Parents Anonymous, FOFC Branch

[Radii]

Originally Posted by WSUCougar

2. Drew had his first trip to the dentist on Saturday. It's a kid dentist place, which is great to begin with. But he did really good with the whole things, which is very encouraging.

Awesome! Anthony is the same way. He responded to the news that he had a dentist appointment last week by pumpign his fist and saying "YES!" I'm happy to see that, but wow is it baffling

I am going through some dental issues myself after a couple of years of not going(I've had 5 or 6 appointments in the last 4 months and have 3 or 4 more still to go, with a root canal looming). I really need to watch myself when I talk about how freaking terrified I am of the dentist with Anthony around, since its a good experience for him.

How's everyone else doing?

Pretty good, the usual disclipline issues are about it I think. Homework issues(do it right, don't do it as fast as you can, if you can't read it, then its not done right, picking up after yourself issues, don't leave your favorite pair of flip flops where the dog can get to them and rip them to shreds), but reading this thread is a good reminder that in the grand scheme of things that we're dealing with a pretty carefree childhood and that Oliegirl and I are two very lucky parents.

The next couple of weeks are big ones as far as father/son events go. This weekend is the Cub Scout Pinewood Derby. Last year we had no idea what we were doing and had one of the 3 or 4 slowest cars(out of 60 or 70 or more). This year we have a better idea but have still put stuff off to the last few days, which I was hoping would not happen! Most importantly though we have the car design that Anthony wanted, and he's looking forward to the races this weekend.

The week after that is another big Cub Scout event, a 2 day trip to Space Camp in Huntsville, AL. I'm more excited about that than he is, but once we get there I'm sure he'll be amazed the entire time.

[Breeze]

We had our meeting with the doctor to discuss Brett's ADHD, and given all the information we have he recommended trying medications. Since I was on medication for the same problem as a child (though much older than 5), I agreed. He was perscribed Aderall. There is a staging process we are supposed to go thorugh to determine the right dosage.

We gave him is first pill on Saturday, and it didn't go well. He became very angry and tense, then began talking vividly about violent things that he was making up. It was as if he was on a bad LSD trip. After a couple of hours things seemed to settle down and he slowly returned to his normal self. We called the doctor of course and he wants us to try again and let it go for a couple of days. That's going to be very difficult, because Brett is a very sweet and friendly child, and his personna on the drug was quite disconserting. We'll see - I'm not sure where we are going to go from here.

[MacroGuru]

Originally Posted by Breeze

We had our meeting with the doctor to discuss Brett's ADHD, and given all the information we have he recommended trying medications. Since I was on medication for the same problem as a child (though much older than 5), I agreed. He was perscribed Aderall. There is a staging process we are supposed to go thorugh to determine the right dosage.

We gave him is first pill on Saturday, and it didn't go well. He became very angry and tense, then began talking vividly about violent things that he was making up. It was as if he was on a bad LSD trip. After a couple of hours things seemed to settle down and he slowly returned to his normal self. We called the doctor of course and he wants us to try again and let it go for a couple of days. That's going to be very difficult, because Brett is a very sweet and friendly child, and his personna on the drug was quite disconserting. We'll see - I'm not sure where we are going to go from here.

Wow....big step, I am avoiding the medication route with my son, and the school had the talk with my wife last week.

So we stepped up to coffee, on ADD and ADHD caffeine acts as a calming agent. I can drink 64 oz of Dew, coffee or anything, and I could go to sleep right after...the stuff that gets my heart pumping is the sugar.

Good luck on all of this, if you need anyone to talk to about this, I am more than willing, I am an adult that has been diagnosed with ADHD, and I was as a kid too, and it sounds like you have been there yourself. Just if you need to talk, vent or anything, PM me.

As for us, things have been going great, the kids are happy that I have a good job that they know will affect a lot in what they will be doing, they also know it is taking me away for big chunks at a time.

I checked them both out of school early today so they can take me to the airport, my 8 year old lost it, she has been holding me, and crying today, telling me not to go. It's been heartbreaking, and I myself lost it on my wife after this, I knew it would be hard, but not this hard.

My 5 year old, it hasn't hit him yet, but it might tonight or in the next couple of weeks. I have purchased a web cam so I can see the family when I am on the road and they can see me.

Keep your fingers crossed for I won't be home until March 19th.

[CamEdwards]

We took the twins to a Baby Derby over the weekend and entered James in the contest. It came time for him to crawl and he turned around and looked at me instead. I didn't mind too much (although the prize, a trip to the Bahamas, would have been nice). At least he didn't cry like the kid next to him.

