Thursday, January 31, 2008

Make Daddy Worry Some More

We went to the doctor and for Daddy it was a rough visit. My son is now on an aerosol machine for the next couple of days everey 4 hours to clear up his lungs, along with some other medications to help with his ear infections and his lungs (which the doctor said he could have a touch of pneumonia in one of his lungs). He runs around the house like a crazy child with no cares in the world (as he should) and like he is hardly sick, but it is enough to take the energy right right out of you. One thing that was really fun was trying to explain and get my 3 year old to use the aerosol machine the first time. It was rough, he was scared and I don't blame him but it had to be done so he could start getting better. He had his second treatment before bed and it went a lot better. He kind of fell back a little this morning but before lunch it handled it like a champ and even said, "We do our medicine before bedtime to make me feel better." He is certainly a lot tougher than I think I would have been. I really am starting tto think maybe he was not as bad as it sounds because he has tons of energy and just wants to play. But that kind of visit is enough to make any parent worry.

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Does it happen to freak us out?

My son has had an ear infection for a bit and has been on some antibiotics for it, now he may have an ear infection in the other ear and has since developed a nice fever along with some splotchy skin. I know he is sick and we have an appointment at the doctor but does he really need to get the rash/splotching/spottiness to scare the crap out of me. Besides the fever and cough he is acting fine, he is eating and drinking fluids so I am not too worried about that. I am hoping and sure the rash/splotching/spottiness is just associated with whatever bug he has or the fever but why does it happen to freak me out. Hopefully the doctor will be able to keep me sane and convince me not to worry.

Monday, January 28, 2008

What a memory!

I know he is only three years old and has a shorter span to remember but my son seems to remember everything about anything. Granted it is only when he wants. For example, today we were playing and he starts asking about a toy that broke and mysteriously disappeared one night while he was sleeping. This went on almost all day. If he asks about the purple fishing rod again I think I may go crazy. This toy was given to him just over a year ago if I remember right and he played with it some and at some point it broke. That was traumatic enough but he got over it especially when we both looked for it for quite a while and couldn't find it. Well it all came back to him today and we had to look all over again although that didn't satisfy him, it took some major distracting powers to get him to stop asking, "Want to help Daddy fix the CD player?" Sure enough when it is something he can't have he is all over it. Hopefully the purple fishing rod drama has ended and he can move on.

Friday, January 25, 2008

Milestone

I had to share a milestone that just occurred. My son went to the potty all by himself. Didn't say or ask me for help, he just went and did it. From putting the potty seat on the toilet all the way to washing and drying his hands all by myself. We are so proud of him.

Pajama Day

Sometimes I wish I was in preschool. Today was Pajama Day, yes they wore their pajamas to school today. My son asked my wife if she was going to wear pajamas to work today, I guess if he gets to everyone should get to wear their pajamas. Today was by far the easiest of all days to get him ready for school as he loves to wear his pajamas. The only issue is if he would learn that when wearing pajamas means you must sleep through the night and for more than a half hour at nap time.

Today, he got his first ID card in a long line of ID cards in his life. He really doesn't understand it but I think it is pretty neat. I think he now needs a wallet with a window so he has something to show people when he is trying to get into the clubs. Naturally his came out better than any drivers license I have ever had.

Thursday, January 24, 2008

The Voices in my Head

Being a Dad I have to play many roles and have many voices for each of the different characters, like Buzz Lightyear, Woody, Teddy Bear, Spot, etc. In addition I need to play many roles as a polar bear, tiger, monkey, etc. I know some of you think that it is not a far stretch for some of the roles. The fact is though I have many different voices or at least I try to have many for all the different characters and roles, or at least I think they are different but they probably all sound the same. My son loves them and asks for me to be them all the time, the problem comes in when I forget who is who and do the wrong voice. It is easily correctable but nothing like your three-year-old telling you that you are wrong. The more recent issue is I sometimes think I hear these voices talking to me, either through the character, like Buzz, or even sometimes in my head. My hope is that I don't start carrying conversations on with them in public. Although sometimes after playing a character for a while and I forget that I was playing and carry on with it for a bit afterwards. So when you hear "To Infinity and Beyond!" in the next aisle at the store and see no child with me, don't be alarmed I'm just staying in character for the next adventure.

