My son does listen, and I am proud of him

Just a quick moment to brag.  Mostly about what a great job my wife is doing raising our children and how proud I am of my son.  He is growing up and is proving to be a kind, compassionate, smart, and funny young man.

Andrew and his friends have invented a game at school called, "Ben Ball".  two of his friend's names are Ben.  Not the most original, but still, it is a game with rules and is fun and everyone has gotten along for almost two weeks playing Ben ball at the lunch recess.  The game involves taking turns kicking a soccer ball against a wall.  If you touch the ball more than twice or if the ball bounces before it hits the wall, the other person gets a point.

So the problem started about a week ago when two other boys lurked on the sides, and when the ball was kicked towards them, they would grab the ball and run away.  Instead of Ben Ball, it turned in to keep away with my son and his group of friends getting frustrated.  Well, sure enough, keep away turned into "smear the queer".  That's what we called it when I was younger, but of course that is politically incorrect now.  The two boys were chasing after the ball and Lizzie, one of Andrews friends, pushed the boy out of the way so he would not get the ball.  He fell, and as the Asst Principal told us, "he had abrasions".  In my day, if you tripped on the playground you skinned your knee, but now that has elevated to "abrasions"   To make a long story short, the boy was hurt, Lizzie got detention because of a zero tolerance policy for violence, and Ben Ball has been banned.  So, the school has taught our kids that if you organize a game with clear rules and are having fun, but a bully comes and takes your ball, the school will reward the bully and punish you.  Nice lesson!

So, back to the original point of all of this story...I was proud of Andrew.  First, of the seven or eight boys who play Ben Ball. Andrew was the only one who went to the office and talked with the asst principal on Lizzie's behalf and tried to present their side of the story.  She did compliment him and told us he was very well spoken with grown ups.  Yes, we have taught him that since he was three years old and we kind of assumed all kids were like that.  Anyway, the boy who was pushed over by Lizzie, is named Brandon.  Andrew and his group of friends went to Willamette Elementary and Brandon and the other boy, Lucas, went to Stafford Elementary.  Herein lies the problem.  In addition, Andrew and Brandon know each other because their sisters play on the same soccer team.  At the soccer practices, they play together without a problem, but not so at lunch recess.

My wife Dana, being the smart parent in our house, talked with Andrew and said, maybe they just want to play Ben ball with you guys.  Andrew said that they had never asked, but Dana persisted and said that maybe they didn't know how or were nervous because all of you were from Willamette elementary.  So, yesterday at the girl's soccer practice as I coached my 3rd grade phenoms, Andrew and Brandon played and talked and had a great time.  On the way home, Andrew said to me, "mom was right".  I asked what that meant and he said that he liked Brandon and he did want to play Ben Ball with him.  Andrew invited him to play with them and eat lunch with them, too.  Brandon said that Lucas was his only friend and he really wanted to join their group of boys, but didn't know about Lucas.  Without missing a beat, Andrew said, "Lucas can join us too."

I am proud of my son, he is growing up.  I am lucky to have married such a smart woman who is the best thing that has ever happened to my children.  They will never know how much impact she has on their lives.

Halloween Costumes

It is two weeks before Halloween and the great costume debate is in full swing at our house.  Delaney has gone from some Harry Potter character to a Pumpkin Fairy to now a Pop Star with her best friend wearing a matching outfit. I made the mistake of asking what kind of clothes a "Rock Star" wears and i was quickly corrected by Delaney that she was a "Pop Star" not a "Rock Star".  I asked what the difference was and she responded that "Rock Stars sing rock songs and Pop Stars sing pop songs". 

True enough, but as you grow older and you are tired of screeching teenagers swooning with pretend lust, you become a rock star wearing t-shirts, playing to live crowds, tour buses, and groupies.  Your music expands beyond just the Top 40 stations and you actually become a musician.

Wouldn't it be nice if my kids remained pop star fans but listened to rock star music?

Trying to get kids to eat vegetables

Nothing serious, but I found it funny the other day in the paper that even grocery stores have problems trying to get people to eat vegetables. Check out the weekly ad from the grocery store. That's right! If you buy potato chips, then they will throw in up to $2 of fruits and vegetables free! But really, potato chips are a vegetable already, this would just let you eat more vegetables.

