Ash had his first basketball game today. Super offense heavy and a great right handed, no pass dribbler. And the weird thing is that he is always open, at least that is what he thinks. Anytime his team has possession, he screams "I'm open" until they throw him the ball. And since him and Mike are on the same team Mike is the point guard, the pass always goes to Ash. Papa came and think he had a had time watching 5 year olds play.
We headed down to the store and bought some hot dogs for fishing, We grabbed the new poles and headed to the park. Maya pulled in the only fish, and she was great. She baited the hook and was a great caster. It rained and was windy so less than ideal. So we headed exploring up the creek while avoiding all the geese poop.
Tomorrow the kids hit the slopes for the second time in their lives, so excited for some snow and a chance to get them shredding.
Saturday, January 9, 2016
Wednesday, January 6, 2016
Kids...ugh!
Have you ever caught yourself talking about your kids with others. You banter back and forth about how great they are, what a good age they are now, and how fast they grow up. Break...you finish the conversation and arrive back home with your wonderous kids. Then one starts throwing cat food and the other throws the cat on you head and it latches on with its fearful claws. If you are the parent on TV, you have a clever way to deal with this episode that is calm, collected and the the kids appreciate the greater good of their troubled ways. Or you start threatening to take things away like TV, trips or treats. Of course then you curse yourself as you have just gambled away the few things that you still hold power over them, but you must commit. And then you recall that conversation you had moments earlier about how your kids are so wonderful. Weird stuff.
Anyways, tonight I did not win any parenting awards. After the tenth time lovingly suggesting the kids need to go to bed, I turn around and the homework is not done and they are coloring. Oblivious to what I had asked of them a gazillion times. The countdown began. 5....4...3...2....1. I hit it. The 1. That means I must do as I promised and throw the pens away. No 1 and 1/2 tonight...straight to 1.
Madness ensues. Ashton cries, Maya wimpers and then I must decide. Commit and be strong, or try to find a more PC way to absolve my behavior. In the end, as I pour effort into figuring out this unsolvable riddle, I hope that what has more bearing on their lives is the singing and dancing to Ghostbusters, and the limpy wars in the bathroom. Actually made them cry again on this one too...damn!
I think if I had a manual to be the perfect parent in front of me at every moment, I would still screw it up most of the time. Good luck to me tomorrow.
Anyways, tonight I did not win any parenting awards. After the tenth time lovingly suggesting the kids need to go to bed, I turn around and the homework is not done and they are coloring. Oblivious to what I had asked of them a gazillion times. The countdown began. 5....4...3...2....1. I hit it. The 1. That means I must do as I promised and throw the pens away. No 1 and 1/2 tonight...straight to 1.
Madness ensues. Ashton cries, Maya wimpers and then I must decide. Commit and be strong, or try to find a more PC way to absolve my behavior. In the end, as I pour effort into figuring out this unsolvable riddle, I hope that what has more bearing on their lives is the singing and dancing to Ghostbusters, and the limpy wars in the bathroom. Actually made them cry again on this one too...damn!
I think if I had a manual to be the perfect parent in front of me at every moment, I would still screw it up most of the time. Good luck to me tomorrow.
Tuesday, December 8, 2015
My cat can send a fax
Took the Mazda in today, super foggy out. Had my beard trimmed today during my haircut. Sorta weird having another man trim your beard. Not sure how if is any different than your hair cut, but yeah..it is. Ran the kids to Maya tumbling class today and she nailed a round off. That girl has some spring and is super fast. I told her if she would run all out no one could catch her. She replied that she just likes to job. The kids did a magic show tonight where Ash just had us close our eyes over and over again and pulled out things from the couch cushions. Then the finally was throwing monster trucks at mom and doing some tumbling and summersalts. I fought with the xmas tree as I tried to place the 5 pound star on top. I won. And the cat loves the printer. Every time it makes a noise, the cat bolts over. It has now learned to use the touch screen to make paper come out, and tonight has graduated to sending faxes.
