Me and Yao...Chillin'

The parts of Shanghai where we were felt very safe. I guess they’ve pretty much modernized the city in the past 20 years or so and it does have a feel comparable to big cities in the US. Their metro system is great. The language barrier is hard when you don’t have someone along to interpret. After a week, I was glad to be back to some place where I could ask simple questions without needing to do makeshift hand signals.

Gumby's long lost brother, the Expo mascot

The food was great (and pretty cheap). I love American Chinese food and obviously it’s different over there, but it’s the same basic idea (once you get over the fish and shrimp being served with heads still on). It’s great when you have someone who’s Chinese that can just order a bunch of stuff for your table. The most exotic thing I ate was jellyfish (eh…weird texture and not particularly a great flavor) and the only thing I remember not eating was the duck feet (it actually didn’t look bad, but, still, it’s duck feet).

Yuyuan Market

One thing I didn’t think of was I should have learned to use chopsticks before I went because, yea, I was that American that had to ask for a fork at every meal. They have a lot of good beef, pork, and duck dishes in addition to the veggies. Surprisingly, it’s not like every meal just comes with rice (like American Chinese). You get it if you ask for it, but it’s not like they just bring it out like we bring out bread. For sweets, I found these little egg-based pastries they had pretty scrumptious. When you didn’t have someone Chinese with you, ordering was hard. You had to get a picture menu and then make an educated guess what kind of meat it was for a lot of dishes.

Obama Mart

So, what did I do there besides work? When I got there, I met up with the people I was supposed to see before I even got to my hotel room and pretty much went straight to the World Expo. They have a bunch of pavilions for various countries. You’d just wait in line for potentially hours to get into one. It wasn’t that bad because we went in the evening, but it was still pretty crowded. I guess sometimes folks spend the entire day there just to see 2-3 pavilions for the entire day (another interesting side note is that a lot of stuff closes at 10pm over there and doing stuff during the day seems more popular than doing stuff at night). Honestly, I didn’t really find anything there worth the wait, but I guess it’s part of the experience.

At the Pearl Tower

It was nice to have a fellow co-worker and his wife to tag along with in the evenings. On Tuesday, we went to the electronics market. I wasn’t brave enough to buy any electronics, but the Food Republic (a big food court) was pretty nice. On Wednesday, we went out to eat with our hosts (and then stayed up at the hotel to watch that exciting US soccer match against Algeria). On Thursday, we went to The People’s Square and walked around there for a while. They had like a nine story mall there, but it was mostly Western-like stuff at Western-like prices. On Friday, I did my souvenir shopping at the Yuyuan Market. That was pretty cool because you can bargain for a bunch of trinkets for the kids and I went a little “back alley” to get Leigh Ann a “Prada” purse. We also went to see the Pearl Tower and all the stuff around it (didn’t go up since the visibility was poor). Saturday morning, we set out to find the 1933, a former slaughterhouse now supposed to be a architectural piece of work, but that metro ride took us a bit further out of the city and no one seemed to have a clue where it was, so we gave up on that little jaunt.

Lots of bikes

The flight back was fine and it was great to see all my girls again.

One of Evie’s favorite things to play right now is chase the ball. She particularly loves this little Dora ball that goes with Kaelyn’s baseball bat set. Evie will chase it all around the house like she is a little puppy dog. In fact, the other day Kaelyn was running through the house trying to get Evie to crawl after her saying, “come on doggie.”

And a couple more pictures just for fun….

So, the other day I decided to up the ante so to speak by maneuvering our couch cushions such that they became a mouse hole, complete with a blanket as a door. She’d run to her mouse hole, get inside, and I would hide, then she’d start running out of the mouse hole and I’d jump out and get her.

Great fun for all involved. In fact, Leigh Ann decided she wanted to join in, so when we were in the other room, she snuck into the mouse hole and shut the blanket-door. When Kaelyn game back, she started trying to get in the mouse hole, but couldn’t since something seemed to be blocking it. All of a sudden, Leigh Ann popped her head out. Kaelyn just threw her arms back and had a look of sheer terror for a second before the fell straight backwards and landed flat on her back, crying hysterically. All she could say through her tears was how she wanted Mommy to run away and she didn’t calm down until Leigh Ann went upstairs.

Some other Kaelyn-isms that you may have seen on Facebook:

• One morning, right when Kaelyn woke up she told me, “My tummy growled…it said it wanted blueberries!”.
• On Sunday, I caught her randomly singing, “I’ll spin you right round, baby, right round” a couple of times. Hearing your 2-year-old singing 80s lyrics is kind of surreal.
• “I’m going to play Candyland and celebrate Jesus.”
• “Jesus is going to help Baby Evie walk.”

(2) I am wondering how such a tiny little thing like Evie can crawl all around the floor going after her sister and all the toys?? I am anxious to see how much she weighs at her 6-month check-up next week, but judging by my home scales she’s right around 14 pounds. 3-6 months clothes are still mostly baggy on her, but size doesn’t matter for her…this girl is definitely on the move!!

