Category: Marriage

Discussions about marriage in America.

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Dad Blogs Family Fatherhood Life in these United States Marriage

One more candy holiday down!

Easter 20094Are there any more candy holidays until Halloween? I pray not. MLE has shown exceptional acumen at being able to sniff out and unwrap foil-wrapped candy. It’s a vice his older brother never picked up, but is happily playing along with.

*sigh*

CareerMom leaves town again today for the whole week, but this time, things are going to be  bit different. For one, she’s not leaving over the weekend, so I get a break during the day while I’m working and the boys are at daycare. Secondly, she’s arranged for my SIL to come watch the kids two nights this week.

TWO NIGHTS! That’s like, more free time than I get when CareerMom is home (and she wonders why I don’t mind her traveling so much).

However, in what is hopefully not a portend of the week to come, this morning we woke to discover bulging paint in the ceiling over our bedroom armoire, which, when coupled with the pounding rain we’re getting today, could only mean one thing–water leak!

Luckily (if there’s a silver lining when it comes to water leaks), the water is dribbling down a pipe where apparently, it’s not sealed well on the roof. I was able to stuff towels down to stop the water from getting further into my sheetrock and I’m hoping the rain is merciful as the day goes on. Friday night we had some nasty storms come through and we had a brief bit of large hail. I’m wondering if we didn’t accumulate some damage this spring with all the bad weather. So, I’ll be calling Mr. Insurance this morning to see if they want to come out and take a look-see. I know a few of my neighbors have gotten new roofs because of the weather this year so who knows.

Leapfrogging to another topic — church. Being Easter and all, we kept the boys with us in church on Sunday rather than sticking them in children’s church, which incites screaming fits each time from MLE, and they were really good for about 35 minutes. Unfortunately, church is more like an hour and 15 minutes. By the hour mark, MLE had played peek-a-boo with everyone behind us; he’s crawled around on the floor, and even wandered out into the aisle where he watched in awe at the unfolding passion play on stage. MLI just sat, laughed at MLE and ate Cheerios. Luckily, we were in the balcony where you can get away with a lot more shenanigans. It WAS entertaining at least (moreso than the over-emoters playing Mary Magdalene and Simon Peter on stage. And dude! You can’t tell me that Jesus and Mary M. weren’t an item!)

I hope you and your family had a good Easter, or at least enjoyed the fine weather if you don’t celebrate the holiday!

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Dad Blogs Family Fatherhood Life in these United States Marriage

It’s the Monday Wrap-Up!

Let’s call this “Wrap Up Monday,” which is odd I know, but I have a lot of short little ‘vignette’ type things to mention that don’t deserve an entire blog on their own merits, so here goes:

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On Saturday, MLI had his second soccer game of the season. At this age, they play four kids at one time, on each team, and they don’t have a goalie. So, you’re supposed to have 8 kids running whilly nilly around a soccer field, while two coaches try to keep pace by immediately throwing a ball back into play whenever one goes out of bounds. It’s very “high energy” and very, very funny.

Unfortunately, our team apparently suffered from “Spring Break” syndrome, so only four kids showed up, and one of the kids was a girl who proceeded to pout on the field (because she couldn’t get the ball) until I pointed out to her how important the “goalie” position was and that, “…all you have to do is stand right here and keep the ball from going in. It’s THE MOST IMPORTANT job on the whole team!” She loved it and didn’t pout the rest of the game. Course…by then we were already down about 8 points, but…

Despite having three boys on our team who were unable to substitute out and rest, they did pretty darn well against the other team who had seven players and could rotate out the bench when a player started flagging. Our team scored two points and I’m proud to say that MLI scored the only “legitimate” point for us (the other was scored by a member of the opposite team who got confused about which side of the field he was on).

Meanwhile, on the sideline, MLE showed that he could have probably hung with most of the 5-year olds on the field, by dribbling the ball up and down the sidelines better than half the other, bigger kids. I have high hopes for that one!

On a more serious note, one of my many moms and MY BROTHER, are coming for a very brief visit on Wednesday. This is significant for several reasons:

  • This is my “adopted mom” who exerted the same lack of parenting skills that I find myself exerting when CareerMom is gone. The main difference being that hers was “all the time” and a good bit rougher.
  • Despite having any real connection to my kids, she continues to call them, “my babies” despite neither of them being either A) Babies or B) hers.
  • My brother, whom I probably haven’t seen in five years, is coming with her. Last time I saw him, was in the visitation lounge of the Lexington, Kentucky Federal Penitentiary. He had a long beard and lots of tattoos. He’s been “straight” for a while now, but I honestly don’t know how I feel about him coming to my sanctuary…my home…and being around my kids. Oh, he’s never been violent or anything, but I honestly don’t know him anymore and I don’t know what to expect. Being around him is like being around that strange uncle that you’re supposed to like, and that your parents want you to hug and stuff, but whom you really don’t know well enough to want to do any of that stuff. It’s gonna be a weird visit all around.

