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.