If you missed part 1, read it here.

Ty’s first day of kindergarten was filled with highs and lows (the lows can all be attributed to Fefe). There was excitement as well as sadness and a little bit of anger mixed in too.  Most kindergarten first days run pretty smoothly, ours resulted in us getting kicked out of the school. Read on to hear all about it.

As you can tell from the vid, Ty was pumped & ready to go bright and early in the morning.  His comment about not wanting to be small in school actually struck a nerve with me and I’ll be addressing it in a later blog post.  What you couldn’t see from the video however is the excitement of the other members of our family.  Fefe got up super early, willingly I might add, and cooked a big breakfast for the whole family to send Ty off for his big day with plenty of nutrients.  Little does she know, she has now painted herself in a corner because I’ve been begging for breakfast before work for months now and she’s always “too tired” to wake up early enough to do it.  Well well well missy, if you can do it for Ty, then you can do it for me!!!

Continuing on, after breakfast the entire team got ready for the required photo op:

Let's Go Already

I Can Already See Tears

During the picture taking, Tre must have felt a tad bit left out & ran upstairs to get a book bag for himself.  Even though he wasn’t going to school, he was ready for the cameras and looking the part of a school boy nonetheless. 

Tre's All Set To Go

When it comes to event planning, Fefe should be avoided at all costs!  She was in charge and running point for the big day and had two MAJOR snafu’s.  First up, I don’t know if she was just eager to get rid of the boy or her excitement took over her better judgment; whatever the case, her timing for drop off was all screwed up.  She was well aware of the fact that the first bell rang at 8:45am, but for some unknown reason, she got us there at 8:20.  Okay, 25mins isn’t all that bad.  Yeah, it’s not that bad until you end up getting kicked out of the school.  What type of message does that send to Ty?  Kicked out on his first day? He’s destined to fail with a start like that! 

It wasn’t so bad, we were simply asked to wait outside until the bell rang because students aren’t actually allowed inside until first bell.  I thought that this “suggestion” was just a little too well timed however, because it came immediately after Tre threw a fit regarding going to pee in the potty.  Never mind the fact that he had already peed twice in a matter of 5 mins, he wanted to go again and made sure the entire school knew it.

Once our reprimand had been lifted, we entered the school and took Ty to his classroom.  After a quick paperwork check in, we were all giving hugs and saying our goodbyes.  Once Ty was completely covered with slobbery kisses, we sent him off to enjoy his first day; the kid didn’t bat an eye as he left us to walk into his class.  Everyone was prepared to let Ty take his first steps towards being a big kid; well everyone except Tre.   

The Kindergarten Mugshot

Fefe's Face Intentionally Cut Off; Too Many Tears

Tre began to express his desire to accompany Ty as he walked away heading towards his class.  We explained that Ty had to go to school to do work and Tre gets to go home and play with Mommy.  He didn’t care and fired back “Daddy, I got book bag, I go to school too”.  The little guy said it with such conviction that for a split second I actually was under the impression that a book bag was the only prerequisite for attending Kindergarten.  Luckily, Fefe was front and center to pick up the slack and enticed him with the promise of a popsicle at home.  He agreed to the terms and we were off.

Remember those snafus that I told you about?  Well the second one occurred when it was time to pick Ty up from the bus stop.  Fefe had the “bright” idea to walk to the bus stop to pick him up.  It’ll be nice she said, we can hear all about his day on the walk home she said.  Yeah, it would have been really nice IF IT WASN’T 97 DEGREES out!  After walking in blistering heat, and subsequently standing in the sun for 15 mins because the bus was late, Ty finally arrived & we were all pumped to hear about his day.  Unfortunately, it didn’t play out that way.  All Ty was concerned about was getting out of the heat and vowed not to say a word until we met his demands of air conditioning and ice cold water (we’re gonna have to work on his negotiating skills).

Once we got back home, Ty explained his day to us and it went something like this:

Me: So how was school?

Ty: It was GREAT!

Fefe: What did you do?

Ty: We did a bunch of stuff!

Fefe: Like what?

Ty:  Like, um, like, well a bunch of stuff

This banter carried on for a bit longer, eventually we were able to squeeze out that they watched 4 episodes of Clifford the Big Red Dog until the bell rang, went to the playground, he made 2 friends, they ate lunch, he colored some pictures but couldn’t bring them home, he can’t wear his Silly Bandz (thank God), the bus ride home was long, they read a book, and learned a new song.

Yup, that was pretty much his day in a nutshell, well actually it wasn’t in a nutshell for us because these little bits of information just kept spewing out periodically throughout the day.  There was no rhyme, reason, or cohesion to his story, but it was his story and he was proud of it!

Take No Prisoners Attitude?

