Dear Becca & Grant,
                  I told y'all it would be quite some time before I posted again and it looks as if I was 100% correct. It's almost 6:30 in the evening on a Wednesday. I worked two hours over at the factory and then came straight home. I checked my e-mail and performed a few other internet related activities and then opened up my blogging program and here we are.
      Mom has Becca & Grant this evening so I am here all by myself. I miss them both so bad when they're not around but I have a pretty big weekend planned for us coming up. First thing Saturday morning we have to take care of some business that all of us would probably not have to fool with. The kids both have an appointment Saturday morning at 9:20 for flu shots. After the flu shots though we are heading off to Bi-water Farm in Georgetown for their AutumnFest. There's supposed to be a corn maze, a petting zoo, hay rides, pumpkin patches and all kinds of fun stuff there. I asked mom if she wanted to go with us but she said she would be looking for a job Saturday. I certainly hope it's as fun as I was led to believe. I reckon by the time we've had some fun there they will both be feeling kind of puny from the shots so we are going to come home and relax awhile; what am I saying, those kids never relax.
      Sunday morning we are all going to church at Quest Community Church. We went once and Becca really enjoyed it because they had s'mores there and free popcorn in the lobby. It's all a little too contemporary for me but we all have to start going to church somewhere and I feel like the children's programs would be so much more dynamic in a huge contemporary church like that. Anyway after church we are going to go to Lexington Green and feed the ducks and fish in the lake there and maybe browse around in Joseph-Beth Booksellers for a little while and then we are going to have lunch at Culver's, topping it off with a big frozen custard. Yummy!
      A few weeks ago I was talking to Becca about school and she informed me that after preschool she was going to go to college. I asked her what she was going to study in college. She really didn't understand what I meant by that. I explained that Sissy would be studying how to be a teacher in college and Becca then informed me that she was going to study to be a doctor. She got an urgent look on her face and informed me that Papaw & I were going to have to build her a doctor building. I asked her what she was going to have in her doctor building. She told me she was going to have shots, band-aids, cream and emergency beds.
      Grant has a new bottom tooth to go along with the two that are already there. He's getting so big. He'll be walking any day now. He's saying more and more stuff as well. One of his first words and the most understandable is "Sadie" only it's he pronounces it "sa-DIE", the emphasis being on the second syllable. He's got it in his head that all animals on four legs that look even remotely like a dog is in fact a Sadie. It doesn't matter if it's a dog five times the size of little Sadie, a cat or even a picture of a dragon, they are all "sa-DIE" to him. His first word was of course Dada but I've often wondered if that really was his first word or was he just babbling. I've come to the conclusion that he was talking. He says Mama, Sissy, cookie, tractor, bottle, ball, hello and his favorite word of all, "Hey". I went to pick him up from the daycare that his mom has him in and when he saw me he looked at me and got the biggest grin on his face and hollered out "Hey!", like he hadn't seen me in a month. He started kicking and reaching like a tiny wild man. My boy loves me so much and the feeling is more than mutual.
      Papaw & Uncle Rodney closed up the pool last night but Becca got one last swim in it right before they shut it down. I got in with Becca night before last, the first day of Fall. The water temperature was around 70° I dove right in and while it was super cold it was so refreshing. The days have been running kind of warm this month. Becca and I stayed in the pool for probably around 45 minutes or so. It was getting very late; that's why we didn't stay in longer. I had worked over-time and Becca wanted to go back to the house with me because I had to go get her a nighttime pull-up and she wanted me to give her a bath at our house. That's why we only stayed in for the short time that we did. I didn't get in last night. I didn't have my trunks with me. Becca jumped right into that cold cold water. She was in maybe 15 minutes or so. She probably didn't pay as much attention to the cold the night before because I was in the pool and we were racing and having a grand old time. So Becca was the last one out of the pool for 2008. I promised I would take her to the indoor pool at Falling Springs this winter and she's already talking about that.
      Becca climbed the tree out front since my last post. She really and truly climbed the tree. She was probably five or six feet up. She didn't have any trouble at all going up but coming down she needed help.
      I have been getting in bed too late this week so I am going to get a bite to eat, take a shower and go to bed early. Well, I know I am forgetting stuff that should be included like how well Becca is doing at school. She's gotten all green marks so far this year; green means good whereas red means bad and orange means she could have done better. Mrs. Dykes seems to think that Becca is doing better in the afternoon class than she did last year in the morning class. I can understand that being as how her Dad is not exactly a morning type person either.
      Like I said before there's stuff that I am forgetting but that happens when you only post twice a month. Let me close this out by saying how much I love and miss my kids when they are not with me. It's like I am not whole when they are away from me. I truly believe that until you have children there is no way you can achieve your potential for love. I love my Mom and Dad, I love my sister and I love my niece and nephews but until you have kids you really only have a vague idea about what love truly is. And with that let me just say that Daddy loves Rebecca & Grant!

