A Great Year At School

<Last Day at school!

So the school year has ended and summer has begun. With summer comes fun afternoons at the pool, baseball games and hanging out time with friends & family. But before we get into the heat of June, I’d like to take a moment and note some of the accolades my kids received at school this year.

Firstly, Christopher had a great year as he posted all A’s & B’s and received a certificate and a pin rewarding him for his achievements. He also was also the recipient of citizenship award. Despite the fact that I’m not exactly sure what the award means, I imagine it is in recognition of Fer’s happy demeanor and love of all of his classmates.

Secondly, Ava did excellent this year as well and is TOTALLY looking forward to the challenges of 4th grade! She received an award for her creative writing skill (which she obviously got from her father’s side) and, despite not having an A-F grading system in her grade level, she managed to squeak by with an excellent report card. I had to chuckle at her award simply because she displays so much interest in not only writing but the arts as well and can be found constantly drawing and coloring! I see her as a young Picasso….with a touch of Van Gogh.

Congratulations to both of my kids for a job well done this year! I always tell them…they only have 1 responsibility and that’s to get good grades. They accomplished that and much more this year. I am extremely proud of them both!

Being Mom For A Day

Twice a year my mother-in-law makes her pilgrimage to Cleveland Clinic to have her bi-annual checkup. So, twice a year the roles are reversed and I get to be Mr. Mom for a day or so while Stephanie accompanies her. It’s fun to see the “other side” every now and then, just like I imagine she gets to see what I get to put up with when I’m on the road. Granted, I don’t usually have my mom with me wherever I go but still…having to stay in a hotel and eat horribly at some hole-in-the-wall dump restaurant (like a PF Chang’s or Olive Garden) and then having to use hotel shampoo and conditioner? It’s a life not made for someone with a light stomach.

Aaaaaanyway…

So tonight I had things to do. Actually…I had a schedule. It was hand-written on a blue sticky note and it had my itinerary for the night. It looked like this…

This was all fine and good but it’s what ISN’T on there that was the more challenging aspect of it.

First, let’s break this down. Stephanie pulled away from our home today at approximately 12:33pm. I remember this because I glanced at my watch while I was wheeling out the lawn mower to tackle the jungle formerly known as our yard. As I watched her mother’s tail lights disappear up our street, I put in my earphones, cranked up the music and chuckled to myself…”I got this.” And I did! For maybe a couple hours. Then I picked the kids up from school and it was showtime!

2:58pm – 8 minutes late getting into the pickup line at school because I forgot I had to run to the bank. I get a phone call on the Batphone…
Christopher: “Where are you?”
Me (trying to hide the fact that I’m late and at the back of the line): “I’m in the line. Don’t you see me?”
Christopher: “No. We’ll walk to the BACK of the school so we don’t have to wait here longer.” *click*

There ya have it. I’ve been in charge for a whole 8 minutes and I’m already a failure.

After picking the kids up, my (internal) itinerary says I have 2 hours for them to get their homework done, get them a snack, get them organized and off to the first stop of the night…Christopher’s baseball practice. 1 hour and 47 minutes later, Ava has her homework binder in her arms, paper falling out of it, an eraser-less pencil clutched in one hand, her new cell phone in the other. Christopher is rushing down the stairs, bag full of clothes his mother packed for him over his shoulder, his new birthday IPhone in one hand, basketball shoes in the other. I rush to get him a water bottle before we leave (it’s on the list!) and conveniently leave it on the table as we rush out the door to baseball practice. And so the night begins.

Upon arriving at baseball practice, I drop our children off at the park and, realizing we (I) forgot the water bottle, return home to get it. I also grab a water bottle for Ava and a soda for myself (calorie free Vanilla Coke. Perfect!) and proceed out the door with both dogs staring at me with that “Please take us!” look in their eyes. I pretend not to see them and keep on movin’!

