She gets by with a little help from her freinds

With a little help from half a dozen men at my factory, Amanda was able to participate in the poster contest. Everyone put in a couple of minutes and then Amanda spent more than half an hour on her part.

I think she did a fine job.

Happy homecoming

I entered the house yesterday and was greeted by the smell of blueberry muffins. It's always nice to smell something so warm and delicious. Amanda and Tina had just pulled them out of the oven and the aroma was as good as non-chocolate chip cookies could smell.

Then these two beauties added something even better to my homecoming. It would appear that Amanda, in her words, is now hooked on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches,

This was indeed a surprise because she has never had one before without spitting it out. In fact, it has been quite some time since she has added anything new to her diet. If anything, it has been suffering a contraction of late. So I went out and bought PB&J along with some other stuff that Tina needed. We have been suffering an unnamed typhoon the past few days and she hadn't gotten out.

After dinner Amanda did one more awesome thing, she ate a muffin. Again, please understand this is totally out of character for her. Her class at school does a lot of cooking and she is learning to eat new things. This is one of those intangibles that can't be explained deeply enough. This teacher is reaching Amanda on a whole new level and she is loving it.

I just don't mind paying school taxes when I know stuff like this is going on.

Real plates and In Your Face

Amanda is understanding the mechanics of things now. Everything from the time it takes to download to an I-pod to which is hot and cold water. This is like going from 0 - 60 in an instant after being told the car was stalled and out of gas. It's a lot of fun.

Last night I went and picked up dinner for myself because I was told if I didn't want cereal I better do something about it. Tina and Amanda were both worn out by the flu and had eaten while I was covering the pool. When I got back from the food run I found a plate on the table with a drink and silverware. I'm not afraid of getting sick because it will either happen or it won't, this wasn't going to make a difference.

Tina said Amanda set the whole thing up for me because she said I was a good daddy and needed something special. It's a running joke at our house about real plates versus paper plates and Amanda has a great sense of humor.

After dinner we played Tiger Woods golf on the Wii. I set Amanda's level on easy and mine on standard and I do the putting. We had a blast, I love her trash talking. "In your face" never sounded so sweet. In the end I won, it's only fair.

It Just Makes Sense

"It just makes sense." That is what Amanda said this morning about a plan that I have four 4 man scramble team. I'm glad she likes the way I think when it comes to important matters such as this. I also like that she used that expression for the first time that I know of. She is making great progress.

But to keep it in perspective, I am also aware of how much easier it is for the average four year old to speak. Without software to hardware interface issues like Amanda's, they simply say just about everything the want to. It doesn't necessarily make me sad when I hear how much easier it for children a third of her age speak so much more clearly. It just makes me acutely aware that my little one just must put in the extra effort to get her thoughts broadcast to her audience.

I truly compare it to me doing upper level algebraic calculations. Anyone who knows my track record with algebra would probably argue that statement. Their argument being, "But John, Amanda can speak to the point of understanding, while your abilities in Algebra 4 were what you could see on other people's paper. "

Cowboys and Amanda

Ok, I haven't had a beer this year, so I'm watching a Cowboys game and drinking red wine. It is a little different, but I'm managing. i really don't miss the beer and I physically feel better. I swear, some days I feel like Allan Harper from 2 1/2 Men. At least I can move my half of a 150 pound outdoor fireplace.

Amanda is back in the playroom with Tina and she is going on about something. She gets pretty worked up this time of night. She always has actually. She was very late to baby babble, but when she did it was always this time of evening. She was quiet for a big part of her life, but now she is like Donkey from Shrek, it is getting her to shut up that is the trick. It is very nice to hear.

Years ago I remember talking with a child psychologist about Amanda. She asked, "What do you want from this child?" I answered, "I just want a conversation." Well, I have that and it really is enough.

BTW: Cowboys just scored, they have a good backup with Kitna. He doesn't have the weak arm like Wilson did.

A change of title

I changed the name of my blog today. I have a bench in my front yard under a beautiful oak tree. Amanda and I sit on this bench almost daily and visit. It is where she and I have grown together and personally I believe if I were not her father I would not be me.

We painted the bench today, and my sister pointed out to me that I really do love that bench. It is a place where I think about everything that is important to me while Amanda sits and talks about everything that is important to her. So, I have decided to move things along. Thank you for your understanding.

Thoughts from the stairmaster

I was on a StairMaster type device this morning, there are so many variations of them now but this one didn't utilize arms like my favorite which is the Precor AMT, and I was trying to keep my mind occupied because this machine was not as involved as the AMT. So I was listening to a couple of BusinessWeek pod casts. They were about the state of the economy in Europe and the national mortgage crisis back here in the states and both were very informative. The one about the mortgage crisis was made obsolete by the new rescue plan that just came out just yesterday, but a lot of the information about the crisis was still enlightening.

Anyway, I had less than four minutes left on the machine and I nailed it to the second with a song by Eve 6. I though that was pretty cool.

Tina and I went on to lift weights for our backs. I take my I-pod off when working out with her because we like to talk, but I don't like taking my I-pod of while working out. I loose focus.

Tina will be working out at home tomorrow so I can have the gym to myself. I actually go 4 to 6 times a week now. My back feels much better and in the last 6 weeks I've dropped about 15 pounds.

I know I am not following the journalism rule for numbers on this post, but I'm a bit tired today after a rough evening with a special needs child who was in total emotional meltdown for a few hours last night over something as dramatic as getting her pants hemmed. Unfortunately, her meltdowns also involve a steam cleaner, bath and laundry as well as air fresheners and control of one's own gag reflex. She is better now but Tina and I could use about 3 days on a beach with a steady flow of drinks. That was something else I was thinking about on the StairMaster, but I digress. With that I will end this ramble.