(3) I am wondering how I got so blessed by my sweet, sweet girls? Kaelyn is so caring and compassionate. On Monday she asked me over and over if we could make cupcakes so that we could share them with our friends. Monday night I bought the items we needed and on Tuesday we bakes cupcakes together. In a few minutes one of her friends is stopping by to eat cupcakes with us. Also, anytime baby Evie is in the floor Kaelyn will take the initiative by herself to bring Evie some toys to play with. And Kaelyn always shares her toys with her. She has such a loving and sensitive spirit!

Yesterday Kaelyn heard Evie just as she was waking from a nap. Kaelyn ran into Evie’s room and started playing peek-a-boo with her. I walked in to the sounds of massive giggling coming from both of them. How fun!

Evie so far has a very content and charming personality. She loves to love on people. She’s very good at keeping herself entertained as long as she has some toys to grab onto. She almost never fusses.

Both of my girls are so, so sweet!

(4) I am wondering how I caught myself that hard-working, intelligent man of mine?! He found out today that he got a promotion at work. I am so proud of his accomplishments in his career. And all that on top of him being the most wonderful father to our girls!!

(5) Finally, I am wondering how to use that new camera of ours?! My brother gave me a crash course on all the buttons and such, but I still have a long way to go and lots of practice to figure it all out. Hopefully I’ll be able to share some cool pictures in the near future.

To test this theory, the original video of Kaelyn shaking her sillies out:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=EB35K2emLec

And, the new version:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2ehYxGotvI

Thoughts?

She is so strong. She can already sit in the Bumbo seat and when she is in the bouncy seat she tries to sit up. It’s so cute – like she is doing little baby crunches. She can also roll from her back to her stomach. At first I thought it was an accident, but she has done it three times now.

Evie is still a great sleeper. She consistently has a 7 or 8 hour stretch of sleep at night, and a couple of nights ago she even went for 9 hours!! I feel so lucky because I know (from experience) that all babies don’t just naturally sleep so well.

She just has such a sweet and laid back personality. She very rarely even cries. She is definitely making it very easy on me to have two kids under two. While she is laid back and easy to care for, I do see a fierce curiosity in her that reminds me of Kaelyn – always looking, always learning.

Kaelyn has adjusted wonderfully as a big sister. She is such a great helper, very loving, and gentle with Evie. She will talk to Evie and tell her what she is doing, for example, “I’m eating cereal baby Evie.” She reads to her, shows her the toys, helps change her diaper or give her a paci. In return Evie just lights up and often smiles whenever she sees Kaelyn. She loves to be held so that she can see Kaelyn running around the room. I am loving seeing the interaction between my two beautiful little girls.

For comparison here is Evie with her dolly as a newborn and at two months. Look how she’s grown!!

Thanks for keeping me motivated Kaelyn!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=EB35K2emLec

Anyway, we were there today and Kaelyn was looking at the lizards. In one cage there were several lizards sitting on top of a big rock and Kaelyn said, “The lizards are doing tummy time!”. Hehehehe – I just love this girl!

Pretty impressive for a 22-month old!

Now she is enjoying a nice, red Dum-Dum.

I had a lot of help for the month with Matt’s parents here for a week, Matt home for a week, and my parents here for a week. My brother also came for a few days last week. I don’t know what I would have done without all that help. We also had lots of really nice friends bring us dinner which was very helpful.

Kaelyn seems to have transitioned to big-sisterhood really well. She had a few moments in the first couple of weeks, but those seem to have subsided and now all of her moments are just the normal two-year old tantrums. She continues to amaze me with her vocabulary and her mind everyday. She loves to sing now and will often just burst into singing the ABCs which she can sing entirely by herself. She mostly talks in complete sentences now and is surprisingly good at using pronouns which amazes me. In the car yesterday she said “Evie’s here, Daddy’s here, Mommy’s here – everybody’s here!”.

Kaelyn loves to help take care of baby Evie. She loves to hold her and shows her the toys and describes things for her. This morning us three girls were laying in bed together and Kaelyn was showing Evie the ceiling fan. It was definitely one of those moments that made my heart smile and I tried to take a mental picture to remember forever.

Evie is continuing to sleep well and grow! She is doing a great job of holding her head up already. If she isn’t sleeping or eating then she prefers to be held up on your shoulder so she can look out at everything with big, wide eyes. She has such a charming personality. I don’t know what it is exactly, but something about the way she cuddles up with you just makes it almost impossible for me to ever put her down. She has all of us wrapped around her finger already!

Kaelyn wanted to be swaddled like Evie…

Kaelyn doing tummy time with Evie…

More pictures here.

She loves feeding Evie the bottle.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVRNjf8kXhk

A lot of times she just likes to hold her and say, “baby, baby, baby”.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qdAHPfpCeE

One of the cute things Kaelyn did today was Evie was laying in her crib crying to Kaelyn walked over to the crib and said, “It’s OK, baby” and tried to give Evie her pacy.

