April 13, 2006

The bad dad strikes again!

Example 4,586,948 of why IÂ’m a bad dad. Earlier tonight when I picked Clone up after work, I was talking with my mother. (She runs the day care) While I was standing there, Clone grabbed my hand and started spinning around me. We gradually picked up speed. Not fast enough to pick him up off the ground, but just fast enough that momentum would keep us going. I didnÂ’t have a good grip on him and he let go of my handsÂ…

Â…crashing face first onto the concrete floor of the garage. He was screaming. When I picked him up, there was blood in his mouth. Clone had cut his top lip on his teeth. After cleaning up the wound and making sure there was no serious injury, I gave him a Popsicle to help numb his lip and bring down the swelling. For all of you potential parents out there, mouth injuries bleed a lot, Popsicles are the best thing to help reduce the swelling and bleed. ItÂ’s the only cold thing a young child will keep in their mouths that will do any good. Clone is fine, no real physical damage, and only some minor psychological trauma.

What gets me is that I know better then to do that with him. I should never have done that in the garage and I should have made sure I had a better grip on him. This was a lesson I learned first handÂ… as a childÂ… when my father did the exact same thing to me. IÂ’m also willing to bet Clone does the same thing to his kid when he gets older.

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April 05, 2006

We couldn't have gotten that lucky.

Well it appears the damage to the van is worse then anticipated. The other driver hit her almost squarely in the rear driver side wheel. Yesterday there was a slight wobble that I noticed, but Ktreva didnÂ’t seem to notice anything while driving the whole 6 blocks home. This morning on her way to work she said that as soon as she hit 25 there was a vibration in the vehicle and a grinding noise.

Yea, this isnÂ’t waiting for the insurance adjuster to investigate. When I called the insurance back I informed them that due to the new information IÂ’m classifying the vehicle as now undriveable and taking it to a repair facility. After work tonight we had to go pick up a rental for her. She needed something to get back and forth to work in. This is going to make life difficult for a while, but nothing we wonÂ’t survive.

Now IÂ’m off to answer some questions.

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April 04, 2006

MVA 2006

I had a post in mind to write tonightÂ… not work related! Unfortunately, that will have to wait. I was on my way home from a very late night at work when I received a call on my cell phone. It was Ktreva, and she was upset. Her and the boys had just been involved in a motor vehicle accident. The other vehicles brakes gave out causing the driver to not be able to stop and hitting her van. No one is hurt, other then the headache associated with an adrenaline dump. The van is still drivable; the surface damage doesnÂ’t appear to be that bad.

After trying to comfort Ktreva and the boys, dealing with the police, the other driver and the insurance company, IÂ’m not really in the mood to write my original post.

More details later, probably from Ktreva, but again no one was injured.

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March 29, 2006

Armed and Fabulous!

Things at work are the sameÂ… so IÂ’m not going to go into any more detail on it.

In other news, this Saturday is the home opener for the Rock River Raptors, the indoor football leage that I have season tickets for. IÂ’m looking forward to the game. Ktreva tried to find a sitter so she could go with to the game. She wasnÂ’t able to find one, so IÂ’m taking one of my friends from work. Not an employee, I think that would be improper. That and I donÂ’t believe any of them like football, let alone would want to spend a Saturday night with their boss. Then again if my boss were like me, IÂ’d want to hang out with him.

Today on lunch I was finally able to find a handgun that Ktreva likes, so we bought it. ItÂ’s a Walther PPK .380. Watch out guys, my wife has the James Bond Gun! ItÂ’s a nice little handgun that should fit her perfectly.


WaltherPPK.jpg
Click to Enlarge


Unfortunately due to the laws in Illinois we can pay for it today, but we canÂ’t pick it up until Saturday. That means that some weekend coming up IÂ’m going to have to take my wife to the range to shoot. To be honest, it doesnÂ’t have a bad feel. IÂ’ll probably end up putting a couple hundred rounds through it.

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March 24, 2006

Dees many years old!

Three years ago today I was taking my very pregnant wife to the hospital. When I say very pregnant, I mean even though she was two weeks early she looked like she had a toddler inside of her. Really, IÂ’m not kidding. We have pictorial evidence of this. Clone finally was popped out uncooperatively at 11:12 AM.

Clone has since spent the last three years learning to not only emulate his father (me), but to find new and interesting ways to annoy his mother (Mainly by emulating his father), and beating up his brother (whoÂ’s ten years older).

