Tag: Roswell

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Dad Blogs Family Life in these United States Marriage

It was good while it lasted…

koozaHa! Fake, Airbrushed Abs!

CareerMom’s gone on a two-day business trip. I HAVE to get some work done today so I took both the boys to Daycare despite my inability to tell whether MLE is still feeling poorly, or whether he just got spoiled being home for four days having his every whim catered to, and was just trying to pull one over on the daycare lady this morning. To look at him, his face is still all splotchy and there are at least two bags under each eye. However, he’s been a lot more playful and happy since yesterday afternoon, so I’m chancing it. Oh wait, did I tell you all that he has “Scarlet Fever?”

It’s sounds scarier than it really is. Basically, it’s a reaction to a virus and in his case, the reaction was an all-over body rash for which there is no treatment. I have been told this all three times that I have spoken to and/or seen a doctor in the last 5 days. They had better be right or I’ll be bustin’ some caps!

Also, CareerMom took my wallet with her by accident so I have no money to spend for the next 48 hours, which means the “easy night at Chick-fil-A” that I had planned…yeah, not so much now.

But, it’s not all bad; despite MLE’s peckish health this weekend, CareerMom and I were determined to make good on the $90 apiece tickets she got me this Christmas for Cirque-du-Solei’s presentation of “Kooza” here in Atlanta on Saturday. And would you believe that for that price, we were all the way on the back row?

In-friggin-credible! By the way, it was jam-packed, so apparently, the recession isn’t adversely affecting entertainment expenses.

But the show, as always, was a feast for the senses. This was my third Cirque show and each one is a delight. Set in a large tent, not unlike an actual circus, a large stage dominates about 1/3 of the area. Lights and cameras are strung around and throughout the arena, bringing an unearthly feeling to the story. If you’ve never been to a Cirque show, then you’re missing out. Each one has a story behind it. Kooza is about a boy who wakes up in a strange land and meets unusual and interesting people. The first half of the show is the “light” side with acrobats and theatrics in gold and glimmer. The second half is the “dark” side dominated by performers in black skin-tight skeleton costumes all huddled around the Grim Reaper. And it is this second half that has the most impressive performances. Most notable being two men who do death-defying stunts from within and outside a contraption that looks like two hamster wheels connected by steel rods. Did I mention these wheels rotate in a 360 turn up as high as 40 feet in the air while the men literally leap into a free fall, ultimately catching back onto the wheel as it arcs towards the ground? But I must admit that my favorite part of the show is, surprisingly, the comedians who fill the spaces between the performances. They keep to the storyline, but their theatrics are hilarious.

WARNING: SPOILER: The funniest moment in this show was when a leisure-suit clad actor brought a well-dressed man from the audience up on stage and in the act of talking to him and getting to know him, the comedian proceeded to rip the guy off! He stole his watch, his wallet, even his tie, and the guy never even knew it!

Amazing!

Unfortunately, due to my sitting behind the largest man in the free world, I completely missed the first 15 minutes, which consisted of three exquisitely attired female contortionists doing things on a raised platform that brought a round of applause every 20 seconds. Yeah, I missed that whole part. Luckily, CareerMom and I figured out a way for me to sit so that I could see around “The Neck” and also luckily, he sat elsewhere for the second half.

After the show, we had dinner out and were still home by 9:30. So really, a great “Adult Night” out.

What did you do this weekend?

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Dad Blogs Family Fatherhood Marriage

Picture Phone Phriday – I’ll cut you!

Kids all handle fear in different ways. When I was young, at night I would completely cover my body with my sheets for fear that whatever was not covered, would get chopped off by some axe-wielding monster. I have no idea where this fear came from, but it also prompted me to attempt world-record breaking sprinting attempts from my light switch to my bed.

I must have been fast since I still have all of my appendages.

My oldest son, whom I’ve affectionately, if perhaps prematurely, labeled “My little Introvert,” seems to have his own method of handling the night-time boogeyman. And while I’m a little fearful of what this might mean in the future, right now, I applaud his audacity:

(I’m adding blank space so you don’t see it before you read the intro)

01-09-09_0618

Defense: Ninja Turtle Style!