Today is the first day of school for Ty, he’s been waiting for this day to come for quite some time now, it’s so funny seeing how eager he is to go to school because you & I both know how naive he’s being.  A few years from now, he’ll replace his enthusiasm for going to school with intense efforts to come up with top notch excuse to stay home one extra day. The first day of school was always exciting, I loved it. The new clothes, seeing old friends & making new ones, it was great.  Unfortunately, great didn’t last very long.  The first day of school was the second best day of the school year, only losing out to the last day of school!  But for me, that first day euphoria always quickly wore off. I wonder how long it will last for Ty.

I can vividly remember my first day of kindergarten and I honestly don’t recall my Dad being there. He probably had to work or something, but it still resonates in my memory banks that only my Mom was present on such an important day in my life. I’m ensuring that Ty doesn’t have that same memory; I’ll be there front & center this morning walking right by his side as he travels a path which will undoubtedly become the bane of his existence for the next 13 years! When he grows up, he won’t only remember his mom sobbing because her little boy is growing up, as I do. He’ll have another facet to that treasured memory, he’ll remember his Dad there smiling ever so proud, cheering him on. Saying “go on son, today you take baby steps towards becoming a man!” What he won’t know is that his Dad has ulterior motives. That his Dad is smiling because this is the first day on a long journey, a journey that 13yrs from now results in the boy leaving, going out on his own & me getting my house back!

So I totally meant to post this yesterday before leaving to take Ty to school, but through all the excitement, I forgot.  So to make it up to you, I’m giving you part 1 & 2 in the same day, how’s that for a bargain! Click here to read part 2 which recaps the trials and tribulations of Ty’s first day of school.

A Quarter Can Change The World

Allow me to take you back, back in time to a place when things were much much simpler.  Close your eyes for a moment and imagine…wait a minute, if you close your eyes, how can you read this post? Okay scratch that, keep your eyes open and imagine your oh so wonderful childhood, when you had not a care in the world.  Ah the good ole days right, a bag of chips cost 25 cents, summer actually meant 2 entire months of freedom.  Yeah, life was a lot easier back then and as much as we’d like to stay young forever, it’s not very feasible.  However, when there are kids around, you can be forever young, reliving your special memories through them.  That’s what happened to me the other day, Tre made a comment that showed my exactly how simplistic his world view is and it’s been the highlight of my week, possibly the whole month.

A few days ago, I get a call from Fefe while I’m at work. It was a short call, straight to the point: “You better bring home a quarter, gotta go”.  Just read that sentence for a moment; now imagine how baffled I was on the other end of the line listening to it.  I’ve recently introduced Fefe to the joys of one of my favorite television shows, “The Wire” so I thought this was some half-ass joke. Maybe she was pretending our phones were tapped and she was talking in code to set up a drug deal?  Whatever the case, I spent way more time than I should have trying to determine what was going on.  Completely stumped, I pushed it out of my mind and carried on.  Until I got a text while on my way home: “You get the quarter?” Okay, enough is enough, somebody’s gonna explain to me what’s going on here!

So I called her and demanded that she explain all of this quarter talk that she had been rambling about throughout the day. She gladly obliged and told me about a conversation that she had with Tre earlier in the day.

Tre: “Mommy, Daddy at work?”

Fefe: “Yes baby, Daddy’s at work”

Tre: “Daddy went to work to get quarters”

Fefe: “huh?”

Tre: “Daddy went to work to get green quarters for me, that’s why Daddy at work”

Fefe:  “Yes baby, you’re right.  That’s exactly why Daddy’s at work”

If you don’t speak toddler, that gibberish may not make a lot of sense to you, what Tre was trying to say is that Daddy goes to work to get quarters so that he can buy green gumballs.  How green gumballs became green quarters, I have no clue.  Quite frankly, I’m a little disturbed by the fact that I’m actually able to translate such things.  Maybe Tre has been watching “The Wire” and has learned to speak in code better than we have. 

I’m not sure how this kid already knows to associate me going to work with money, but somehow he has learned a basic understanding of the way the world works.  However flawed his understanding may be, the concept has been instilled in him.  The more I thought about it, the more it made me smile.  At two years old, the little guy has learned that his Daddy must leave him every day for several hours and go to “work” to bring home quarters to buy gumballs with.  It’s still taking a little bit of time to get use to the fact that my son is willing to pimp me out for 8-10hrs a day to receive a lousy quarter.  But you see, that’s really the beauty of it all.  At his age, a quarter is all he needs to satisfy his wants and the fact that Daddy has to work all day to get that quarter is acceptable because it’s what’s important to him at this point in time.  As he grows older, what’s important will change and become more complicated; with that change comes stress, worries, and disappointments.  So I hope he holds onto this simplistic outlook on life for as long as he can.  As long as he does, I’ll be happy to slave the day away for quarters to make my little guy happy.

