Hamming It Up at the Zoo

We recently spent Spring Break in Nashville & Atlanta. While we were in Atlanta we went to the Atlanta Zoo and had a good time. Seth decided that our visit to the Zoo would be a great time to pose a bunch for the camera. He kept saying " Take my picture now ". When it comes to getting his picture taken he definitely likes to overdo it sometimes.

Seth's Primary Participation

It wasn't long ago that Seth vigorously raised his hand in order to participate in any way during Primary at Church. In fact, Seth even asked if he could give a talk, which is something that the 4 year olds rarely do. He did an excellent job, if I do say so myself.

Well, things tend to change over time, just not usually this quick. Last Sunday, some kids were missing at church so the Primary leader asked for volunteers to give a scripture and a talk for the next week. Several of the children raised their hands excited about the opportunity. I happened to been standing in the doorway and witnessed Seth stand up and walk up to the Primary leader and say the following, "You know what? I don't want to do nothing". He then turned around and went and sat back down. She thanked Seth for letting her know, while several of the other adults muffled their laughs. It sure makes me proud to see what a model student Seth has become in Primary.

Crackin' Wise versus Crackin' My Eyes

If you've ever seen the movie " Night at the Museum " you might remember one of the night watchmen, Gus, played by Mickey Rooney. He played a tough and somewhat crazy old man. He was constantly making threats toward Ben Stiller. One of our favorite comments was when Gus asked Larry ( Ben Stiller ), "Are you cracking wise? I oughta punch you in the nose Hopscotch".

Somewhere along the way recently, our little man, Seth has taken to throwing out his own version of this line. He uses it quite frequently. I have tossed in a video of Will's version as well.

Enjoy

More Wisdom Courtesy of Seth

Did you know that if you say "Double please", that whomever you said it to has to do whatever you asked.  It's true.

We had Seth at Target the other day and while waiting in the checkout aisle he asked if we would get him some granola bites that they had strategically placed to tempt small children such as he.  When we said yes, Seth said " Yeah thank you.  Since you said I should have this, now you should say I can have candy."   We didn't fall for it.

Life of a Giant Robot

I learned all of the following from Seth while I pretended with Seth to be Giant Robots.

You know what? "Giant Robots can go through zap stuff and not get killed?"

You know what?   "The bottom of my shoes have rocket boosters, but they don't really fly,  That's just pretend."

You know what?  "Giant robots wear glubs ( gloves )"

You know what?  "Giant robots also have a lightsaber attached in the private area and it helps them to walk."   I didn't want to ask for anymore detail on that one.

You know what?   " Giant robots like to eat toys, but they just pretend.  They don't really eat them."

You know what?  " Giant robots have a secret storage place in their belly to store weapons"

You know what?  " They want toy spaceships for birthday presents."

You know what?  " They are ebil (evil)"  I guess that seems pretty obvious.

I really do learn a lot when I play with Seth.

The World According to Seth

It has been a very long time since I made a post. Hopefully I will stick with it this time, but I doubt it. I think I will take a different approach this time. Not a day goes by that our four year old , Seth doesn't say something worth noting. I believe it is time for me to begin trying to document all of Seth's words.

Today, I am going to share two things he said today. First, during his preschool class today they were learning Spanish and they were teaching all of the children their names in Spanish. Seth refused to learn his name in Spanish citing " My family can't handle Spanish". The second thing I want to share is a bit uncouth, but pretty funny. He likes to refer to # 2 as butt barf. He also informed me "That your bum can't barf on the floor cause you're too close to the potty."

I am confident that Seth will provide a get deal of additional material. It's up to me to keep posting it.

Do you know when your stuffed animal's birthday is?

Last night, after putting Seth to bed, I was in the laundry room taking care of laundry when I heard my youngest urgently calling me. Thinking he had a problem due to the yelling across the house, I came running to see what he needed. Upon entering his room I was greeted with the question " When is Robot's birthday?" Robot is a stuffed doll version of C3PO. He attached to C3PO when he was quite young and it is the one stuffed animal that he sleeps with every night. Being my quick-witted self, I immediately responded "June" to which Seth answered "Ohh, right, June 25th, right after my birthday." Seth's birthday is February 25th.
He was happy with my information, I told him good night and he went to sleep.

My boys never cease to amaze and entertain me with their awesome questions.

How to Get you kids to drink more Milk.

