Bad Report

My mind is drawing a bit of a blank on whether or not I have mentioned this yet so in case I haven't, Ru and Sailor are both attending preschool part time this year. Last week, Sailor got her first bad report. While picking her up from school, her teacher informed me that she had been uncooperative, not listening, talking back, not participating and she started a fight with her sister on the playground. At home she has been flexing her terrible two muscles and pushing and testing our boundaries. Her attitude is always pretty great but their are pockets of defiance and rebellion. I have been shaming myself a bit and wondering what has made her act like this. Ruby has never had a bad report though we have had trying times with her in the home and she wasn't in preschool at Sailor's age so the situation is truly unique to us. In any case, we had a serious talk with her and before she goes back next week we are going to have another one to remind her how not to act. Lets hope this isn't the beginning of something and that this will be the last bad report of her preschool career. I am sure some will follow from k-12 but she got off to an early start.

Photodump

Stinky Pie

On the way home from school last week, the girls were asking about our lunch plans. We make a menu weekly but if they don't want what is on the books I will do my best to accommodate. I started to razz them a bit. I told them lunch was dirt sandwiches and a bag of leaves. They got a real kick out of this and wanted something even better so I went on and on with all the gross things I could think of. Eventually I asked Ruby what she wanted. Her response was "dirty seat-belt with cockroaches and stinky pie." Not sure exactly what it was that set me off but I lost it over the phrase "stinky pie". The result was all of us in hysterics all the way to the house. In the end, we settled on pb&j and chips. I am not sure we had the ingredients on hand to bake a stinky pie anyways. 

Coffee Talk

Its been quite a while since I talked about my coffee problem. In addition to last week's curve ball, I received a couple coffee related gifts and I thought it was high time I touched on this again. First, my friend Kellet gave me an entire pound(!) of Starbucks Christmas Espresso Blend. It is not ground, which is awesome because I can grind it right before I prepare it. In case you've forgotten, her gift of the espresso machine was my gateway into addiction. Next up, my excellent and thoughtful wife grabbed me some Kahlua Mocha Coffee to keep me company over the weekend. It was excellent. She recently made the switch to decaf which means for convenience sake, I made the switch to decaf. I haven't had espresso around for awhile and it feels good to get jittery again. Thanks guys, much appreciated.

Photodump

Time with Bug from the weekend and a bit beyond. 

Silver Lining

Silver lining, half full, rose colored glasses...whatever you want to call it, as I've gotten older I try more and more to look at things this way. It isn't always easy for me as my past protocol was just to brood. These days, life is a lot better because I choose for it to be. This past weekend was planned for motorcycles and friends but ended up being a great one-on-one daddy/daughter weekend for me and Sailor. There is occasionally a struggle for attention under our roof and while we try to divide equally, sometimes taking the struggle out of the picture works best. I wish all of the unplanned roads we find ourselves on were this rewarding. That said, I will take the really good ones whenever I can get them. 

Memok

Taken quickly and stealthily from the entryway, the three peas in a pod wake up with cartoons and off-brand Cheerios. From the first minute pulling away from the suburbs towards the downtown bus station to the moments last night as they closed their eyes to meet their dreams, the girl's week was made just by her being here. I am tempted to say "Damn Texas" but as she is loved and family is everywhere, it would be selfish to keep her all to ourselves. Proximity is so unfortunate but we'll squeeze every ounce of life from our 52 hours and if by some miracle we were gifted a 53rd, it still would not be soon enough.

Photodump

Veterans Day

Posse

     It is official, I have one...a posse of not one but two other stay at home dads. This is my posse, we roll on Tuesdays. You can find us on playgrounds near and far, at shopping malls big and small. No jungle gym is too large, no swing too high. We rustle children together. We share snacks and table time. We discuss the virtues of long naps and lament cleaning up around the house.
     The tables have turned. In mass, we are the ones shunning and excluding the stray stay at home mom who dares tread in close proximity. We are the ones riding the carousel horsies next to our offspring while onlookers try and figure out the story. We are the ones who make others wait for turns. We are the ones who knock knock joke.
     Fabled tales of dads on a rampage follow in our wake, legendary stories of plundered toy stores and a trail of poopy diapers. Some wonder if it is true. Some think it is all a lie propagated to keep traditions in place and prevent the boat from rocking. Believe what you will, now we are the pit of vipers. We are the ones who judge and shun and you will know us by the screaming of our young.
     Truthfully, most of that it made up. There are three of us. We do meet on Tuesday, we do push each others kids and share snacks at the same table. Sometimes we lament house work and other drudgery..that and the fact that you can't have beer on a playground at 10am on a Tuesday without the cops being called.

And that picture at the top, it is a posse but isn't mine. We're to busy being awesome to pose for photos. 

Photodump

Halloween

Halloween was pretty great this year. The girls dressed up on three separate occasions: once for supper club, again for the church Halloween carnival and finally to trick or treat. Despite the threat of rain, the girls and some friends made the rounds in the neighborhood and enjoyed pizza and sugar overload. The last of the candy will be gone after today and then we will move forward into sugar rushes and food comas of the coming holidays.

Calvin and Hobbes

As we were cleaning out the house this past weekend I came across a box in the top of my closet. It was not labeled and as I shook it, it emitted a deep, rough rustling sound. The photo above are the books that were inside. Unlike most of the texts from my childhood that have already made it onto the bookshelf, this collection somehow remained isolated. Maybe it is because these were some of my favorite books growing up and I had a deeper fondness for them than some of the other volumes I held onto. There are certain strips in these that I remember clearly reading for the first time like people remember where they were during the JFK Assassination or 9/11 took place. Not that reading Calvin and Hobbes is in any way on that level but the point is that something about Watterson's art, whit and wisdom really stuck with me. Since so many other things I hold sacred in addition to the Sunday comics are disappearing or have lost all of their charm and luster, it was important to me to hold a little of the magic back to share with the girls. I am waiting a few more years until they will appreciate them and I look forward to seeing them read them for the first time.