What I LOVE About Weekend Mornings

What I LOVE about weekend mornings.

Kids get up at 6am and 7am, and I get up too. Then they bark orders like “where’s my juice” “the show’s over” “come quick, I see Zuzu Pets on TV” and my lovely wife is snuggled up warm and cozy in our bed getting her beauty rest. Well she better come downstairs looking like a freakin’ Victoria’s Secret model!!

Oops, sorry to cut this short, gotta go take the breakfast orders, then cook it and clean the kitchen! (ok, stop laughing, this is reality!”

And I do it with a BIG ASS SMILE!

Daddy-Son Bonding – Taking My Son to Lunch

Well what an awesome lunch I had today!

No I wasn’t at a bar watching a sports game or out with my coworkers, instead I spent a nice hour taking my (almost) five year old son, LT,  out to Pizzeria Uno’s. I had mentioned that I would like to grab lunch with him one day and this morning he asked me, “Daddy, when are you taking me to lunch?”

“Well today is good!” I replied, LT smiled!

So just before noon I left my office and did the 3-minute drive to his school (he’s in Pre-K). He was so anxious for me to arrive and when I got there he hopped up, ran over and pretty much pulled me out of the building. He was READY to grab lunch with me! He was so excited, I could see it in his face, his walk and voice!! That made me feel special and excited to be taking him to lunch!

A few months ago his class went to Uno’s on a little field trip and they got to make their own pizzas. So as we walked from school to Uno’s, LT was telling me ALL about how he got to make the pizza and wanted to do so again. The only thought that came to me at that moment was, “oh boy…they better have make your own pizzas”!  Luckily that is the FIRST thing on the kid’s menu, whew…crisis averted.

Making his own pizza – no sauce, of course

While waiting for the pizza to arrive I started asking him about his day, what’s been going on at school and if he’s ready to watch the Eagles game with me on Sunday — he just smiled. (He took his “Swoop” Eagles Mascot stuffed animal to school for show ‘n tell today.) I think I’ll be able to have him sit and learn a bit about football as he’s starting to show some interest and want to be with me more and more. (Just so you know, I’m not a huge sports fan or the type of Dad that needs to sit on the couch all weekend and watch sports.)

Ok, pizza arrived and LT begins to add the cheese – only! He does not like sauce…or so he thinks. When we get other pizza he eats it, sauce included, but when he makes his own — it better have NO red on it! LOL!!

LT had such a fun time at lunch and asked to go again. Of course he also said, “Next time Mommy can take me and you take K-bop (our daughter)”.

I had a GREAT time taking LT to lunch today. I’m sure it is a day that he will remember for a long time and most certainly a day that I will never forget!  I will plan on taking him out at least once a month to spend alone some quality Daddy/Son alone time!

Hey Dads, Forget Hiding Out in Your Basement…Now We Have a Real Hangout!

I just learned of this site tonight, Dad-Blogs.com, a new, freakin’-awesome site for us Dads! Dad Blogs is a site based on the vision of two dads, Joe Schatz (author of Joeprah) and Pete Janelle (a.k.a peteej from My GPS Camera Phone). Thanks guys for for getting this site off the ground!

First Impressions

I just joined and am very impressed by the layout, the interaction and how simple the site is to navigate and find groups, participate in forums, find buds (friends), write reviews on movies, beer/wine and much more. I can’t wait to actually be more awake to dive in and see who else had joined and what groups are out there.

Shit, this site has it all for us Dads!

Gotta Love the Posts!
Just to get you started…here are two of my (or soon to be) favorite posts. I’m going to have to read, re-read, share, and explain myself to my wife.

Top 6 Things Not to do if you want More Sex with your Wife

…and another post that I NEED to learn from

Parental Cursing Could Become a Child’s Habit, No Sh*t

Ok, so here is a snapshot of my profile to give you an idea of what the site looks like.

Another sweet aspect of the site is that I joined the group for BEER DADS, where we can chat about the beers we all enjoy and so badly need at night. There is even an event scheduled for tonight, 2/20 9pm to chat. I’m hoping I can make it!

Well, enough babble from me…if you haven’t yet checked out Dad-Blogs.com, do it now.

Also, stop over to Building Camelot, where author Tyler, wrote his review on Dad-Blogs.

How I Used 30 Minutes to Transition from Work to Home And How It Helped Me Be a Better Daddy

How many of you are from families where both parents work?

How about just one parent that works?

Well in our family, both Mommy and I work, and we work hard during our 9 hour day away from the kids — they both go to school/daycare. Mommy has a little longer of a commute (30 mins from work to daycare) and therefore a little more “transition time” from work life to home life. Me on the other hand work minutes from our kid’s daycare — and I used to be the primary parent for evening pick up — giving me like 3 minutes to destress from a busy day at work to both kids so excited to see me. Sure it’s awesome to have them excited to see me…but I was always experiencing both of them trying to talk over one another, tell me about their day, and just trying to fight for my attention.

My attention? How could I pay attention to them with only 3 minutes of downtime from work? I try and I try and I never seem to be able to do that.

