Sunday, December 26, 2010

Buying Presents

The Boy had a Santa's Workshop Day at school where they could buy presents for family and friends. I sent in a list with who to buy, how much to spend on each and money. The list contained Daddy $5, AGW $5, and the Girl $3. Being a kindergartener they had help from some fourth graders while shopping. Daddy got a Michigan Ornament. The Girl got a Michigan key chain, a six year old and a fourth grader must have a hard time on trying to buy a gift for a 2 year old at a craft type sale. My AGW got an ornament that said "#1 Mom", probably the best of the three.

The story gets much better from here. The day of Santa's Workshop he told me when I picked him up from school that he had saved some money and bought something for himself. I thought that was pretty good and couldn't wait to see our gifts but really wanted to see what he bought for himself. So with his $13 that he was given for the sale he purchased all the above and later I found out he spent $6 on himself. The Boy didn't get just any gift for himself he got a piece of Coprolite! So we each got a nice present from the Boy and he spent $6 on dinosaur poop.

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Has Santa Ever Not Delivered?

As school has been out and both kids have been home driving me batty, I wonder if the threat of calling Santa is really worth it. Has Santa ever not brought presents because of a bad child? Would Santa really skip our house? As I threaten my children with these thoughts of Santa not coming I wonder how far they would have to go to make Santa not come. Would they really know if Santa didn't give them that special present or if Santa didn't deliver half of the presents. I can make the Boy freak out by grabbing the phone and saying "I'm calling Santa!" The follow-up thought is if I really did call Santa and Santa didn't bring any presents what would be the fallout? Beyond the distraught children and then stressed parents would they get the message of behaving or would they just be worse?

I would not do this to my children as they are great kids and they are that - KIDS. I am sure Santa will make it to our house.

Anyone that hasn't seen this http://www.portablenorthpole.tv/home Should really check it out. Our kids were responding with head shakes, yes's and smiles when they saw their video messages, it even rang true with the Girl who is 2 1/2. For the Boy who is 6 they even showed Santa's path to our city which was pretty Nick and he got a great appreciation out of that, plus he saw Santa had photos of him from the year and was a little surprised Santa was watching that closely. Too bad Santa didn't use the Photo I posted a few days ago of the kids with the train.

We will soon put out our reindeer food and wait for the jolly old man to visit. Merry Christmas.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

My Last Day of the Little Sanity I Still Have

The last day of school for the Boy is today and I write with what little sanity I have with just the Girl at home. My kids are great and I love them very much but trying to balance out the entertainment of the perpetual motion 6 year old with demanding two year old is a constant challenge. I always hear of stories of kids that fall asleep eating, watching a movie, playing with toys, or even on the potty, but that is not my kids style. The only reason my kids go to bed is because I make them. I believe the Boy could power my house if I could keep him on the hamster wheel long enough and the Girl would be right there waiting her turn as she wants to be just like her big brother. The girl does eventually tire but getting her to bed sometimes is a challenge, whereas the Boy will fight to the end to stay up. So tomorrow morning get the coffee on and the placek ready as I will need all I can have to maintain a sound mind before Christmas with all the excitement.

Sunday, December 19, 2010

"She's Ruining My Life!"

Today we got the Boy's Polar Express down and set it up around the Christmas Tree. This has become an annual event since Santa brought it a few years ago. You may remember this scene from the Girl's first experience with the Polar Express:

Since this time the Girl has come to love trains as she wants to be like Big Brother. We finally got the Polar Express out of his room and put it around the tree which was very exciting for everyone. The girl wanted to constantly play with the train which was OK but then she started bumping pieces and knocked one over. The Boy with the a nice groan exclaimed, "She's ruining my life!" It is always nice to be int he other room to be able to snicker when overhearing these comments.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Sleeping Sideways

The Girl for some time now has slept sideways. She refuses to lay in her crib with the length of her body along the length of her crib. She will turn and sleep sideways so her feet and legs stick out the side. We have tried a few things and want to start moving her into a bed but to no avail she is still sideways. Whenever we lay her down she immediately scoots her body around so she is scrunched in the length of her crib. We moved her crib 90 degrees to try to see if that worked but she just freaked out and cried at us. Once she was have a nightmare and my AGW brought her into bed but she didn't sleep, she insisted on laying sideways and practicing her kick boxing on my head. My AGW even introduced a pillow and told her she can sleep like the Boy (she always wants to belike her big brother), she liked that but as soon as we left the room she would turn sideways. Last night I went up to say goodnight as I got home right after she went to bed and when I walked in she was sideways but had a look on her face like "Oh Shit!" She just got caught and didn't move an inch or even want up as she usually does when someone goes in there. So I guess we will get her a square bed and then she won't know which way to lay.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Self Checkout

The Girl and I find one thing rather annoying, when people who can literally carry all their grocery items in their hands/arms clog up the regular check out lines instead of using the U-Scan (or self-checkout). The Girl gets particularly annoyed as she likes to ride int he carts with the cars on the front but only for so long, especially if we are not moving. As her patience was wearing thin I am trying to keep her calm but as the longer we had to wait the louder she got. The wait might not have been so bad except for the fact that the first person with an armful of stuff thought it would be a fantastic idea to have an at length discussion with the cashier while we all waited. I thought about channeling one of friends who may have handled the situation much differently, but I kept my composure as much as I could and kept asking the Girl to be patient. As the Girl got louder I did as well in asking her to be patient. The amazing part is the lady never got the hint and the other person with an armful of stuff was getting annoyed by both the first lady and the Girl (and probably me as well). I believe the cashier noticed we were a little peeved as she asked the person in front of me and the person behind me how their day was but didn't ask me, and I believe she was frustrated with my $15 worth of coupons that I handed her. At least this time I didn't have to take the pacifier away to make my child cry to get the person done checking out out of the way.

Friday, December 10, 2010

Shall We Dance?

Sometimes it is the little things that make it all better. Let me start on yesterday. The fun began as the Girl got up from her nap in a bad mood which I made worse by having to change her diaper, put on shoes and sock to go pick up the Boy from school. Once I got the diaper off she didn't want a new one on, and she certainly didn't want to wear pants. It was a good fight to get pants on and keep them on her. Then as I was struggling getting hit, kicked and scratched I had to get the socks and shoes on. I would have skipped this but it is cold out and we don't need those little piggies getting cold. After a good fight I finally got the socks and shoes on and I am ready to throw in the towel, but next is the jacket and it has already been about 12 minutes. The girl has the ability to put her arms straight up and become super slippery and slide right out of most holds so the jacket was a challenge as well. Another 3 or 4 minutes and finally got the jacket on and next is getting her strapped int he car seat, not as difficult as expected as I believe she used up all her energy fighting the pants and shoes. Granted now she was ticked off and wouldn't look at me or talk to me which was alright a bit of quiet time. We pick up the boy and head to Walmart to pick up a filter for a cool mist humidifier and realize when I get there that my wallet is sitting as home so we go back home. Besides some minor bumps int he road everything is going alright until my AGW gets home and I need to g o back to Walmart this time with my wallet only to arrive and find that are out of the filter I need. I was very close to clearing off that shelf in frustration. Get home and final eat some dinner and have an adult kool-aid.

Finally the next day, this certainly has to go better. First off the Girl decides to wake at 6 am, a little early. Then I find out school for the Boy is delayed 2 hours. If you know the Boy you know why this is not a good thing - lots of energy. So we work on his letter book and are on the letter 'F' - the vocabulary in my head was certainly not kindergarten appropriate at this point. He did a great job and got it done. Then the Girl gets her princess dress on, brings a toy that plays music, holds out her hands and says "Dance?" Made it all just wash away.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Why is going to the potty so hard?

I ask the question because the Boy knows how to use the bathroom and does a good job except when his body is telling him it is time to go. I realize sometimes excitement gets the better of kids but he can just is determined not to go sometimes and it gets to be issue when we are going to be in the car for a bit or going to bed. Last night for example as he was asleep he needed to go so I got up and got him to the bathroom as I didn't want to change his whole bed. Then later in t he night he had to get up and drop a few friends off at the pond. I don't really get why he just won't go as it not only makes it hard for us to sleep and makes him tired and grumpy in the morning. My favorite is "I don't have to go!" and then it sounds like Niagara Falls as he is crying saying he doesn't have to go. Independence is important to kids but our house would be much calmer if he would listen to his body as he gets more and more crazy the longer he waits. I just don't get it.

