For as much as I've complained about my daughter being stubborn, headstrong, bossy and also needy the past year or so, the last two weeks she's really impressed me with how much she's been able to entertain herself and be more truly independent without bugging Mom and Dad so much.
No, the most we've given her is some kids play tablets that just have typing, spelling, arithmetic games on it. She has a couple of other fake iPod things that play music that she doesn't care for, instead she's much more comfortable sitting in front of the TV all day. I've always tried to limit that and lately she's been better about playing with her enormous amount of toys and stuffed animals by herself for longer periods of time.
We have an iPad. I bought it so I could watch Braves/Hawks while I cooked dinner. Very seldom do my kids get access to it. That being said, if we have a long dinner somewhere it gets tossed in the purse and is used as a last resort. Gotta at least give them a chance to be humans in public.
My daughter just finished her third year of dance. The recital this year still had the teacher on stage. Now, I've been spending all week with her learning a new dance from a 25 minute youtube video because she is in the Miss Tennessee pageant next weekend. She is almost 6. (her mother and grandmother are involved and have been for years) This dance is way more complicated than anything she has done. It's been a struggle. I don't want her to fail even though I believe this pageant charade is bullshit. But man it ain't looking good. I'm struggling teaching her and not turning into my dad on the baseball field. I try to remember she is young. But she is just like her mother and gets upset at the first sign of adversity. And I hated that about her mother when we were together. Her mom is picking her up in the morning to be at the pageant all week. I will go down to watch her perform next Saturday for the main event.
I really think my wife just wanted to see her in the tutu. "recital" today and she just walked around sucking her thumb holding the hand of one of the teenage instructors. But every day she was excited about going and told me "i like to dance daddy" so we will keep it going. Really hope we don't ever go the pageant route. My 4 year old son did soccer in the spring and he did okay. wasn't the best but definitely wasn't the worse kid out there. He also loved it when he scored but overall never got excited about going. He will be doing it again in the fall. then T-ball in the spring when he's 5. He certainly isn't naturally drawn to sports but neither was I until I was like 10 and the social aspect kind of kicked in. I don't plan to be a sports obsessed parent but I certainly expect them to both be involved in something. And I really want to be able to golf with my son when he's older. But then he goes out there and has a bad game or runs into another kid and gets upset and it's just heartbreaking. I think I'm pretty good about controlling myself but I totally understand how parents can get obsessed.
Had never heard of “Father Forgets” until tonight. Great piece. https://faculty.sfcc.spokane.edu/InetShare/AutoWebs/kimt/father forgets.pdf
My daughter (8) was talking to my wife. “Mom, I like tits!” “Excuse me??” “Tits…. And kestrels, they’re birds, mom.”
So of course this happened tonight. My sister's daughter is 4 years older than my girl and way bigger. My daughter is one of the smallest kids her age while her cousin is the opposite for hers. After a family dinner at a restaurant, we decided to take the girls to a nearby park to finish the last hour of daylight. As noted above, my daughter's mom is picking her up in the morning and taking her to the Miss Tennessee pageant in the morning. My daughter is competing in her age group of some kind. I don't know all the details. I've had my girl all week. At the park as we are about to wrap up, my niece grabs my daughter and sorta manhandled her trying to spin my daughter around. In doing so, she slings my daughter to the ground. All the while my niece loses her balance and her weight lands directly on my daughter's head slamming it further into the ground. I saw the entire episode. As much as I dislike my niece, she was playing here and mostly innocent. My daughter has a huge strawberry on her cheek. She may have a small black eye come morning. So of course I get ex-wife drama from this. The timing couldn't have been worse. Kids being kids.
1/3 had her last softball tournament of the season last weekend; pitched in 7 of their 11 games (averaged about 47mph on her fastball), her team had no subs (and was down to 8 players for a minute) won the tournament against a bunch of teams frankly above their skill level. Super proud of her.
