Kevin & Johna .com

Kyler loves Mickey Mouse (”mee mou” as he says). That statement shouldn’t surprise anyone considering his parents. During our last trip to Disneyland we made sure to introduce him to Mickey in person, which he loved. We learned that Kyler likes the characters that are shorter (Mickey, Dale, Chip) and loves it when they have big noses and let him kiss (or in one case, lick) their nose.

Hmmm… they clean those costumes regularly, right?

Anyway… we met Mickey at his house and, for the first time ever, used the Disney PhotoPass service where they take a picture of you and issue you a card where you can look at the photos on-line and then order them. One of the really cool things about Disney is that they will still take a picture with your camera if you want even though they staff a “professional” photographer for the purpose of trying to sell the photo.

I should have asked them for a photo on my camera. I didn’t because I figured their camera was nicer, it was a “pro” photographer and even the lighting in the room seemed to be rigged specifically. I figured that all this person has to do is take 700 photos each day with a pre-set camera in a room specifically designed to get great photos of your kids meeting Mickey.

I’ll let you judge the quality of those photos based on the thumbnails below. I’d try PhotoPass again, but now I’m not going to hesitate to ask them to use my camera as a “backup plan.” — Regardless, it was SOOOO cool to introduce Kyler to Mickey. He loved it and it was one of the highlights of the trip for me. Even if the pictures didn’t come out great, the memory did!

I have also posted some more pictures from the trip on Facebook and will post some here as well whenever I find time.

For some odd reason, I find it funny how different car manufacturers warn you of things like low tire pressure, low fuel, etc.

In my old Murano the designers felt that the most important warning was when your tire pressure was 5psi or more lower than it should. (Which happens often in MN.) The car would emit a loud warning tone for 10 seconds when this happens and then repeat it for every tire that was low. I often spent the first 30 seconds in my car trying to figure out which three tires needed air. Thankfully Nitrogen fixed that problem.

In our RX the low fuel warning is a tiny yellow dot that lights up and is positioned in a place that is easy to never see. However, the low washer fluid warning gets a large icon (slightly bigger than the big green turn signal icon), flashing notification AND a spot that’s easily seen on your dash. You might run out of gas, but you’ll be able to see everything in front of you when it happens!

Then there’s my car. The designers here opted to give you a series of warnings. First, the icon on your gas gauge lights up. Then you get a warning on the center display telling you you are on “reserve” fuel. Eventually, they stop you from being able to access all of the car’s features and replace them with the reserve fuel warning. If you still haven’t addressed the fuel situation, they resort back to pictures like the one below which essentially says “Dude! If you want to keep using me, you’re going to have to give me something to drink!”

Makes me wonder what our new car will start doing…

Johna did her annual girls’ weekend leaving Kyler and I to fend for ourselves (read: do whatever WE wanted to do). Kyler wasn’t about to let me off the hook and he let me know it right away Saturday morning with a 6:30am wake up call. I ignored the first request.

6:40: “Daddy. Daddy.”
6:45: “Daddy! All done.”
6:47: “Daddy!! All done! Daddy. Up!”

By 6:48am we were both up. I thought he might go for sleeping in mom and dad’s bed for a bit. He did. For two minutes. Then it was all business.

“Daddy. All done. Up. Shower!”

I figured I was going to loose this battle so I got up, made some coffee (incorrectly) and got him some milk. He insisted that I get the day started.

“Daddy. Shower!”

Kyler’s a man of few words and doesn’t waste time getting to the point.

I got ready and decided Kyler and I should have breakfast together, preferably cooked by someone else. We went straight to “THE Original Pancake House” (that’s how its written on their sign, which suggests that there is a Pancake House, an Original Pancake House and then THE Orig… eh, you get the idea…).

A few things hit me during breakfast. First, at some point, I became completely comfortable wearing (not carrying, but WEARING) the floral Vera Bradley diaper bag / backpack that we carry Kyler’s stuff in. Second, I no longer forget stuff like milk or diapers when leaving the house. Third, I’ve really become comfortable taking Kyler out on my own – it wasn’t until we were at the restaurant that I realized there would be a number of single-parent-for-the-weekend logistical challenges … like keeping him entertained.

But the two of us did fantastic! We read a book while waiting for the table. Colored a bit when seated and then fought over pancakes. I assumed he and I could share an order along with a small fruit cup, however it became clear quickly that it would be a race to see who could eat more. He won.