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Santa's Cameras

As the Boy gets older he gets a little more inquisitive along the way. We always talk about how Santa is always watching. Lately he has been talking about Santa using cameras all around to watch him. When he sees Christmas decorations, especially Santa Claus ones, he wants to know what each of them is made of so he can try to debunk the whole Santa camera theory. The other day he saw a large Santa outside of a building and asked if it was made of concrete, as I answered yes because I didn't see it he told me there were no cameras in it because you can't put cameras in concrete. There is also a big blow up Santa around our area (apprx. 20-30 feet tall) and he also says there are not any cameras there as they would blow away. I don't know if he is trying to disprove Santa or he is just being very vigilant so he is on the "Nice" list. I have been thinking of make some little tubes with lenses and putting some kind of Santa designation on them so he may find one and see that Santa is watching.

He has also been talking about a the "Elf on the Shelf," we do not have one but a girl in his class has been telling him about it. So that may have to come in to play as well. This is fun as last night my AGW and I watched "Christmas Story."

And recently he has had a few hockey games, so much so that he has got a blister on his foot. Here is a picture of him clearing the puck.

Friday, December 3, 2010

She is Cute Sometimes Too

Sometimes the Girl is cute and not throwing a tantrum (which seems rare at times). Today she wanted to go to school just like her big brother. So in getting ready she got a bag and put her princesses in it and was absolutely serious in taking it along. I had to go into the school today as I had to take something into the office so we walked the Boy to his room. We went in his room and she proceeded to pick out a locker and hang up her bag and was probably taking her coat off if I had not stopped her. Maybe I should have left her there and waited for the phone call if anyone would have noticed.

On another note the Girl has this nice toddler power walk. She was playing with my AGW and she then had to go get something. She kept her arms in a bent position and had this power walk into the other room. Hopefully she only uses this for good and not tantrums.

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Living with The Wiggles Again!

It was a joyous day years ago when The Wiggles were removed from The Boy's favorite things to watch. I was happy to not have "Fruit Salad... Yummy! Yummy!" playing over and over in my head. Well no one told me that with two children about 3 1/2 years apart I would have to live through another Wiggles phase. The issue now is it is new for the Girl but not for me. Nothing like having all those songs dancing in my head again and annoying the crap out of me. I really wanted to beat up a couple of the Wiggles back then and it hasn't taken long for those feelings to return. I guess to some relief the Wiggles are a diversion from that punk Caillou.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Can I get a do-over?

Today is a day that I wonder if someone is trying to tell me something or if I should just go back to bed and start over. The Girl wakes up at 6 am, I believe mostly to try to wear me out. The Boy gets up appropriately at 6:30 am as it is a school day. They are both a hungry as they are learning to eat all their dinner so they can have a snack before bed. All is good as I make toaster waffles for the Boy and the Girl has her O's, I am making some toaster french toast for myself. As I am coming into the room, my son starting screaming in agony. I run into the room and his mouth is bleeding I get him to the bathroom sink (he has had a loose front tooth for quite awhile now). It looks like it hurts a lot but it also looks like the tooth has come free but still there and he will not let me tough it. So I get him to calm down eventually and then have him go back and sip on his juice. I clean up the sink and look at him and the tooth is gone. This excites me as this has hampered him eating for a while and seeing stuff like that makes me queasy, then I realize the tooth is gone. Gone int he sense I believe he swallowed it. First time this has happened so I am trying not to panic, look up some info and find it will come out the other end. I called the dentist just to double check. Next he freaks out and says his stomach hurts after I told him he probably swallowed it (he was fine until I mentioned it), so I take five minutes and get him calm again. Then he freaks out because he has nothing for the tooth fairy, so I calm him down again and explain that we will write a note and take a picture and the Tooth Fairy will understand and he exclaims "What if she doesn't understand?!" I explain that this has probably happened before and it will be OK. During all this the Girl eats my french toast so now it is time to go to school and I didn't get to eat. So then on our way to school traffic is not moving at all and I see the stop light cycle a few times and figure out there is a train, fortunately the school is before the tracks so I make it around and get him to school. On the way out I need to go to Sam's Club to pick up some things and figure in the 15 or so minutes in the school the train would be gone... WRONG! I patiently sit and wait while a lady pulls up behind me and starts honking as I have a green light with no where to go. She decides to go around me and shakes her head at me and then discovers no one else is going any where either. Finally the train moves along and we get to Sam's Club only to find out they don't have the stuff all together for the online oder and they are scrambling to figure it out (I had a confirmation the order was ready). As we do some shopping and pick up a few other things they get it together and we are good to go, we check out and as I am going out the door I realize I forgot my club card at the register. After all that we finally make it home around 10 am and my brain is telling me it is 5 o'clock somewhere.

Monday, November 22, 2010

The Tantrum Queen

The Princess has become a Queen, a Tantrum Queen. Why are the twos so terrible? I often wonder this allowed as today was a tantrum filled day. The Girl had a tantrum in the morning as the Boy was trying to brush his teeth before school. She then threw a tantrum as I brought her back downstairs, it was such a tantrum she was screaming to go to bed. Laid her down all was quiet for about 5 minutes when she wanted to get up. Then she threw a tantrum before taking my son to school as she wanted to watch Curious George. All of this before 7:30 am. After dropping him off at school, back home we got stuff ready to go to the grocery store which she initially likes as they have cars attached to the front of the carts, which is really nice because I can strap her in and we have a nice little buffer. After about 5 seconds in the car she wanted out by saying, "Done... Done... DONE!" and we were into another tantrum. She calmed quickly as I let her hold a box of Zip-lock bags. All seemed better and she seemed happy so when we got home I gave her a little treat, then she threw a tantrum because I only gave her one treat and she wanted another treat. I offered Cheez-Its (a staple in our house) and made it worse. After a few minutes of her wailing I went back and she wanted me to hold her and she quietly asked for Cheez-Its. Soon it was time for lunch, I bet you can't guess what happened next - Tantrum. She didn't want lunch so I made my lunch and found out she didn't want lunch she wanted my lunch which was a very non-exciting Lean Cuisine Pizza. Then finally nap time, 11:30 am couldn't have come any quicker. The rest of the day has been better but I know she is planning a sneak attack tantrum.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Fry Thief!

Having a productive day going and the Girl cooperating for the most part I decided that we would get some McDonald's for lunch. I got her a hamburger and french fries and got myself some fries too as there was some left over Packo's dogs (with sauce) in the fridge from last night's dinner. Well she was doing a pretty good job of taking bites of her hamburger and eating her fries and then I sat down with my lunch. She still has plenty of fries on her plate but the Girl decides that she must start taking mine. Not only taking one or two she decided she needed a handful of them. I tried to move my plate out of her reach which almost caused her to fall as she just tried to reach farther. I wonder where she learned this behavior? I am going to have to sit both the Girl and my Absolutely Gorgeous Wife down for a talk.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Me Too!

A friend of mine was recently talking about how her kids must always have what the other has, get something when the other gets something or do what the other one is doing. With a 6 and 2 year old I love this all the time, although for the most part it is one way the two year old wants whatever the 6 year old wants, or do what he is doing, etc. Well today she got a little more than she bargained for, the Boy had his annual well visit at the doctor. He did a great job for the first time with no real issues of not cooperating or making things difficult (which made the beverages I was thinking of having before hand seem pointless). Granted the whole time the Girl wanted to do whatever he was doing or had done to him, he was weighed (49 3/4 lbs.) - she wanted to be weighed, he was measured (4' 3/4") - she wanted to be measured, he had to pee in a cup - she wanted to pee in a cup, etc. When the doctor came in she listened to his heart and the Girl needed the same. Well the visit was just about over and it was time for the dreaded flu shot (granted any shot would send the Boy into a tizzy). I always give him the opportunity to climb up on the table himself and do his best which means I usually need to summon herculean strength to hold him while he gets his shots. This time he surprised me and even though he cried a little he did it all without a fight and I just hugged him to help him get through it. Now the fun part was the Girl wanted up on the table too, well be careful what you wish for because you just might get it. So she was happily laying on the table and she was getting a flu shot as well, I distracted her well as she barely knew what was going on so it was probably one of the best doctor appointments we ever had.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Do they Know? Part II

This is the same but a little different. Whenever my Absolutely Gorgeous Wife (AGW) and I hug in our house one if not both of our kids come running and must push their way in between us. Tonight the kids were in the other room and we tested the theory as it was quiet and we thought they were up to no good so my AGW and I hugged and within about 15 seconds the Girl came running in and squeezed in. Then in another 30 seconds the Boy came and started working his way in. So how do they know?