Happy Birthday Buddy!
We love you!

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March 04, 2006

He knows what he needs

While making some more Jerky tonight, I hear Clone call to me from the other room. “Bye Dada, I go shoot now” is what I hear. When I looked out of the kitchen, this is what I saw:

Cloneshoot 001.jpg
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Please disregard the ketchup on his face; I hadnÂ’t cleaned him up from dinner yet. DonÂ’t worry; that .50 cal ammo can is empty, except for cleaning brushes. I just found it highly amusing the boy decided on taking his gun AND ammo for it. I also like the slightly mentally disturbed look on his face.

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February 27, 2006

In the dog house.

Hmmm, it seems IÂ’ve upset my wife with yesterdays adventures. I wonder how much forgiveness is going to cost me this time. IÂ’m thinking the standard gift of jewelry is not going to appease this time.

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February 23, 2006

He just can't like it.

When I cook, I have two distinct styles. The first is where I make everything from scratch. Maybe IÂ’ll cheat and buy bread, but I tend to start with the basics and make everything I need. This style tends to produce the best tasting and most satisfying meals. The problem is that it is very time consuming, IÂ’m talking 3+ hours of preparation each meal. On special occasions IÂ’ve been known to cook for 7 hours.

The other way I cook is the quick and easy method. The food is edible, and usually only takes about 5-15 minutes prep time, with maybe an additional 30 minutes cooking time. During the week, this is the type of cooking IÂ’m known to do. Sometimes we are pressed for time and we cheat even further and get boxed meals. Yes, you can all gasp in horror now. This is rare, and for good reasons. The meals usually taste like crap and have no nutritional value.

Tonight was planned a box meal, Tuna Helper Tuna Melt to be exact. Clone was watching on as I prepared the meal. At first he was fascinated at the mixing of water, milk, butter and noodles. Asking questions and making observations, it was fun father and son time. When I added the powdered sauce, a look of horror crossed his face. He asked me, “What’s that, dada?”

I responded, “That’s the cheese sauce, buddy.”

Clone, “Dada, I can’t like it.”

Contagion, “You can’t like it?”

Clone, “No, I can’t like that.”

That went back and forth for a while. Then I added the tuna to the pot.

Clone, “What that?”

Contagion, “Tuna, it’s a fish.”

Clone, “Dada, I can’t like it.”

Contagion, “You’ve had tuna before, you liked it. Why don’t you like it this time?”

Clone, “It sucks.”

I kid you not, my son told me for the first time something sucks. After I finished laughing, I wrapped my burnt fingers. His response made me laugh so hard I accidentally touched the stove surface. I donÂ’t know who taught him that, or where he picked it up, but it was rather amusing.

UPDATE: When I put a bowl full of the Tuna Helper in front of him, he started screaming, "I CAN'T WANT IT! I CAN'T WANT IT!" It's not, I don't want it... it just that he can't want it. There is nothing in the world that could make him want it I guess.

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February 13, 2006

It's "tired"

Little kids are great fun. They entertain and amuse the adults around them. Okay, when they arenÂ’t driving them nuts they are entertaining and amusing. When they are in that magical age where they are just learning to speak, they can be the greatest. Sure, there is a level of annoyance over the communication barrier. They say something and you have no clue what message they are trying to convey.

It starts out as English, “Dada, I want to…” but then it goes horribly wrong, some mixed up language that only the child understands. “…bregaft marka mook.” At which point the adult tries to translate. “You want to breakfast to make a poop?” The child will repeat itself, “Dada, I want to bregaft marka mook!” “You want to bring markers to mom?” Of course, this goes on for hours with no success. The child just gets frustrated and sentences come out of your mouth you never thought you would say.

On the flip side there is the child trying to imitate what you said and getting it all wrong. Such as an incident that happened to me recently when I was playing with Clone. While I was sitting on the couch, he would come running up to me. I would grab him and toss him in the air over my head. This went on for a while until my arms started to get tired. He wanted to continue to play, but I had enough. I told him no more, it was time to play something else. Clone, being the even inquisitive almost 3 year old asks, “Why?” (I really was hoping this stage wouldn’t hit for another year or so.) My response was that I was tired.