Back at the baseball field, I watch the clock as time starts to grow short. I have 15 minutes to get Christopher from baseball practice to a basketball skills practice and it’s 6:13. In my head I crunch the numbers…6 mile drive, maybe 7 stop lights, gotta get them in the car…that’s at least 18 minutes…UNLESS I hit 5 of the lights! THEN it’s possible! As we head to the car, Ava asks for her phone. I have conveniently left it on the bleachers right where she gave it to me so she wouldn’t lose it when she went off to play with her friend. *sigh*

Ava runs and gets the phone, rushes up to jump car as we’re pulling away. Chris changes in the backseat while Ava and I search for something to listen to on XM radio. Ava wants Disney, I want 80′s On 8 and Christopher is busy answering texts in the backseat while trying to pull on his basketball shorts. I somehow managed to make it with 2 minutes to spare (hey…4 of those lights were on YELLOW mister!!!) and Christopher is shooting layups in the gym by 6:30. WIN!!!

Unfortunately, Ava had decided to roll in the grass at the park and is all kinds of itchy. And so, with a little under an hour before her gymnastics class, I rush her home to get her a quick shower and a snack. When we arrive, Barkley and Stella are staring at me. It’s 6:45. Their dinnertime. Ava showers, I feed the dogs, update my Facebook status and somehow end up descrambling Ava’s english words for HER homework (I dunno how this happened) and then we’re off and running her to her class.

7:22pm – I drop Ava off at the studio for her 7:30pm class and I watch her walk into the building. I have to pick up Christopher in 10 minutes. I don’t like leaving Ava but she assures me that it’s okay and I’m not doing anything wrong. So I head south to get Fer.

7:35pm – Arrive back at the gym as things are wrapping up and my phone rings. Ava’s instructor hasn’t arrived and Ava is all alone. Luckily, her assistant principal (a friend of our family) is there and calls me. So now I feel REALLY bad as I’m rushing Christopher out of the gym to hurry back to get Ava! As I’m pulling out of the parking lot, I get a text that the instructor has arrived and no need to hurry. I sigh and slow down after peeling out of a school parking lot. All is good.

After Ava’s class is over, I take both of the kids to Skyline for dinner, get them home, get Fer showered and everyone is in bed by 9:35pm. Except I’ve left the windows open upstairs all day and it’s about 85 degrees so…after a little bit of complaining…I allow both kids to head downstairs to sleep in the much cooler basement.

It’s now 10:55 as I wrap this up. Being Mom for a day has its headaches but ya know what? I kind of enjoy it when I get a chance to do it. It shows me how much Stephanie does for this family and I should never take that for granted. And now…I’m off to bed. Gotta get the kids up and moving tomorrow for school!

July 4th Fun In Zanesville

This year, the kids and I once again made the trek up north to hang out with my family in the Big Z for some fun and relaxation for the celebration of the birth of our nation (HEY! That rhymes!). This year’s festivities included Uncle Frank’s cookout, swimming, hanging at Grandma & Grandpa’s house and, capping it all off….fireworks! Here are some pictures of what is quickly becoming one of my favorite holidays!

The pool was a little smaller this year…

Yeah…this ain’t working. Let’s go BIGGER!

MUCH better!

Popsicle Time!!!

BEFORE

AFTER

And while WE were enjoying our fireworks in Zanesville…back at home, poor Stella & Barkley were terrified of all the celebration. So Stephanie had her hands full with our scaredy pups…LOL

Time Keeps On Slipping (x2) Into The Future

We all know the song…right? Steve Miller Band. “Fly Like An Eagle.” 1976. Well crap….here ya go then…

It’s not Bob Dylan but the lyrics go like this…

Time keeps on slippin’, slippin’, slippin’ 
Into the future 
Time keeps on slippin’, slippin’, slippin’ 
Into the future…

And ain’t that the truth?  I remember when Stephanie & I had our first baby. Christopher hadn’t even been born yet and I had people telling me…”ENJOY THOSE EARLY YEARS, SONNY. THEY GO BY FAST!” And so I listened and I tried to enjoy them the best I could. I will always look back on these first few years and try to remember so many little things but I imagine there is already plenty that I’ve forgotten.