Do they know?

I often ask myself this question, "Do they know?" It seems no matter what the situation the kids know the exact thing to do to either start a fight between the two of them at the worst time, when I need to use the bathroom, get something out that I just cleaned up -dump it and move on, etc., etc. Maybe I am finally making my breakfast after making the Girl's breakfast, the Boy's breakfast, making the Boy's lunch for school and getting all the necessary stuff ready for school one will say "Can I have _____ please?" Fill-in the blank with whatever you want, maybe "red cabbage" perhaps but it never fails. It can happen anywhere as well and usually at the most inconvenient times, even when they sleeping they know to wake up screaming in the last two minutes of a show that I really wanted to watch or the last 30 seconds of the Red Wings game on TV. They just know.

Monday, November 1, 2010

Day Out With Daddy!

Sometimes people are a little ignorant and don't realize that some Daddy's take care of their children too and not just babysit their own kids. This is something that has bugged me for the 6+ years I have been a stay at home Dad. Today at Target, buying princess costumes at 50% off for Christmas gifts for the Girl as she loves princesses and the day after Halloween, virtually the same dresses marketed as costumes and not play clothes are 50% off. So in Target she is a little miffed as she wants to go down the princess isle, well she realizes what is going on once she sees the stuff Daddy is grabbing but for some female reason or another she is pissed off. So she is shoving the cart and screaming at me while I am trying to talk her Mommy. Then an older lady has her cart and is standing there watching this all go down, she has plenty of room to go by us but decides to wait until I am off the phone (by the way was probably a 30 second conversation with tantrum developing). So now I am trying to make sure the Girl doesn't hurt herself and she is flailing around, close call on the shelf and the floor and the cart but I succeed in getting her into tantrum laying on the floor position. The old lady spectator then starts to tell me a little about parenting, I pretty much ignore what she is saying and say, "She is just having a tantrum." The lady decides to continue teaching me when I tell her to "Mind your own business," which prompts her to walk away. I really had some other phrasing in my head but in trying to teach my children to be good people I decided to keep it too myself. I picked the Girl up and she was perfectly fine and even gave me a "Sorry Daddy!"

I know I don't know it all, but I have been parenting for a little over 6 years now so I feel comfortable in letting my 2 year old princess have her tantrum in the middle of Target. I realizing it is annoying to other shoppers but so is hogging the whole isle, stepping in front of me to grab something without an "excuse me," chatting with the cashier when you are done paying and holding up the line, or not being able to find the $100 bill in your wallet to pay for something that is about $21 and it seems that you have more bills in there than you know what to do with (actually was the lady in front of me today).

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

As the Kindergarten Turns

A while back a friend of mine that is a lunchroom and playground supervisor at the Boy's school told me he was being teased by the other boys about having a girlfriend. She was trying to tell him not to worry about it, but then he told her, "I really do have a girlfriend." She told me this story and my Absolutely Gorgeous Wife (AGW) and I asked him about it and deducted from our conversation that he just plays with this one girl a lot. Well today as I am waiting in the carpool line to pick him up I notice a girl blow him a kiss. When the Boy got into the car I didn't even get to ask him about it as he started up about it right away:

Boy: I have a new crush!
Me: A new crush?
Boy: Yeah, Girl is not my crush anymore. I have a new crush. She just got back and has a crush on me. I didn't break up with Girl because breakups are sad, so I just gave up.
Me: Gave up? Were you mean to Girl?
Boy: No! I used to play with her a lot and now I don't play with her as much, so I gave up.
Me: Was Girl upset?
Boy: No, but now Other Girl just got back and has a crush on me.

I will give the Boy credit though, he didn't want to be mean or make anyone sad and the give up method of getting rid of a girl that may be a new one as far as I know. I really need to know what goes on in Kindergarten as all I remember was the letter hunt once a week, taking naps, coloring and hanging on to my Mom's leg crying and screaming as I didn't want to go. I sure hope there isn't a Kindergarten Prom or else we may have to consider a new school.

Monday, October 18, 2010

Those Funny Kids

As the other half of the carpet gets installed and my legs don't work the same after working on prepping for the carpet for 12 hours and spending another beautiful Sunday tearing up carpet and a million staples I bring you a couple of funny things my kids have said this weekend:

The Girl:
At church they have a Sunday School and a Tiny Tots program. As lovely as the Girl is she is not a great church baby so we put her in Tiny Tots. Fortunately the girls running the Tiny Tots program were mostly the same as last year so the Girl was very excited. She ran in and all was good, or so my Absolutely Gorgeous Wife thought. When she returned to get her apparently the Girl had cried for a half hour then took a 20 minute cat nap. the best part was as they were walking down the hallway the girl says, "Tots FUN!"

The Boy:
Our community has a fall parade. Since I was working all day on the carpet my Absolutely Gorgeous Wife (AGW) took the Boy to the parade while I listened to the Girl napping (well talking and doing everything except napping) and kept working. As they were waiting for the parade my AGW was rubbing the Boy's hair and he says, "Stop touching my hair, it took me two hours!" The kid has great hair, he can literally roll out of bed and look great no matter what it looks like.


Friday, October 15, 2010

Can't Wait

I can't wait until some of the craziness goes away. I know it probably won't happen for another 6 or 8 years but I can't wait. Last weekend was spent celebrating my son's birthday, having a cross country meet and ripping out carpet, padding and all those darn staples in half of the house. This weekend involves my son's birthday party with his friends and ripping out the other half of the carpet as well. In between I decided I wanted a anew computer desk and of course all the options that I loved were way expensive. I used a reliable favorite store, IKEA. I found a few options and one that fit int he budget so on Thursday morning I drove up got the stuff I wanted and drove back, all with my lovely 2 year old daughter. Throw in lunch and all together about 3 hrs. and 15 minutes. After getting her down for her nap I started putting the stuff together all to realize that one of the desk tops had a smashed corner. If spoken air could change colors, the air in the house was definitely a little blue. So after my wonderful wife gets home and we put our daughter to bed I get back in the car to spend another 2 1/2 hours driving back to IKEA, exchanging the top and driving home. Time I would have rather spent trying to get stuff put away from the first carpet replacement. Then I am baking away to make cupcakes for my son's birthday party and my daughter wants nothing more than to make a day as difficult as possible. "I want drink." "I want chips." "Shoes off." "Shoes on." Shoes off." etc., etc. My wife often wonders how you get anything done with her around and right now so do I.

Monday, October 4, 2010

Busy, Busy, Busy!

What a weekend! Saturday morning the Boy had a cross country race (1/2 mile), he did fantastic and actually raced more as opposed to his usually run while looking at all the people. He placed 50th out of 159 kids. Sunday morning hockey the Boy had his first hockey practice of the season, he will be a mini-mite this year, so we started two days in row with a an early morning. He did much better than I thought he would do at hockey considering he hasn't skated since May. Then I spent the rest of Sunday tearing apart the Sunroom painting it and trying to put it all back together so I can tear it apart next weekend so the new carpet can be installed. Just to be sure I don't have too much other stuff going on we have our last Cross Country Meet this Saturday, The Boy's birthday on Friday as well. In addition to that the following weekend we have the Boy's friend party for his birthday and I have to tear out carpet in the living room and stairs for that carpet to be installed. We just like to try to do everything all at once.

The Boy will soon look like a real hockey player as his front teeth are now loose. Of course when I wiggled one I got a little queasy. Thankfully he is not like me in that aspect as he pulled the last one out by himself. This from the boy that screams as loud as he can when his sister touches him.