I’ve learned something from this encounter with Tre.  When the weight of the world is on your shoulders, and things are becoming too much to handle, just think back to when times were a lot simpler, when your biggest worry was getting a quarter for the gumball machine.  Something that seems so trivial now, was actually very important to you way back then, and you somehow found a way to carry on, whether you got that quarter or not.  So while your current troubles may seem enormous to you now, in the future you may look back on them as being nothing more than a quarter in the gumball machine.

Yesterday was a day filled with many different emotions for me.  Who knew one simple event could create such a range of feelings in one individual.  Throughout the workday, anticipation built up to an all time high.  After work, knowing that this outing was growing ever closer, eagerness began to creep in.  During the short drive to our destination, eagerness turned to excitement; once we arrived I was in total bliss giddy as a school girl.  Shortly after however, things went really bad, really quick.  I’m talking stage diving and no one catches you bad.  It didn’t take long for me to realize that I had made a huge mistake.

When I read that previous paragraph, I thought to myself, “wow, was I about to pick up my Powerball winnings or possibly on the way to meet my favorite celebrity?” Then I snapped back and remembered exactly what event caused such a myriad of emotions and I hung my head slightly lower in shame.  In shame because a simple trip to the Drive-In theater should not be able to induce an entire rainbow of feelings in a grown man.  But you know what, I’m lifting my head up because I’m proud that the nostalgia of the Drive-In Theater hasn’t abandoned me.  It holds a special place in my heart, rooted in childhood and yesterday I was prepared to share that with my family for the first time.

Both of the boys were excited about our forthcoming adventure yesterday, although neither of them fully understood the magnitude of journey that we were about to embark on.  Tre was just excited to be leaving the house in his pajamas.  To him I believe the world as he knew it ceased to exist for a moment.  The excitement in his face when he finally realized that he was putting his pajamas on not to go to bed, but in fact to actually “go bye-bye” was priceless.  Ty on the other hand just could not grasp the concept of going to the movies, but staying in the car.  His expressions were those of someone utterly confused while being wildly excited at the same time.  Again, priceless.  These priceless moments all fed into my excitement that YES this is happening; my family is going to the drive in, as I had done so many times as a child.

Once we arrived, we lucked up and found a spot in the front row, dead center.  It was as if the stars were all aligned and the hands of fate were on our payroll.  Things were definitely different than the Drive-In back home, but hey it was still a Drive-In so no worries.  No worries, until we were told that since this was a “car optional” Drive-In and people mainly come to sit on the lawn and listen to the movie through the portable speakers next to the screen that we couldn’t have the car turned on.  No ignition means no AC and no AC in hot, humid, muggy weather means decreased excitement, increased attitude.  Nonetheless, we carried on and tried to enjoy the movie.

Then another unanticipated issue came up.  Tre’s bedtime is typically 7:30-8pm, the movie didn’t start until around 8:15.  Do you see where this is going?  When Tre is sleepy, Tre chooses one of three personas to assume: silly, cranky, or restless.  Well last night, for some odd reason, perhaps to mock me, he decided to pick all three.  He was constantly getting into things, constantly getting in trouble and constantly getting put into time out.  Don’t ask me how it’s possible to put a toddler in time out while trapped inside a 4 person car; just know that it can be done.  There were two main incidents that made me conclude, the Drive-In just isn’t for us.  Well at least not for the remainder of this summer. 

Incident #1: Tre decides that he is royalty and his fans need to see him, he needed to be one with the people.  So he decides to climb on my shoulder and stick his head out of the sunroof.  We thought it was cute, snapping pictures and laughing, until he decided to address his unsuspecting “followers”.  He started talking to people who were trying to enjoy the movie.  One person walking towards the concession stand was promptly told to go sit down by Tre, ruler of all that is to be ruled.  I swear the guy paused for a minute and actually considered returning to his blanket.  After a few brief conversations, we pulled him back into the car and you would have thought we were torturing this kid the way he cried and screamed to get back to the sunroof.

Incident #2:  After coming out of time out for the umpteenth time, I decided to let Tre sit up in the front with me to get a better view of the screen and hopefully hold his attention so that he wouldn’t continue to create mayhem.  What in the world was I thinking?  I’ve made some pretty dumb decisions throughout my lifetime, and I’m pretty sure that this one falls somewhere in the top 5.  As soon as he gets in the front, the kid instantly turns into Mario Andretti and acts as if he had mysteriously been teleported directly into the last lap of the Indy 500.  That’s when it happened, in one fell swoop, the boy put my car’s horn in a death grip.  I mean he really laid into that thing, I’m talking just got cut off on the highway, had to slam on your breaks, spilled your coffee on a white shirt while heading to an interview horn blow.  There were people sitting directly in front of our car, particularly a little old lady with her grandchildren.  The way this lady jumped out of her folding chair made me wish that I could die for her, because surely the only thing could follow a scare like that was a heart attack. 