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

The Best Stories

My son tells the best stories. I should really record them and sell them a audio books. I would transcribe them but there are things that I don't even understand. Granted half of the time the story has no real point or even makes a lot of sense, but they are all great. He just starts talking or telling me about something and the twists and turns of his imagination are incredible. Just when I think I have a slight idea of what he is talking about the story takes a turn to a whole different subject but in the end it always come back to the what he first was talking about. Maybe he does this to toy with me as when he starts telling me a story I am a very good listener, mostly because I am trying to figure it out, but I think he gets a kick of my serious concentration on what he is saying. Today I heard a story about the seeds inside a pickle and how you have to "wooash" (best way I could type out the sound) them and then the seeds in the watermelon have to be "wooashed" to the strawberry and that is the seeds in pickles. If you know what that means please let me know.

Monday, January 21, 2008

Medicine, Mmmm Mmmm Good!

My son has had a cold and an ear infection from which he is finally recovering. The doctor prescribed him some medicine and he has no problem taking it, and I have actually used it as a bribe to get him to eat dinner, "If you want medicine, you have to eat dinner." Maybe I need to get some placebos in order to get him to eat all the time. I don't remember medicine tasting good at all, but it seems someone somewhere has found the magically taste to add to make it so yummy. Just for that I have been contemplating getting Children's medicines for myself and taking the adult doses of them and maybe I will be more receptive instead of making the medicine face the next time I take some NyQuil.

Friday, January 18, 2008

3 going on 13

My son is in preschool, enjoys every minute of it, but when it comes to asking him how school was today I get the simple response, "Don't talk about it." I guess he has some teenager habits already. Questions are just not allowed about what he did in school that day, the school sends home a weekly newsletter so we as parents know what is happening so I ask leading questions but to no avail. "No!" is the most received response when I ask anything about school, although if one of his stuffed animals asks he is all about talking about it or if he wants to stall before bedtime you can't shut him up. I have thought about putting a spy cam on him so I can see what he does during school because the stuff on the newsletter sounds like a lot of fun, some days I wish I could go. Well maybe someday he will tell me about his school days until then maybe I need to start giving him chores.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Is it too early for Santa?

My son this past Christmas really started to understand the concept of Santa. You ask him for something and if you are good he may bring it to you, and he got a few things he asked Santa to bring him. Well today he wanted to ask Santa for something, this doesn't surprise me but I found it very amusing. I told him we would have to wait for Santa to ask him, but that wasn't good enough for him. We now have a post note entitled "List for Santa" and we had to write down what he wanted, and not only did we have to write it down we also had to put a box around it. I can only assume that this means it is important, although he gave the specifics of the store and the location in the store of where it is at. Santa may have one big list to read by the time Christmas rolls around this December at this rate. The item he wanted was what surprised me the most, Arry and Bert (a.k.a. Iron'arry and Iron Bert) of Thomas and Friends. He loves his trains but why them I really didn't know since they are smelly diesels that don't like the steamies and this came out of the blue as there are many others he doesn't have. Now if I can only get him to understand he has to be good and that Santa always knows.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Inventing

My son likes to invent games. They are very simple games of which I seem to always break the rules. Today we played "Sliders" as it became to be called which is simply draping a blanket down the front of the coach and pushing coins or similar objects down them and I don't know if I did it right once. I believe the objective was to slide them down to the bottom of the blanket but I am not sure so I emailed Mattel and Parker Bros. for some rules on this. Then another newly invented game happened with the same coins and same blanket in a slightly different position. To my knowledge there is no title to this game yet but it has one exciting feature the other didn't, when you play correctly you get a crowd like noise saying "Yeah!" while hands are raised in triumph. The blanket was laid on the couch cushions and bunched up at one end and you sort of flicked/slid the coin towards the bunched up end. I managed to play this game correctly a few times and get the crowd noise. It was all very exciting and I think I may be ready for the pro tour.

I certainly enjoy watching his little mind at work as he invents new things all the time, and it makes me laugh with all his toys that we end up playing with a checkered flag (a little over $5), $0.55 in coins and a blanket (quilt) that was a gift to him.

Monday, January 14, 2008

The Meal Saga Continues...

I thought today we made good strides at mealtimes. Lunch he ate the sandwich and a couple of bowls of applesauce not complaining once. It was getting close to dinner time and I let him play while I was going to make his dinner and asked him, "What do you want for dinner?" Then I listed some choices, some he likes to eat when he does eat and the ones I was willing to make. I didn't get far into the choices when I mentioned a cheese sandwich (that is grilled cheese sandwich to most people over 3 years old), he says "I want cheese sandwich." I was stunned because it is usually a five minute process just to decide what to eat. Smiling, I head towards the kitchen ready to make that cheese sandwich when I hear this soft little voice, "I'm not going to eat it." From happiness to frustration in about 0.2 seconds, I turn and ask him if he is going to eat his cheese sandwich and he simply says, "No." So we go through the process to pick something out to eat all the while I am trying to hold my laughter in. It is hard to be frustrated too long when you get an unexpected response.

