Thursday was “Bring Your Child to Work Day”. This is the first year that I’ve been able to participate father-wise. The past years, I’ve participated on behalf of the company with our laptop teardowns. This year, they didn’t plan anything truly special which, I think, is kind of sad. Overall, the kids though that was the best thing, taking apart laptops. Something mom and dad would be fearful of them doing to their own equipment. Alas, there was nothing special planned. I brought Jacob with me in the morning and he spent the entire day, helping me out and asking questions about what I do all day.

The day was good. Jake thought it was cool that he got his own visitor badge at the security desk when we came in. We went up to my cubicle and he was introduced to my coworkers. After taking part of my morning ritual of hot cocoa and daily origami, we set out via the gerbil tubes into the campus to work on a ticket. Jake did seem interested in what I was doing when I talked with our customers and I explained to him how we could fix the problem at hand. Afterwards, we went up to the hardware team’s area and my ex-team lead gave him a personal laptop teardown session. I had forgotten the camera at my desk or else I would have a picture of that. Well, tarter sauce.

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Bowling (IRL)

As a special treat, we took the kids to the bowling alley on Tuesday. Obviously, Wii Bowling is a lot different than real life bowling. Even so, the boys seemed to bowl better than usual. Jake’s working on rolling it with one arm. Ben seems to be enjoying putting some finesse on his rolls. Abi just walks up and drops the ball. Usually I hope that it won’t stop in the middle of the lane and we’d have to call the front desk to assist. Jake had a commanding lead but I took the win at the last frame by just a hair. Final scores were:

1. Adam: 107
2. Jake: 101
3. Ben: 75
4. Mandy: 62
5. Abi: 48

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After nearly a week of waiting, Abigail had her fourth birthday party today. This morning, we started on her cake. Not just a cake. A pink cake. A pink strawberry cake with pink strawberry frosting! I even carved it into a heart shape for her. I’m no Duff Goldman but it looked pretty good to me. It was pretty delicious, too, and I think that’s what matters. Abi’s day started off with my parents taking her and her big brothers out shopping this afternoon while Mandy and I finished cleaning and setting up for the party. She had a great day. Even after “partying” last weekend with Christmas, she wasn’t burnt out on presents. Even though her birthday is right before Christmas Day, she deserves to have a seperate day for her birthday like her brothers. It’s only fair, you know.

Anyway, I think she definitely likes her birthday presents. She got an outfit and some pajamas from my parents, a Barbie cake playset from a friend, a Barbie phone from us, and a little purse from Nana. Not just any purse, but a Vera Bradley. My preschooler has a designer purse. It’s a cute purse and that’s all she really cares about. She should also love the phone we got her. Its software lets you enter your child’s name, her best friend, siblings, birthdays, favorite foods, pets, etc… It’s personalized just for her and it will even call her at pre-scheduled times of the day. I like those kind of toys that help encourage children to use their imagination. Not that Abi needs help in that department. She amazes me with what she comes up with sometimes. Well, here’s to hoping she doesn’t grow up to be 5 so soon.