T.W.I.P. Notes (This Week In Parenting)

One of the goals of this blog is for my children to read it one day when they are of age to fully comprehend the enjoyment and occasional toil of parenthood. This week has been an interesting one…
-Georgia and Parker are waking up at 6 am as of late, and sometimes earlier. When I’m 64 I will be incessantly calling the both of them at 6 am requesting they come over and change my adult diaper. Payback.
-I realized last night how much I like watching the girls sleep. There’s something comforting about seeing them passed out, quiet, not requiring my attention, resting, and just…seemingly happy.
-Laura and I have decided to send Parker to pre-school this August. We also agreed that if she can’t maintain a ‘C’ average we will take away her tricycle.

Dilemma

To have more children or not to have more children, that is the question
Whether it is nobler in the mind for the soul to suffer the slings and arrows of parenting three children at a time
When it is time that is of the essence or to take arms against a sea of insurmountable maternal pressure whilst thy maiden fails to witness the fact that ye is 40 years old!

I’m starting to think the Hamlet soliloquy was written not about Hamlet’s contemplation of suicide and its repercussions but really a glimpse into the pressure Shakespeare’s wife was putting on him to have a third child. You could read the whole soliloquy and find parallels.

“I don’t feel like I’m done”, Laura says like there’s some internal gauge that informs you you’re baby-making operation is no longer. Part of me understands her mindset, a lot of it is her realizing just how delightful and easy Georgia has been to raise. Happy 7-month birthday by the way Georgia! While I was feeding her yesterday (rice cereal and peas) she could not stop smiling at me. She makes things so much easier, actually I was having fun with it. It’s amazing how she makes having a third child so much more agreeable to the both of us. Parker too, she shows little jealousy, always assisting us with little tasks around the house. While she was helping Laura make a pizza for dinner last night she made a mess with the flour and some of it fell to the kitchen floor. She wanted to sweep the kitchen so bad yesterday that her and Laura engaged in a tumultuous game of tug-of-war with the broom. It came to an end with Laura prevailing and poor defeated Parker collapsing to the floor in a pile of tears and sadness like the wicked witch. I can’t wait ‘til she’s old enough to help out with chores like that; of course when she’s old enough is the time when she doesn’t want to do it.

But really, another child? Yeah, maybe 10 years ago…But she's only 32; I can't say I blame her for feeling that she's not done. Maybe I'll buy her a puppy instead...;-)

ParkerJo turned three over the weekend and a party was had by all. It was a birthday party that included an invitation for all comers to enjoy the opportunity to leave all cares aside for a few hours and enjoy the simple frivolity of young children eating candy, dancing, playing games, and of course eating birthday cake.

Well, technically it was a “Hula party”. Laura set up some games for the kids including a hula contest, musical chairs, and the extremely tasteful “guess the color of the jellybelly” competition. I’m not sure who were the winners in any of the games but prizes were handed out to all.

As usual PJ was so anxious the night before as well as curious about the streamers and balloons we were hanging in the living room and kitchen that she didn’t get a very good night’s sleep. I remember looking in her eyes around 11 am the next morning and seeing the yearning for slumber gazing through her pearly blues (her nap time is usually as one or so). The party started at 10 am which should’ve assisted in eluding any nap time issues but to no avail PJ slowly turned into a zombie. Luckily there were plenty of sugary lollipops, birthday cake, candy, and various juices to continue to energize the young masses on a limited scale.

The party was held in our backyard on a warm, sunny Southern California day with the Santa Ana winds blowing at a less than forceful pace. I missed all of the games because I was feeding Georgia rice cereal and peaches in the kitchen with the men talking about “manly” things. Computer processor sizes, amount of Ram required to perform video production, MS XP or MS Vista or just wait for MS Windows 7, the need for a good video card, dual core versus quad core processors, etc…. Kinda reminded me of the way gearheads talk about their cars, just not as masculine and definitely not as cool.