James was getting up at 4:00 a.m. for a bottle every morning for a few weeks. Luckily that's stopped and he's back to getting up at 5:30. His twin, Catherine, will sleep until 8 a.m. She's such a little sleep pig.

[ibnsgirl]

Best of luck to you and the family, Dennis!

Well, to update, Tony and 6 month old Lucy survived my absence for 24ish hours (surgery). I know it was hard on Tony as Lucy wanted to be held constantly. Overall, though, she was a little trooper, even if she didn't let dad get any sleep.

On the down side, today was probably the closest we've come to the "normal" schedule. On all of our other trips it only took a day, max two, to get back in the swing of things, but this one took over a week. Of course, it can't have helped that on top of recovery from the surgery, I'm also battling a sinus infection. Sneezing when you have a two inch cut in your neck hurts.

On the up side, I don't have cancer! Why my thyroid did what it did will remain a mystery, but cancer does not seem to be the culprit. That also means I get to keep the left side of my thyroid. And Lucy gave Tony some reprieve by not screaming when the grandparents held her (which was the previous norm and made said gps estatic).

Lucy is doing fine, otherwise. It turns out that she is intolerant of carrots. It was real fun figuring that out, especially since carrots were the first thing we started (after cereal).

I guess that the next big milestone is teething -- woohoo.

[FrogMan]

Matty came down with the chickenpox about a week and a half ago. While he had a bit of fever and was whiny because of it, we've found out that his biggest discomfort probably came from being constipated. He's been having some rough time passing bowel movements, many times going 5 and even 6 days between two "jobs". We talked to his pedatrician about it, not on a specially booked appointment but in the middle of his two year check up, and there's not much we can do it seems. He recommended using glycerine suppositories to help him out when he becomes real fussy because of it. For example, Saturday of last week, he'd sit in the living room, we'd hear him push and grunt and he'd stop and asked to be changed. Thing was, there was only a brownish fart in there. We are taking good care to not giving him constipating food and feeding him with as high fiber content as possible and we don't plan on overusing the suppositories but they did the trick on that day. Popped one in, 30 minutes later a biggish rocket came out

Funny thing is, that was before his doctor's appointment. Since that day, he's been good and has had one bowel movement, even if smallish at times, per day

As for Andrew, our soon to be 9 year old, well, it's quite uneventful right now. Almost scary as I expect to get some sort of letter from his teacher anyday, telling me he's been behaving badly and it'll hit me as a big surprise I did make a deal with him. Some of you may know we're practicing karate together, well I sort of got him to enter the bo competition that is organized by our school in February. He's been doing that competition since 2003 in traditional kata and fighting, but he, and I, only started practicing with the bo last September. What's the deal you may ask? Daddy will enter the competition too, in the 30-39 age section That will be my first competition. I will compete in the traditional kata and the bo classes... Don't know how that'll go. As I said, we started the bo in September, have had 12 hours of practice and I was just getting the hang of our kata when we left for the Holiday break while Andrew was struggling with it a bit. We start again this coming Saturday...

FM

[MacroGuru]

Originally Posted by ibnsgirl

Best of luck to you and the family, Dennis!

Thank you, truly appreciated....

as I was talking to Tony last week, I had my fingers crossed for you...and I am happy for you..

Little Nicholas is what, I think a month younger than Lucy, he has already cut 3 teeth, it's crazy. Avery did the same early too, but not as many....it looks like Nicholas will cut the 3 other top teeth in the next 2 weeks.

Teething with Nicholas hasn't been that bad.

My favorite thing to use is nightime anbesol....it works wonders.

[ibnsgirl]

Originally Posted by indoorsoccersim

as I was talking to Tony last week, I had my fingers crossed for you...and I am happy for you...

very much appreciated on this end, too! Thank you!

Originally Posted by indoorsoccersim

Little Nicholas is what, I think a month younger than Lucy, he has already cut 3 teeth, it's crazy. Avery did the same early too, but not as many....it looks like Nicholas will cut the 3 other top teeth in the next 2 weeks.

Teething with Nicholas hasn't been that bad.

My favorite thing to use is nightime anbesol....it works wonders

Wow! That seems like a lot of teeth!

When I asked the pediatrician about what to expect with teething, he suggested stocking up on teether toys and such, but otherwise not a whole lot to say except that it is just a natural part of childhood and would pass, etc., etc. I guess as much as anything, one hears so many horror stories that it builds up the ol' anxiety level.

