What you think does matter

One thing you learn fast when you have children is that - no one really listens to you.

My duaghter apparently recorded ue having some fun with my son. Yes - I like to toss the boy around. no - it doesn't hurt him. Unlike his mother who believes that I'm going to hurt him some how. Me, I just love to hear him luagh! The Wild Luaghing kid

Is it me or is my four year old trying to get rid of me?? Here I was happy to have a day off where I could hang out, do as I pleased and in fact - was happy to go and pick up my four year old son from pre-k school. But boy was I in for a surprise. I go and pick him up a half hour earlier than his scheduled time - out of love [ or because I didn’t want to waste the gas driving back and forth - you judge ] and when I signed him out early - he only had one thing to ask of me... Why are you not working??? What, did I hear you right? So I asked him, what do you mean… and he said.. What are you doing home, aren’t you working today?? Hey, come on - can’t a dad get a break… It’s my day off and I want to spend it with you. Why would you want to bring up work and are you trying to get rid of me kid??? Come on, maybe the next time I have a day off I’ll just disappear and not come home - see if you like that one buddy. Life is so strange - and kids their even stranger. Imagine that - a four year o...

How do you make politics simple enough for an eleven year old to understand - turn the TV off! Really, it’s hard enough explaining life and the every day things to your kids - why would a teacher give my child an extra credit assignment that requires her to stay up late past her bed time to watch something she has no knowledge or concept of? I was going to watch the Vice Presidential debate anyway - but it’s hard to really listen to the debate when your eleven year old child who wants to do good in school is asking you “what does that mean?” “why did they say that?”. How can I hear the issues when I’m busy explaining to my child why Biden said he opposes fraud from the mortgage companies, the big oil companies and how Obama will stop that [ despite that fact that Obama was taking kick backs from Freddie Mac and Fannie May when they were committing the fraud???] But hey - thank you teacher for making my day a bit more interesting! One good thing came out of last nights debate as I watch...

Here I am trying to spend some quality time with my son before I have to go to work and all he wants to do is play halo. It's sad really - because I'm the one who got him hooked on playing halo. But I guess spending some time with him killing aliens and defending the universe from a horde of evil Aliens is better than not spending time with him at all. The odd thing is he takes his command so seriously - I mean he is only four years old and he is concerned about the men that follow him in the game. He has figured out that they can die and that he can do something to save and protect them. He just insist on making sure his fellow soldiers are doing good. He doesn't want to go to the next level unless he can protect his fellow men [ and women - they have female characters in the game]. The odd thing is, when he plays as the alien, he doesn't care who dies - his fellow alien horde could drop by the thousands and he lets them - but let one of his fellow human being soldiers...

The hills are alive with the sound of Music... You know, I usually look forward to the week end. It’s time to hang loose, the most I worry about is if I can get away with “not doing “ the lawn. Heck, come Saturday night - I look forward to joining my kids and watching some Naruto [ cartoons ]. But, lately my week ends seem to bring fear, large amounts of fear. Look, I am grateful that my daughter has an interest for music. She’s shown interest in the "recorder" [ looks like a flute to me ], she’s taken some tips on the Drums from me and when she showed interest in the Piano - a teacher at her elementary school gave her some tips. So what does she do when she get “band” in middle school [ jr high ] - she decides she wants to learn how to play the Alto-Saxophone ???? So what’s the problem, what causes me such fear - I love my little girl, but when she ask me if I can pick her up Friday from school so she can bring home her Alto-saxophone so she can practice making noise.... I ...

School, strange request? Here is a funny thought: My daughter comes home from school and after spending time arguing with her brother and driving me a bit batty - she tells me the teacher gave me homework. What? She said that I had to do it and that it was due tomorrow. Well, first I was not in a good mood and second I don't have to do anything... [ got that out of my system ] My so called school homework was to describe my child to the teacher in a million words or less - funny, a million words or less. Right now I can use one - bother or pest or well you know... Ofcourse my first reaction was - you have to be kidding right. After all - isn't the teachers job to assess my child? Besides what parent wouldn't lie thru their teeth about their child on a thing like this. It's like filling out a resume - you put all the good things and leave out all the bad. It's what I do. Then my wife came in, took over and wrote this glowing inspiring report about my daughter - as he...