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Precious Words

This is a story from sometime within the past 3 years that still makes me laugh. When me son was born I made a true effort to speak with out using foul language (it isn't a problem, just the everyday things). Sometimes out of frustration, and without thinking I would occasionally say "Damn it!" More often than not in a quiet voice but it must have not been that quiet as my son quickly learned an exciting new phrase. He thought repeating it over and over was funny, meanwhile I realized my mistake and tried to correct him but tell him "Don't say that." I also explained why and that Daddy shouldn't have said it. That exchange only made things worse as the phrase that was being repeated quite often then was "Damn it, don't say that." All the while thinking "What have I done?!" and wishing I had one of those mind eraser things from the movie Men In Black. I learned that ignoring the behavior made it stop sooner, and then explained to him that he shouldn't say that and if he does again he will go to timeout. Things seemed to be better until he would drop something or break something and you would hear this softer toned little "Damn it!" If I could maintain and semblance of composure I would take him to time out and explain why he is there, but the first few times I had to leave the room as I couldn't hold in the laughter as my son, who was two at the time, was using the phrase in the proper context. The phrase is heard on very rare occasions at this point in time (rare being maybe once in six to eight months if that) but when it is used it is always used properly damn it.

Friday, January 11, 2008

The Simple Things

The simple things in life are what seems to keep my son happy. He has toys and his stuffed animals but the most entertaining thing to him at times seems to be the newspaper. Maybe he wants to read it, I even saw him looking at it once on the floor and asked what he was doing and he responded, "I'm checking something." The ironic part was he wasn't just on any page he was on the stock listings, maybe he has some money stashed away and that is how he pays for his take-out delivery in the middle of the night. I have even thought about letting him blindly pick a few and entering his portfolio in the local newspaper contest, maybe even put a few dollars on it as I think he knows something. In the end he mostly likes to play with them covering me up, laying them on the ground pretending they are railroad tracks, or trying to make a tent.

Yesterday he was most excited when we went to craft store to get some stuff to make a checkered flag. He likes to race (consists of taking a lap around the house) but he wanted a flag so we could wave it at the finish line. So for a paltry $5.67 +tax, we made a checkered flag and I didn't even have to figure out how to sew (fabric glue is a wonderful thing). I don't know how long the flag will keep his interest but the fact that something so simple can make him so happy is a lot of fun. Now if I could only keep up... "On your mark!"... "Get Set!"... "GO!"

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Why won't you finish a meal?

This is one thing that is mind boggling, Why won't my son finish a meal? He does on occasion finish a meal but for the most part he has to leave one part or piece on his plate, leave the room and then proclaim he needs a snack. This even goes on when it is food that would be considered his favorites, i.e. Peanut butter and Jelly, Wendy's, or cheese. I thought at first maybe he is saving it for later, but to this day he has yet to come back and finish any meal that is left behind. Yes he snacks some between meals but we do not over do it and I try to set limits on when he will get a snack for the sake of meal times. Maybe the answer is to just start calling all meals snacks and call snacks meals. He is not old enough yet to understand the comment, "There are starving kids in the world that would love to eat that." For being a little over 3 years old and just over 41 inches tall you would think he would eat anything he gets his hands on, maybe he gets take-out delivered when we are sleeping as evidence will show there is a lot of stink when he calls out those words that wake us up in the morning.

TIP: I have found using an ordinary pizza cutter works wonders for cutting all types of sanwiches for kids into small squares or triangles, and even trimming the crust. The sandwich doesn't get smushed or torn into bits while trying to use a knife, plus it is very quick.

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

A Little Backgorund

A little background about me becoming a stay-at-home-dad.

When my wife and I decided to have children (or at least a child) we both liked the idea of one of us staying at home to raise our kid(s). I took the position and now love every minute of it. Although it was tough at first because you get used to working and bringing home a paycheck and then you make that change. Until my son was born, I had not changed one diaper in my life. It was scary and surreal all at the same time. The biggest part of it all was learning and figuring out what to do. Thankfully my wife was home for a bit before going back to work so it was a shared process. Then the daunting day of my wife returning to work and being left alone with this tiny little man. (Tiny meaning baby because he tends to want to be as tall as he can be.) Worried about every little thing and trying to make sure he was getting everything he needed. Even though this is the beginning, this is the best job ever even on the tough days.