I believe my exact words were, “Because Daddy is tired.” He looks at me a second and responds with, “Dada, you’re not tarded.” Of course, I’m happy my son doesn’t think I’m retarded, but I tried correcting him. “No, tired; not tarded.” To which he responded, “Tarded!” Now, for those of you that haven’t had the pleasure of trying, you cannot change a 2 year olds mind when it’s made up. It doesn’t matter what I actually said, he is convinced the word coming out of my mouth is “tarded” not “tired”.

I will admit; there is something nice about having someone confirm that you are not retarded. Even if you know they donÂ’t mean it

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February 09, 2006

Feeding the boy.

For the first time tonight, Clone ate a hamburger. ItÂ’s not that weÂ’ve never given him one before. ItÂ’s just that he usually picks them apart, eating the cheese, licking off the ketchup and mayo. What is left is a soggy slobber covered bun and matching meat patty.

Tonight he didnÂ’t pick apart the burger. He ate the whole thing the way it was supposed to be eaten. Well, except he would dip it into the ketchup that was for his French fries. Maybe things are changing in the way he eats. We could only be so lucky.

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February 08, 2006

My wife beats me!

Last night as I was preparing for sleep, I kept a close watch on the wife. My eye is hurting more, and I wanted to make sure she wasnÂ’t beating me. Anyone that has met us knows that no one is going to believe she beat me unless I started it. Thus, if I file spousal abuse charges against here, IÂ’d probably end up in jail.

As I laid there in the dark, fearing the beating I was about to receive, a sense of déjà vu came over me. This is not the first time I’ve laid in this bed in fear of being beaten by my wife. She actually did beat me once, it happened way back when…

(Insert wavy flashback lines)

Â…we were not yet married. I was working for the State, 11 PM to 7 AM, my days off rotated and at the time of the incident they where Thursday and Friday. Ktreva worked Monday through Friday 7 AM to 3:30 PM. In order to keep my sleep schedule from screwing up too much, I would stay up late on my days off, not going to bed before 4:00 AM. When my sleep schedule was screwed up, it made my first day back to work very difficult.

One night after watching some really bad movie on late night television, I went upstairs and crawled into bed. Leaning over, I kissed my lovely wife on the top of her head. She sits up in bed and in perfect form punches me in the eye! The woman I love and am going to marry punched me as hard as she could for kissing her! Fortunately, she is not the strongest woman in the world as it didnÂ’t hurt, but it more then shocked me a little.

With out a word, she lies back down and falls asleep. Not wanting to anger her anymore, I just laid there thinking, “What the hell was that for?” When morning came and I finally rose from my slumber, Ktreva had already left for work. That day I went over to a friend’s house to help him with some stuff. His wife looks at me and asks, “What happened to your eye?” I hadn’t looked at myself in the mirror that morning, but my wife had given me a black eye!

When I finally went home, Ktreva was in the office on the computer. She saw me enter the house. With a big smile, she got up to give me a hug and a kiss. I on the other hand pointed a finger at her and yelled, “YOU STAY TEN FEET AWAY FROM ME!” She wanted to know why she had to stay away. I wanted to know why she felt the need to punch me. I regale her with the tale of her dotting me in the eye, and what does she do? My “loving” and “caring” wife is laughing her arse off. She doesn’t remember doing it. At least that is what she claims. To this day, she still claims not to remember, let alone know why she punched me.

Now, to be honest, I was somewhat proud she used perfect form.

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February 03, 2006

A bit o' the bubbly.

After hearing my mother tell the tale of Clone and the Soap to us yesterday, Ktreva reminded me of a story that happened years ago right after we where married. Ever since I moved out of my parentÂ’s house, I always did dishes by hand. It wasnÂ’t until Ktreva and I started dating did I get my first dishwasher. Every time she came over, she would wash my dishes, it was great!

When we bought our current house, it came with a dishwasher, so now I had two. Unfortunately, my original dishwasher decided to break down and no longer do dishes, it was now going to be my job. Fine, so I learned how to operate the new dishwasher and away we went. Everything was fine for the first couple of months. Then something happened that had never been a problem in the past.

After putting a load of dishes in the dishwasher, I reached under the sink for detergent. Pulling out the bottle, I could see that it was empty. What, no dishwasher soap? What the hell?!?! I was lost, what was I going to do. Then I spotted the answer. There, next to the sink is Dawn dish soap, with grease cutter! AHA! ThatÂ’ll work!