Luckily, they will only be there for a very brief instant. After the “we were gonna stop by, but my GPS sent me to the wrong side of Atlanta…and oh, by the way, here’s your rotten shrimp” incident, I suppose I should give her credit for trying.

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Dad Blogs Family Fatherhood Marriage

I got your plans right here!

In retrospect, I may have started liquidating our baby stuff a tad prematurely last summer. During a yard sale I held in late spring, I managed to get rid of a number of stuffed animals, a Moses basket, a side-to-side infant swing, some kitschy baby toy crap and other sundry items that people who no longer plan on having children don\’t need to keep around the house.

*sigh* Yeah.

So anyway, I was at Baby’s Russ the other day and it occurred to me that, while I was there…I might as well stock up on a few of our “old standby” baby items. For instance, both of our boys really liked the NUK latex nipples. They are the dark beige nipples that feel like, well…like a rubber nipple. How a kid, who has suckled a REAL nipple, can be fooled by latex, is beyond me, but whatever. We tried some of the others and the boys both kept coming back to the NUK latex versions. Well apparently, our kids were in the minority. It seems that you can no longer purchase those in the store. They are available online, but not in-store. The same goes for the Diaper Decor refills that we use. I guess the old Diaper Decor wasn’t “late 2000s enough” or something.

I walked out of Baby’s Russ with nothing more than some diapers and wipes for MLE, which was kinda dumb considering I could also have gone ahead and purchased some for the new baby. After all, it\’s not like diapers are designed for a particular gender. This was before we knew we were having another boy.

I got to thinking about all the stuff that we’ve either given away, thrown away or simply ill-planned for, and we\’re in for a whole lotta new baby crap. Even though we’re having a boy, and we already have two boys, we’re going to have to buy a lot of new clothes. Two boys are awful hard on clothes. With clothes,  it’s not so much that they wear the clothes out, but more like they stain the crap outta them to the point where you’re embarrassed to let them wear the clothes anywhere outside of the house. Things like pants and shorts can be reused because they are pretty tough, but T-shirts and pajamas…fuhgeddaboudit!

There’s also the issue with my truck. When CareerMom got pregnant with MLI, I traded in a tiny Ford Ranger for a Dodge Dakota extended cab thinking that it would be plenty large for two kids–and it is.

For TWO kids.

It’s not going to work with three. Already, I have MLI in the front seat with a booster, and I have MLE in the backseat. But by the time his legs poke out from his car seat, he’s kicking the back of the seat in front of him, which is pushed forward as far as it can go without jamming MLI’s knees up into his chest. And the really tough thing is, my truck is paid for. The thought of having to get either another car, or a bigger truck, just kills me!

But, these are the kinds of things that happen to you when you thumb your nose at mother nature and try and plan too far into the future.

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Dad Blogs Family Fatherhood Marriage

Ultrasound Day!

It’s a boy!

(yep, that makes three)

It's a boy small

After we got the lil’ booger to quit flopping around, it was confirmed! I suppose it’s only fair since, were it not for my dad adopting me and my brother, his family name would have ended with him. None of my dad’s three other brothers had any boys of their own. I suppose that, despite there not being any of his families’ blood in me and my kids, those who come after us need not know that.

We’re right at 20 weeks, although the baby is mostly measuring from 18-19 weeks. We P&P’ers are small people, so we’re not worried. Everything else looks fine and his…um…”junk” certainly seems to be working!

TEN YEARS LATER UPDATE: So this all took place at our 20 week (5 months!) ultrasound. A month later we returned for a wellness check and since we’d have the misfortune of miscarrying a couple of times, I went with CareerMom for most of these.

As we were standing in the room, the ultrasound tech was doing her usual chatting and she said the word, “She.”

I quickly glanced down at CareerMom and we exchanged confused glances. I then said, “Excuse me. You said “She.” We have bee told at our last three exams that it’s a boy.”

The tech replied, “Nope, it’s definitely a girl.”
It WAS a girl! And she’s amazing!