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.