Parents Anonymous, FOFC Branch

[sachmo71]

Sydney turned 4 on Tuesday. Man, I love birthdays.
She received skates with helmet and pads, a jumprope, some jewelry, and a bunch of other things. Still have a party coming on Saturday at Toys R' Us. Gonna set me back like $150. Man, birthdays have changed.

[Suburban Rhythm]

All I can say is that I feel your pain and hang in there. There are no tricks that I know of, anyway.

My son (Drew, 4) is still periodically waking in the middle of the night and crying loudly for fear of "being all by myself." But I know that's better than what you're dealing with.

The worst part is that helpless feeling. I wish she could express what it was that is bothering here. Would put all of us alot more at ease.

It is especially odd because of her normal temperment. People will always stop us in church, a restaurant, etc, to compliment how well behaved and on control she seems. Granted, she's at the age now she'll have the occassional tantrum, but not like we've seen from other kids (my wife especially, a ped nurse).

Thanks!!

[MacroGuru]

Well, I am a happy man right now, I am sitting in the Denver Airport waiting to head home 3 days early.

My kids, who are both in Capoeira, are in the process of taking their tests (Which they did and passed!) and attending workshops for the Batizado that is taking place on Saturday. I was going to miss it, now I am going to be there for it. We are surprising them as well. They think I am coming home on Sunday still, my in-laws will be taking them to their workshops while my wife picks me up at the airport. We are then going to head over and I will be able to catch them as they participate in the Roda, watching them play the game of Capoeira.

I will take some pictures of the event today and post them up in my site for those who are interested (FrogMan).

The painful part of my job is missing things like this, so when I get the little bit of joy like this, it makes my day.

Also, the baby is crawling non stop and getting into everything, but the awesome thing is when we talk on the phone, he starts laughing when he hears my voice, and then starts growling at me because he wants to play and wrestle, something I did with him before I left on this last 6 week tour.

[FrogMan]

Pretty cool, congrats to the kids! I know your job is very rewarding to you but that must be killing you to leave them home and go on those long trips. Not sure I'd be able to do it.

Oh, and I'm sure others will be interested too Dennis :)

FM

[MacroGuru]

Pretty cool, congrats to the kids! I know your job is very rewarding to you but that must be killing you to leave them home and go on those long trips. Not sure I'd be able to do it.

Oh, and I'm sure others will be interested too Dennis :)

FM

Thanks, one of the main differences I have noticed with Capoeira is the testing is really only yearly at the Batizado, and you have to test with one of the Maestre's in order to be considered passed...But once you earn a cord for it, it makes it all worth it..

I will be starting up myself for the two weeks I am home, and then when I get back.

[FrogMan]

Thanks, one of the main differences I have noticed with Capoeira is the testing is really only yearly at the Batizado, and you have to test with one of the Maestre's in order to be considered passed...But once you earn a cord for it, it makes it all worth it..

I will be starting up myself for the two weeks I am home, and then when I get back.

so a "cord" as you call it is basically the same thing as what the belts represent in other martial arts? Interesting...

Nice that you can share it with your kids, even if you're training in it only in between trips...

FM

[MacroGuru]

so a "cord" as you call it is basically the same thing as what the belts represent in other martial arts? Interesting...

Nice that you can share it with your kids, even if you're training in it only in between trips...

FM

Yeah, cord = Belt but they are not even close to what I am used to seeing...

http://www.saltlakecapoeira.com/capoeira/cords.cfm

[oliegirl]

Things have been good and bad around here...my knee surgery was April 18th, so I'm about 6 1/2 weeks out and it's finally getting back to normal. Radii has been awesome handling things around the house, and Anthony was also a huge help. I'm glad to be back up and moving around again though.

The end of the school year was rough...there was the cheating incident I posted about at the regular board, which turned out to be a much bigger deal than we had originally thought. On top of that, he went back to his old ways and was getting mulitple check marks every week. It got to the point where we would ask him every night if he had gotten a check mark (his teacher wouold say "you just got a check mark for that" or something similar) and he'd say no, but on Friday come home with 2 or (usually) more checks. We'd question Anthony at length and he'd insist that he either didn't remember or didn't know that he'd gotten checks...or he'd say they all happened that day. After talking to his teacher repeatedly about this we found out that he did know and was lying about it. So we had multiple issues to address...long story short he ended up grounded for 3 weeks, no end of soccer season parties, and a number of things taken away long term (xbox was the big one). Last day of school (end of grounding) finally arrives and despite all of this he has made honor roll again so all in all the school year ended on a good note.

He's been giving me attitude again lately, which irritates me to no end. The other day he was playing with a toy sword which he had been playing with in the dirt and stuff. He put the blade of the sword to his lips and I told him not to put the sword in his mouth. He said he wasn't, and I explained that putting something against his lips was the same thing as putting it in his mouth b/c of the way the germs would get in, etc...he continues to argue with me until I start to get stern, at which point he rolls his eyes and says "what - ever" in this nasty voice. I stood there for a few seconds and then just reached out and smacked him across the cheek...not hard, but enough to make him realize that I was pissed, and then I lectured him for a few minutes about attitude and respect. I know I had an attitude when I was younger, but I know that I never talked to my parents that way until I was about 10 years old...I've seen this attitude in other kids too and am just shocked at how early it's starting. If he's like this at 8 1/2, what is he going to be like in his teens/high school????

[MacroGuru]

Things have been good and bad around here...my knee surgery was April 18th, so I'm about 6 1/2 weeks out and it's finally getting back to normal. Radii has been awesome handling things around the house, and Anthony was also a huge help. I'm glad to be back up and moving around again though.

The end of the school year was rough...there was the cheating incident I posted about at the regular board, which turned out to be a much bigger deal than we had originally thought. On top of that, he went back to his old ways and was getting mulitple check marks every week. It got to the point where we would ask him every night if he had gotten a check mark (his teacher wouold say "you just got a check mark for that" or something similar) and he'd say no, but on Friday come home with 2 or (usually) more checks. We'd question Anthony at length and he'd insist that he either didn't remember or didn't know that he'd gotten checks...or he'd say they all happened that day. After talking to his teacher repeatedly about this we found out that he did know and was lying about it. So we had multiple issues to address...long story short he ended up grounded for 3 weeks, no end of soccer season parties, and a number of things taken away long term (xbox was the big one). Last day of school (end of grounding) finally arrives and despite all of this he has made honor roll again so all in all the school year ended on a good note.

He's been giving me attitude again lately, which irritates me to no end. The other day he was playing with a toy sword which he had been playing with in the dirt and stuff. He put the blade of the sword to his lips and I told him not to put the sword in his mouth. He said he wasn't, and I explained that putting something against his lips was the same thing as putting it in his mouth b/c of the way the germs would get in, etc...he continues to argue with me until I start to get stern, at which point he rolls his eyes and says "what - ever" in this nasty voice. I stood there for a few seconds and then just reached out and smacked him across the cheek...not hard, but enough to make him realize that I was pissed, and then I lectured him for a few minutes about attitude and respect. I know I had an attitude when I was younger, but I know that I never talked to my parents that way until I was about 10 years old...I've seen this attitude in other kids too and am just shocked at how early it's starting. If he's like this at 8 1/2, what is he going to be like in his teens/high school????

I feel for you there a little bit....I think it's the generation now...my 9 year old acts that way at home, but not at school...

We have Capoeira to take away now, which to her is the world. However, since we started her in it, the fits and such, has toned down drastically...

[MacroGuru]

Dola!

Onto the Batizado......My kids did aswesome, and it was one of the coolest events I have ever been to or seen. Extremely interesting, and has helped me make my decisions to start on Monday that much more set in stone.

The kids both received their cords, where my son was able to play Capoeira with one of the most popular Mestre's in the world, Acordeon. It was a memorable experience for me, and I hope he understands, that the old man who he played with, was one of the people critical to spreading Capoeira in the U.S., especially in the west.

My daughter did awesome, and people asked her how long she had been playing, and when she told them since March, they were shocked. She played with a Professor who had just moved up here from Brazil, and he is going to be teaching at our school.

Both kids have officially earned their Dark Green cords, both received them early, due to the abilities and talent shown at the Batizado.

This experience is extremely positive for all involved, and it's amazing for my kids to love something like I do football....

Anyways, enough of me glowing about this....I will be posting some pics and vids up soon....

[FrogMan]

Anyways, enough of me glowing about this....I will be posting some pics and vids up soon....

Dennis, there's never too much glowing about what our kids do :)

Andrew played his first football game today. Poor kiddo, they'd had only two practice in the last week and they'd taken them through drills for about every positions on the field, from QB (actually simply learning how to throw the ball) to WR to OL to DL to DB. They had run some plays as a team toward the end of the Thursday night practice and they had slotted him on the end of the defensive line so I kind of briefed him on what to expect as a defensive end. This is where my poor kiddo comment comes in to play, they moved him around today! They put him in as a DB to cover the only WR on the other side. First play, he tackled the WR as he came accross the line of scrimmage, and stayed glued to him, talk about effective bump and run :D They didn't call one penalty during the whole game and even let that one go with only telling him he shouldn't be doing it. He kinda learned a bit and toward the end of the game, he was facing the right guy for the snap and even hitting himself on the thigh pads to pump himself up. Was just too cute :)

It's was a crappy, rainy and cold day but he looks like he had fun. Actually it's the first time in a long while that he looked so pumped when I asked him if he had fun.

FM

[MacroGuru]

Dennis, there's never too much glowing about what our kids do :)

Andrew played his first football game today. Poor kiddo, they'd had only two practice in the last week and they'd taken them through drills for about every positions on the field, from QB (actually simply learning how to throw the ball) to WR to OL to DL to DB. They had run some plays as a team toward the end of the Thursday night practice and they had slotted him on the end of the defensive line so I kind of briefed him on what to expect as a defensive end. This is where my poor kiddo comment comes in to play, they moved him around today! They put him in as a DB to cover the only WR on the other side. First play, he tackled the WR as he came accross the line of scrimmage, and stayed glued to him, talk about effective bump and run :D They didn't call one penalty during the whole game and even let that one go with only telling him he shouldn't be doing it. He kinda learned a bit and toward the end of the game, he was facing the right guy for the snap and even hitting himself on the thigh pads to pump himself up. Was just too cute :)

It's was a crappy, rainy and cold day but he looks like he had fun. Actually it's the first time in a long while that he looked so pumped when I asked him if he had fun.

FM

That is definately awesome, my boy, Avery, shows more desire and skills at baseball than football...Honestly, I don't care either way, I myself was all about baseball up until my freshman year in H.S. when I was told I was to small to play catcher at that level.

Well, tell Andrew congrats on playing from me!

And how was Dad while watching him?

[FrogMan]

Well, tell Andrew congrats on playing from me!

And how was Dad while watching him?

I'll tell him :)

Dad was kind of anxious. You know, I had two hours of karate in the morning, and I got to the game with about 15 minutes to spare and he was already huddled up with the team so I didn't get to talk to him before the game, or work on his stances and what to expect a bit more, so I felt bad about myself that I couldn't help him more. Then I was worried he could get injured although I don't know why, maybe it's the bad reputation football has with the big injuries in the pros. I mean, Andrew's done karate fighting and when he plays soccer, he's the one bumping the others out of the way more than the one being bumped away, so I knew he could hold his own. But still, he's a 3rd grade playing in the 3rd/4th grade league so some are indeed bigger than him. He held his own fine after all and I'm sure he'll get better as the season goes on. I'm just so happy to see that he's having fun and he's motivated to go back to his two practices this week.

FM

[MacroGuru]

Just checking if anyone is interested in the Capoeira vids from the Batizado, if so send me a PM...

The files are not modified and quite large as I haven't edited them....also, they were taken using my HP M415 Digital Camera

[Radii]

This thread needs more conversation!

My son worked his butt off last soccer season and became our team's best goalie. I'm extremely proud of how hard he worked and how gutsy he played in goal, and most definitely let him know that.

So we're watching Brazil/Japan on TiVO, and (to avoid tivo spoilers still) one player gets open and takes an awesome, extremely powerful shot into the side of the net, no way in the world the keeper could stop it, etc. We watch the replay, and Anthony says, "wow, even *I* couldn't have stopped that!"

At least he isn't lacking in confidence :D

[WSUCougar]

I'm a little bummed and angry as a parent right now. Drew has been "busted" at daycare for two consecutive days for tantrums and hitting teachers. This is abnormal for him to begin with, but the hitting & kicking thing is really distressing. And it's over stupid little things like wanting a bandaid and not getting it (the "boo boo" was miniscule), and not listening to a teacher during nap time and then going ballistic. The latter one was today, and I had to leave work to come and get him. Grrrrrrr. So much for a fun start to the holiday weekend

Just needed to vent a little.

[Radii]

I'm a little bummed and angry as a parent right now. Drew has been "busted" at daycare for two consecutive days for tantrums and hitting teachers. This is abnormal for him to begin with, but the hitting & kicking thing is really distressing. And it's over stupid little things like wanting a bandaid and not getting it (the "boo boo" was miniscule), and not listening to a teacher during nap time and then going ballistic. The latter one was today, and I had to leave work to come and get him. Grrrrrrr. So much for a fun start to the holiday weekend

Just needed to vent a little.

I just saw this... is this totally out of the blue here? Does he offer any sort of reason for being upset? Is he behaving differently with you guys or is it just with his teachers? Not that I have any solution or anything but it is very curious to see drastically unusual behavior.

[oliegirl]

I'm a little bummed and angry as a parent right now. Drew has been "busted" at daycare for two consecutive days for tantrums and hitting teachers. This is abnormal for him to begin with, but the hitting & kicking thing is really distressing. And it's over stupid little things like wanting a bandaid and not getting it (the "boo boo" was miniscule), and not listening to a teacher during nap time and then going ballistic. The latter one was today, and I had to leave work to come and get him. Grrrrrrr. So much for a fun start to the holiday weekend

Just needed to vent a little.

How old is he? Anthony has gone through a couple phases over the past 8 years where he will all of a sudden start behaving completly differently for no apparent reason. I've always asked him what was going on, let him know that his behavior is not OK, and punish him for it if necessary. Sometimes he told me that something was wrong or something was bothering him and after a lot of prying on my part, tells me what is going on. Sometimes, it's just a phase and the behavior stops after a couple weeks and he goes back to his normal self.

I'd say keep a very close eye on him and maybe if you can find a good time, talk to him and ask him why he is all of a sudden doing these things. Also talk to his teachers and see if they have noticed any changes in his social behavior.

Good luck!!!!

[Lorena]

I came into the master bedroom and was horrified to find our 2 year old Landon with a Sharpie writing on the walls!! My look of horror must have registered into Landon's brain because he put the top back on the Sharpie and gave it to me. Antmeister and I started cleaning his mess with a Magic Eraser (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0007L1Y0W/103-8568572-6821429?v=glance&n=3760901) and it got rid of it all.

What is it in a kid's brain that tells him it's okay to do something even though they know it's wrong? He KNEW because he handed me the Sharpie. Ugh... kids.

My second thought was damn, I should have taken a picture of it, but alas... too late.

[oliegirl]

I came into the master bedroom and was horrified to find our 2 year old Landon with a Sharpie writing on the walls!! My look of horror must have registered into Landon's brain because he put the top back on the Sharpie and gave it to me. Antmeister and I started cleaning his mess with a Magic Eraser (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0007L1Y0W/103-8568572-6821429?v=glance&n=3760901) and it got rid of it all.

What is it in a kid's brain that tells him it's okay to do something even though they know it's wrong? He KNEW because he handed me the Sharpie. Ugh... kids.

My second thought was damn, I should have taken a picture of it, but alas... too late.


Magic Eraser = Best Invention EVER!!!!!!

[Lorena]

Magic Eraser = Best Invention EVER!!!!!!

Totally! Sharpies are supposed to be permanent, but it can't fight the power of the Magic Eraser :D

[duckman]

The other day, I had to start the dreaded "Curse Jar" back up after dropping 3 F-bombs while driving in front of Matthew. The kid made a killing off me the last time I had one.

I know it's not a story about my son, but I thought I share anyways.

[stevew]

I came into the master bedroom and was horrified to find our 2 year old Landon with a Sharpie writing on the walls!! My look of horror must have registered into Landon's brain because he put the top back on the Sharpie and gave it to me. Antmeister and I started cleaning his mess with a Magic Eraser (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0007L1Y0W/103-8568572-6821429?v=glance&n=3760901) and it got rid of it all.

What is it in a kid's brain that tells him it's okay to do something even though they know it's wrong? He KNEW because he handed me the Sharpie. Ugh... kids.

My second thought was damn, I should have taken a picture of it, but alas... too late.

Yeah, my horrible 2 year old does the same thing. Magic Erasers don't work as good on flat paint as they do on semi gloss.

[Lorena]

Yeah, my horrible 2 year old does the same thing. Magic Erasers don't work as good on flat paint as they do on semi gloss.

Yeah, luckily our son wrote on the door which is semi gloss and it came off much easier than the wall... that was a challenge.

[Samdari]

The baby has decided she no longer requires sleep.

Newborns just suck.

[WSUCougar]

The baby has decided she no longer requires sleep.

Newborns just suck.
Oh my yes.

All I can say is I feel your pain.

[duckman]

The baby has decided she no longer requires sleep.

Newborns just suck.

How old is she?

[WSUCougar]

How old is she?
One month old, referencing this thread (http://www.operationsports.com/fofc/showthread.php?t=50353&highlight=baby).

[FrogMan]

I feel for you samdari, under 4, maybe even 6 months of age were the times I found the toughest. Very little interaction and they are so needy. Hang in there, the moment she'll start smiling and reacting to you, it'll be worth your while believe me...

