Okay, I think, what does she see? I walk over to see what she’s pointing at. Canadian Geese. She’s pointing at a gaggle of Canadian Geese outside.

“No, Sweetie, those are geese. They’re worse than dragons.”

“Baby dragons!” she exclaimed.

“Well, remember, even baby dragons can spit acid and fire.”

Dad’s job is to train her for battle. Even with dragons and geese.

So let’s keep this secret. Don’t tell anyone. Just go.

Guys. The Zoo was amazing when it was super cold and no one was there. #stlzoo #sealion #lottiemeara

A video posted by James Finley (@thefinley) on Jan 9, 2017 at 7:17am PST

Guys. The Zoo was amazing when it was super cold and no one was there. #stlzoo #lemur #nofilter

A photo posted by James Finley (@thefinley) on Jan 9, 2017 at 7:17am PST

Guys. The Zoo was amazing when it was super cold and no one was there. #stlzoo #polarbear

A video posted by James Finley (@thefinley) on Jan 9, 2017 at 7:15am PST

Great day to go to the Zoo and hang out inside. Primate, Bird, and Reptile Houses! Now onto the penguins and polar bear!

A photo posted by James Finley (@thefinley) on Jan 7, 2017 at 10:51am PST

She’s one. Good Lord.

Three months ago my family moved to the St. Louis area. It’s where I grew up, but new to Nikki. When we got here, Lottie was taking maybe a dozen steps before face-planting. Part of this was because our old apartment was super small. A dozen steps is about the most she had available to her. Our new place is twice as large (at some $400/month less) and has provided her room to stretch. Within a couple weeks she was walking with high proficiency and within a month she was running.

Since birth we have made her food. Tossing fruit and veggies in the blender and whatnot. Now she eats what we have. Burgers, fries, chicken, tacos, pasta, you name it, she eats it. It‘s rather adorable seeing her chow down on a burger, baby bite after baby bite.

And she has phrases. Not so much words. There’s the occasional ball that she calls “puppy” and the exuberant “DADDY!” when I get home from work, but she utters whole phrases in the proper context very frequently. “Imgongetyou!” or this weekend’s “guyswhereareyou?” But even when she’s unintelligible, she’s jabbering almost nonstop.

She dances to music with this adorable arms-crossed-body-twist move, a bobble-head dance move, or just stopping her feet in place. She’s loved music since birth, taking time many mornings to listen to records with me as I worked. We went to a fall festival at a local church last week and there was a hip-hop artist singing and Lottie ran up to the stage and started dancing with this adorable head bob.

The stories go on and all I can hear is David Tennant saying “Don’t blink.”

5th generation, 8gb, iPod nano

Mophie Battery Case for iPhone 5/5s

Acer 23", 1920x1080 LCD Monitor

If you are interested in any of these items, go place a bid on eBay. Thanks!

Been teasing Nikki all week about making sushi this weekend. Well, I made sushi this weekend. BBQ Bacon Sushi.

Each roll is made of 6 pieces of bacon laid out as a sheet on which a thin layer of ground beef (a quarter pound) is laid down. For us, we mixed some BBQ rub into the meat. Two mozzarella string cheese sticks are then put at the edge and used to roll the meat over tightly. BBQ sauce is spread over the roll after placing it on a cookie sheet. We made 4 of these rolls. Toss ’em in the oven for 40 minutes on 400°.

A roll was more than enough for each of us and they tasted great. Certainly a do again meal.

This meal is based off a recipe from Cook With Meat. Check out their recipe too.

For Valentine’s Day, the Finley family took adventage of Shedd Aquarium’s free days for Illinois residents and checked out the fish with Charlotte.

We got to the Shedd around 11 and before long had to grab food. Charlotte loves her food. And taking selfies. Always trying to grab a phone. “My turn!”

Heading from lunch into the coral reef, we saw lots of colorful fish, sea horses, and starfish.

All in all, it was a great day out. Charlotte’s eyes were opened wide. She hasn’t had the chance to see many animals, beside her loyal friend Toby. A zoo is next on our list.

Since birth, she has gained 10 pounds (now 18 pounds), 6 inches in length, and lots of personality.

Oh, and we did a swim class last month. She went underwater, paddled around, and didn’t cry once. I dare think that she enjoyed it.

She should be crawling any day now.