The more interesting part with Lucy would probably be brushing said teeth.
"Ack!! What are you doing?! Mooom! Get it out! Get it out! What is this crazy brush thingy? ......Oh, wait, can I chew on this?..... Mmmm, brush thingy..."

BTW, do they make brushes they can chew on as opposed to little versions of adult ones?

[Ksyrup]

From the "since I'm dealing with this hell, you should too" department...

Last night, while screwing around trying to figure out kids' songs on my daughter's toy xylophone, I came to the realization that This Old Man is the same tune as Barney's I Love You song. Imagine my horror as I worked out the notes to This Old Man, only to have the kids start singing I love you, you love me, blah blah blah.

[WSUCougar]

HA!

I'll call that and raise you a we-have-had-to-watch-Stuart-Little-2-a-bajillion-times recently.

[Ksyrup]

Oddly enough, that is one movie I've never seen. Pretty sure we don't own it or the original.

I'm getting my fill of Wiggles, though, I'll tell you that. Our 6 year old loved them, but now our 2 year old is REALLY into them.

[oliegirl]

Well, we are on week 4 of check marks in school. For those of you with little ones, when kids misbehave, they get a check mark...Anthony's goal has been to get through ONE week of school without a checkmark. He had 2 this week, 5 last week, 3 the week before that and 2 the week before that. Yes - you read right - FIVE check marks! Mainly they are for controls talking (he comes by that flaw honestly so I can't get too mad at him) and "self control"...which is basically sitting still in his seat and doing what he is supposed to do.

Radii and I are pretty fed up, we've grounded him, that didn't work...he has activities every day after school so the amount of time that he was actually "grounded" was small. We've yelled, screamed, talked rationally, tried bribery, blackmail, etc...nothing is working. So it's time for creative punishment. Not quite sure exactly what it will be yet, but if anyone has ideas, please let me know!

[vex]

Originally Posted by vexroid

Looks like I'll be posting in this thread in 8 months

And it'll be a....

boy! due on July 9th.

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by vexroid

And it'll be a....

boy! due on July 9th.

congratulations!!! Were you there for the ultrasound? If so, how did it feel to see the little heart pounding?

Damn I'll remember this for the rest of my life, great memories, not as great as the births themselves but still quite great

FM

[WSUCougar]

Originally Posted by vexroid

And it'll be a....

boy! due on July 9th.

Congrats, Vexroid! And brace yourself...

[vex]

Originally Posted by FrogMan

congratulations!!! Were you there for the ultrasound? If so, how did it feel to see the little heart pounding?

Damn I'll remember this for the rest of my life, great memories, not as great as the births themselves but still quite great

FM

Thanks

Yeah, I was there today. It was the 4th time we've heard the heartbeat, but the first time we heard it was something else. My wife was crying, my heart was pounding, it was incredible.

[vex]

Originally Posted by WSUCougar

Congrats, Vexroid! And brace yourself...

Thanks

[oliegirl]

Originally Posted by vexroid

And it'll be a....

boy! due on July 9th.

Congrats! Little boys are SO much fun

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by oliegirl

Congrats! Little boys are SO much fun

I don't know how little girls are and I'm sure they are a lot of fun too but what she said is sooooo true

FM

[ibnsgirl]

Originally Posted by vexroid

And it'll be a....

boy! due on July 9th.

Another summer baby! (Lucy's b-day is July 6th.)


Little girls are fun, too!

And if you think that the sonogram is great, just wait for that first smile and that first laugh -- heart-melting!

Congratulations, vex and Mrs. vex!!

[WSUCougar]

Got a name picked out yet, Vex?

[vex]

Originally Posted by WSUCougar

Got a name picked out yet, Vex?

Noah William Brown.

Probably, anyways. William is my full first name. We thought it was a girl, so we were arguing over different girls names, but then, it didn't matter of course. And we had already agreed on Noah as a boys name

Other possibilities were Ezra or Landon.

[Franklinnoble]

Originally Posted by WSUCougar

It's on as a short "tweener" throughout the day. The new Sprout format makes shows harder to track.

And Drew really enjoys the English version of Caillou, FrogMan.

Am I the only one who has a problem with that show? It seems like that little punk Caillou gets away with murder. If he were my kid, some of the stuff he does on that show would earn him a swift kick in the ass. But his parents seem to be totally OK with it.

Bubba's favorite shows are that mexican dragon cartoon on Sprout, and anything with Elmo in it.

Actually, any sort of talking animal gets his attention.

[oliegirl]

Originally Posted by Franklinnoble

Am I the only one who has a problem with that show? It seems like that little punk Caillou gets away with murder. If he were my kid, some of the stuff he does on that show would earn him a swift kick in the ass. But his parents seem to be totally OK with it.