After receiving death stares from more than a handful of people, I knew that my dream had become a nightmare and it was time to go.  As we drove away, a single tear dropped from my eye, because on that night, my childhood memories of family night at the Drive-In died a short, but painful death.

Me & My Babies Before I Had Real Babies

For the past three years, something has been missing in my life.  I’ve tried to tuck it away and forget my secret desires, but all of that hard work was ruined today; because for the first time in over three years, I rode a motorcycle.  The adrenaline is still pumping through my body as I type; I literally just got off of the sexy beast less than 30 minutes ago.  It was great, the wind was blowing, I felt as if I was one with the road, and felt alive.  As I sat down to write a blog post for your reading pleasure, I found myself with a horrible case of writer’s block.  Not because I had nothing to say, or because I couldn’t put the witty words together to create a humorous tale for you guys;  but because all I could think about was the thrill that I had just received from revving the engine on that motorcycle.  Then, just like that, it hit me; something inside me said “hey stupid, the kids are the reason that you got rid of your bike, talk about that”.  When those little voices (notice the pluralization) inside of my head command, I obey.  So let’s talk about the sacrifice and maturity that come along with parenthood.

I’ve been infatuated with motorcycles for as long as I can remember.  The speed, the loud noises, the stylish bodies, it all intrigued me.  When I was about 7, my older cousin bought a moped.  Now at that time, I was too young to understand that this was nothing more than a go-kart on two wheels.  All I knew is that it looked like a motorcycle, sounded like a motorcycle, so therefore it must have been a motorcycle.  My cousin instantly became the coolest person in the history of cool.  I said to myself at that moment that I would have a bike as soon as I was old enough and then I too would become the coolest of the cool.

As you can see, a seed was planted when I was very young and over the years it grew and grew until I finally purchased a bike.  When I did, my entire world changed, I was invigorated, and the road was my playground.   So I got this bike and everything was going great, Fefe even enjoyed riding on the back. My boss at the time told me “If you find a woman that will let you put her on the back of that thing more than once, MARRY HER, she’s a keeper” Not sure his logic was 100% accurate, but nonetheless, here we are married and living happily.  Well what went wrong you may be asking, why did I get rid of the toy that I loved so much?  I went wrong, I went very very wrong.

After a year or so, the thrill of riding a bike had started to wear off.  I’m an adrenaline junkie and just riding wasn’t enough for me anymore; I needed a bigger rush, the next level was calling me.  I started doing stupid things, things like going 180mph on the highway, standing on the bike, and even considering doing a wheelie.  Now all of these things were absolutely amazing, some of the most exhilarating times that I’ve had in my life.  But then I found out that Tre was on his way into this world and I was quickly snapped back to reality.  My actions were not one of a responsible parent and thankfully those little voices started screaming that to me every time I hopped on the bike.  I was being reckless and irresponsible.  The thought of not seeing my son born due to a stupid thrill was enough for me to realize that there are more important things in life than the next big thrill.  So I calmed down and rode like I had some sense, however it was never the same.  As I rode, that itch to just let it rip was always there and it scared the living hell out of me. 

The fact that I wanted to go fast (Ricky Bobby voice) even though I was putting myself and therefore my family at risk was enough to show that I didn’t have the self control required to continue to enjoy my passion.  Immediately after, in the blink of an eye, I gave it up; no looking back, no second thoughts.  I’ve always missed it and today proved that to me more than ever.  But when I think back to my previous actions, I begin to doubt if a new bike is the right move for me and my family.  Maybe one day, but for now I’ll keep it 4 wheels on the ground.

So what are your thoughts?  Is there anything that you’ve given up because of parenthood?  Something that you’ve had to sacrifice to ensure a higher quality of life for your children?  I’d love to hear about it.

This Has Got To Stop

Last night I tweeted a tweet that went a little something like this: “Silly Bandz are ruining the world, yes the world! The children are the future and Silly Bandz are corrupting them, therefore the world is doomed!”  I meant every word of that statement and I stand by it.  The things I’ve seen in association with these simple rubber bands have been enough to make a sane man check himself into Bellevue and never come out.  You want to know why the Swine Flu pandemic never happened, well it’s because the Bandz pandemic took over first.  I’ve seen frightening things people, and in an effort to educate you on the fight against Silly Bandz, I will share those memories that I fought so hard to repress, putting myself through pain and anguish all for the greater good of mankind.