FM

[Samdari]

I know, I have one who is 21 months, and he is the light of my life. I remember when he was this age, always remarking to my wife, "I cannot believe people ever have two." And here I am.

After two days, she remembered she liked to sleep, and started again.

[WSUCougar]

always remarking to my wife, "I cannot believe people ever have two." And here I am.
This made me chuckle. And anyone with 3+ is certifiably insane. :D

[FrogMan]

This made me chuckle. And anyone with 3+ is certifiably insane. :D

absolutely, I don't know what that makes of revrew though :D

FM

[Samdari]

absolutely, I don't know what that makes of revrew though :D

Stunningly inept at using birth control?

[FrogMan]

Stunningly inept at using birth control?

oh, I think they were all planned out in advance and welcomed to this world, all 17 of them :D

FM

[WSUCougar]

We got Drew a new (used) bed this past weekend. It's an oak "captains bed" that is twin-sized. He loves it, and it's really cool to see him enjoying such a simple thing so much.

Between that and swimming in the pool every chance he gets, he seems to be a happy camper right now. Which = happy parents! :)

[Wolfpack]

Had something of a hilarious problem with understanding our linguistically advanced 2.5-year-old recently. About a week ago, I'm sitting on the couch watching TV and she suddenly blurts out something that sounds amazingly like "visit bitches.com". I'm having her repeat what she's saying to me and then to my wife and then back to me where I can study her lips and, sure enough, it looks like she's leading off the word with a "b" sound. We're trying to think of a) where she might have heard that and b) maybe it's an accidental rhyme with what she meant to say, so we try ditches, witches and other similar words to see if she really meant to say something else. We don't repremand her because neither one of us can think of an incident where such a word was used around her recently, so we just think it's an error in pronounciation.

Nothing more comes of it until a couple of nights ago when, once again, she suddenly parrots the "visit bitches.com" line again. This time, it's pretty obvious it's what she's saying. Of course, I'm laughing my head off, mostly in astonishment, but once again we're still trying to figure out the source of this statement. I haven't been watching TV where she might've heard something like that and my wife usually watches HGTV, TLC, or Food Network during the day, so the TV seems to be out. What else could it be?

Well, it got solved and it was the TV's fault in the end, but not in the way we thought. Turns out because dear daughter watches a fair amount of PBS Sprout and Sprout On Demand that somewhere during all that TV time, somebody or something mentioned not "bitches.com" but "beaches.com". What a relief! :D

Admittedly, she may watch too much of those PBS programs because she can recite pretty much verbatim all the repeatable parts that usually advertise PBS Sprout. I'm in so much trouble.

[WSUCougar]

That's a riot, good story.

I had a pretty amusing incident picking up from daycare yesterday. One of Drew's best friends, John, is a notorious instigator (in a good, 4-year-old way). Anyway, I'm sitting there with Drew, and John and another boy come over with a picture book. John flips through it to a picture of some old fisherman in his boat, holding a little boy over the side to grab a fish with his net. Well, the boy's ass crack is showing a bit, to which John points and shouts out, "This is the BOOTY PICTURE!" Lots of giggling ensued, and BOOTY was repeated over and over, including to the young female teacher. It was hilarious.

[FrogMan]

good story Wolfpack, me I'm worried my 2.5 year old will go to the daycare saying "daddy has a big penis". He saw me coming off the shower the other day and his eyes focused down there. Sure, I told him, daddy has one, Matty has one. Daddy's is bigger that Matty's because daddy is bigger and taller than Matty. Not sure all explanations will follow in his casual Monday morning talks at the daycare.. :D

FM

[sachmo71]

My daughter and i were on the bench swing the other day, and she said "Oh shit."
I asked her to repeat what she had said.
"Oh shit." and she paused. "Is that a bad word, daddy?"
Trying not to laugh, I told her that it was and to not repeat it.

[Suburban Rhythm]

Had something of a hilarious problem with understanding our linguistically advanced 2.5-year-old recently. About a week ago, I'm sitting on the couch watching TV and she suddenly blurts out something that sounds amazingly like "visit bitches.com". I'm having her repeat what she's saying to me and then to my wife and then back to me where I can study her lips and, sure enough, it looks like she's leading off the word with a "b" sound. We're trying to think of a) where she might have heard that and b) maybe it's an accidental rhyme with what she meant to say, so we try ditches, witches and other similar words to see if she really meant to say something else. We don't repremand her because neither one of us can think of an incident where such a word was used around her recently, so we just think it's an error in pronounciation.

Nothing more comes of it until a couple of nights ago when, once again, she suddenly parrots the "visit bitches.com" line again. This time, it's pretty obvious it's what she's saying. Of course, I'm laughing my head off, mostly in astonishment, but once again we're still trying to figure out the source of this statement. I haven't been watching TV where she might've heard something like that and my wife usually watches HGTV, TLC, or Food Network during the day, so the TV seems to be out. What else could it be?

Well, it got solved and it was the TV's fault in the end, but not in the way we thought. Turns out because dear daughter watches a fair amount of PBS Sprout and Sprout On Demand that somewhere during all that TV time, somebody or something mentioned not "bitches.com" but "beaches.com". What a relief! :D

Admittedly, she may watch too much of those PBS programs because she can recite pretty much verbatim all the repeatable parts that usually advertise PBS Sprout. I'm in so much trouble.

My 2 year old is also a HUGE Sprout fan, and like you, I often wonder is she watching too much.

Thought you might find this interesting...if you and your wife are like my wife and I, you no doubt picked up on "Melanie" missing from the Good Night show.


http://www.sproutletsgrow.com/good_night/index.html

A Notice To Parents Regarding
The Good Night Show



Late last week, Melanie Martinez, host of The Good Night Show, alerted us to the internet posting of an independent short film that she appeared in seven years ago. PBS KIDS Sprout has determined that the dialogue in this video is inappropriate for her role as a preschool program host and may undermine her character’s credibility with our audience. As a result, PBS KIDS Sprout has decided that she will no longer appear as host of The Good Night Show. Melanie has been an important part of our network and we are disappointed that we had to make this difficult decision.

PBS KIDS Sprout’s foremost priority is to do what is best for our young viewers and their families. We remain committed to The Good Night Show, which debuted last year, as a valuable tool for parents to help children wind down after a busy day. Regularly scheduled programs within The Good Night Show (e.g. Dragon Tales™, Bob The Builder™, Thomas & Friends™) will continue to air in their designated time slots with new short-form content replacing Melanie’s segments. We are developing plans to launch a new season of The Good Night Show with a new host in late 2006.


Posted Thursday, July 20, 2006 at 6:02 p.m. ET



Per CNN, she appraoched them about 2 videos called Technical Virgin, spoofing PSAs on how young girls can remain virgins.

[Wolfpack]

My 2 year old is also a HUGE Sprout fan, and like you, I often wonder is she watching too much.

Thought you might find this interesting...if you and your wife are like my wife and I, you no doubt picked up on "Melanie" missing from the Good Night show.


http://www.sproutletsgrow.com/good_night/index.html


Per CNN, she appraoched them about 2 videos called Technical Virgin, spoofing PSAs on how young girls can remain virgins.

Yeah, I saw that. Doesn't really impact us that much since we don't really let her watch Sprout after dinnertime anyway. She more watches it during the morning or early afternoon hours before her nap.

[Wolfpack]

Dola...holy cow! On a lark I poked around YouTube and Google Video and managed to find the videos in question. I completely, COMPLETELY understand why she was dismissed now. They're hilarious, but they are as raunchy as you can get in thirty seconds without delving into actual pornographic images.

[Suburban Rhythm]

Dola...holy cow! On a lark I poked around YouTube and Google Video and managed to find the videos in question. I completely, COMPLETELY understand why she was dismissed now. They're hilarious, but they are as raunchy as you can get in thirty seconds without delving into actual pornographic images.

Now I'll have to go look! I jokingly kept telling my wife "They must have caught her in some pr0n!" as the explanation for her disappearnce...I guess I wasn't THAT far off.

[WSUCougar]

My wife is driving yesterday with 4-year-old Drew, and hears him say this after touching the car window:

"Jesus Christ, that's hot!"

She had trouble navigating through that little gem.

[FrogMan]

Two samples of the types of conversations I keep having with Matty, our 2.5 yo kiddo...


M: why in the car?
S: we're giving a ride to Andrew to his English Camp
M: Why?
S: because he's going to the English camp
M: why?
S: because there are lots of activities
M: why?
S: because he wants to learn English too
M: why?


sigh, but then...

M: what's that?
S: it's a bowl that grandma forgot to bring back home
M: why?
S: she forgot
M: why?
S: she was thinking about something else
M: why?
S: she was probably thinking about you
M: Why?
S: because she loves you so much
M: oh


And for a rare time, I WON!!!!! :D

Yep, we're very deep in the "why" phase...

FM

[sachmo71]

Two samples of the types of conversations I keep having with Matty, our 2.5 yo kiddo...




Yep, we're very deep in the "why" phase...

FM

I hear you. My 4 year old is on the why kick. It's funny, when I was young I told myself that when I was a father, I would tell my kids about everything and not let it bother me, like it obviously did my father, after a while. Little did I know how tiring explaining everything to a child could be after a long day at work, a commute home, picking up groceries, and chasing two kids around the house would be.

:)

[WSUCougar]

Little did I know how tiring explaining everything to a child could be after a long day at work, a commute home, picking up groceries, and chasing two kids around the house would be.
WHY?

[Butter]

My wife babysits a few kids during the day... she recently picked up her friend's 2 year old. Apparently, that mom says "dammit" a lot, because my wife says that whenever a TV show is over, the 2 year old says "Dammit TV! Dammit TV!" It took her a couple of days, but she finally broke him of that one.

[Ksyrup]

We haven't gotten to the "why" stage yet with our 2 year old (2 years, 3 months), but she had a great comment the other day. She was walking toward the kitchen but paying attention to the TV and ran right into the dining room table. I think she caught herself before she actually hit, so she wasn't really hurt, just scared/stunned.

So my wife comes out from the kitchen and says, "Did that mean table jump out and bite you?"

And Mackenzie says, "No, it was me."

Man, we couldn't stop laughing for about 10 minutes.

[PilotMan]

Yesterday was a rough day for us.

We traveled to Ft Worth for a short two day visit to the grandparents house for swimming, relaxation and horse rides. Everything went really well until last night. My kids were taking turns riding one of the horses and Zachary (4) had already ridden and Ean (almost 3) was taking his turn when the horse spooked and sent him flying.

He came down on his head, on a rock. There was blood everywhere but he didn't get knocked out. A friend, who is a nurse, rushed us to the childrens hospital. She called ahead and when we got there they took us in right away. He was in a lot of pain, but stayed awake.

They did some blood work, xrays and a CT scan, and everything came back negative. You have no idea how scary it was to see your baby in a neck collar. He was alright except for the 2 in crescent shaped gash on his forehead and the numerous scrapes under his left eye.

He did his so well, and after a little more crying and 17 stiches (13 exterior, 4 interior) he got to go back home. We are traveling back to our house today. I am hoping that we don't have any problems in the airport with all the extra security. It was a good trip, just ended with more excitement then any of us would ever hope for.

Please put my "tiny" in your thoughts and prayers as he heals over the next few weeks.

PM

[sachmo71]

Yesterday was a rough day for us.

We traveled to Ft Worth for a short two day visit to the grandparents house for swimming, relaxation and horse rides. Everything went really well until last night. My kids were taking turns riding one of the horses and Zachary (4) had already ridden and Ean (almost 3) was taking his turn when the horse spooked and sent him flying.

He came down on his head, on a rock. There was blood everywhere but he didn't get knocked out. A friend, who is a nurse, rushed us to the childrens hospital. She called ahead and when we got there they took us in right away. He was in a lot of pain, but stayed awake.

They did some blood work, xrays and a CT scan, and everything came back negative. You have no idea how scary it was to see your baby in a neck collar. He was alright except for the 2 in crescent shaped gash on his forehead and the numerous scrapes under his left eye.

He did his so well, and after a little more crying and 17 stiches (13 exterior, 4 interior) he got to go back home. We are traveling back to our house today. I am hoping that we don't have any problems in the airport with all the extra security. It was a good trip, just ended with more excitement then any of us would ever hope for.

Please put my "tiny" in your thoughts and prayers as he heals over the next few weeks.

PM

Ugh. I'm very sorry to hear that, Pilotman. Brings back some bad memories for me. :(

[Wolfpack]

For me as well (mentioned upthread somewhere). Sorry to hear about what happened. He's got some prayers coming.

[ibnsgirl]

That is rough, PM. I'm glad to hear that your son is on the mend!

Sorry that I haven't been around much lately. It seems like there has been so much going on of late.

Last month, Lucy turned 1, and we had a little party for her. It was threatening to rain and it did sprinkle a little, so not a whole lot of people showed up. That was probably just as well. Lucy did really well; she is doing so much better around other people. It was also really good that my mom and Tony's parents came to our apartment for the party (they hadn't been here since she was a few weeks old). Lucy was soooo much more comfortable and willing to interact with everybody. Singing “Happy Birthday” kind of freaked her out, but she regained her composure and then gave and in-depth explanation about, well, something. Overall, a good day was had by all.

I don’t even remember when I updated anything last, but Lucy is walking (and trying to run), trying to climb on everything that is under a foot tall, and she still has just one, lonely chomper.

We are also going to be moving in the foreseeable future! Tony got a promotion/transfer to a town that is about an hour from where we are now so he is commuting, but we want to get somewhere closer. We’ve made several trips to the area house-hunting, and Lucy has really been a trooper.

We are hoping to have a house on few acres, maybe to have a few animals, including my horse (who’s currently living at my mom’s). While I’m looking forward to having Ben right there, don’t think that it hasn’t crossed my mind all the scenarios of having a toddler near a horse.

Between house-hunting and starting our own mini-ranch, I’m sure that there is fodder for a dynasty, but I’m not sure I’d do all that great a job of keeping it updated right now. Maybe soon… Until then, visit beaches.com! :D That is classic, Wolfpack!

[Lorena]

Yesterday was a rough day for us.

We traveled to Ft Worth for a short two day visit to the grandparents house for swimming, relaxation and horse rides. Everything went really well until last night. My kids were taking turns riding one of the horses and Zachary (4) had already ridden and Ean (almost 3) was taking his turn when the horse spooked and sent him flying.

He came down on his head, on a rock. There was blood everywhere but he didn't get knocked out. A friend, who is a nurse, rushed us to the childrens hospital. She called ahead and when we got there they took us in right away. He was in a lot of pain, but stayed awake.

They did some blood work, xrays and a CT scan, and everything came back negative. You have no idea how scary it was to see your baby in a neck collar. He was alright except for the 2 in crescent shaped gash on his forehead and the numerous scrapes under his left eye.

He did his so well, and after a little more crying and 17 stiches (13 exterior, 4 interior) he got to go back home. We are traveling back to our house today. I am hoping that we don't have any problems in the airport with all the extra security. It was a good trip, just ended with more excitement then any of us would ever hope for.

Please put my "tiny" in your thoughts and prayers as he heals over the next few weeks.

PM

That must have been really scary! I'll have tiny in my thoughts PM :(

[vex]

Sorry I never got around to posting this.


Introducing Noah William Brown. Born on July 13th, will be 8 weeks this Thursday. Was 8 lbs 1 oz and 20 1/2 in.



http://myspace-683.vo.llnwd.net/01133/38/67/1133877683_l.jpg


http://myspace-466.vo.llnwd.net/01133/66/43/1133913466_l.jpg


http://myspace-883.vo.llnwd.net/01133/38/84/1133914883_l.jpg


http://myspace-774.vo.llnwd.net/01133/47/75/1133915774_l.jpg


http://myspace-523.vo.llnwd.net/01133/32/56/1133916523_l.jpg

[Godzilla Blitz]

Vex: Congrats! Way to go!

[Radii]

congrats!!! :)

[FrogMan]

congrats Will but tell me this, the little thing is not even two months old and there you are, staying late at night playing a network game of FM2006??? Woah, you're a tougher man than I ;)

FM

[Lorena]

Aww... what a cutie Vex! Grats :)

[WSUCougar]

Adorable baby, congrats Vex.

[vex]

congrats Will but tell me this, the little thing is not even two months old and there you are, staying late at night playing a network game of FM2006??? Woah, you're a tougher man than I ;)

FM


He was actually spending the night at his grandparents, so it worked out well:)

[WSUCougar]

From a blog my wife enjoys reading:

Dear Leta,

A couple of days ago you turned thirty-one months old. I’m pretty damn glad this month is over, to tell you the truth, and not because of anything you have done. In fact, you are probably the one thing that has pulled our bodies through the thick mud of the last few weeks, through the crappy pea soup of circumstances that sometimes happen when you are responsible for putting things back together after they have gone terribly wrong. It’s called Being an Adult, and it totally sucks. Many nights your father and I will fall lifeless into bed, and in the moments before we both fall asleep one of us will turn to the other and say, “I want gum. Pink gum.” Those are the first words out of your mouth every morning, and it’s our way of reminding each other of what we have to look forward to, of the reason our lives are really quite wonderful. It’s impossible to dwell on the more difficult parts of life when you live with someone who farts and then routinely screams, often in public, “Daddy tooted!”

Mornings are your most talkative time, and after demanding a piece of gum and before I’ve even lifted you out of the crib you start asking for various items from the kitchen as if ordering from a menu:

“A cup of water. Big. With ice in it.”

“Strawberry coptart. Not hot.”