Bubba's favorite shows are that mexican dragon cartoon on Sprout, and anything with Elmo in it.

Actually, any sort of talking animal gets his attention.

Anthony has outgrown Caillou, but I couldn't stand that show when it was on...he seemed very whiney to me.

A year or so ago Anthony seemed to develop a bit of an attitude problem, we started paying attention to the shows he was watching and noticed that quite a few of them had parents which were portrayed as "stupid" (Fairly OddParents being the worst offender) and where the kids had massive attitude (Ed, Edd and Eddy)...we/I banned Ed, Edd and Eddy and we seriously monitored how much time he spent in front of the TV and made sure that when he was watching, he only saw Fairly OddParents in small doses. We also talked to him and made it clear that it was NOT ok for him to talk to us like those characters talked to their parents. It only took a week or so for the attitude to go away, but I still won't let him watch Ed, Edd and Eddy - that has to be the worst show ever! I wish there were more older kid friendly cartoon shows that portrayed family/parents as a positive thing instead of showing us as idiots who don't know or don't care about what is going on with their kids.

[Franklinnoble]

Originally Posted by oliegirl

Anthony has outgrown Caillou, but I couldn't stand that show when it was on...he seemed very whiney to me.

A year or so ago Anthony seemed to develop a bit of an attitude problem, we started paying attention to the shows he was watching and noticed that quite a few of them had parents which were portrayed as "stupid" (Fairly OddParents being the worst offender) and where the kids had massive attitude (Ed, Edd and Eddy)...we/I banned Ed, Edd and Eddy and we seriously monitored how much time he spent in front of the TV and made sure that when he was watching, he only saw Fairly OddParents in small doses. We also talked to him and made it clear that it was NOT ok for him to talk to us like those characters talked to their parents. It only took a week or so for the attitude to go away, but I still won't let him watch Ed, Edd and Eddy - that has to be the worst show ever! I wish there were more older kid friendly cartoon shows that portrayed family/parents as a positive thing instead of showing us as idiots who don't know or don't care about what is going on with their kids.

It's not just the young children's shows, either. Most crap targeted at "young adults" has teenagers who constantly mouth off to their parents and are portrayed as smarter and more sophisticated than their elders; to say nothing of all the bloody melodrama that kids invariably emulate after watching crap like "Degrassi."

I'm almost at the point where I'd like to cancel my satellite service altogether. If it weren't for football season...

[oliegirl]

Originally Posted by Franklinnoble

It's not just the young children's shows, either. Most crap targeted at "young adults" has teenagers who constantly mouth off to their parents and are portrayed as smarter and more sophisticated than their elders; to say nothing of all the bloody melodrama that kids invariably emulate after watching crap like "Degrassi."

I'm almost at the point where I'd like to cancel my satellite service altogether. If it weren't for football season...

Yeah, I've noticed that there is a general lack of good family friendly programming for kids, which is disappointing. We often let Anthony watch more "adult" things, mainly movies - stuff like Spiderman, Daredevil, Pirates of the Carribean, etc...he has a good grasp on real/fiction and isn't bothered by the dead bodies or anything...if it's a really grizzly scene we make him cover his eyes. I sometimes wonder if we're making a mistake, and we might be, but I feel that it's a better alternative than most of the crap that is on TV.

[Ksyrup]

Our 6-year old made these St. Patrick's Day cards for me, my wife, and our younger daughter today. Basically, they are colored cardboard that say "Happy St. Patrick's Day" and each of our names. They also include a glued-on phrase that she apparently got out of a scrap book set she got for Christmas. So she hands me the one for our other daughter, and the phrase is, "A child fills a place in your heart you never knew was empty." I'm thinking, "Geez, that's pretty deep, even if she just picked it out." Then my wife's, which said, "Girls just wanna have fun." OK, that's not quite so deep, but it fits. And then I get to mine, which said:

"BOY CRAZY"

Man, my wife and I laughed until we cried. I'm not sure if she meant it as I'm a crazy boy, or if she just picked it out because it had the word boy in it. But damn if that isn't hilarious. She didn't quite know how to respond when I asked her when my subscription to Tiger Beat magazine started.

[vex]

lol, funny stuff Ksyrup

[Wolfpack]

Hi, my name is Wolfpack, and I'm a father.

(Hi, Wolfpack!)

Seeing as it's my first post in this thread, I'll try and make it an interesting one. To set the table, I have one daughter, Charlotte, who's now 27 1/2 months old and is going through that stage where you can practically hear the creases forming in her brain. It's an interesting and exciting time to say the least.