These things come in different shapes and colors, THAT’S IT. They don’t do anything special, don’t make cool sounds, nothing, just different shapes and colors.  You would think with all of the technology floating around, our children would demand more from their newest fad, but they don’t. Silly Bandz are simple and they love them. Kids don’t even go outside to play anymore; they go outside to trade these stupid things.  Apparently, trading is a skilled art form that takes precision and accuracy to complete so there isn’t time for outrageous activities such as hide & seek, or tag.  One day, Ty was outside “playing” with his friends for at least 2 hours.  I checked on them periodically and I witnessed no playing at all.  They were just sitting on the ground talking, shuffling these rubber bands around amongst each other. When Ty came in, I asked why him and his friends weren’t playing. His response: “Oh we were playing, see look, I made some good trades. Look at this pig I got and oooohhhh check out this, ummm <blank stare> ummm, well I don’t know what it is, but it’s cool huh”.  All I could do was shake my head and look to Tre as our only hope.  Ty was too far gone, he couldn’t be saved, could no longer be trusted, he’d steal from his momma to get his hands on more Silly Bandz, he had become infected. 

The Infection Is Spreading

But not Tre, he was still pure, seemingly immune to the effects of this horrid disease.  But as with any pandemic, the strong can only hold out for so long. A few days ago, Ty purchased a new pack of Silly Bandz and was gracious enough to share 2 with his little brother.  Well gracious is a bit of an overstatement, it should really be replaced with FORCED.  This kid honestly didn’t want to give up those 2 Silly Bandz and for the life of me I couldn’t understand why.  I mean, he had about 70 split up between his wrists and just got a new pack of 24, so what’s the harm in giving up two of them? Maybe he was trying to protect Tre, trying to ensure that he wouldn’t make the same mistakes and walk to dangerous path that Ty had travelled down. Whatever his reasoning, it didn’t work.  Just that small sample was enough to infect Tre.  When this disease hits, it hits hard and fast.  Within two days Tre and his 2 Silly Bandz were inseparable. 

Last night during bedtime, Tre kept whining about his Silly Bandz, saying that he lost them.  After the fourth trip upstairs to find his lost possessions (which were always located right next to him in the bed), I said enough was enough.  I told him I was going to put them on the dresser so that he wouldn’t lose them and that right there was the biggest mistake of my life.  This boy cried like I had never seen him cry before, constantly repeating “I need Silly Bandz” in a tear-filled shivering tone. It was nearly unbearable; I couldn’t stand to watch how this disease affected him. So I gave them back and realized that I had now lost 2 sons to this wretched infection.

Based on what I’ve witnessed over the past few months, with last night being the icing on the cake; I now know that something must be done about this issue. Someone must take a stand and save our youth.  I’m planning a march on Washington to propose that our government fund a “FIGHT THE BANDZ” campaign. It’s going to have a really cool acronym like D.A.R.E. did with their drug campaign and together we are going to fight this epidemic and take our children back! Are you with me people???

Should of got me an iPad for Father's Day

So yesterday was Father’s Day huh?  The one day of the year were Dads around the world are given unanimous appreciation for their efforts as father’s.  For me, Father’s Day is always a great and special day (because I love getting gifts, lol).  However, this Father’s Day ended in pain and suffering and with me being all alone.  That description sounds somewhat similar to the type of information that I was receiving from my Twitter timeline and Facebook feed,   It appears that Father’s Day isn’t a great holiday for everyone, I witnessed a lot of male bashing, which is probably well deserved, but it definitely showed me The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly of Father’s Day.  Since, my day started off great, but didn’t end in the same fashion, it seems like that good, bad, and ugly trend that I noticed on social media in reference to Father’s Day isn’t only restricted to bad Dads.

THE GOOD

It's our house. The windows are pics of the familhy

Well my day started off with the relaunch of this site, which was excellent! The response and support from all of you guys was exceptional and I honestly appreciate it.  Things only got better from there, once the wife and kids woke up, I was showered with hugs & kisses (after a short delay) as well as Father’s Day wishes and an exceptional amount of attention.  The wife cooked breakfast, and the kids showed off their gifts, one of which is pictured above. Things were going great, I felt like the King of my castle and was loving every minute.  The boys and I had an awesome wrestling session and played with cars, action figures, and play tools; you know, all the activities that great Dad’s are made of.  After that, I was allowed to enjoy a nice PS3 session, courtesy of Fefe occupying the kids time. I was under the impression that things couldn’t get any better.  Then it happened, the wife told me that she was taking me to HOOTER’S for lunch!!!! WOW, so it’s Father’s Day and my reward is to look at chics in skimpy outfits without detrimental consequence?  Plus I was promised a nice Angus beef steak dinner and massage to top off the night! Does it get any gooder than that? I don’t think so! (I know “gooder” isn’t a word, but it fits with the theme of the post, so roll with it)

