One day I woke up five years later

It looks like it has been about five years since my last post. So nothing much has changed......yeah right! 

My little artist

Not bad for a nine year old:)

The Adventures And Folleys Of The SAHD

I was a guest cook in my 6 year old's grade 1 class today. Me and 2 moms helped make spiders out of Ritz Crackers, peanut butter, chinese noodles and raisins. We got the kids to smear the peanut butter on one cracker then they put noodles around to be the legs, some had more legs than others. The other cracker went on top and the raisins were lightly blobbed with peanut butter and stuck on top for eyes. I thought the raisins would be dead flies but that was not the case. I had fun, I wore an apron that my grandpa leaves at my house for when we make sausage. It has the phrase "Lets get this show on the road!" The kids liked it.

After wards I came back home to pick up the table that I brought home to repair from the preschool. It had lost a leg, cheap IKEA junk. I farmerized it by drilling a hole through the leg and mounting it to the tabletop with a bolt. This was much simpler and more sturdy than the  way it originally was put together. I picked up the 2 year old from Grandma's place before going to get the four year old from preschool. Grandma is the only one who can get him to put on his socks and shoes so it was nice to be able to take him to the prescjool to get his sister fully clothed and shoed.

One of the most popular sayings around our house when we make mistakes is "AWWW MAN!" or another one is "AWWWW NUTS!". Jessie dropped something when she got into the van today and said "AWWW MAN!" and I followed with "AWWW NUTS!" and then she decided to put the two phrases together and blurted out "AWWWW MAN NUTS!"

The Adventures And Folleys Of The SAHD

I have once again taken on the role of Full time Stay At Home Dad since my wife has gone back to work full time. I was talking to a friend about it the other evening over coffee. He wanted to know how I am coping. I told him that I thought I would hate it but I am actually really enjoying it. He made the insightful observation that when he is at home with the kids (he has 6 and I have 4) things go well as long as he isn't trying to do his stuff while looking after them. That is so true. Because it is the number one task at hand, I can relax because I don't have anything else that I should be doing. Except there are situations that I find myself in from time to time like the one I find myself in as I blog this entry. A thought for a blog post came to me and I wanted to write about it before I lost it but of coarse my four year old is hovering around waiting for me to get off of the computer so we can go downstairs and play. There are always times like this that occur throughout the week, but in the bigger picture I am putting the child minding first on the priority list and the "me" projects behind it. So far this is a good job.

The dog has been stinking so bad lately because she rolled in something rotten. Finally I couldn't stand it anymore so I gave her a bath. I put my swimming trunks on because I new that I'd be getting wet. Well as soon as my four year old saw me in my trunks she began begging to go swimming. Since apart from bathing the dog I really had no other obligations today I gave in and got out the swimming bag. I thought I was being diligent in my packing efforts. I had the four year old put her swimsuit on under her clothes and put a fresh pair of underwear in the bag by herself. I packed the towels and made sure I had change for the locker. I dropped the two year old off with Grandma and headed off to the pool. Once in the change room I discovered that I had not brought pants along for myself. I had worn my trunks to the pool but unlike my daughter I did not put pants on over them. I wasn't about to go home and it is remarkably warm out today for November so I decided that I would just go home in my wet trunks afterward and that is what I did. I always bribe the kids with a quarter to put in the candy machine after swimming, it is the only way I can get any of them out of the pool. So I was changing my daughter when I realized that she had put her bathing suit over her underwear but at least she did bring another pair. She got her candy and we came home for lunch. All of this to say that there is a lot to remember when caring for one child let alone four! I told my wife in a somewhat despairing tone that I am having a hard time trying to keep up. She smiled. She on the other hand has also had moments of despair about not being at home with the kids. It is an adjustment, but for the most part we are having a good time. A neat thing about this swimming trip is that I am almost certain it was the first time that I have gone swimming alone with my four year old. Being one of four kids she doesn't get the one on one time very often.

The Hidden Mickey

One of the things that our family likes to do when visiting Disneyland is to search for Hidden Mickeys around the park. Hidden Mickeys are subtle silhouettes of Mickey Mouse' head that can be found in the intricate details of the finishes throughout the theme parks. Our 4 year old has now caught on and thinks that she finds Hidden Mickeys all over the place. The other afternoon after disappearing to the bathroom, she called out "Mommy! I found a Hidden Mickey in the toilet!" after looking at each other and smirking, my wife and I went to check out this Hidden Mickey and sure enough our 4 year old was right. She had managed to squeeze out a little round head with two round ears! Gross I know, but very impressive. I thought about taking a photo but I didn't. My 2 year old wanted to check out the Mickey Mouse in the toilet because he too has caught the Disney bug and though he can't say many words he can say Mouse when referring to Mickey. And so it was he waved and said "bye mouse" as Mickey's head swirled away.

1/2 Way to New Years Day

Soooo how are those New Years Resolutions coming along? Luckily for me I set the bar pretty low this year. I did have big intentions of losing some weight but well.

Hamburgers are the best food in the whole world! They are so tasty and good. The textures, the blends of flavour oh I love hamburgers.