Parenting 101: Just a little fun...

Sometimes a Dad's gotta do, what a Dad's gotta do...

I Love my children. I preface by saying this in that some things you think of doing, you never would becuase you love your children. Although in your head it seems very funny...

Both Jonah and Brielle are funny and loveable in their own ways. They are two great kids. With a third on the way, we can't help but wonder what he will be like. We'll be finding out soon enough. June 23rd appears to be the date to induce labor.

As for some of the fun things you think of saying or doing with your kids, several of the Parenting 101 blogs deal with pulling your kids leg every now and then. This one is no exception.

Sometimes you just want a little peace and quiet... Or to give them a small taste of their own medicine...

This Calvin comic reminded me of how Holly and I direct one or both children to the other to get them out of our hair for a few moments...

Parenting 101: Summer Vacations

It's almost Summer time...

Soon the kids will be home all day and people will get to take vacations. I'm not sure if we'll be doing much traveling with the little one coming in the end of June, but other people will be traveling.

I recall the days of being trapped in the back of my parents Caprice Classic as we drove to Northern Michigan or across the border into Canada on one trip or another. My father was a Real Estate Appraiser how would take jobs with the State of Michigan to value property for road expansion projects. A number of summers took us to different parts of Michigan while my Dad checked out buildings and vacant land stretching along endless highways.

On several occasions my Mom would come along, on a few it was just he and I on these trips. I have some very good memories about these moments in time. When I was older, around 17, my Dad took me up to the upper peninsula of Michigan to Marquette and several of the outlying towns.

There is a part in Marquette where there are walking and biking paths. We went out to one of these points and found an area to walk out on. There was a section where you could walk out and look down to see Lake Superior and the caves created by the never ending waves crashing up against the limestone.

I recall scaring the bejesus out of my Dad when I walked out on an outcropping of rock and looked down the side of the cliff. I don't recall if there was a railing or not, but it really surprised my Dad that I did this. In retrospect it wasn't the smartest thing to do, but I was 17. That's my excuse.

My memories of traveling when I was younger are a bit more cloudy. I have this feeling that it was a situation not too dissimilar from Calvin on one of his road trips with his parents. This is so true of Jonah and Brielle is starting to follow this path as well.

Enjoy the Calvin and Hobbes!

Parenting 101: Questioning your reasoning...

Kids are wonderful... but sometimes...

Jonah and his Brothers

Jonah had a visit from his Brothers Caden and Callan this weekend along with their Grandma, Aunt and Cousin Kiara.

They had a great time running, jumping and screaming through the house. No injuries, thank God.

Here are a few pictures to show how they all look. They all had a great time!

Callan is on the left with Jonah in the center and Caiden on the right. It's hard to believe that Jonah and Caden are the same age!

Here they are Cheesing it up on the couch. They have Kiara in the middle of them hanging out with the boys!










Brielle was fast asleep by the time they made it from New Jersey. Here's a picture of her this morning on her way to school with Dad. She was in a rush to make sure that I didn't leave without her. No time for pictures Mom... I gotta Go!!!

Ding, Dong, The Blazer’s Gone!

As they say, all good things must come to an end. In my case it’s the legacy that has been the eight years of owning my Chevy Blazer. To be honest, it hasn’t been THAT bad of a vehicle. In it’s history, I had to have some warranty work done on her just at the end of the warranty period. I had a bad bearing in one of the wheels which was making a ton of noise and scaring me senseless while driving.