One thing Evie does is what we call her shifty eyes. Where she’ll barely crack her eyes open and kind of look back and forth to decide whether it’s worth staying awake.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaKLa5oaASw

This always reminds me of that Simpsons episode with the shifty eyed dog.

She’s been out and about this week including her first doctor check-up, Target (twice), a birthday party, out to dinner at Red Robin, the swimming pool (twice) (not actually in the pool), and church! She pretty much slept through most of it all.

Kaelyn is a wonderful big sister! She loves to hold Evie and talk about her “teeny tiny hands” or her “nice hair”. Seriously, those are her own words that she came up with. She amazes me. She does all kinds of caring gestures like if she hears Evie crying she will bring a paci over for her and try to put it in her mouth. She’s had a couple of meltdown moments when she needed more attention from mommy than what I could give, but she seems to be doing better in that area already. I think it’s helped as I start to feel better and can do more things with her. Kaelyn also seems to be starting to cut her 2-year molars so that hasn’t been very fun the past couple of nights. Hopefully it doesn’t take until she’s actually 2 before they come in.

Nana and PapPap were here with us all this week. Boy oh boy did Kaelyn have fun with them! They played with the water table, went to the pool several times, went out for treats, went to the museum, and much more. Kaelyn was sad when they were gone today.

The other major event from the week was Thursday night when I all of a sudden started feeling really bad like I had the flu – major aches, chills, and a high fever. Matt called my doctor for me and the doctor told me to go straight to the emergency room. I guess fever + just given birth in the past week doesn’t make for a good combination. I was pretty upset that I had to go to the emergency room. I’ve never had to be in the hospital for anything other than giving birth and it was a little scary, plus I didn’t want to leave the girls, and I really didn’t want to be sick right now. Fortunately I had pumped some milk earlier for Evie and Kaelyn was already in bed so we left them behind with Nana and PapPap and Matt got to have the frantic drive to the hospital that we’ve never got to experience with either of my labors. We were there for about 4 hours and I was diagnosed with mastitis. After getting some antibiotics into my system I am feeling much, much better!

So far life with two beautiful daughters is wonderful! I haven’t had to be with both girls all day by myself yet so I’m sure things will get a little more difficult then, but I think I will be able to handle it with my sweet, sweet girls.

Just this afternoon Matt asked Kaelyn if she wanted to go to the swimming pool or to play with the water table. Normally she is begging to do either of those activities. But she actually said no, and what she really wanted to do was “hold baby Evie.” So we all sat on the couch while Kaelyn held Evie and Evie was actually awake for a few minutes and I could have just stayed in that moment forever.

• She’s really getting good at stringing together nouns and verbs to make some simple sentences. One of my favorites is sometimes when she sees a bug and then it crawls away, she’ll say, “I don’t see it. Where’d it go? I don’t know.” and throw her hands up. Unbelievably cute.
• Uncle Jared got this awesome video of her playing with a photobooth distortion:
  

  www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHty2BqPOnY

  
   
• She loves laughing with PapPap:

  www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtG1Cmxbmhc

  
   
• Who knew how much fun you could have with a house fly:

  www.youtube.com/watch?v=Db76EZ7fOCk

  
   

Okay, okay, now you can bend over and pick your melted heart up off the floor. That’s what I had to do.

With the inevitable arrival of a baby to be named later in June, we decided it would be good to go ahead and convert Kaelyn’s room to a “big girl” room so it’s one less adjustment when the baby arrives. So, we trekked to the new IKEA in Charlotte, got the goods, and then Leigh Ann’s parents came for a week to help us move and paint. I actually didn’t have to do much since I was working .

First, we converted our guest room and office into one room. Then, painted the old office purple and moved all Kaelyn’s little people furniture in. Finally, we had an IKEA construction bonanza to furnish Kaelyn’s room. Here’s an album of her last day in her old room and one of her new room. Also, there’s one of the painting of the new nursery, but I don’t think we have any pics of the finished product for this or the office/guest room yet.

Also, we got our 2nd snow day of the year this past week. This one was a bit more fun because Kaelyn is walking now. Though, you kind of run out of things to do with an 18-month-old after about 15 minutes.

1.I hate making lists like this, but I kept getting tagged so I guess people want to know more about me.

2.I write and eat left-handed but play most sports right-handed.

3.I’ve been to Canada, India, England, Taiwan (twice), Philippines, Thailand, Turkey, Spain, and China (and several others if you count airport layovers). Most of them I went to by myself.

4.I have an MBA, but I am totally satisfied with my current job as a stay-at-home-mom.

5.I ran track and cross-country in high school. I got into running because I didn’t make the cheerleading team in 9th grade, but I wanted to be active in something and I always thought I was decent at running since I could outrun all the boys in my neighborhood growing up.

6.I was in my school drama program since 3rd grade and acted in several plays a year. My biggest role was as “Frankie” in The Member of the Wedding.