After filling the detergent container in the machine, I close the door and start the machine. I mean, if it washes dishes in the sink, itÂ’ll work in the dishwasher right? It did work really well. The problem is that it worked too well.

I leave the kitchen proud of myself and sit down to watch some TV. Half an hour later Ktreva goes walking into the kitchen and screams, “OH MY GOD! WHAT DID YOU DO?”

Thinking that Boopie had done something wrong, I jumped up and ran to the kitchen. Once I stepped in, I was greeted by Ktreva standing there, arms crossed and knee deep in bubbles. The kitchen was filling with bubbles coming out of the dishwasher. “What did you do?” she asked. “Ran the dishwasher,” I responded.

Ktreva, “How much detergent did you use?”

Contagion, “About the same as normal, maybe a little more since it was a different brand.”

Ktreva, “A different brand, I didn’t buy a different brand.”

Contagion, “We were out of the regular kind, so I used the dawn.”

Ktreva, “YOU USED SINK SOAP IN THE DISHWASHER?”

Contagion, “uh, yeah.”

Ktreva, “You can’t use sink soap in a dishwasher!”

Contagion, “Why not?”

Ktreva points around the kitchen.

Contagion, “Oh, yeah. Got it.”

We went about cleaning it up. We pushed a lot of the bubbles out the back door. We used a ShopVac and mops. When we were done, the floor was the cleanest it had ever been since we moved in. The dishes where also very clean when the dishwasher was finished. (The old model didnÂ’t have a shut off, you had to let it finish).

That was a valuable lesson learned that day.

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February 02, 2006

Planning.

Let the annual draining of funds for recreation begin! Last night in the mail, I finally received my tourist packets to plan our vacation. Every year we take a vacation. What we do depends on the kids and funds. We try to do something that everyone in the family will enjoy, and there is the mandatory educational aspect. IE, we have to do something that is educational in some way or another.

This year IÂ’m really excited! For the first time since Ktreva and I have been together, we are taking a vacation that does not involve either visiting a relative or having a relative travel with us. Most of our vacations involve my mother-in-law. Ktreva is excited because this is the first year that we are going somewhere neither of us has been before. Usually we go somewhere IÂ’ve already been that she hasnÂ’t.

I donÂ’t have all the details down, but right now, we know we are going to stop in Bowling Green, KY to see the Corvette Manufacturing plant and museum. IÂ’ve been a huge Corvette fan for years and IÂ’ve always wanted to stop by here. After that we are heading to Lynchburg, TN so that we can take a tour of the holy land Jack DanielÂ’s Distillery. Yes, I know itÂ’s a dry county. IÂ’ve always wanted to go there, plus I want to do some research on distilling for re-enacting. While in Tennessee, weÂ’ll probably visit some of the Davy Crocket sites before heading to Shiloh. Shiloh has been a place IÂ’ve wanted to visit for years. ItÂ’s the site of the first major engagement in the Civil War. Sure, it seems like this vacation is planned around me, well she got to plan the last one!

I just received the material last night so IÂ’m not sure exactly what else weÂ’re doing yet. At this time, IÂ’m just excited over the fact I finally get to see three sites IÂ’ve wanted, and havenÂ’t had the chance to

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January 16, 2006

There's no going back now.

Well, it looks my secret is out of the bag. It figures it was Tammi that spilled the beans first. She has a nasty habit of doing just that.

So there it is. Ktreva finally got off her butt and started a blog, The Reality Ranch. ItÂ’s about damn time. Her Royal Yappiness can finally have another outlet for her uncontrolled need to communicate other then talking to me. That means I can spend more quality time playing Madden and Blitz instead of having to pretend to listen to her.

On the downside, I think IÂ’m going to have to buy a laptop with wireless. With only having one computer in the house, that could lead to a fight over who gets to use it.

Go over and give her a warm and friendly welcome. Just be nice to her, remember who she married. Hasn't the poor girl been put through enough?

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January 12, 2006

At least it's not Opera.

Ever since Clone first discovered he had the ability to make sounds using his mouth, he’s had three volume settings: Loud, Deafening and Sleeping (Which is just below normal human speech). He snores in his sleep and sometimes talks. This has sparked many a great debate in my house as to which side of the family he gets such a trait. My wife insists he gets it from me. I, on the other hand, know it’s from her family. If you’ve ever met Ktreva then you know she’s loud and doesn’t shut up… ever! Hell, right now I can hear her talking non-stop. “Don’t you dare post anything like that about me! OoOOOoo, I’m gonna kick your arse!” It’s a good thing I learned to ignore her years ago.