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Dad Blogs Family Fatherhood Life in these United States Marriage

Hooked on Phonics, Worked for me!

readingMLI is coming up on five years old and is therefore, in pre-K. In addition to the twice-weekly Spanish classes (Spanish at 5 years old?), they are also learning how to read. Each night he comes home with this little sheet of words that he is working on and last week, he even came home with a rhyme that he read–something to the effect of, “Nan pats the cat. The Cat can pat Nan.” etc. It didn’t get much more difficult.

Thing is, they are learning to read by learning the sight of words. So, they learn that “STOP” reads “Stop.” They are not learning to sound the word out, “Sssss…ta…ta…ah…pa…pa…SssTaPa…STOP!”

We had a small debate over at CareerMom’s parent’s house the other night as to the appropriateness of this method of teaching. CareerMom’s mother is a teacher, and sitting around the table were several highly educated people, who each thought he or she knew better than the other which way of teaching a child to read was better.

It was my MIL who postulated that the child isn’t really learning to read this way; while one of her daughters (who went to a very expensive private university, then transferred out west to get a Masters in Music and who is now doing a Jr. level job at a pharma company), claimed, “Well, once you’re older, aren’t you reading by recognizing the words anyway?”

A good point to be sure, but I’m of the opinion that a child should learn to add manually before using a calculator. However, being the “outlaw” at the table, and one who understands the value of a free, home-cooked meal, I kept my mouth shut.

Last night while trying to come up with a low-key way to kill the last 30 minutes before the kid’s bedtime, I sat down with MLI and asked him to read me “Go Dog Go.” Doesn’t everyone know this book?

Well, he knew the first couple of pages…by heart. Once we got past his “sight words” vocabulary, it was a frustrating thing for him to sound the words out. This cemented my belief that learning to read by sight words is a waste of time! I mean, if a kid has a photographic memory, then fine. Eventually, the kid can read Webster’s and be good to go, but for the rest of us, we really need to learn how to figure things out on our own.

Unfortunately, patience does not run on my side of the family (Bio-mom excluded), and MLI quickly became frustrated with my attempts at helping him. And to my credit, I think I was very patient! (Yaah me!).  All in all, I’m not too worried about him reading or not reading right now. In Kindergarten, I was in the “Remedial Reading Group” until I figured it out and then I was into it like gangbusters. I still spend a substantial amount of money each year on books and I have no doubt that my kids will follow suit.

But, for you parents out there with school-age kids; what did you/do you have to do to help your kids read? And how did they learn? Did the “sight word” method work for you?

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Dad Blogs Life in these United States

I’ll get right on that rose…

Ok, I’ll admit that my last couple of posts have been decidedly on the “bummer” side, and I promise, that I’m going to make every effort to do better.

After today’s post.

In the meantime, it’s the first official REAL day of work for most of the corporate world, and every white-collar worker affected knows this means only one thing…MEETINGS!

Now, for some people, meetings are a necessary fact of business. For instance, the group I work in is made up mostly of Product Managers, whose jobs consist almost entirely of working with other people to get their products rolled out and promoted on a global level. For these people, meetings are their lifeblood. And while most of them claim to hate meetings, it certainly doesn’t stop them from scheduling two-hour meetings each week to discuss minuscule changes in whatever they were doing from last week.

For me…I write. Writing takes a bit of coordination upfront and on the backend; but generally, I need to be left alone. Unfortunately, many of my group’s meetings include time to talk about what I’m writing. So, despite their all-knowing where their project’s status’ lies with me, I still have to be there to answer the occasional question.

I need another meeting like Dennis Rodman needs another tattoo!

Already this week, before everyone gets in and starts panicking, I have 9 hours of meetings scheduled. I could write nearly 1/3 of a white paper with 9 hours of uninterrupted work. Instead, I’ll be yawning through 9 hours of meetings that will bear almost no influence on my day-to-day.

I tell ya, it’s enough to make you want to call in sick!

Speaking of sick, that Alabama vs. Utah Sugar bowl was pretty awful too!