Six months is crazy.

By the way. Two weeks ago I launched a new personal blog called I Am Finley. Check it out and subscribe for posts on tech, politics, faith, and more.

I discovered this band a few years back at the Story Conference in Chicago and brought them back to my wife (fiancée at the time). Very refreshing “worship”/folk group. Well, with me getting my turntable and dropping Spotify, I realized that I hadn’t bought any of their music. Well, we went looking online to see if they had any of their music on vinyl and sure enough, ChristianBook.com has their latest album on vinyl.

So as Nikki has napped off a gnarly stomach bug this evening — say a prayer for her —, I’ve been spinning their record, writing, and designing. If you don’t have this album yet, get it. Plus the vinyl on ChristianBook.com is only $12.99 right now. It’s a steal and comes with the digital download.

“We reaffirm our steadfast commitment to protecting a woman’s access to safe, affordable health care and her constitutional right to privacy, including the right to reproductive freedom. [...] Because this is a country where everyone deserves the same freedom and opportunities to fulfill their dreams.”

First: our president doesn't support our constitutional right to privacy one bit. Second: how are we a "country where everyone deserves the same freedom and opportunities to fulfill their dreams" when we have legalized, praised, and endorsed the murder of 55 million American children in the last 40 years?

My brother and myself were blessed by our birth mother choosing to put us up for adoption 28 years ago, but many women are lied to and told that their children aren't children, they aren't living. Many women are lied to and told that their children will have Down's Syndrome and that the best choice is murder, that letting that child LIVE is the worst choice!

Find an adopted kid today and tell them that they should have been aborted. Grab a kid with Down's Syndrome and tell them they don't have the right to LIFE, LIBERTY, and the pursuit of HAPPINESS. Come on. Be consistent. Vote for the rounding up of all retarded kids, all autistic kids, all kids with Aspergers, have them put in rooms, told that they are gonna get a shower before returning home, and then turn on the gas!

Are you convulsing right now? Do you want me to stop? Hitler started with the mentally ill. He convinced the people that they were less than human. He hid the process from the Germans. Only the “privileged” knew what happened in those camps. It was better that way. But then he turned against a larger people group. Did the same thing: convinced the people that the Jews were less than human. In 10 years, he killed 6 million. In 40 years, we've killed 55 million.

67% of all children that are diagnosed as Down's Syndrome are aborted in the US, 92% in the UK and Europe. But instead of waiting until they are a burden on the government and society, we rip them limb from limb out of what should be the safest place for a baby: it's mother's womb.

You cannot hold this double standard to be true.

If Hitler committed genocide, so have we.

If Hitler was evil: what are we?

http://www.usatoday.com/story/theoval/2014/01/22/obama-roe-vs-wade-anniversary-supreme-court/4773063/

6 years later and the Tab Bar Controller still provides the best UX period.

— Hosam Hassan (@Objective_Neo) January 20, 2015

Tab bars. Good Lord do I miss tab bars. The hamburger has run it’s course. Facebook, Path, and many others have abandoned it. Why? Because all stats show that the tab bar is so much easier for the user. Because a slide out menu is without restriction, leading to Facebook having an endless list of options I don’t use and Path shoving notifications into it. A tab bar is restricted to 4-5 menu items. Want more? Apple offers a “More” option that allows the user to customize their tab bar to their liking. Me? I have Radio, Artists, Albums, and Playlists. This is how I access my music.

Also, I love how simple the design is. I have to say, I enjoy vanilla design. I do. There’s something to be said about straightforward, almost under-designed apps. The operating system sets forth a standard design style and the apps stick to it within 5-10%.

What does the Music app do that steps outside Apple’s standard? The Radio view is not a simple table.

And from the Player view, the track list is a really slick view utilizing the new blur effects really well.

But more than anything, I’m falling in love with music again. As I said last week, I moved away from Spotify because of the cost and because I wanted to own my music again. For Christmas I got a turntable and a couple of records. I only have a few records, which means that I’m playing the same thing with higher frequency. I’m getting to really listen to music. The intricacies of it. I’m getting to memorize lyrics again. And because my most frequently played records (Needtobreathe’s Rivers in the Wasteland and The Civil Wars’ self-titled album) came with digital downloads— which are synced to my phone with Match— I get to bring that music with me too, along with 400 other albums that I’ve purchased over the last decade.