Well, tonight she feels sheÂ’s won the war. According to her royal yappiness, she now has irrefutable proof that CloneÂ’s loudness comes from my side of the family. I think sheÂ’s just exaggerating. Nope, to her she feels that there is no further proof required.

Tonight, Clone and I where in the Kitchen taking the clean dishes out of the dishwasher and putting them away. When I do various tasks, I tend to sing. Clone loves to sing along with me when he’s helping. We went through the classics of the Contagion household, “I’m H-A-P-P-Y!, Mares eat oats, Sponge Bob Square Pant’s theme, Ice Ice Baby”. Of course when I sing, I do it with gusto. Since Clone is my, well, clone, he also sings with much gusto. This turned into a contest to see who could show more gusto. (Wow, I think that’s the most I’ve ever used the word gusto).

Ktreva comes walking into the kitchen, smirk on her face as both Clone and I are singing as loudly as we can. Hell we’re yelling with a melody. Ktreva, smirking mind you, looks at me and says, “Loud!” We both stop singing and look at her standing there grinning back at us. “I told you he got his loudness from you.” She says self-righteously “You, don’t see me in here teaching him to yell songs.”

I tried to explain this was different. She just couldnÂ’t grasp the concept that being loud and having a contest to see who can be louder is not the same thing. You must have to be male to understand that.

Now if youÂ’ll excuse me, IÂ’m going to go replace some broken light bulbs.

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January 05, 2006

Boys being boys?

It seems that Boopie is having a problem on the bus. HeÂ’s being picked on. Today some kids took his hat, that he just got for Christmas, and where playing keep away with it. He never got the hat back. IÂ’m not exactly sure what else happened as Boopie changed his story six times in ten minutes. My wife is very upset about the whole thing.

What I do know for a fact is that Boopie did not tell the bus driver about what was happening. Now, when we got home, Ktreva contacted the transportation department regarding the incident. To me this is a perfectly acceptable course of action to take. It makes the district aware, as well as the bus driver by default. The school district does have a strict no bullying policy.

My thing is originally she wanted to me to get involved by confronting the kids. Personally, I obviously have no problem doing anything like that. My issue was that we donÂ’t know which kids were involved. The information from our son is sketchy at best. Most importantly, I feel this would just bring on more harassment later on.

I remember when I was a kid, whenever another boyÂ’s parents got involved in a schoolyard conflict, that just made life more miserable for the boy. Heck, the worse butt kickinÂ’ I ever received was when my mother, unbeknownst to me, got involved in an altercation between me and another kid. A couple of weeks later the other kid and some of his friends used me as a punching bag.

What do you all think? Have we done enough in contacting the school or do I knock off work early tomorrow to intercept the bus and have a “talk” with everyone on it?

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January 01, 2006

2006 is here.

If you are reading this, then you survived whatever celebration you had last night. I was a little worried that my head wasnÂ’t going to survive. This morning I woke up a little rough, mainly because Clone was awake bright and early and I got up with him. Why that boy wonÂ’t sleep is a mystery to me. He didnÂ’t get to bed until well after midnight. Now he is running around all bright eyed and getting into mischief.

I used this time to get some dishes started and clean up around the house while Ktreva sleeps. Ktreva was so tired, and she looks so beautiful while she sleeps, IÂ’m letting her sleep as long as possible.

Boopie is still sleeping as well, he fell asleep on the couch last night, I had to wake him up and send him to his bed. HeÂ’s at the age where heÂ’d sleep 12 hours a day if it were up to him.

Me? IÂ’d say I drank too much, but that depends on your definition of too much. No headache, no upset stomach, no nausea, nope IÂ’m doing just fine. Actually I currently am heating some chili cheese dip to make nachos out of. I always found an extra greasy breakfast makes the stomach feel better.

No strange or incoherant posts were made lastnight. There was some concern that something might get posted that would be difficult to explain the next day.

What a good way to start off 2006.

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December 28, 2005

Goose and Bread Pudding

A couple of years ago we broke away from doing the big family Christmas at my GrandmotherÂ’s house on Christmas day. On Christmas Eve, we would go to my parentÂ’s house, and then on Christmas Eve we would go to my GrandmotherÂ’s house. That left us with no time for just our family and the boys didnÂ’t get to play with anything they had been given. It made for a very hectic holiday.

