Like father, like son.
I got the better of him though. I did mine at a wedding reception!
Bill Simmons’ Father/Son Story
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/100115/one
The "Kramer Vs. Kramer" Award for "Best Performance by a Father and Son"
The Sports Gal and my daughter went back East last weekend, which sounded like an awesome idea until I remembered there were four football games. I got a babysitter for Saturday. For Sunday, I decided to wing it: tired my son out in the early morning, set him up in front of the TV in the late morning then hoped he’d fall asleep watching "Max & Ruby" or "Scooby-Doo." Within about five minutes of kickoff, he was screaming, "Outside! Outside!" I left the back door open, then half-watched him and half-watched the Pats game while also changing jerseys three different times. (Seriously, what were the odds of them winning as I did this? 100-1?) I finally hooked him on "Dora the Explorer" — the episode in which Dora had to find something and the backpack and the map helped her, and then they did it (inside joke for the parents out there) — and he fell asleep just in time for the start of Pack-Cards, allowing me to watch my fourth loser of the weekend get crushed out of the gate … but as soon as they started coming back, he woke up. From there, I had to half-watch him and the game the rest of the time. And the Pack ended up losing, as you know.
Now, here’s where you think I’m going to give you the old "The lesson as always: Don’t have kids" line.
Nope.
See, I knew I was losing last weekend. (Kids + gambling = losses.) That’s why I wagered very little. But after the games, when I was super-depressed, we went to an outdoor mall called the Grove and my son threw a no-hitter. No meltdowns. Held my hand when I wanted. Didn’t throw any food when we were eating Mexican. Successfully pulled off a trip to a three-story bookstore with escalators without losing a finger or knocking over a shelf. Stayed on my lap when we rode the trolley. While holding an ice cream he even enticed two women to come over to him, then bend over even though they weren’t wearing bras or underwear. (OK, I’m exaggerating a little. They were wearing thongs.) It was more amazing than Kurt Warner’s performance a few hours earlier.
We drove home, then I gave him a bath and washed the Mexican food off his face and hair. He did his calling card — pointing down to his groin and screaming, "PEE-NISSSSSS!" then waiting a beat, pointing a little lower and screaming, "BALLLLLLLLLLLLLLZ!!!!!" — and I laughed my ass off like I always do. Then we put on his PJs, read a book and put him to bed. And as I was turning off the light, he said, "Thank you, Dada."
Here’s the point: In the old days, there was nothing that could have cheered me up after 0-4 and the ugly demise of a Patriots season. This time? My kid cheered me up. So if you’re ever wondering about the pros/cons of having kids, add this story to the "pros" list.
(And when he fed his dirty diaper to our dog the following morning, add that to the "cons.")
What Supernanny Taught Me
Yvonne and I like watch Supernanny sometimes while we eat dinner. For those of you who don’t know what the show is about, the Supernanny (Jo) visits these dysfunctional families almost always with 3 or more kids and teaches them how to solve their problems. The show actually does teach us some things, but I joking tell Yvonne the thing this show teaches me the most is to get a vasectomy.
We had a June deadline this year to decide if we wanted to have another child. If we didn’t get pregnant by that deadline, or decided we didn’t want another child by then, I’d get a vasectomy. Well there’s no need to wait for the deadline, cause Yvonne is pregnant with child number 3.
We’re still early on this one (only 5 weeks along), but if everything goes right he’ll have an estimated date of September 8 of popping out of Yvonne. And yes, I did say “he.†Not that I know what the sex is, nor would we have any idea at this point, but I finally broke Yvonne down and got the green light for the name Obadiah. I think it’s more the point that we used up all of our names that I got the green light. So if it’s a boy, and Yvonne doesn’t veto the name later on, we’re going to be calling our son Obi-Wong!
