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

Santa's Little Helper?

Hey there everyone, how have you all been doing? These past two weeks have been rough, everyone being sick and all, but for the most part things are better. I’m still not 100%, but I couldn’t stay away from blogging for too long. So did you guys miss me? Ah, why do I even ask, I know you missed me! lol.

So while Fefe & I were sick, battling colds, a new Ty emerged from the darkness and tried to nurse us back to health with kindness and generosity. It wasn’t really from the darkness, I’ve just always wanted to say that, you always hear it in movies and cartoons, but can never find an appropriate place to throw that phrase out. So anyways, Ty has been uncharacteristically good these pass few weeks, cleaning up after himself, taking naps like he’s suppose to, etc. It all seemed kinda fishy to me, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. He swore up and down that he was only trying to be helpful and make things easy since we weren’t feeling well. In part, I believe him because the kid does have a big heart; I mean a BIG heart, watermelon size. But really though, how good can one kid be without incentive? Until yesterday, I was starting to buy into Ty’s genuine nature, until he slipped up and gave me a glimpse into his true motives.

Elmo & A Ninja (A Deadly Combination)

Happy Halloween!!! Oh wait, I guess I’m a little late huh?  Well, I’m just like “The Simpsons”, remember how they always aired their Halloween special on the Sunday after Halloween? Okay so here we go.  First off, I’m writing this post from the hotel room in Clemson, S.C. so I’m away from my normal blogging locating and it feels a little weird.  I’m out here on a business trip (which will probably end up being a blog post of its own) but I didn’t want to leave you guys without some delightful eye candy (get it? halloween, candy, eye candy, lol) to get you through your Monday!

Tre going in for the kill

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.

Alien or Human?

This one is going to be pretty short, but after the last post, I needed to write a feel good story to brighten the mood of the site.  As you guys know, in order to obtain a feel good story, I have to look no further than my own kids.  Yesterday, Ty and I were playing and he noticed a blue dot on my foot and asked what it was.  I wasn’t exactly sure what it was, it looked like a spec of dirt or something that I picked up from the floor.  So I did the most logical thing, I made something up.  Now I could have been like any normal parent and just told him that it was some dirt or lent from the floor and kept it moving.  But where would the fun be in that right?  So instead, I fabricated a story about the origins of the blue dot, which led to a 30 minute battle of wits between Ty and myself.  Why am I matching wits with a 5 year old? Because it’s great bonding time and listening to his logic is hysterical.

I’m really big on nicknames for the kids; part of the naming process when we have children is to ensure that a ready made nickname is available.  This is partly because growing up, I never had a nickname.  I was always plain ol Keith! Keith, Keith, Keith, do you know how boring that is?  I desperately wanted to be called something else; I thought it would be so cool to write “keith” on my homework, but have people refer to me by some other name (no, jackass wouldn’t have worked).  But alas, that was not the case; I was Keith and only Keith, so I vowed that once I had kids, I would ensure that a nickname was built in somehow.  This is a vow that I’ve so far kept and one that is now coming back to haunt me.

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. 

Boy oh boy, yesterday was an unusually tough one.  Well the work day was anyway, the stress level was at an all time high and the pressure was mounting.  I have a big important meeting today and had to ensure that the ENORMOUS amount of data that I had collected was all neat, accurate, and presentable.  That doesn’t sound all so bad, but when combined with 4 additional meetings, it gets a little more difficult to complete.  After getting everything complete and ensuring that I was ready for today’s meeting, I left work at almost 6pm.  Typically, I’m home by 5pm, 5:30 on a bad day.  So not leaving until 6 o’clock had me pretty wore out.  Once I got home, all I wanted was some peace and quiet, followed by relaxation.  Well, if you know my household, then you’re already aware that those wishes don’t get granted to often when the boys are around.  But for some reason, yesterday was different.  It was like they knew I had it rough and tried their best to take it easy on me.

Pop or Soda?

Every so often, I participate in random focus groups to discuss various products & services.  The pay is pretty good, usually $50-75 for 2hrs, and more importantly I actually enjoy doing them.  It’s pretty entertaining, sitting with a group of people that you don’t know and sharing thoughts and experiences.  The most recent study that I requested to participate in was specifically for drinkers of carbonated “soda” beverages. The thought of joining this focus group brought back many memories from my childhood, college years, and most recently my parenting years. I’ve been involved in the battle between pop & soda for quite some time, and even though I’m now living in the south, I’ll never stop campaigning for POP! This creates a bit of a dilemma when it comes to my kids, but we’ll get to that.

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!