THE BAD

A grown man with Silly Bandz? SMH, FML

Let me explain something here, the good, bad, and ugly don’t always come in that exact order. In my case :”the bad” started on Saturday and didn’t get really bad until the evening of Father’s Day. I received a package from my mom on Saturday and while I thought this would be a nice gift to celebrate my upcoming day, it turned out to be another prank in our long going feud (to be later explained in a future post).  As soon as I opened the package, I knew it was going to be a problem.  She sent me a card, but for some reason it was really puffy and soft, that could only mean one thing; my mom had done the unthinkable and sent me a pack of Silly Bandz for Father’s Day. She knows that I despise those stupid things so she got a kick out of hearing of my reaction when opening them.  The Silly Bandz were bad, but it was a good joke that I could live with.  What I couldn’t live with was the fact that Fefe through manipulation of our child, Ty, forced me to wear them on Father’s Day.  I think the things look completely ridiculous on kids so imagine the shame and embarrassment that I felt while walking around with these brightly colored rubber bands around my wrist.  Matter of fact, you don’t have to imagine, just look at the pic, it’s written all over my face!

THE UGLY

This is where things got really bad! We decided to have a nice family night out at putt putt to celebrate Father’s Day. It started out great, besides the fact that I was wearing a rainbow of rubber bands on my arm that was cutting off my circulation.  Our local putt putt spot was running a special where Dads got to golf free. The weather was great, and I was with my family, what else could I ask for?  Well I guess I should have asked for my wife to be blessed with the reflexes of a ninja because the first swing of the game ended up being the last!  This was Ty’s first miniature golf outing and Fefe was busy demonstrating the proper golf swing technique used by all of the greats.  After the demo, she moved to the side and prepared to watch Ty make history!  Well he almost made her history as he proceed to swing his club as if he was in the US Open.  Ty completely missed the ball, the putter continued moving forward until it connected with Fefe’s right temple.  It was extremely frightening, it happened so fast that I didn’t know exactly what happened.  After ensuring that Fefe was still breathing and giving her a 20 question quiz, we headed home and she went to sleep.  Ty and I worked on a super special get well soon card for Fefe and shortly after I put the kids in bed and was all alone for Father’s Day.  Instead of my steak dinner, I had left overs.  Instead of sipping fine wine, I drank cheap vodka.  Instead of a massage, I let the dog walk on my back. Yeah, to end Father’s Day in a manner such as that is quite ugly indeed.  But I’m thankful that my wife is okay and wasn’t badly injured, plus you have to love Ty’s thoughtfulness of his card, so I guess the good prevailed!

Can you decipher the message? "GET WELL SOON MOMMY"

Let me start off by stating that I HATE THE DENTIST! There I said it! If you’re a dentist reading this blog, I’m sorry, but we could never be friends (don’t stop reading the blog though, lol). Dentists perform hate crimes against humanity and I refuse to subject myself willingly to their torture. I took the stance that I would never subject my kids to the demented hands of a dentist either; luckily I have a level headed wife who vetoed my ruling. Yesterday was Tre’s first visit to the dentist and it appears that he’ll be following in his Daddy’s footsteps. He wasn’t too pleased, and surely let it be known during his visit.

Ty has been to the dentist several times already and much to my dismay, he loves it! I can’t believe my son is crossing enemy lines and consorting with such vile characters. But maybe it’s a good thing; war isn’t for everyone ya know. Tre on the other hand immediately threw up his defenses when he got to the dentist office. Even though they attempt to lure kids in and trick them with their numerous toys, games, and rides (yes, rides at the dentists office) Tre wasn’t having it. When the receptionist lady asked him if he was excited about seeing the dentist he shouted out NO! and ran towards the door (that’s my boy). Now, I don’t think he really understood her question, but it was damn funny that the timing of that NO was so perfect.

He eventually calmed down and took the bait. The toys reeled him in and caused him to lower his defenses (rookie mistake). He was so involved in playing that he didn’t even notice when they called Ty back into the torture room, oops I mean patient room. After a few minutes, Tre looked up and noticed that Ty was missing. I told you guys that he had a funny feeling about being at this place, so he must have thought that they kidnapped Ty and were doing horrible things to him. After realizing that Ty was gone, Tre proceeded to run around the waiting room screaming out TYYYYYYYY at the top of his lungs, looking underneath chairs and trying to open doors to find his brother. Now that’s loyalty right there, leave no man behind.

