Last weekend

Friday, April 24th, after work, I took the three childrens with me to TwinPonds. We walked there, Dritte was snuggled into my chest in the BabyBjorn.  The childrens wanted to play soccer, with the adult soccer league, and weren’t happy that I wouldn’t let them storm the field. I tried to entertain them at the big toy, but they wanted to go to the swings. I didn’t want to, because there was a bunch of “dangerous looking hooligans” hanging out at the swings. But the toddlers pointed out to me not to judge people by their clothing choices, and was the likely hood of mischief happening since there was a soccer match nearby. OK. We went to the swings. They were smiling, but not their usual laughing self, they kept checking out what the teenagers were doing. As dusk approached, I tried to get Miss Squeaky out of her swing. She hung on to the chains and shook her head no. One of the teens saw and chuckled, “she don’t wanna go.” So, we were at the swing for another five minutes. Then I took them out. Mr Grunty was OK. Miss S threw a fit. She screamed like a banchee while her legs went limp. I picked her up, and carried her away. I didn’t want to disrupt the teenagers evening too much. Mr G was holding my finger and walking along. When we got to the vacated soccer field, I put down a screaming Miss S. After a few minutes of sitting and crying, she got up and decided to have fun on the soccer field. Eventually, I had to carry all three childrens about half of the way home, because the toddlers weren’t walking fast enough, they were getting cold, Dritte was getting hungry, the sun was going down.

Saturday – our good friend from DC, Newscat visited! I scolded her for not blogging more, she blamed Twitttttter. We talked about politics, feminism, gender-wage-discrepency. It fun for all. (She and MyBetterHalf talked about other stuff…Twilight, parenthood…)

Later that day, I cobbled together a simple raised bed. There were plenty of worms to be seen, the toddlers were out there with me, and would point at the worms in my hand, “wha’s that?”. But would get a worried look on their face & back away if I brought the worm close to them.

That night, went to Fremont w/ Pablo & work-Adam, to meet up with BitterKat & her-better-half to watch my current favorite band, the Redwood Plan. Fun was had by all.

Sunday:

The childrens helped in the garden. I would pull weeds and give a bunch to Miss S, and she took them…uh…away. I actually don’t know where she put them! Mr G wanted to help pull weeds, but kept trying to pull up the baby strawberry plants, I would say, “no, not that one”. And he would get a sad look on his face, he wanted to help. Eventually he just started picking up clumps of dirt and taking fist fulls of dirt away, and piling it on the deck.

During bathtime, I poured a bit of water from a small bucket onto Mr G’s chest. He liked that. I then gave him the bucket with water in it. He liked pouring it on himself, but wanted me to refill. Then I used another bucket to fill his bucket. He poured water on himself and lifting his empty bucket said, “mo peas”.

roll over

I got a text msg from MyBetterHalf today.

“Dritte just rolled over!”

Good job, my son.  Good job!

Dear Coach K

…I just saw you on “Colbert Report”.  How’s the weather in Durham this time of year. I am submitting this blog entry for as my application for the position of your advisor/handler/speechwriter/comedy-talkshow-prepper.

the park

Monday, due to my wife’s dentist torture session, we got to the park mid-afternoon. It was beautiful, sunshine, light breeze, not too warm. The childrens swung on the swings, and weren’t happy to leave the swings, and I had to use all my encouragement powers to get them to go. Then we played on the big-toy playground equipment. And then, the soccer field was open. I told them to hold my hands while we walked over to the empty soccer field. Mr Grunty pouted but complied. Miss Squeaky threw a fit, and was yelling at me and screaming. At what point do by-standers call the police because of a screaming child that a man is dragging away? I really should put a recent family photo in my wallet.

When we got to the field, I let go of them and started singing while jogging to the middle of the field. They saw how much fun that was and went running and singing after me. And then Mr G invented a game. Touch the painted dots on the field. He would run to a dot, bend over, and hit it a couple of times. I followed, but I would flop down on belly and do a push-up. Miss S would touch her nose to the painted dots. All this time, MyBetterHalf was following us, pushing the empty stroller, and carrying a napping Dritte in the BabyBjorn.

I try to expend a little extra energy, run around, dance when playing outside with them. A way to get in my exercise quota. When I carry baby Dritte, I can run so much, but I try to do low-impact aerobics, such as steps & leg lifts and slow squats.  I hope it makes up for all the candy I eat, and Coke & whole milk I drink.

Happy Birthday Oliver-kitty

Happy 5 years my wonderful spaz kitty! I love you very much, and am very glad you chose to live with us.

Sorry that Miss Squeaky keeps pulling on your tail. You know I’ve swatted her hand a couple of times for doing it. You have shown great restraint for only swatting her a few times. Thanks for not using claws, too much. Please, don’t claw her in the eyes.  That would be bad. I will try to keep Miss S away from you.

Sorry that we don’t play as much as we used to. Remember, I would fling a toy, you would go bounding across the room to either slide into the toy, or somersault over the toy.

I promise soon to get video of that.

Oliver snuggling with his friend and/or prey.

I love you lots! Oh yeah, and since you tagged me this morning, by grabbing my ankle with both of your paws, I think I’m “it”.

Well, off to go get me a kitty!

go for walk

I hear that it is important for a family to eat together. That don’t happen too much around our home, since I usually get home after the toddlers get hungry. But, when I do get home, I try to take the the childrens outside, so that MyBetterHalf can have a bit of peace.