Yesterday I was going through some old photos that I had originally taken with my old camcorder. They were taken over a series of events starting with our marriage and honeymoon. I know I had a film camera with me (BEFORE digital pictures?!? How did we ever survive???) but I managed to take a few shots with the video camera. Here are some of the honeymoon highlights…

After that, there were a few random family photos (Kathy…you had short hair!) and then a picture from New York City when Steph & I went a month after 9/11 and the city was still in shock. I remember walking down to the site and the entire area was still desolate and eerily quiet.

Following that picture there are a couple of photos of Steph pregnant with Christopher (which I won’t post for fear of my life…even though I think baby belly’s are kinda sexy…) followed by his arrival in 2002. This was taken in the hospital immediately following his bursting onto the scene on April 29, 2002…

From there the pictures follow his growth. I don’t know when I took each of these because the camera doesn’t date them however they appear to be in sequence…

After this photo, Ava made her appearance on the scene. She came to us in August of 2004. What a cute little baby and I’ll never forget how full the hospital was at the time of her birth. Apparently it was a full moon that night and you know what they say about hospitals during a full moon…

Random photos and they span a time frame of over 5 years or so. On this particular geek stick there are 34 pictures from “those days” and there doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to them. They’re just random shots that I must have taken whenever I was rolling on my video camera. So funny to look at them now and see my children back then. It doesn’t seem like that long ago that Christopher was sleeping on my belly on the chair on the back porch or Ava was scooting herself across the kitchen floor on her butt (she never DID learn to crawl!).

“Enjoy these days while you can!” they always said…and I have tried. But today I’m hanging up clothes in my son’s room and they require an adult sized clothes hanger and my daughter is learning how to count and use money and I realize that the baby days are far behind me. Funny how life goes in cycles. One minute they are babbling incoherently and splashing in the water and the next, they’re having an educated conversation with you about metamorphosis and taking 20 minute showers. Where does the time go?

I have many friends who had their children at an early age and are now close to being empty nesters. I can’t imagine that. I realize I have plenty of time left however I have to imagine that if the time I have coming up goes by as quickly as the time that has just passed, I really DON’T have much time left with them at all. These pictures are a testament to that. Not that I want to get ahead of myself but there are only so many days/weeks/months left and then my children, the ones I saw come screaming into this world, will be out on their own and they will be dealing with all of the things that I am dealing with now. The cycle of life continues and they will be exactly like me. They’ll go out into the world on their own and start from scratch. They’ll hopefully be successful however I realize they will make plenty of mistakes. I know I have and I’ve learned from them.

This was the last still photo taken on my video camera. I’m thinking 3 years old…during soccer season.

But let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves yet…okay? I’ve got plenty of time to watch them grow and to make more memories. I just don’t want the ones associated with these pictures to be forgotten. It doesn’t matter how big or how old they get, they’ll always be my babies. I can’t wait to see what the next 12 years or so have in store for me. Today, as I was hanging my son’s clothes, I glanced around his room and stopped for a moment just to soak it in. It’s a cluttered mess, of course…but one day it won’t be. One day he will pack all of these things into a box and be gone and then he’ll only be able to make visits once every 3 months or so (if I’m lucky…right Mom?).  A quick glance in my daughter’s room offered the same thoughts and so…I have made a pact with myself…I can’t be with them for EVERY moment but the moments that I AM there for are gonna be special.

At times in my life I’ve taken crap for taking so many pictures. I use my camera all the time, taking a shot here & there, watching for moments that I can capture. Some may consider it an annoyance. Some might find it aggravating. But when I see these pictures they remind me of moments that maybe I might not have remembered without them. So I won’t apologize for taking pictures anymore. What I’m taking aren’t just pictures….they’re my memories. And I never know when I might want to relive one. Like right now…

Playing The Game

And so the conversation went like this…

Christopher: “Avaaaaaaa…I want a french fry…!”

Ava: “No. I want my fries.”

Christopher: “Pleae can I have a fry?”

Ava: “No.”

Christopher: “Daaaaad…Ava won’t give me a fry!”

Ava: “Daddy, I don’t want to give him my fries! I want my fries!”