When I was growing up, my parents would spend Christmas Eve with just us kids and then Christmas days at my Grandmothers. I wanted the same thing with my family. My mother didnÂ’t want me to break tradition by not going to GrandmaÂ’s. It didnÂ’t take much explaining when I reminded her that when growing up we didnÂ’t spend Christmas Eve at GrandmaÂ’s and Christmas Day at Great GrandmaÂ’s. I told her to pick which day she wanted us at, she picked Christmas Eve.

That left me with what to do on Christmas Day. I knew I wanted to spend time with my family, but I wanted to start our own tradition and I wanted to make a special meal for all of us. When trying to decide what to make, I looked back on history to see what they used to eat on Christmas day and I found my inspiration. After conferring with Ktreva, I decided to make a goose, a nice traditional Christmas goose. We decided to make it a tradition and do it again this year.

For those of you that have never had goose, it is a very interesting bird. There is no white meat, itÂ’s all dark meat. Depending on the type and age of the goose you have depends on how dark the meat is. Last years goose the breast meat was a dark chocolate color, this year it was more of a milk chocolate color. If you are not aware of this when you start carving the bird, it can come as a shock. I had thought I ruined it the first time. Goose is also very fatty. There is a layer of fat between the skin and the meat as well as veins of it running through the breast and thighs. This makes for a very juicy bird. Well, that and my special cooking style for birds.

I also made a nice homemade stuffing to go with it. When I say homemade, I mean I made it from scratch, no box and no pre-made ingredients. I even used fresh herbs that I had to prepare by hand for the seasoning. I did cheat and buy pre-made bread this year. In years past Ktreva would bake me a loaf of bread to use, but I decided to give her a break this year.

We also had Green Beans almondine, and baked sweet potatoes. I baked them because IÂ’m not a fan of those different sweet potato/yam dishes with tons of brown sugar and marshmallows on it. Just give me a plain baked sweet potato with melted butter and a light sprinkling of brown sugar. The rest of the family likes them that way as well. I picked a nice red wine for Ktreva and I, while the boys had milk. Everything turned out very well, but then Ktreva had to trump me.

I told her she didnÂ’t have to make anything; I would take care of it all. She insisted on making the dessert. Digging through her stack of recipes, she decided she was going to make her bread pudding with whiskey sauce. She served it warm at the table right after the main course was finished. When it was removed from the oven, the aroma itself was enticing. The boys and I sat in anticipation it smelled so good. We served it up, and as soon as each person took a bite, we could barely contain ourselves from just gobbling up this delicious culinary delight.

For those of you reading this worried about the effects of alcohol on the children, remember alcohol cooks out during the baking process. There was a minimal alcohol content left when it was finished.

Last night we re-heated the left over bread-pudding and finished it off. IÂ’d be lying if I didnÂ’t say that it reheats very well. It was just as, if not more, delicious then when it first came out of the oven. Ktreva was very proud of herself, and rightfully so. It was probably; no, it was the best the dessert she has ever made, not too sweet, not too rich, and just right.

WeÂ’ve decided that she will be making that again next year, it will become part of the Contagion Family Christmas Tradition.

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Jail Break!

Over the last couple of weeks, Clone has decided he does not need to sleep. We can put him to bed, but he continually gets out of bed, plays in his room or comes downstairs. This little ritual has gone on nightly. No matter what weÂ’ve done, it doesnÂ’t seem to work. We even suspect he does it in the middle of the night after weÂ’ve gone to bed. WeÂ’ve found certain items turned on or items left in places they do not belong.

We have gates on his bedroom door and in various rooms, but they don’t work. Heck, the gates are nothing more then suggestions. They work more like ineffective speed bumps then anything else. Clone can climb/scale the gates in a matter of seconds, even the “climb resistant” varieties. There are times when he doesn’t want to waste his time climbing the gate. He’ll get a running start and throw his body into the gate knocking it down. He’s actually broken the hinge on one of the gates trying to get around it.

