Pound foolish

Yet another example of being cheap being more expensive in the end.

Parrot

Bunny is screaming at JD that he has to be quiet; she has work to do and needs quiet time.

:(

Sharp Wit

This exchange is courtesy of my friend Michelle who lives in upstate New York.

"Samuel, please don't drink the milk from your cereal bowl."
"Why not?"
"I don't really like it, it doesn't sound very nice. Please use your best manners"
"Well, I'm part Japanese and they drink from their bowls all of the time"
"I know that, but we are not in Japan"
"We are not in England either".

Good game son, well played.

Sorry!

There are several things I love about playing the game, "Sorry!" with my 3- and 6-year-old.

First, that they are capable of playing. They can count, they can take turns.

Second, that they can win without anyone giving them strategic advice.

Third, that whenever Bunny gets a Sorry! card, after bumping the opposing piece she says, "Go back to your home, you silly stink!"

The only strategy that I consistently remind them is to get their pawns out of Home Base whenever they get a 1 or 2. Else, I only explain the cards that have options and let them choose their course of action. There have been several instances where I would have given them advice that would have led to failure. Let make their move, then tell them the alternative. Like most other times in life, learning from failure can lead to greater success than previously imagined.

Mystery Puddle & Potty Tricks

In the last few weeks, I have spotted small puddles on the left side of the main toilet in our house.

Finally, two and two were put together. First, I thought there may be something wrong with the toilet. I suppose the fact that there isn't something wrong with the toilet is, in fact, a good thing. The alternative, however . . .

Yes, JD's aim is a little off. Let's put it this way: if he were a strategic bomber, he would be killing thousands of innocent civilians.

Confronting him about it, he readily admitted his error. I simply told him to use a towel to clean it up and tell me about it so I can clean it. No big deal.

Next day? Puddle. Not only that, but from a certain angle, I could see the abuse put upon the wall next to the toilet. Like a car having dried after being out in a rain storm.

This with our house going on the market soon.

I have heard about Cheerios and other target ideas. Frankly, I'm not sure what's going on, but I'm wondering if he doesn't know how to deal with morning wood.

Yeah, I said it. Let's just call a spade a spade and move on.

Anyway, ladies, it turns out that it's a gigantic pain to pee with a hard-on. I have learned suck up my pride and sit down, way far back on the toilet so that my butt is hitting the tank, then push down so that the pain-to-aim ratio is low.

JD is not ready for these tricks.

Frankly, as much as I'd like to do something about it, there is so much more teaching that I have to make time for him that missing the toilet a few times a week is not high up on the chart.

Yes, cleaning up pee is less important that reading, writing, and arithmetic.

Child Labor Redirection

I think I've mentioned that we're having some trouble with "private parts."

So, I was doing administrative work in the office in my basement while the kids played in the living / play area of the basement. Suddenly I heard, "JD, put your butt away," from Bunny.

I sneaked into the room and saw JD pulling his pants up. Then he saw me. Then a guilty look came over his face.

"JD, what happened?" I asked in a calm voice.

Meekly, he said, "I showed Bunny my butt."

"Come with me," I said. "Shed that stack of paper."

There was a large pile of papers with social security numbers, old insurance cards, credit cards, and driver's licenses.

That is one of my new strategies. Especially for JD, when he's too wound up or starts misbehaving, I have found that he responds well to redirection to some work. Cleaning up his toys or another physical task seems to take his mind off of whatever had his engine revved up.

Additionally, I get some much needed, remedial tasks taken care of.

Another Peeve

Grocery checkers and baggers gossiping. Can't stand it.

Peeves

For my own self, I am trying to wrap my head around the fact that pet peeves are B.S. They are selfish, self-absorbed pieces of wisdom. We think we do all of these things better than other people. No, even better: we think we have a better world view with respect to this particular manner. Futhermore, we fail to see that we ourselves have habits that are peeves of others, yet we will not change them.

for example, I have many driving pet peeves. I get really upset with people fail to use their turn signal, park equally inside parking space lines, and using the left highway lane, the passing lane, for cruising, rather than passing.

What are things that I do that are the peeves of others? I have no idea. Would I change if someone told me that I had a behavior that needed to be changed? Restated, that question reads, would I be willing to put in the conscious effort required to change a routine habit?

One problem that my peeves cause me is that it becomes a distraction - an obsession. When a person in the Costco parking lot puts their cart on a curb instead of walking it to the cart corral or to the lobby, I get angry and think about what a jerk this person is, how lazy and selfish. I have even said things to people for it. What does any of this negativity do for anyone? One thing it won't do - get people to change their habits. When I bring a cart from the parking lot inside to do my shopping, maybe someone sees me do that, says, "Geez, that makes sense," and makes it part of their routine in the future. Or, when I see someone finish putting items into their car, say, "I can take that back for you." Perhaps that will help that person see things my way.

Or I can write a blog about all the stupid shit I think and throw it out to people, thinking they'll appreciate my nonsensical stream of consciousness. :)

LGBT

I promise you, LGBT people cannot screw up their children any more than the rest of us.

http://www.hrc.org/

Get on board, because, "Never Again," applies to all types of anti-hate.