Janet & I are constantly trying to get our boys to be better eaters so they can be healthy and strong. It is a challenge that at times seems hopeless. If treats could just have all the nutritional value that we need, life would be easy. Unfortunately it doesn't work that way. One specific challenge is convincing them to drink enough milk so they can have strong bones. I think the link to the video below could be very helpful if you are having a similiar problem.

http://video.yahoo.com/watch/119427/1272342

This Could be the Year

My U of L Cards are making an impressive showing as of late. I think they are due for a National Championship. It's been since 1986 and while it doesn't seem that long ago, It was!

I think Terrence Williams and Earl Clark can get it done this year if they want it bad enough. Pitino will definitely have them well conditioned coming down the final stretch.

Why am I a UofL Cardinal fan? Well, I grew up in Louisville and I went to graduate school at UofL. If you grow up in Louisville, you are typically a Uof L or U of K fan and not both. That is mainly because U of K fans are obnoxious. I had good friends growing up that were U of K fans and we got along fine as long as we avoid U of L vs. U of K. As I have gotten older my distaste for U of K sports has lessened significantly. At some level, I can even cheer them on. Of course, when they play U of L the gloves are off and I want them to kick Kentucky's butt.

My boys got a taste of how passionate I can be about my Cards. We watched them beat #1 Pitt last Saturday and I was jumping up & down, yelling at the TV, and giving all my boys high fives. I think I will make good U of L fans out of my boys. I'm looking forward to the next nationally televised game versus Georgetown so I can once again act like a maniac in front of my boys. GO CARDS!!!!

I bet Janet's glad she signs off on Will's homework now

A first grade girl handed in the drawing above for a homework assignment.

After it was graded and the child brought it home, she returned to school the next day with the following note:

Dear Ms. Davis,

I want to be very clear on my child’s illustration. It is NOT of me on a dance pole on a stage in a strip joint. I work at Home Depot and had commented to my daughter how much money we made in the recent snowstorm. This photo is of me selling a shovel.

Mrs. Harrington



This is just too funny. Someone showed me this so I had to share with my few followers.

The Derby in " The Wood"

Yes, it is that time of year again. When I get to attempt to build a fast Pinewood Derby car. Will gave me a challenge this year when he brought home a block of wood with just a little piece cut out of one corner. He explained to me he wanted his car to be a semi-truck. I thought great that will be really aerodynamic. I explained to Will that his design may not be the fastest, but he said he didn't care. He really wanted a truck. 

So I did what any good dad would do, I set out to make it the fastest truck anyone has ever seen. I sanded the wheels & axles more than usual. I added lots of graphite to the axles, balanced it with just the right amount of weights and attempted to line the wheels up perfectly. Last night was the derby. We arrived early to size up our competition. Actually I was the only one scouting, Will was bouncing around happy as ever just dying to watch his truck race on the track. At that point I think Will was still oblivious to the thought of wanting to win. Several kids and even parents expressed their "concern" about the shape of Will's vehicle and told him that he didn't have any chance of winning. As I sat there and listened, I thought just wait and see if Will's truck was as slow as they assumed. After hearing how his truck couldn't win I think Will wanted to prove a few of the other boys wrong.

Well he won his first heat, a fluke I guess. He won his second heat, huh! Well he did end up losing a few races, but received THIRD PLACE overall. Not bad for a square vehicle. The elusive 1st place continues to escape me, but between Jack & Will, we now have one 2nd place, two 3rd place, and one 4th place finish. I still have 5 more of these derbies to go (2 for Will & 3 for Seth).

Maybe next year will be mine, as long as Will doesn't decide to do a tank. By the way, I loved seeing the expression on the faces of the few parents who showed concern over Will's truck initially as they saw it beat their child's car. Not that I'm competitive or anything like that.

Recipe for a Zombie Dad

Last night was definitely a rough one. Somewhere between Midnight and 2:00 Seth snuck into our bed. I sleep heavily and he has become quite stealth. Then around 2:00 I suddenly felt a warm, wet feeling all down my side. Yes, you got it, Janet wet the bed. Wait a minute, I got that wrong it was Seth. So I got to change his pajamas, take him back to his bed, get him a fresh blanket, and dry up my side of the bed. It then took me at least thirty minutes to get back to sleep. Next, Will rolled into our bedroom around 3:30 I think. He needed me to take him back to his room and tuck him in. I think I was back asleep within 20-30 minutes. Next our phone and cell phones all started ringing at 5:30 to tell us school was called off. Great, but couldn't that have been decided the night before since we already knew how cold it was going to be. No, it's a lot more fun to decide at 5:30 in the morning. Then at 6:30 Will comes in again ready for his day to begin. I feel like I am in a daze today. The sad thing is this is becoming a regular occurrence minus wetting my bed usually it's his bed if it happens and the 5:30 phone call fortunately is a rarity. They are trying to do me in!!!! I'm tough just not sure how tough.

