More Pictures of Baby Allyson

Look at all that Goop on her.
They took all of the Goop off, just to put more Goop in her eyes.
Allyson loved her first bath...Ok, no she didn't, at least not until they washed her head.
Warming up in her sun bed.
Wrapped up like a little garden gnome.
Keira meeting her baby sister for the first time. Boy was she excited.
Allyson meeting Grandma Berensen for the first time.
Daddy wondering, "Great, now what?"
Just hanging out waiting to go home.
Everybody at home finally.
The flowers that some of my co-workers got Tricia. Yes, I got her some too, their's were just prettier. (They had more people to chip in.)

Baby 2 - The Sequel Starring Allyson

Allyson was born after an extremely long 5 minutes of pushing at 3:45 am. She weighed in at 8 lbs even, and is 21 inches long. It is the 20th over here in Okinawa, so congratulations go to Kristen for winning the tie breaker. Kylie was the runner up. It looks like I will be putting my voice talents on display by singing "A Whole New World". Stay tuned. Until then, enjoy the very first photos of Allyson Christine Atkinson.

We're Off to See the Wizard...(of babies)

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Bend, Don't Break

I AM OLD! (No offense to those of you who are older than me.) I thought that when you got older you would just gradually get less and less able to play sports. Apparently, you actually just wake up one morning and your athletic career is over. Here I am playing some football just 5 months ago. I am number 51 on the black team (the guy getting pulled to the ground at the end).

Shortly after this game I hyper-extended my left knee and the doctors put me on a 30 day physical training waiver (meaning I couldn't do anything to aggravate it for 30 days). When I was finally completely back to 100% I decided that maybe I was too old to be playing football. I mean I am no Brett Favre and going to play well into my 80's. And besides, Favre does this for a living so he is always keeping in shape and has an army of trainers and physical therapists that keep his parts working. As for me, my joints hate me and have decided to go on strike. Like I said, I decided that "tackle" football was too much for my old body so I jumped onto a flag football team. In our second game I hyper-extended my right knee. Son-of-a... I can't believe this! I went to the doctor and again they wanted to put me on another 30 day waiver but this time I was smart. I told him that I didn't want one (I didn't want to admit that my body couldn't keep up). So, I can't run, but I can still stand on the offensive line and push people around. Maybe I will post a video of that later. I guess what I am really trying to say is my body has finally started to take its payback on me for all of those years jumping off of 2 story houses and playing tackle football without pads, and for not working out like I should. My knees have taken the ball and gone home because they don't want to play anymore. I have started to look into knee replacements or getting myself a Robo-Knee, but until then I guess I will just be hanging out on the side lines or hobbling around on the field. Unless, I pick up another sport like golf, ping pong, or Foosball. I don't think even I could injure myself playing any of those. On a side note, my good buddy Jed did that P90X and he turned out o.k. so maybe I will try that. I will keep you posted on the results.

Sleep Blogging

I have titled this one "Sleep Blogging" because it is midnight right now and I am very very tired. My wife and I just got finished watching "Transformers 2", and I must say I wasn't as impressed as I thought I would be. I probably over-hyped it. Needless to say, it was no "Tristan and Isolde" (Best Movie Ever). "Sleep Blogging" is the worst form of blogging ever because there is no limit to the crazy things you might say. You might as well be "drunk blogging" which I am sure is comparable, but I wouldn't know first hand. Most inhibitions have flown the coop so anything I say is fair game. Luckily it is my blog so I can delete it first thing in the morning. So, to you lucky few who have the chance to read this before I delete it, enjoy. Speaking of "Sleep Blogging", my daughter Keira is a sleep walker. We will be watching a movie or something and Keira will have been asleep for awhile and suddenly she will come running in to the room. When we ask what she is doing she will reply with something as innocent and un-revealing as "Oh, I just wanted to hang out with you guys." to something that cues you in right away that she is still asleep like "Why was the pink doggy eating pizza in the bathroom." No matter what she says, our very next question is "do you need to go potty?" to which she always reply "no". So right away we pick her up and put her on the toilet anyway. We have learned the hard way that we can't tell her what to do. For example, one night (OK, most nights) Tricia was the one that was up with Keira. When Tricia told Keira to turn around so she could help her with her pants, Keira proceeded to turn around and around and around. Another time, she actually told me she did have to go to the bathroom, so I said, "Well go then." She then stared at me without saying anything for at least 30 seconds before I realized that she was doing just as I had told her. I was smarter the next time she told me she had to go to the bathroom though. I told her very specifically to go into the bathroom and go potty. She came back, from the bathroom, crying because her pajama pants were now wet. So, we now just take her in and set her on the toilet. No confusion there, and if there is, it is still a lot less messy.