Friday, October 1, 2010

What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?

We often ask the Boy this question as his mind is constantly changing. The other day in the car we asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up. He said, "I want to go to College so I can be a Daddy!" He had followed this up with something else but with all the laughter we don't recall what he said. Now it is true, some people go to college and become Daddies but I don't thing it is offered as a major or area of study. It was sweet and innocent and I didn't have the heart to tell him that you don't learn how to be a Daddy in college, although some days I wish there was an elective or two.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Which way are we going?

This is a common question whenever we go somewhere in the car. Usually the intent is on direction (east, West, North and South) but the Boy has a hard time with understanding that straight ahead is not North. The Girl also takes part in a slightly different way by pointing and saying "This Way!" She knows where she wants to go, Daddy has just learned to ignore the cuteness in attempting to get small tasks done. Recently I have come up with the best answer to all of this, "We are going this way." We are always going "this way"! So now when I get the question, "What direction are we going?" Which way are we going?", etc. I will always answer "This Way. We are always going this way." If you think about it, when I am driving and we will always be going this way because that is the way we are going. We can never go that way as that becomes this way. I am sure out there somewhere the Boy has a blog talking about how insane his Dad is and asks "Why can't he give me a straight answer?"

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

So Many Words

The Girl is at a stage now where her vocabulary is expanding each time I say something, which has its plus and minuses. When she can communicate what she wants or needs or is mad about it makes things a little easier, the issue is she has demanding wants, specific needs and gets mad when I don't her the wants and needs. Today she learned the word "beautiful" not sure knows what it means but knows it is something good. We also were learning a few colors with crayons and doing a little drawing, she likes me to draw circles then she drew a couple of circles herself. I think she is starting to learn that a good job means rewards as Mommy got a new pair of shoes for doing such a great a job and working so hard for her family:Granted she is a girl so I assuming the wanting shoes is part of her genes, as she constantly wants her shoes on and off all day. The issue with the Girl is that I am having a hard time finding cheap prizes whereas I can pick up Hot Wheels cars for the Boy at $1 each. Granted with her love of shoes hopefully soon she will have the same size feet as Mommy so they can share shoes and it will help save a little bit.

The Boy had his first official Cross Country meet and did very well, he was 96th out of 170 kids in his race. He has fun and enjoys so I let him do his thing as he has Charlie Brown Syndrome. He likes to run and look around not paying much attention to actually racing, Charlie Brown would start well but then he would lose focus and close those eyes and run right out of the stadium. We are having fun and that is important (even though Daddy knows he can do better if he understood it a little better but that is the Boy).

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Anticipation

The Boy has his first Cross Country race coming up very soon. I am very excited as I know he is as he has wanted to race for quite a while. He even has an awesome little uniform as well. The interesting part will be to see how he handles the race as there are a large number of kids and I don't know what will happen. He is a pretty smart kid and basically runs all day but there are no rules or set courses for that. I am sure since I am the coach of the whole team and his Dad I will have a little trouble sleeping the night before just from the excitement and nervousness. He ran in one other race that I could participate with him but this will be without me. I now think I know how my parents felt before my races in high school.

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

What is Wrong with Williams Sonoma

I like to cook. Not just grill, but actually cook, bake and grill. I think part of it is the challenge of making things and the rest is that I really like to eat. One of my favorite stores is Williams Sonoma, the staff has literally watched my children grow up as I keep them in business. They love my kids, they always give them treats and like to see them as I get complaints when I don't come in for a while - they probably need a a new flat screen or something and need to show me the latest expensive gadget. The Girl, who loves to eat just like Daddy, does not like Williams Sonoma. I can't figure out why as it is a place they give treats, where Daddy can buy new and exciting things to make yummy food with, and they are very friendly. We get in there and she just keeps saying, "C'mon!", "Daddy go!", and pulling on my hand "DAAAAAAADDYYYYYYYY!" I am guessing her mother is paying her to keep me out of there as Mommy and the Girl really like shoes.

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Back to School

Ah, what a refreshing change of pace. The Boy started Kindergarten this week. Even though the Girl asks where he is all the time, it is a refreshing change to only have to wrangle one kid to go do things as opposed to two. So far K is going well and we are starting to get into a morning routine. I only hope this continues and gets easier as all day K and then cross country practice make for a long day three days a week. One day this week the Boy even walked in by himself, it was a very surreal moment watching the little man walk up to the school and into the doors as it seems just a short while ago I was taking him in daily for pre-school three years ago. Now the Girl and I get some quiet play time playing princesses and bracelets, and think only a year from now Daddy may get a little time to himself.

Friday, August 20, 2010

The Midnight Pooper

The Boy is starting Kindergarten and has already started his first school sponsored sport, Cross Country, which brings him to drinking excessive amounts of water from his loved water bottle. This has createda a situation where ever night around 10 or 11 pm he needs to pee and not just tinkle but pee as in Austin Powers coming out of being frozen pee. He just has to go, go bad and right now, and the best part is he is usually almost still asleep. The other night he had to go as we were getting ready for bed and my wife gets him into the bathroom and he sits on the potty and pees and she is giggling because he isn't really awake. She is asking him if he is done and he says yes but doesn't get up or do anything. This prompts me into going in to help him, as I am doing this I am trying to get him to stand up so I can get him dressed and put the sleeping pee-er back to bed he mumbles "I can do it myself." as he is pushing me away and PLOP! I had to leave the room as I didn't want to startle him and have him think I was laughing at him. I guess he had to poop as well, my wife and I couldn't stop laughing. He eventually finished up and cleaned up and we whisked him back to bed and I would bet he doesn't even remember any of it, although it could have provided for a strange dream.

Monday, August 9, 2010

Why do we want them to talk?

I swear I have had this thought once before about 3-4 years ago. I can't figure out why we want our kids to talk. Granted with the Boy who will be 6 soon it is alright, but the initially part of them talking is driving me crazy. The Girl is discovering that she can literally send me in convulsions by saying "Daddy!" over and over again. It is nice when she actually is communicating something but other than that sometimes I feel she is a broken record. "Daddy look! Daddy Look! Daddy Look! Daddy Look! Daddy Watch! Daddy Watch! C'mon Daddy! C'mon Daddy! Daddy C'mon! Daddy look! Daddy etc.!" Sometimes it just goes on and on, then the boy decides in the middle of this that he has something important to say and gets mad when she won't stop. I have decided that I need a much longer version of the name "Daddy", and that will help the problem as it will be just too much to say over and over again, something like "Dadisasupercoolguywholoveshischildreneventhoughtheydrivehimcrazy". If they had to say that every time I think the house would be a bit quieter.

I think one of my favorite words my daughter says right now is "frog." Reasoning why is that she doesn't say frog it sounds more like another word that as Ralphie says is "the queen mother, F - - -." (He actually says Dash.)It makes me laugh so it is not all bad except for that word.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

The Garbage Bag Threat

Why is cleaning up at home so hard for kids? Why is the only motivational tool a garbage bag?

I ask this many times to myself. As soon as I make the garbage bag threat the Boy jumps into action. The next time it is cleanup time I think I will cut some holes and be the garbage bag monster. Is a five year old (almost 6) to young to learn that with freedom comes great responsibility? The best part is that just about everywhere else we go he has no problem cleaning up. He sometimes just cleans up which leads me to believe he just wants to see my head explode.

In other news:

The other day we celebrated my wife's birthday. I made a cake and had everything already for when we all got home. I went and got the cake and a candle and then the Girl gave her a great present. The Girl was climbing into a chair and slipped and whacked her nose on the table, started crying then started bleeding. It was all better in a couple of minutes especially since it was cake, but between that and some of our trips to get ice cream I figure my kids are a dessert away from an accident. Many times getting ice cream we have dealt with fat lips, skinned knees or skinned elbows. So this moment fit right in, except for the fact we were at home so it was little easier to handle. This leads me to the question of just cut out yummy desserts and treats or deal with the traumas and try to keep ice cream from melting on my hand at the same time?

Monday, August 2, 2010

I know better than to type this post.

Those who know me know that I am very superstitious. Usually I would write the following about my children as I know they read this and act opposite to whatever I say just to make me look foolish.