Well lately my wife, the saint that she is, has been picking up the kids and I’ve been heading home directly from work. I get home around 5:30pm and take care of the kitchen. Some nights it’s emptying the dishwasher, others it’s just cleaning up the bomb that went off from the morning!! Shit everywhere! And sometimes I might just do nothing — just to relax. I need to relax! I’m a high stress individual , not a good mix for a 4 and 2 year old right now. (I’ve written about that before…and probably write more on that subject again!)

Finding the time to relax and enjoy playtime

So…as I was typing. I’ve been heading home before the rest of the family. Take tonight for example. I left work at 5:10pm and stopped off at ACME (food store) to grab a few things for a salad (it was eat lite night) and return a RedBox movie rental (My Best Friend’s Girlfriend – or something like that). So by the time I got home it was 5:40pm. Not too bad — I had 30 minutes of transitioning from work to home (the drive is usually 15 minutes). I felt good when I got home!

What Worked

Having dinner almost ready when the rest of the family arrived home made all of us more relaxed. No more last minute running around the kitchen like a one man chef at a busy restaurant. No…it was rather peaceful. The whole night was peaceful.

I had the kid’s dinners ready, food on plate, milk in cups, napkins, forks and spoons for them. Then i prepped a simple salad of baby spinach, feta and sunflower seeds for my wife and I. Poured her a glass of Shiraz and I enjoyed 2 Heinekin Lights. (It was eat lite night).

I did not yell tonight! That might be the first night in like months I didn’t have to raise my voice! It was a great feeling. And I could tell that my son really liked that. He would say, “I Love you Daddy!”

So after dinner he and I went into his playroom and created a pretty kick-butt GEOTRAX train layout. He was so excited that I went in and ASKED him to play trains with me. I usually try to clean up and do house stuff so my wife and I don’t have to do that once the kids are asleep. We do need our own time as well. But she packed lunches and cleaned up while the kids and I played.

The Best Night Ever

Well at least tonight ranks up there in Top 5 nights for me. There was absolutely NO WHINING! That’s right. No Whining at our house! Or none that I remember, so that’s good. Took my son up to bed and read him 3 books. He kept saying he had fun with the trains and than he loved me. That sure makes me feel good and I do feel good about it! I made his night!! and he made mine!

Now I just have to remember to stay calm and continue this!

There’s a Spotlight on Me – Featured Writeup of Me

For my post of the day I’d like to let everyone know that Jeremy Biser, Discovering Dad, has a Spotlight Feature of me on his blog. It was a great honor to be asked by Jeremy to be included in his weekly series, Discovering Dad Spotlight Series On Dads.

Please head over to learn more about me and to read the great articles that Jeremy writes!

My Spotlight writeup is here.

       …

Why Can’t I Relax?

Guess it’s about time I faced up to the fact that I’m a HIGH STRESS DAD and need an avenue to deal with the tension, stress, exhaustion and other things going on right now. That is why I started this blog, to write away any stresses I may have. When I started out that was my sole intension, then I quickly wanted to write about fun events and other things, probably to avoid my real posts of releasing tension and stress. Well I’m going to have to start being more open on my blog and writing about the events in my life — the way I intended this blog to be in the first place. I’m not going to always write to release stress, but there will be times where I just need to type to calm down.

A Weekend Party (of stress)

Over the weekend my wife, kids and I were all at a party and I couldn’t fully relax and enjoy the day because I was worried that one of my kids were going to fall off the slide; get trampled on while on the moonbounce; or something – anything! I’m always looking for WHAT can happen to my kids and HOW they might hurt themselves rather than just taking a deep breath and heaving a huge sigh and just tell myself, “Jeff, everything will be all right. Kids are very durable, resilient and can take bumps and bruises much better then an adult!”

Read the rest of this entry »

Why My Kids Want Mommy So Much?

Well this isn’t probably too much of a shocker to most married couples with young children. What is with a "mommy " that the kids love that they need to cling to her and almost smother her, leaving me the poor old lonely Dad?  For instance, I used to be the bedtime "go to" parent for both my son (about a year ago) and my daughter up until about 3 weeks ago.  She’s going on two this August and our son will be four in October. Why had my daughter decided she wants MOMMY for bedtime. This really puts me in a bind because I would love to read books to my kids, especially if there are no "power struggles" or meltdowns at bedtime.But like I mentioned, lately, both kids want mommy.  It’s ME that makes the funny voices and sing silly songs about the day to them, so why do they chose her over me?

Maybe because I’m the disciplinarian in the house. Might be because I try to be more strict . Probably because my wife enjoys having fun where I tend to worry about the next meltdown or what "might" transpire if the kids aren’t in bed by 8pm.  So I guess it’s natural for them to gravitate to the one parent that has open arms all the time. But then that creates additional stress in the house, where my wife doesn’t get any "downtime" to herself like I do if she’s doing both bedtime routines.

