Paternity Leave – Haapy Halloween

Dear Babies,
I love you very much.

Staying at home with you has been the best 5 weeks of my life and I am forever grateful for that. Thank you. I couldn’t have done it without you.

I’ve enjoyed getting to know you better, and I look forward to our future conversations.

I’ve enjoyed watching you grow and learn, and I look forward to your future. Things are getting better all the time.

I hope that I will be a good papa to you in the coming years.
Please don’t forget what I look like while I’m at work.
Please be nice to your day care provider.
Play nice with the other childrens.
Watch out for each other, and keep each other safe.

Today, we visited their mommy at her work. Miss S was a fuzzy pink strawberry-Sno-Cone Leopard, Mr. Grunty was a cow. I promised him he’d never have to wear that costume again, because he was too big for it two weeks ago.

Well…looks like Miss Squeaky is fussing. And I should be getting ready for bed so I can be awake at work tomorrow.

Paternity Leave Day 27

I told the childrens they need to take care of each other at the daycare.
I do feel good that they have each other at daycare. I also feel good about having a much lighter trash-can, with less dirty diapers*. Those are about the only plusses right now. (Well, money from the work-place, I guess).

I have hopes that they will be friends and teammates, helping each other through life. I guess children will follow an example, somewhat, and I’m glad that MyBetterHalf & her sister are good friends and talk regularly. I’m trying to get better…too bad two of my siblings are far away.

Speaking of, did I tell y’all that my sister in Arkansas is pregnant? Why is she in Arkansas? because that’s where the Navy stationed her husband.

I am happy now that they will talk to each other when I hold one over the other. It is so awesome. Miss Squeaky is still more of a talker, but now Mr. Grunty will respond to her.

Yup, today we took another walk in the park. I feel sorry for people that live in NYC or Mexico City. Too much population density.

Leadership Academy

So, I hear that Oprah set up a Leadership Academy in South Africa.

“The $46 million Leadership Academy, which aims to provide impoverished South African girls with a high quality education…. The school promises a “safe and structured” environment of learning and sports a 28-building campus that includes classrooms, state-of-the-art computer and science labs, a theater, wellness center, yoga center and beauty salon. Winfrey personally interviewed all applicants to the school.”

Evidently there has been a case of abuse of the girls at the school.

What did Oprah do?

She flew there (twice in two weeks), she apologized profusely, she vowed punishment for those who did wrong, she suspend the person in charge of the school, she’s working with investigators, and she gave her phone number to the girls so they can call her anytime.

Thanks, Oprah, for demonstrating what leadership is.

Oprah for President, 2008.

the game of life

I’m no good at this game. The “what does the future hold” game. Too many uncontrollable variables. Give me something simple, like chess.

There’s this pop country song from a few years back, talking about how you should live life like you’re dieing. Yeah, it’s a rather nice sentiment for carpe diem, but not practical. For the first thing, we are all dieing. We just don’t know when*. And, if you did know, you could base your decisions on that, and could justify the rationality.

For instance, if you were dieing in 7 days, well, there’s no real sense in going to work, or mowing the lawn. But if you knew you would die in 7 years, then you would want it to set things up best for your family, maybe maximize profit. If you knew you would die in 7 hours, well, might as well take up smoking. (Which is one reason I suspect soldiers smoke, on the battle lines, they hope that they can live long enough to get cancer.)

Right now, I don’t feel that we have the luxury of me being able to take the job that I really want. A job I’ve been doing it for 27 days, and realize is the best job in the world. I would love to be a “Stay-at-Home-Dad”. Too bad it doesn’t pay financially, or have health benefits, or a retirement plan. I know, that on my deathbed, I’ll wish that I spent more time with my children. Here’s the thing though, before I get to my death-bed, will I have to be a crippled old man working in a dead end job so that I can afford the bare necessities for medicine to keep me alive? I’ve seen people with out-of-date work skills, working past the retirement age, not able to keep up, and their working conditions are complete frustration for them, they go home tired, and never seem to have the chance to enjoy the twilight of their lives – such as spending days with their grandchildren. One might say, “keep your skills up to date”. I think that is more difficult as you get older, you know, young kids – like we used to be, come along with lots of energy, lots of drive, and who can learn things faster & easier, and they will be trying to out compete us. (I’m not even going to go into the global market place right now. Except to say, I can’t wait until we start out-sourcing our CEOs to India, I hear they’ll work for 10%, and really, for most companies, would it make any difference?)

Paternity Leave Day 26

Happy Monday evening Sportsfans
Hats off to Boston…wow, haven’t seen a sweep like that since Spurs-Cleveland in NBA finals last spring.

Today, right before MyBetterHalf left, Miss Squeaky gave her a HUGE smile.