Dear Becca & Grant,
                  Let me introduce myself. I'm Danny Marlin Lanham and I am your father. I thought I would reintroduce myself to y'all since it's been nearly a month since my last post. I really should have posted this weekend because Mom had y'all this weekend. I missed y'all something awful. Anyway, like I was saying I should have posted this past weekend but of course I had television that needed watching and serial killers that needed to be read about on crimelibrary.com. In other words I was just too ornery to post.
      Lots has happened in the past month. I'll do my best to hit the highlights. Grant, of course had his first birthday. It wasn't nearly as elaborate as Becca's. Mom had custody of the kids on his actual birthday so a few days before his birthday we had a nice birthday cake with footballs, baseballs and footballs for decorations. We also had a small cake for Grant to make a mess with and ice cream. Mamaw & Papaw were there as well as Uncle Rodney, Aunt Lynn, Jake, Jon, Allison (Sissy), Wayne who is Allison's newest beau, Becca and myself. Becca and the boys got in the pool after the cake and ice cream so Grant kind of a pool party as well. We all had a nice time.
      One day this past month Becca asked Mamaw if she could play in the mud and Mamaw without thinking to inquire exactly what mud she was referring to said she could. Well, apparently she was playing somewhere she shouldn't have because Papaw got onto her. It wasn't Becca's fault at all and Papaw apologized but I told Becca that the following weekend we would find her a nice mud hole she could play in. children love to play in the mud. Well, the weekend rolled around and Becca seemed to forget about my promise of mud play. However she did decide she wanted to go dirt digging so we got us a pail and a small shovel and found us a nice place back in Papaw's field with some really nice loose dirt and we filled that pail up. I then remembered my promise to Becca of some mud so we took the dirt back up to Mamaw and Papaw's house and topped the pail off with some water. We started out with the intention of making mud pies but I was feeling kind of silly so I spread mud all over my shaved head. Becca thought that was funny so I coated her arms with mud. Eventually Becca had came out of her shirt and her entire torso, arms and legs were covered in mud. About that time the boys got home from a day of dirt biking with Papaw and Uncle Rodney in Berea. Becca saw Jon and she wanted to belly bump him. She ran after him absolutely coated in mud and he was running away from her as fast as he could. Becca had a grand old time as did I. We both had to be sprayed off with the water hose outside and while Becca seemed to have a grand old time getting showered down with the water hose I thought it was entirely too cold. Becca ended up ruining the shorts and panties she was wearing but I think we would both agree that the experience was well worth it. We then showered in the basement. I didn't think that little girl would ever come clean. That was one of those days that I will never ever forget. That kind of thing is what being the father of a preschooler is all about.
      Speaking of Becca being a preschooler she started her second year of preschool last week. We don't have to pay for her to go this year because being as how Mom is on food stamps she got in for free which means she gets to ride the bus. Becca is going to the afternoon session this year which will probably work out better. So far she's been riding the bus to and from Mamaw & Papaw's but I think she might be going to start riding the bus from Mom's apartment complex and going back home to Mamaw & Papaw's. It's actually kind of a mess right now. Mom & I are still working out custody issues but we are working together and we remain friends so while I am sure there will be bumps in the road and there will be issues we don't agree on things will eventually work themselves out. Anyway, she loves preschool as much as she did last year if not more. She's in Ms. Dykes class again and Becca just adores Ms. Dykes and her teacher's aide Ms. Bush. The first day of school Becca helped Ms. Dykes and Ms. Bush in showing the first year students how the class was run because Becca has had a year there already and she knows how things are done. I asked Becca who was the smartest kid in her class tonight and without a hint of hesitation she said she was. I asked her who the prettiest kid in her class was and once again she didn't even have to think about it when she told me that she was the prettiest kid in class. I am tickled that my daughter has such high self-esteem. That's something I have never had even to this day.
      A few weeks ago I taught Becca how to blow bubbles with bubble gum. She was so proud of herself. Mamaw & Papaw told me they wish I had never taught her how because for days after that they could hardly get her to take the gum from her mouth to eat. Becca is really proud of herself but I don't think she could be as proud I am. I bought Becca a big bag of Dubble Bubble brand bubble gum because Hubba Bubba was getting expensive. Pieces of Dubble Bubble are much smaller than pieces of Hubba Bubba so she ended up swallowing a few pieces. Papaw told her that if she wasn't careful she would be blowing bubbles out of her butt when she went to the bathroom. Becca thought that was funny.
