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Posts Tagged ‘walker’
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100 Faces of Fall
By Daddy Brad Friday, October 9th, 2009
Transition is always difficult, but none more so than the transition from summer vacation to the start of school. Indeed, this autumnal change over was no cakewalk for our family given the exciting summer we experienced. A brand new baby joined our family! With the new little dude around Walker and Ella’s end of summer adjustment wasn’t solely an earlier wake up and go to bed time, but more importantly learning to share Mom and Dad’s time with their new little brother.
Thanks to the lazy summer schedule, Mom and I were able to spend quite a bit of one on one time with each of the older siblings in between diaper changes and colic soothing. In fact, an entire evening each week was dedicated to pursuing an activity of their choosing. Walker and I played lots of putt-putt, pitched washers and visited costume stores, while Ella’s sole request was to grab a Churro at Costco and then feed the ducks at the park.
But now that school has begun, our time is tight. The lazy exploits of summer seem like a distant memory. The long days at the pool, vacations to interesting places and stay up late movie watching/ice cream parties, have given way to homework, soccer practice and early bedtimes. Even though we try to take several interesting family outings during the school year, like a quick muddy trip to the Austin City Limits Music fest, most of our time together as a family is spent at practices, carpool and around the dinner table. My question is, given this frantic pace will we remember any of the details of these hectic, yet precious years? We won.
Words Have Meaning
By Daddy Brad Tuesday, June 16th, 2009
Words have meaning and younger siblings figure them out way too soon!
My son just finished his first year of kindergarten and he was exposed to some interesting words and phrases for the first time. These nifty additions to his vocabulary obviously came from some of his classmates with older siblings.
Now that he is home for summer vacation, he is trying to incorporate the newfound vocabulary into his everyday vernacular. This is a bit of a problem, given that super conservative/proper grandma and grandpa are providing childcare for the next few months.
A telling example that will give you a glimpse of my Mom’s conservative nature; when I said damn for the first time in front of my mother, I was 18 years old. Immediately upon the utterance of the word, huge crocodile tears welled up in her eyes and she sobbed, “it sounds like you’ve said that before.” She then retired to her room and cried for several hours. Thick skin is not an apt description of my sweet mother.
Thus I am afraid that utterances of dirty words from the angelic grandkids may be devastating. Given the past few weeks, there will be interesting words emanating from the mouths of babes.
The other day while playing with some plastic crap, my eldest son uttered, “I’m pissed off.” Examining his countenance, he neither looked frustrated nor angry, so I asked him “do you know what that means?” His response, “I have no idea.” So I explained the meaning of the phrase. “Oh” he said and continued to play happily.
Just this weekend, as he was playing with a homemade bow and arrow made from blue prints garnered from The Dangerous Book for Boys, he exclaimed proudly that he was going to “get me in the nuts!” Not sure if fully he grasped the meaning of this reference, I asked “do you know what that means?” His reply “ I have no idea.” So I explained to him the anatomical references as to what body parts “nuts” described.
Tickled he laughed loudly, but his younger sister jubilantly screamed “shoot him in the jewels Walker, shoot him in the jewels!”
Oh boy, it’s going to be a long summer.
Zen And The Art Of Parenting
By Daddy Brad Wednesday, February 11th, 2009
This morning’s mad rush to get out of the door on time was side tracked by my daughter. She lost her shoes. Actually, she lost her back up pair of shoes. She lost her everyday pair of shoes last week. I tore the house apart, searched the garage, and scoured the front yard, back yard and side yard. No shoes!
Our choice of footwear for the day was between an old pair of church shoes, that were 3 sizes too small and a one size fits all pair of pink fuzzy snow boots. She chose the snow boots. By the way, it is going to be 80 and sunny in Austin today.
During the frantic search, as my frustration level began to boil from the prospect of once again running behind and having to take the walk of shame in front of the entire school as I drop my son off at chapel, late again, it hit me. Lighten up dude. Enjoy this. This is a funny and precious moment. Little Miss Ella is adorable in those boots and she is very proud to wear them. So she lost two pairs of shoes in a week, it’s really not a big deal. These are the moments that make childhood special and I better enjoy them now, because all to soon, they will be gone.
In no time, the kids will be grown, the house empty and Ma and I will be sitting alone, eating oat bran, covering our legs with lap blankets to cut the chill, discussing Cousin Rob’s latest bout of diverticulitis and longing for the hectic precious days of child rearing.
So I vowed this morning to slow down, to not get frustrated when things don’t go as planned and to enjoy the precious moments of my kids childhood. To savor, if you will, the lost shoes, the crayon pictures on the wall, the bathroom sink full of mud and roly polys, the cell phone memory full of pictures of the ground, and the millions of other gifts my kids give me every day.
I will save my frustration for old age when I can’t eat pizza any longer because it gives me the heartburn something fierce.