I forgot to tell you why I am so tired. We had exercises last week. Which means we had to work 12 hour shifts all week. and the last three to four days we had to wear full chemical gear most of the time. This consists of a nice heavy jacket with snow pants, rubber boots to go over our regular boots, cotton gloves under some rubber gloves, a gas mask (which is nice around some of the less bowl-self-conscious co-workers), a helmet, and last but not least a 50 pound flack vest (so we don't catch any flack. Tee hee.) Not to mention we are now running around outside with big back packs on and when we are inside we are trying to continue our work. We still have fun with it as you can see below.

Oh, dad, we got the birthday card for Keira. She loved it. The cartoon on the front is one she watches quite a bit. When she saw it she did her little excited giggle where she goes really high pitched and almost starts hyperventilating as she scrunches her head down into her shoulders and covers her mouth with her hands. It's really cute, but how I just described it makes it sound like we should rush her to the ER every time it happens. She loves her "Spider Webs" (that is what she calls that show). I did have a question though. You have always been a jokester or goofy with a slapstick sense of humor, and I think that is the way to do it, because it lets you explain your way out of some situations. On the card you spelled we "Wee". And, Tricia pointed out, "With your dad it is hard to tell if he meant to do that to be funny or if he is just getting old" Ok, she didn't say "just getting old" I added that. She ended with "...if he just got carried away with his E's". But it got me thinking, I am in a good place because I am always making the dumbest jokes about the dumbest things. So much so, that when I do go senile people won't even make a second thought about it. I am not trying to say that I think you are senile dad. I am just saying that if, and when, you do get there you have a great cover. Speaking of senile people, I had a great aunt we called "Aunt Evelyn" and she was a very humorous lady. I specifically remember one Christmas morning when we were opening presents, we were all going around in a circle taking turns opening one present at a time. By this time in her life, Alzheimer's had set in quite deep to my Aunt Evelyn, so much so, that we had to hide her old car that I was now driving whenever she came over so she wouldn't get upset when we would explain to her that it wasn't her car anymore and that she couldn't drive anyway. Anyway, on this Christmas day, she ran out of presents before everyone else. When she had unwrapped one of her presents she was careful not to break the paper and after she would unwrap the present she re-folded the paper around it and set it back down at her feet. The next time the turn came to her she picked up the present she had already unwrapped, not remembering she had unwrapped it, and unwrapped it again. This continued for at least 4 more of her turns and every single time was like the very first time she had received that gift. We joked about how cheap she would be to shop for the next Christmas. We would buy her one gift and have someone sit behind her re-wrapping it every time for her next turn.

Alrighty then, see what I mean about "Sleep Blogging"? It is now midnight-thirty and I have rambled on so long that I doubt anyone will read this post just because of it's length. I mean honestly, who in this day and age has enough time to sit down and read a post about nothing for a good 5 - 10 minutes out of their day? And if they do I am sure they will be sorely disappointed that they are no better than they were before they started reading this. For those of you who are disappointed I just want to tell you that "People like you and you like people. You are a people person, and gosh darnit that's O.K.!" Thank you, and good night.

I just re-read this and there are a lot, and I mean A LOT, of run on sentences. But, I am too tired to fix them so I hope you got the gist.

Botanicle Gardens (Fun With Sepia)

Now Her Friends Are In On It

So the other day we were at a church social, and Keira was playing with her new best friend McCall. One of the ladies was walking around passing out little toys to the kids. Keira chose a rubber baseball and McCall chose a Feather Boa to wrap around her neck. Well, I was playing catch with Keira and McCall wanted to join in so she walked over and asked me to hold her feather boa. Of course I said yes, and not thinking I tossed it over my shoulder to keep playing. At this Keira exclaimed, "see my daddy is a girl."

Before I had a chance to stick up for myself, McCall stepped in and said, "No he isn't. He is a boy."

I told Keira, "see, I am a boy. McCall knows."

To which McCall replied, "But we can teach him how to be a girl." as she adjusted my feather boa around my neck.

I can't win, so maybe I will use this to my advantage. When ever she brings a new boy home I will definitely answer the door dressed in drag. Then we will see how long those boys will stick around.