YONDER BREAKS

There are at least three posts on this blog about my constant struggle with sleep/nap time, most from the past six months alone. Well, the battle isn't over yet... Waverly is two now, and quickly outgrowing nap time. I can handle that, but the problem with both our kids that they still need  nap time, they just won't allow themselves to sleep in the middle of the day. I know this because by dinner time they are cranky, ornery and defiant -- all things that do not occur when a solid nap is accomplished. So what is my retaliation? Let them have a 30-60 minute "quiet time" (a suggestion from another dad on the podcast I got to take part of), and then a car ride. Want proof they still need a nap besides the aforementioned behavior? They are usually both sleeping within three miles. And so I drive around a bit, wasting gas and destroying the environment, and then park in my driveway and write some on my laptop until Ellie usually wakes up screaming . I guess sh...

I spent the last year and a half complaining about the city I live in. This is following up seven years of complaining about the city I miss, wishing I was in the city I am currently in. I have complained about it being too hot, buggy and humid whilst missing the cool desert air of California. I have complained about it being too sunny, cloudless and perfect whilst missing the weather of the east coast. I have spent alot  of time complaining about having no waves in South Carolina, while complaining about living too far from the beach or too much traffic while in Los Angeles. It is a high of 77 degrees today as I write this on December 5th (I'm a little ahead on publishing these blogs), which is actually really nice weather, but just doesn't really fit the Christmas season , which I love. I am very tempted to complain about this, but you know what? I think I may be done complaining. After spending the last eight or nine years trying to find a perfect place to live, I think I ...

This week was our first Valentine's Day with kids in preschool, and when the lists came home with all the students' names on it for "optional" valentines, I knew we were in for it. Of course they're not really optional...who wants their kid to be the only one who shows up empty handed? Although, they are 2 and 3 years old, so it's not like any of the kids would notice if they are one valentine short of the class total; but the teachers would... A few days before the big due date, I ran into some parents with similarly aged kids in a different preschool. They explained how their daughter's class had gone all out with valentines, spending lots of money and leaving the homemade crafts they had made at the bottom of the barrel. "And Christmas presents for teachers..." they lamented, "Forget it! Parents were spending $20-$30 on gifts!" My eyes got wide as I gazed into the future of pressured giving. Not that I don't want to be generous...

Cleaning up toys has long been a battle in our household. I have a vivid memory of a one-year-old Ellie throwing the most massive tantrum she ever had over not wanting to pick up her things. Crying and flopped down in the hallway, she relentlessly held on to her conviction, whether or not it was valid. Now I have volunteered in enough K-6 Sunday school classes to have a healthy dose of distaste for when kids don't pick up after themselves. "That's not my mess," is the most common excuse for laziness -- and so I fervently want to instill a sense of personal responsibility in my own kids, which is easier said than done. As they have aged, it certainly hasn't got better. We have tried taking away toys and making them earn them back with chores, to little avail. Not letting them watch TV until everything is cleaned has worked most recently, though I can see this fading. Today there was a mess of puzzles that have been on the ground for three days, and I was fed...

I went to our most frequented park recently for a rare afternoon playtime with the girls. A different crowd populates the park in the early evening, so I was seeing another side of our all-too-familiar play place. Most notable was a boy on a massive electric four-wheeler and his dad on a smaller scooter, zipping in like a tiny gang of cowboys. The girls kept playing, but eventually caught sight of the vehicles and came over to ask, "Daddy, can I see that boys truck?" I had an immediate flash-forward to a teenage Ellie asking to go for a ride in an unknown adolescent boy's giant pickup truck, and suddenly broke out into a cold sweat. The idea of her hanging with boys is a strange one, but something I must get used to nonetheless, and so I said, "Sure." Like a good father, though, I went over to meet the boy behind the truck, and his father who obviously paid for it. The kid ended up being super nice, and let Ellie and Waverly ride around in the Home Depot du...