“Chitchen. Four. With mustard. And tetchup.”

If I bring you water in the wrong cup, or fix you a poptart that has no icing, you become so unnecessarily insolent that if I were your server I would secretly spit into your Diet Coke. You will only eat a specific brand of chicken nuggets, ones shaped like the silhouettes of dinosaurs, and in the most recent bag we bought there was one piece that must have gotten caught in the machine at the manufacturing plant. Two dinosaurs had fused into one giant lump, and I actively avoided serving it to you until it was one of the only pieces left. I was hoping that maybe you wouldn’t notice the odd piece, and you didn’t until you had already dipped it in ketchup and brought it to your mouth. That’s when the monstrosity locked eyes with you and ate your face off. There was a lot of blood, a lot of splintered wood where the deformed dinosaur had wrestled you to the ground, had confronted you with its Wrongness, and afterward as I mopped up the carnage your father mentioned that he had avoided serving you that exact piece, too. Do you know how embarrassing it is to realize that you have rearranged your life for a chicken nugget?

Just one day previous to that incident we were all sitting around the table having lunch together, you and I and your father and the babysitter, when you refused to eat the chicken we had cooked for you. This is not uncommon — see: every post I have ever written about your eating habits — and my take on this now is to completely ignore you. Whether or not you eat a particular meal is going to have very little effect on whether or not you make it to your next birthday, so I no longer spend any energy worrying about this. Your father, however, cannot stifle the DNA given to him by his own father, and when you rebel this way he feels an irresistible need to prove just how much control he has as a parent, and more importantly, as a man. “Leta!” he said as he gripped the top of the table with his fists. “You see all three of us sitting here? We are all your bosses. Mama is your boss, Katey is your boss, Daddy is your boss. Your bosses are telling you to EAT YOUR CHICKEN.” It wasn’t the most convincing argument he has ever made, but it was probably his loudest. You sat very quietly with your hands in your lap, and after shooting both me and the babysitter a quick look you pointed straight at your father and said in a tone that gave him the first glimpse of the hell his life will be when, several years from now, you and I end up having our periods during the same week, “Mama is the boss OF YOU!”

This month we have spent many afternoons playing with your ugly plastic baby dolls, pushing them around the house in strollers and wrapping them in blankets to keep them warm during the long, cold summer. You love to put together puzzles, draw flowers, jump on the bed, and recite entire books from memory. One day when we had exhausted all your usual activities, I was searching for something to allay your boredom when absentmindedly I stuck a small bouncy ball in my mouth and spit it out like a clown. You thought it was the funniest thing you had ever seen, and so we spent the next hour spitting out bouncy balls. I didn’t think anything of it until the next morning when I was working in the basement and I heard the babysitter scream. I ran upstairs to find her hyperventilating, and when I asked what was wrong she said, “Leta put a bouncy ball in her mouth!” You mean, one of those objects that is as perfectly round as the opening in her throat? That which could lodge itself squarely in her esophagus? I hope you watched her spit it out because that part is a total riot!

One night last week we had dinner with my father and arrived home later than your usual bedtime. When we walked in the door I told you to follow me into the bathroom to get ready for bed, but you protested the way someone your age usually does, with a really dramatic, “Nuh-uh!” and by stomping your itty-bitty feet which could be heard all of two-inches away. I headed to your room to get out your pajamas when I heard your father walk to the front of the house and tell you it was time for bed. “No,” you said again, but this time more softly, more reasonably, and then continued, “I’m sitting here for two minutes.” Your father yelled from the living room that you had put yourself into a time-out, had moved your chair against the wall and climbed onto it. How could we possibly expect you to go to bed when you are not allowed to get out of that chair? That was an impressive tactic, Leta, and it made me think that maybe it’s not such a good idea that you are in the room when we watch 60 Minutes. I eventually picked you up and carried you to bed, but next time I may see your psychological warfare and raise you one Elmo Hostage Crisis.

I have a friend who used to say that when I talked about parenthood it sounded as if I were trying to convince myself that everything was okay. And for a long time it was exactly that — this new way of life was hard to navigate, impossible at times. I used to hang up the phone after talking to her, crawl into my closet and cry because I thought I was so bad at this. I said a few months ago that things were better, and they were, but I had no idea that you would continue to become more charming, more adorable, more full of surprises. At this age you are like Christmas every morning, always saying something wildly outrageous, often breaking into song in the oddest places, and now my friend tells me that when I talk about parenthood it sounds like an instrument I’ve been playing all my life. I like to think that I feel better about this because I am better at this, but I know it’s mostly because you are the most amazing person I have ever known. Whenever I talk about you to other people, whenever they ask me how I’m doing with this, I’m not sure I can adequately communicate just how lucky I am to know you.

Love,
Mama

[FrogMan]

Thanks for sharing that, I thought it was really sweet. I've printed it and given it to a couple of people dealing with kiddos along that age, as well as my wife. Matthew is just about that age and he is just like that, so similar...

Speaking of Matty, I've put a little video of him spinning his big brother's bo in our backyard. I was practicing, fooling around with my own bo more than anything when my wife thought it would be cool to have him come out and "practice" with me... It was indeed cool :)

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v354/QcFrogMan/karatevids/?action=view&current=100_5960.flv

FM

[sachmo71]

almost lost your family jewels there, frogman!

[FrogMan]

almost lost your family jewels there, frogman!

balls of steel man, balls of steel. One of the thing they teach us, take one in the balls like a man, just so you can defend yourself properly. :D

FM

[PilotMan]

Ean is healing well since he had his stiches taken out. Our doctor says that it could't be any better. He seems to be back to normal. In the meantime Zachary decided that his brother was getting to much attention. While we were at the gym he was not listening to Dad and running around and he lost his balance and fell into the corner of a counter. Off to the emergency room again and 3 hours and 4 stiches under his left eye later we were home. He is healing well too. That is the 4th time that he had stiches in his head. He did really well for the doctor and didn't need to be held and was chatting with the doctor while he was doing it.

Here is another saying that you should never need to tell your kids (but was heard in my house this week): "Don't stick a screwdriver in the dog's butt."

Beautiful baby Vex, congrats!

[ibnsgirl]

Congrats, vex!!!! :)

I love this line:
Do you know how embarrassing it is to realize that you have rearranged your life for a chicken nugget?

That is so true...

[CamEdwards]

Ean is healing well since he had his stiches taken out. Our doctor says that it could't be any better. He seems to be back to normal. In the meantime Zachary decided that his brother was getting to much attention. While we were at the gym he was not listening to Dad and running around and he lost his balance and fell into the corner of a counter. Off to the emergency room again and 3 hours and 4 stiches under his left eye later we were home. He is healing well too. That is the 4th time that he had stiches in his head. He did really well for the doctor and didn't need to be held and was chatting with the doctor while he was doing it.

Here is another saying that you should never need to tell your kids (but was heard in my house this week): "Don't stick a screwdriver in the dog's butt."

Beautiful baby Vex, congrats!

Gah. We just got a dog this pass week. I have a feeling that sentence will soon be uttered in our house.

James and Catherine are going to be 18 months old at the end of this month. They're finally getting around to talking, although Catherine's big word is "No."

I also recently changed times for my talk show, so I've been getting to spend a lot more time with the kids since I don't have to go into work until 4:30 p.m. It's been wonderful getting to play with them all day, although I think they're getting a little spoiled by all the attention. At least Catherine is. James is his own little guy... content to play by himself and come over to you every now and then to climb up in your lap.

The big question is whether or not our 15 year old will buckle down in school this year. I've already warned him that life will be very difficult if his progress reports don't look good.

[duckman]

Tonight, my ex called me to let me know how a parent-teacher conference went. Basically, they have been trying to get Matthew labeled with a learning disability without any formal testing. We sent him to see a specialist (a neurologist who specializes in learning disabilities) and he thinks Matthew is gifted and not a disability.

During the conference, they have been trying to convince my ex to allow them to put him on a IEP without a formal diagnosis or any testing. They were pissed because they now have to give assessment tests to determine if he has any cognitive problems. I told her to stay the course and not let those bastards try to label him without doing any of these things first.

I feel blessed that we have people like the neurologist who will stand up to schools that try to label children because they don't fit their idea of what a "good" student is. I think it's deplorable that we even have to go through this nonsense to make sure he is not improperly labeled.

[QuikSand]

So, I have an odd contribution to this discusssion.

It seems... without realizing it... that Mrs Q and I have cursed our daughter with an un-pronouncable name. *sigh*

We had several different boy or girl names in mind when she was born, we spent a few hours with her, and ultimately settled on the name Elisa -- it's a once-common derivative of Elizabeth, and appears in many baby name books with allusions to reasonably wide use in French, Spanish, and Italian. I have known a couple people with the name, always thought it was pretty, and it seemed like the best fit among our various contenders once we got a chance to meet our baby girl.

So, fast forward to now. She's nearing ten months, and it's perfectly clear -- almost nobody seems to be able to "get it." The name is, incidentally, pronounced like eh-LEE-sah. Instead, we get lots of things that sound like Alyssa, Eliza, Elsa, Eleeza, and I don't know what else.

I know there are bigger issues to worry about -- but have we cursed our daughter to live with a name that her friends and teachers will get wrong for her entire childhood? It honestly hadn't even occured to us before we started seeing so many of our friends and family stumble on the name. *sigh*

[Ksyrup]

Sure looks like it. FTR, before I got to your pronunciation of it, I thought it was either the way you pronounce it, or Eliza, or Eleeza. I think the problem is that there are several different ways you could pronounce it, which causes the issue. It probably isn't your fault, per se, but rather the fact that slightly different/derivative names are pronounced in multiple ways. So, this name seems to be a combination of those different names, resulting in confusion for others. Also, I'm sure that somewhere, there is a child named Elisa whose parents pronounce it differently than you.

We have a somewhat similar problem with our last name - there are 3 different ways to pronounce it, and I prefer the "middle of the road" variation, but living in the south, I have always had to put up with the "long A" variation. I've just learned to live with it, correcting it where it was possible but not bothering with it in most situations.

[Eaglesfan27]

Interesting post, QS. My wife is starting to tell me names for our potential daughter, which is a nice step as I've been ready for kids for a year or so and she feels like she isn't ready, but I see this as moving towards being ready..

Anyway, she told me 4 potential names today and they all run the risk of causing that exact problem, and people already butcher my last name routinely.

[SnDvls]

So, I have an odd contribution to this discusssion.

It seems... without realizing it... that Mrs Q and I have cursed our daughter with an un-pronouncable name. *sigh*

We had several different boy or girl names in mind when she was born, we spent a few hours with her, and ultimately settled on the name Elisa -- it's a once-common derivative of Elizabeth, and appears in many baby name books with allusions to reasonably wide use in French, Spanish, and Italian. I have known a couple people with the name, always thought it was pretty, and it seemed like the best fit among our various contenders once we got a chance to meet our baby girl.

So, fast forward to now. She's nearing ten months, and it's perfectly clear -- almost nobody seems to be able to "get it." The name is, incidentally, pronounced like eh-LEE-sah. Instead, we get lots of things that sound like Alyssa, Eliza, Elsa, Eleeza, and I don't know what else.

I know there are bigger issues to worry about -- but have we cursed our daughter to live with a name that her friends and teachers will get wrong for her entire childhood? It honestly hadn't even occured to us before we started seeing so many of our friends and family stumble on the name. *sigh*

I actually read it correctly before you did it your phonetic way. I think it's just something she'll get used to over time. as will the people saying it. we named our daughter Mckinley, but people are always wanting to put a capital "k" in there. I also go by my middle name. always have my entire life, except for the tax man, insurance man, and dr.'s offices can't seem to figure it out so I just get used to it there too and have to remember when they call, say, mail me something with my first name that it's really for me.

[Ksyrup]

Our two daughters' names are Caitlin and Mackenzie. No pronunciation problems, but the varied spellings are killing us. We struggled with which ones to go with for months before they were born and decided to stick with the basic.

[FrogMan]

So, I have an odd contribution to this discusssion.

It seems... without realizing it... that Mrs Q and I have cursed our daughter with an un-pronouncable name. *sigh*

We had several different boy or girl names in mind when she was born, we spent a few hours with her, and ultimately settled on the name Elisa -- it's a once-common derivative of Elizabeth, and appears in many baby name books with allusions to reasonably wide use in French, Spanish, and Italian. I have known a couple people with the name, always thought it was pretty, and it seemed like the best fit among our various contenders once we got a chance to meet our baby girl.

So, fast forward to now. She's nearing ten months, and it's perfectly clear -- almost nobody seems to be able to "get it." The name is, incidentally, pronounced like eh-LEE-sah. Instead, we get lots of things that sound like Alyssa, Eliza, Elsa, Eleeza, and I don't know what else.

I know there are bigger issues to worry about -- but have we cursed our daughter to live with a name that her friends and teachers will get wrong for her entire childhood? It honestly hadn't even occured to us before we started seeing so many of our friends and family stumble on the name. *sigh*

you just said it, "allusions to reasonably wide use in French, Spanish, and Italian". It's a very nice name, just not an English-only one. "eh-LEE-zah" is how it should be in French as an "s" in between two vowels becomes a "z". She might probably have to repeat her name a few times as she grows up, but that's a beautiful name that sounds as if it's pulling its root from many different other languages.

As a side not, sadly, as cute as I think it sounds in the "eh-LEE-sah" way (or even "eh-LEE-zah") this one would have been banned by my wife and I as people in Quebec have a sad tendency to end the "hah" in a "haw" way that is not as cute.

FM

[Lorena]

My daughter had me in tears today.

She and I were discussing going to L.A. sometime soon, but I told her we couldn't afford it because we don't have the $$ right now.

So I went to the store and when I came back she said, "Mommy, I have a surprise for you... it's on your computer desk". So I come to my desk and I find a bunch of change and she said, "I got this from my piggybank so you can go to L.A., is it enough?" And I said, "Aww baby, I would need about 300 times that amount. Thanks but this is your hard earned money, I can't take it." And she left to her room. I went in a few minutes later and her eyes were red with tears and she said, "I'm sorry mommy, but I wanted to help you go to L.A. and I wanted Landon and I to go too" and she started crying. I was in tears! Hell, I'm in tears just talking about it... what a thoughtful thing for a 6 year old to do. I told her that what her thoughtfulness was worth more than any money I could ever get and I hugged her all teary eyed.

[Eaglesfan27]

My daughter had me in tears today.

She and I were discussing going to L.A. sometime soon, but I told her we couldn't afford it because we don't have the $$ right now.

So I went to the store and when I came back she said, "Mommy, I have a surprise for you... it's on your computer desk". So I come to my desk and I find a bunch of change and she said, "I got this from my piggybank so you can go to L.A., is it enough?" And I said, "Aww baby, I would need about 300 times that amount. Thanks but this is your hard earned money, I can't take it." And she left to her room. I went in a few minutes later and her eyes were red with tears and she said, "I'm sorry mommy, but I wanted to help you go to L.A. and I wanted Landon and I to go too" and she started crying. I was in tears! Hell, I'm in tears just talking about it... what a thoughtful thing for a 6 year old to do. I told her that what her thoughtfulness was worth more than any money I could ever get and I hugged her all teary eyed.


Great story. Thanks for sharing.

[FrogMan]

agreed, very touching story dodgerchick.

Christmas does bring a lot of funny stories too. Matthew, who will turn 3 in mid-January, was playing in the hallway last Wednesday when I went downstairs to start a fire in the woodstove. I heard him call out "Daddy, where are you?" and I replied that I was downstairs. He asked what I was doing and I replied that I was starting a fire. He often likes coming down and tear newspaper to help me, or bring some little pieces of wood to start it off but this time, instead of his usual "oh wait I wanna help!", he screamed as heavy a "NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!" as he could. I walked up the stairs to see what this was about and he kept on going, his eyes all teary, breathing hard "you're gonna burn Santa *snif* when *snif* he's *snif* gonna come down the chimney!!!!". I couldn't help but smile, poor kiddo worried about burning Santa. :)

I ended up telling him that Santa was not ready to come yet, that it was okay and that he would only come when we leave him some cookies and milk. So tomorrow night, I'll make a big show of having him prepare some cookies and a class of milk and there won't be any fire in the chimney tomorrow night. ;)

FM

[Eaglesfan27]

Tomorrow night?

[FrogMan]

yeah, well, we don't do the physical impersonation of Santa, simply keep the myth around him and we like having the kids see the gifts maybe a day before we actually unwrap them. Since we will unwrap the gifts on Christmas Eve after dinner, tonight is as good a night as any other to load the bottom of the Christmas tree with gifts so they can wonder what's in all these boxes for a day and a half. :)

FM

[Lorena]

agreed, very touching story dodgerchick.

Christmas does bring a lot of funny stories too. Matthew, who will turn 3 in mid-January, was playing in the hallway last Wednesday when I went downstairs to start a fire in the woodstove. I heard him call out "Daddy, where are you?" and I replied that I was downstairs. He asked what I was doing and I replied that I was starting a fire. He often likes coming down and tear newspaper to help me, or bring some little pieces of wood to start it off but this time, instead of his usual "oh wait I wanna help!", he screamed as heavy a "NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!" as he could. I walked up the stairs to see what this was about and he kept on going, his eyes all teary, breathing hard "you're gonna burn Santa *snif* when *snif* he's *snif* gonna come down the chimney!!!!". I couldn't help but smile, poor kiddo worried about burning Santa. :)

I ended up telling him that Santa was not ready to come yet, that it was okay and that he would only come when we leave him some cookies and milk. So tomorrow night, I'll make a big show of having him prepare some cookies and a class of milk and there won't be any fire in the chimney tomorrow night. ;)

FM

Awww... cute story :)

[redfox000]

Me too...

