We arrived at a guesthouse on the beach this afternoon where we'll be spending the next 24 hours. The girls saw sand and went nuts. We tossed our luggage in the room, liberally applied sunblock, put them in bathing suits and went outside.

Claire pointed out to Melanie that the guesthouse had a pool. Melanie asked where it was. Claire indicated to the ocean, saying "it's a really big one!".

Many hours later, after much sand had been thrown, bits of coral and shells collected in a bucket, splashing in the ocean, chasing local cats, getting excited about dogs on the beach, Claire was in a thoughtful mood. We were sitting a little bit off the beach together when she turned to me and said "Daddy, this is the perfect house. I can have swim lessons at this house and play in the water and sand all day."

Yesterday on an airplane we hooked up two sets of earphones to my laptop, put in a movie for the girls, and set them off to watch it rather than staring up at the movie the airline was playing.

Today, back at another airport, Ella declared that she wanted me to "Put my phone ears on Daddy! I want phone ears!!!!".

In late 1996 I grew a full beard. In July of 1997, while in Hong Kong on a two week business trip, it was too hot so I shaved it into a goatee. It's been like that ever since.

Last night I decided that I would shave even that off. It has been twelve and a half years with a goatee. I wanted to go without for the summer.

Claire happened to wake up early today, before I left for work. As we were sitting and talking, she didn't notice that my facial hair was gone. At a pause in our conversation, I said "Claire, did you notice my beard is gone?"

She stared at me, eyes wide, silently taking in this change. She asked but one simple question:

Claire has straight hair.

She likes it this way. Recently she has been telling Melanie that she does not like curly or wavy hair. She's decided that she does not like people who don't have straight hair.

There's a diversity and acceptance lesson here that we are both reinforcing. It's pretty easy in most cases.

"Uncle Mark's hair is not straight. Do you like Uncle Mark?"

"Yes, he's ok"

"Grammie has wavy hair. Is she ok too?"

"Yes, I like Grammie."

"Daddy's hair is crazy in the morning and not straight. Do you like Daddy?"

"No"

Ok, kidding on that last one. I hope...

We had a lot of rain over the past few weeks. Ella likes the rain. If you ask her why, she recites a list of all the things that get wet. Trees. Squirrels. Tables. Baby grass (we planted grass seed). Slides. Swings. Cars.

This makes her happy. She even likes being out in the rain, yelling "Daddy I feel sprinkles! Sprinkles Daddy! I feel them!"

Thankfully, at least to me, the sun has been out consistently for several days. The rain has stopped. It's nice out.

That's not making Ella happy. Melanie said that today Ella was upset because it was sunny out.

What she misses most are the understorms.

On January 22nd Claire's violin teacher challenged her to practice for one hundred days in a row. The reward would be going to a pizza and ice cream party in the springtime.

This evening Claire proudly checked off box 100 on the 10x10 square we've been filling out over these past few months. We missed three days, to illness and a holiday. That can be ignored.

I'm proud of her too, and frankly impressed. I don't believe that at any point in my life I've practiced my instrument back to back for 100 days.

Driving home tonight with Claire in my car we had a great conversation. One bit of it started with her asking me if we could do a wedding when we got home. She has this little stuffed pony, and it needs to get married. Tonight. I'm not sure of the circumstances as she did not elaborate. But it was critical that the pony be married as soon as we got home.

I quickly agreed that the pony could get married when we got home. No answer to who the groom would be (the pony is pink! she protested when I asked if it was a boy or a girl).

Satisfied that there would be a wedding, Claire began to plan. This was about a 20 minute drive.

If you are about to sit down for a meal, continue. You can come back to this post later.

Ella was a little more messy than usual after tonight's dinner. I breaded chicken and pan fried it, and little bits of pepper, paprika and flour were all over Ella's hands. Rather than attempt to wipe all that up, I simply brought her to the sink and washed her hands.

Then I did the dishes.

As I was finishing up, Ella came up holding out her hand. "Messy daddy. Wash my hands." Sure enough, it looked like I had missed one hand. I washed it (again, as it turns out), then asked her how it got dirty.

Today we converted Ella's crib into a toddler bed. I would have held off longer (since I like to sleep in the morning) but at the end of May we are taking a 2 week trip and she will be sleeping in a bed not a crib. We wanted to give her the 2 months to get used to it so that we don't have to worry about her falling out when we are in hotels or on a boat.

We took the crib apart and both Grandma and Grammie watched over the web cam. The girls were so excited. They were jumping in the bed and singing and giggling. They were jumping off bed onto floor - mattress real close to floor. Well this was the first night sleeping in her big girl bed. We will see how she does. I put pillows on the floor just in case she falls out. I also put a gate at her door and locked the bathroom door to Claire's room. The hope is that she will wake up and just play in her room until we get there. Hoping she will not open door and cry because gate is there. We will see.

Claire has been enjoying hoping up on the piano bench and playing at the piano over the past few months.

She's actually gotten pretty good in the way she plays. She presses one key at a time, mostly white keys, and works up little melodies which she sings over.

There's been a new twist in the past week. Now she brings up a book that she likes, opens it to a page, and plays what she sees on that page and sings a song that she makes up that tends to reflect the picture.

This evening she took it to a new level, and grabbed one of the clips I use to hold my music books open on the piano and clipped the pages of her book open (they were having no problem staying wide open).

Ella had her first day of school (day care, Parent's Day Out run by a local church) this past Friday.

She's been really excited about it all week. She is just like her big sister now. She has a backpack that she can nearly fit into - looks rediculous when she wears it. And she has a lunchbox.

When Melanie asked her what was going to happen "tomorrow" on the day before school day number one, she said

"I'm going with Clairie and I'm going to have ice packs"

Very proud of having her own ice pack in her own lunch box. It's a big step. A rite of passage that I suppose we all go thr

I'm not even sure how to start, so I'll start at the end.

I'm on the stairs at the halfway point landing, where they turn 90 degrees, holding Ella. She is screaming crying, and not hurt too badly as far as I can tell. Melanie is yelling from the kitchen "what happened? what happened?".

The most logical thing to do is ask Ella. All I know is that I found her flat on the floor crying on the landing of the stairs, and that we did not hear "thump thump thump thump thump" before we heard the cry. She's been great with stairs for months now. We don't even worry about it.

So I asked Ella. "What happened?"

Ella just ran into the kitchen saying "Mommy I got poopie on my finger!!" And she did. Yuck. She is on antibiotics since her nose has been running with green snot for 6 months. You know what happens - pretty messy diapers and this one was green. I ran her to the bathroom to wash her hands hoping she would not touch her self or me :)

Claire called her uncle Mark tonight and asked if he would be her valentine. She was concerned that he didn't have a valentine this year. Mark's wife Penny passed away in September.

Yesterday evening Ella repeatedly approached Melanie and I, firmly got our attention, then said "I am afraid of the ocean" and then typically rushed off to safety.

After a few repetitions we started to ask her questions. Where was the ocean? "Over dere! [pointing]". What didn't she like about the ocean? "The Ocean!". We finally got her to take us to the ocean.

She brought us into the front room and pointed out the window into the darkness.

Now for those of you keeping score you know we live in Kansas. For the sake of our relatives on both coasts, we have no interest in ocean front property here.