Sunday Randomness

A line you don't want to hear when the kids are playing in the other room from one of the girls your son is playing with: "Dare me to stick my tongue in it?"

AHHHH. I don't even want to know. God lord, don't make me look around that corner. Then I heard a mechanical sort of "whirr," from one of his toys and thought, "Phew, at least it's only going to be a flesh wound."

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When you're driving down the highway and they have one of those signs that tells you how fast you're going in the construction zone and it's Sunday, the point is to get high score, right? I don't want to think I've been doing it wrong all these years.

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We went to pick pumpkins today at the farm that we go to every year. A view of the mountains today from the hayride. I think we're a little past peak here, but it's still a nice view.

 

Technorati Tags: Fall,high score,no tongues allowed

Poor Child

I'm thinking this is some father-son thing or some 'I'm six now and will show my independence regardless of the consequences' thing, but my son will just be contrary at random. It's more pronounced when he's tired. The Boy doesn't get tired; he gets pissy and then passes out. Yes, this is the same little angel from yesterday, but we all know the score. Most days it's sweetness and light and then you get those days.

A scene from just a few days ago:

Me: "Jacob, did you see that?"

Jacob: "Don't call me Jacob."

Me: "But that's your name. I can get your ID if you would like...Jacob." (Yeah, I know the added Jacob there was just to get under his skin, but if he gets to razz me, I get to razz back.)

Jacob: "Stop calling me Jacob."

Me: "Okay, I'm going to call you Matilda then."

Matilda: "Stop it."

Me: "Okay, Matilda."

Matilda: "Don't call me that."

Me: "Hmmm...we'll need a form of address though in case of emergency." At this point his eyes narrowed. He's smart and is well-versed in my satiric ways. "I'm going with wiener then. If I need your attention I'll just yell out, 'Hey, wiener,' and you can respond."

Weiner: "Mawm! Dad's picking on me!"

Another random scene:

Me: "Hey, buddy. You tire is looking a little low on your bike. I'll get the pump and you can fix that with me.

Jacob (at least for now): "Stop picking on me."

Me: "Only trying to help."

Jacob: "Stop picking on me."

Me: *practiced silence*

So The Boy rides off, takes a corner too quick, and flops over. He gets up and seems to be in one piece.

Me: "Are you okay, buddy?"

Wiener: "Stop picking on me."

He gets back on his bike a wobbles by due to a wonky tire.

Matilda: "My bike feels funny."

Me: "That may be because you need a little air in your tire."

Uber-wiener: "Mawm! Daddy's bein' mean."

Fortunately, The Wife has seen this stuff happen and no longer feels the need to ask what's going on. If I roll my eyes she knows that he's in 'wiener mode.' She is much better at dealing with wiener mode than I am. I tend to play it as a scene from an Abbott and Costello movie. It's going to go south anyway, so I may as well enjoy myself. She, however, does special mom things that are startlingly similar to my initial dad things to pull him out of the perilous spiral of total wienerfication.

I don't know if any of you see this stuff, but I'm guessing he'll grow out of it eventually. At least it gives me material.

 

Technorati Tags: kids,children,wiener

Child of Our Hearts

Jen over at Steenky Bee and I are both adoptive parents. I forget how she found out that I was. She stalks people you know...it could have been through any number of sources. After she did though, we thought it would be nice to do a dual post with the theme of how we are (or in my case, will) talk to our children about adoption. Here's mine. Stop over at Steenky Bee after and Jen will show you hers.

Our son is just turned six last month. My wife and I adopted our son from Korea. He arrived when he was six months old. He knows he was born in Korea and he's faced the inevitable, "Where are you from?" question numerous times. (He answers with his hometown -- we've taught him well.) My Wife and I haven't made his adoption an issue yet since we know it will come up in due time. We don't know how it will come up or how much he will want to know. Nothing is a secret though, it's just how it is. We're a family; he's our son. The deeper questions will come though so I just thought I'd answer a few now.

"Why wasn't I born in your tummy mommy?" You had an extra special birth. Even though you were born in Korea, we carried you in our hearts from half a world away. You grew in your birth mommy's tummy and we love her for that.

"Why did my birth mommy give me away?" She wanted the best for you. She felt like she couldn't give it to you because of her circumstances -- the way things were in her life -- but she knew we were here to take perfect care of you.