7.I eat dessert every night (like brownies with ice cream and chocolate syrup).

8.I applied (with my friend Valerie) to be on the Amazing Race, but we never got called back. We think it’s because we were too nice and wouldn’t cause enough controversy.

9.I don’t like causing controversy (see #8). I always like for people to be happy. I despise rudeness.

10.I love, love to be organized. I think it makes everything in life a lot easier and I feel like I can be much more productive because of it.

11.I’ve been together with Matt for over 10 years total (married for 7 of those years as of this June).

12.I spend too much time online checking my email and other things.

13.I stay in much better touch with friends if they use email frequently (see #12) than if I have to call them. I also stay in touch much better with friends who have Verizon since I can call them without using any of my cell phone minutes.

14. I put lotion all over my entire body every single day. I also shave my legs every single day. I just don’t feel completely clean unless I do both of those things.

15.I’m a thrifty shopper and usually only buy things when they are on mega-sale. I also use a lot of coupons.

16. My first name is Leigh and my middle name is Ann. Most people call me Leigh Ann, but some people from my high school days just call me Leigh. I prefer Leigh Ann, but will answer to either.

17.I am a bad speller.

18.I like living in NC but I wish I lived closer to my family or that my family lived closer to us, especially now that we have kids.

19.I grew up in SC all the way through college then lived in Illinois for almost 5 years before moving to NC.

20.I very much prefer the south because of the warmer weather.

21.I have never been to Hawaii or NYC and I really, really want to go to both of those places.

22.I have been a Christian since I was a little girl, but sometimes I feel like I know very little about the Bible. I am working on that.

23.I have very thick, curly/wavy hair. I have always wanted straight hair. I just think it would be so much easier. I am jealous of my friends who can “wash and go.”

24.I cut my husband’s hair.

25.I am going to tag 25 people for this game, but I really don’t want them to feel obligated to participate (see #1).

1. I don’t usually do these “about yourself” things. But, since I probably haven’t done one in a decade, figured I’d give it a shot.

2. I feel pretty confident in my ability to evaluate myself as a husband, but haven’t the first clue how I’m doing as a daddy.

3. I’m risk averse. I have 2 carbon monoxide detectors, 2 fire extinguishers, a 2-story rope ladder, always wear my seat belt, always pause for a second before proceeding through an intersection, and very rarely talk on the cell phone when driving.

4. I generally workout 5 times a week: lift weights/do stair stepper 3 times, run 5k once, and either play ultimate frisbee or run 5k for the last one.

5. I love playing board and card games that have a strategy level greater than Monopoly and less than Chess and Go. In particular, German board games like Settlers of Catan and Puerto Rico.

6. If I had time to improve one thing athletically, it would be to work on my forehand in frisbee.

7. As an engineer, it bothers me greatly that US politics focuses more on “us vs. them” and less on problem solving.

8. I plan to read a biography of each US president. Currently, I’ve read through six (next is Andrew Jackson).

9. I’ve lived in Ohio (near Columbus, 9 years), Texas (Amarillo, 3 years), South Carolina (Anderson, 11 years), Illinois (Champaign, 5 years), and North Carolina (near Raleigh, 2 years).

10. I think Arrested Development is the funniest show ever.

11. I drive my wife’s car from high school to work…a purple ‘94 Honda Civic. It’s reliable, get’s great gas mileage, and has been paid for for years. I’d like another Civic or a Fit when we have to replace it.

12. I drink a cup of lemonade for dinner every night.

13. I can’t sit still unless I’m in front of a computer. Leigh Ann always makes fun of me b/c I’m constantly getting up and down when we watch TV.

14. I like being organized (so, thankfully, I married an organizer). I’m not much into cleaning, though. My threshold for “dirty” is a lot higher than Leigh Ann’s, so she does all the cleaning. I’m pretty thankful for that.

15. I have a PhD in computer science, but my job has nothing to do with my research.

16. Last year, Leigh Ann got me a new pillow. Prior to that, I’d had the same pillow all my life. I guess that’s kind of gross, but I never thought much about it.

17. When my head hits the pillow, I’m asleep in about 5 seconds.

18. I’ve traveled out of the country twice: Latacunga, Ecuador in 1999 and Barcelona, Spain in 2006. I don’t really like to travel much.

19. I stopped drinking coffee several years ago and now drink green tea most mornings.

20. I didn’t get my first cell phone until 2007 and we’ve never had a landline since.

21. I can’t wait until Kaelyn is old enough to do things like kick the soccer ball, throw frisbee, and play video games with me. But I also cherish this time now when she just loves to cuddle up to me (and her Mommy)…a whole room of toys and she’d rather sit on our laps.

22. I have a sweet tooth and eat a dessert nearly every night.

23. I get more joy out of saving money than spending it.

24. People I saw give talks in person while at Clemson and UIUC include: Kareem Abdul-Jabar, George W. Bush, Jesse Ventura, Chuck D, Bill Gates, Ravi Zacharias, the creator of PayPal, and one of the creators of YouTube.

