33 Years Ago Today...

This man was born!

David, I know you stress about money and don't want me to buy you anything for your birthday, so instead, here are the Top 10 Reasons the Dykes Girls Love You:

10. You often get up with the girls on Saturdays and let your wife sleep in. Pure bliss.

9. You scratch letters on Abby’s back when you tuck her in at night.

8. Your acting lessons in NYC have paid off, making you one cool dad. You do a great big bad wolf impression and make a wonderful “mean pirate.”

7. You always get up early to walk Scooter before work and never complain about it. Not even when it’s cold and rainy.

6. You eat pizza three times a week to feed your wife’s pizza addiction.

5. You’ve learned to toss homemade pizza dough in the air to satisfy said addiction. (By the way, this is very sexy).

4. Your home is full of pink frilly items, dolls, and more shoes than you can count. And you think it’s cute.

3. You share your iPod with your wife and aren’t embarrassed to download Justin, Beyonce and Madonna so she can have a good running mix.

2. You are the first face Emmy sees in the morning and your smile is contagious.

And the top reason the Dykes Girls Love You….

1. You take great care of us!

Happy Birthday David/Daddy! We love you!

Love always,

Your girls

Pop the Snowman

The dog days of summer are here and it's downright HOT. The girls and I were lucky enough to spend last week at the beach with grandma and pop while David was traveling for work. One afternoon while we were there, pop was mowing the lawn and Abby was sitting on the back deck watching him while eating an ice pop, which was dripping all over her. Pop took a quick break and came over to sit with Abby for a second. He dropped his head down, and sweat just rolled down his face. Abby looked at me wide-eyed and said "Pop's melting!"

Silly Girls

One of the fun things about being a stay at home mom is that my days are always full of surprises. For example, the other day I left Abby quietly coloring with markers and a coloring book. When I returned to check on her a few minutes later, this is what I found. At least she didn’t decide to use her sister as a canvas…yet.

And yesterday I left Emmy laying on a blanket in the middle of the floor. I came back in the room a few minutes later and the blanket was empty. I found her several feet away, on top of the dog. Scooter seemed happy to have someone to cuddle with, and didn’t even mind that her feet were dangling in his face. By the time I grabbed my camera she had moved a bit, but you get the idea.

July 4th at the Beach

Like most North Carolinians, the July 4th Holiday means beach weekend for our family. We typically head to Grandma and Pop’s house in Calabash and get to spend time with Nan and GG (Jill’s grandparents) and Aunt Shannon, Uncle Mike and of course little Mikey. This past holiday was no exception, complete with two days of playing on the beach, two cookouts, 7 temper tantrums, 1 trip to Urgent Care, Abby’s first trip to the movies (Kung Fu Panda – Abby got scared and left early with Pop) and margaritas on the beach (for Jill and I of course!).

But the real reason I’m writing this to recount the early-morning events of Friday, 7/4. We arrived on Thursday and Emmy (almost 6 months) slept GREAT much to our surprise that night. However, the next night was a different story. Emmy was sleeping in a port-o-crib next to Jill and I when she started fussing around 4:30AM. Jill got up with her and tried to feed her/comfort her. No luck. By this time it was close to 5AM and Grandma is usually up at this point. So Jill left the room with Emmy hoping to have Grandma sit with her while Jill slept. Only problem was that Grandma was nowhere to be found (she was sleeping with Abby). So Jill brought her back to the bedroom and in the kindest possible way (sarcasm) said to me “Your turn.” Half asleep, I said – “what should I do with her?” Jill responded with, “I don’t know. Put her in the swing I guess”. Well that made sense to me as rocking/swinging usually gets a baby back to sleep. Since I was half-asleep and only vaguely aware of the new infant indoor swing at Grandma’s, I assumed Jill meant the OUTDOOR swing. So I started walking towards the door to place Emmy in the outdoor swing by the driveway and I would go back to bed. That’s right – outdoors in the pitch-black of early AM. Being the sharp guy that I am (sarcasm), I thought I should double-check this plan with Jill. So I went back in the bedroom and said to her “The outdoor swing? Really?” Jill immediately sat up in bed and exclaimed, “NO DAVID! The swing by the TV!!” Well that made more sense. Responding to Jill’s quick and harsh response, I shot back with “Just CHECKING…Gosh!” So I put Emmy in the swing next to the pull-out couch with Pop and went back to bed.


It wasn’t until the next morning over breakfast that we all realized I ALMOST put our 5 ½ month-old outside in a swing at 5AM. In the dark. By herself with no supervision. We had a pretty good laugh at that point. So if you’re reading this Em, you dodged a bullet kiddo!