He Nailed It

Two sweet little boys – eating breakfast together.
Mom goes downstairs to the office to talk to Dad for 3 minutes.
4 year old, gets up, gets a nail from a dish, and pushes it into the middle of the leather ottoman – all the way in.
Mom returns to the Kitchen.
6 year old reports – “he put a nail in the couch”.
Mom sees the nail.
Dad runs up to see what all the commotion is about.
Children eyes are very wide.
Parents age disproportionately.
“We’ll, at least he is book-smart.”

Oh no!! I hope we don’t see anyone we know!

That’s all I could hear my wife say after picking her up for breakfast with three boys after taking them swimming at Y.

Being a good husband is easy – and terrifying at the same time.  We met old friends and even a bunch of relatives at the restaurant!

Hunhh? Ohhh kay……

That’s all I could hear my 13 year old son say on Saturday morning – before he was supposed to even be awake – when I came into their room to get him ready to go swimming at the Y.

You Remembered! You Remembered!

That’s all I could hear my 4 and 6 year old boys shouting early on Saturday morning – before they were supposed to even be awake – when I came into their room to get them ready to go swimming at the Y.

Being a good father is easy – and terrifying at the same time.  Just caring enough to remember, but the damage of forgetting is so great.

A fly on the wall? – Not a good idea

Someone said to one of us the other day that they would like to be a “fly on the wall” at our house – because all of the chaos and humor would be funny to watch. 

That’s especially funny, because a fly on a wall at our house would produce even more of the same – chaos and humor – since my 4-year-old is often deathly afraid of them.

Purple Cube = Banana Split

In my son’s Kindergarten class - the teacher uses a “stick” system to manage the kid’s behavior.  If your “stick” gets moved to the yellow cube – that’s a warning.  The red cube is big trouble – at least when you come home to our house afterwards.

Recently I learned about the purple cube – you can only get your stick in there if you’re exceptionally good and helpful in class.  I told my son that if he ever got his stick in the purple cube – I’d buy him a banana split.  His first reaction, of course, was to ask all about a banana split and figure out exactly what it would be like.  Convinced of its value as the ultimate reward, he set about to earn the purple stick award.

Yesterday he came home from school all excited – “The purple cube!  The purple cube!”

“That’s great!”, I shouted, “What did you do to earn the purple cube?!”

“I told my teacher that she was the greatest teacher ever!”

Well, we all sure enjoyed the banana split, and he sure learned a true lesson about life – but I’m not so sure it was the right one! 

Unneh, unneh! Shaouldn’t you bee a, werkin?

Excerpt from an IM conversation with my soon to be 15 year old daughter.

1:09:49 PM) me: wha??? where ARE you?
(1:10:03 PM) her: ‘ere pa, righ’ ‘ere
(…)
(1:10:40 PM) her: Unneh, unneh! Shaouldn’t you bee a, werkin?

The Lady Box

My 2 year old son asked his 21 year old sister when she was going back to work in the “lady box”.  That’s his name for the cashier’s station at the department store.

A four!!!

It’s hard to capture theenthusiasm with which my 2 year old exclaims his delight nearly everytime he draws his favorite letter or number or otherwise stumbles upon it - the number ’4′. 

I wanted to fix his bald spot by expanding it into the shape of this, his favorite of all characters.

I’m still a big one…

That’s what the doctor says now!