Don’t try to grow up so Fast! I tell my daughter all the time - "don’t worry about growing up, that will happen. Enjoy being a child now, because when you do get old [ grow up ] you’ll wish you were a kid again". This leads me to a conversation I walked in on with my daughter and wife. I walk into the kitchen and bang the conversation stops [ clear sign I should get involved ]. So after poking my nose in - I find out that my eleven year old girl wants to "shave her legs" - so first I get defensive and ask why and throw in a "your too young". Then I get logical - I break it down for her with a series of questions: How old are you? Who are you trying to impress? Are you a model? Are you going somewhere other than school? What hair on your legs? [ still has thin small almost invisible baby hair. ] I told her look, I can’t see any hair to shave and if you start shaving now, the norm is that your baby hair will grow in thicker and then you will need to shave. S...

It's amazing what children will do when your not watching them..... Here I am doing some work on the computer and taking phone calls - and I notice that my kids are quite - way to quite. so like any good parent i raise my antenna and I hear them whispering and getting things from their rooms. So being the nosey parent that I am - I went to check on them. I don't know about your kids, but it's amazing what crazy ideas pop into my kids head..........

My son is always saying he wants to be a soldier. He is only four years old. His mom cringes when he proudly says it - for fear of lossing her little boy. Let us Honor all those who have given much in service - In service to you, to me, to thier children. Sacrificing thier lives, family, and so much more. In honor of those who have gone before, and those in the present. Thank you for what you have sacrificed. I recieved these photos via email and thought to share it with all.

Love is a strange fickle thing I grew up with seven brothers and sisters - and as much as we loved each other, we also hated each other. Ok, hate might be too strong a word but - we fought just as much as we loved each other. The funny thing is, my children are the same way. For as much as they love each other - they fight like cats and dogs. They seem to want to get on each others nerves. Yesterday they were watching TV in the living room and it seemed like they were bitter rivals. Everything was a challenge. They couldn’t go twenty seconds without something to snicker and fight about. My son who seems to be the more “sneaky” of the two - found pleasure in ratting his sister out when he found some spilled juice in the frig. He came running to us with this happy grin as he said “ooh KIKI spilled a lot of juice all over the floor.... come, hurry, look”. But what makes me laugh is that as much as they fight - they can’t be separated. A perfect example was this morning. I wake up early an...

General is His name.... Well the day came, general [ the dog we were caring for our friends ] is gone, yesterday was his last day. And while I know everyone knows I wont miss him [ no I did not hate him - just to much unwanted work caring for pets and kids ]. I will say this - I was surprised. I expected my kids to whimper and cry. To shout and pout about general leaving - but they didn't. in fact they almost seemed happy about it. ??? maybe it's because my daughter wont have to wake up at six thirty in the morning to walk him. or because my wife wont have to clean up after him. or maybe it's because my son lost his fear around the dog and the dog became - you know, part of the furniture as he lost interest in touching and petting and following that dog around the house. I do know this.. I will not miss the screams of my children fighting over who can sit closest to the dog. So to say my farewell to my four legged little friend - I wrote a song.... Oh happy days are here ag...

Oh the Hypocrisy of fathers Day ! I hate Days like Fathers day - it’s so fake, so hypocritical. You know, the one day out of the 365 day year where your family takes the time to show you how much they care for you as a Dad. Well, the hypocrisy goes toward all days - mothers day, valentines day, even birth days. I love my family and they love me. I know this not because they gave me a nice fathers day card and some very nice cloths [ better than a tie .....] But because they show it too me every day of the year. On fathers day, my wife went out shopping for five hours with the kids, ate lunch out at Paneras restaurant and came home and didn’t have to cook. What was my reward - that I had peace and quite for five hours and had to cook my own meal. yea, like I said I got the fathers day card and nice clothing. But I think my wife got the better end of this deal. My point - I hate it when I am obligated to give someone something on a particular day - and if I don’t, it’s taken as a sign of...