At any rate, we recently changed up our bedroom to have our bed on the floor instead of in a bedframe, anticipating the impending birth of our second child. We're co-sleepers as a family, so we did this so that the new baby wouldn't be in danger of falling very far if she did for whatever reason drop out of bed. We did some furniture shuffling in the room that ended up with a small end table next to the bed for a nightstand (before the furniture re-shuffle, it was actually hidden behind the door to the bedroom).

As I noted earlier, our daughter is figuring things out and generally moving into the rambunctious stage of her toddlerhood, able to run and jump, albeit not very well. Well, on Monday night, she was jumping around on the bed, and if you took note of the end table mentioned earlier, I'm certain you can see where this is heading. Did I mention the end table is square with rather sharp corners and edges? Perhaps now would be a good time to mention that, because...while hopping on the bed, she for whatever reason gets up momentum and goes shooting off the side of the bed and smashes her face into the edge of the end table. At the time, my wife and I were getting things ready for bed, so we were in the room when it happened. I pick her up off the floor and she is bleeding profusely from a nice gash right below her right eye. My wife and I debate for a couple of minutes whether we should take her to the ER and ultimately decide to do so, just to be on the safe side.

We get to the ER and are fortunate it's a light night, so we're brought in right away. Still, we do have to wait for a bit for the doctor to come. He examines the cut (grotesquely pulling it open briefly, I might add) and says that yeah, it needs stitches. Knowing that we have a pretty frightened and hurt two-year-old on our hands, he recommends confining her in a papoose (if you don't know, it's a smallish board with velcro wraps that helps immobilize small children) during the sewing-up and also a D-TAP shot for possible tetanus, which we accede to.

The stitching operation is, needless to say, a very traumatic experience for the family as Charlotte is forcibly confined and then has a cloth put over her face so the doctor can concentrate on the stitching area. To boot, a nurse is further physically restraining Charlotte's upper body since the papoose only restricts the limbs to any great degree. The doctor puts in six stitches, all the while Charlotte is screaming and crying and asking to go home and saying other things that naturally tear at a parent's soul because frankly there isn't anything Mom or Dad's going to be able to do to make it better in the short-term. Finally, the stitching is done and all are relieved. Charlotte is rewarded with a couple of popsicles, which seems to sooth her a bit, at least up until the D-TAP shot, which is brief, but still not pleasant. We're then discharged to go home with instructions to return in five or so days to have the stitches taken out.

All during the week, Mom tries to prepare Charlotte for the return visit by discussing with her what did happen and what will happen. Charlotte hears what Mommy's saying, but I don't think she ever quite got it intellectually. This is determined because we went back yesterday (it's now Sunday as I type) to have the stitches out. It's all fine up until we get to the hospital and what had been a fairly happy child during the morning has now become a huddled mass of fear, clinging to Mom and looking decidely unhappy as we stand in line to sign in. The peds ER is a bit more crowded this time, so we have to wait around for a bit, which is both a blessing and a curse as she calms enough to play with some toys and look at the fish tank and even take in a bit of a movie on another child's mini-DVD player that that child's parents brought with them, but this is all merely delaying the inevitable. When we are finally brought back, the fear returns immediately and she's totally unhappy (not hysterical, mind you, but definitely crying and whimpering and so forth). That last visit on Monday has really done a number on her mentally.

We sit in our room for a while and Charlotte is alternately asking to nurse, drink water, or eat something, all the while never settling down and continuing her miserable mood. We finally are seen and again we decide to strap her into the papoose, which naturally elicits some resistance. However, she isn't forced to be under a sheet this time and we count off the stitches as they come out, which seems to help her (she has enough of a grasp of numbers to I think understand how many were removed and how many more were left). She's not hysterical or crying, but she's not enjoying it. Finally, the last stitch is removed and they apply the steri-strips over the cut. Both my wife and I are deliriously happy the ordeal is over with and are thrilled with how well Charlotte coped during the removal process, telling her how brave she is and how proud we are of her for handling it so well.

"Charlotte brave. Charlotte boo-boo feel better. Charlotte go zoom-zoom in the car. Go home."

Ah, just melts the heart to hear that.

[WSUCougar]

Welcome, Wolfpack. Man, that's a rough experience, isn't it? Nothing worse than coping with an injured or very sick child. Glad you're past it.