We decided that maybe it would be a good idea to take Tre back there with Ty so that he’d calm down and maybe seeing what they were doing to Ty would ease his fears of having the dentist work on him. We were wrong! When Tre saw Ty on the table and the dentist over him, doing something in his mouth which was making weird noises, he started crying and repeatedly saying “Ty, they hurting me.” He was trying to say are they hurting you, but hasn’t totally learned his pronouns yet. Ty gave him a thumbs up to let Tre know that he was okay, and things seemed calm for a while. That is until it was Tre’s turn to get examined. All they did was look at his teeth and brush them with a NORMAL toothbrush. But the way he was kicking and screaming, you’d have thought he was having a root canal, and wisdom teeth removed with no Novocain. In the end, they won him over with a stuffed turtle and he was fine, but I think he still has his suspicions about the true intentions of a dentist.

As you can see from Tre’s experience, the dentist office probably won’t be his favorite place to visit, but being afraid of the dentist isn’t always a bad thing. Because of my hatred for that profession, I do everything in my power to ensure I don’t have to visit them and throughout my life have only had 1 cavity. Hopefully Tre & Ty will also let fear be their guide to good tooth brushing and flossing techniques as well.

If you missed yesterday’s Tre’s Thursday Toy Review, be sure to head over and check it out.

When it comes to parenting, working Dads get screwed, as do working Moms.  Now that I think about it, Stay At Home Parents can possibly be getting screwed too.  So I guess I should have named this post “Everyone Gets Screwed”, but then it would have sounded like a porno entry and that’s not exactly the first thought you want in your head when coming to a Daddy Blog.  Therefore, since I’m a working Dad, we’ll just keep it at how us working Dads get screwed out of quality time with our kids.

One day last week while going through my normal routine to leave for work, something strange happened.  Usually, Fefe and the kids are still sleep when I head out the door, but every now and then the boys will wake up super early and they’ll already be downstairs before I leave out.  This was one of those times, I like these times, because at least I get to catch a glimpse of the people who matter most to me before heading out for over half of the day.  Well on this day, as I’m saying my goodbyes, (here comes the strange part) I tell Tre that I have to go to work and I’ll see him later.  As he hears my words, his little bottom lip starts to tremble and he says “Dada, you bye-bye?” I respond telling him that I have to go to work because that’s what Daddy does and before I could finish my sentence he just burst into tears.  It was both heartwarming and saddening at the same time.  Knowing that my little guy loves me enough to cry at the thought of me leaving for the day made me feel like the most important person in the world. It also made me sad and a bit angry!  Why do I have to leave my wife and kids everyday, why don’t I get to spend more time with them?  I know why, but those little tears on that innocent face made me question it all.

Then it got me thinking, I know that he doesn’t understand the concept of work, so what does he think when I leave every morning, or when he wakes up and I’m not there?  Does my son feel that Daddy abandons him everyday and Mommy is the hero that stays by his side to rescue him?  I honestly don’t believe that is the case, because I see hurt in his eyes when I leave, but so much joy when I walk through the door to return.  You wouldn’t be so happy to see someone who abandons you everyday would you?  Maybe he just thinks that’s the way the world works and there’s nothing he can do about it; so he just accepts it and waits for me to come back.  Even still, it’s not fair to him, beacause by the time I get home, I only get a few hours with the boys before they head to bed.  Those hours aren’t the highest quality hours either; because by that time, they’ve both had pretty full days and although their energy levels remain high, they’re struggling to keep it together.  Tre gets cranky when he’s tired, Ty gets beyond silly.  Since tired little boys are hardheaded,  a fraction of the time is spent disciplining them in between and during the little bit of play time we get. 

All in all, we still have a great time during the few hours that we have together.  I get the privilege of participating in wrestling, and playing chase, and all those other high energy activities to make sure they’re good and tired before bed, but it never occurs to anyone that I’m already good and tired after a long day.  Some days I’d rather spend time teaching them numbers and letters, but during the hours we have together their little attention spans are so shot, that we hardly ever make much progress. 

So is this the function of a working Dad?  Get a possible glimpse of your children in the morning before work, leave for the majority of the day, return home tired but still ready to enjoy the few hours with you kids before bed, but be restricted to physical roughhousing because the prime time for learning has already passed?

When I was single, I thought I knew the meaning of the phrase “Living for the weekend”, but now as a parent, it means so much more!  It means I get to spend those quality hours with my kids; I get to make up for the 40-50 hours that I lost with them during the week.  This past Saturday, Ty definitely put the phrase into perspective for me.  When I woke up and went to his room, he saw that I wasn’t dressed for work and asked if I was off today.  Once I told him yes, his eyes lit up and his mouth started moving a mile a minute; just shooting off all the many activities that he wanted to do with me today since I didn’t have to go to work.  So we hurried up and got started.  You see, for most people, the weekend is a time to relax and recuperate from the stresses of work, but for me the weekend is the boys’ time to recuperate from the stress of me being at work.