Me: “Christopher…if Ava doesn’t want to share her fries, then that is her perogative. She doesn’t HAVE to share her fries. But it would be nice if she did. But if she doesn’t want to…then she doesn’t HAVE to. But it would be the nice thing to do…”

Christopher: (dejected) “Okay…”

Ava: “Okay…you can have a fry. One. But I want the rest…okay?”

Christopher: “Okay. Thanks Ava.”

Christopher got 3 fries. I ended up finishing them after she decided she didn’t want the rest.

The lesson learned…guilt is a very strong emotion.

Top 10 Things I’ll Miss/Won’t Miss When My Kids Are Grown

I’ve got great kids. Not that they don’t have their quirks, but I love them and would give anything to be able to bottle up this time of their lives in order to keep some of the wonderful moments that they have supplied me. As goofy as they can be, they get along fairly well and have minimal amounts of drama. But with that being said, they do have some bad habits that I’m pretty sure I won’t be missing once they’ve grown up. Let’s take a look at the good & the bad, shall we?

WHAT I WILL NOT MISS…

10. Toothpaste all over the sink.
Seriously…it’s a pretty big sink bowl. How hard is it to get the toothpaste out of the tube, into your mouth and then down the drain? But every night, I go to brush my teeth and there is blue toothpaste caked all over the sink?!? What the holy hell?

9. Socks & underwear EVERYWHERE!
The dirty laundry chute is in the bathroom. I assume they know where it is. I’m pretty sure I have shown them several times. So why is it that I constantly find smelly socks & underwear scattered all over the place? It’s easy to do….enter bathroom, drop down chute! Not hard! Get to it!

8. Toys, toys, toys.
It seems like there are toys in every room, in every corner, in every possible place that you can look. From football equipment lying in the dining room to baby dolls under the kitchen table. There are little “gifts” from my kids everywhere, just waiting to be picked up by the magical “Clean-Up Fairy” that visits our house every night.

7. Forgetfulness
If there is one thing that drives me insane (even more than the previous 3) it’s the number of times I have to repeat myself. When my son can’t find his shoes that are conveniently located 6 feet away from him, he immediately calls out for help. Without even LOOKING for whatever it is he’s….uh….what was I talking about…?

6. The Constant Whining
If I had a quarter for every time I hear “Daaaaaaaad…” I would be the richest man on this planet. And then someday…I will miss that, I’m sure…

WHAT I WILL MISS…

5. “Daddy…can/will you do this for me?”
Yes…it can be a demanding job, but there’s something about when the kids genuinely need me for something that makes me feel whole. It’s what I was put here to do. And once they can do it all themselves, it will be a sad day.

4. Fairy kisses & big bear hugs
Each kid does it differently, but when my daughter gives me a fairy kiss (very softly on the cheek) and when my son wants a big bear hug, it makes my day!

3. Artwork
Is there too much of it? Sure. But every now & then, my son or daughter gives me a colored or painted picture that just makes me think they could be the next Picasso.  I wish I could frame them up and keep them all forever.

2. The sound of their laughter
If there isn’t anything that can make my day any brighter than to hear my kids laughing. Whether it’s at each other or because of something I said or because one of them farted (sorry Steph….but it IS kinda funny), to hear them laugh is a special treat.

1. Their innocence
There are so many cruel things happening in our world today. Some horrible and terrible things. But when I look at my kids, I see a brighter future and it really makes my life seem so much more important than it really is. For me, knowing that my children are having a wonderful childhood is one of the greatest things I have ever done in my lifetime. I wish they could always be so innocent, but as we all know…eventually they grow and learn about all the bad stuff. Here’s hoping the “bad stuff” can stay away for a few more years…

The End Of “Things”

I hate clutter. I don’t like messiness. It drives me crazy when there are little piles of stuff everywhere. And when you have 2 kids, you KNOW it’s gonna happen. I can’t help myself that I’m a neat freak. Truth be told…I’m not really a bonafide, completely 100% neat freak. Actually I’m only about 70% certifiable. Because I don’t mind dust or even messiness when it’s HIDDEN from my view (like in drawers, or closets, or under beds). I just don’t want to SEE it anywhere. So…having 2 kids and having issues with clutter is a problem. But I’ve been thinking lately that maybe I need to relax a little. Not get so stressed out when there is stuff laying around. Know why?