Sunday, December 6, 2015
Fish love hot dogs
The girls were girling in the city this weekend, so the boys held down the fort. Yesterday the Ash man and I shot some hoop in the Kindergarten playground. I was advised that is was against the rules to dunk. We headed to the Town Center and checked in to the christmas lighting festivities. Met up with Jackson and the boys ran around in the fake snow and hit several people with their glow sticks as they hucked them around. Santa arrived by code 3 and we snuck in some ice cream. Today we hunkered down and watched endless wild Krats while I worked on the xmas letter. We got out to the park pound and casted a few lures into the lake. We watched others pull in fish, so we went over and stole some bait from them and snagged a two inch fish with a hot dog stuck on a lure. I fixed the toilet downstairs and we made a few runs to Home Depot where he got some sour patch kids out of me.
Saturday, December 5, 2015
My tummy
Maya has been having tummy aches for the last week at night only. We are unsure if there are real or somatic and this puts us in a tough place. We want to be comforting, yet the pain comes and goes at whim. Either way we will get by this, and probably make a few parenting mistakes. Oh well.
We hit up the Folsom zoo for xmas lights today with the Witters. Most of the animals were sleeping, or at least trying. Thousands of xmas lights and people eating kettle corn were sure making them happy. We rode the train before we left, and some older lady accused our kids of stealing her seat. Ken set her straight. Maya said later that her attitude was poor, as the adults just made fun of her. Who has the moral high roads in this family. Did dinner at Steves Pizza and the boys blew some quarters on games, while I stole some kids hunting game while he went to the bathroom. Kids played freeze tag after school, and I swam today in the cold. And our xmas tree fell down...oh yeah. Crashing ten feet as I had just put the finishing touches on the ornaments. Strapped that thing to some studs and will invest in a better stand or smaller tree next year.
Maya has been having tummy aches for the last week at night only. We are unsure if there are real or somatic and this puts us in a tough place. We want to be comforting, yet the pain comes and goes at whim. Either way we will get by this, and probably make a few parenting mistakes. Oh well.
We hit up the Folsom zoo for xmas lights today with the Witters. Most of the animals were sleeping, or at least trying. Thousands of xmas lights and people eating kettle corn were sure making them happy. We rode the train before we left, and some older lady accused our kids of stealing her seat. Ken set her straight. Maya said later that her attitude was poor, as the adults just made fun of her. Who has the moral high roads in this family. Did dinner at Steves Pizza and the boys blew some quarters on games, while I stole some kids hunting game while he went to the bathroom. Kids played freeze tag after school, and I swam today in the cold. And our xmas tree fell down...oh yeah. Crashing ten feet as I had just put the finishing touches on the ornaments. Strapped that thing to some studs and will invest in a better stand or smaller tree next year.
Saturday, November 28, 2015
No butts, cuts or coconuts
So I just read through some of these posts from way back when I was spry and had the energy and memory to pour or daily events into type. Of course I really had wished that I had kept this up but the idea is easy but commanding the effort daily to squeeze one more task into the day is tough. So in 30 years am sure having one new post is better than zero I guess. Will see how I can keep up.
Today we headed to Apple Hill for our first xmas tree cut. Met up with the Nunes and new engaged Mike and Sandy. Bundled up as still was a sliver of snow on the ground. The first farm was muddy yet had frozen lakes and hibernating bear caves. Perfect for young mischievous boys, but no good for the actual goal of cutting a tree. We ventured to the next one and once we found out tree 20 feet up in the air and yelled "cutter" for hours, we hauled it away and grabbed some grub. We finished the wizard of OZ on the ride home. We finally made it to getting the tree up and the stand broke, so postponed. Maya had a tummy ache so maybe for the best for another night. George and Reiny are back in the house, and they are back to their mischief.
Today we headed to Apple Hill for our first xmas tree cut. Met up with the Nunes and new engaged Mike and Sandy. Bundled up as still was a sliver of snow on the ground. The first farm was muddy yet had frozen lakes and hibernating bear caves. Perfect for young mischievous boys, but no good for the actual goal of cutting a tree. We ventured to the next one and once we found out tree 20 feet up in the air and yelled "cutter" for hours, we hauled it away and grabbed some grub. We finished the wizard of OZ on the ride home. We finally made it to getting the tree up and the stand broke, so postponed. Maya had a tummy ache so maybe for the best for another night. George and Reiny are back in the house, and they are back to their mischief.
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Is it Christmas yet?
Maya is so honest. Jen had a really cute dress that she wanted a surprise for Maya, but wanted her to try it on. So she told Maya it was a special surprise, had her try it on, and she kept her eyes closed the entire time, feeling it with her fingers, noting how soft it was, eye still keeping those eyes closed and the surprise intact. Am sure in a few years this will all change and we will find her snooping for those surprises every chance she gets.