25. I’m on my 3rd time reading through the Bible and each time I’ve read a different translation (NIV first, then the Living Bible, and now NASB).

We’re just winding down our holiday season by bringing in 2009. We started out our holiday season by making the rounds in NC for group holiday parties including: our small group, Leigh Ann’s work group (at The Melting Pot!), Matt’s work group, and Kaelyn’s friends. Also, our neighborhood had a get-together where Kaelyn got to sit on Santa’s lap and get a balloon animal (which became just a balloon in a matter of hours).

One of Kaelyn’s first gifts was an awesome hand-made, knitted turtle from some of our old Grad IV friends, the Knutsons. She sleeps with her turtle every night.

We started the holidays by going to South Carolina the week before Christmas for Jared’s (Leigh Ann’s brother) graduation from Clemson. Some family came back to the Buchanans’ house for Zaxby’s for lunch (mmmm….Zaxby’s). He just finished up with a degree in Electrical Engineering and a minor in Music. He is currently looking for engineering jobs.

Due to some vacation rescheduling at work, I ended up working remotely from South Carolina for about a week. This was actually pretty cool since I had a little “office” set up in the sun room so I had a nice window office. I had to miss most of the shopping extravaganzas for the week, but really I didn’t mind.

On Friday, the non-working folks got to go to the Civic Center park, which Kaelyn loved. Jared got a new SLR camera (Canon EOS 40D) for graduation, so he snapped a lot of awesome pics for the event. Kaelyn still isn’t walking (at 16+ months, she’s definitely taking her sweet time), so that still makes outdoor activities more challenging. On Friday night, we went to see some of our high school/college friends at a get-together at Timothy Clardy’s house. It’s always good to have our annual check-in on how our friends are doing. On Saturday, we went to Leigh Ann’s grandparents on her mother’s side to celebrate the holidays with that side of the family. Kaelyn had a great time with all the other babies and we enjoyed the wonderful spread of food.

On Sunday, we went to the church Leigh Ann’s parents recently started attending, Concord Baptist. Afterward, we went to Master’s Wok for lunch as is the usual Sunday lunch custom in that neck of the woods. That afternoon, Leigh Ann’s dad and I went to Seneca to play a round of disc golf (he beat me by a couple shots) and then played a little cornhole (a.k.a., bean bag toss) with the homemade set Leigh Ann’s dad had made. Kaelyn was a big help in retrieving the bean bags. She’d also make a “Boom” noise any time one of the bags hit the board. Another one of her new favorite noises in “Ewww” (in a Southern accent) any time she sees something yucky from her dirty diapers to dirt on the carpet to finger paint on her fingers.

Monday was Leigh Ann’s Big Shopping Day ™ and Tuesday we got together with some of our old friends, the Meneeses. The was cool since our friend Mark has a new baby daughter, so her and Kaelyn got to interact a little. Plus, we got to experience the Wii for the first time by playing tennis and bowling. I’m pretty convinced the Wii is designed to improve your self-esteem because I was way better at bowling than ever before. Even Kaelyn liked me to help her bowl on the Wii…she even picked up a strike (I’m pretty sure she couldn’t do that in real life).

Wednesday was Christmas Eve, so we went to Leigh Ann’s other grandma’s house. Kaelyn got about fifty toys there. I got like one candy bar. I think people like Kaelyn a lot better than me and I can’t really blame them.

For Christmas day, we got to stay home all day. Kaelyn had a very Elmo Christmas, including an Elmo laptop, Elmo DVD, some kind of singing Elmo thing, and a “Up Up” Elmo doll. Also, she got a DVD player for the car, which made the trip back a lot easier. Leigh Ann got a new vacuum cleaner (well, technically it’s for both of us) and a Coach bag. My highlight was a Baggo/cornhole set for which I had to go on a mini scavenger hunt to find. I was pretty stoked about this as you can see by this action shot of me jumping off the porch.

We finished off the SC trip with another round of disc golf on Friday (I won this one by a couple strokes) and headed back on Saturday. In contrast to the Ohio Thanksgiving trip where I lost pretty much every game, I had much better luck over this trip by winning disc golf, twice in Contract Rummy (I only got 64 points in one game), and Puerto Rico. Yay me.

My parents arrived at our house on Saturday to celebrate the holidays with Kaelyn. We opened presents on Sunday morning (our church wasn’t having services that day so we’re not total heathens). Among some of the highlights of gifts from Nana and Pap Pap were a Middleton doll and a baby-sized Cracker Barrel rocking chair. One of the cool things we got was restored WWII military pictures of both my grandpas to go along with the military picture we already have of Leigh Ann’s grandpa.

Unfortunately, Kaelyn came down with a viral infection and had a fever for most of the time my parents were here. So, there were a couple of nights of spending a few hours in the middle of the night downstairs on the couch watching cartoons. Not really that fun when you’re on vacation and have visitors, but I imagine those moments cuddled up on the couch at 2am are the ones you remember whenever you’re sending your kids off to college or to get married…so I really cherish that time spent with Kaelyn.