Tre is ready to combat the Swine Flu

Some of you may have noticed the lack of posts last week, well that’s because we were all sick. Wait, let me rephrase that; my entire family was sick, and I was stuck taking care of them. That of course led to me being sick towards the end of the week. Fun times right? It’s always like that in our house, sickness is a domino effect. Once one person gets a cold, it spreads like wildfire to each member of our household until it has crippled each and every last one of us. No matter what we do to try and prevent it, there is no stopping the wrath of sickness! I have a few tips that may be able to help you, avoid the domino effect. In our home they never work completely, but I do think that they contribute to a quicker recovery.

Last week was definitely one that was out of the ordinary. I had a business trip and brought the family along with me and Fefe had her surgery to have the IUD removed. Oh yeah, on top of this already action packed week, EVERYONE got sick at some point. It all started with Ty, he’s usually the culprit. I don’t know what it is about him, but the kid brings germs into our home like they are his best friend. Last Saturday, he started with the cough; you know the cough that rarely gets covered? Yeah that cough, the one that somehow seems to occur directly over his little brother’s food. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like he does it intentionally, he’s just a kid and that’s what kids do. I remember being a kid and NEVER covering my mouth when I coughed or sneezed. Like really, you want me to basically spit into my own hand? Screw that, was the mentality that I had. At least Ty does attempt to cover his mouth; I’d say 1 out of 3 coughs/sneezes gets covered up. Unfortunately, that’s just not good enough.

Why wasn’t it enough you may ask? It wasn’t enough because both Fefe & Tre got sick during my business trip. Fefe had a very bad sore throat and nearly lost her voice, while Tre was running a fever upwards of 102 and had no appetite at all. Needless to say, the trip turned out to be a dud, because no one was able to enjoy themselves. Enjoyment was the least of my worries though; I was more focused on protection! Sadly, there was no protection to be offered, no where to run, no where to hide. Being stuck in the small hotel room for three days with 3 sick people who were coughing, sneezing, and just spreading germs every minute of the hour, meant that I would be the next to succumb to this illness. I tried my best to stay healthy in that hotel, I even tried to quarantine the sick and shut in, to no avail. So while taking care of business on this trip, I also ended up taking care of the family, which left me tired, worn out, and effectively weakened my immune system. As you probably guessed, on Wednesday when we got back home, my throat started feeling a bit sore.

I immediately started gargling with salt water and taking Cold Eeze, and for a while it worked. By the end of the day, I felt better and thought that I had successfully fended off the attack. Unfortunately, Fefe had surgery at 6am the next day and was pretty much out of commission the entire day afterwards. This meant, no rest and no sleep, which of course leads to a weakened immune system and practically invites the germs back in to attack me. At this point, Ty is of course fully recovered and bouncing off the walls and Tre is still kind of sick, but definitely milking it and taking full advantage. We somehow manage to get through the day without Fefe and I’m still feeling pretty good, so I was happy, I thought success had been obtained.

Then it hit me on Saturday, I felt like crap. Sore throat, runny nose, no energy; I got hit hard. It probably had something to do with the fact that on Friday Fefe made breakfast, and although Tre had already finished his food, he weaseled his way to my plate and effectively touched every piece of food present. He picked up my sausage, took a bite of my toast, and even grabbed some of my scrambled eggs. What I didn’t know is that he had a hand full of snot while he was doing it. Fefe had gone upstairs to get some wipes for his hands and when she came back I told her how he attacked my food. As I stuff snot soaked toast in my mouth, she asks “did you clean his hands?” I respond with “no I didn’t, why?” and then she lays it on me. She told me how he had just wiped his nose and had snotty hands. As she’s telling me this, the toast has just been swallowed and I immediately feel a sickness in the bottom of my stomach, but now it was too late, I knew what would come next and all I could do was wait for it to come. Well it came, and it’s still here! At least everyone else is almost back to full health so I can get the royal sick treatment. You better believe, I’m gonna take full advantage. So if you’d excuse me, I’m gonna ring my sick bell and summon up a glass of orange juice!

But before I go, here are those tips that I promised you! A few ways to HOPEFULLY prevent sickness, while living in a house full of sick people.

• Lysol, Lysol, Lysol! We Lysol everything to get rid of germs, we use the spray and the wipes, in an attempt to fight the spread of germs
• Cold Eeze. They may not stop you from getting sick, but I’ve found them to be effective in shortening the recovery time if you take them as soon as you feel it coming
• Vitamins (submitted by Lakaisha). I’m guilty of not taking these faithfully, but they help keep your immune system strong so should be effective in keeping you sick free
• Quarantine. If possible, keep the sick person confined to one area, that way they can get the rest they need and keep the spread of germs to a minimum
• Hand Washing. Every time that you come in contact with the sick indivual or surfaces that the sick person may have contaminated. Wash your hands, and sing the ABC’s to ensure you wash long enough.

That’s all I have for you guys, do you have any additional recommendations that you’d like to share?