Today my kids have been fantastic (not that there are not fantastic every day). The Boy has been helpful and is listening for the most part. The Girl is being cooperative and not bludgeoning her brother to much. It is just one of those days that make you feel good. We met some people at a playground and the Boy played nice and the Girl was even involved. Then we had to make a quick trip to the store and there was no whining or complaining. They even sat next to each other and ate up all their lunch. It has just been a great morning and made me feel good.

Now that I have blogged about it, I am sure they will turn from the angels they are to the crazies that normally run around our house.

A side note on the Boy:

He wanted a bagel for lunch which my wife made for him - one bagel cut in half. When she gave it to him he says, "I said bagel, I didn't add an 's'."

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

"Sir do you realize these are girls pants?"

The Boy starts kindergarten soon and they wear uniforms. Fortunately you can buy them anywhere as long as there in the uniform style, right colors, etc. Well we went to a few stores to see their sales and if they had appropriate clothes. Everything was going alright and found some options at Kohls, then went onto our second store which had some great prices. We found most of the short sleeve shirts we were looking for, and the perfect pants for the Boy. You must understand the Boy doesn't like snaps, will do buttons and hook & eye type pants but absolutely no snaps. I found what were perfect khakis, we even tried them on and they had the awesome hook and eye closure. grab all the ones in his size and proceeded to check out. I asked if they had any more besides what was on the rack, the fine gentleman at the counter went to go check. After a minute or two he came back and says, "Sir do you realize these are girls pants?" At least it wasn't crowded and I only had to feel stupid in front of him and probably the rest of the store he radioed to make fun of me. Well after getting the heck out of there, we went to one other place to check things out before deciding we needed lunch. There was a nice new Sonic and my stomach drove the car right there. What I really need to know is if Sonic is eligible spending for my Health Savings Account (HSA)? I accidentally handed the clerk my HSA credit card, although I did catch my error right before he ran the card through the machine. At least I gave two places of business a pretty good laugh today.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Locked In

A week ago Sunday, the Girl decided she needed to be sick. I took action and decided the best thing to do is make sure the kids stay away from each other as to not to make the other one sick (more on this later). She had a fever of 102.6, UGH! She decided to keep the fever going until Wednesday. Finally fever broke and everything seemed to be on the upswing. I had some serious errands to get done since we had been in the house since Sunday evening. Well we get up Thursday morning and who has a fever... The Boy, Double UGH! Well he decided to be sick pretty much through the weekend. Mostly a fever but had some sinus to go with it. Right when we thought we were all clear as of late Saturday, Sunday afternoon he gets another fever. After that he was alright.

Monday rolled around and we finally made it out of the house. We walked to a local school and sadly found out the playground was fenced off as there was construction to be done. The Boy was greatly disappointed but we made the best of it by playing with the big wheel and sidewalk chalk. He made a handicap parking spot, why? I'm not sure but it was a pretty good drawing of the handicapped sign. So hopefully we are through the gauntlet of illness and can enjoy the rest of summer break as school starts in about 23 days!

Sunday, July 18, 2010

"Why is the floor wet?"

A couple of stories from the past week:

The Boy attended Vacation Bible School (VBS) this week. He enjoys these week long things very much. Well the first two days one of the kids in his group was hitting him, I knew it was a problem after the second day when he actually said something about it, he usually lets the little things go. I asked him if he did anything to the other boy, he said "No." So the next day I told him I would say something about the problem and if I found out he did something I would be upset and he reassured me that he did nothing. When I said something to his group leaders, they responded "Yeah, the other boy has been talked to a lot." In my mind I am thinking, please do more than talk as my son should not be getting hit in Vacation Bible School. At the end of the week my wife asked him if he had any new friends, he answered with the name of the boy that was hitting him. Oh to be 5 again.

The other day I was using the bathroom, the kids were horsing around all around especially when I am not in the room. I come out and the Girl is running around and here is exactly what was said:

Me: Girl, where are your pants?

Me: Girl, Where is your DIAPER?!

Me: WHY IS THE FLOOR WET?!!??!?

So I wrangle the girl get her diaper and pants on, and proceed to ask the Boy:

Me: Why didn't you tell me she took her diaper off?
Boy: I forgot.
Me: How could you forget?
Boy: (SILENCE)
Me: (Thinking - Maybe next time she will pee on you and then you will tell me)

Monday, July 12, 2010

In the Closet without Pants

The Girl is turning into quite a character. Within her new area of freedom in the house there is a coat/shoe closet. She loves this closet and can open the door from outside or in, plus it has her shoes which for a girl are the best thing ever. Today she decided that no matter how many times I try to put her pants on, she just is going to take them off. She leaves the diaper alone, just no pants. As she is playing with the door of the closet (which may become her room if she is not careful) she closes herself in, which usually means someone has to let her out. The first time I let her out and reminded her that I wasn't going to open the door again if she went back in. Ignoring my advice she goes back in and closes the door. Well she starts knocking and calling for me, I remind her that I am not opening the door and "VOILA!" she opens the door. She spent the morning going in and out of the closet while refusing to wear pants/shorts. The lure to get her out of the closet was to offer her mashed potatoes, she very much takes after someone else I love.

Thursday, July 8, 2010

The First Gun

Well after almost six years the Boy got his first gun today, or should I said water toy. For the most part we have been staying away from weaponry, mostly for my wife's and my safety, but I broke down today and bought him a squirt gun which I am trying to call a "water toy." Granted in preschool the boys would always try to create weapons out of toys and he has played with stuff at other kids houses. He has also seen stuff on TV but we always avoided toys in our house, well this is outside so I guess it is not in our house technically. I do realize he is a boy, 5 years old, and most boys his age are into that stuff so it is expected, I just have to be ready for any ensuing water fights at this point. I don't know if he realizes the powerful "water toy" I have in the garage that was left behind by the previous owners of our house but it is a nice strong stream that works on pressure you build up in the toy so with one little squirt from his "Micro x-220" he will get a blast that will probably get him cleaner than a bath.

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

A little left of crazy!


We recently returned from vacation and for once we had weather above 63 degrees. I know the kids had a great time as my wife and I were exhausted by the end of each day. A three hour car ride with two kids who like to be in continual motion is not always the best thing for anyone's sanity, although we managed to do alright until the last thirty minutes when the Girl just wanted out and the Boy was very excited about the beach. We arrived before check-in (3 pm) so we could head down tot he beach and spend an extra day in the sun & sand and it worked out great, although we learned a few things along the way. The first thing we learned was if your kids to stay close either sit next to someone's big hole or dig your own hole for the kids to play in. A hole on the beach with a little water in the bottom is a kid magnet. So after a day the beach process became setup canopy then dig big hole with plastic bucket and wish that a beach waiter would come by and bring a nice beverage (unfortunately this didn't happen as I believe they only have those at all-inclusive resorts). Then it was in and out of the lake and running around with the kids, eating lunch, trying to wrangle kids for more sunscreen, reminding the boy about 1,000,000 times not to throw sand, convincing the waves were fun, taking down canopy, packing up and heading back up the big stairs back to our accommodations, bathing the kids and getting the Girl to take a nap while I was still hoping for the beach waiter.

The Boy loved every minute of the beach, except when he had to sit in time out because I had to remind him the 1,000,001th time not to throw sand. He is a social butterfly and will play with any kid he can, especially if they have cooler toys than us which was often the case. To our disbelief on the third day he wanted to go back in the lake which we said sure and he went by himself. We thought he would only go out a little bit and stop but he reached the sand bar and just kept going, at that point I leaped and ran out to stay close as we were shocked that he would venture out like that. We were happy he would but also wanted to make sure he would be ok as the waves were a little rough. The last day I took him out farther and we were rolling with the waves when he didn't jump when one came and it went over his head, he didn't freak out but was more surprised than anything and he was ok with it. When we were home I asked him what was the best (or favorite) thing from the vacation and he responded, "My favorite was when that wave went over my head." I was shocked.