You can see all our holiday pictures for this trip and general Kaelyn pictures for December. Check out the new slideshow feature, which is even more cool if you install the Cooliris plugin for your browser.

Best wishes in the new year for everyone!

Some that I’d thought about are: Mad Men, Generation Kill, The Shield, Friday Night Lights, Rome, and Dexter. Some of the Netflix recommended TV shows are: Eureka, Torchwood, Wonderfalls, Shameless, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and Little Britain.

Any of these that you particularly love or hate or others you’d recommend?

We arrived Friday afternoon and had a couple of our Illinois-to-Ohio friends over to watch the Ohio State and Michigan game (and I’m using “game” very loosely here as it was more of a slaughter): Valerie and Will and Allison and Andrew. Both have babies that are less than a year old, so it was fun to get Kaelyn together with them:

On Sunday, we went to church with my parents and then went out to lunch at a Japanese steak house with my brother and his wife. Eric and I got in a little disc golf at a nearby 9-hole course.

On Monday, we did some shopping with Valerie and Graham and then were graced with the presence of Ben Moreland, traversing all the way from Champaign. That night, my mom cooked lasagne for us and Ben and Will and Valerie.

On Tuesday, we had an action-packed day with Ben that consisted of visiting a Lego exhibit at Grove Port, followed by a trip to the Easton Mall. After that, we headed home so Kaelyn could take a nap while we played Settlers of Catan where Leigh Ann proceeded to whoop us. When Kaelyn woke up, my parents babysat so we could bowl a couple of frames in this little 10-lane bowling alley in nearby Baltimore, OH. We finished up the evening with my Mom beating us in Contract Rummy followed by Leigh Ann defending her Settlers title with a second win.

On Wednesday, Uncle Eric and Aunt Lisa treated everyone to a trip to the Columbus Zoo. It was an awesome day to see the animals since it was pretty cool. The bears and tiger were right next to the glass in the cage, so you could see them from inches away. Also, there were these ninja goats that could scale walls to get up on a narrow edge. Of course, Kaelyn had a ball all bundled up in her warm clothes.

Thursday, of course, consisted of eating lots of turkey and fixin’s that my mom cooked. Also, my brother and I ran a 5-mile Turkey Trot that morning in Columbus while Leigh Ann and Lisa did a 2-mile Walk and Talk. I was very pleased with my time of 40:04…eight minute miles. It was good enough to finish as one of the top 1000 males and get a free pumpkin pie. This marks the first time I’ve ever won any prize in a race that wasn’t given out to all participants .

On Friday, we went to my grandparents in West Virginia to visit them and my aunts and uncles on my mom’s side. Unfortunately, my grandma had to enter a rehab center a couple of months ago due to a broken hip and, combined with the initial stages of Alzheimer’s, she won’t be coming back to her house. It was very sad to see her so confused and know that it will only get worse.

Also, another sad note on Friday, was that Mom and Dad had to have our 21-year old cat, Kit Kat, put to sleep that morning. His health had been on the decline for the past few months and he had fluid build-up around his heard and struggled to breath. Luckily, his health got better for most of the week, so he was around and Kaelyn could interact a bit with him. But, Thursday and Friday, he regressed to the point where he was doing much worse and wouldn’t eat or drink. It was nice that I could be there to tell Kit goodbye. They took his body to my grandparents to bury him on their land, so we’ll always know where his grave site is. RIP, Kit.

I’ve added several new photo albums: Kaelyn in November 2008, Thanksgiving 2008, the Columbus Zoo trip, a trip to the Durham Museum, and Kit Kat’s last day.

This is my rationale on who I have chosen to vote for next month (barring any true October surprises, of course). I believe in the wisdom of crowds (in general), so hopefully this is just one data point in your larger decision as to who you vote for because I definitely wouldn’t want to live in a world where everyone thought like me.

First, a pre-condition: I almost always choose to vote for viable candidates (e.g., at least double digit polling). I understand and respect the decision to vote for third party candidate, I just choose not to vote that way. That being said, given the choice, I would have voted for Ron Paul over either Obama or McCain (so, something to keep in mind for those that think all people voting for Obama have a socialist/Marxist worldview). So, given this criteria, my evaluation comes down to Barack Obama and John McCain.

Second, a little about my view of the presidency. I view it as the CEO of our country. To me, their primary responsibility is to be a manager of our country’s finances, advocate for our country to the rest of the world, provide security, and keep the American brand competitive and admired. I care more about a person’s ability to deliver in this role than about their views on issues for which large gray areas exist (e.g., abortion) (or what their middle name is, whether they smoked pot, etc.). Of course, I weigh all these factors as a whole, but I don’t automatically discount someone over one issue. I don’t feel there is one mainstream moral issue that is significant enough for me to vote solely on that issue while giving a pass to any other flaws a candidate may have. According to the CEO view, I don’t expect whomever is elected to make a bit of difference in my life in the short term. But I do believe the president has influence over the long term direction our country takes, which can definitely affect my life.

