For the first time in the history of the Missouri Football program they are playing for the chance to be the Number # 1 football program in the country against our fiercest rivals – The Kansas Jayhawks. In a nationally televised game no less.

You might ask what does this have to do with Li Li? It’s very simple really Li Li is already showing the proper allegiance.

She’ll be in bed for tonight’s game but I’m already teaching her the songs she needs to know.

HOORAY, HURRAH, MIZZOU, MIZZOU!
HOORAY, HURRAH, MIZZOU, MIZZOU!
HOORAY, HURRAH, AND A BULLY FOR OLD MIZZOU,
RAH! RAH! RAH! RAH!
MIZZOU-RAH! MIZZOU-RAH! MIZZOU-RAH, TIGERS!

“FIGHT TIGER”

Fight, Tiger, fight for old Mizzou,
Right behind you, everyone is with you.
Break the line and follow down the field,
And, you’ll be, on the top, upon the top.
Fight, Tiger, you will always win,
Proudly keep the colors flying skyward.
In the end, we’ll win the victory,
So Tiger, fight for Old Mizzou!

20 years ago when I started at Mizzou it was the dark ages for Missouri football. Some seasons the only team we could reliably beat was Kansas. Going to the game was mostly about hanging out with friends instead of watching quality football. Instead of the current high performance spread offense Missouri’s strategy then mostly involved two plays repeated as needed – up the middle, up the middle, up the middle, Punt!!!

Hopefully Missouri will seize the opportunity and play beyond their potential tonight. But regardless of what happens Mizzou will have had a very successful season and I’ll sing Li Li the alma mater as I put her to bed tonight.

Recently on a beautiful Friday afternoon we all snuck out of the house a bit early and went to the beach complete with buckets and shovels, cameras and dogs in tow. Li Li wasn’t too sure about the water which was a little chilly but she liked playing in the sand with her shovel. A good time was had by all especially the dogs who relished the opportunity to frolic in the salt water.

One of the reasons we brought the camera (like I need a reason to bring a camera) was because we recently realized we have almost no pictures of Li Li with me except from our time in China. This realization came recenty because this summer when Catherine went on her annual sailing trip she printed out a picture of her with Li Li and pasted it on the wall next to the changing table so Li Li could see it. Two months later it’s still there and Li Li likes to touch it, especially in the morning. Since I’m gone during the week so much, I thought maybe we could post one of me and Li Li together as well. But we really couldn’t find one, so we decided to take one.

I think it came out fairly decent since I’m usually the one behind the camera. Li Li is as cute as ever.

The other picture I’ll post is a picture of Li Li with our next door neighbor Margaret. Margaret’s husband Peter has a lush and productive raspberry patch from which Li Li must consume a half-pint of rasberries every day. Peter picks them for her and Li Li smiles and smiles as she gobbles them down at light speed. Margaret is a big fan of Li Li and greatly enjoys her Li Li time especially when Li Li is in happy mood.

Well that’s enough for now. My flight will be boarding soon after another 3 hour weather delay. We’ll keep trying to post some of our recent pictures. -t

If anyone out there still checks our blog with any regularity I apologize for the long delay between posts. Life Happens. This whole parenting, working, student thing is much harder than it looks. Of course Li Li makes it all worthwhile. Picture taking has slowed but not because she’s any less cute. I’ve been traveling for work a lot lately and school has gotten very busy, so while Li Li is going to the beach with Catherine, I’m sitting in an airport in LA – no not the city with the movie stars but the state with the gambling riverboats. Shreveport, LA is trying to leverage riverboat gambling into a prosperous future, I’ll let someone else be the judge of its success – but it makes for a strange downtown with all the life at the fringes of the city center leaving a hollow center of parking lots and for rent signs.

Li Li wearing a Boston Red Sox hat in Bar Harbor.

It has been one tough summer for travel. Every single flight I’ve been one for the last three months has been full and I’ve yet to arrive on time. Not a single flight, nada, zip, zilch. Between weather, mechanical delays, crew expirations (sounds ominous doesn’t it) and my favorite ATC holds – I’ve spent time in some of the finest airports east of the Rockies. DFW, BWI, BOS, DCA, PIT, PHL, HOU and good old PVD

Li Li at the beach during with her weekly play group.

Back to Li Li. I know she’s the real reason you come here. She’s doing great. We’ve been home a little over 5 months now and it’s amazing how far she has come in that time. When we first arrived home she couldn’t sit up without falling over in one direction or another. Now she starts her morning by doing face plants in the crib – on purpose. Recently I come into her home in the morning and she gets up on her knees, and jumps/falls straight forward with her arms spread wide giggling the whole time. After she lands she rolls over, goes back to a corner and does it all over again. In fact this morning she did it for about 5-10 minutes. I just stared at her and laughed right along with her.

Of course she may have been doing this for a while now but I wouldn’t have known it. Between being gone 3-4 days a weeks and late nights working on school Catherine’s been getting her in the mornings and letting my sleep in. Some of that’s because I can’t hear Li Li over the fans when I’m sleeping and some its because Catherine was being nice and letting me sleep in. Which brings us back to why I was able to witness my daughter tryouts for WWE Raw. Catherine is on her annual sailing trip in the North Channel north of Lake Huron. So I’ve had a very small taste of single parenthood and it’s hard work.

Catherine gets that taste pretty much every single week and I’ve had a lot of help and it’s only been few days. Between grandparents driving over, or flying in from North Carolina, neighbors babysitting and even coming over to the house to watch Li Li while I dash to the store for milk, I’ve had a lot of support. Of course my first taste of solo parenting happened to coincide with two weeks of exams for school so I’ve been trying to cram 10 weeks worth of Data Analysis and statistics into my little bitty brain with little success. I finally took one exam on Sunday we’ll see how I did and the other exam is group exam and I’ll spend Saturday on Campus in conference room turning that one in. Last weekend Jim and Ann (Catherine’s parents) took Li Li for the day on Sunday, this weekend Susan (my mom) will have Li Li for the day.

Unfortunately long after Catherine agreed to go on the trip, a big meeting was scheduled at work so Li Li is spending a few days at Jim and Ann’s while I get to visit SFO and SJC for a few days and sit in meetings. I’ll be taking the redeye home Thursday night just to get home a little sooner.

Catherine gets home on Sunday and we leave for a week’s vacation in Montana. No promises but we really will try to post something at least once every week or two.

Well, I have not blogged since returning from China. LiLi is blossoming more and more every day. She has learned to combat crawl and sometime to crawl on all fours, pull to a stand, cruise on furniture and is beginning to let go when standing and seeing how long she can stand without support. It is so much fun to watch her. She is also babbling up a storm and repeating sounds although no specific words as of yet.

I have been meaning to make this blog entry since April as a thank you to Aunt Brett for all the creations she has made for us. Actually, I have called her on numerous occassions with ideas and the response has been quick. LiLi needed some hair clips and then we had them in a couple of days. Of course, all she does now is let you put them in her hair and then she immediately pullls them out again(along with some hair) and smilingly hands it back to you. I do not have the attention span to keep putting them back into her hair so most of the time she is not wearing a clip. Many of Aunt Brett’s other creations, we use often and even daily like her quilt and her diaper bag or wear frequently like the onsies with the frog and the turtle and the shirt with the pear. Therefore, as a thank you to her Aunt, we took LiLi and all of her Aunt Brett’s creations and took some pictures of her with them. Aunt Brett’s website is the lime llama link.

Thank you Aunt Brett!!!!