Then on the last night we decided to go see the fireworks, there is a very strict rule of no reserving spots before 12:01 am on July 4th with blankets and stakes, rocks and duct tape are prohibited. In the afternoon, I drove down to try to get a spot but I couldn't even park my car closer than our accommodations, so I drove back and we decided to walk down to the boardwalk and see if we can find a spot. We left our room at 8:00 pm , and decided these nice benches on the boardwalk would be perfect except that it was only about 8:25 pm and the fireworks as we found out didn't start until 10:25 pm. So for two hours we had to entertain two very tired children. We managed with the boat channel and watching boats, ice cream and my wife freaking out about a pit bull (it was actually the nicest trained dog she had ever see). But as it was getting darker and taking longer we realized we were a little left of crazy. Their were some very nice families sitting near us so the Boy had some kid entertainment although he had a hard time understanding that the girl about 4 inches or so shorter than him was 6, fortunately he didn't realize her brother an inch or two shorter than him was 8 because he associates height with age and the Boy is still 5 but about 4' 1" tall. Then the Girl about 10 pm had enough and was tired but we somehow managed to keep her mostly happy as we waited and waited for the show to start. Finally it started and all was good and when it was over, and we had to hike back a mile and up those steep beach stairs one more time.

A great, crazy, exhausting but awesome vacation.

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

"She was eating my celery."

I realize kids are kids, but why do they do things they know they shouldn't?

Today for lunch my son had chicken nuggets and celery boats. He did a great job eating his chicken as well as the Girl who likes to do what he does and starting eating the celery boats. I was in the other room getting a couple of things done when he says he is done, I say good job and he goes on his way to play in the sunroom. Well suddenly I hear some noise in the kitchen, I see the Girl sitting in his spot chopping on his celery (which I didn't have a problem with) and I notice these orange spots all over one of our chairs. So I ask him what happened, he doesn't respond with words but motions which leads leads to the next question: "Did you spit juice here?" with the answer, "Yes." I immediately send him up to his room as I work on cleaning up the mess. I go up to talk to him and ask why he was spitting juice and the reason was "I was spitting juice at her because she was eating my celery." This could have been almost acceptable except for the fact is he licked all the peanut butter off the celery and didn't want to eat the celery, which I promptly informed him. So he spent some alone time in his room, although I was waiting for the accusation that there was a "second spitter".

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Welcome to Fight Club

First rule of Fight Club: You don't talk about Fight Club.
- Divert attention by saying what your little sister did.

Second Rule of Fight Club: You DON'T TALK about Fight Club.
- Whine and cry to try to avoid talking about what you did to your little sister.

Third Rule of Fight Club: If someone says "Stop", goes limp, or taps out the fight is over.
- Meaning after you kick your sister in the face and she screams and cries for a moment, make sure to say, "She is OK!" before Daddy gets in the room.

Fourth rule of Fight Club: Fights will go on as long as they have to.
- Make sure to be nice and smiling by the time Daddy enters the room.

I realize there are other rules but they really don't apply to the Boy and the Girl. Pretty OK morning until the Boy had something the Girl is not allowed to have and she wanted it. To stop her he kicked her in the face, she whimpered for a moment and went back at it (the Girl is pretty tough). As I enter the room she has a nice red mark under her eye, so I proceed with the investigation as follows:

Me: What happened?
Boy: She tried to grab the tape.
Me: What happened to your the Girl?
Boy: She was trying...
Me: NO! I want to know what you did to her.
Boy: (Beginning of whining and crying) You aren't listening to me!
Me: (getting a little upset) Stop Whining and tell me what you did to your sister!
Boy: I kicked her.
Me: You DON'T kick or hit people! (Promptly takes away tape and Nintendo DS)
Boy: No!!!!!!!
Me: (Looks at girl and sees red mark under her eye) Did you kick her in the eye?!
Boy: Yes, she was...
Me: Go to your room right now!

After a while in his room we had a little talk and he came down and hugged his sister and said he was sorry. I guess when she gets a hold of his hair again I will give her a second or two before it gets broken up.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

What I Know About Girls

I am learning something new everyday as raising a girl is much different than raising a boy. I am a boy so raising the Boy was not to difficult as I have the same parts and felt like I had a good idea of what boys think. The Girl, on the other hand, has a whole different set of rules which I am learning on daily if not hourly basis.

This morning after getting up at 5:30 am, I rocked her hoping to get her back to sleep to no avail. When done rocking she just smiled at me so we went downstairs and got some Cheerios and juice and all was good. When my wife got out of the shower and come down to see her, she wanted her to go somewhere with her, which my wife did, and then decided to throw this random temper tantrum for no reason at all. After trying to console her we let her have it out on the floor, where after a bit she came to me and said "Night-night." I took her upstairs and she started saying "NO!" to me so we came back down and I had to hold her for a bit before she finally wanted her juice and Cheerios again. Soon it was breakfast time and she decided she wanted the leftover garlic mashed potatoes, at this point I wasn't arguing and just gave her what she wants. This all proves I still know very little if anything about girls and it is easier to give them mashed potatoes for breakfast than to be screamed at about it.

The other day she wanted her shoes. I proceeded to get her sandals (which she calls shoes) out of the closet and hand them to her, she got very mad pushed them out of the way and screamed "SHOES!" So she went in and got her white patent leather type shoes and proceeded to stomp all over my toes during the day. One time she stood on my toes on purpose with a smile to seem me react, I faked cry (at least that is what I told my wife) to get her to stop. She said "Sorry Daddy," but somehow I don't think that is the last time it will happen. At least now I know one thing when it comes to girls and shoes just get the heck out of the way.

The other thing she likes is the debit/credit card readers at the store. She likes to point them out and hand me the little pen for them. I think she is just practicing for later in life for me to buy her prom dress, shoes and new purse/clutch/handbag or whatever else accessory is needed for that one time use.

So I guess I know a little bit about girls - they like shoes, so don't get between them and the shoes; they expect me to pay for stuff and buy them nice things; and when a tantrum hits just start making some garlic mashed potatoes.

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Order Yours Today, Call Now!

The Boy wants everything he sees on those short TV ads, where everything is $14.95 plus shipping & handling, must be 18 to call. He gets a little upset he is not 18 yet so he can't order all those things he sees on TV. If could order it I can just see my house filled with "Floam".

Today at dinner, we are all eating together and he is talking about having a million dollars. I ask him him to share with us and he tells us "No." Here is the follow-up conversation to that:

Me: You won't share with us?
Boy: No.
Me: Well how are you going tobuy anything you need to be 18 years old?
Me: If you share with me, I'll help.
Boy: I'll just go online!

I almost spit out the delicious peanut butter cream pie my wife got me for Father's Day. He is one clever boy.

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Reclaiming the House

Well, last night we got most of the Boy's stuff moved into the basement for his new playroom. He thought it was pretty cool. We think it is pretty cool too since we have a new room in our house which to furnish, which means a trip to Ikea (which can be good and bad all at the same time). Although from the time we got up about 7:10 am within about 1 1/2 hours he was bringing up a pile of blue paper to make a sky for the paper airplanes he say on Fix it With Dad on Handy Manny. I quickly put a stop to that as the sunroom is now our room again, not his. The fun part is we see a nice place to relax, he sees a huge open space to play. If we ever move, build a house, or build an addition the realization has set in to leave one open space for the kids that can easily be refinished once they graduate from high school.

This morning as well I could see that glimmer of redesign in the Girl's eye. I think she knows about the open space and is think of decorating in all pink and barbie dolls. Although for her brother's sake I think she would throw in a pink train.

Friday, June 11, 2010

Sometimes it seems the kids are too smart.

There are times when I believe my kids are too smart for me. Today during dinner I was getting some juice for the Boy. Here is the conversation:

Boy: What kind of juice is this?

Me: Passion fruit Tangerine

Boy: It's Yummy

(another gulp)

Boy: Is this V8?

Me: Yes it is. (Upset because I thought I pulled one over on the Boy)

I am trying to understand how he knew it was V8. As far as I know he has never had V8, although we have had the fruit juices before. Just too smart for me.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Reclaim What is Ours!