I have three kids, two boys 7 (yes, twins) and a daughter age 3.

I have TONS of stories, like most of you and, like most of you, love them dearly.

My daughter is going through the "dance with me" phase, which I love. Anytime Dora or anything is on that she is watching, I will need to come over and dance with her until the music is done. Trying to enjoy this stage before she starts to hate me (I know, a while down the road).

Oh, and according to her, we now have to duck when we drive under bridges. Lord knows who taught her that, but it is cute.

I try *very, very* hard to not play favorites, but I must admit that, as a father, Amber (my daugher) is my favorite.

They have had me near tears many times in events similar to the one Dodgerchick shared above. I don't know of anything in else in life that affects a persons heart like kids do.

[redfox000]

Dola

And it about broke my heart last night. The kids are all staying over at Grandma and Grandpa's last night and today. I got a call late last night. Amber was crying saying "I want daddy". I talked to her for a bit and she just kept saying "alright" while she was crying. It was all I could do to not run over and pick her up.

[Lorena]

Dola

And it about broke my heart last night. The kids are all staying over at Grandma and Grandpa's last night and today. I got a call late last night. Amber was crying saying "I want daddy". I talked to her for a bit and she just kept saying "alright" while she was crying. It was all I could do to not run over and pick her up.

Aww... how cute! Sounds like you and your daughter have a very special relationship. Our daughter likes following me around and I get annoyed at times, but then I stop to think that she actually WANTS to hang out with me and it will change once she gets older.

[Ksyrup]

We're toying with the idea of sending out some shots of our youngest for modeling opportunities. Anyone had any experience with this sort of thing?

Honestly, I have no interest in the Jon Benet Ramsey-ish lifestyle for my kids, but our youngest gets so many comments that my wife and I have wondered whether we ought to see if she could get into modeling clothes or doing commercials or something. Of course, we think she's a little cutie, but her curly blonde hair and blue eyes almost always elicit some kind of response from strangers.

How do people get their kids into that kind of thing?

[Yellow5]

I wish I'd seen this thread earlier... I spent most of this morning reading through this entire thread and it's a great read. Makes you feel like you are not alone in the world of parenting.

I am a father of three boys, ages 18, 13 and 10 weeks. :) The 18 and 13 year old are my step-children and I have been with them for 11 years now so it's like they are my kids anyway.

Last year at the age of 37 I finally became a daddy to a newborn son on October 23rd. I've never experienced the newborn stage so this is an eye opening experience for me.

I've come to the conclusion that taking care of a newborn has got to be like taking care of astronauts. Just getting them into the vehicle alone takes FOREVER with all of the straps and buckles. Everything is so time consuming it's funny. I love every bit of it and am having a blast.

My wife is not good about documenting things so I decided to blog about the pregnancy for friends and family with weekly updates on what happens, how we feel and stuff like that. I have carried that over to blog the first year of my sons life and what we go through on a weekly basis with him and I'm glad I've done it. It's great to go back and read some of the things I was feeling before he was born.

My 18 year old son is in college and doing great. He is the "quiet one" and is really close to him mother. The 13 year old is an ADHD kid that takes after me. We are best friends and have a blast together no matter what we are doing. Living with ADHD is a pain when it comes to school and how we handle his grades which are terrible. He's a smart kid, just can't get his work done.

Anywya, just wanted to get my introduction to the parent group outta the way.

[WSUCougar]

Oh, and according to her, we now have to duck when we drive under bridges. Lord knows who taught her that, but it is cute.
Had to chuckle at this one. My son went through that stage...it was cute for awhile, but on longer trips it got old rather quick. "Uh, Drew? On this highway, the policeman says we don't have to duck under the overpasses."


Anywya, just wanted to get my introduction to the parent group outta the way.
Welcome aboard! So how is the 13-year-old liking the baby life?

[Yellow5]

Welcome aboard! So how is the 13-year-old liking the baby life?


He loves it. He is happy that he isn't the "baby" anymore and very excited about being an older brother. *sigh of relief*

I was worried that he would feel left out now that another boy had come along but things are good so far.

[Lorena]

Our 2 year old (Landon) is an interesting kid. He's developed a bit slower than our daughter in almost all aspects, but he's like a genius in other ways. Our daughter (Larissa) used to speak very very well at the age Landon is now. He understands what we tell him, but he pretends he doesn't. He doesn't speak like we want him to, but he knows all the letters of the alphabet.

Anyway, the kid is anal retentive... I mean bigtime. We bought him those letters that have magnets on the back and he plays with them hours at a time making circles out of them or putting them in a STRAIGHT line. When I mean straight, I mean they have to be perfectly aligned or he goes mad. Well since the only thing he knows how to say are letters, when he gets mad he screams the alphabet!! "ABCDEFGGGGGGGG!!!!!" or sometimes it's just one leter, "DDDDDDDDDD!!!!!"

We need to record him because when he gets older he'll never believe us.

[Ksyrup]

We started our 2 year old in a once-a-week mothers' day out program at a church yesterday. She's a little blond-haired, blue-eyed cutie that everyone always comments about how she's going to be some knock-out as she gets older. Mostly, I just block it out and pretend not to hear it.

Anyway, I get home from work last night and start asking her what she did at school, and she says, "I played with the boys and colored and had snack." So I responded, "You played with the boys? Did you play with any girls, too?" And she says, "No, just the boys."

I'm in BIG trouble...!

[Ksyrup]

We just got tickets to see The Wiggles in Louisville at the end of February. Should be interesting to see how they deal with Greg's departure, although when we saw them early last year in Florida, Greg didn't tour due to surgery and they pulled it off fine. But now, it's no longer temporary.

[FrogMan]

this one will make our resident doctor smile...

Matthew just turned 3 last Monday. Yesterday, he had a checkup appointment with his pedatrician, you know the usual once a year thing. I was the one appointed by my wife to go with him, and to be honest, I was not really looking forward to it. Every time we'd been to the pedatrician, Matty has been a crying machine. Despite the pediatrician being the a very gentle man and him trying everything to take the edge off Matty, nothing could be done. The minute we walked through the door, Matty would start whining first, then go into full crying mode as soon as we'd approach the examination table.

I had a special ammunition this time, thanks to Santa. Yep, Matty received a toy doctor case full with everything one needs to play doctor. He's examined us plenty of times, from checking pulse, temperature, giving vaccines and even checking reflexes with that little hammer.

I decided to bring the little case along in his bag, just in case. We got to the doctor's office, walk in the door as I kept talking to Matty about how the doctor will simply check him out. We went through the whole thing with Matty not once whining, just like a big boy would do.

Come to the end, the doctor has weighed and measure him and he pats Matty on the head and tell him that it's over, he can go get dressed now. I'm close to him now and I take his hand to get him to the examination table to dress him and he goes "but my reflexes?". I ask what he said, just as the doctor asks too and he repeats "but my reflexes, you didn't check them". Both me and the doctor burst into laughter and he got his little hammer and checked Matty's reflexes. Cute kiddo... :)

FM

[Yellow5]

Anyway, the kid is anal retentive... I mean bigtime. We bought him those letters that have magnets on the back and he plays with them hours at a time making circles out of them or putting them in a STRAIGHT line. When I mean straight, I mean they have to be perfectly aligned or he goes mad. Well since the only thing he knows how to say are letters, when he gets mad he screams the alphabet!! "ABCDEFGGGGGGGG!!!!!" or sometimes it's just one leter, "DDDDDDDDDD!!!!!"

We need to record him because when he gets older he'll never believe us.

My middle son (Travis) was like that when he was 2 years old. He would not talk much and if he wanted something he would point and kind of grunt (much like his father -- remember, I'm his step-dad). He was very intense about how his toys and things were setup in his room. Things needed to be perfect or there was trouble.

I made a point of taking pictures of him freaking out or acting silly like that knowing that when he was older it would be funny. We just pulled a ton of pictures out boxes this week and have been going through them and laughing non-stop.

[Lorena]

My middle son (Travis) was like that when he was 2 years old. He would not talk much and if he wanted something he would point and kind of grunt (much like his father -- remember, I'm his step-dad). He was very intense about how his toys and things were setup in his room. Things needed to be perfect or there was trouble.

:D

I just read this to Antmeister and we were laughing, you have described our son to a T. He'll point and grunt if he needs anything. I try to get him to say banana but he just points. If I tell him, no you can't have a banana, he understands but he won't say it.

[Lorena]

this one will make our resident doctor smile...

Matthew just turned 3 last Monday. Yesterday, he had a checkup appointment with his pedatrician, you know the usual once a year thing. I was the one appointed by my wife to go with him, and to be honest, I was not really looking forward to it. Every time we'd been to the pedatrician, Matty has been a crying machine. Despite the pediatrician being the a very gentle man and him trying everything to take the edge off Matty, nothing could be done. The minute we walked through the door, Matty would start whining first, then go into full crying mode as soon as we'd approach the examination table.

I had a special ammunition this time, thanks to Santa. Yep, Matty received a toy doctor case full with everything one needs to play doctor. He's examined us plenty of times, from checking pulse, temperature, giving vaccines and even checking reflexes with that little hammer.

I decided to bring the little case along in his bag, just in case. We got to the doctor's office, walk in the door as I kept talking to Matty about how the doctor will simply check him out. We went through the whole thing with Matty not once whining, just like a big boy would do.

Come to the end, the doctor has weighed and measure him and he pats Matty on the head and tell him that it's over, he can go get dressed now. I'm close to him now and I take his hand to get him to the examination table to dress him and he goes "but my reflexes?". I ask what he said, just as the doctor asks too and he repeats "but my reflexes, you didn't check them". Both me and the doctor burst into laughter and he got his little hammer and checked Matty's reflexes. Cute kiddo... :)

FM

Awww... kids say the cutest things!

[WSUCougar]

When Drew was two he used to do what we dubbed "bears on chairs." He'd take his stuffed beanie bears and spend 15-20 minutes arranging them on his little kid seat.

[vex]

Noah at 5 1/2 months at Christmas time. :)

http://a186.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/43/l_248ee7b5e6e6920d9ecb99aaa6c514b1.jpg

[Lorena]

Anyway, the kid is anal retentive... I mean bigtime. We bought him those letters that have magnets on the back and he plays with them hours at a time making circles out of them or putting them in a STRAIGHT line. When I mean straight, I mean they have to be perfectly aligned or he goes mad. Well since the only thing he knows how to say are letters, when he gets mad he screams the alphabet!! "ABCDEFGGGGGGGG!!!!!" or sometimes it's just one leter, "DDDDDDDDDD!!!!!"

Here's a picture of his letters in the shape of a snake:

http://almarks.com/lorena/LETTERS.jpg

And here are some batteries that he put in some kind of order (looks like small battery, big battery, small battery, big battery...)

http://almarks.com/lorena/batteries.jpg

I need to take more pictures of this and create a section in my Picasa Album (http://picasaweb.google.com/lorena.marks) (shameless plug I know).

[Yellow5]

Vex: Great picture!

Dodgerchick: lol! Those photos remind me of Travis so much. Everything was always in a pattern like that! He would eat cereal without milk, and always pick shapes of cereal he liked and then organize them into a pattern on the table.

Here is a pic of my little guy @ 3 months old, getting ready for a trip in the snow.

http://www.davidlepore.com/images/alex.jpg

[PilotMan]

Zachary, my 4 almost 5 yr old was bored one day since he was grounded from the leapster and the TV, and he decided to write a book with mom. It was a great idea. He had the whole plotline set out and pictures to boot. However, he became frustrated and gave the project up when his book wasn't "square enough". That my friends, is my anal/perfectionist little boy.

[stevew]

So, yeah....

My 3 year old finally started to pee in the potty, after much prodding. She does it like a champ anymore. However, girl cannot shit in the toilet to save her life, and I'm tired of soiled panties/pants(not such a big deal) and random dumps on the floor(making me fucking furious, even if I know it wasn't intentional). Now I don't know whether to go back to diapers or pullups, or hope that she figures this out within the next week or so. I'm tired of breaking out the rug cleaner.

[Eaglesfan27]

Been a while since I've caught up on this thread, but some great stories on here.

Ksyrup is going to need a big yard and a big shovel, I suspect. ;)


FM, I loved your story.


Great stuff in this thread :)

[Ksyrup]

I've got both, and about 4 inches of snow right now to help cover things up!

[WSUCougar]

So, yeah....

My 3 year old finally started to pee in the potty, after much prodding. She does it like a champ anymore. However, girl cannot shit in the toilet to save her life, and I'm tired of soiled panties/pants(not such a big deal) and random dumps on the floor(making me fucking furious, even if I know it wasn't intentional). Now I don't know whether to go back to diapers or pullups, or hope that she figures this out within the next week or so. I'm tired of breaking out the rug cleaner.
I feel your pain, for what it's worth. Add the fact that I don't do well with cleaning up shit anyway (*gag*).

I'm curious if you've tried any reward offers, or other strategies. Don't laugh, but we had my son Drew get the hang of it with what my wife and I called the "poop train." It was a set of small plastic train engines from a dominoes game - I think there were 8 - and if Drew pooped on the pot "like a big boy" we added an engine to the train. When he completed all 8, he got a toy and mucho congrats. Obviously, you can pick whatever little thing would work for your daughter (plastic animals might work).

Anyway, good luck!

[Raiders Army]

I love my teenager. What part of don't touch your 360 or laptop don't you understand????

[Wolfpack]

I feel your pain, for what it's worth. Add the fact that I don't do well with cleaning up shit anyway (*gag*).

I'm curious if you've tried any reward offers, or other strategies. Don't laugh, but we had my son Drew get the hang of it with what my wife and I called the "poop train." It was a set of small plastic train engines from a dominoes game - I think there were 8 - and if Drew pooped on the pot "like a big boy" we added an engine to the train. When he completed all 8, he got a toy and mucho congrats. Obviously, you can pick whatever little thing would work for your daughter (plastic animals might work).

Anyway, good luck!

We used a similar reward tactic with our oldest, developing the "Poo-poo" chart, whereupon if she did #2 in the proper location, she'd be rewarded with a "strawberry" (a cutout of one, anyway). If she collected five, we'd reward her with something (the rewarding and strawberries petered out after a couple of weeks, though the chart is still on the bathroom door). At this point, it looks like the habit has finally taken hold because we haven't had a major accident in some time now. The last frontier of potty-training: nighttime. She's still wearing pull-ups right now at night, but otherwise we seem to be finally out of the daytime accident stage (though my wife has warned me that kids do regress a little when they're 4 or 5 before going forward again).

[Ksyrup]

We're trying the incentive thing with our 2 year old and so far it hasn't worked. But she won't be 3 until May, so we're hoping she'll eventually want to start using the potty on her on during the next 3 months, and if not, we're going to get more aggressive about encouraging her.

The other issue we have to deal with is her pacifier.

[TonyR]

Thanks for the information guys. Ibnsgirl and I are going to try and start with Lucy (19 mo) soon. We bought a seat, and we'll see how she gets the hang of things. I'll keep you all informed.

[Yellow5]

My son just hit the 5 month old mark and I am both happy and a little sad at the same time.

It's exciting to watch him change almost over night and see all of the changes, but sad because I feel like I missed something. It's tough to explain.

I know I have not missed anything because I work from home and I see him more than most fathers so maybe it's just the fear that he is growing up so damn fast. Did any of you go through this when your kids were this young?

---

I picked up a solid 20lbs of sympathy fat during my wifes pregnancy and am going to start getting back into shape. I am currently at 190lbs and holding and plan to lose 15-20 from here until the end of the summer.


Time to start a weight loss dynasty or join one in progress!

How are the rest of the parents doing out there?

[Ksyrup]

Our 2 year old is really starting a break-through with the potty training. Four times on Saturday, and 2 on Sunday. Only problem we're having is that she won't poop on the potty. 6-8 months ago, she tried it and apparently was still going or it was stuck to her butt or something, and when she stood up a piece fell off and landed on her foot. Since then, she refuses to try. Everytime I mention it to her, she mumbles something while shaking her head and I can hear "fall" and "foot" in there somewhere. It's going from cute to possible problem.

She has gone off-the-wall crazy for Dora and Diego. Everything is about them right now. Those are the rewards we have been giving her when she reaches certain milestones with her potty training. One funny/annoying thing is that she calls Diego "Diewogo" because the show is called Go Diego Go, and she apparently thinks the last "go" is part of his name. Now that we're correcting her, I think she understands but is getting a kick out of annoying us.

[stevew]

update

Mine finally figured out when to dump in the toilet, so I am happy. I wish she would stop wasting so much toilet paper, but I guess I can deal with that. I think her problem was something intestineally possibly, where i think she was maybe a bit backed up. I gave her some prune juice and stepped up her fibre intake quite a bit, and I think that helped. I'm happy now that i don't have to buy diapers, and don't have to deal with random shit accidents.

[stevew]

dola-

Never had to deal with the pacifier much cause we took it away at like 6 months. Yeah, i probably wouldn't try to wage battle with her on that until you get her toilet stuff taken care of.

[Ksyrup]

Our first daughter had major issues with pooping, too. She would hold it in until it hurt, for some reason. We never quite figured out why, because we don't recall her ever having a traumatic experience or anything that would have brought on the behavior, but we would have major fights with her, even when she was still using a diaper, just to get her to "release." She would stand still, her face turning purple while trying to keep from going. It was almost comical, in a sense, but majorly frustrating. When she started to use the toilet, she would actually clog the damn thing about 100 times more often than an adult, because when she finally went, it was a MONSTER.

OK, I'm done talking crap now.

