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Uncle Greg

     Got a call late last week that my buddy Greg would be rolling into town and staying with us. Greg is a friend of mine from way back and has become a great friend to the family. He doesn't live in Birmingham anymore and we don't get to see him as much as we used to so it is really awesome when he can come through and stay for the whole weekend.
     The kids love Greg because he isn't afraid to get down on the floor and play with them or do the crazy things they ask him to do. All weekend long he has been a good sport with them, sharing his time, egg nog and pocket change to put smiles on their faces.
     When Ruby lists her family, Uncle Greg is always included. We are lucky to have someone who is not only such a good friend to us but also a great playmate and buddy to the kids. He keeps saying he is going to move back to Birmingham. Well it can't happen soon enough.

Favorite Music Videos

We've done our best to expose the kids to music at an early age. We have instruments around the house, real and toy varieties, and we spend time now and again watching live performance and music videos.
Ruby likes singing and lately she will spontaneously break into song. After getting back from my mother-in-law's she picked up a new one. We watched the video and now she is really hooked.

Occasionally when we are on the PC she'll come around and ask us to play these videos. The first one is even bookmarked on my Mom's computer.

Here is the one she's been singing since she got home. While watching the video, she tries to sing along. I also noticed today she had picked up a few more words of the chorus.

I forced this one on her but since she really seems to love drums and drum solo's, she's into it and is glued to the screen during the brief solo.

Sailor always watches and dances and will sometimes ask to sit on a lap too...

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Anniversary Continued

So my mother-in-law took the girls Wednesday to Sunday leaving olivia and I alone to have some anniversary celebration time. We watched DVD's, drank beer, consumed countless coffees, ate quality food, bowled badly, caught up on sleep, read and in general just enjoyed the time together.

Thanks for all the Anniversary wishes, we had a great one.

Anniversary

This Wednesday marks four years. Much love to my wife, you are the greatest!

Taking the rest of the week off, see you next Monday!

Year One

Yes, it has been that long.
Today is the one year anniversary of the start of this blog. I appreciate everyone who gave it a fair chance and those of you who still read and everyone who has started reading along the way.
I thought it would be cool to take it back to where it all started, so here it is: the first Sidecar post from a year ago.

It’s a daycare bill and it is larger than your mortgage. It always has been…but now it is even bigger. You look at it and it seems to swell in front of you as if your anger is feeding it, making it grow like some evil creature from a black and grey b-movie.

So you shift, do less for yourself so you can give more to your kids. This is the core of being a good parent. Then you have to ask yourself if you can keep this up, scraping by paying someone else more than your pickup truck is worth each month to watch your children.

There are people who have jobs that pay enough money to cover all their bills and they never have to worry about debt or their expenses. I don’t know any of them personally but I have heard they are out there. We are not these people. We budget everything to the penny, try our best to flex and hold our self control so we can make it stick and most times we succeed. We’ve tackled a mountain of debt making it into a molehill and we manage…or we have managed…until now.

My wife makes more money than I do. There, I said it. It is kind of liberating. It is also sad that in 2011 it merits mentioning. Maybe it is just the South…or our parents. All the same, if you are a man in the south making less than your wife is something you should not do along with wearing pink, being a nurse, or staying at home with the kids.

That said, here we are. Night after night we stare at an excel spreadsheet. It is looking up at us plain as day. It might as well be waving a sparkler and shouting Yankee Doodle Dandy. I am working just to keep my children in daycare. We will do better financially if I leave my day job and stay home.

So what do you do then? You tell your boss you are out and you go home. This is where I find myself. Did I mention that I had never even held a baby until I started dating my wife, I am extremely skittish around bodily fluids and feces and I hate the sound of babies crying?

Am I insane? Perhaps a little.

This is going to be a learning experience for me, learning to juggle two girls with two different sets of needs: my oldest, deep into the terrible twos and a six month old just getting into solid foods. I ran this by my closest and best advisor, my mother, who cautioned me that caring for two children is a lot of work and I should not make the decision lightly. Basically I got the impression that she thought I was nuts.

Most people without kids probably envision sitting on the couch all day watching TV. The truth is you are dealing with changing or feeding a screaming six month old while the older child fights with the dog or the cat or gets into every danger you thought you had so carefully safeguarded. You pick up toys, wash spit-up pajamas, clean furiously and get yelled and cried at…all day. Maybe when they nap you have the TV on but if you are smart…you sleep yourself.

So this is where we are and what day my day to day life will soon become. This is my place to rave, rant, share and ask your advice. Enter your e-mail up top so you’ll be notified about updates. I encourage you to be an active participant and share your own stories. I need something to read, I’ve got nothing to do all day now anyways, right?

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Daddy Daughter Day Out

     Occasionally the stars line up and we are able to schedule some alone time with the girls. Yesterday was such a day. I took Ruby out and we had a blast. We started with a hot fudge sundae at Johnny Rockets. Ru sat at the counter like a big girl, she thought the way they rotated was awesome and she spent most of the wait for her ice cream but moving side to side and laughing. The staff was very friendly and sweet to her.

     Of course if we are near the mall we have to go in. Usually we enter at Sears and she wanted to stop and look at the Christmas decorations. Further into the mall the Christmas Tree store has opened so we took a look around there too. Big trees, little trees, spinning trees, white trees, colorful trees...she liked all of them and told me I was going too fast. As Ruby has gotten older she has started to prefer the train to the carousel so we took a ride. The mall was busy and she enjoyed looking at the people and waving and got a real kick out of it when people waved back.

      Before we left we hit the kids arcade and Ruby tried her hand at Skee Ball. At first she wanted to throw overhanded. Once I got her adjusted to throwing underhanded, she kept wanting to get a running start. Despite her best efforts, she was never able to get the ball into point range. The only time we got on the board was when I was showing her what to do.
     We had a great time. Yesterday reminded me of the times my folks used to take me on outings and all the fun stuff we did. I still have great memories of those times and hope these last for the girls like similar memories have for me.

Flash Cards

So...Sailor hates them. We sat down yesterday and tried to go through some basic, around the house item flash cards. For the first few she was good. I would point at the object, tell her the name and she would point and make a sound. She even got some of the sounds correct. A couple minutes in she just got frustrated and wanted to hold them just so she could throw them all around the room. I decided she needed a break. I tried to get her to try again and she wasn't having any part of it. Maybe Monday we'll start fresh.

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First Lesson

Age one and a half, first guitar lesson:how to hold the instrument and where to place your hands.