"Stop Christmas From Coming"

This is it; I am officially ready for time to stop. The house is decorated, the lights are up outside. There is wood in the shed, and I have most of my Christmas shopping done. The kids are excited that Christmas is coming. Christmas songs are on the radio. The advent wreath has been lit two services in a row. Ah Christmas! So pull the lever and stop time, cause this is what it is all about.

Ok, I know we cant do that, but it sure would be nice. I love the Christmas season and having a family to share it with is better than I could have imagined. The kids may not always appreciate all of the gifts or the festivities but they sure are having fun. I love to hear them singing Christmas songs and picking out toys in the catalog. I feel so blessed to have my childhood memories of Christmas renewed in my life.

Merry Christmas! Pull the lever!

Will you pick me up?

I like it when the kids ask me to pick them up. I try to make it a habit of always picking them up when they ask. This is probably more for my benefit then theirs. Ok maybe not my backs benefit but my emotional benefit. It is like a moving hug. I sometimes may be busy and have to ask them to wait or walk a little further. But I always wish I could pick them up.

From time to time, Mallory will come to me when I get home from work, and asked to be picked up. I cherish those times the most. They are not tired or cranky they just missed me. I know that they are getting bigger everyday, and someday I will not be able to pick them up. Our moving hugs will be gone.

It makes me think about what this time means to the kids. How cool would it be, if we as adults had some one to physically pick us up and make us warm and protected? A place to rest your head and forget how fast the world is moving around us. So if that is what it feels like how can I say no.

Football: A man’s sport

I know very little about football, what I do know, is from my wife’s love for the Colts. I always ask the same questions when she turns on a game. “What’s a down?” “How may downs are there?” “ How many points is a touch down?” I really know nothing! It is one of those things I have every little interest in. However I do like to watch a game with my wife, she gets so excited, she makes it a lot fun. Take Crista out of the equation, its flat.

Typically the man crowd always assumes that all guys watch football. Cause if you don’t your weird. Well ok, I like being weird! The worst part is when you meet new people and all they seem to want to talk about is football. If you can’t keep up with the conversation it is totally one sided. They talk sports, and I node my head. It is like a communication connection is broke and the person judges you on it. Just once I would like to meet someone new and dive into a time travel debate, or star wars conversation.

Case in point: I traveled to LA for a focus group meeting on a product that we designed at work. When it was all wrapped up, I gave the president of the company a lift back to the airport. I was looking forward to our car ride, so we could discuss future projects and how we could help them out. However, before that could happen, he says “Did you catch that game last night?” (Are you kidding?) I’m hopping to impress the guy and he pulls out kryptonite. I side stepped the direct answer, some how, and proceed on to more work related topics.

I guess I’ll always have to deal with this. It does not really bother me; I just hate to miss the opportunity to get to know people better. Unfortunately sports talk is a dead end for me. I’ll keep trying to pick it up and maybe someday it will all sink in. Then maybe I will not feel so much like an outsider, to the world of football.

Lead by example

I hate to screw things up, but inevitably it happens. I have to always stay mindful of what I do, to make sure that the kids don’t pick up any of my bad habits. I just hope that I make it thru the next twenty or so years and don’t mess the kids up to bad. They are little sponges they suck up every little detail. You may not think they are listening but they see and hear all. It may not even be something you say or do in front of them. What we do is all around us

Case in point; Mason is in the bathroom, after a reasonable amount of time, I go to check on him. He has picked up one of my Muscle and Fitness magazines; he is looking at an article about the lingerie bowl. All I can see is half naked women jumping off the pages that are lying on his lap. He looks up at me and I grab the magazine and tell him to rap it up. I close the door and can’t believe what just happened. He’s five! I had no idea that at five he would want to look at some thing like that. Then I start to get a feeling of pride that at least he is not gay. I quickly realize that is not what I should dwell on here. Then I start to feel bad for having something like that in the house. I go in the kitchen and show the magazine to Crista and her eyes bug out, “what’s that!” After a brief explanation to her, my mind starts going into parent mode, about the conversation I was about to have with mason. I don’t want to screw this up. I am not going into the sex talk, but did have to address this issue.

Moments later, there I sit, with a five year old on one knee and a muscle fitness magazine on the other. We discussed respect for women, and unrealistic expectation of what a woman should look like. I also let him know if he wants to look at the magazine again to let me know and I will flip thru it with him.

