Dad Rules
Gorgeous day today, so I was able to get the girls outside for a few hours. The neighbor kids also came out and eventually playground chalk made an appearance. 20 minutes later, C.’s face was completely covered in pink chalk, M.’s in blue. Hopefully the pictures turn out. Their normal Thursday morning bath came about 14 hours early. S. got…
Probably Not The Next Tiger
Like a lot of parents, I struggle with how and when to push my kids. To be honest, I don’t push much: if they want to do something, I let them do it. If they aren’t interested, I’m not going to force them to kick a soccer ball for two hours. But I do think a lot about how I’ll…
Pizza Party
For now, I’m not going to talk about the NCAA tournament. I need to find the right tone so that I don’t anger the Woof Gods. I still have a few superstitions left. I did want to quickly recap M.’s first trip to Chuck E. Cheese’s last week. You may recall that she was invited to a birthday party for…
Lost Art?
I was watching the Backyardigans with the girls today and wondered, do people outside of circuses walk on tightropes anymore? I’m talking about real tightropes, not metaphorical ones. Maybe it wasn’t as often as it seemed, but when I was little, back in the mid-70s, it seemed like some joker was walking across Niagara Falls or between the TwinTowers on…
A Night For Dads
Tonight was dads’ night at M.’s preschool. There’s nothing quite like spending an hour with a bunch of wound-up three and four year olds. As with their Christmas program, M. had been letting details of what was going to happen tonight slip for a couple weeks. They’ve been diligently practicing songs and on occasion she would bust into one in…
Ubiquity Has Its Price
Today, while playing in her toy kitchen, M. said the following things: “I’m just going to pop this into the fridge.” And, “Hi, I’m Rachael Ray.” And we almost never watch any of her shows anymore. I’d prefer she pick up some proper Italian pronunciations from <a href=”http://www.giadadelaurentiis.com/”>Giada</a>.
Round Numbers
I’ve come at this a couple different ways and wasn’t terribly satisfied with the results, so I’ll give this a third shot and see what happens. It was ten years ago today (February 22) that my mom was killed in a car accident. As with any anniversary, in some ways it seems like yesterday, and in others it seems like…
Coupla Lame Asses
Another streak is broken. Saturday night, S. and I went to see our first movie in a theater together since 2004. One of her sisters informed us that we would be going out and she would be watching the girls, so we decided to go crazy and see a flick instead of just going to dinner. We caught Juno, which…
Nudists
My daughters are becoming nudists. It’s pissing me off. Yesterday, while I was off getting groceries, M. came prancing downstairs after her aborted nap buck naked, according to S.. Last night, while I was doing some stuff here in the office, she came strolling in naked again. Making matters worse was, right behind her, C. wearing only a diaper and…
Denver Trip Summary
As reported, the family has returned, intact, from our adventure to Colorado. The top of the line bullet points are that the girls earned an overall B+ for their behavior and S. and I have decided we’re not traveling with the girls again until they are both at least five. The flight out was mostly uneventful. C. was fussy for…