Ashton's favorite activity besides waking us up every night screaming is spinning in circles. Unfortunately, it also involves me spinning around as well, and far from my younger days when I could stomach anything, I have to do my best ice skating pose and try to focus on one distant object as I spin in circles giving my stomach just a few more revolutions before it calls it quits. Ash will grab my hand and spin around, and finish by body slamming into the couch. The kid does not get dizzy or feel the need to give dad a rest. It's ever better when he becomes airborne or sister Maya jumps in so the can virtually chase each other as I fling them around in circles.
Ashton rubbed his toe raw the other day on the bike as I pushed him around barefoot. Funny he did not even notice until we stopped and he wanted more, like bleeding made it cooler. On the other hand big sister tumbled to the concrete on the same day, maybe qualifying with a skuff on her knee and elbow. She cried halfway to swim lessons, and then had to be coerced into dipping her wounds into a pool for 5 minutes, petrified to move her limbs. Although I must say the contrast that was about to be set up made my day. As soon as she forgot about the wounds, she did the best floats, arms and even picked up a ring on the floor of the pool for the first time, and earned herself a ribbon into the world of the Octopus. She really impressed me in how she overcame her fears, even if it was minor, it was by far very difficult for her.
Ash is putting words together like Dada and Night-night and is constantly narrating any truck, bus or tractor that slips into his view. We must acknowledge it for him to stop bantering about it. He has become attached to a dog toy that NaNa got him at STarbucks, and calls it Nana doggie. Maya has been bringing home great Xmas artwork, and always wants to show me her work as soon as she gets into the car, even though there is a line of cars behind waiting to pick up their small child as well. The world can still wait at this age. She has also been noticing how things rhyme. Funny sometimes she will use the same word in different context, noting that they rhyme, yet not that they are the same words. Pretty cool though to see her light up on her own when she discovers something unseen before to her. Ashton has this super cute reaction to xmas lights. Every set of lights he sees he says "wha-oh" really loud, excited and undulating. He sounds so genuinely excited which each string of lights, like each on is the first time he has ever seen such a thing.
Ashton's favorite activity besides waking us up every night screaming is spinning in circles. Unfortunately, it also involves me spinning around as well, and far from my younger days when I could stomach anything, I have to do my best ice skating pose and try to focus on one distant object as I spin in circles giving my stomach just a few more revolutions before it calls it quits. Ash will grab my hand and spin around, and finish by body slamming into the couch. The kid does not get dizzy or feel the need to give dad a rest. It's ever better when he becomes airborne or sister Maya jumps in so the can virtually chase each other as I fling them around in circles.
Ashton rubbed his toe raw the other day on the bike as I pushed him around barefoot. Funny he did not even notice until we stopped and he wanted more, like bleeding made it cooler. On the other hand big sister tumbled to the concrete on the same day, maybe qualifying with a skuff on her knee and elbow. She cried halfway to swim lessons, and then had to be coerced into dipping her wounds into a pool for 5 minutes, petrified to move her limbs. Although I must say the contrast that was about to be set up made my day. As soon as she forgot about the wounds, she did the best floats, arms and even picked up a ring on the floor of the pool for the first time, and earned herself a ribbon into the world of the Octopus. She really impressed me in how she overcame her fears, even if it was minor, it was by far very difficult for her.
Ash is putting words together like Dada and Night-night and is constantly narrating any truck, bus or tractor that slips into his view. We must acknowledge it for him to stop bantering about it. He has become attached to a dog toy that NaNa got him at STarbucks, and calls it Nana doggie. Maya has been bringing home great Xmas artwork, and always wants to show me her work as soon as she gets into the car, even though there is a line of cars behind waiting to pick up their small child as well. The world can still wait at this age. She has also been noticing how things rhyme. Funny sometimes she will use the same word in different context, noting that they rhyme, yet not that they are the same words. Pretty cool though to see her light up on her own when she discovers something unseen before to her. Ashton has this super cute reaction to xmas lights. Every set of lights he sees he says "wha-oh" really loud, excited and undulating. He sounds so genuinely excited which each string of lights, like each on is the first time he has ever seen such a thing.