Today, Mr. Grunty & Miss S spent some time smiling and talking to each other, that made my day.

Found out today that Mr. G can scoot a bit.

Tonight we were worried about developmental milestones, like they can’t roll over yet. Well, we looked at a book, and the childrens seem to be on track for most things, so we won’t worry to much.

Oh yeah, finally Mr. G has been sleeping the whole night for two nights in a row. Evidently the silence bothers Miss S so she’s been waking up around 4AM to bring us in to check on her brother. And then she wants to be held, and not returned to her bed.

watch out for hippies!

Get better Zorloc!!!

hi there

I hope everyone has a nice day.

Paternity Leave day 24

I got scared today, I come up from the dungeon, and see MyBetterHalf, crouched on the corner of the couch, covering up her face. Oh, no! what’s wrong? She was watching a Survivor eating competition. Evidently it was gross. I took her word for it and didn’t look at the TV. I am just happy that she wasn’t having an emotional reaction to something reality based.

Speaking of the TV. I try to not have it on when I’m alone with the childrens. I hear that TV is too fast paced for kids, and so they can’t learn to concentrate on something, and thus they all get ADD. Or something along those lines. I do believe “Television, the drug of a nation”. I think children are better served playing with a parent than watching educational TV. Even Sesame Street.

Today, it was beautiful. We went to the park, I took lots of photos. I figured if the stroller is going uphill, and I park it on the incline, then the carseats are in more of a riser formation, and I can get both babies & some background in the photo.

One thing about going off road, and into the woods at the park. It is more difficult to see, and thus avoid dog poo. Hey dog owners SCOOP YOUR POOP. Seriously. And cat owners, keep your cats inside, I don’t want them in my yard either.

To wrap up the day. The good Lord sent us a beautiful moon tonight.

Speaking of TV…well, tonight in dungeon while pumping iron – because lifting babies just isn’t making me strong enough. I watched a documentary on WWII. There was a letter a soldier wrote to his sons, just in case he died at war. (He did.) I am so sad. Currently, there are soldiers dieing, and leaving behind their babies. I am reminded of this when I see the McNeal NewsHour, and they do a silent roll-call of the fallen at the end of the news hour.

So, scared, sad, happy, angry…lots of feelings today.

Paternity Leave day 23

You know, most of the time I love this town for the wild swings in weather. But darn it, I wanted to go to the park today! But, it rained. Lots. All day.

I do look forward to playing in mud puddles with the childrens later, they will be so very cute in yellow rain-coats and red rubber boots.

(You know, when I picture them in my mind in the future, they just look bigger, but have the same faces as now. So, it’s kinda weird, having future children, with their baby faces, standing 5 feet in my immagination, asking for the keys to the car.)

So…today I cleaned house whilst my mom was here.

Paternity Leave day 22

Y’all remember those great philosophers, they of great insight into the human condition, never afraid to approach any topic of importance, with enough humility to face their failures with a smile in hindsight, ready to try again? Yes, the irreplaceable Calvin & Hobbes. Y’all remember the one where Hobbes is telling Calvin that Mozart wrote his first symphony at six, and Calvin replies, “I think I was potty trained by six.”

With two babies, I am always concerned with their spiritual, intellectual, emotional and physical development. And, as kids are, they are on the same schedule for milestones. I worry at one minute about Mr. Grunty’s apparent disregard for grabbing anything (he’s too busy either staring at his mighty, mighty fist, or kicking something), and the next minute I’ll be worried about Miss Squeaky’s fondness for spitting up, lots, and where does it all come from? does she even got anything left in her tummy?

For some reason, we tend to put Mr. G in the Kick-n-Play recliner, which he really enjoys…maybe that’s why he’s so good at kicking. Have we doomed the poor boy to playing soccer? (Oh, no!!) And Miss S we tend to put in the recliner that has stuff to grab, which she attempts to grab, and then pull into her mouth. (Is she hungry?) Have we already determined the course our children’s lives will go, simply by where we put them to sit? Ack! so much to worry about!

Today we went to the park, it was BEAUTIFUL once again. I took lots of photos, trying to get the babies with a nice fall foliage backdrop. It would be easier if they weren’t in their car seats on the stroller. Oh, maybe I can take a blanket tomorrow!

This morning, as Miss S was about to take a SqueakieNap, I got to witness her discover how to take the pacifier out of her mouth, and play with it for a few minutes before dropping it. And using her charms to smile at me so I would put it back in her mouth.

The babies are good at TummyTime, getting better all the time. When we do TummyTime I have discovered a way to keep Mr. G interested, because after a bit he will rest his head, is to crinkle the blue crinkley Kirkland Signature baby wipe package. He’ll pick up his head, and turn to follow the moving blue crinkley thing.