To take advantage of new features in the Ghost platform, I have now implemented tag pages and featured posts. Featured posts appear in the blue on the homepage. Also, an easy access link is available to get to pictures of Charlotte. Grandparents and family, this is for you.

More things will be coming soon as well. Not to mention more articles.

A dozen albums means I've only gained some $100 in music and ripped off the other artists that I’ve played a few times.

Ripped off? The average artist makes less than a cent per stream on Spotify. Demon Hunter has seen a lot of my money, but artists that I’ve only played once or twice has seen next to nothing. I’ve gotten more value than I’ve given to them. When you buy an album in iTunes, the artist sees between 10 and 50% of the money. You’d have to stream a song some 30 times to pay the artist as much as the purchase in iTunes would pay them.

And then there is the value you perceive in the music you play. In the last 3 years I’ve played a lot of music. But because it hasn’t cost me a visible price tag, it is of little value to me. If I play an album once or 10 times it makes no difference. But the work of an artist holds value. They make their music because they enjoy it, sure, but they also do it to pay the bills.

So what does this mean? Well, I’m moving back into buying music. My wife got me a record player for Christmas. It was on my list. A lot of my friends are shocked at how analog it is for me. But that’s kind of the point. And so with it I got 2 new albums, though one hasn’t arrived yet. Most new release records come with digital downloads, for those of you not in the know. And then I bought the newest The Civil Wars album and a couple of Elvis albums. So far I have 5 or 6 records. So I sit at my desk in the evening and throw a record on. It’s rather nice.

But what about when I’m out and about. Well, I own a ton of music on iTunes. From 2004–2011 I purchased music through iTunes. Apple has a program called iTunes Match that will go through your music and find anything not bought through iTunes and upgrade the files to a better quality and keep them in iCloud. So those new records of mine? Yeah, I just import them into my library and iTunes Match will make them available for streaming on my iPhone and iPad. For $25/year.

So I’ll be moving over to iTunes again over the next month and cutting Spotify. This’ll save me $95/year in reoccuring cost and allow me to buy music that I value enough to buy.

Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”

Pilate said to him, “What is truth?”

Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice. Truth is not relative. It either is truth or not. Two contradictory things cannot be equally true. Either Jesus is King to all for King to none. Do you listen? Do you know what truth is?

Well, we passed out soon after Charlotte did last night. Around 10. Yeah, parenting is tough. Even tougher is the resurgence of my shoulder pain and Charlotte and I catching a cold. Yup, Charlotte was sick for her first Christmas. But she kept smiling that rediculous smile.

So it’s a new year, is it? So this is when we make big, bold resolutions, right? I don’t like to do resolutions. Not really my thing. We have some loose goals. That we’ll do.

Lottie wants to chase Toby. And her new Sphero. If you have an infant, a toddler, full-blown kid, or teen, the Sphero is awesome. By the way. This article isn’t sponsored. But if you work for Sphero…

Me, I want to launch two apps this year. One is Bitsy Log. The other is yet to be announced, but I think you’ll like it. It’s something different for me and is requiring me to learn a bunch of stuff. Certainly something to watch for.

Nikki wants to do more with Charlotte. Stroller classes, swimming classes, and more awesome mommy stuff. Because she is an awesome mommy. And 2015 might be the year that we upgrade our living situation. Our one bed, one bath is getting a bit tight and might get smaller once Charlotte starts to toddle.

Oh, and Charlotte is 5 months next week. We missed the 4 month article, due to early December craziness. So what is the little Char doing? Scooting and consequtive rolls with the purpose of reaching a destination. I never thought of rolling to where I want to be. But she did. And now we are watching her. Non-stop. And last week, on the day after Christmas, she got to her knees. To reach for Sphero. Nothing had encouraged her to get to her knees. Until we got Sphero.

And the faint laugh we thought we heard two months ago? Yup, she now giggles more regularly. In fact, when she got Violet on Christmas day— thanks Mom— she giggled when it starting speaking to her. The whole room stopped to look. Yeah, her giggle stops the world just like her smile. Dad will soon be getting his concealed gun license.

So Merry Christmas to you and yours. And Happy New Year. We have a baby now, so this year is gonna be super exciting an awesome. Love you all. Peace!