Daddy's Fish BowlA Clear View Of A Father's Family Experiences

No, this post isn’t going to be about some newly discovered venereal disease that I contracted during a recent trip to Tijuana.   I haven’t been to Tijuana in years, so that would be old news (I kid).  Instead, this post is about turning even the smallest event into an educational opportunity that can be used to teach kids something new and exciting.  These chances pop up every so often and if you’re not careful you can definitely miss them.  So keep your creativity hats on at all times; because to the untrained eye, bodily fluids may not seem like the best tool to use for teaching a pre-schooler, but by putting a little spin on it, they can learn something new and have fun doing it.

The Bilingual Baby

Tre is 21 months old and surprises me every day with something new that he’s learned.  The kid is like a sponge, just soaking up anything that comes his way and I couldn’t be happier.  For the past month or so, he has been working on mastering his ABC’s and numbers (up to 10) and he has them down pact, recently he learned his colors and can pick out any color block or crayon that you ask him to and tell you what that color is.  A few days ago when I came home, he read me a book.  This was a shocker, because for once I didn’t have to read the same book 20 million times in a row.  Instead he brought the book to me and said “readabook”, as I began reading he turned around, put his finger to his mouth and shhh’d me.  I was baffled so I just shut up & to my surprise, he took over.  Picking out a few words from each page and then saying the associated animal sound.  I was impressed to say the least, but his most recent educational endeavor is just down right scary.

Geocaching's Next Superstar

Are you wondering why my kid is in the middle of the woods with a large Tupperware container?  It’s because he had just concluded his first geocaching excursion & was proudly basking in victorious glory.  What is geocaching you may be asking?  Well I’ll tell ya, it’s basically a treasure hunt using a gps device and it’s totally freaking awesome! Well, now that I’ve actually found something, it’s awesome.  I’m kidding, that’s not true; it took me a while to pop my cherry, but even when we weren’t able to locate the “cache” (official word for treasure) we still had a good time just being in the great outdoors and spending family time together.  I have to send a thank you to my buddy over at The Life of a Father of Five, the post that I’ve linked you to is the very reason that our family has now become involved in geocaching.  I foresee our family participating in the sport for a long time to come, the kids love going treasure hunting and it’s also pretty good exercise.  If you’d like to learn more check out the official geocaching site here.

Happy Birthday Ty

Today our oldest boy turns 5 years old; well actually as far as he’s concerned, he’s been 5 for the past 3 days already.  Ty was having a tad bit of difficulty grasping the concept that the day we were celebrating his birthday, wasn’t his actual birthday.  After going through a few mental exercises to drive this point home to him, we finally conceded and decided that it’d be best to just let the kid think his birthday was on Saturday; the day of his party.  It worked out pretty well, until yesterday that is, when he went to his “Kindereadiness” class. 

How many of you enjoy watching cartoons? I’m not talking the “Family Guy” or “South Park” variety either. I’m talking full fledged kiddie cartoons.  So come on, be honest, we’re all friends here; do you still enjoy them now that you’re in your older years?  Well I sure do & I’m not afraid to admit it either.  As a kid, I was a cartoon fanatic; and now that I have kids, the little fanatic inside of me can safely come out of hiding and rejoice in the fact that cartoons are back in my life on a regular basis.  Only problem is, today’s cartoons suck!

Ty & My Silly Hair Pencil Man

As a Dad, I get the pleasure of witnessing the unique views of the world that children have.  I’m constantly trying to understand the mechanics of their thought process and how certain conclusions are formulated.  I honestly have to say that it’s one of the best parts of being a Daddy.  Observing their often misconstrued, but always amusing world outlook, can bring a smile to my face any day.  Last week was one of those times; I got to see first hand how this society works, from a kid’s perspective.  Apparently, in the eyes of a 4 year old, bribery can be used as the key to success for all of your troubles.

Now, we’re not talking about the “just got pulled over, offer the cops a few dollars” type of bribery; instead, we’re talking about bribery at its sweetest and purest form.  Although, now that I think about it, if Ty has mastered the art of bribery at this age, then maybe he’s going to grow up to be the greatest politician this country has ever seen, lol.  As a matter of fact, I know that he will.  Unlike most kids who try their hand at bribery, Ty didn’t stick to the small fries, he didn’t try to bribe Mommy & Daddy, nope he had his sights set high and took a stab at bribing my boss.  Hey, if you’re gonna do something, you might as well go for gold right?

Yesterday was the release date of “The Beatles: Rock Band”, so naturally I was super siked to get home and play it. I’m not a huge fan of The Beatles, can’t say that I know more than a handful of their songs (I know, sad isn’t it?); but I am a huge fan of the game Rock Band. The Rock Band series has been in our lives for the past 2 years now, and I’m truly thankful for the fun and excitement that it has brought to our family. We first got acquainted with the series when Tre was only a few weeks old, and little did we know, it was actually going to be the thing that held us together during those tough tough times of early infancy.

Hello everyone, welcome back!  How was your long weekend?  Did you do anything exciting to end the summer with a bang?  Well I hope you did because our family sure didn’t.  I had spent most of last week planning a pretty entertaining weekend for our family to indulge in, as a farewell to summer and a welcome home to fall (a much more pleasant season here in the south).  But instead of sending summer off with a bang, we quietly let it leave with a fizzle because… yup you guessed it, we were sick, AGAIN!

Most elderly people are set in their ways and feel that they’ve seen and done enough throughout their lifetime to know everything about, well, EVERYTHING.  Sometimes when I think about Ty, I compare him to the elderly.  Tricking this kid is like trying to fool your Grandmother.  If you told your Grandmother (or Ty) that the sky was going to fall, you’ll probably hear something along the lines of “child please, you ain’t fooling nobody”.  Tell the average kid the same thing and they would believe you.  I was that average kid; anything my parents said was gospel.  I mean seriously, I didn’t even try Chinese food until college because I knew in my heart that it was dog or cat meat.  Why did I know this?  Because my parents said so!  Ty on the other hand isn’t so gullible; you’ll have to answer 21 questions before your statement is even considered to be truthful.

I’m baaaaaaaaaaaaaaacccccccckkkkkkkkkk, did you guys miss me yesterday? Of course you did, how did you ever make it through that horrible work day without the joy of Daddy’s Fish Bowl?  I’m sorry about yesterday guys, just couldn’t muster up the strength to write anything with this stupid cold kicking my butt.  I’m still under the weather, but feeling a bit better today & I couldn’t leave you guys hanging for another day.  Enjoy!

Swimmy The Frog

Meet “Swimmy the Frog”, I’ll explain the origins of his name later.  Swimmy, is the latest addition to our family and more than likely soon to be the latest addition to our pet cemetery, which is located in our back yard.  Ty loves pets, but for some reason, he doesn’t love taking care of them.  During his short time on this earth the boy has had more critters, creatures, and four legged friends that the average person has in their lifetime.  I mean seriously, he’s had everything from turtles to grasshoppers and just about everything in between.  No matter the animal, insect, or rodent, they all have one thing in common: death, and an untimely one at that.