[Wolfpack]

Unfortunately, my wife was right. My daughter's taken a little bit of a step backwards from fully potty-trained to mostly potty-trained. She's started having accidents again, though nothing too serious. I speculate that she got too "confident" if you will, in understanding her own body and the signals it sends that she started ignoring thsoe signals reasoning that whatever she was doing was more important and she's got time to get to the potty. Back to cajoling and small bribes again.

Our youngest (11 mos) has started figuring out how to clap and is developing quite the humorous personality. Next big thing looks to be walking. She's lightning fast on all fours now, though. She'll probably be the athlete of the two while the older one may be the more bookish artist.

[Qwikshot]

Missed all of the toilet training issues, my daughter seemed to do well. It was one of the few things my ex did right. My daughter is now six and never had an issue (training pants were off last year, nights seemed to be a difficulty).

That being said, my daughter has messed up teeth. This was one thing my ex failed to understand and so a recent dental exam showed the need for four caps, 7 fillings and 2 root canals! So I'm worried now for my daughter's sake.

On top of this, my ex is leaving husband #2 (I was a boyfriend, nothing more). It's amazing that at 27 she's gone through 2 husbands, and is currently eyeing up a married man (possibly husband #3). So I'm worried for Zia's psyche, but the good news is that my ex plans to leave me to raise my daughter once she leaves her husband (she'll live in the area so as to get our daughter the proper residency). I bought a new house and I'm hoping that some stability in my daughter's life will help even if it has an expiration date.

On top of all of this, I have a new girlfriend, it's been six months, she's wonderful and likes my daughter much (and my daughter likes her much). Plus a new job for me that has me doing well, and I'm hoping the stormclouds are finally gone (for now).

[Suburban Rhythm]

Since we are talking crap...

Our daughter is about 2 1/2...and we were making OK progress. She likes the idea of being in the bathroom, and is intrigued with the potty chair and toilet...actually using them is different. Plus, she regressed with her brother (6 months), which I guess is something that happens often.

She too sometimes has issues, even with diapers...she'll sort of "hold back"...then struggle the next day. So we've got a backup supply of Miralax the doctor recommended mixing a little dash in with her juice or milk.

Anyway...about 2 weeks ago, it was bath night. Got the baby done, handed him to my wife, and got Lucy in the bathtub. She wanted bubble bath, so add that, get her washed, and she'll "swim" around for 20-30 minutes.

So I'll get her stuff ready to change, etc...and walk in and out to check on her. She is laying really still when I walk back in, so I ask "What are you doing honey?"

"Poopin'" (grunt)

"WHAT!?"

"hee hee...Poopin!"

So, it was sort of like a scavenger hunt, with all kinds of bath toys and the bubbles. You know you are a parent when I was proud of myself for finding the prize.

[PackerFanatic]

I look forward to sharing my stories in about 8 months or so. I am pretty excited :)

[Lorena]

http://www.starfall.com/ is a great to get the kids ready to read. Our 2 and 6 year olds are on there all the time

[ibnsgirl]

Not really looking forward to potty training...

I missed a little window of opportunity a few weeks ago. Tony and I got a potty seat for 20 month old Lucy because she was doing a pretty good job of letting us know she needed a diaper before she actually did. She was just getting comfortable with sitting on it, when Tony had to leave for a two-week business trip. Lucy then takes her cue that this would be a great time to start in with the "No's." For two weeks, all I hear is "no" to everything (and while it has been a lot less frequent lately, it is still there).

Soooo, the potty seat is sidelined for a while. In fact, with baby #2's imminent arrival, who knows how long it will be.

If anything, I'm much more worried about the whole pacifier issue. Right now, Lucy uses it when she is in the carseat for more than about 10 minutes. Otherwise, as long as she doesn't see it, she is perfectly fine without it. If she sees her baby brother with one, though, I'm not sure how that is going to work.

[Ksyrup]

Our 2 year old is really starting a break-through with the potty training. Four times on Saturday, and 2 on Sunday. Only problem we're having is that she won't poop on the potty. 6-8 months ago, she tried it and apparently was still going or it was stuck to her butt or something, and when she stood up a piece fell off and landed on her foot. Since then, she refuses to try. Everytime I mention it to her, she mumbles something while shaking her head and I can hear "fall" and "foot" in there somewhere. It's going from cute to possible problem.

Our now-3-year old is really doing well at peeing, but still not much pooping. Last night I caught her, ferret-like, sitting quietly in the corner of her playroom and realized she was about to go in her pants. So after trying to get her to come with me into the bathroom, I grabbed her, kicking and screaming, to the bathroom and pulled off her diaper so she'd have no other choice but to sit on the potty.

As I mentioned before, she had an issue with a piece of poop falling on her foot which seems to have scarred her. So last night, as she's sitting there, she got really whiny and worried about pooping on the potty, and she reached her legs out and said, "Daddy, hide my toes! Hide my toes!" Apparently she was scared that the poop would fall on her foot again. So I had to cover up her toes with my hands while she pooped. After it was over, she was fine, and of course we showered her with praise, but damn that was funny. It was all I could do to not laugh during that. I mean, I felt bad for her because I could tell she was honestly scared about it, but at the same time, the whole thing was hilarious.

[CamEdwards]

Keeping with the poop theme... last weekend my wife put the twins down for their nap and took off their pants since their room was kind of stuffy.

A few hours later my oldest daughter comes out of the house and tells us we need to get upstairs right away. The stench hit us at the top of the stairs before we even got to his room. James had pooped in his diaper, taken it off, and proceeded to smear the crap on his crib, himself, and his sheets (not the walls thank goodness). Ugh.

[SFL Cat]

You rookies! Haven't had to deal with poop and pee issues in a long, long time.

Cam's story reminded me of one of his own. I remember when my oldest was potty training. At night he still wore a diaper. He had graduated from sleeping in his crib to a twin bed and since his room was upstairs, we put a gate across the doorway so if he woke up in the middle of the night, he didn't go wandering and accidently fall down the stairs. Anyway, my wife and some friends of ours are downstairs in the kitchen, and we hear him ratting around upstairs in his room, so I go up to check on him. He's standing at the gate and his diaper is off and on the floor filled with poop. He's picking up each piece and pushing them through the holes in the wires of the gate. It was so gross. But he sees me, gets this big smile on his face and continues his business. I just busted out laughing, even though cleaning up the mess wasn't much fun.

[Warhammer]

About a month ago, my wife picked up my 2 year old son from daycare and he had a couple of bites on him. The teacher in his room explained that during recess they saw him squatting and looking at something on the ground. He does this quite a bit, but they noticed that he kept poking at something and saying "Ow!"

They go up to him and check to see what is doing. He found an anthill and was squashing fire ants and going "Ow!" when they bit him.

So the daycare kills the hill and everything is fine, right?

Today we get a call, they are having "Splash Day" which is out in the parking lot. They have water slides, little pools, etc. My son calls over one of the other kids and they are both doing the same thing! He found another fire ant hill and was squashing the ants, saying "Ow!" each time he got bit! So was the little girl.

I know it sucks, but I can't help but smile because I can completely picture this one doing it!

[Lorena]

About a month ago, my wife picked up my 2 year old son from daycare and he had a couple of bites on him. The teacher in his room explained that during recess they saw him squatting and looking at something on the ground. He does this quite a bit, but they noticed that he kept poking at something and saying "Ow!"

They go up to him and check to see what is doing. He found an anthill and was squashing fire ants and going "Ow!" when they bit him.

So the daycare kills the hill and everything is fine, right?

Today we get a call, they are having "Splash Day" which is out in the parking lot. They have water slides, little pools, etc. My son calls over one of the other kids and they are both doing the same thing! He found another fire ant hill and was squashing the ants, saying "Ow!" each time he got bit! So was the little girl.

I know it sucks, but I can't help but smile because I can completely picture this one doing it!

Our 6 year old likes to stomp on them and watch them go crazy in anger. We need to have some bread ready next time so we can watch them rip it apart.

[Lorena]

dola,

We found out today that one of Ant's cousins passed away. A few weeks ago his grandma passed away so his mom has been pretty down. I'm not sure if you guys know this but our 3 year old doesn't speak very well. Anyway, I was on the phone with Antmeister and when I hung up, I left the phone on the counter and our son looks at it and says, "Grandma". I was pretty shocked so I decided to call her. It's a good thing I did because she was pretty down and when she heard Landon say "Grandma", it took her by surprise and her mood went from utter sadness, to pure joy.

Weird how kids have this intuition. He seems to know when I'm upset too cuz he comes up to me and smothers me in kisses. Gotta love him.

[TonyR]

Lucy, our 2 year old is afraid of bugs, but isn't afraid to squash them. She'll point at it and say ugly bug (although it sounds more like uggie bug). Cute none-the-less. She's gotten to the point where she'll describe her mood. When she bonks her self on a table, chair, etc and she's crying she'll go off saying Lucy crying until she stops. When she's happy she'll say Lucy happy or Lucy laughing. It's cute and helps a lot when trying to figure out if she needs anything.

Lucy loves the phone. Recently Ibnsgirl and I bought new cell phones so we gave Lucy the old ones (not charged - don't want her calling 911 or anything). She'll sit there pretending she's on the phone talking away saying Grapa (my dad), Grama (my mom) or Grammy (Ibnsgirl's mom). While I'm at work, I'll talk to her a bit, and as soon as she gets on she'll say it daddy. Of course, don't know how bad it will be when she reaches the teen/phone age.

[WSUCougar]

Wish us luck, tonight we are camping out at the zoo. It's a special thing for kids (not cheap, either - it better be good!). I'll post a report later.

[sachmo71]

Well Coug, how did it go?

[FrogMan]

cougars ate one of their own? :D

FM

[Warhammer]

Oh geez... We went camping three weeks ago. The first event was pretty damn funny...

My two year old is getting cranky so we send him into the tent to take a nap. My wife goes in to check on him, and the little one had opened my shaving kit (had no razors or anything dangerous in it) and pulled out my toothbrush. He looks up at my wife, who asked him what he was doing, pointed to his feet, and said, "Clean feet mommy, clean feet!" He then started brushing his feet with my toothbrush!

Later that night, my 5 year old decided to see how hot a propane lantern was by grabbing the darn thing. I felt terrible because I could have stopped him, but I thought he was getting a snack which was next to the lantern. Thankfully, he wasn't severely burned, but we still needed to pack up and drive home at 10 at night.

[Suburban Rhythm]

This is going to end up more of a vent than anything productive but...

We are going through sort of a rough patch. Lucy is 3 1/2 now, Sam is 16 months. Lucy is really testing our patience over the last 3 weeks or so. I guess it part of what 3 year olds do, but these mood swings are killer.

She'll go from playing fine, to evil in 3 seconds flat. Or when asked to do something simple (bath time for example, which she used to love) it turns into a war. The number of times I've bathed her with her standing up in the last few weeks is too many to count. She wails the entire time, we get out, dry off, pajamas on, and I tell her maybe she should spend some time in her room--which she readily complies. Then 15 minutes later, she'll come downstairs, and it's like nothing ever happened. She's in the best of moods and we are good for hours.

We can't really pinpoint where, or why, the tantrums are coming from. Like I said, things she used to love, she'll tell us she wants no part of. Then changes her tune 10 minutes later.

That is all...just wanted that off my chest.

[gstelmack]

She's 3. Our just-turned-five-year-old is doing similar things. They will CONSTANTLY test boundaries, and you just need to be firm on where they are. It helps to find something they DON'T like: our daughter hates to be alone in her room, and I check on her just enough to make sure she's not pulling out toys and playing when I want her spending 5 minutes on the bed. If your daughter is going "OK" when you send her to her room as a punishment, you need to find something else.

When you have those tough battles of will, and the kid finally caves (and my daughter actually apologized after a really bad day on Tuesday with her yelling at a teacher, fighting with two friends, refusing bath, etc after my wife played hardball with her on privileges) it's a great feeling. Keep up the good fight.

[Wolfpack]

It's probably her being a three-year-old. Our four-year-old has some of the same features, but in true Spinal Tap fashion, they all go up to 11. Bathtime isn't much of a problem, bedtime sometimes is, but it's the total crapshoot of her emotional state that wears on us. Sometimes we're able to get her to disengage from what she's doing fine, but there are other times when doing so would make her think you were absolutely destroying her world. She's also recently developed (for a lack of a better term) an attitude, though we're not sure where this came from. This usually is in the form of raspberry blowing or some snide tone to her voice in response to something we're saying or doing. We're usually pretty patient parents and can put up with a lot from her, but this new stuff she's doing is hitting all the wrong buttons with both of us. I don't know if it's a combination of her verbal and intellectual abilities mixed up with a dose of her rather volatile emotions, but I swear I feel like I'm getting a good picture of what life will be like in ten years. The only thing missing is any sort of teen lingo.

[Suburban Rhythm]

If your daughter is going "OK" when you send her to her room as a punishment, you need to find something else.



It's sort of weird...she'll fight it if we are downstairs, and I send her up to her room. But, it's almost like she knows she needs those 15 mins to calm herself down.

Also funny, we are semi-guilty of bribing her with "we can do this and that, after you do __________." And she'll start with "I hate _______!!"

But an hour later, she'll remember what was offered, and do what was originally asked (bath, eat dinner, sit on the potty, whatever) and bring up "You said we'd play Candyland!" And she'll apologize, although I know she's saying it solely because we've told her to say it in the past, and she feels she is supposed to say it, whatever it means.

I hope she outgrows it before our son starts picking up on it.

[Suburban Rhythm]

An update and a story-

From my previous posts, Lucy has dramatically changed in the last week. Still some whining, but nowhere near the meltdowns she was having earlier.

One day last week, just one of those days at work. So I wasn't home til about 6:30 (usually home around 5:00). So ate really quick, and we gave the kids baths. Afterwards, changed into a sweatshirt and shorts, and grabbed a pair of white socks.

Get downstairs and put them on, and notice a huge hole in the heel of one of them...and Lucy notices too.

Lucy: "Daddy...what is that? Why do you have a hole in your sock?!"
Me: "Daddy is too poor to buy new socks...and Mommy won't buy me any!!"

(This is greeted with :rolleyes: from Mommy)

Lucy: "OhhhhhhhhhhhhDaddy! It's OK!" and comes over to give me a hug.

Fastforward, later in the night, Sammy gets a hold of Lucy's piggy bank (no idea why it was downstairs) and launches it to the kitchen floor. He's cracking up "Money money!!"

I tell Lucy we'll get her a new one, and pick up all the change and put it in a Ziploc bag. I take it out to her in the living room and joke "Wow...you have a lot of money in here, what are going to do with all of that?"

Anyone see where this is going--

"I'm going to buy you some socks Daddy!!"

[Lorena]

http://www.almarks.com/lorena/2008-02-11_2245.png

[johnnyshaka]

Long time listener, first time caller.

My wife and I have a daughter, Emma, who will be two years old in May and we are expecting our second child sometime in mid-June...as you can imagine, I'm starting to get a little nervous. Aside from all the work I have ahead of me to prepare for the new arrival (clear out stuff in the basement into the garage, get new baby's room ready, and all of my regular spring jobs!! YIKES!!!) my wife and I are starting to get a little worried about what we've gotten ourselves into. Moreso her because she'll be home with the two kids. Anyway, that's the short version of our situation...and, yes, I'm sure we'll be just fine but that doesn't mean we won't go crazy thinking otherwise!!

Potty training...worth giving it a try this early or just a waste of time and energy? I realize every kid is different but I can't help but wonder if having my daughter be a little more indendant will help my wife cope with having a toddler and a newborn to handle. Part of me says yes, but part of me also says no. Any thoughts?

Nap time...Emma has been fighting naps for probably three weeks now. Prior to this stretch, she's been a pretty good napper going down for about 1.5 hours every afternoon. She hasn't had two naps a day for quite some time. Now, it's not like she's crying or anything like that, in fact, when we tell her it's nap time she gets really excited. So, we get her into her crib and she proceeds to perform some sort of gymnastics routine and has a great time. We've tried sitting in there with her and that worked for a little while hasn't lately. We've tried putting her in her play pen in a different room. We've tried a humidifier (for the noise). We've tried reading to her. We've tried music/movie. Nothing seems to work. Actually, the only naps she's had over the last couple of weeks have come after she's been crying, for whatever reason, and gets sleepy while cuddling. So, after that seemed to work, we tried cuddling prior to putting her to bed but she won't have any part in the cuddling as she just wants down or into her crib. Now, trust me, she is tired in the afternoon and definitely needs a nap so much so that she's fallen asleep eating supper on more than one occasion so I don't think she's out of her nap phase just yet. Any tips?

Discipline...too early? For example, when it's time for bed we give her a little warning and let her know that she'll need to start getting her toys picked up. She used to love putting her toys away. Over the last week or so, she hasn't wanted to participate in the toy clean up at all. We always try to make it fun for her by helping out but she still isn't interested in cleaning up. Is she too young to start "disciplining" in terms of, say, no toys during bath time or no story before bedtime? If I were to do something like that would she even understand or figure out what's going on? Thoughts?

Thanks!!

[Lorena]

Well, our 4 year old now knows how to count to 100 by himself. I don't know how he learned because we didn't teach him, but it's pretty awesome.

I just wish he'd actually communicate with us. Such a smart kid but he won't talk yet :(

[Barkeep49]

Well, our 4 year old now knows how to count to 100 by himself. I don't know how he learned because we didn't teach him, but it's pretty awesome.

I just wish he'd actually communicate with us. Such a smart kid but he won't talk yet :(
What does not talking mean?

[Lorena]

What does not talking mean?