Over the eight years, she gave me 158,000 miles of traveling. For the most part everything was ok… Except for a couple of things…

• Early on, the seat adjustment lever for the drivers side kept falling off. I eventually just left it and hadn’t used it again.
• There was a panel that had the hatch release and hatch windshield wiper controls that popped out and wouldn’t go back into the dash. (the pins had broken off) It reminded me of a Stephen King movie where a corpse was walking around with it’s eyeball popped from the socket dangling by the optic nerve. (Sorry about the graphic visualization, but it’s fairly accurate minus the gore.)
• There was a tray that you could hold change in that again, the pins broke off and the whole thing would fly out of it’s holder when I would make a tight turn.
• Both the tray and the panel were temporarily fixed with tack putty and eventually permanently fixed with super glue.
• The windshield wipers would work when they felt like it. I would sometimes have to drive several miles before the wipers would begin working again. Thank God for Rainex to bead up the rain on the windshield and make it easier for me to see without the blades running.
• The windshield cracked pretty badly a year ago during winter. After a particularly bad dumping of snow the melting then freezing snow filled in a small chip and turned it into the grand canyon across the windshield. (We didn’t bother spending $200 to replace it.)
• If I would drive further than 35 miles in one setting the transmission would have issues going from first to second. A lurch would occur scaring myself and any passengers I may have had onboard at the time.
• A couple years ago, I was driving to a meeting at work and suddenly found steering control very difficult as if I had a flat tire. I quickly pulled over to assess the problem. I looked at my drivers side tire and found that it was leaning inward at about a 25 degree angle. A connection broke that holds the wheel in place. I also found out that there was more damage to the other wheel but it wasn’t an immediate danger. We fixed the wheel having the problem and let the other stuff go.

Now that I've itemized it like this, I guess I did have a number of issues with it. Considering our Toyota Avalon has only had a flat tire... once.

Thankfully nothing ever happened with the vehicle causing any accidents. We could have pumped over $2000 into it to keep her running well, but out expanding family would not have fit into my “single-guy” blazer. The 2 doors and the rear bucket seats do not allow for 2 car seats and a 7-year-old to fit legally or at all…

So the Quest for a new vehicle began.

We finally decided to modify our situation and NOT get a brand new vehicle. We really liked the new Honda Pilot and the Toyota Highlander, but the cost was more than we were willing to pay. So we started checking out the Certified Pre-Owned (used) vehicles. We ended up finding one with low mileage and all the features we wanted for below the blue book price. No complaints from us!

Holly and Jonah picked up the new Toyota Highlander and turned in the Blazer. Holly asked me if it bothered me getting rid of the vehicle. To a certain extent the vehicle was a reminder of how my life was changing around the time of getting a new job and buying my new vehicle. I’m not much for nostalgia on physical items, although I’m a packrat at heart. But seeing her go was a little bitter sweet. I no longer have to worry about driving an unsafe vehicle for both my safety and my family.

The vehicle had not passed it’s safety inspection and didn’t have new registration because of it. Hence my uneasiness every time I would pass a police officer on the road. That is a thing of the past.

So I’m happy to get to drive the Avalon while Holly uses the Highlander. We may swap every now and then, but that’s how my parents used to work their vehicles. My Mom would use the new car, and my Dad would get the older one. I have no complaints, because now I have a moon roof…

Parenting 101: Meal time... (comic)

Could not be more true to reality...


This happens in our house about every other week. One minute it's the greatest thing ever, then it's worse than liver and onions...

Parenting 101: Bed Time

Bed times are a blessing... and a curse...

7:00 PM
"Come on Brie Brie, it's time to change your clothes. Give Jonah hugs and kisses Good Night!"
Starting a whimpering cry, Brielle starts to chant the mantra, "No Night, Night. No Night, Night." She begrudgingly gives her older brother hugs and kisses all the while chanting her claim that she doesn't want to go to bed. That's about as bad as it gets. Although it tugs greatly on the heart strings, she goes to bed pretty well.

8:00 PM
"Jonah, it's time to turn off the TV, brush your teeth and get your comfy clothes on." At this point Jonah finds every excuse in the book to delay bed time. Generally we have to repeat the above statement 2 or more times before the television turns off. Then he came up with all sorts of "important" questions that can't wait before he brushes his teeth.

After the teeth are scrubbed clean he comes out to give us hugs and kisses goodnight. This is generally accompanied by several more questions that couldn't possibly wait till morning or his head would certainly explode.