In an effort to reclaim some space in our house we are reworking other parts of our house. Since the Boy has taken over the sunroom, the den, and part of the basement, we decided that we are giving up more of my man cave in an effort to reclaim the sunroom and den. Sure this sounds easy, although there are many steps including convincing a 5 year old that we want his crap moved and all in one place. So this is the third location for my bar, along with moving the pendant lights and moving other lights to accommodate the change which of course takes time as I need to be sure the bar still serves its purpose of a good place to have a beverage. It will certainly be nice to reclaim some adult space in our house even though the Girl I am sure will take over more space so in the end it probably is just a losing cause.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Another Day at the Office

Today was another day at the office, except this day was different. The kids did not wake up until after 7:00 am which makes this one of the best days of summer on that note alone. Usually the Girl gets up at 6:00-6:15 with a scream of "DADDY!" I am guessing she is a morning person and raring to go, and usually shortly there after the Boy gets up and just wants to play. This leads me to my next thought do I start buying some instant coffee so I can get a kick int he rear to wake up or keep brewing coffee as needed?

Our office had a meet n' greet lunch at the zoo today. As we were strolling for some clients to visit with we came across a chimp sitting by the window, the best part is the Boy stands next to the glass right next to the chimp and says, "Hey look at the turtle sandbox in there." The girl on the other hand was very excited and had a very productive meeting. The Boy in a sudden turn of events wanted to go in the butterfly exhibit which was very strange since before that he was afraid of butterflies. I asked him about it and he said, "I changed my mind, I like butterflies now." Then as clouds started to come in and it was past the Girl's nap time we decided to get our cotton candy and head for home.

Friday, June 4, 2010

New Family Fun and Free Activity

Hadn't realized it had been two weeks since my lost blog entry, so I guess I have some catching up to do. The Boy completed his first hockey season, not too bad for the first time and still learning t he game and it didn't help much that all the other teams had a few seven year olds on them. Overall it was a good experience. He also finished preschool, as you can see this was exciting for him as well as his little sister:
We attended a local Memorial Day Parade with some friends and had a good lunch as well, probably way more food than four people and three kids should eat but it was all very yummy.



Earlier this week both kids had their first dentist appointment, I realize for him it should have happened sooner but he used to be very sensitive to doctor's appointments and haircuts so I don't know anyone that wanted to even attempt to invade his mouth. Both kids did a fabulous job, the Girl even sat in a chair all by herself, not one tear or upset child - let's just say I was stunned.

Then this morning we started our new activity, geocaching (to find out what it is go to http://www.geocaching.com). Lucky for us my parents had a handheld GPS unit for us to use as I wanted to try this out so it is something we can do that is free and has some excitement to it. We found our first cache at a local park, put an entry in the log book and returned the cache to its hiding place. I believe we all had fun and who doesn't like a treasure hunt? In addition, we can do this where ever we go as there are caches everywhere. Matter of fact there are some hidden less than one mile from our house. Hopefully this will be a fun activity we can continue to do for a long time.

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Preschool Coming to an End

It is hard to believe that in about one week preschool for the Boy will be over. I remember being nervous on his very first day, not him as he couldn't wait to go to school. He has gone three years to preschool due to an October birthday and it will be on to kindergarten next fall. He has come a long way since then and I can't believe how much he is growing up. He can't wait for kindergarten to start and I am sure after a few weeks of summer break I won't be able to wait much longer either. I know there will be new faces in the preschool next year and excitement all around but I like to believe the Boy will have left his mark.

Monday, May 17, 2010

What A Weekend

It has been very busy around our house with my wife's work, the boy and his hockey, and the Girl just into everything. I usually mean to update at least once a week but lately my head has been spinning from all that is going on.

The Boy has run in his first race, he will participate in cross country this fall for his school, and did very well for not really knowing what is going on. It was a 1k (or 1000 meters) which he completed in 5 minutes and he really didn't seem too tired from it, granted he does run all day no matter what he is doing. He has been getting better and better at hockey. The Boy now actually gets involved with the play more and is willing to go in and battle for the puck which is fun to watch.

The Girl is learning more and more and has developed quite the independent nature at times. She does what she can to keep up with her brother. I don't remember if I updated or not her height and weight from her 2 year appointment but she is now 35 1/4 inches tall and weighs 26 lbs and 8 oz. She is getting to be like her brother - tall and thin. I think her new favorite phrase is "Awesome Momma!"

As for the parental units, we have gone to a concert, a party and even had a cookout with some friends. That all happened in one weekend which was fantastic but tiring all at the same time. Between the Boy and his hockey and the girl wanting to be shopping and walking everywhere it requires a very energetic day which is tough when the kids want to wake up every day about 6 am.

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

This Weekend: Trains, Birthday, Thomas and First Goal

It was a crazy weekend, but a fantastic weekend. Saturday started out with National Train Day, so I took the Boy and we saw all kinds of neat stuff. We even got to go in the cockpit of an Amtrak train.Then we came home and started preperation for the Girl's second birthday party. The weather ended being nice and we had a great time. Not sure which present was the biggest hit, the mini-dirt devil vacuum, Elmo Live!, or my wife and 'her' Bitty Baby (which is really for the Girl I think?!). So she is two now and we have removed the high chair (which is awesome in the kitchen) and she hardly takes part in strollers or shopping carts anymore.
Sunday then up early and on our way to see Thomas the Train. Again the weather held out for us and we had a great time, probably the most fun train ride we have had since we were all happy and enjoying it very much. For those of you that have kids and they know of Thomas this is a must as it is a life size Thomas that takes you for a ride. Yes we had our meltdowns in the toy tent and before lunch (expected from any 5 and 2 year old combination) but it was still a fantastic day.

Finally, the Boy who has started his first hockey league this year scored his first ever goal Monday night (I know not technically the weekend but close enough). It was awesome and something I think we will all remember for a very long time. The excitement and joy he had was indescribable. He now has the puck in his shadow box with his Jiri Fischer signed stick and Niklas Kronwall signed name badge.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

The First Lost Tooth


A while ago the Boy decided to bite two legos apart and loosened a tooth. After much concern we took him to the dentist where they did an x-ray and discovered it was about time anyways and that he would probably loose a second one not far behind that. So all was good and we awaited the first tooth coming out. It seemed to be taking away and it was pretty loose, although at his request, we had corn on the cob and sure enough the tooth came out. I was sending a quick email while he was eating and he exclaimed, "My tooth came out!" I expected crying but he was brave and very proud that his tooth came out so there was not one tear. On the other hand when I saw the tooth and small amount of blood I got a little woozy and thought that was it for me. I was fine and got him to rinse his mouth out but I don't know what I am going to do about the rest of his and the Girl's teeth as they start falling out.

Friday, April 23, 2010

Awesome!

Well today was Hamburger, Bun and French Fry Day, AKA McDonalds or Wendys, and as I was giving my kids there lunch and put some fries on the Girl's tray she exclaimed, "AWESOME!" This made me smile and giggle a little bit. Great word and appropriate use, needless to say I was very proud.

The Girl is becoming quite the shopper too, as she stays with me and holds hands most of the time as she wants to stay away from strollers and carts these days. The fun part is she always says "Hi" to cashiers and other workers and seems to get perturbed when they don't acknowledge her with a "Hi." In addition, she always like the credit card things at the registers, I just wish she had her own money so she could pay for some of this stuff. I realized something lately, my kids may never know cash or checks. Granted they do seem them, but with the advent of checkcards (and who knows what by the time they are older) they rarely see people pay with cash or checks. The Boy who is five does know what cash is but still he sometimes just says swipe your card and pay. We have had lengthy discussions about the card and that we need to have money in our account in order to use it, which is a little lost on him. If there were such a magical card that you could just swipe and never worry about, that would be awesome.

Friday, April 9, 2010

Lesson Learned

Ahh.. Spring break for the Boy. So much time to figure out fun and entertaining things to do. It has been a pretty good week, the weather cooperated for at least three days this week so we were able to go outside and play in our newly fenced in yard (Sure is nice to not have to chase the Girl constantly).

Monday we went shopping for some stuff to put up a two person glider swing, a new sandbox and a slide for the Girl. In the afternoon we played around outside and inside, even had dinner out on the patio.

Tuesday we went grocery shopping in the morning and in the evening the Boy had his first ever hockey game. It was a blast even though most of his objective was to run into someone or something.