As I mentioned earlier this year, I like McCain and thought he was the best of the mainstream Republican candidates. I think he was the strongest too, as he always polled significantly better in the general election than any other candidate against both Obama and Clinton. Unfortunately, his decisions of the past few months just don’t seem like the person I always thought McCain to be.

First, some of the things I like about McCain. He was consistently one of the most influential conservative voices against many of Bush’s actions with which I disagreed (e.g., challenging the administration in its handling of Iraq, keeping the Senate’s filibuster intact for judges, voting against the Medicare prescription drug benefit). He understands war better than most anyone in Washington. McCain has always been relatively open with the press and fairly candidate for a politician who’s been in the limelight as long as he has. He has always been a major spokesman for fiscal discipline in stark contrast to the Bush’s and Huckabee’s of the Republican party.

Now, some of the negatives I see with McCain. First, his extensive understanding of was seems to have come at the cost of seeing a military response as the first option against any threat. When your military has like 30 times more funding than the next nearest country, you’re perpetually susceptible to the “if all you have is a hammer, then every problem looks like a nail” syndrome. Aside from the morality debate, I believe America is at a point where pragmatically we need to learn to better exhaust diplomatic efforts before military action due to budget constraints and from a PR perspective if we want America’s opinion to continue to be more valued than that of, say, Russia or China (a good book to read on this is The Post-American World by Fareed Zakaria). I believe in military responses. Afghanistan was a no brainer to me after September 11th. Even Iraq, I supported, though now I’m evidently a lot more reflective as to whether Iraq was truly doomed to be a mess from the get-go or whether it could have been done more efficiently (and the fact there was a lot of information hidden at the time of the invasion that is known now). I feel that Obama more likely to lead successful diplomatic efforts to situations like the Middle East and Russia than McCain.

Next, I have major problems with McCain’s temperament. Everything from watching reactions in the debates, to the hasty decision to suspend then un-suspend his campaign to help with the bailout, to choosing Palin as a running mate having had only one face-to-face meeting, McCain does not strike me as cool under pressure. Quite honestly, given the infamous 3 a.m. phone call, I expect Obama to be the one to take a step back and try to arrive at a more rationale decision while McCain would shoot first and ask questions later. In the past eight years, we’ve had the first attack on American soil and worst financial crisis in most Americans’ lifetimes. If ever there was a time in my lifetime which could fulfill the opening lines of Kipling’s poem If, that time is now:

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you

My other major problem with McCain is his judgment in choosing people for cabinet and other influential appointment. I consider this an important measure of a the president. Let’s face it, the person selected to the president is not going to be America’s top expert in all matters with the economy, foreign policy, education, agriculture, and veteran’s affairs. The ability to delegate well is crucial. His choice of Palin for the VP causes me serious doubt. While I imagine she is a solid choice for Alaska’s governor, she’s not the person I want being second in line to navigate our country through the economic crisis and foreign affairs (again, a Zakaria article that does a good job of making this point). Put another way, if the CEO of my company were to appoint someone to be their successor that had the same qualifications to run the company that Palin has to run the US government, I would be looking for new job opportunities pretty quick.

Combined with some of the personnel decisions, Bush has made (e.g., Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court, Alberto Gonzalez as Attorney General, Mike Brown as head of FEMA), it’s very disappointing for me to see the party I thought placed more emphasis on merit push for so many lesser qualified folks for political and loyalty reasons. By in large, I may not agree with Cheney and Rumsfeld, for example, but they were clearly well-qualified to hold their respective positions. Inevitably, there is going to be delegation to people with whom I do not agree. I can accept that. I have a major problem with delegation to people whom I feel are not qualified to hold that position.

To me, McCain’s campaign highlights some major structural problems with the Republican party that are likely to extend beyond the 2006 and 2008 elections. The best way I can put it is when Reagan led the party, it was a party of hope. Whether you agreed or disagreed with him, virtually any American that watches clips of Reagan will come away with an optimism towards America and that better days lie ahead. Now, it’s become the party of fear. We’re on the brink of Armageddon and voting Republican is the only way to have any chance at avoiding a complete meltdown. It saddens me when I look through my mailings from Republican candidates and by in large see that the only reason I should vote for them is for fear of (1) illegal immigrants, (2) gay marriage, (3) big spending (hard to take this serious after eight years of Bush leading the party), and (4) terrorists (roughly in that order). And, notice there’s virtually no mention of the economy, which actually is my biggest fear right now. It’s like the national Republican party has given up on having positive ideas and chosen to advertise the brand as a firewall against scorched earth scenarios. I really hope there is internal movement to purge the party of fear presentation in favor of Reagan’s party of hope.