Most amusing quote came after the games, the presents, the cake, and the goodbyes. Laura’s mom came over later for some reason and from the other room I hear the emphatic statement from Laura’s lips…”that was the best children’s birthday party I’ve ever been to!” I’ll admit that my schedule-happy wife ran it smoothly. Kudos for her efforts.

As for Georgia, she's always having fun...except around dinner time.

January 20, 2009

America gets a "do-over" after eight years of folly.

I’ve been torn on this Inaugural stuff. Expectations are extremely high for this administration. I do admire the optimism he has evoked in such a wide spectrum of the masses. I’ve never seen such a reaction to a new president, well, Kennedy maybe but the players in that era were extremely different. Kennedy was taking over the helm from Eisenhower who still had the respect of the American people and the world. Bush has simply been an embarrassment. His ability to mislead was undeniably “misunderestimated”.

Revered Joseph Lowery’s benediction put Rick Warren's little prayer to shame. Rev. Lowery is one of the most prominent civil rights figure alive today. More respected than “Hymietown “ Jackson and Dr. Andrew Young put together. I was elated when I read that Obama called him at home personally to request he give the benediction at his inauguration. I knew I supported the right guy…best $25 dollars I ever donated…assuming he didn’t use it to buy down Hillary’s extremely large campaign debt.

"REV LOWERY: Lord, in the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest, and in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get back, when brown can stick around -- (laughter) -- when yellow will be mellow -- (laughter) -- when the red man can get ahead, man -- (laughter) -- and when white will embrace what is right. Let all those who do justice and love mercy say amen.
AUDIENCE: Amen!
REV. LOWERY: Say amen --
AUDIENCE: Amen!
REV. LOWERY: -- and amen.
AUDIENCE: Amen!"

It sounds much better when it comes from his Rev. Lowery...

Night of the Living Dead

I think I’ve been hypnotized. Every night after I fall asleep I propel myself into this metamorphosis of sorts and I can’t shake it. All it takes is for me to be fast asleep and to hear some peep or sound or something remotely sounding like one of the girls is in peril and I immediately shoot up out of bed and meander my way in a deep haze over to their rooms to see what the problem is. I’ve never done this before until I was given a life sentence of parenthood in the first degree. Prior to having children there was very little that could get me out of bed in the middle of the night. Now, all the girls have to do is exhale loudly and my internal sonar sounds the alarm and elevates me to DEFCON 4. It’s incredibly annoying. Is it just another one of those collateral damage items of parenthood? What gives?

There’s a couple aspects to this reaction that bothers me though. When I suddenly rise up and make my way to PJ’s room only to realize that the two children are sound asleep, it’s a very dispiriting realization. What woke me up? Can’t I employ some sort of filter to determine the severity of the situation? Can I do something to deter this reaction? Ambien perhaps? I doubt it. If a noise occurs, I am up in .0005 seconds and addressing the noise in the next 3 seconds. There seems to be nothing I can do about it.

Invoice

Vendor: Georgia Powers Enterprises

The above mentioned subject owes the billing party a total of five hours of sleep due to her incessant crying in the middle of the night on Jan 13 and Jan 14. Contractor agrees to compensate the affected party two-fold by performing the following services on a permanent basis:

1-continuous incessant smiling

2-consciously reduce her need to be solely in her mother's arms at all times

3-from this day forward, all feces produced by the subject will smell like jasmine

Sincerely,

Father

The Concept of Making Money

As usual, Parker was really disappointed this morning when she asked her dad if he had to go to work today and he said "yes". After he left she came to me and said, "I know Mommy, Daddy can stay home and make money here!" I stopped to think what she imagines he does at work. Perhaps she thinks of Scott at his desk cutting out green construction paper and painting his money. Or perhaps molding metal coins, like she does with her playdo set.