Well, I shouldn't say he's "not talking yet", he'll talk but only when he wants something, which is good, but we are still unable to have a back and forth conversation with him. He doesn't enunciate his words and speaks very low and has echolalia. This is a typical conversation:

Me: Landon, when I say "Hi Landon" you say "Hi mommy" ok? "Hi Landon".
Landon: "Hi Landon".
Me: No Landon, when I say "Hi Landon", you say "Hi mommy". "Hi Landon".
Landon: "Hi Landon".

I'm still not sure how to get him to say "Hi Mommy" when I say hi to him. Like today, I asked what his name was and he didn't respond. Since he knows how to read, I wrote his name down on a piece of paper and showed it to him when I asked what his name was. Hopefully this'll help.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Shitty day, as we heard from not one, not two, but three of Will's academic subject teachers. Seems "Mr. I Finished All My Homework In Study Hall Today" for the past couple of weeks was not only not doing it and not turning it in but was also for the first time in his 10+ years had been just bluntly lying to our faces about it. The past 7 hours (since he got home from school) have not been fun for anyone here.

Anybody got a map showing the easiest driving route from Georgia to Nebraska?

[tarcone]

I have an 8 year old girl and a 7 year old girl. Completely different personalities. Almost opposite.
My 8 year old still has problems in the going to the bathroom arena. She waits until the very last minute and by the very last minute, I mean the very last minute. She is doing the pee dance and we tell her to go. Tjis happens when she is involved in something. I have started tracking her PMS. This is the week. She has been crabby and rude and rolling her eyes at her mom. I dont usual;ly get the treatment but she gives her mom the business regularly.
My 7 year is a cuddle bug. Very popular in the classroom. She is a sweetheart 95% of the time and a joy to have around.

A story about my 7 yr old. One of our friends who have a girl in my 8 year olds class and a boy in my 7 year olds class (3rd grade and 1st grade), got hit by a car while walking in a parking lot. She didnt go to the hospital and a week later was bleeding vaginally and throwing up. She wouldnt go to the hospital until my wife and another friend made her. Her kids stayed with us.
the 3rd grade girls slept together and the 1st grade boy and girl slept together. My kids have full sized beds. This was a thursday. on friday it was my 7 yr olds 7th birthday. On saturday the boy brings my daughter 2 presents. Wait a minute. 2 nights after sleeping over, he brings gifts? I dont like that. ;)

[Barkeep49]

Shitty day, as we heard from not one, not two, but three of Will's academic subject teachers. Seems "Mr. I Finished All My Homework In Study Hall Today" for the past couple of weeks was not only not doing it and not turning it in but was also for the first time in his 10+ years had been just bluntly lying to our faces about it. The past 7 hours (since he got home from school) have not been fun for anyone here.

Anybody got a map showing the easiest driving route from Georgia to Nebraska?
Good luck. My not doing homework started in 5th grade and never stopped until college. I hope you have better success with Will than my parents had with me.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Good luck. My not doing homework started in 5th grade and never stopped until college. I hope you have better success with Will than my parents had with me.

Thanks, we're going to need it I'm afraid.

Bad as the homework deal is, the bald faced lying is more upsetting, as much as anything because it's so completely out of character. It was uggggggg-lee around here for a long time yesterday.

Adding insult to injury (not to mention to our concerns) is the fact that he's proven he can do the work at the new school, albeit as an A/B student instead of a consistent high A student. Given the difference in the curriculum we can live with that but if he doesn't even make an effort on the homework, he's screwed. It's like he's sabotaging his own success here & that's not a trait of mine I'm interested in seeing my child carry on.

[FrogMan]

Thanks, we're going to need it I'm afraid.

Bad as the homework deal is, the bald faced lying is more upsetting, as much as anything because it's so completely out of character. It was uggggggg-lee around here for a long time yesterday.


this reminds me of when Andrew tried to pull the whole lying bit on us a couple years ago. He was 9 at the time. It was very similar to your story, not so much in the "I've done my homework" thing but more in the "oh sure, everything's going great at school, no no, I'm done disturbing and talking in class" until we got a message from his teacher a Friday afternoon that he had received numerous warnings and that things had to get better. Yeah, the reasons for lying seemed like nothing at all, but I took it hard and it got ugly at home too, loss of privileges and all. I drilled in his head so hard that we would ALWAYS hear about something at one point or another and that he was better for him that he tell us the truth than we'd learn it from another source. So far, two years later, it seems to have worked. Sure, we've had to remind him here and there that "hey, your parents do talk to your teacher every once in a while", but so far so good...

Good luck with him.

FM

[RendeR]

Thanks, we're going to need it I'm afraid.

Bad as the homework deal is, the bald faced lying is more upsetting, as much as anything because it's so completely out of character. It was uggggggg-lee around here for a long time yesterday.

Adding insult to injury (not to mention to our concerns) is the fact that he's proven he can do the work at the new school, albeit as an A/B student instead of a consistent high A student. Given the difference in the curriculum we can live with that but if he doesn't even make an effort on the homework, he's screwed. It's like he's sabotaging his own success here & that's not a trait of mine I'm interested in seeing my child carry on.

Jon, I understand this situation all too well. I never did a lick of homework in high school, I was an a/b student as well without putting forth any effort at all so why should I bother doing boring homework?

I can tell you for myself I simply thought the homework was beneath me, I didn't 'need' the practice. If I got good grades and passed my tests and classes then why should my mother care HOW I did so?

I'm not sure I really believe even now that I needed to do it, but I think if I had focused more on it then I'd have had an easier life right after school.

I wish you luck with the whole lying/homework issues. If he's as smart as it seems he must be then what you as parents need to do is find a way to help him understand the importance of what he's doing. Find some way of showing him how the lies damage his relationships to you and everyone else. If he doesn't come to see the differences himself then nothing you do or say is going to make him see it. my mother used to bellow and blow for hours too and all it did was make me do less and less. Action - reaction, you get upset, he just does more to make you do so. I know that shouldn't make sense but we are talking about kids here =)


Good luck.

[Lorena]

Wish I knew about this before Xmas as this will probably not work next year (our oldest will be 9 and will surely know about Santa), but nonetheless, this is great.

Original - On Christmas Eve, let Santa take away the old toys, too | Parent Hacks (http://www.parenthacks.com/2008/12/on-christmas-ev.html)

In the forever battle to keep declutter our house, Christmas inevitably causes stress, especially when it comes to toys and our 3-year-old. So in our house, we're not the only ones who recycle. Santa recycles, too.

About two weeks ago, when she started getting really excited about Christmas and Santa, we started talking about how we need to make room for new toys. I told her on Christmas Eve, when Santa comes to visit, that next to the cookies and milk she can leave a biiiiig box of toys by the fireplace (I do a lot of Christmas shopping via Amazon.com, so I've saved one of their larger boxes just for this purpose). When Santa stops by our house to leave *her* toys, he'll take the old toys with him back to the elves who will fix them up, recycle them, and send them to little boys and girls who may not get as much from their parents for Christmas as she does - so those kids have lots of toys, too!

Well, she has been *all* gung ho, even putting some of the toys that used to be her favorites and telling us that the little boys and girls who don't have as many toys will love them even more than she does. So on Christmas Eve, when my husband and I are sneaking around to play Santa, the box will go in grandma's trunk for a trip on Dec. 26 to the local women's shelter.

[Flasch186]

dont really know where to put this or what not but the sickness we got in New Orleans over the Holidays was that we had a miscarriage. She was going on 8 weeks. Anyways, Were taking it in stride and know it all happens for a reason and we'll be trying again shortly. Melancholy around here though but we're in good spirits. It was weird though because everything you read on the internet about the symptoms and such give you very little to go on. Is enough blood to go the the ER? Is it orange, Brown, Red? is it clotty? etc. etc. What the hell do I know. Is it a lot of blood? Well compared to the descriptions on the net....no. But it sure looks like a lot to me! What color is it? Its on white paper....I dont know if it's red or orange or what. Anyways, we went to the Er last night and got the news but it was a good thing to go because we were going mental with the not knowing. We have a regular obgyn appt. tomorrow (it was already set for the pregnant path but we'll finish on the not pregnant path). anyways, ya'll are family around here so here you go.

[Neuqua]

Sorry to hear Flasch..

[Lorena]

dont really know where to put this or what not but the sickness we got in New Orleans over the Holidays was that we had a miscarriage. She was going on 8 weeks. Anyways, Were taking it in stride and know it all happens for a reason and we'll be trying again shortly. Melancholy around here though but we're in good spirits. It was weird though because everything you read on the internet about the symptoms and such give you very little to go on. Is enough blood to go the the ER? Is it orange, Brown, Red? is it clotty? etc. etc. What the hell do I know. Is it a lot of blood? Well compared to the descriptions on the net....no. But it sure looks like a lot to me! What color is it? Its on white paper....I dont know if it's red or orange or what. Anyways, we went to the Er last night and got the news but it was a good thing to go because we were going mental with the not knowing. We have a regular obgyn appt. tomorrow (it was already set for the pregnant path but we'll finish on the not pregnant path). anyways, ya'll are family around here so here you go.

:( :( Sorry Flasch.

[Barkeep49]

I wish you the best of luck moving forward Flasch.

[flere-imsaho]

Very, very sorry to hear this, Flasch.

[JonInMiddleGA]

I'm either one of the greatest parents ever or I'm one of the worst.

I just used the lyrics to 80's metal legend George Lynch's Wicked Sensation to help my son memorize a list of 30 random prepositions.

Putting them into some sequence he could remember begins with the set from the chorus of the song: up, down, in, out and goes on from there, with one set of rhyming or pnemonic linked group after another.

Unusual teaching resource I'm going to guess, but it worked. He's got the list down pretty much cold in about 90 minutes.

[Barkeep49]

Song to help with memorization isn't uncommon. If I were more musical I'd have uses it more myself when I was teaching 4th grade. In otherwords you ARE one of the greatest parents ever.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Song to help with memorization isn't uncommon. If I were more musical I'd have uses it more myself when I was teaching 4th grade. In otherwords you ARE one of the greatest parents ever.

I was this time at least ... 100, on a test that most of the rest of the class will be re-taking on Monday.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Oh the, ahem, "joys" of parenting.

Currently my grounded-until-I-say-otherwise child is discovering that other children in the neighborhood do NOT have the ability to grant permission to "borrow" the tennis court of a vacant house on the neighborhood.

It was only a few weeks ago that my then-10 y/o knew that without even being told. A very proud parenting moment indeed, seeing good judgement even in the face of peer pressure.

In April he turned 11 and apparently it made him stupid.

The real estate agent handling the property confirmed what we knew already: nobody had permission to be roaming around over there, especially not with the house vacant as the owners have returned to Florida to be with family as the wife nears death with terminal lung cancer. The agent will be padlocking the courts later tonight and explaining the no trespassing thing to the parents of the other kids.

The kicker? Who is the real estate agent married to? Only the primary external fundraiser for the school all of the boys involved attend. Way to make an impression guys, good job.

Another lesson learned tonight that will probably come in handy is that, when you already know you're in deep shit, slamming the door after you're exiled to your bedroom is NOT going to help matters one bit.

Oh the joys of parenting :mad:

[Flasch186]

so as you all know, or should Ash and I are 12.5 weeks pregnant and the checkup on Wednesday said everything was a ok. Hoping to learn from this thread and chime in in November.

[JonInMiddleGA]

so as you all know, or should Ash and I are 12.5 weeks pregnant and the checkup on Wednesday said everything was a ok. Hoping to learn from this thread and chime in in November.

Believe it or not I actually thought of the various parents-to-be around here when I posted this.

It's a mixed bag, stupendously wonderful beyond all description at times ... and the drizzling shits at other times. Most parents just hope & pray (and maybe sacrifice the occasional goat) that there's a good bit more of the former than the latter.

But there's definitely both in there, just goes with the territory.

[FrogMan]

Oh the, ahem, "joys" of parenting.

Currently my grounded-until-I-say-otherwise child is discovering that other children in the neighborhood do NOT have the ability to grant permission to "borrow" the tennis court of a vacant house on the neighborhood.

It was only a few weeks ago that my then-10 y/o knew that without even being told. A very proud parenting moment indeed, seeing good judgement even in the face of peer pressure.

In April he turned 11 and apparently it made him stupid.

The real estate agent handling the property confirmed what we knew already: nobody had permission to be roaming around over there, especially not with the house vacant as the owners have returned to Florida to be with family as the wife nears death with terminal lung cancer. The agent will be padlocking the courts later tonight and explaining the no trespassing thing to the parents of the other kids.

The kicker? Who is the real estate agent married to? Only the primary external fundraiser for the school all of the boys involved attend. Way to make an impression guys, good job.

Another lesson learned tonight that will probably come in handy is that, when you already know you're in deep shit, slamming the door after you're exiled to your bedroom is NOT going to help matters one bit.

Oh the joys of parenting :mad:

I feel for you man, we went through just about the same thing about a couple months ago. Our oldest son turned 12 at about that time and until then, everything was going on fine at school. Sure a bit of nagging was needed to make sure homeworks studying were being done properly, but results were good. It all came down crashing within a week or so.

Andrew is part of a special program in 6th grade. It's called the Arts-Language-Sports Program (ALSP). Every morning and the afternoon on Wednesday it's regular school, in a sort of expedited way. Their days are a bit longer than regular schooldays, but they need to see the same stuff a regular class would, but in about 75% of the time. The other four afternoons, they go out to either practice a sport, perfect an art, or study a language. You sign up for one at the start of the school year. Some play hockey, some soccer, some study English (remember that we're in Quebec, it's a French school, they're learning a second language), which is Andrew's case. He loves it. He probably could have picked karate (he's about to test for his black belt) or football, that is if we'd had let him. He liked English and we strongly believe that it's necessary for him to be able to speak/write in both French and English.

Anyway, as I said, he'd had good grades in his first year last year. Homweorks are a bit more important, but he was doing well. We offered him a used computer for his own room last X-Mas, allowing him a reasonable amount of time with it during the week. Then one week we got a report from his English teacher, written on one of his exams. "Andrew, if you'd paid more attention instead of talking with the other kid, you would have had a better score" and such. Report card came the following week. He used to score in the high 80's in English, he dropped it to 68 for that semester. We were floored. We took away computer privileges during the week, except for specific work. Away went the PS2 during the week too. He's still on a weekend only basis for those two.

Luckily for him, he didn't slam any door. Not too sure what I would have done. Since then, we've been emailing his teacher regularly, monitoring his level of effort in class.

He's not done anything stupid out of class, but I always have the feeling we're so close to one try of pushing the boundaries one 16th of an inch to far. I guess all kids are like that, we probably were. :)

FM

[JonInMiddleGA]

I guess all kids are like that, we probably were. :)


Oh I don't doubt it. Luckily I had parents who were there to put me back on the appropriate side of the line & occasionally paint those lines with safety yellow paint if need be. That's the missing piece of the puzzle these days I guess, too many "best buddies" and not enough "parents". I don't find it mutually exclusive at all that I can absolutely lower the proverbial boom when necessary and still play Fallout 3 with him until 2 am while listening to Metallica & Godsmack. But the boundaries have to be the first priority regardless of the impact on the other stuff. Ultimately he can & will find other people to play games with, listen to music with, etc. but the boundary thing is a primary & essential parental role. My parents knew that, I think I've got a pretty good grasp of that, and hopefully he'll do the same with any eventual grandchildren someday.

[FrogMan]

Oh I don't doubt it. Luckily I had parents who were there to put me back on the appropriate side of the line & occasionally paint those lines with safety yellow paint if need be. That's the missing piece of the puzzle these days I guess, too many "best buddies" and not enough "parents". I don't find it mutually exclusive at all that I can absolutely lower the proverbial when necessary and still play Fallout 3 with him until 2 am while listening to Metallica & Godsmack. But the boundaries have to be the first priority regardless of the impact on the other stuff. Ultimately he can & will find other people to play games with, listen to music with, etc. but the boundary thing is a primary & essential parental role. My parents knew that, I think I've got a pretty good grasp of that, and hopefully he'll do the same with any eventual grandchildren someday.


well said. I also feel I was raised in such a way. My dad was my hockey coach for many years and was always tougher on me than on others, yet I knew I could turn to him when I needed him. The line was there though, and I'm sure, I know it made me a better person because of it.

That's always the thing with your kids though, they don't come with an instruction manual. So many things influence his thinking, his growing. In all, it's pretty incredible.

FM

[flere-imsaho]

too many "best buddies" and not enough "parents"

:+1:

The local radio show was discussing this the other morning. My parents were firm but fair. If you knowingly did something wrong there was a clear and unambiguous retribution that would be visited upon you, but at least you always knew where you stood.

My brother & I were pretty good kids, though. Still, sometimes we'd get on our mother's nerves, and her last (and best) resort was to say: "Look, if you two don't straighten out, then when your father comes home I'll have to explain to him how you two behaved." Now, although Dad was certainly the authority of final punishment (i.e. he did the spanking), he rarely had to discipline us and wasn't particularly tough. But the greatest thing about this was the anticipation. The effect on two young boys, whose imaginations ran wild anyway, of what Dad would do when he got home, was tremendous, in spite of the fact that probably 95% of the time Dad didn't need to be told about us and nothing happened anyway. Funny how we never figured that out.... :D

[Qwikshot]

I'm so excited. On June 7th, I fly down to Dallas to retrieve my daughter for the Summer. I haven't seen her since last August. She gets to spend the entire summer with me and my fiance (same thing we did last summer).

I think last summer my daughter didn't realize just how distant it was going to be. She was 7 then, 8 now. Missed the big holidays, missed her birthday (I sent packages). The budget did not allow for me to fly down. Though my parents did in March to spend time with her.

