A good husband?

So I had my first sign of a good husband... not Alex -- Parker. Dave and Susan were here this weekend with their girls. I think Alex already mentioned that we put Parker and Vivian to sleep in the same room.

When they went to bed, we sat around the monitor fully humored by their pre-school conversations. At one point Vivian was unhappy about how her blanket was all crinkled up and she dropped her stuffed toy. Parker got out of bed, fixed her blanket, and handed her back her stuffed monkey as we heard, "There you go, Vivian." I think maybe he'll make a good husband someday...

By the way, do you like how I've muscled in on Alex's blog? I, of course, do not have editing rights so I'll apologize in advance for what he might post. But at least I can tell you the real story now! I saw comments on my size made it up today.

I'll just have you know that when I asked Parker who's belly was the biggest, without hesitation he told me "Daddy's!"

My Personality Traits seen in the Big Man (and that's not a good thing)

Aug 27, 2008



So there are a couple of things about the little man that I must admit, I feel a little bad about having instilled in him.



His love of all things on wheels is not one of them. As a matter of fact, I have no idea where the hell that came from. Example. We went to the zoo twice this year. There we are surrounded by all sorts of flora and fauna (more fauna than flora, but still) - and the boy got most excited when we walked by some backhoes that were working in one of the caged areas. "Look daddy, it's a backhoe!" He's jumping up and down all excited. I mean seriously, the kid sees backhoes basically every day, but obviously since these were behind a cage, they were wild backhoes - not the domestic backhoes that he normally see.

So his love of vehicles I have no control over - I mean I barely know that cars drive on four wheels. He got that one on his own. Some other personality traits, not so much.

He is getting out of the bath the other night, and he has these three plastic frogs that squirt water and whatever in the tub with him. As we are getting out, I take the frogs out and line them up next to the tub. As he is getting out, he looks at the frogs and one of them has fallen over, and he says 'pick that frog up daddy, make that one look like the others.'

Aw, buddy - you are so anal retentive. I'm not so sure that's a good thing, but I know where he gets it from. I mean I have to walk around the house to make sure the light switches all line up the same way.

Honest Truths from a Three Year Old

Aug 27, 2008

So sometimes the little man says some stuff that is just laugh out loud funny and it's not like he's trying to make us laugh - just making very honest observations.

Last weekend Parker was sitting on the bed while Julie was getting ready on the morning. And, of course, PK has surrounded himself with a dozen or so cars and trucks. Seriously, where the hell did that interest come from? Anyway - Julie wanders on in and starts moving some of the cars out of the way so she can sit down and finish getting ready. Parker looks at her and asks, "what are you doing Mommy?" To which Julie replies that she is moving some of his cars out of the way so she can sit her bottom down. Parker responds, "You're bottom can't fit here Mommy, it's too big!"

So Julie is pregnant, right? It's a fact that she's a little larger these days, but it's not like she's Barbar or something. But Parker with the - there's no way that is fitting here - is awesome.

And last week, the big guy and I are sitting down to have dinner. Actually he is sitting down to have dinner, playing with some of his airplanes, and I am sitting there checking some of my e-mails.

So he asks me "Daddy, what does the pirate say?" And I'm like "Oh the pirate says 'arrrgh' big guy"

And he says "No daddy, what does the parrot say?"

"I'm sorry buddy, I misunderstood. The parrot says 'awwwwk'"

Parker is now totally frustrated. Puts down his planes and says, "Look at my face. What does the PIE-LET say?"

It was great. I cracked up.

Okay, jackass I'm going to try to speak very slowly here so my functionally retarded father can understand me.

Weekend with the Goads

Aug 27, 2008.

So my last couple of posts ate themselves (or more likely, I accidentally deleted them) - which means I have to try to recreate what I wrote (near on impossible). So I'm not even going to really try, but I can recap the weekend at least.

I mean the Goads were in town, and they're kind of a big deal. So Parker had his first sleep over with Vivian, where the slept in the same room and everything (although Dave did erect an invisible force field around Vivian, so PK couldn't get too frisky).

Couple of observations about the sleep-over. First is that you probably want to discuss sleeping styles. For example, PK is basically a vampire. He sleeps in complete darkness, no night light, close the door, room darkening shades, and then we blindfold him. I mean its ridiculous. Vivian, however, sleeps in a fair bit of light. I mean it's not like they hold a flashlight over her head or anything, but we obviously had to work that out - which we settled by trying to find the middle ground.

That actually caused them both to stay up longer because it was too light for PK, but too dark for Viv. That led to our second observation. Three year olds are like little people. I mean we turned on the monitor (big brother is indeed listening) and listened to them carry on this whole conversation. Granted - the conversation was disjointed and nonlinear, so it wasn't like having a conversation with an adult, but more like having a conversation with, say, me.

Polar bears swim under water and walk on ice (I think these might both be actual facts) and then they were going to ride Blast Off when they went to Sesame Place on Sunday. Literally - that was the conversation. Polar bears swim underwater and we're going to ride blast off tomorrow.

We actually had to go up there a couple of times and tell them they weren't going to ride blast off tomorrow if they didn't go to sleep - right now!

And speaking of Sesame Place - it was a little weird this time. So the big man went last year and we went on all these different rides and stuff -while this year all he really wanted to do was hug Elmo and play in the water. And so part of me wants to be supportive and everything - I mean if he doesn't want to do something, you know, you don't want to force it. But the other half of me was like - ' you get your ass out there and play, damnit' I'm not a good parent.

So when we get home - PK ends up getting chased around and tackled by his girlfriend and I end up saying to Julie 'we gotta get that kid signed up for tai-kwon-do or something'