It ain’t gonna be around forever.

My kids are growing like weeds and eventually…I’ll wake up and they’ll be gone. All I hear is how fast kids grow and if the last 7 years are any indication…it’s true. Looking through photo albums and pictures on my computer and I see my son when he was a baby. He’s not a baby anymore. He’s playing football and hanging with the kids in the neighborhood. He’s one of the best readers in his class and he’s growing bigger and stronger every day. He likes playing the Wii more than playing with his pirate ship that he used to think was waaaaaay cool.

My daughter practically grew out of every piece of clothing she had this summer. Gone are the days where we could just let her go without wearing a shirt and shoes. Ava is very particular about what she wears. She has an opinion on everything and has learned that Daddy will pretty much do whatever she wants me too. She’s my little princess and she can make me wilt in the bat of an eye. It’s not something I’m proud of…but she has my number. And she has grown up so much in the past 6 months alone…I can’t imagine what it’s gonna be like in another year.

So we have stuff cluttering every corner. So there are toys on every step. So there is a box full of dolls in the hallway. So there are so many toys on the dresser that I can’t even see the top. What of it? It’s not gonna be here forever.

So what I need to do is this…enjoy it while I have it. I need to play with the kids and the toys and enjoy the time I get to see these high-priced pieces of plastic that line every nook & cranny of our house. Play with the stuffed animals and doll babies and things that make noises because all too soon they’ll be gone. They’ll be replaced with old pictures of the times when I SHOULD have enjoyed having them around. And then I’ll be kicking myself in the butt for not appreciating every single second that they were here, cluttering up my life and driving me crazy. I’ve got a long time before the end of “things”…but it’s not as far away as I’d like to pretend.

So this is me relaxing…and enjoying every, miserable little second of stuff everywhere that I can. And hopefully, someday, I’ll remember what it was like when I wanted to play. And I’ll be able to remember those times when I did.

Football Is For Boys…Right?

It’s that time of year again…Football Season! And we have it in full swing at our house. Christopher & all his friends are playing football (first game Sunday! I’ll post pictures!), I’ve been gearing up to work some NFL games (starting next week) and Steph and her friends are already looking at the high school, college & NFL schedules to see which games they can attend this fall.

And with school starting this week, so did high school football here in our little town. So we walked to watch the team scrimmage, just like last year at this time. And this year, Ava was just as excited as the boys! Except she was more excited about getting a snowcone than she was about football. Oh well…

Got her pigtails in and ready to cheer!

It’s not a long walk to the field

Hangin’ with the boys

Sleepyhead

And Then It Happened…

Oh, the joys of fatherhood. Today was gonna be a lazy day. Mill around the house and do some work in my new kitchen. Things were quiet. TOO quiet, if you ask me. And then it happened…

“Daaaaaad! I’m booooooored.”

Can I tell ya…I HATE when that statement is made because that means one of two things.

1. I have to find something for them to do
2. I have to entertain them

In today’s case, I decided that having the neighbor boys come over to play might be the best option. The neighbor boys are actually the sons of our very good friends, so I figured having them over would be easy. Feed ‘em a popsicle and those kids are great! However, what I neglected to think about was that the neighbor boys are neighbors to the neighbor girls. The neighbor girls are also friends (Christopher is in the same grade as one of them), so of course THEY were playing in the neighbor boys’ yard when Christopher hopped the fence to see if the neighbor boys wanted to come over to play. So when the neighbor boys were asked to visit…so were the neighbor girls. So now we have not 2, not 4 6 kids playing in our yard, throwing toys about and basically behaving like the little heathens that kids can be.

Then my wife invited her friend over to see the new addition. I love my wife’s friend and haven’t seen her in quite some time, however she has 3 kids of her own. So when she arrived I knew my sanity would be in question. Adding to this was that she also brought one of her daughter’s friends along to visit. So if you do the math, we now have 10 kids in our backyard, scratching and clawing and swinging from vine to vine.