She's going to the same summer camp as last year, it's at my job, so I can stop by for lunches and go on field trips (when work allows). We spend the morning drive together chatting and we spend the evening drive chatting. It's just a fun time for me, because it's now the rare time that I get to spend with her, and it's rare that she spends the time with me full time (no every other weekends).

It's been a hard year with her not being around, and so much has happened in her absence.

Really, it's the only time when I feel my world is complete.

[johnnyshaka]

My brother & I were pretty good kids, though. Still, sometimes we'd get on our mother's nerves, and her last (and best) resort was to say: "Look, if you two don't straighten out, then when your father comes home I'll have to explain to him how you two behaved." Now, although Dad was certainly the authority of final punishment (i.e. he did the spanking), he rarely had to discipline us and wasn't particularly tough. But the greatest thing about this was the anticipation. The effect on two young boys, whose imaginations ran wild anyway, of what Dad would do when he got home, was tremendous, in spite of the fact that probably 95% of the time Dad didn't need to be told about us and nothing happened anyway. Funny how we never figured that out.... :D

My dad was in the military and when my brother and/or I screwed up the first words out of our mouths to mom were: "PLEASE, don't tell dad." It very rarely got to that point but with that "threat" there I know I thought twice about being a moron.

So, like you guys have said, the boundaries need to be there, but, maybe more importantly, the consequences need to be firmly stated and followed through on when necessary. I think this is the part that is lacking these days. And with the traditional spanking now "not allowed" kids are nowhere near as worried about what's going to happen when dad gets home. Somehow losing internet access for the week seems far less severe than a one time spanking from dad.

Spanking needs to be reinstated and quick...my kids are still young enough to "benefit" from the threat!!

[Lorena]

Reading some of your posts reminded me of an article I came across:

Today's tykes: Secure kids or rudest in history? - Kids and parenting- msnbc.com (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30585984/)

Yeah too many "buddies" and not enough parents, I agree with Jon. Sometimes I feel like a dictator, but in all fairness to our kids, I think it's pretty balanced, they do have a lot of freedom, but if they cross that line, they're in deep sh!t.

About a month ago, Larissa (our 8 year old) left some toys outside and they got stolen. She was upset but we explained that stuff like that happens if toys don't get taken care of. Fast forward a couple of weeks... she takes her bike outside and I reminded her that if she wasn't gonna use it, it had to put it away. We also have a rule that she's not allowed to go to her friend's house without permission. I go outside and find the bike unattended and she's in her friend's house. Well, needless to say I was pretty upset. I call her out and she immediately knew how busted she was. She brings her bike inside and gets an earful from Ant and I. She knew she was wrong. 2 infractions, 2 weeks groundation period.

[JonInMiddleGA]

And today the end of year report card arrives in the mail.

Let's just say that my son finishes about as well as the Nationals bullpen. Pretty much blew his grade for the year in every subject except math, the one thing that he struggled with most of the year. Turned a near straight-A report card into an almost straight-B year, his worst ever by a wide margin.

B- in Language Arts ain't acceptable when he just copped a 98% and 99% percentile nationally on some damned rigorous standardized tests in the same subject.

The aggravation, erm I mean "joy of parenting", is that he managed to accomplish this by being very selective about which graded papers we saw during the final quarter, keeping just enough of them away from us that we were pretty clueless about what was happening. I'm a bit miffed with some of the teachers for not making us more aware but the responsibility rests mainly with him & us.

Short-term, your final marks in fifth grade don't come up very often later in life. The ramifications have some pretty rough potential though, as he basically demoted himself from the top group of his grade to the bottom group and the difference in how teachers treat those seems to be pretty sharp. He already worked with one strike by not being "old Athens", he got another strike with them by not being there from at least first grade (sucks but that's the reality of it). I'm afraid they'll pretty much have written him off as a lifelong B student & won't bother to push at all after this.

I'm going take a short nap now, my stomach hurts.

[Flasch186]

just found out we'll be having a boy if all goes well on Thanksgiving day!

Heath Allen Flaschen

[PackerFanatic]

just found out we'll be having a boy if all goes well on Thanksgiving day!

Heath Allen Flaschen

Congrats Flasch! Here's to a happy, healthy pregnancy!

[cubboyroy1826]

Congrats Flasch.

[molson]

That's a pretty awesome name (the three names together). Sounds very powerful and important.

[Barkeep49]

He already worked with one strike by not being "old Athens", he got another strike with them by not being there from at least first grade (sucks but that's the reality of it). I'm afraid they'll pretty much have written him off as a lifelong B student & won't bother to push at all after this.


Jon I've lost track. Is your son currently at a public or private school?

[Flasch186]

That's a pretty awesome name (the three names together). Sounds very powerful and important.

Eh, im hoping he can hit a baseball....far.

thanks though!

[JeeberD]

just found out we'll be having a boy if all goes well on Thanksgiving day!

Heath Allen Flaschen

What's with the holiday babies? Mine is supposed to be popping out on Christmas Eve... :)

We still have a good seven weeks before we find out the sex, though. August 6th will be the day of the next sonogram...

[stevew]

I forgot about this thread.

L1 started her period a few months ago. Wasn't expecting this for a few more years. I guess 10 is within a normal range.

Report card, meh. C in spelling, A's and B's elsewhere. Will have to work on that. It's 4th grade though, so I don't think it's necessarily the end of the world or anything.

L2 just completed pre-k. One class, 14 girls, one boy. Pre-K was basically worthless, other than the socialization. Honestly she could probably hang in 1st grade next year if she can refine her pensmanship.

Asked the other day if there was a picture of when Daddy put a baby in mom's belly.

L1 wants to be an artist, L2 a teacher.

sw wants at least one doctor.

[Lorena]

L1 started her period a few months ago. Wasn't expecting this for a few more years. I guess 10 is within a normal range

Whoa really? Our 8 year old started wearing deodorant, I wasn't expecting it for a couple more years.

I don't remember my body changing at such a young age.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Jon I've lost track. Is your son currently at a public or private school?

Sorry, only saw your question tonight when the thread got bumped. Private, at a school that's the only reason we moved to Athens.

[Flasch186]

Whoa really? Our 8 year old started wearing deodorant, I wasn't expecting it for a couple more years.

I don't remember my body changing at such a young age.

I blame it on the CW (Dawson's Creek)

[Barkeep49]

Report card, meh. C in spelling, A's and B's elsewhere. Will have to work on that. It's 4th grade though, so I don't think it's necessarily the end of the world or anything.
Spelling is utterly useless as a subject the way most schools teach it as there are no real demonstrable gains.

[flere-imsaho]

Heh, when I was in 7th grade, I learned that we would be graded on spelling based on the level of our improvement from the initial test through the final test. So I intentionally flunked the initial test so that it would be easy to get a good grade (I was always good at spelling). :D

[PilotMan]

So it has been a while since I posted here. Our oldest son, now 14, just finished his first year back in public school, after being homeschooled for 3 years. He finished with all A's and B's. In fact, he only had one C in any quarter all year. Not bad considering when we pulled him out, he was a straight C student, at best.

Our other boys, just finished K and 1 at home, and both are going public school for the first time too. Next year is going to be quite a change in our house, with no kids at home during the day.

Mrs. PM still stays at home, but she has another project to work on at least. ;)

[Flasch186]

...and a pre parenthood fight.

She doesnt like the name now, eventhough I love it.

Unfortunately for me, I cant help but let this sap me and now im totally deflated.

[Wolfpack]

First time in a while I have a good story to share, so here goes....

My oldest daughter is now five and old enough to lose her first tooth, which she had been in the process of losing for the last couple of weeks. Tuesday comes around and I get an excited call from my wife while at work that my daughter's tooth had fallen out at last. She wanted to go to some length to make it memorable for my daughter when the tooth fairy visited, so she asked me to go by the bank to get a dollar coin as the payment for the tooth. She also hunted around on the net Tuesday night for a "certificate" that the tooth fairy signed and left for my daughter congratulating her on the feat. So far, so good.

As I'm putting my daughter to bed, I'm laying light hints that the tooth should be placed in such a way that the tooth fairy will have a relatively easy time of retrieving it (implying that I'm not going to have to worry about trying to find a relatively small thing underneath her head without waking her). My wife comes in after I do and tells me that she's put the tooth in the sack of her tooth fairy doll (something my wife found at a sale recently and got since our daughter's tooth was falling out), which was hidden under one of her pillows. Again, so far, so good.

Our bedtime comes, so I grab the coin and the certificate and quietly creep into our daughter's room and feel around under her pillow for the doll and the attached bag with the tooth in it (hoping all the while I don't wake her since her face is resting on the edge of the pillow in question and trying to think of what to say or do if somehow the unthinkable happens). Fortunately, I'm able to find and fish out the tooth and replace it with the coin, which I try to check to make sure was in the doll's bag before leaving. I set the certificate on the nightstand beside her bed and leave. Still going good. Should be interesting to see how she reacts in the morning.

Morning comes and our daughter comes into our room and she's deliriously unhappy with what she's found. She's in tears because she can't find her tooth. She also can't understand why the tooth fairy left her just a measly certificate. This is because the doll was positioned somewhat close to the edge of her bed and must have fallen out between her bed and the nightstand during the night, causing the coin to fall out, so she's completely unaware of the coin. I go and find the coin and show it to her, which starts to help her recover somewhat from what had happened.

I go back and inform my wife what's happened and we spend the next several minutes cracking up because our daughter's first encounter with the tooth fairy nearly left her convinced that the fairy was a con artist. "I can't find my tooth and all I got was this certificate!!" :D

[Lorena]

"I can't find my tooth and all I got was this certificate!!" :D

That's t-shirt material right there. Nice story Wolfpack.

[Radii]

hah, great story Wolfpack.

[PilotMan]

Really crushed today guys. My wife has been pregnant for the last 11 weeks or so. We have had 4 ultrasounds in the last two weeks and the baby has no heartbeat. My wife will now have a D&C sometime soon. We are terribly disappointed, and hurt.

I feel empty. Luckily I have 3 strong healthy boys to love, and we will try again for #4. This is my wife's 4th miscarriage, but the first one this late into the pregnancy. Just experiencing a lot of hurt right now.

[TonyR]

The wife and I will keep you in our thoughts and prayers PM.
Sad news.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Very sorry to hear this PM. Prayers for, and condolences to, all those affected by this.

[Barkeep49]

That's very sad. You have my best wishes this difficult time.

[PilotMan]

Surgery scheduled for 100p tomorrow. She goes in at 1130a, and I guess will be out for a couple hours. After some time in recovery she gets to come home. It is going to be a lonely day and a long one. Not sure if tomorrow is going to be worse than today was. It has the potential to be. Thanks guys.

[FrogMan]

very sorry to hear this PM, my heart goes out to you. My sister has been battling miscarriages as well and is now about just as pregnant as your wife was and I'm tearing up thinking about it all. She too had the joy of having one baby, my Goddaughter who's now 18 months old, but they so want another one and are so loving.

Best of luck to you and your wife through all of this.

FM

[tarcone]

Sorry to hear PM. I will pray for you.
We went through this about 5 years ago. The surgery really messed up my wifes uterus. So bad that we have been battling excessive bleeding since. She goes into tomorrow for a hysterectomy. Luckily we are done having kids. Not to scare or worry you.

As for my 9 year old daughter, she started liking a boy :eek:
What? Wait a minute. That cant be right. Way too young. :banghead:
I am going to really struggle with the teen years. I hope my daughters do not date anyone like I was in HS and college. Please.

[PilotMan]

Successful surgery today. It was a long day, and I am glad it's over. I am glad that we didn't need to wait long, but I don't want to do it over again. Once the Mrs. heals, hopefully the emotional side can heal.

[Flasch186]

:(

[CamEdwards]

Really sorry to hear about your loss, PM.

[JeeberD]

I'm so sorry, PM... :(

[chesapeake]

I'm very sorry to read about this, PM, but I am glad that the surgery went well.

FWIW, in the comparative medical dark ages of the 1960s, my mother lost several fetuses to miscarriages and had 2 sons that were born alive but too early to survive. Somehow, after all that, one finally made it long enough to live.

My mother often repeats the story when she has to remind herself that my stubbornness is not entirely a curse.

So as awful as this has been, there is still hope.

[PilotMan]

Thanks guys. I really appreciate the support that I get here. Things have been getting better here. We had our follow up appt with the Dr. today, and of course, we sat in the waiting room with babies all around and the baby show on the tv. They were behind and I got them to turn the tv off at least. That was pretty hard on the Mrs.

The Dr. said that the pathology on the fetus was normal, and that all indications were that it was a normal miscarriage. So that if we want to try again, there isn't anything more that we need to worry about. So that was good news. My wife has been up and down, but hopefully after today we have turned a corner. I have been feeling less down each day, and just happy that I have been on an short leave from work to be with her each day. She has needed me here, so here I am.

We leave for our vacation on Sunday, and that will be a nice break. Gone for 11 days either on the road or at my Dads relaxing. I am hoping that when we come back things will be more back to normal and I we can enjoy the rest of the summer before we deal with school.

On a side note. This is the first year ever that all of our kids are going to be in public school. My wife still stays at home, so being alone will be new. We have homeschooled for the last 4 years. The oldest went last year, and is in 8th, with the little boys going into 1st and 2nd grade. That too, will help our adjustment. Although, I know that my wife was planning on being pregnant instead of not, while the kids were gone during the day.

We shall see. Thanks again. I am here.

[WVUFAN]

Thought I'd set a trend of showing off our children. Here's a picture my amateur photographer fiance took of our son Ian, who turns 1 year old this week:

http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh217/WVUFan1971/aaa.jpg

[Lorena]

Love the pic WVUFan, his eyes really stand out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

At a friend's house, 8 year old, Larissa handles a snake:

http://hphotos-snc1.fbcdn.net/hs126.snc1/5412_101530928359_831928359_1977637_704447_n.jpg

And 5 year old Landon taking a break from writing numbers on wall

http://hphotos-snc1.fbcdn.net/hs116.snc1/4851_91781893359_831928359_1828207_3052274_n.jpg

[JeeberD]

It's a crappy cell phone pic of a scan of a sono pic, but it's the best I have at the moment. Brendan Alec Eckberg (at 20 weeks) making his FOFC debut...

Edit: Yeesh...sorry about the size.

http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/3656/brendanm.jpg

[JonInMiddleGA]

Sigh. Last weekday before Will goes back to school.

I would never have believed it would be possible but I honestly hate him going back to school from summer vacation even more than I hated me going back to school once upon a time.

[Lorena]

I hear ya Jon.

We've been blessed this year with all the stuff we've been able to do, gonna miss it. On the other hand, I'm very much looking forward to how they do in school. Larissa won the Explorer Award (for exemplary citizenship and performing above and beyond expectations) last year so it will be interesting to see how far she pushes herself. Landon will be going to school full-time which will be quite the change for him. He was attending a PPCD (Preschool Program for Children with Disabilities) class and in a couple of weeks, he'll be going full time with a few hours in a "regular" kindergarten class. In a way I'm a little concerned because he's been more vocal than he was the last day of school... sort of worried he's gonna disrupt the class. He's been going around telling us, "You do not -do this or do that-" and he gets really, really upset when we tell him it's not acceptable to say this to ppl.

[hoopsguy]

My two year old daughter brought some negative attention on herself earlier this week. She is pretty vocal for her age - big vocabulary and talks non-stop when she gets rolling. Over the last few weeks she has been getting more demanding, wanting to do things herself and showing less patience with others.

Anyway, at recess she was not pleased with the actions of her classmates and proceeded to call them out as "stupid kids". My wife and I are not sure where she would have heard this phrase before, as we try very hard not to utter many negative thoughts around her and especially not towards her peers.

It is kind of funny, but I do want to nip it in the bud.

[PilotMan]

This is a big week for us. This will be the first time in 4 years, that we won't be homeschooling. School starts for everyone this week. We will have an 8th grader, second grader and first grader. Pretty exciting stuff there.

[Flasch186]

how long should you let a 5 month old cry/whine for when it's obviously an attention/hold me thing going on because the minute you do theyre fine?

[JonInMiddleGA]

how long should you let a 5 month old cry/whine for when it's obviously an attention/hold me thing going on because the minute you do theyre fine?

Before answering, I think I have to ask something along the lines of "why are they wanting that attention"? What I'm trying to get at here is whether it's a jealously thing ("don't look at Mommy, look at ME!") or if maybe there's some more subtle insecurity issue that they're trying to get reinforcement about. Is this situational, is it constant/persistent regardless of situation, etc.

[Flasch186]

Well it is when we put him down to take a nap he isnt having it, so he freaks out and within about 5 minutes when we pick him up he's fine ALTHOUGH he also doesnt like to be still. If youre just holding him...forget it, you have to be walking with him.

This was the first time we really let him go at it while he has been put in his crib and we said we'd give it ten minutes before going in. Well, lo and behold at 8 he started to get a little less energetic in his crying and at 10 he's sleeping.

:) finally, no naps all day and Im going to kill our dogs for barking at the most inopportune times.

[JonInMiddleGA]

It's tough watching your kid learn lessons, even when they're inevitable ones that have good value for the rest of life. Even tougher to watch when you know they're taking an ethical stand just like you've taught 'em but will likely get the short end of the social fallout from it.

[FrogMan]

what happened Jon? That's if you want to expand. Saw your FB post but didn't want to ask openly over there since I know your son would be reading.

Feel free to let go if you need someone to listen to you.