This whole thing made me think, what else I might do that he could pick up on. Not only is it what I do, but also how I live and who and what I surround my self with. I will continue to try and be a good role model, I learn more everyday. The kids will probable never know everything they taught me.

Six Months Old

Isabel turned six months old this week, I can not believe how quickly she is growing up. She has two teeth, sits up by herself,(for the most part) and chatters away in a language that is foreign to me but sounds like Ewoks. I am looking forward to her first Christmas.

Reading the signs

There are subtle things about the human body that God has programmed into us. In particular, with toddlers and young school age children, the need to go potty. It always looks the same. One foot slightly off the ground, the hand pressing in on the lower abdomen. As a parent you some times can gage the intensity for the need to go by the duration and the height of the foot off the ground. I can spot other peoples kids now too. (Maybe this is my first supper power!) However if you ask the child “Do you need to go potty?” The answer is most likely “No”. But thanks be to God we know this is false. The level of activity comes into play here as well. A child can “hold it” longer if they are running and jumping. But don’t be fooled they are ticking time bombs.

Case in point. Disney Hollywood studios 2009. Mason and Mallory are playing in the “Honey I shrunk the kids playland”. Mallory quickly decided that her favorite thing was the Kodak film roll slide. It was neat; you climbed up thru the tube and slid down the slide, it looked like the film coming out of the roll. On her fifth or sixth lap I noticed it, the quick pause and lift the foot. Crista noticed it to. We both looked at each other as if to acknowledge that a rest room break would be needed soon. Meanwhile Mason is running thru an under ground worm tunnel, that goes who knows were, this had me more than some what concerned for his whereabouts. Thankfully Isabel was strapped to my chest, some day soon she will be right in the middle of this and I will have no hair. Then I heard the scream, it came from Mallory. She is standing at the top of the slide holding herself as the stream ran down the slide. I watched in what seamed like slow motion as it ran all the way down the slide. The slide had a slight turn in the middle that just added to the length of time it took to reach the bottom and the amount of coverage. At the bottom of the slide it began to collect to puddle got bigger and bigger. I turned and see Crista slowly lower her head into her hands. She then quickly grabbed Isabel’s blanket and went to wrap Mallory up and get her to the closest restroom. And while she was exiting I was tracking down the boy. Before I could find Mason, the staff had the slide barricaded. Soon, Mason, Isabel and I waited outside the rest room for the rest of our party. When Crista came out I could tell she was less than happy about the whole situation. I on the other hand was smiling from ear to ear, and as I later explained to Crista this was one of those lasting memories that will always be part of me. Some thing you can’t buy and some thing I am so glad I got to experience. Some thing I am so glad to finally be part of.

So what did I learn from this experience? Well let’s just say I don’t ask about the potty any more. Then the foot goes up I don’t even ask a just put a hand on the shoulder and tell them we are going to the potty. Oh sure they still tell me that they don’t have to, but they always seem to have some thing to do when we get there. So be mindful of the little things.

Super Powers

This is the best time of my life, having a young family is the greatest! There are new things to experience each day, and each day out weighs the one before it. I am so glad to know what it is like to have a baby in the house. It is amazing to me how much she has changed in as little as six months. Having a baby has helped me to know my wife even better. Crista has a bond with each of the kids and seeing her with the baby is very special to me. They have a really deep connection, it seams at times they can read each other’s minds. Maybe this is a super power that father’s were not gifted with.

For instance, one night I got up to feed Isabel when she was still quite small, and I was quite new to the whole baby thing. This was before I figured out that you prep the formula before you pick up the baby. I had her in one arm and was trying to dip out formula into the bottle with the other.( To say the least babies are the least patient people when they are hungry.) During the kicking, I knocked the formula off the table, which made a loud thud as it hit the floor, which silenced the baby, and sent formula all over the place. All of this commotion was immediately followed by me cursing. (Here is where the mama ability of flight comes in to play.) Crista made no sound from the bed to the nursery, which is a distance of six to eight feet. She landed in the nursery to see the two of us looking equally disgusted, but she was so relieved to know that I ,in fact, had not dropped the baby. It amazed me that she could make that kind of distance in one leap and also being half asleep to boot. I can’t wait to see what other super powers mama has. If she starts juggling chainsaws, we are taking this show on the road.