And then it happened…

One of them had to pee. And then another. And then one wanted a drink. And then it started to rain a little bit. And then they wanted to pet the dog. And then another one had to pee. And then another one snitched that one of the others had thrown a ball at his head. And then someone cried. And then another one would walk up to the door and peer in like she wanted something and then she would go away for 20 seconds only to reappear and do the same thing over & over again.

And then it happened…

“Can we have a popsicle?” “Can we have a snack?” “Can we have something to drink?” “Do you have juice boxes?” “Can we get some ice cream?” “I want a red popsicle. Do you have one?” “My mom said I can have a juice box.” “I’m really thirsty. Can I have some water?” “Do you have a band-aid?”

And then it happened…

I snapped. And then I turned into a 74-year old curmudgeon and I started barking and basically terrorizing 10 young children. I yelled and screamed and stomped my feet and pointed and swore and tore my hair out. And then it happened…

They started to laugh at me!

So I got them all popsicles.

The End

The Top 10 Reasons Why My Kids Are Just Really Freakin’ Cool

Every parent is required to love their kids…but mine are a special breed. Don’t know what I did to deserve these two…but I must have won the baby lottery in a previous life ’cause these kids are just awesome. Here is my Top 10 reasons why my kids ROCK!

10. They go to bed before 8:30pm
They just do. Usually they are so worn out, they want to go on their own. Sometimes we have to prod them a little bit. But for the most part, at 8:30 it’s lights out!

9. They laugh at all my stupid jokes
No matter what I say, no matter how dumb it is, my kids think I say the funniest stuff in the world.

8. They are quiet in the morning until Mom gets up
Seriously, when Christopher wakes up in the morning, he sneaks downstairs and very quietly turns on the t.v. and waits for us to get up. Ava, on the other hand, is always the last one up…

7. They do well in school
My son has been reading and writing at a 2nd grade level. He’s now using math and learning how to tell time. My daughter is learning her alphabet and learning to count. Both of them like to do learning skills on their own without my help. And they both love books…especially when I read one to them!

6. They both like movies
Given the option, they would rather watch a classic Disney film than watch some crappy cartoon on t.v. (although both like Tom & Jerry…which makes them even COOLER!)

5. They both play well with others
Occasionally there is some miscommunication to who gets to play with what, but for the most part, they both share very well.

4. They both play well with each other
An argument here and some yelling there, but I’ve caught them playing and having a blast more times than arguing.

3. They both have an infectious laugh (and love to laugh with each other)
If I got a quarter every time I hear them laughing at each other in a single day, I could actually afford a tank of gas!

2. They like good music
In the car I never have to listen to Barney’s Hit Mix (but they do have the Alvin & the Chipmunks soundtrack. Thanks to Grampa Bobby for THAT special torture…)

1. They like just about ANY kind of food you put in front of them
How many 6-year olds do you know that want to visit Grandma’s house so they can get spinach?

So there ya have it. I officially have the coolest kids in the world. How about yours? Any other spinach eaters out there? Does your daughter like Onerepublic? Does your son let the dog out and gets the paper in the morning without having EVER been asked? There has to be some competition in the “Coolest Kid” category…right?

Phone Conversations With Kids

I don’t like phones. Never have. I don’t really like chatting on them. They feel impersonal. They are also hard to hold. I don’t think God meant for our arms to be held up to our ears for hours on end or our shoulders shrugged to hold a phone in place while we chat endlessly to whoever is on the other end.

My kids, on the other hand, LOVE phones. My daughter has several fake phones. My son has several fake phones. My wife has a cell phone that is never off and several phones strategically located around the house. If I could live without a phone, I would. But I can’t…so I have a cell phone…which is too small for my fat fingers and which is so thin that I have literally been holding it and it has fallen out of my hand almost without me knowing except for the clunk of metal on the sidewalk.