FM

[PurdueBrad]

Hey guys and gals,

The wife and I are struggling with an issue with my son. He is 18 months old and has taken to swatting/slapping/hitting the two dogs and my wife. He usually does it with something in his hand (for instance, he got a hold of another child's Matchbox car and came up to my wife and slammed it into her forehead). He usually laughs after this behavior and continues to do it.

It seems like he's doing for the reaction but it is incredibly frustrating. I've had a bit of luck of putting out my bottom lip frown-style and he stops and hugs me but thirty seconds later usually hits again. Any thoughts or advice on how to help curb this behavior?

Thanks in advance,

Brad

[JonInMiddleGA]

Thread necromancy time I guess.

I don't think I've said much about this on the board previously but basically since Christmas we've had a persistent health problem with Will. Long story short, he had a flu-like bug right around the holidays but never really seemed to snap back from them. Most of January & February he was lethargic, daily complaints of chronic pain (my arms/legs hurt), to the point of missing an entire week of school last month. Doctors x2, no clue. Nearly 50 different blood tests -- looking for signs of things like leukemia, lupus, anemia, etc - nothing really out of the ordinary, low end of normal for iron & Vit B but that was about it. Took a long look at whether it might be psychological/emotional, really nothing serious enough to attribute this level of complaint to.

Meanwhile, he's miserable & we know it's for real: if my kid hits the door & goes to bed at 4pm, feels too bad to even touch his 360 for a week ... something ain't right.

Got a phone call from the doctor today, looks like they've pinpointed a very likely cause: severe Vitamin D deficiency. Doc says it's definitely enough to cause the symptoms, prescribed an 8-week "mega-dose" of D (and 1 hr of sunlight a day when possible) with a recheck at the end of that, likely a daily supplement to follow.

Too soon to say for sure of course, but if indeed this is the source of the problem, it's a heck of a lot better than a lot of the candidates previously considered & that's a great relief. And then we get to spend the rest of our lives worrying about how D deficiency is sometimes a mid/long range precursor to a cancer diagnosis. Parenting sure is fun, huh?

[johnnyshaka]

Great to hear that they've at least figured out a potential cause for the issues he's been faced with.

I hear ya on the "parenting is fun" sentiment...mine are 4 and 2 and I find myself often wondering why I waited so long to get a vasectomy...love them to death but the constant worrying (most of the time it's about the littlest things) can be very consuming. I like to think of myself as a pretty laid back guy so I can't imagine how the tightly wound crowd manages to function day to day with kids.

[JonInMiddleGA]

I can't imagine how the tightly wound crowd manages to function day to day with kids.

The answer to that, often as not, would be "just barely" ;)

[Coffee Warlord]

God, I can post in this thread now. Fuck.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Fuck.

Isn't that sort of how you got posting rights in this thread in the first place? Do people never learn? :D

[AnalBumCover]

I hereby submit my request for membership to this thread. I'm here in the labor & delivery room browsing FOFC while the wife is doped up and asleep. She's 8cm dilated as of an hour ago, so BabyBumCover's appearance is imminent. Wish us luck!

[Coffee Warlord]

DO NOT LOOK AT YOUR WIFE'S CROTCH.

[RedHawk00]

wow, good luck and welcome to the fraternity.
and be a man and hold a leg, i did!

[Coffee Warlord]

Hey, I did too. I just kept my eyes looking away. :)

[JonInMiddleGA]

I hereby submit my request for membership to this thread. I'm here in the labor & delivery room browsing FOFC while the wife is doped up and asleep. She's 8cm dilated as of an hour ago, so BabyBumCover's appearance is imminent. Wish us luck!

Good luck ... and make sure they include the instruction manual with all the other paperwork when they send you home. They apparently forgot to give us one and my son is still flashing 12:00 nearly 13 years later.

[tarcone]

Congrats on the addition.
Jon, that is scary stuff. Im glad it is "only" a Vitamin D issue.

My girls are getting along very well. A's in school, enjoying their friends, staying out of the drama. Good stuff.

My youngest (age 9) just got glasses. She is excited to wear them. So that is good.
My other daughter (age 10) is about to go through the AIDS/HIV and how female parts work speech at school. My wife went to a parent meeting about it the other night. They watched the videos and heard what was going to be said. Some parents walked out saying "No way my child is watching that". Some parents live in a vacuum. Like their kids havent heard about boners yet. Anyway, cant wait for the questions.

[JonInMiddleGA]

My youngest (age 9) just got glasses. She is excited to wear them. So that is good.

Not sure if this is true everywhere now or if it's some local quirkiness but I've been amazed to discover over the past few years that things which were once social disasters -- glasses, braces, school buses -- were now some sort of mark of coolness.

Go figure.

[AnalBumCover]

Four weeks in now, and Ashley is up to 4 oz per feeding. And "blowouts" have been a bit more frequent lately. :eek:

[DaddyTorgo]

Congrats on the addition.
Jon, that is scary stuff. Im glad it is "only" a Vitamin D issue.

My girls are getting along very well. A's in school, enjoying their friends, staying out of the drama. Good stuff.

My youngest (age 9) just got glasses. She is excited to wear them. So that is good.
My other daughter (age 10) is about to go through the AIDS/HIV and how female parts work speech at school. My wife went to a parent meeting about it the other night. They watched the videos and heard what was going to be said. Some parents walked out saying "No way my child is watching that". Some parents live in a vacuum. Like their kids havent heard about boners yet. Anyway, cant wait for the questions.

Seriously?? At age 10?!?!?!

[JonInMiddleGA]

Seriously?? At age 10?!?!?!

Absolutely. The first sexual innuendo (used correctly, without prompting, complete with a literal nudge & wink) we heard from a classmate of my son's was in kindergarten. And while it might have been a proposition akin to a dog chasing a car (i.e. wouldn't exactly know what to do with it if they caught it), it was a real eye-opener to hear.

By 10, you'll hear girls checking out "packages" on guys & even some of the guys discussing various & sundry attributes of women (noting here that girls do indeed mature faster & that apparently includes their, umm, appetites).

This isn't just mimicry either, they're saying these things in the correct context, for lack of a better way off hand to explain the distinction I'm trying to make.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Four weeks in now, and Ashley is up to 4 oz per feeding.

Next stop: the transition from kid's meals to the adult menu ;)

[Coffee Warlord]

Four weeks in now, and Ashley is up to 4 oz per feeding. And "blowouts" have been a bit more frequent lately. :eek:

Christopher is up to...whatever he can get from mommy's boobs. :)

I have determined though, that this child is going to have monstrous feet. At 1.5 months, he has feet identical in size to the Not Small 6 month old son of my buddy.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Not sure this will get much traction in a fairly overlooked thread but I'll throw it out there anyway.

What word are you ready to remove from your child's vocabulary?

A friend just mentioned that they'd just about reached their limit with hearing "dude" from their teenage son. I LOL'ed because I've already been through the feeling of being "duded out" & luckily managed somehow to at least get mine to cut back on it somewhat.

At the moment I'm starting to worry a little that he's becoming a little too comfy with the universal adjective, but between me, song lyrics, and his friends, I guess that one is rather predictable but will still have to be dealt with pretty quickly.

So those are mine, what word have you gotted tired of hearing from your kid lately?

[RedHawk00]

my 3 year old just started saying AWESOME, everything is awesome now, it's pretty cute, but mrs. redhawk00 is already tired of it...

[AnalBumCover]

Hey CW, does yours belt out this really pissed-off sounding cry when he doesn't get what he wants right away?

Like, "where the fuck is my food already?" or "why the fuck am I still naked?"

[Ksyrup]

What word are you ready to remove from your child's vocabulary?

A friend just mentioned that they'd just about reached their limit with hearing "dude" from their teenage son. I LOL'ed because I've already been through the feeling of being "duded out" & luckily managed somehow to at least get mine to cut back on it somewhat.


I think I mentioned this several months ago in the Random Thoughts thread, but my 6 year old daughter repeatedly calls me dude. I kept telling her "don't call me dude," but then I made the mistake of showing her this:

http://<IFRAME title="YouTube video player" height=390 src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/NbLhHtaVIO4" frameBorder=0 width=480 allowfullscreen></IFRAME> (http://<iframe title=)

BIG mistake. Now we go back and forth - "Hey dude, don't call me dude!"

[Coffee Warlord]

Hey CW, does yours belt out this really pissed-off sounding cry when he doesn't get what he wants right away?

Like, "where the fuck is my food already?" or "why the fuck am I still naked?"

It's usually only food when he does that. He in no uncertain terms will let us know when he's hungry. Changing him is a huge pain in the ass when he's hungry. "STOP WIPING MY ASS AND FEED ME, FUCKWAD"

[RendeR]

Seriously?? At age 10?!?!?!


At what age do you think a girl's body starts to "adjust" DT? =)

I used to think it was 13-14 but its actually much earlier.

And no, I am NOT ready for such things. I have another 4 years or so.

[Coffee Warlord]

My god.

He almost slept through the entire night last night.

Dad is pleased.

[AnalBumCover]

My god.

He almost slept through the entire night last night.

Dad is pleased.

Nice. Had a couple of those myself. Except last night - she woke me up twice. And the second time, 45 minutes before my 4am alarm. *grumble*

[AnalBumCover]

Ashley is having a restless night tonight. One of the worst since the early weeks. I'm just glad it's happening on a weekend.

[JeeberD]

So I had my first accident with Bren the other day. He's approaching 16 months now, big and strong, and he, my wife, and I went for a walk after we picked him up from daycare. We were about 2/3 done with our walk and he was wanting out of the stroller, so I picked him up and put him on my shoulders, and started bouncing around and being goofy and making him laugh. That's when he decided to grab the glasses off my face...I was holding him by his legs, so I let go of his right leg to try and get my glasses back, and he twisted away from my hand, and I lost my grip with my left hand, and next thing I knew the wife was screaming and I could feel Bren tumbling down my back.

We were walking along a concrete path in a park near our house, but somehow (divine intervention?) I had moved to the edge of the path, and when I looked down, Bren was landing on the dirt next to the path, thank god. He landed on his upper back/shoulders first, then hit the back of his head. My wife grabbed him from the ground with tears in her eyes already, and we looked him over. There wasn't any blood, and there wasn't any obvious swelling yet, and when I reached out to touch him she pulled away from me and started to walk away with him. He was crying, too, but as they walked towards a picnic table he started to calm down, until he realized how upset mom was and then he got riled up again. I gave them their space for a minute, then made my way over to the bench to see how he was doing. He reached for me when I got over there, and he stopped crying when I took him, and I couldn't stop apologizing to him...over and over and over again I told him how sorry I was.

As we walked back towards home, he was fairly quiet, not as chatty as he had been before. We started kind of quizzing him on some of his favorite words, which he started to repeat. We put him down, and he was walking fine. We were actually supposed to meet my family for dinner that evening, and by the time we got home he was pretty much himself. My dad is a doc, so I figured that if there were any signs of problems he would be able to help diagnose. And the rest of the night he was totally himself, if not a bit more rambunctious than normal. Not a single problem since then.

Since then, I keep flashing back to it, but instead of seeing him land on the dirt on his shoulders, I see him landing on the concrete on his head or neck, and not moving afterward. It scares the shit out of me how lucky we got, to drop a kid from six feet up and have him come out unscathed is incredible. I wonder if I'm ever going to feel comfortable carrying him on my shoulders any more...something I absolutely love to do. I wonder if my wife will LET me carry him on my shoulders...

Anyways, this came out longer than intended, just needed to vent a little and get it off my chest. Hopefully the flashes of guilt will subside soon enough and we can get back to roughhousing like he enjoys...

[DaddyTorgo]

So I had my first accident with Bren the other day. He's approaching 16 months now, big and strong, and he, my wife, and I went for a walk after we picked him up from daycare. We were about 2/3 done with our walk and he was wanting out of the stroller, so I picked him up and put him on my shoulders, and started bouncing around and being goofy and making him laugh. That's when he decided to grab the glasses off my face...I was holding him by his legs, so I let go of his right leg to try and get my glasses back, and he twisted away from my hand, and I lost my grip with my left hand, and next thing I knew the wife was screaming and I could feel Bren tumbling down my back.

We were walking along a concrete path in a park near our house, but somehow (divine intervention?) I had moved to the edge of the path, and when I looked down, Bren was landing on the dirt next to the path, thank god. He landed on his upper back/shoulders first, then hit the back of his head. My wife grabbed him from the ground with tears in her eyes already, and we looked him over. There wasn't any blood, and there wasn't any obvious swelling yet, and when I reached out to touch him she pulled away from me and started to walk away with him. He was crying, too, but as they walked towards a picnic table he started to calm down, until he realized how upset mom was and then he got riled up again. I gave them their space for a minute, then made my way over to the bench to see how he was doing. He reached for me when I got over there, and he stopped crying when I took him, and I couldn't stop apologizing to him...over and over and over again I told him how sorry I was.

As we walked back towards home, he was fairly quiet, not as chatty as he had been before. We started kind of quizzing him on some of his favorite words, which he started to repeat. We put him down, and he was walking fine. We were actually supposed to meet my family for dinner that evening, and by the time we got home he was pretty much himself. My dad is a doc, so I figured that if there were any signs of problems he would be able to help diagnose. And the rest of the night he was totally himself, if not a bit more rambunctious than normal. Not a single problem since then.

Since then, I keep flashing back to it, but instead of seeing him land on the dirt on his shoulders, I see him landing on the concrete on his head or neck, and not moving afterward. It scares the shit out of me how lucky we got, to drop a kid from six feet up and have him come out unscathed is incredible. I wonder if I'm ever going to feel comfortable carrying him on my shoulders any more...something I absolutely love to do. I wonder if my wife will LET me carry him on my shoulders...

Anyways, this came out longer than intended, just needed to vent a little and get it off my chest. Hopefully the flashes of guilt will subside soon enough and we can get back to roughhousing like he enjoys...

Yeah - gotta watch that with the glasses...they're totally like...fascinated by them. I can recall a couple times with my niece where she almost slipped out of my grasp due to that.

Don't beat yourself up TOO much...a little bit is probably okay, but I'm sure your wife has had "accidents" that she just didn't mention to you when you weren't around.

Glad to hear everything is okay.

[JeeberD]

Don't beat yourself up TOO much...a little bit is probably okay, but I'm sure your wife has had "accidents" that she just didn't mention to you when you weren't around.

Glad to hear everything is okay.

Thanks, DT. I appreciate it...

Heh, actually a couple months ago my wife was wearing high heels to work (a rare occurance), and as she was heading out to her car and carrying Bren (so should could drop him off at daycare) she lost her balance and went down in the driveway. Bren went down forehead first that time, and he had a huge knot on his forehead for a week. After this last incident, she made the comment that we've both had our drops, and now not to have any more. I can get on board with that...

[chesapeake]

I'm glad Bren is OK. Kids are remarkably durable.

I fell down a flight of carpeted stairs with my younger daughter when she was about 6-7 months old. She was spooked but otherwise fine.

Frankly, I think incidents like these are worse on the parents than the kids. And, unfortunately, I have found that the 'dropping' nightmares stick with you for a long time.

[AnalBumCover]

Learned how to turn a fussy, gassy baby into a human whoopie cushion: Lay the baby on her back and bring her knees up and gently put pressure onto the tummy with her knees. Instant farts and laughs abound.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Jeebs, that shit happens. To everybody. Maybe not identical but close enough that every parent recognizes the story.

Let your kid play with loaded guns, stick kitchen utensils into electrical outlets, give them a can of gasoline, a box of fireworks, and a box of matches ... then we'll beat you up (and save you from doing it yourself).

Something like this? Count your blessings & move on. None of us gets a perfect parent skill boost when they cut the cord.

[JeeberD]

Thanks ches and Jon. Since posting that I've actually felt a lot better, I think getting it off my chest was rather cathartic. Of course, the next day I was grilling and Bren was in the backyard with my wife and he came over towards my general area, I took my eye off him for two seconds, and the next thing I know he was grabbing the grill...luckily the handles, not the 400+ degree body. Another lesson learned...don't ever take your eye off the kid if there's even a remote chance of him getting into something dangerous.

The good news is that after sleeping crappily for the last week or so, he slept through the night for just the second time ever last night! I'm sure it was just him catching up on his rest, though. :(

[Coffee Warlord]

I'm hurting. Wife went back to work, I'm shuttling the get to and from the parent's house on the way in. Luckily, it's on the way to work, but it's still a pain.

Of course, the bigger problem is this has thrown his sleep schedule off. He's not sleeping nearly as much during the night as he used to. Ugh.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Meanwhile we're winding down on the longest complete separation from our since birth. When he gets back from DC tomorrow afternoon/evening he'll have been gone for 5+ days (left Sunday morning). No phone calls, no emails, no contact. (school policy basically).

And on Saturday I officially become the parent of a teenager.

[Coffee Warlord]

And Sunday you purchase additional ammo.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Just a few minutes more than 13 years ago, I got one of the great blessings anyone has ever been granted. I couldn't have gotten a better kid if I had custom ordered him. For all the stress & worry that goes with being a parent, it's incredibly nice to be able to look at your son & know that he's a better person not only than you were at his age but than you've ever been. I'd love to take credit for it but honestly, I believe he came out of the womb with most of it.

I'm sure I'll be back to having something to complain or worry about soon enough, but for tonight, parenting for me means being thankful.

[AnalBumCover]

Woke me up every two hours last night. Took an hour to put her back to sleep each time. I'm a walking zombie at work today.

[Coffee Warlord]

Welcome to growth spurts.

[AnalBumCover]

Welcome to growth spurts.
Yeah... I was warned about the 6-8 week age. She's 7 weeks old today.