2013 and 40 or 41

No, this isn't some unintelligible Chicago song. It's 2013, I'm 40 and am going to be 41 soon. I would have thought that once you hit 40, 41 isn't so bad. Truth is, I'm a little freaked. 41. That's like one more than 40. One year. One entire year. Joy woke  up this morning saying "bobby" or something that sounded like it. Over and over again, bobby; bobby; bobby... It could have been some sort of pronunciation of "baby" or hell even "daddy". We were working on "ball" the other day; it could have been that too. "Book" seems to have returned to the murky depths of her mind for now. We haven't seen it in awhile. She is still all about "hi" and "wow" though. She's learning to sign, or at least imitate. We give her the sign for "hungry" which is a motion like you're putting a raisin or something small in your mouth and we say "do you want to eat?". She nods her head, makes the sign right back at us and we go eat. I was so proud of her (and myself if I'm honest) the day she did that. I thought I was getting through. I thought my little girl was learning to communicate. It turns out imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. I'm not certain if she has associated any signs or words with eating, or any indications meaning "yes" or "no". My wife asked her the other day if she had twin dragons. She of course smiled and nodded. For the record, she does not indeed have any dragons, twins or otherwise.

I am still proud of my little peanut. She is learning more and more every day. I am saying "no - no" more and more every day too. Coincidence? I don't know. If I'm telling her no more often that means she is exploring more often. Reaching for previously unattainable goals; straining at invisible chains (I stole a Rush lyric there). Her papa has been raging at unreachable glory (sorry did it again) recently too. Except that the glory I'm raging towards is apparently reachable. The whole weight thing. Yeah here we go again, right? Well maybe this time there will be a durable success, time will tell. I've been down this road so many times I've even jaded myself. As of this morning I've dropped 30 pounds off my frame. I'm kind of bursting about my reduced bursting. I'm using a revolutionary, not-sold-in-stores, scientific method called ...  (Ready?) Put The Fork Down and Get In The Gym. Also a little help with my doctor in the form of an appetite suppressant and a sleep aid. So I'm cheating a little. I don't care, I'm weighing less. It's is also total loss across the holiday season too, so I'm proud of that. So there, we all have something to be proud about. I'm getting closer to re-taking a test I failed this summer too. That's going to be a stark reality soon, one that I will not be able to put off, and face. The problem with setting goals is that sometimes you achieve them. So, so far, we are starting the year off right. Pretty soon Joys little babbles will be words I can understand, I will have attained my tecky-geeky goal, and wouldn't it be nice to drop another 30 by summer? Maybe then when my brother comes out to ride dirt bikes with me, I'll stand a chance of keeping up with him. Life is good.