Anyway, when I’m at work, I like to call home and talk to my children. Christopher is 5. Ava is 3. Seriously, I usually have no idea what they are talking about when I’m at home, standing directly in front of them, making direct eye contact. The wide variety of topics that pop out of their mouths at any given time, whether they make sense or not, usually require me to come up with a response. Now…if I don’t understand, how am I supposed to respond? Well…that is a problem now, isn’t it? But they still require a response…so I usually find myself trying to make something up until one of us gets so frustrated that yelling ensues and then I win…because I’m bigger.

That doesn’t happen on the phone. On the phone, I am at their mercy. Depending on their attention span, a conversation can last 20 seconds or 5-10 minutes. For example, if I call when they are watching a movie, I can usually squeak out a “Did you have a good day?” and there is a laugh and a yes and then silence. Oooookay. “Can I speak to your mother please?” And that’s the end.

Then there are the days like yesterday. Everytime I call Christopher I say, “Hey buddy! What’s up?” and, for some unknown reason, he always says “Good.” I’m not sure what that is all about. Maybe he thinks I’m saying “How are you?” I dunno…

Anyway I begin the conversation that way and then he proceeds to tell me EVERYTHING that happened to him that day. Occasionally he pauses to take a breath, but for the most part it is a long story of his adventures throughout the day and how he was playing at school and somebody did something and he did some math questions and he played with Jack and then someone got hurt but it was okay because someone didn’t mean to hurt somebody else and he ate 4 bowls of cereal and a banana for breakfast and he likes to make paper airplanes and mom took them to this place and that place and…on and on. It’s a sounds like a very good story and he is definately excited to tell me all about it! However, usually the mouthpiece of the phone is placed against his cheek and I can’t understand a word of it. 

When he’s done, I gratiously say “Well that sounds like a full day there buddy!” and he laughs and I tell him I love him and I hope he gets a good night’s sleep.

“Do you wanna talk to Ava?”

“Yes.” I say.

“Okay. Goodnight! Love you daddy!”

“Love you too buddy!”

“Okay! Love you too! Goodnight!”

“Love you too! Is Ava there?”

“Yes. You wanna talk to her?”

“Yes, Christopher. I already said I want too. You get a good night’s sleep now? Okay? Love you!”

“Love you too daddy. See you tomorrow! Love!”

“Love you too! Goodnight!”

“You wanna…”

“Christopher…please give the phone to Ava. I love you. Now goodnight!”

“Okay…here she is. Love you! Goodnight!”

And he finally hands the phone to his sister. Begin the whole process over again. Except Ava likes to hold the phone so that the mouthpiece is down by her neck and all I hear is “Bbgartylaskdhljkwer. LAKjhakjlsdjrjrjrjr  (laugh). Aslhfhrereth sdlkjlk mommy asdjhwerjhrwer daddy.” And then it ends with…”Ava, I love you too? You get a good night’s sleep! Please give the phone back to your mother now.”

“Okay daddy. Love you!” And the phone crunches and muffles and finally I hear my wife on the other end say “Didja get that?”

And then I talk to my wife and the whole process begins again…just at a more mature level. However I’m still usually on the other end with no idea what is going on. And I realize…they are definately more like their mother.

(If you liked this blog, go check out …is this thing on? for a story that inspired this one!)

Happy Easter

Easter is the Christian celebration of the resurrection of Christ. It is also the morning of eating all things chocolate. Although chocolate and giant rabbits are obviously not the most important aspects of Easter, it is definately something that a child looks forward to and which then puts an emphasis on the holiday (much like Christmas and gifts). For the past 2 years I have not been able to celebrate Easter with my family. And I know I am missing some great moments. Especially while the kids are young. I want to see my daughters face as she opens her Easter basket. I want to give my son a head rub while he munches on a peep. And I want to be there for my wife when she has to face the aftermath of all that sugar consumption. Needless to say, I am working (again) and this keeps me from enjoying all of those things. So I inevitably feel as if I am a bad father and a worse husband. I fight with that conflict every time I miss an “event” day like this (that includes holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, weddings and funerals). And through the years I have missed many. Steph understands (kinda), but I don’t know if the kids do. They will someday, I’m sure. But right now, all they know is daddy is missing another special moment. And that makes me sad this morning.

Happy Easter Kids! I Love You! Your Daddy.