Of course if it’s a girl, or we decide later that we don’t want Obi-Wong, we have no ideas for another name. I think we’ll have to go with another ‘C’ name with 5 letters. A girl name might be easier to come up with, since a girl can pretty much be called anything and not be made fun of. However, with a boy, I wouldn’t want my son to have some flowery name. And I don’t want to call him Chuck. If possible I would like the initials to be some technology acronym like CSS or XML. But I can’t think of any tech acronym that ends in W. Maybe WWW, but that is all.
Even with a vasectomy, I don’t know if that can stop a machine like me. My boys are too strong to be stopped by a surgical procedure. Each time that I’ve knocked up Yvonne, I’ve broken through on the first unsafe instance. There’s no stopping me and my little guys.
Caris Playing
Here’s Caris playing with Caleb’s “new red car.â€
Natural Parenting (XKCD)
That’s how I do it.
Cold Weather & Our Camping Trip
It is currently 42 degrees outside our house. Tonight’s overnight low is suppose to be 38 degrees. This is what I would call beyond cold. But at least we’re inside our warmer house. 67 degrees is nice for me, but still bundle up weather for Yvonne. We haven’t been in this type of cold since… well… since our camping trip in October.
The thing about our camping trip though is that we were sleeping in tents where the cold didn’t want to stay outside. The overnight low was 45 degrees, which meant it was 45 degrees in our tent. Let’s just say that our children weren’t used to the temperature with their year round temperature controlled house. In fact the thermostat is in Caleb’s room so he’s always sleeping in perfect temperature.
Our tent… not the place for perfect temperature. Look at this thermometer. 
That’s a low of 45 in our tent. And a high of 115!
We got to Santa Margarita Lake campground on Friday. Lacking the perfect temperature Caleb was used to, he got very little sleep that first night. He kept tossing and turning. And talking and moving. So much so that he only got just over 3 hours of sleep that night. 45 degrees might be a little to cold for a boy who’s used to perfect temperature in his room. Caris didn’t sleep well either, but she just slept on me the whole keep and I kept her warm. Here’s how they looked in the morning.
Caleb was not in a good mood that morning. We hoped he would get a good nap at least in the afternoon. Not quite. With the sun blazing down upon our tent, the temperatures soared inside. Again Caleb normally sleeps in that perfect temperature room with barely any light. Here at camp, he had the bright sun shining on top, heating up the tent. After 40 minutes of sleep, he awakes to the bright lights and hot tent. The temperature is about 90 degrees. Good thing he woke up. He might have died in the 115 degree tent.
We had thought we dressed our children warmly the first night, but these kids don’t know what cold really was. And neither did we. To combat the immense chill of the night, we decided dress our children in every single warm piece of clothing we had. Both of them must have at least 8 layers on them. Rebecca Chan can attest to that.
It doesn’t seem like a lot, but I think he was sweating under those clothes. Maybe he’s warm enough, and maybe he’s gotten comfortable with our tent. But finally he sleeps.
Caris is still cold, but she loves Daddy holding her and keeping her warm. Caleb gets a good night sleep, and they look much better in the morning.
Notes for next camping trip:
- Find someplace close
- Find someplace not freezing
- Find someplace not scorching
New Wish Lists
We have new wish lists for Caleb & Caris. You can find the wish lists to the right. Caleb & Caris have their own wish lists. And yes, Caleb’s is much bigger. Everything eventually will get to Caris.
Snack Time
Typical, amusing video of our kids eating. And sharing. And kicking. Wait til the end.
A Present From Caris to Daddy
Caleb likes to give me things. He leaves cars by my bed when I get home from work. Caris also likes to leave presents for me. Actually, this one was for mommy, but mommy gave it to me.
Take a closer look.
No, take a real close look.
There’s a string inside her poop. That’s because she picks up everything on the floor and puts it into her mouth. And eventually it comes out here. But look at this sweet poop. This thing measures at least 6 to 7 inches. That’s one big poop for a baby. You can even tell the poop was from different meals. How awesome is that.
Kiddie Kandids
Went in for our family picture this morning. Got some pictures of the family. Got some pictures of Caleb & Caris. And then got some pictures for Caris’ 9 month. Here they are.