"How did I get here?" You came by airplane. You had an escort who had the most important job in the world -- bringing our family together. You looked so tiny when you came down the ramp in the stroller. You just looked around while the people getting off the plane congratulated us. They said you were very good on the plane and didn't cry at all. I was scared and nervous as your escort placed you in my arms for the first time. You weren't though. You were calm and peaceful. You knew you were home.

It's amazing how much I would like to tell you now...about how we stared and stared at the pictures that your foster mother sent us until we had them memorized...about how the wait was so hard -- even though it was a mere nine months...about how, after so long trying to conceive, we finally were able to make our family whole. You're only six right now though and you're more concerned if we have any red popsicles left or whether you can go ride your bike with your friends on the block.

No matter what happens or what questions you have or when you start to be curious, we'll be there for you. We found each other across continents and our family was made whole. You were born in our hearts and will always remain there. Let the questions come

.

Technorati Tags: adoption,children,kids

Dust Bunnies

One more story from my college days:

When I was in the living in the dorms I had a buddy who lived across the hall. I'll call him, Steve, but only because that's his real name. He had a roommate whose name was Dustin.

Dustin never talked.

Ever.

It sort of freaked Steve out. I think he used to get a, "Hi," out of him now and then, but other than that it was silence. After a few months of this, it was freaking Steve out.

Steve, my roommate (Ecks -- not his real name, but that's what we called him,) and I used to play cards together every Friday night. Dustin used to vacate the room for us and we would hang out in Steve's room and play cards for a while.

One night, we got to talking about Dustin and how he was wearing on Steve since he never talked to him.

Steve: "It's really weird. I don't even like being around him. It's not normal. I keep waiting for him to snap."

We agreed and the night wore on. We got a little impish at one point and started playing tricks on Dustin. Nothing serious...we turned his drawers over so his stuff would fall on the floor when he opened them, we glued the pages shut in an unused notebook...you know, standard college pranks.

The night wore on and we kept playing cards. Normally we only played cards for about two hours and Dustin would come back. That was usually our signal to break up the game. He didn't come back that night though, so we kept playing. After close to four hours, we were getting tired, so we were ready to call it a night. Ecks wanted to squeeze in one more prank though. It was just a simple tie all his shoelaces together prank.

Ecks reached under Dustin's bed to grab some shoes.

Ecks: "Um...guys?"

Me: "What?"

Ecks: His voice quavered a little, "Um...Dustin is under the bed."

Us: "You are so full of shit."

Ecks: "Why don't you come look?"

We shook our heads and walked over. We laid on the ground next to Ecks. Two eyes glinted back at us from the the far recesses under the bed.

You have never seen three people depart a room as quickly as we did that night. We got back to our room.

Steve: "There is no way I am sleeping in that room tonight."

Me: "You can sleep here. Of course, he can get through that door with an axe pretty easily."

Steve: "Hate you."

We all jumped when the door flew open and Dustin stood there. He slid a chair into the room and said, "You forgot your chair."

He left and Steve said, "That's the most he's said all semester."

Eventually we all calmed down and Steve went to confront psycho boy. It turned out that ultimately he was just really, un-freaking-believably, shy. He had hidden under the bed that night to see what we thought about him and since we never left, he was trapped. He came out of his shell after that and we all became close friends.

We were sort of lucky that he wasn't a psycho though. He would have totally murdered us in our sleep for that one. The headlines would have read, "Three college students found murdered with 733 stab wounds...each."I still laugh when I think of what it must have looked like from his point of view with the three of us peering under the bed at him.

He still remains the first and only person to have ever burned me in effigy though. That happened after I started calling him 'dust bunny."

Late Sunday Randomness

In response to Kelley for pictures (or in this case a picture), I can at least offer her this:

Ahhh, scars. The memories that last a lifetime. This should also make Ellie happy. She was concerned as to the location of the brand. She seemed mildly frightened while asking. Odd.

My birthday was great. Thanks to all for the well-wishing. My actual birthday was so busy with pre-scheduled activities for The Boy, that we had my birthday dinner today. It was this. If you like lasagna, this one is awesome. I'll have to flush my arteries with a firehose to clear the cholesterol from all the cheese in this one, but it's well worth it.

The Wife had a friend come in from Florida for a visit, so I assembled the lasagna myself. That's okay though because I love to cook. Eating a good meal is fine, but creating it adds to the whole experience for me.

My wife knows me well. I got this (with an accompanying bottle)

and more importantly this:

 

It's one of those little video recorders. This could make blogging even more interesting. I guess I could capture family moments too, but I've gotta have priorities.

Just a little update for today.

 

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