After being shipped off to bed we have to remind him to stay in his bed several times as we hear him roaming around the upstairs trying to do anything other than sleep. The occasional trip back downstairs with the most important question followed by us being exasperated and telling him he will lose TV time if he doesn't keep himself in his bed.

All of this usually lasts until 9:00 or so. Sometimes a little later... Then it's just us time.

Unfortunately we are generally exhausted from the day and veg on the couch. I'll Rub Holly's feet while we watch House, American Idol, Medium or any other of our favorite shows. Then off to bed to put an end to a long day and refresh us, if only marginally. for the next long day ahead.Calvin is always getting himself into trouble. This is probably what we have in store for us in the not too distant future... Enjoy.

Parenting 101: More Questions

Jonah has some interesting insight for a 6-year-old. Well, almost 7. He turns 7 tomorrow, which he is VERY excited about.

As I was saying... He thinks of things on multiple levels which amazes me... We were watching something on television the other evening, and he made a comment about how before Adam and Eve sinned everything was in black and white. Then everything was color after the original sin.

Where this came from, I have no idea... But anyone that has any background with religion and knows the story of original sin will have an idea of what this is about. I was floored. That a 6-year-old would come up with such a comment really made me think about it in a different way.

A couple of years ago when Jonah was in Pre-K, they were learning about music. Beethoven to be more specific. Jonah commented that Beethoven's music was rather dark. We asked if his teachers had said this, and he said no, that it was dark like the basement to him...

Another music angle on this was even earlier. Holly and I were married in 2002. Jonah was 3. For a while before the wedding, we had different kinds of classical music playing in the car, trying to figure out what chamber music to use during the ceremony. Pachelbel's Cannon in D was one such piece. About 2 years after we were married, Jonah was humming the tune in the back seat on the way to or from somewhere. Holly was surprised that he remembered the tune.

He just said that he liked it.

I'm going to start putting more of his deep thoughts out here to both remember the moments and share with all of you. The boy is definately bright, there's no doubt about that.

Jonah has also taken to writing books. We have been encouraging him to do so and he's becoming quite the artist now as well... I'll be publishing a few of his books on the web in the near future. He's very excited about making these books and thinks it's great that I'll put his stories on the web.

When it comes to questions that Jonah asks, sometimes its more fun to make things up. This is too close to reality...

Parenting 101: Shopping

Shopping with children should be considered cruel and unusual... for the parents.

I remember when I was young and wanting to go shopping with my Mom. Usually I would beg and plead for some kind of trinket, or a pack of baseball cards. That's the only part of the shopping experience I really recall. I do recall my Mom telling me that I couldn't come shopping, and now that I have kids of my own, I completely understand why.

It's as if the automatic doors leading into the grocery store transmogrifies your child into a tiny monster that has no concept of self control.

"Mom, I want THAT sugar packed cereal with the guy from my favorite cartoon on the front of it"

"Dad, can I have those popsicles with the super heroes on it?"

Then the daughter gets into the mix... Instead of sitting in the cart seat, she wants to walk. Unfortunately this means that she tries to run away from me at every possible opportunity. And she thinks it's funny...

It IS kind of cute, but not when you are dodging other shoppers trying to grab the screaming 2-year-old.

Maybe the next phase of shopping centers will have a setup like McDonalds and Burger King have developed with the huge indoor playground with hamster tubes to crawl through and balls to jump into. This could be supervised by one parent while the other can leisurely pick out the correct groceries.

This could make the shopping experience a bit more enjoyable for the parents as well.

The alternative, which we recently received coupons in the mail for, is having the groceries delivered to our door. For about $6 we can have everything we would normally shop for brought right to our door at a time we specify. We may test this sometime soon. My only concern is the quality. I don't get to choose which tomatoes that I think look good or how fresh the asparagus looks. We'll see...

Until then we will continue the battle of grocery shopping.