Wednesday we played outside in the morning as the weather was starting to turn and had a quieter afternoon since we had hockey practice in the afternoon.

Thursday was a fun day, we went to the museum and the Girl did her first painting while the Boy played with all the toys he possibly could and then we went to lunch at a local restaurant. That afternoon we were having a lazy day and then suddenly it happened... the Boy started crying and as I come running he is bleeding from the mouth, he tried to take apart two legos he used his teeth, he had knocked a tooth loose. I realize now that he is at that age but initially I freaked out wondering what to do, so after a few phone calls I realized there wasn't much we could do. So this is where the Lesson is Learned, don't take legos apart with your teeth.

Today (Friday) we went to the mall as the weather was cool, walked, played, shopped and had lunch and here we are trying to get through this last day off until summer.





Monday, March 29, 2010

The Preschool Cup of Dirt

Last year in the spring the Boy brought home a cup of dirt with a seed in it to grow a bean plant. Somehow through my great efforts to kill the plant in sprouted and we ended up having a bean sprout plant that had about 14 beans we picked and ate. Well it is that time of year and the Boy brought home another cup with dirt and a seed in it, this year it is a pepper plant as apparently the bottom of a green pepper leaves a shamrock type print (he brought it home on St. Patrick's Day), and the plant has sprouted through my complete mismanagement of its care. So I guess this year we will have another large pot on our patio with a pepper plant growing. Granted I like both vegetables so now worries there, the issue is making sure I don't kill it and crush the happiness of the 5 year old boy who takes great pride in these type of things. I wonder if kindergarten next year will send him home with another cup of dirt as the happiness of the Boy hangs in the balance with the life of each plant.

Friday, March 26, 2010

Keep Your Pants On!

Well, the Girl found a new way to have fun. She now has pulled down her pants, taken off her diaper, put it where we put diapers, pulled up her pants, and then peed. I am guessing she is trying to tell us she wants to use the potty or she is just trying to get more attention. I will admit having two potty trained kids would be awesome as there would be no more diapers.

On a sweeter note, my wife said "I love you," to her the other night and she responded for the first time with "I love you too!" It was very sweet.

The Boy had his first practice for his hockey team the other day as well, he is very excited to play in his first ever game. A couple of pictures from practice below:




Thursday, March 18, 2010

Getting Pushed Around

Well I apologize for the length between updates, but when you are working on one of the two sure things in life it takes away some free time, besides the kids have been wearing me out.

The Boy now only takes naps on hockey days or when we feel absolutely necessary (at least for sanity's sake), so my bit of time during nap times for some days is now gone as we are either building Legos, playing Wii, or playing whatever new game he invents. Now on the other hand, my wife and him play Nintendo DSi and to my surprise they are quite the video game gurus (I think she is holding out on me)., as one day the Boy said to me "Daddy, you are not very good at this." It was pretty funny. Now we are getting warmer weather and have been able to get outside some which is good for all of us, and I have even started to get back to running a little bit. I need to be in better shape to get to stay up with the kids. Since they are getting faster and more agile we are getting a fence in our backyard to keep them penned in.

The Girl is learning new words every day now and she has learned how to push us around literally. When she wants something, lets say a snack, she will pull our hand over to the kitchen and literally push us over the gate. She has a new game called "Got You" which entails me chasing her around, her yelling "Got You" and trying to stay away from me. When I do eventually catch her she giggles and says "Got You!" This game is usually played when she needs a diaper change, time for a meal, or time to get ready to go somewhere.

One last note, the Boy plays his first official hockey game soon and we are all very excited, him especially. I am wondering what he will do first score a goal or get a penalty...

Friday, March 5, 2010

Bowling

The Boy got to go bowling for the first time a couple of weeks ago. This was partially new to him as we have a Wii so we play bowling on that but real bowling the balls are much heavier. He actually did pretty well and for quite a while he was beating me in the first game. I think the best moment was when he had the ball in one hand and decided to spin around and try to throw it down the lane, it ended up in his lane at least. Below are a couple of pictures from his first experience of bowling. If I remember correctly he had a high score of 67.



Friday, February 26, 2010

The Invisible Bucket

Some of you may know this but this is all new to me. The Boy who was actively doing the run around pee-pee dance was thrown out of the living room (the Girl's gated community), then he says to me "don't yell at me because it empties my invisible bucket." I had no idea what he was talking about, a little later he said "Everyone has an invisible bucket right next to their heart, good things fill it up and bad things empty it." What a sweet boy! Now after a little research I found that there is a children's book (there may be more than one, I believe there is one for adults too) about this bucket, so I can only assume he learned this in preschool. A fantastic lesson to learn so young.

Now onto my theory on the relationship of needing to go potty and craziness. A new habit the Boy has gotten into is when he needs to go potty for some reason bypasses the bathroom and comes into the living room with the Girl and wreaks havoc. He will run around, jump all over the furniture, and do everything he knows he is not supposed to do. I will remove him from the room and ask him to go potty which is instantly refused and then in about 5 minutes he will be in the bathroom. After all that he comes back in the living room and is a completely different Boy most of the time. In conclusion, if someone isn't listening to you, make them go potty.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Terrible Twos

The Girl is not yet two but the terrible twos seem to have started a little bit early. Being a track coach I would like to disqualify her for a false start. She has learned how to start a fake cry to try and get what she wants, little does she know that I invented that and had to deal with her big brother. In addition, I act like a two year old sometimes so I don't give in easily. The hard part right now is that the house is still separated for big kids and little kids due to the fact tasting everything is still a priority, so while the Boy is at school we have expanded the area of freedom to the kitchen which is very exciting and makes her happy and gives me a breather for a bit. She has learned to pull hair which for isn't a big deal, but for the rest of the people with hair it causes some trouble. In addition, nap time has become an adventure as now it is cool to undress, remove your diaper and pee in bed. She can remove onesies so it is a sleeper for her for nap which is just more clothes changes. I remember a lot of people telling me girls were easier, well right now I think I would have to disagree.

The Boy will start his first hockey league soon, I will try to post some pictures from the first game unless I am too busy banging on the glass. He is having fun and improving everytime out right now in the learning to play program. He seems to be doing well inschool and is very excited to start kindergarten next year, as am I. The phrases he uses these days are great. The other day he had to take snack for preschool and when he came home he said "It was a hit!" My favorite is when he bothers me when I am busy and keeps saying "Dad!" until I answer then in a very sweet voice says, "I love you!" Lets just say he knows how to play the game.

Monday, February 15, 2010

An Overlooked Aspect of Raising Kids

My job of staying home and raising the kids is challenging and fun all at the same time, but something that I think gets overlooked is the job of the my wife. She works very hard to support our family and give us the means to do what we do and have what we have. I think a lot of times people forget when I tell them I stay at home how hard my wife works too. I get a lot of comments of how wonderful it is for a Dad to be home and in the same breath sometimes on how much work it is (I am not going to deny that it is hard work), but then I begin to think do they think it easier for the spouse who is hard at work? I appreciate all the time and hard work my wife puts in and then comes home to play with the kids before their bed time and being able to eat dinner some nights. Then after all that we have a little time to ourselves, although at that point we are both worn out. I just think it is overlooked on what the working parent does and sacrifices for their family, and I think it is important to appreciate them all that much more for what they do.

Monday, February 1, 2010

Be Careful What You Wish For...

Having a boy and a girl I knew there would be a whole new kind of toys around. Basically I figure to have double the amount of stuff we had with the Boy since we would need all girl stuff. I also realize they would like some of the same things as they are brother and sister and the Girl always wants to do what her big brother is doing. At the point my thinking was that well maybe it wouldn't be a complete double amount of toys but a little less. As I sit here and type this the Boy is current watching one Thomas movie in the dark basement because it is like a movie theater he says, while the girl wanted to watch something and I asked her what and she said "train" so she is watching a different Thomas movie in the living room. It all must be a curse because when I was younger I wanted a train and my parents always told me it was under my bed... It never was! So now I get to live the life of 24/7 trains. Maybe if I can every find a large amount of time I will ist all the train stuff we have, even the Girl has a train all her own. I know it is a cliche but it certainly is true: "Be careful what you wish for because you just may get it."