We had a very rough weekend with Drew (4 year old). He has been in a testing stage, where he has been saying "I don't want to" or "no" to a lot of things that he normally wouldn't. Well, it all came down to it on Saturday. He spouted off some sassy comments to my wife (who is the more lenient parent of the two), and got into a timeout situation pretty darn quick. Then he just went berserk. Seriously, it was a 45-minutes straight tantrum. Screaming, kicking, crying, begging...he pulled out all the stops. I'm hungry, scared, need to pee, sorry, you don't love me, etc. etc. The crux of the issue was getting him to be quiet for two minutes, and he just wouldn't do it. I have to give my wife a ton of credit, because although I interjected a few calm comments to try and settle him down, she wanted to handle the bulk of it and didn't yield. Ultimately, he finally caved. *whew*

Lots of nightmares that night and last night. Broken sleep for us.

Then he got this nasty blood blister looking thing on his forefinger. Great trauma, as you can imagine. Very scared and whiney stuff throughout. Doctor ruled it a probable spider bite, and it's getting better already, but damn.

I need a weekend from my weekend.

[sachmo71]

Originally Posted by WSUCougar

Welcome, Wolfpack. Man, that's a rough experience, isn't it? Nothing worse than coping with an injured or very sick child. Glad you're past it.

We had a very rough weekend with Drew (4 year old). He has been in a testing stage, where he has been saying "I don't want to" or "no" to a lot of things that he normally wouldn't. Well, it all came down to it on Saturday. He spouted off some sassy comments to my wife (who is the more lenient parent of the two), and got into a timeout situation pretty darn quick. Then he just went berserk. Seriously, it was a 45-minutes straight tantrum. Screaming, kicking, crying, begging...he pulled out all the stops. I'm hungry, scared, need to pee, sorry, you don't love me, etc. etc. The crux of the issue was getting him to be quiet for two minutes, and he just wouldn't do it. I have to give my wife a ton of credit, because although I interjected a few calm comments to try and settle him down, she wanted to handle the bulk of it and didn't yield. Ultimately, he finally caved. *whew*

Lots of nightmares that night and last night. Broken sleep for us.

Then he got this nasty blood blister looking thing on his forefinger. Great trauma, as you can imagine. Very scared and whiney stuff throughout. Doctor ruled it a probable spider bite, and it's getting better already, but damn.

I need a weekend from my weekend.

Yuck, Coug!
My daughter loves to throw tantrums, and we learned that ignoring her is a great way to get her to stop. It's not foolproof, but she sure doesn't like it. Still, I would be much happier if her instant reactions to not getting her way was throwing a fit. It's my biggest challenge right now.

[Radii]

Wow, it sounds like a rough couple of weekends for the FOFC Parents here. Glad to hear that everyone is doing okay after some traumatic situations.


To boost up the mood around here a bit, Anthony had his first soccer game Saturday. He's moved up from U8 to U10 and the difference is staggering. I've been the assistant coach on this team and last season's. Last year it wasn't until after 6 or 7 games before we had any hope of the kids playing their positions, and even then only about half the team truly understood their position and role in that position. This year from the very first scrimmage 7 of our 10 kids understand their position at least reasonably well and have a good idea of what they're supposed to be doing.

We have a great head coach(I never played soccer growing up, so I just follow along w/ what the coach is doing) and I've learned something new myself about the game at nearly every practice.

It'll be an interesting season, as the coach stuck Anthony in defense for two quarters Saturday. Its going to take some time to turn Anthony into a defender. He knows his position, but he follows the ball, not the other men. He'll trail the ball up to the midfield stripe and have no idea that he just left two of the opposing players behind him with no one between them and the keeper. He'll learn though. He's a good athlete and is agressive enough that he'll be good wherever he ends up playing.

Development is so quick at this age that its a ton of fun to watch. Now, if he'll just behave at school so we don't have to deal with negative behavior reports every Friday afternoon...

[Ksyrup]

My 6-year old just finished her second soccer season at the end of January. She's definitely a defender/goaltender type. I guess that's about right, given her size (4'5", 80 lbs.). She doesn't really follow the ball much and is content to give it a nice whack and wait for the ball to come back her way. And she loves playing goalie.

She's now in the third week of t-ball practices. This is her second year as well. I'm trying my best to teach her to use her legs to hit, because with her body, she should be consistently pounding them into the OF. Baseball, unlike soccer, is a difficuly game to teach 6-year olds.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

Baseball, unlike soccer, is a difficuly game to teach 6-year olds.

I can certainly see that. With soccer at that age as long as they're all running hard they're not doing too much incorrectly. Anthony was done with baseball before I entered his life, but with baseball even at age 6 you need to focus to do *anything*. The endless energy doesn't carry you as far.

