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.
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.
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.
You know society is in a bad state when you find yourself saying to your 5 year old son: “Get used to it, you’re going to have to deal with it your entire life. Just learn to smile and say sorry. That’s just the way woman work”. Now before some 60 year old radical from the feminist movement comes banging on my door to give me an earful about woman’s rights; please give me the chance to explain by providing the back story to that statement.
Disclaimer: This post was suppose to be all about summer activities, but then a memory struck me and the entire post shifted. Sorry, read on and you’ll see it was a good shift.
Summer is nearly half way over and I’m left wondering where the time went. It seriously doesn’t seem like the middle of July is here already. But then I look back and realize that the reason summer is passing me by is because of all these gosh darn activities that we’ve been involved with for the kids. This year, some dummy (me) was looking through the activity catalog and make the bright decision to sign them up for everything. When I say everything, I really mean just about EVERYTHING. We had basketball, T-ball, swimming, karate, soccer, gymnastics, art, and music classes. It’s been a lot of fun and the kids really enjoy being involved in so many different things, but secretly, I must say that I’m happy we’ve reached the midway point and it’s almost over.
Do you remember when you first learned to ride your bike without training wheels? If you’re anything like me, that moment was THE single most important achievement of your 5 to 6 years on this planet. Well some 20 odd years after I learned to do it, I’ve taught Ty to ride without training wheels & it felt as though I had achieved greatness again. What’s even better is that I was able to witness the feeling of a 5 year old conquering his biggest challenge yet & it was invigorating to be on the other side this time. But then that all came crashing to a fiery end; once the excitement subsided, the dreadful memories of my training wheel boot camp came flooding back & the tears of joy that I shed for Ty turned to tears of heartache and pain.
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.
Welcome back to day two of Daddy’s Fish Bowl’s 2009 Holiday Gift Guide. I hope you enjoyed the options presented yesterday for toddlers. Today we’re shifting gears and taking a look at some options that your preschooler is sure to enjoy. Shopping for this age group can become a tad more difficult as you attempt to balance fun toys and learning toys, our list contains a good amount of both, but as always, if you have suggestions that should be added or comments on any of the items listed, be sure to let it be known in the comments section.
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.
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.