We then went shopping. Kyler helped pick out clothes that mommy later vetoed. (The guy at the store said I needed to wear it with “swagger” to get by … judging by the fact that I didn’t know “swagger” was required for the clothing I picked, I promptly returned them.) We also went out to the airport to look at planes. Kyler decided to sleep right before we got there.

Misc. errands, lunch at Noodles, some puppy kisses from Charlotte, the dog of a woman I didn’t know who was out shopping and thought Kyler was as cute as Kyler thought her puppy was, and some playtime outside later, we called it a day, wrapping up with dinner with my brother.

The next morning, Kyler hit “repeat.”

6:30: “Daddy. Daddy!”
6:35: “Daddy. All done. Daddy. Up! Daddy!”

I figured I’d just skip the dance and get to the point. I got up, got him some milk and headed for the shower when he stopped me…

“Daddy. Paka.”

What?

“Daddy. Paka! Paka!”

Pancakes?

(nods) “Aga. Paka.” (”aga” means “again”)

Hey… if Kyler wants pancakes, then Kyler’s gonna get pancakes. We got ready and returned to restaurant a day later and a bit smarter. Or so I thought. Kyler managed to plow through the entire berry cup, the kids 5x 1 dollar pancakes and as much of my pancakes as he could fit into his mouth while still saying “mo, pleees.”

While I didn’t take nearly enough pictures of the weekend, the two of us had a great time. I enjoyed absolutely every moment of it. While I missed Johna during her trip, I think there’s something important about Kyler and I bonding like this over these weekends. He and mom get to bond all throughout the day every week, I only get to spend time with him when I’m not working … so some one-on-one time does a lot of good.

The pictures below were from a walk we took before having lunch. Kyler loved the “wa-wa” and seemed to be just as pensive looking at the water as the pictures below suggest he was.

I had the opportunity to go to a truly historic place in my last trip to Chicago. Wrigley is a cool place – so cool that no one is allowed to start the wave (really – I saw people yelling at a group of college kids trying to do so).

Here are a few pictures from my trip. These are taken from the bleechers, which is a GREAT place to watch the game from. Next time I want to do a rooftop party instead. That looked like a blast!

Just a quick post to share some pictures from the weekend.

Kyler loves books. He gets that from his mom but its something I try to help encourage whenever I can. Kyler often grabs a book and brings it to me wanting to sit on my lap and read it to him. Whenever he does this, I stop whatever I’m doing and read with him.

A few weekends ago we went to a bookstore to get some new books. We were anxious to see which books he would respond to. Before we got started, we all needed to arm ourselves with fresh Starbucks coffee (or in Kyler’s case, a Starbucks cup with just a bit of water in it).

Kyler and his friend Ellie (who he knows from school) get together to hang out (usually with parents around). Recently, the two went to the arboretum where Kyler taught her things like how to make your parents think you’re about to dine on rocks.

24 hours ago we noticed that two checks were processed deducting funds from our account. Neither of these checks were written by us, for places we shop at or even OUR checks.

Thankfully, we (and when I say that, I mean “Johna”) noticed the odd checks representing a check number we had yet to order … or were even close to ordering any time soon. Pulling up the scanned check image (thank you US Bank – great feature) we saw a check with our routing number and bank account however with a different bank, different name on the check and a different address (complete with ALL CAPS street and state info and all-lower-case city name). The checks even had a phone number and drivers license number on them — all of which was fake.

Now that we’ve canceled the account and associated cards, contacted anyone payments were issued to that had not yet cleared and contacted the authorities, we pretty much have this behind us (all but the waiting for new checks, cards, etc.).

I asked our bank how this could have happened — after all, we write checks only for bills we get in the mail, and then mail back in; to our church; and very intermittent other cases. They’re answer was simply that “it happens” because so many people can touch a check between you and it getting to the bank that there is room for foul play. What’s more, the economy seems to be fueling this problem a bit more … infact, the checks that were written were not for frivolous things but “essentials.”

So the grand lesson here is simply: watch out. Balance your check book, watch it carefully and be cautious about whom you give your checks to. The result for us will be more on-line bill paying and probably using cash even in the random cases where we would write a check that wasn’t paying a bill.

If that story compels you to take a closer look at your bank statement – then great! Hopefully you don’t have this problem, but if you do, then hopefully you find it quickly.