Grant she is running after Becca. She tried to pump enough for me to feed grant all night but she only got five ounces and I had to feed him half of that right after Mom went to bed. He woke up again around one in the morning wanting more to eat. I fed him the remaining breast milk but he was still hungry so I made four ounces of formula and he took three and a half of it. We also bought a boppy pillow and it has helped both Mom & Grant have a much more enjoyable breast feeding experience. Neither of them could really get comfy before.
      Becca & I hung out a whole lot while I was off. We didn't want to burden Mom with having to put up with all of us right after her surgery. They took Mom's remaining tube right after the c-section so I think that has caused her some additional pain. This pregnancy really wiped her out. It was so much more arduous for her this time that it was with Becca Boo Little. It will take her more time to recover than it did with her. And with Becca she didn't have a rambunctious toddler who has a case of a jealous bone. Becca loves her brother better than she loves her Mom & Dad sometimes and she is certainly not hurting for attention and affection but I guess she's still adjusting to things being different from the way they were before her little brother came on the scene. She has gotten so nothing will get her to mind but a good loud yelling and we hate to be yelling at her all the time. I've just about quit yelling and started spanking. I figure that she will get the idea that she had better do what I tell her to do the first time because she won't get the warning of a raised voice before I swat her back side. So far it hasn't worked. We have given her lots of leeway in terms of behavior because she is adjusting but we just can't let her run over us. That will not do at all.
      I think Grant is waking up again so I had better close. I hope to be posting more often. Daddy loves Rebecca & Grant!

Dear Becca and Grant,
                                 Hello all my children, haha. Yesterday we all decided to venture out again and attempt to take a little trip. Grant, you are still very tiny, being only twelve days old. You sleep a lot but when you aren't sleeping you demand to be fed immediately. You are a light sleeper, too, so it makes it hard on poor Becca who wants to run and play and make lots of noise like three year olds do. So, yesterday we decided we were going to Lexington to Babies R' Us to get a good breast pump and then we were going to take Becca to Kid's Place to let her run and play and act wild for a while like she needs to do. First, though, we decided to stop at Cracker Barrel for 'brunch' - which just means we all had breakfast for lunch. Grant, you slept through it all and we all had a real nice time eating together. Even Becca behaved her little self for the most part. We let Becca look at the toys and wound up buying her a purple fairy costume for Halloween. It's really cute. It has wings, a flower crown, a wand and everything. However, she insists that she is being a butterfly. Then it was on the road and off to Babies R' Us for the breast pump and nursing pillow. We got there and wound up buying a really good breast pump and a nursing pillow along with a few other odds and ends, including a pumpkin costume for you for Halloween, Grant. I was able to nurse you in the Mother's Room at Babies R' Us, Grant, so that was lucky.
                                 We had a good time at Kid's Place. Becca you had a ball. I left to try and go get my hair cut but was unable to because you were going to wake up and eat at any moment. We stayed at Kid's Place forever and a day. I was able to turn around and privately nurse you in one of the food booths in the snack booth area. We stopped on the way home and got an ice cream cone and we came back and got all our stuff unpacked. I nursed Grant and gave you a bath, Becca. Then I nursed Grant some more and helped Daddy put you down for the night. You got a brand new 'I'm a Big Sister' book. Daddy had to read that thing to you three times. Then Daddy and I unpacked our breast pump and I pumped you some milk, Grant. Daddy was able to feed you and you ate all the four ounces I pumped but you still had to eat some more. Daddy brought you to me because you were still hungry and you had to eat some more. You ate for almost forty more minutes.
              Well, Becca is wild and I hear you waking up, Grant. I was glad to get out with you and be able to feed you successfully. Right now you want to eat. Mommy loves you both!