Daddy's Girl

Parker is officially in the 'Daddy's Girl' stage of her life and has been there probably since Georgia was born. Every morning when Parker walks into our room, she walks right by my side of the bed and goes over to daddy to get into bed on his side. When she needs her butt wiped, she'll call out "Daaaddyyyy. Come wipe my buuuttt." If I say that I'll do it, she'll tell me no, she wants daddy to do it. I don't mind this at all.

I sometimes wonder if this is a natural development stage or if it's because he dotes over her a little more than I do. For example, if Parker is to start crying or call out in the night, my reaction is to wait silently and see if she'll settle back down. But Will jumps out of bed at the first peep. I think he might be startled and half asleep and doesn't realize that there's no real emergency. I have to say I admire this selfless reaction.

Just this morning, Parker tried to keep Will from going to work. She held his hand as he walked to the door and laughed saying he couldn't get away (from the tight grip she had on his hand). It was so cute. After he left she sat down to eat her cereal while I fed Georgia rice cereal. Parker seemed a little sad and initiated this conversation. It went something like this...

"Mommy...I don't want daddy to go to work."

"Why not?"

"Because he's my only favorite and I like him."

Parker hung her head over her cereal bowl. Then she started in again, "I don't want daddy to go to work tomorrow. Daddy said he doesn't want to go to work."

"Yeah but he goes anyway to get the money we need to buy our things. Like this cereal, this house and remember yesterday when we bought that sweatshirt for you. He got the money for us to buy it."

"Yeah but I already know how to get some moneys."

"Do you want to go to work?"

"No. And daddy doesn't want to go to work either."

"Well daddy goes to work because he's responsible."

"I want to be reponsable. I can go to school and be reponsable."

"Yeah...when you're older you can go to school and be responsible."

It is so heartwarming to see how much Parker adores her father. I have to say I get a little jealous sometimes but not in a bad way. I love seeing her and Will together. Also, I know that I am Georgia's everything right now. That girl is definately in love with me.

New Year's Resolutions - Got My Ducks In A Row

So This Is The New Year...

My Resolutions for 2009:

1) Continual avoidance of everything Barney. Continue to keep Parker on the television path of Backyardigans, Yo Gabba Gabba, Franklin, Classical Baby, Clifford the Big Red Dog, and Maggie and the Ferocious Beast
2) Improve my attitude at work and at home in addition to getting more familiar with my “inner sociopath”
3) Finish the second Magnificent Fantastic cd
4) Continue to believe that a lack of evidence is the surest proof that the conspiracy is working (1969 Apollo moon landing, 2003 terror alerts, Paul is dead, the Philadelphia Experiment, etc…)
5) Stop writing children’s music and move on to something more mature… teeny-bopper electronic Euro-pop or maybe start a Jonas Brothers cover band
6) Work on reducing my expectations with regards to Mr. Obama (Rick Warren?!?)
7) Experiment with this blog and its uses while continuing to use it as a digital scrapbook
8) Continue monitoring of all our assets as they descend into imminent worthlessness
9) Start thinking about next year’s resolutions
10) Refrain from purchasing any more guitars in 2009(except for the banjo I'm picking up tonight)
11) Learn to write more better
12) Create more time and energy for myself and start my own podcast

Let it Snow

Well, the Big Brother experiment of whether four families and their children could survive in a house for four days in the snow is over. Add the variable of it being New Year’s weekend and you’ve got yourself a real sociology/behavior psychology experiment. The result? All went very well, no childish meltdowns (from me), no parental issues, and no broken bones from sledding (one major bruise on the tailbone for Geoff-way to ring in the new year). Parker wasn’t that excited about sledding-she went with mom and had this frightened look on her face. The rest of her snow experience was with a shovel, a diamond-shaped slab of ice she continuously sucked on, snowball throwing, avoiding yellow snow, and helping build a snowman with her cousins. The weather conditions were perfect…50 degrees and a bunch of snow had just fallen on the ground so the four days we were there was plenty and we didn’t need too much clothing to stay warm. So, who enjoyed the snow the most? No doubt…Georgia.

Note to self...kids love chocolate fondue.