OK, so now on to Obama, starting with the problems I have with him. First, I am likely to have philosophical disagreements with anyone he appoints to the Supreme Court (remember, Ron Paul would be my first choice). Second, he hasn’t done a very good job at answering questions about questionable associations he’s had in the past in a timely and transparent manner. Third, his opting out of public financing when to his advantage despite his past strong philosophical beliefs to the contrary cause me to question his commitment to his beliefs when they may not be to his advantage (e.g., increased transparency in government). Fourth, he has done some obvious pandering (e.g., exempting Social Security taxes only on income between $100-250K is something no serious economist, regardless of political affection, would advocate). Fifth, I’d generally like to see US abortion laws converge (preferably at the state level) closer to those of Europe (e.g., generally allowed unrestricted only in the first trimester) whereas Obama seems content with US abortion law as is.

On to the reasons why I like Obama. I’ll start with the style points. Listening to him makes me more optimistic about the future of America than any candidate in the past two elections. His tone is more of Reagan’s, telling me why I should have hope for the future rather than fear. Second, he presents himself with an amazing temperament which seems vital to the position of presidency. As conservative writer Charles Krauthammer points out “he’s got both a first-class intellect and a first-class temperament”. I think that the temperament part is in stark contrast to McCain and very significant.

Obama seems more intent on moving to post-partisan politics to solve problems rather than antagonizing the other party. Whether this actually happens (remember, Bush was going to be a uniter, not a divider) remains to be seen but he seems to have more of a desire to try and make it happen. I don’t think trying to see what you can get through Congress with 51% of the vote is generally in the best interest of the country.

Regarding delegation, Obama seems to have done a superb job of surrounding himself with competence in this campaign. He hasn’t appointed any one to a significant position that I feel is obviously unqualified. Also, he has done an amazing job of leading a team which has put him in a position to win the election in a landslide. It is no small feat to put together a campaign which not only beat the strong Democratic favorite in the primaries but is also currently smashing the Republican candidate that polled the best against the Dem’s candidate. Whatever you feel about Obama, that has to speak positively to his leadership abilities in some capacity.

I feel that Obama advocates more fiscal responsibility than McCain. He is in favor of pay-as-you-go rules which seems like one of the positive budget steps most likely to actually pass. Basically, taxes would have to be more tied to spending. In general, I like this rule. If someone wants a war or social program, it would be great if they understood their taxes would go up X% as a result. I don’t believe McCain has committed to this.

Honestly, I don’t see how anyone who voted for Bush can be that concerned with Obama being a “socialist”. Remember that the Bush administration which has overseen some of the largest deficits in history (which means higher taxes in the future), the largest entitlement program expansion (Medicare prescription drug benefit) since LBJ, and now the nationalizing of banks left and right. If Obama turns out to be in favor of a bigger government than Bush, then I undoubtedly wouldn’t vote for his reelection. Neither candidate is that great to me from a fiscal perspective, but I feel that Obama is slightly better overall and both are a significant improvement over the Bush years.

So, my conclusion is that were I tasked with choosing a CEO for a company in which I had a financial stake, I would select Barack Obama over John McCain. And, that is my vote for president.

Regarding some of the other votes I plan to make:

• NC Governor: Pat McCrory (R) since he seems to have done a solid job as seven term mayor of Charlotte and Bev Perdue (D) hasn’t distinguished herself to me.
• Senate: Both Dole (R) and Hagan (D) are incredibly crappy candidates in my eyes. I’m planning to vote for divided government here, so I’ll hold my nose and pull the lever for Dole.
• House: B.J. Lawson (R) over David Price (D) despite the fact I like Price because his office was very helpful in an issue we had with our economic stimulus check. Lawson is like a Ron Paul Republican favoring a complete revision of our tax system as well as the country’s approach to the “war on drugs”. He’s definitely more in line with what I’d like to see the national Republican party become.
• Other Races: I spent about 4 hours going through trying to make an semi-informed choice about from Commissioner of Insurance to Soil and Water Conservation District Supervisor (still not as good as Champaign where I got to vote on County Coroner). And folks wonder why US voter turnout is so low when they make it so daggum complicated and time consuming if you don’t want to vote a straight ticket. I probably ended up about 60/40 in favor of Republican candidates. For judges, I vote for the incumbent unless a Google search turns up some good reason not to. This mainly reflects the fact that I don’t believe in voting for judges. Actually, I do this same algorithm for a lot of offices that I feel should be appointed by rather than elected.

I think Kaelyn enjoyed every minute of it. She ate her ENTIRE smash cake, loved it when everyone sang “Happy Birthday” and opened all of her presents like a champ. It’s like she knew exactly what she was supposed to do.

Matt already posted a link to the pictures, but I’ll put it here again. And here are a few highlights…

Also, we had Kaelyn’s one year photos taken which can all be found here.

She’s not walking yet, but is close. She walks all over the place if she is behind her walker or pushing her babydoll stroller. She is doing all kind of talking now. Some of her favorite words: bye, up, arf, duck. If you ask her “where’s Kaelyn?” she smacks herself right in the face.