Guess time will tell.

Colder Than A Welldigger's A** in Alaskaaaa!!!

As my dear wife pointed out in her blog, I do have a tendency to repeat little rhymes or saying as well as singing parts of songs if it fits the various situation or occasion. I remember my Dad doing the same thing. If anyone wants to compare me to my Dad I would consider that quite a compliment. The 10th of January was the 12th year anniversary of his death. Damn! I really do miss him. He was a good father who taught me alot about how to be a good dad. I think I'm doing ok. Charles, Charlie, "The Chuckster", Dad was well thought of by family, friends, coworkers, etc. He was hardworking, funny,caring, & spiritual, just to name a few traits. I remember how good my Dad was with little ones. They would always take a liking to him and he could sit and hold them forever. I wish he was still here so I could enjoy watching him with all his grandsons and granddaughters that would be so much fun. Well it wasn't meant to be, at least not in this time and this place. I know that we will be together again someday. Just be patience Dad, I got alot of years left here and alot still to do.

Reminds me of someone

Calvin & Hobbes is awesome. I just never thought I would end up with my own Calvin. I remember reading Calvin before I had any boys of my own and finding this comic hilarious. Now that I have three of my own I can appreciate it even more.

Look for the Small Blessings

Well, I found myself viewing our latest trial from a different perspective than I typically would have in the past.

Janet slipped and fell on the ice last Wednesday rushing out the front door trying to make sure Will wouldn't have any trouble getting off the bus and into the house. Unfortunately being the thoughtful mother that she is cost her a broken leg. I received a call about 4:05 at work from Janet asking me to get home asap. Normally, I would have been in my weekly yoga class at the gym and not had my cell phone on me. (blessing #1). I rushed home we got her to the hospital and found out it was indeed broken, but it was a clean break of her fibula. No surgery, no permanent cast. (blessing #2) Once we got home and struggled to get the van up the icy driveway, we heard a hissing sound at we exited the van. We then realized that one tire was rapidly deflating. Great flat tire! However it could have happened in the hospital parking lot or alongside the road (blessing #3). As Janet & I sat down and surveyed how we were going to handle her new situation, we realized that the boys were just about on Christmas break, all of our shopping was done, almost all holiday events had taken place, and who wants to go leave their warm home this time of year. (blessing # 4). Finally, we have received several meals and an outpouring of kindness and concern from our friends. (blessing # 5).

I could have gotten all stressed out, overreacted and viewed this as the end of the world, but I knew it would be ok and so far it has. I just feel bad for my sweet wife with the pain, suffering and now boredom she is having to deal with. Hang in their baby. You'll be able to kick me in the butt again in no time.

Seth Rules

My youngest will soon be turning four and not a day goes by that he doesn't say or do something to put a smile on my face. The latest was yesterday. In an effort to persuade his mom to get him a happy meal, he kept pleading with her for one. Then followed that with " Are we clear". Obviously, mom got the message because I was asked tro pick one up on the way home. Another recent Seth saying occurred at the Gift of the Magi play we attended last Friday night at the Children's Theatre Institute. During the play they talked about Frankincense to which one on the actors jokingly said Frankenstein. Seth then added "I know the Christmas Frankenstein". There are many times I wish I could just freeze him at the age he is at, but then he draws a castle on my freshly painted bonus room wall and I think maybe I'm ready for him to get a little older.

Here We Go

I must start by saying this might be a short term attempt at blogging. While my beautiful wife is a professional blogger the likes of which I never intend to compete with, I would like to take a stab at putting my thoughts to words and sharing them with all. My goal is twofold. I am doing this primarily for selfish reasons. I am hoping that this gives me a creative outlet that allows me to relieve stress from the pressures of life. My second goal is to share the awesome life I live with family and friends. I am quite confident that my three boys will provide me with enough material to do this right as long as I put in the effort. Besides my three amazing boys, I am blessed to have an incredible wife who is always inspiring me. Janet is a very talented women who through her cool blog has convinced me to take a stab at this. Well, that about says it all for now. Time will tell how I do.