This may shock some of you, but I’m not one of those lovey, comforting, “He’s expressing himself” kind of parents. I learned parenting from my father I’m the spanking, taking away, “Red Foreman” kind of parent. Clone has faced the wrath of dad, and continues to pull his little stunts. When I’ve put him back in bed I say, “Its bed time, you need to lie down and go to sleep. If you get out of bed again, you’ll make daddy mad. You don’t want to make daddy mad, do you?” He’ll shake his little head no and lay down. Give it fifteen minutes and I can find him sneaking down the stairs to the living room. Yes, I’ve followed through with my threats.

The next morning when we have to wake him up he is tired and cranky. Which makes getting him ready just that much more unpleasant a task to undertake. He pulls the same thing at nap time, or heÂ’ll only nape for a short period of time and then gets up. That night heÂ’ll be back to old tricks. The lack of sleep is not causing him to get tired enough to sleep.

KtrevaÂ’s theory is that he is afraid he is going to miss something happening. SheÂ’s right, if he goes to sleep heÂ’s going to miss the business side of my hand on his bottom!

IÂ’ve joked about duct taping him to his bed, but IÂ’m starting to think that might be my last resort.

Posted by: Contagion at 01:08 PM | Comments (13) | Add Comment
Post contains 431 words, total size 2 kb.

December 27, 2005

Christmas, survived.

Christmas is over, that means I have a truckload of stuff to take to the Salvation Army. All the old, un-played with toys have to go in order to make room for all the new, un-played with toys. For those of you that have kids, I have a question.

Have you ever noticed that your kids receive more toys then they can play with, yet they usually have one or two that they will play with to annoyance, and never look at any of the other gifts for more then five minutes?

That’s our house. Clone received all kinds of presents from Mom, Dad, Boopie, Santa, Grandmas, Grandpas, Aunts and Uncles. Every toy had to be unwrapped, assembled (Santa and I are having a talk next year, no more of this “some assembly required” crap fat man. Else I’m going to be “deer hunting” next Christmas Eve) and in working condition. Once that was done, Clone would play with it for five minutes, stop and go to something else. He has some toys that he had me take out of the wrapping just to watch me take out of the wrapping; he hasn’t played with them at all. On the other hand, Santa gave him some toy guns. A submachine gun and a 9mm semi-auto pistol that when you pull the trigger on both the slides actually have realistic action, he loves those. He also received a toy .30-30 lever action and a Colt .45 Peacemaker in a western set. All with appropriate sounds, including a ratchet noise with the lever is cranked on the .30-30. Those toy guns are his favorite toys by far. If they where real, there would not be a standing structure with on 500 yards of our house.

Boopie, being 12, is too old for Santa. He still gets a stocking, but no presents. Which is good for him, because then Ktreva and I could sink all the money into getting him stuff he would rather have. We decided that he needed a PSP, (Play Station Portable) for Christmas. Since they are relatively new, the system and the games for them are fairly expensive still. That was his major gift from us, that and some games for it. We were going to get him a movie to watch, but wasnÂ’t sure what kind he would want. At least I know he really likes it. He charged the battery, drained it, charged it again, drained it again and charged it a third time. Do you know how much game play that is? I would list the other stuff he received, but he pretty much ignored those.

Boopie is on his way to Florida with his biological father to visit relatives down there. Actually he probably is there as they where flying out last night. He wanted to take the PSP with, but I had to say no. Let’s just say while with his biological father I could see it being “lost” or broken. Either that or the biological will tell everyone he got it for him as he’s done in years past with really good/expensive gifts. Yes, I might sound as if I’m being snarky about not letting Boopie take his new gift. Honestly, I’m just trying to protect him. He’s going to discover things about his parents in time; I just don’t want him to find out during Christmas. That’s why I gave him the cover that I didn’t think PSPs where allowed on airplanes and I didn’t want it confiscated. I’d rather he think I’m being mean and an idiot at this point in his life.

KtrevaÂ’s favorite gift was the Sims2 Expansion packs she was wanting. I could pretend it was the necklaces that I put much thought into before buying, but no, it was the games. Hey, I donÂ’t blame her. There is a lot more interaction with a game then with a necklace.

My big gift was a food dehydrator. I had been talking about making my own jerky for a while now, so Ktreva decided she was going to get me the stuff to do it. She also gave me the Firefly series on DVD. Both of those are the gifts that keep on giving. I can watch firefly and eat my homemade jerky all year. You never get tired of Firefly and jerky!

Overall, it was a good Christmas in our household.

Posted by: Contagion at 12:41 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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