Now don’t get me wrong. I would LOVE to read books and do the bedtime thing, I have this ritual with my daughter where we read a few books then as I put her into the crib we wave goodnight to the butterfly decals on her wall, then give BIG KISSES, then Eskimo Kisses, then BIG HUGS. Then up until about a month ago, she would immediately fall asleep.  Now since she is almost 2 yo she is beginning to realize we are leaving her alone in her room. Tonight was a battle with her. She really wanted Mommy. It’s the 2 year old thing, the sense of losing a parent.  Read the rest of this entry »

What a Wonderful Family Vacation

Well I thought I would have had a chance to write a few blog posts while on vacation, but after spending the mornings and afternoons by (and in) the pool I was exhausted. So were both of my kids. Right now it’s the last evening of vacation. Kids are both sleeping, sheer exhaustion! We are getting things packed up. We had a great week at Marriott’s OceanWatch at Grand Dunes in Myrtle Beach, SC. They are timeshare villas that we traded into, we own a week at Marriott Barony Beach Resort in Hilton Head Island, SC. We chose Myrtle Beach for a new destination and also it was 5 hours less of a drive (with two kids).

My little buddy, Boo, who’s 3 1/2 years old really enjoyed the pool. He used his arm floaties to become used to the pool. Last year he slipped in a pool and then was afraid. He overcame that fear pretty quick this year. I even got Boo to blow bubbles in the pool and dunk his head. That was awesome! I was so proud. He also learned how to doggie paddle around the pool! It was fun to see the “ear to ear” smile on his face when he would do something new in pool!

K-Bop (or maybe K-mop because of her wild curly hair) our 20mo daughter also loved the pool. She basically LOVES anything her big brother does. And I MEAN everything! Boo has been learning to STAND when he goes pee-pee, well guess what??? K-bop also learned to go pee-pee and poo-poo on the potty this week. She really is GOOD at letting us know. The funny part of vacation had to be when she watched her brother stand and go pee-pee and then refused to sit on the potty and decided she WANTED TO STAND. OMG!! So now she can’t watch him!

Well this was a great vacation. I had a great stress-free (almost) time with the kids. Didn’t worry about work or the house while here. Ok, well we’re heading to my wife’s parent’s house in Cumberland, VA for 2 nights since we haven’t seen the new addition to their old farm house. Then it’s back to the same old same old…but I hope to have learned to ‘be on vacation’ while at home!

This Photo Makes Me Smile

This photo just makes me smile when I need one!  Thanks Little Buddy!

The Best Part of Putting My Son to Bed

Image via Wikipedia

Tonight was perfect! Our son "allowed" me to take him to bed tonight.  He usually demands Mommy, but tonight she had a 8-9pm conference call with for work and therefore it was my turn.  I typically get to take our daughter (20 months) and put her to bed so my wife and I share the parenting duties. So this was special for me, I get to take my son to bed!

Anyway, I really enjoy putting Boo to bed . It’s a great bonding time for him and I. I try to ask him how his day was and what he liked best about daycare.  Which of his buddies did he play with and other things throughout the day.  I want to make him feel comfortable with sharing that information with me.  He does for the most part but then reminds me, "Daddy, READ the book!"

So there we are sitting in his room, I’ve tucked in a 3′ Bob the Builder , "Mr Ted" (my son’s teddy bear that he made at Build a Bear ), and somehow found enough sheets and comforter to cover up Boo. We keep the lights low and usually have his closet light on to give us just enough light to cause serious eye damage when reading books to him! I’m not kidding. It’s NOT bad when it’s black type on white background like 99% of the books out there, but those 1%, the children’s books that are black font on a red or dark blue background, yeah right. Like I could barely read that in full sunlight!  Tonight was ok though, Boo has what he calls his "spinner" — a spinning light toy he got from Mama and Papa when they took him to the circus in Philly over the weekend. He kept holding the button to make the colored lights spin and supply me with a faint glow so I could read to him. It was great!

But with the lights dim, the fact that I was up until 1:00am last night, and I had a long day at work, my eyes wanted to close so bad! Now how many of you have caught yourself reading to you children and then start to make up words, sentences, whole thoughts!? I do but then Boo is quickly there to say, "DADDY! That is NOT what it says!" I just smile and think, "Man, if only my memory was as good as a three year olds!" He calls me out on my dozing off every time. And I don’t mean to get sleepy, it’s just so relaxing reading to him.

So after two books Boo was starting to nod off, guess he had a long day as well. So I stopped reading and just laid my head on the side of his bed and rubbed his back a bit. (I’m sitting on a hard wooden stool!) In a matter of 5 minutes he fell asleep and I dozed off for a bit as well.  I would wake up every now and then because my butt and legs were numb from the wooden stool! But what I love most is watching him sleep. He looks so peaceful and innocent and it’s at that moment that I feel so good about being his Daddy!

If I’m up late I always check on both kids before I hop into my bed. They’ve usually squirmed out from under the sheets or sometimes have even done a 180 and are sleeping with their head at the foot of the bed! I get them back to a good sleeping position and tuck them back in, make sure their favorite stuffed animal is within reach, kiss both of them on the forehead and whisper, "Daddy loves you so much!"

It’s 11:40pm now, and I’m heading up to do just that! Can’t wait!