Day 6 th of Summer Oh the joy of being right.. I told you so............................ This morning [ as early as it is ] I arose to the sweet smell of victory. And all I could think to say was " I told You...} But I didn't. It seems that my wife is a bit upset becuase my duaghters room smells bad - ofcourse it does. The dog has been sleeping in her room and it's dog she smells. *** Surprise *** Not happy at all she orders my dughter to clean her room and spray that smelly princess stuff called Freebreez ???? Oh then she orders her to walk the dog. Oh joy what a wonderful morning this is! Now my duaghter is upset becuase [ already used to waking up late in the day ] she has to get up at 7 am to walk the dog [ well it wasn't going to be me ]. Ofcourse I couldn't help but document the disgruntle little girl walking the dog. Ofcourse this only means that I have to put up with a "angry little girl" for a couple of hours early in my morning - but since I...

5 th Summer Day Things are getting hectic around here, but what can you expect when you have an eleven year old, a four year old and a yapping little dog running around your house. I think I’m going crazy. Today is not a good day. Last month I had a pin hole leak in the pipes and had to break part of the wall to get in there and fix it. Then the next day after that - the garage door “spring” broke. I mean broke, and it cost me almost $150 to get it replaced [ couldn’t do that on my own ]. Well, today the garage door opener broke. The gear inside apparently striped…??? First, I don’t understand why a gear that is used to raise a 200 pound or so garage door would be made of plastic - but it was. And boy did it get eaten up. I thought I could replace it, but once I opened it up - lets just say I don’t have those kinds of skills. So I had to convert the garage door back to opening and locking manually [ you know your lazy when you cringe at just of the thought of opening a door manually ]....

You ever notice - you give your children all the things you never had as a child. You buy game consoles, swing sets, a backyard [ God I lived in a apartment complex - I didn't know people had back yards....]. you have all day cartoon chanels, DVD's coming out of the wazu and board games, radios, and things you can't even mention [ toys invented for this yougn generation ] - you have the internet, social sites dedicated to children. You buy them paint, chalh boards, dry erase boards, remote control cars you name it and what do they say.... dad, I'm bored. There's nothing to do ????????

Summer is Hot ! As I stated in last post, Summer doesn't officially begin until school is out. Well, this is the second day of no school and my air conditioner went out. Well - it didn't break down, but it was badly leaking to the point where water was dripping down thru the ceiling. No it wasn't a flood, but enough to wet the floor with about a cup of water. To make it worse - the leak was right above a light fixture in the kitchen - I didn't want an electrical fire so off went the "air conditioner"... I haven't experienced this much hot air since we went camping last march for spring break. And the hot air wasn't from the heat but from my family. My wife was complaining, my daughter was hot - and my son was sweaty but didn't complain. All this and I had to play the supportive "It's not so bad" role. Not that it help calm the family down. You would think that it was 100 degrees in the house. The funny thing is - that these are the sa...

Personally, I don’t like all the huggy huggy thing. I personally reserve hugs for family and special friends. I would also like to add that I would prefer that my daughter stay at least fifteen “Hundred” feet away from boys. But this is ridiculous - to ban hugs??? I thought it was funny at first till I read in the news paper that it wasn’t only this school in Fossil hill that banned hugging in school. From Bend, Ore., to Oak Park, ill., to Des Moines, Iowa, to Orlando Florida schools are banning hugs. And the excuse - that it causes congestion in the hall ways - well, tell the kids to move along and not be late but banning hugs??? Hey, I personally would prefer my little girl would never hug a boy and never marry till I was dead - but that’s not going to stop her.. Some believe this ban is due to fear of sexual harassment or worst - sexual activity. Give me a break - first, teach your child correctly and hope they do the right thing. Second, like it or not if they want to “do it” they ...