Just to the team, sadly. They do get big fucker rings though. Hahaha, no just my paranoid ass covering up the team logo
8 year old took a break from being mean to her 6 yr old brother to comfort him last night when he was inexplicably scared at bed time. She wound up sleeping next to him most of the night. Made me miss when they were 3 & 5 and she did that all the time.
dishwasher came with our house and has to be at least 40 years old so needless to say i’m hand washing every bottle. so. many. bottles. we’re looking at new ones- anyone have one with the bottlejets? wife wants them but i’m not convinced they’re necessary. seem to take up a bunch of space too. anyone fuck with bottle jets?
We got enough to just handwash once a day. We have several pots/pans that cant be dishwashed so just do them all then.
I forgot how painful that was. Every night hand washing about 5-7 bottles. To be fair even if I could go back I don’t think I’d have gone out of my way to buy a dishwasher to solve that problem.
yep. bottles were the absolute worst. Just recently my 2 year old got off sippy cups and now uses a regular cup. even not having to wash sippy cups out of milk anymore feels like a big win.
Hand washed bottles for both kids. Just incorporated it as another step in my nighttime routine. Sucked but it was what it was.
These bags can make the process feel quicker... https://www.medela.us/breastfeeding/products/cleaning-and-sanitizing/quick-clean-micro-steam-bags
Got newborn pics back. Definitely not tearing up at work, gotta be the dust from ceiling work being done. Spoiler
Did anyone use a doona? And where did you go from there once outgrown? I am not ready to let go of the convenience it affords in car to stroller transitions.
never heard of it but looked it up. i dont know how much easier that would make a car seat that has a base and adapter for a stroller. once you outgrow the infant car seat you gotta go to a convertible car seat.
So my daughter turns 5 on October 20th, she's in gymnastics and loves Simone Biles. Just so happens the USA gymnastics olympian tour or whatever comes by us on October 24th. My wife said she wants to buy the $400 front row floor excercise/balance beam tickets. Part of me is all "fuck it it's only money, it's her birthday and I would do literally anything for her" and the other part of me is all "what in the actual fuck are you suggesting? we spend half a mortgage payment to watch this girls bounce around for a couple hours?!?" God damn it.
Do it. It’s a once in a lifetime experience for your daughter and you with her. It sounds cliche but they grow up so fast. If you have the means it will be something you won’t regret and will always remember.
I would say my 14yo remembers nothing from before he was 7 probably, but selfishly I loved that time and those memories.
Bummer alert, my wife experienced a miscarriage some weeks ago, but there was no sign of it having occurred until our first sonogram appointment about 10 days ago. That feeling when you see the sonogram screen and the doctor and immediately know something is wrong… After follow-up tests and sonograms a few days later, they let us know it was twins. On one hand that was more difficult to hear, on the other hand it provided an explanation for us as to why this happened (two previous successful pregnancies and no known miscarriages). The worst part about this has been the fact that her body did not react to the loss of viability, causing my wife to have to take labor-inducing meds to pass everything. It’s been really tough and traumatic for her, and of course for me too being pretty much useless here. Physically, she’s taking longer to recover than from actual childbirth. I know others ITT have experienced the same or worse; going though something like this certainly causes one to think about and perceive certain things differently. Has for me at least.
That’s awful man, I’m sorry. Just be there for your wife and talk to someone if you need it. You guys will bounce back.
My wife had a miscarriage at about 12 weeks about four years ago. Her OB said about 1/3 of pregnancies end in miscarriage in the first trimester. Definitely more common that I initially perceived. It was hard for my wife not to second guess or blame herself. Just have to be supportive and reassure her that these things happen and she didn’t do anything wrong. Worst parts were an asshole pharmacist refusing to fill the script to make sure everything was cleared out on religious grounds. We had just left the hospital and were still traumatized. I’m generally non confrontational, but it took all of my self restraint not to make a huge scene. Ended up getting it filled at a pharmacy down the road. Also getting periodic letters from the hospital “chaplain” afterwards. All’s well that ends well though. We have a 2.5 year old daughter and another on the way in November.
So, uh, my 6yo drew this stuff Spoiler I don’t have an artistic bone in my body so this could finally get me out of here.
Time is flying. Faster and faster. 8 and 11. Just a random weekend spending at a resort - the kids love it. Raining all day but having a blast. Just watching them have fun is my enjoyment.