Thankful Thursdines Day

This Valentines day I will simply state that I am thankful for my bride. Yeah, I’ve been thankful for her before, but she does rock the Casbah. In fact, speaking of rock, Abby was surprised to learn that Jessica liked rock music. For some reason the constant kids music Jessica would play to pacify the children led Abby to believe that Jessica would prefer to listen to kids music and the cranky daddy was the one who liked rock music.

Turns out my Ska, Rock, Classic Rock, Alternative Rock and generally music loving wife isn’t as big on Backyardigans as Abby had first thought. I’m thankful for that, too!

Trashing Her Own Plug

Evie threw her plug away today.  Her plug is also known as a pacifier or binky in other names, but either way, Evie put it in the garbage after her afternoon nap as we had told her she was a big girl and it was time to no longer sleep with it.  She had a hard time with things in the evening and even suggested we dig it out of the trash.  Being hygienically oriented, we did not dig it out of the trash.  She got up out of bed several times, but has not cried a whole lot.  She’s mostly wanted comfort for the loss of her friend.

This is a lot like Abby’s haircut, its one of those life events that is small but has some significance.  Evie is no longer a baby, she’s no longer just a toddling little kid, she’s able to do a lot of things and has developed fine motor skills.  Her vocabulary has much more growth left, but she can often communicate just what she is after.  This little girl is moving onto the next stage in life and I’m afraid that means that she’s all but left her baby and toddling ways and is now in process towards becoming an adult.  She’s hurtling through childhood and I think we’re in for a big series of life events – a series that will involve clothes, bikes, school and of course hot dogs and macaroni and cheese 🙂

Abby’s Hair

Abby got her hair cut yesterday.  Not trimmed, but cut.  Her hair has always been long but she came down stairs and asked me, “Daddy, mommy says I have to ask you if I can get my hair cut short.  Can I please?”  And in true non-committal fashion I said, “Let me go upstairs and talk to your mother.”  I went upstairs and conceded.  It is something that I knew would happen, she’s been asking for a while for shorter hair and it was well and good for her to start to assert some of her growing up decision making skills.  So her hair is shorter now, about shoulder length.  I’ve not got a picture yet, but I’ll be taking one soon and I’ll get it up on the interwebs shortly.

As a dad this is kinda cool, kinda scary, and kinda important.   Its cool because it is an opportunity to see my daughter grow up and mature over time.  Her desire to maintain a physical appearance that she’s pleased with is interesting.  She’s not one of those girls who has no will and is apathetic, she’s very opinionated, and her hair and clothes are part of that.  It is scary because she’s growing up.  My baby girls aren’t babies any more.  I have a very mature five and a half year old and a toddler who is showing that she’s wanting to be an independent five year old, too.  Its important that Abby cut her hair because I want her to start understanding about decisions and their short term, medium term and long term impact.  We joked that we couldn’t glue the hair back onto her so she had to make the choice understanding that.

She loves her new hair and has told everyone to look at it that she has seen (vanity? yup. We’re working on taming that, too).  She’s proud of her new look.  Frankly, I’m proud of my little girl.  She’s growing up fast, but I’m glad to see where she’s growing.  Its a blessing to be her dad.

Update: Girls Still Kinda Sick

We skipped church today because the girls are still not 100%.  Yesterday we were driving to the library thinking everyone was still better and then Evie puked twice as much stuff as is physically possible to fit into a body her size all over herself and the inside of our car (can you say, “yucky,” class?).  Then Abby came into our room this morning and announced that she wasn’t feeling well again.  Basically the sickness sticks with us, but I’m going to watch the Super Bowl this evening in an attempt to find out if my acquaintance, Shaun O’Hara, leads his New York Giants to victory, or if he’ll have to settle for having just gone to the Super Bowl.

Two Sick Girls

Jessica and I slept poorly last night as both girls were taking turns waking us up to hurl.  Its very, very difficult to watch your babies be sick.  Pray for them (its probably just a 24 hour bug, but either way, its tough), and us.  We don’t want to get sick, and we don’t want to have to watch our girls be sick either.

On the upside they still have a healthy appetite despite uneating shortly after eating.

Temporarily No Room at the Peterman Inn

We’ve got company.  For around a month or so.   My sister and her great husband, Kurt, will be living with us for a bit while they prepare to move into their own place.  Times got out of whack and they couldn’t make it a simple one jump transition, but the Lord has blessed us with the space and we love to have them.

I’m helping them move stuff to a storage unit today and then we’ll discover the answer to the question we’ve been asking: did they get a big enough storage unit or not?  Because if they didn’t, we’ll have other issues – like moving the stuff a second time 🙂

iTunes Movie Rentals: Patience in Zeros and Ones

I just started a download of a kids movie for the girls to watch on our way home from Washington next Tuesday.  It is a good thing I started the download today because its going to take the next six hours over this DSL connection to download the movie.  Granted its nearly one gigabyte in size, but great googly-moogly that’s a long download time.

I’ll try it again at home once we get there and see what the download speed looks like on my slightly faster connection.  I predict that unless people plan on renting in the morning and watching in the evening this service, too, will flounder and movie rentals will still be free from other file sharing networks because the quality may be lower, but the speed will potentially be faster.  Of course I could be wrong and this will be the next big thing in digital media.

Update: after an hours time the process has climbed to an estimated eleven hours.  11, ten plus one, or longer – however you prefer it.

WA, WA, WA, WA!

We’re leaving tomorrow (Tuesday) to go to Washington state.  We’re visiting one half of my in-laws (the mother & step-father-in-law half).  We’re having our second and a half Christmas.  The first was the day after Thanksgiving with Grandpa & Grandma Peer (the other other half of my in-laws), the second was on actual Christmas, and then on Friday I understanding we’re having our other half of Christmas in January.  What fun!

I suspect I shall not be getting a goat for someone else, but I’ll enjoy the time with family.  With luck I’ll also be able to see a friend from long ago, too.  He may be coming up to Portland to see us.  He was an usher in our wedding.  I hope he can make it and we can make it 🙂

Ta-ta for now!

Pimping My Own Stuff: Credit Rate Reduction Rally

This week I’ve started a Credit Rate Reduction Rally.  This is a movement to get people to consider calling their credit card companies and asking for/demanding a lower interest rate on their old credit cards.  A lot of consumers don’t realize that they can get lower interest rates and this is a way to build awareness.  I’d love to hear any stories that you’ve got about trying to get lower interest rates, or in some cases, what rates you were able to get and what techniques you used to get them.  Some people have to fight for lower rates and others just get them for being on time with payments.

Do please check it out, and if you use Digg.com, please ‘digg’ the link above.  Oh, and I’d love to have you blog this, or tell a friend about their opportunity.  I’ll be writing an article a day this week on the benefits of lowering your credit card interest rate.  Here’s the first article.