Tonight, I get home. The childrens laugh and smile and run at me. Mr Grunty pointed out the window and said, “go for walk”. Well, how can I say no to that. He was a bit mad that I had to get out of my work clothes, and then change his diaper. I got Dritte in the BabyBjorn, and we went outside. The toddlers each held onto one my index fingers and we walked all the way to TwinPondsPark. Which is only two blocks. But when you’re with toddlers, they can easily be distracted. Or another way to put it, they patiently show you all the different sizes and types of gravel that you normally ignore whilst walking down the street. When we got there, and were 10 yards from parking lot, I let them go on their own. They liked shaking the chain link fences. They ran around in the field. They mostly stayed close to each other, and would return if I called for them. It was a good time. Then we had to head back. They were tired, so going slower, and Dritte had woken up hungry.

The other night, I gave Miss S two pieces of cookie and said, “Give one to your brother.” She handed him a piece, and then when she saw it was the smaller, she retracted it and gave Mr G the bigger piece of cookie.

The other night, Mr G was feeding me corn chips, that he was breaking into tiny crumbs.

Our morning routine now, after I change their diapers, I have them throw their diapers away while I sing the “let’s go throw the diapers away” song. And then, they get cat food for the kitties. Miss S opens the bags (I help), and Mr G gets the measuring cups from the cupboard. Sophie-kitty usually is waiting by her empty dish, but runs away when ever the todders get near.

Easter

The toddlers went on an EasterEgg hunt at the Tiki Lodge. They really didn’t get it. Like true Seattle-ites they enjoyed being outside in the rain, but didn’t really care about picking up the eggs.

Mr Grunty found that there is chocolate inside of some gold-foil coins. So he ate a coin. And was very angry when I pulled the pieces of foil out of his mouth. His tongue had a few cuts on it. I was freaking out.

Tonight, we played outside after dinner. We would run and sing “doh-doh-doh” and then Mr G would say “stop”, and found it hilarious when I froze in place with a silly look on my face.  We played a variation of this the other night inside, he would start the baby swing, it would play music, we would dance until he would turn it off, and I would hilariously freeze in place.

Miss Squeaky really likes playing with her baby dolls. She will put them in a swing, or the carseat, and cover them with blankets. We have to watch out for Dritte’s pacifier, because Miss S will either try to force it into Dritte’s mouth, or she will put it with one of her babies under the stack of blankets.

It warms my heart to hear the toddlers say, “it’s the baby”.

Daily Chart (aka I heart the Economists)

Just a few Daily Charts from my favorite news source, the Economist.

We’re #1!  Since 1953, more languages have gone extinct in USA than any other country. Wow, I would have thought India, or Indonesia. This kind of makes me a little sad. But, won’t we be able to communicate better if we need fewer translators? And, as much as I favor animal diversity, I don’t know if language diversity is worth the effort. I hear, it’s the fault of children, the kids realize what languages are important, and thus forget their parents tongue.

We’re #1, again. We donate more cash to foreign aid than any other nation. True, it’s not a large percentage of our resources, but, we have the biggest dollar amount.

We’re #1 by a landslide! We spend more money on defense than the next 14 biggest nations combined. So, this might be a time to ask, how much is enough? At what point do we say, maybe a few less billion for military. It’s not like our enemies can outspend us. Which, leads us to the topic of asymetric warfare. Our enemies don’t fight fair, and they can cheap engage us, while we have to expensively blunder along. See the current fiasco with piracy.

uh…I’m not sure I want the USA to be on this chart.

last night

I have the toddlers playing a new game with me. They go around the yard and pick the yellow dandelions, and then put the flowers on the tiny tree.

Sometimes the toddlers will get a few chocolate chips for desert. I’ll then ask, “can papa have a chocolate chip”. Mr Grunty will tilt his head, look up at me, and with a smile eat the chocolate chips himself. Miss Squeaky will share some of hers with me. But I have to ask fast, because she scarfs them, whilst Mr G savors his. Mr G will share cookies with me.

Last night, I thought it would be double-plus-super-cool if the toddlers helped me feed Dritte. Miss S was closer, and seems to have much more of an interest in babies. So I got Miss S on my lap, and layed Dritte on us, and gave her the bottle for him. She was very happy and smiles, and did a good job. Mr G, who had been reading a book by himself, noticed the fun, came over, reached out his hands and grunted. I put Miss S on the floor and picked up Mr G. He was happy to be there, but needed a bit more guidance keeping the bottle at the right angle and not pushing down too much. Miss S was very angry and started screaming, and trying to push Mr G off of my lap.

I should have known better than to use two toddlers to feed one infant. I guess we need another baby.

Dritte was frustrated that he wasn’t getting continuous food in a peaceful manner.

follow the leader

yesterday, Mr Grunty found something fun to do. Take a tortilla chip to the love-seat, lay it there, get another one, lay it next to the first one, and so on for a few more chips. Then, using his index finger, press upon the chip until it breaks.

Miss Squeaky thought this looked like fun and did the same.

Then Mr G found a new game. He looked at his sister, then quickly got down on his knees and laughed. She did the same. Get up and repeat. It looked so fun that I had to join in too.

(all MyBetterHalf noticed was there was chip crumbs all over the love-seat…sheesh)

Yesterday was beautiful. We played outside on the deck, (Mr G fell, twice, once on the deck, once down the steps. He has a nice bruise today.) And we also went to the TwinsPondPark as a family. Dritte enjoyed being outside, too.

Me  & Dritte had lots of time to hang out, Saturday night, in an effort to give MyBetterHalf a better nights sleep, Dritte & me spent the night in the loft.