As parents, I am sure that we have all experienced the agonizing stall tactics of a child and the pleading, bargaining, threatening, and mental anguish that we suffer when we ask our children to have another bite of peas. In my day, my mother and father would tell me how Popeye loved spinach and if I wanted to grow strong like Popeye, I would need to eat spinach. My daughter Delaney learned that a "couple" is two people and that means that a "couple of bites" is two bites. That was when we had to change our language to "please have a few more bites" She still doesn't know how many a few is but she knows it is more than a couple.

So tonight, over dinner, and the children stall on the last few bites of peas, carrots, or zucchini, try and offer them potato chips and see if it works for you.

What am I doing with this blog...

As you can tell by the infrequent and sporadic bursts of energy with these blog posts, I am not sure what I am supposed to be doing with a blog. You hear every now and then about some teenager or housewife or someone out in the world that has 7 million followers and their blog is being optioned for a book or movie deal and while having someone pay me all that money would be nice, I do not think that is my blog's purpose. On the flip side, i hear of Blog's that are the technical expert in some area and people read them and consult these blog authors and experts in their fields. NPR always interviews these people and I think to myself are they really any more knowledgeable than me or are they just friends of the announcer who have a blog title that sounds relevant to the topic being discussed?

Either way, I have decided that this blog will be about my life. As the title reads, it will be about a wife, 2 kids, and a mortgage. We will also touch on my life and the dog that lives with us, too.

So, let's start by recounting a funny story and how we are raising our kids. About a month ago, we (my wife and two kids) were driving to a car repair shop to pick up our car and our route went along 82nd Ave. This is the street that is in every city of any size where enterprising young women tend to gather to sell their services to gentlemen clients passing by in cars. As we drove by an adult bookstore, my wife Dana asked "why are they always painted a bright purple? Is that a code or something?" We drive another block and we pass a woman on the sidewalk. Dana says. "did you see that hooker?"

I replied, "how do you know that? Was it because she was wearing a purple skirt?" And when I say the word "skirt" it was short and covered very little. I then spent the next mile on the way to the repair shop pointing to every person wearing purple and saying "another hooker" whether they were male or female, whether they were driving a car or not, and so on.

So, where is this story going? We pick up my sister at the repair shop and drove her back to her house. As we were driving home, we passed a group of teenagers at a bus stop and my 11-tear old son, Andrew, sitting in the back seat says, "did you see all those "lookers" at the bus stop?"

"What?" I replied.

"The people wearing purple. All those "lookers" at the bus stop."

After the peels of laughter from me and my wife have ceased, Dana politely explains that the correct word is "hooker" and it is not really a nice word to describe someone. She said, "if you call someone a "looker", then you are telling them they are really pretty. If you call someone a "hooker", then you are trying to pay them money to have sex with you."

Andrew sat in embarrassed silence the rest of the way home.

Summer time means swim lessons

This summer is the summer that my children will finally learn how to swim. I am determined to do it. Both of them are finally comfortable in the water, but there is a huge brick wall in their heads that says, we can't swim. i have seen them swim from one side of the pool to the other in shallow water where they can touch the bottom if necessary. I have seen them body surf in the waves on a Hawaiian beach with no fear of anything because they can touch the sandy bottom. But as soon as the water is too deep to touch bottom, panic, fear, petrified children start to cry they cannot swim.

We went to a pool yesterday and they jumped on the side with cannonballs seeing who could make the bigger splash and had contests to see who could float the furthest across the pool. Andrew beat Delaney in a hand stand contest and they scoured the bottom time after time to get the diving torpedo from the bottom of the pool. But there was no deep end, no diving board, no chance.

I tell you, this summer is the time...

What does the toothfairy do with teeth?

It is a New Year, which around our house means cleaning up, going through the house and donating stuff to Goodwill. Straightening things around the house and declaring your resolution to be better organized and productive and get more things done and lose 10 pounds, although the last few years it has escalated to 20 pounds.

Anyway, I was going through the bathroom drawers and figuring that I didn't need three toothbrushes and discovering that I should not buy another razor until June or until I use all the ones that I bought in the giant bag from Costco, whichever takes longer, when I came across my stash of children's teeth. The first tooth I pulled was so small and the sentimental side of me said I should keep it and scrapbook it or save it some how so i could always remember how small my children were. But now, I have 9 or 10 or 12 teeth wrapped in Kleenex in my bathroom drawer. They are probably some bio-hazard, but they are my children's teeth and throwing them in the garbage just does not feel right. I feel like I am throwing a part of my children away. Yet, I know that people my throw the teeth away, it only makes sense.

So, for now, they still sit in my drawer, until the end of the month. Then, I will take the big step forward, I think, if I am ready.