[CamEdwards]

Okay, here we go.

My five year old Andrew is becoming quite a crybaby. Things like having to wear a winter coat, or being told to play outside on a nice day will set him off into tears. I am at an absolute loss as to what to do to toughen him up.

I'm also having some issues with the 14 year old, but that's a story for another day.

[Franklinnoble]

Originally Posted by CamEdwards

Okay, here we go.

My five year old Andrew is becoming quite a crybaby. Things like having to wear a winter coat, or being told to play outside on a nice day will set him off into tears. I am at an absolute loss as to what to do to toughen him up.

I'm also having some issues with the 14 year old, but that's a story for another day.

Humiliation works. Show him how his baby sister doesn't cry like that.

Either that, or put him in a dress.

[CamEdwards]

Originally Posted by Franklinnoble

Humiliation works. Show him how his baby sister doesn't cry like that.

Either that, or put him in a dress.

Actually, he asks to wear the dress... j/k

It seriously is getting annoying. As far as I know, I wasn't this bad when I was his age. His older brother and sister weren't like this. It's not even a matter of him playing the "tears card". I think he just honestly gets so upset about little stuff that it reduces him to tears. It's weird.

[WSUCougar]

For what it's worth, Cam, I'm right there with ya. My son, who's four, tends to be that way as well. One of our books on parenting suggests saying something like, "I can't hear you unless you stop crying" or "I'll only listen if you use your big boy voice." We constantly try and remind him that he's a big boy and needs to talk like one, rather than just crying about things. The jury's still out on the effectiveness of that tactic, though.

[CamEdwards]

Well, I'm glad to know I'm not the only one.

[WSUCougar]

So how's everyone doing?

We're in a pretty good stage with Drew right now. He is generally happy and really enjoys a lot of different activities. Biggest issues right now are (a) he always debates the reasoning when he doesn't get his way, (b) seems extra Mom-centric lately.

[sachmo71]

Sydney was able to move to the pre-K class from the 3 and under class she was in, and is performing very well. She still has a bad day from time to time, but it seems that what she really wanted was to be challenged more. It's really nice to get reports of green days with the occational day than to hear report after report about how rough of a day she had. Mom and I will need to remember to keep her thinking and working, because when she's restless, she get's into trouble. It's more tiring for us, but we're the parents, so who cares?

[Radii]

Things have been going very smoothly for us for awhile now, which is great. Anthony and Oliegirl got to go to the beach(Orange Beach, AL, where Oliegirl's parents own a condo) for a week for spring break, and dad got the house to himself for a week Anthony earned Straight A's for the 3rd quarter of this year, a first for him, and has adjusted splendidly to his new school.

Easter weekend was a good one, we went to Jillians Friday night(a belated reward for the straight A's), Anthony's U10 soccer team finally won its first game of the season(the season is halfway over, about 7 games played I believe) and he was player of the match, so he was thrilled about that, and we had a nice Easter Dinner at Oliegirl's parents yesterday. All of that helped to take the focus away from Oliegirl's knee surgery, which is tomorrow. all in all, things on the parent front are going great

[FrogMan]

glad to hear it's been going well for other people as it's been going pretty well for us too, just kind of felt bad coming in and posting the good times when people are often having rough times

Anyway, Matthew is going through his terrible twos phase with some times more tantrumy than others but in all, he's just so damn charming, it's hard to stay mad for very long. He never ceases to amaze us with new sentence that he put together. He's now 27 months old and it's impressive how well he makes himself understood and how much he likes to speak and explain stuff. It wasn't like that with Andrew but to his defense, Andrew spent the first 18 months of his life in the States, thus hearing both English and French at times while Matty was born in Quebec and is for now only learning French.

As for Andrew, after earning great compliments about his behaviour at school, he's relapsed into the small noise making and such but he seems to understand that it's not acceptable and that he'll have to work on it. He's really maturing, now at 9 years of age, and never was it more obvious than in last week's karate competition. He brought home a 1st place in traditional kata and a second place in fighting (lost in the final after winning three straight fights). Since I often practice with him, I had kind of seen him improve in the last few weeks, but mommy was flabbergasted with the change from the last competition she'd seen in him, only a month ago. His strikes are stronger and more precise, his attitude is better, etc.

Here are two videos of him in action if you wanna see, his traditional kata, called Circle of the Tiger and his bo kata, which has no name since it was made up by our teacher. As a proof of him changing and such, we used to have the same bo kata until our teacher showed me some different strikes to add to it. Well, he asked me to show him the strikes so he could have them too. Yeah, there was a part of "I wanna do like daddy" but there used to be a time when once set with something, he would disturb that thing unless he really would have had to.