      Grant has been growing like a weed. He's been saying "Sadie" for quite some time now as well as "Mama", "Dada", "Hi" and "Hey" but he's seems to be picking more and more words as time goes by. He says "tractor" and Mom told me he said "duck" the other night. He said duck as he showed her his rubber duckie in the bath the other night of course later he showed her one of Becca's plastic lemons from her kitchen set and told her it was a duck as well. It was the same color. Like I said before one of his first words was "Sadie" but apparently he'd been under the assumption that all creatures like Papaw's dog were called Sadie because one day the middle of last month he saw a dog in our front yard and called it Sadie. He's said "dog" since then so maybe he's figured it out. He's just way too cute. He's standing on his own for a few seconds at a time now as well. He's started to crawl regular instead of the command crawl he's been so fond of; of course when he really wants to move, like when he's trying to away from me he reverts back to his commando crawl for speed. He's getting to be a handful. Becca has discovered that she can grab Grant under his arms and carry him about. That's actually been a big help because if he's trying to get into something he's not supposed to be into and if Becca is closer than I am I can just ask Becca to move her brother and she cam pick him up and move him away from whatever it was that he was trying to get into. Becca does love her little brother and I can tell that Grant loves his sissy just as much.
      Papaw Lawrence is in the hospital at UK so Aunt Mary came up and brought a cold bug with her. Becca and Grant caught it and gave it to Mamaw. It's really knocked her for a loop. I took the kids home with me after Becca got off of the school bus this afternoon to give Mamaw some peace and quiet. We came home and I put in a burned copy of Beauty and the Beast but to my great disappointment it didn't work like I wanted it to. I'm going to have to burn it again using different software and maybe it will work. So I put in a burned copy of The Lion King that I burned using the software I should have used for Beauty and the Beast and it worked perfectly. Becca watched the show as I fixed supper while Grant crawled around all over the house. Well, not all over the house. We keep all of the doors closed leading to the bedrooms and the bathroom. I fixed the kids a hamburger patty with steak rub and ketchup, broccoli with cheese sauce, sliced potatoes, peas and tropical fruit. Becca sat in the living room in her dining room chair with the booster seat using her Dora the Explorer TV tray as a table and ate almost her entire patty and a few bites of her veggies. She didn't touch the fruit which I thought was the best thing on her plate. She was engrossed in the movie but eventually she told me she wanted to watch something else because it was too scary. She told me this right before Timon and Pumba showed up so I told her that the scary part was over, the part where Simba's dad gets killed in the Wildebeest stampede.
      She did enjoy Timon and Pumba though but eventually she got bored and wanted to go outside. She wanted to climb the tree out front. She loves "climbing" the tree out front. She never really climbed it much before she just kind of stepped into the place at the base where it splits off and called herself climbing the tree but this time she really climbed that old tree. I was a nervous wreck. Eventually Mom showed up to take the kids back to her apartment. It's my day but I don't want to get them up at five in the morning so they will either be staying with Mom or with Mamaw & Papaw when I have them during the week. I wish they could stay here with me but I don't think that's fair to the children to be rolling them out of bed so early. The great thing about life before school is that it's probably the only time in your life when you get to sleep in every morning worry free. Anyway, Mom showed up. Becca wanted me to climb the tree so I did. Becca followed me up the tree. She's had been climbing the tree great but she hasn't gotten the hang of climbing back down again. She got up there right below where I was at and she got scared. Eventually I just had to take her by the arm and lower her down to her Mom. I hope that doesn't scare her off from climbing trees. All the while Grant sat at the bottom of the tree just watching. Eventually he got bored and started to fuss but Becca was so into climbing that tree that she told me to just let him cry. She loves her brother but there does seem to be limits. Another great day with my kids.
      It being September the pool time is coming to a close. One day last week Becca and I got in the pool after I spent twenty or so minutes skimming the leaves out of the pool. The wind was up because what was left of Hurricane Gustav was coming through so while the water was very nice the wind made it crazy cold outside the pool. Becca was doing back flips and forward flips; just showing off all the great things she has learned through this past difficult but wonderful summer. We started a game we called "Leaf Patrol". When a leaf would fall into the pool we would race to it calling out "Leaf Patrol, Leaf Patrol!" as loud as we could and when one of us had it we threw it out of the pool. Eventually I decided that Becca looked like a talking leaf so I had to throw her out of the pool. She shivered and hollered from the cold as she jumped right back in. Eventually I tried to block her from jumping back into the pool because she seemed to be really enjoy being so cold. She would run around trying to jump back into the warm water. Once again, another absolutely great day with my daughter.
      Well, It's ten o'clock and I need to take a shower and go to bed. I have to get up just a hair earlier in the morning. They changed my time at work. I recently got a new job as a utility operator which paid twenty-five cents more on the hour but then they changed up things and offered me a choice of a couple of jobs. One of them was a really easy job but I would lose my twenty-five cents. I opted to go with that job because I didn't want to have the pressure of learning new jobs. I hate learning new jobs. Anyway, I need to close this post out. I usually promise to post more often and then I end up not posting again for weeks at a time so this time all I will do is promise to post again sometime. Daddy loves Rebecca & Grant!