In other news, we're getting ready for one hectic Summer since Andrew has just started indoor socce practices, in preparation for his second season with the city's competitive U9 squad (4th season of soccer overall) and after getting a flyer about and hearing about his friends signing up for it, he's asked us to sign him up for the kid's football league that is being started this Summer. It's an 8 to 12yo league with kids grade 3 and 4 playing together and kids grade 5 and 6 playing together. This means we should have about 5 nights of 5 filled with sports in any given week. As sachmo said, it's gonna be tiring but hey, we're the parents, who cares if it's tiring, as long as kiddo is happy and having fun

FM

[Qwikshot]

Just a couple of pictures of Zia at Easter and with the dogs (Ivan and Deuce)

[MacroGuru]

Things have been good....I got back on March 19th from being out on the road for 8 weeks, the kids got away with a lot while I was gone, and my wife was stressed and frustrated with them, so I have had to put my foot down, and let them know it doesn't happen again.

So far so good, but they are slowly starting to act out again as i leave for 6 weeks on Monday.

It's been great being home, the baby has grown a bit since I have been here, and he has been daddy's little shadow. It's going to be painful leaving on Monday.

[WSUCougar]

Dennis, that schedule's got to be rough on everyone. Hang in there, man.

Meanwhile, Drew's been falling into a troublesome habit of saying "I'm sorry" over and over again if he gets disciplined and/or doesn't get what he thinks he has coming. Yesterday, he got into a little trouble at daycare for not listening, and as a result didn't get a lollypop. Oh, lord. Meltdown city. It just so happened that both my wife and I picked him up (we were going to go have a picnic dinner at a park - NOT!), and he made this big scene crying and saying, "I'm sorry, mom" repeatedly. I'm sure it sounds pathetic reading it, but I think it's really more of a behavioral Get Out of Jail Free maneuver. I dunno.

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by WSUCougar

Meanwhile, Drew's been falling into a troublesome habit of saying "I'm sorry" over and over again if he gets disciplined and/or doesn't get what he thinks he has coming. Yesterday, he got into a little trouble at daycare for not listening, and as a result didn't get a lollypop. Oh, lord. Meltdown city. It just so happened that both my wife and I picked him up (we were going to go have a picnic dinner at a park - NOT!), and he made this big scene crying and saying, "I'm sorry, mom" repeatedly. I'm sure it sounds pathetic reading it, but I think it's really more of a behavioral Get Out of Jail Free maneuver. I dunno.

funny you mention that, since we had a tiny episode of the "I'm sorry" thing yesterday, but before, I'll say I also think it's the kid's get ouf of jail free maneuver, as they see that it works and is well seen to say they're sorry.

The episode was with Andrew, our 9yo son yesterday after dinner. As he was bringing his plate to the counter, just having finished eating, he let out a big belch, you know a good big burp and immediately went with the usual "I'm sorry" but not as if he felt it, not like "oops, sorry, didn't feel it coming" more like, "I did a big one, but I'll say I'm sorry and I'll be off the hook". No need to say that to me, this is absolutely unacceptable and I told him so, using the coined phrase "just because you say you're sorry doesn't mean it was okay to do it"...

FM

[sachmo71]

my son has decided he likes putting my toothbrush and flossing tool in his "spaceship" (our treadmill in storage mode). Makes for some long mornings sometimes.

[Suburban Rhythm]

New to this thread...some might remember reading my earlier work on my visiting mother-in-law.

Looking for advice on this one.

The family consists of me (30) wife (30)--who is preg with bundle of joy #2, a boy due in Sept-- and Lucy, who will be 2 in June.

Any other parents out there have experience with night terrors?

This is a relatively new occurance for us. In the last month or so, on and off, Lucy will wake up about 1 or 2 in the morning, screaming uncontrollably. When I get out of bed, and make it to her room...never know what I'll find. Sometimes she's lying there, normally...other times sitting up...but always the same bawling. But, we believe these are night terrors because, best we can tell, she has no idea what is going on.

If she's lying there, I'll rub her back, say "It's OK"...but she has no idea, nor does she open her eyes. This will go on anywhere from 30 seconds for up to 5-10 minutes. She'll finally figure out what is going on, "wake up", and stand up with her arms out to pick her up. 2 minutes later, she's giggling and laughing (also not the greatest at 2 am), like nothing ever happened.

Anyone else have tricks for dealing with this?
As I said...some weeks it is 1 night...others, 3-4 in a row.

[WSUCougar]

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.