Pump it up fun!

This weekend was a lot of fun, but I am sore.  Five years ago the story that goes with that would have been completely different … This past weekend however involved a lot of kids and inflated playhouses.  Yep, we went to one of those party places that have the huge slides, obstacle courses and this one had a basketball court. As I’ve said before we have an 8 year old (T), an 18 month old (G) and a 2 month old (S).  So of course ‘T’ had a blast and goes there at least once a summer with his daycare.  He made a quick friend, as you do at that age, and was sweaty in five minutes.  I don’t think I saw him again until pizza time.  We didn’t know how ‘G’ would take it though. Would she be shy and scared?  There were a lot of people there and she is not exposed to that very often.  We decided to ease her into the whole bouncy world (aka unstable ground) by starting off in the basketball court.  I climbed in with her and bounced her around while she was on her hands and knees not yet sure about her balance on this weird moving floor.  Still, the whole time she wore a huge smile!  I think she decided she wanted to explore some more and crawled to the netted opening and shot right thru.  ‘G’ toddled around the center until she came to this huge slide that must have looked like a mountain to her.  For a while she just stood at the bottom and stared in amazement at the kids coming at her at blazing speeds, huge smiles on their faces.  One of the other dads was the first to test the waters; he and his son climbed to the top and came down.   ‘G’ saw this and just started her point and grunt (her communication method to me saying “my turn”).  Hesitant I picked her up and started up the foam steps to the top, approximately 20 ft in the air.  I could feel the anticipation in her body as she couldn’t wait to see what would happen next.  She sat on my lap and away we went…  The look on her face at the bottom was one of sheer excitement/amazement.  I had one of those “daddy” moments realizing that I had just made my little girl’s day, not to mention I had quite a bit of fun.  After 20 plus more trips to the top, half way thru ‘G’ started climbing herself, I was physically exhausted, full of happy emotion!  We moved on to the obstacle course which provided more smiling excitement but not like that slide.  This weekend wasn’t one of the complicated days, but it was one of the sweetest yet!!!

Grandparent Favortism?

We are, what my wife calls, a blended family, my son is from another marriage so it goes without saying that some situations are complicated/blown out of proportion.  Take for instance; we had pics done for the newborn.  We paid a lady to come to our house and take professional shots of the newborn. She brought some cute props (baskets, cute striped toboggan hat, and bean bag) and plain backgrounds (black, white, purple wrap).  We chose to do it this way because with our other daughter we went to one of those studios that is less expensive per sheet but they also employ teenagers that have no real artistic skill, at no fault of their own, they just hold a camera and shoot against backgrounds that the studio provides.  They don't update those backgrounds very often either.  Of course while deciding we looked into that studio and realized that we would have all the same shots as our first daughter. Repeated.  We still spent several hundred dollars with our first and half the photos are still in the basement 18 months later collecting dust.  So I said if we are going to spend that kind of money again, which is fine they are only that small once and it should be documented, then they are going to be good and we aren't going to have a shitload left over afterward.  We are also being terrible children because we are going to make the families pay for the photos instead of giving them as presents.

So we did the photo shoot and everything went well.  The newborn was very good and took some great pics.  Of course she did... she is a newborn and absolutely adorable!  Since our other daughter is only 17 months old her cute curiosity got the best of her and she hopped in some of the pics too.  They turned out really good; there were a couple of really good shots of them cheek to cheek.  But anyway... My son was only included in the family shots. We didn't feel it was necessary to have him do any just with the newborn. The 8 year age gap just makes for some awkward photos, he is not entirely comfortable holding such a young child.  However, that opens the door for complicated debate.  My wife's standpoint is that she wants pics of HER daughters and shouldn't feel obligated, mainly by my parents, to always include my son.  Of course I am on the fence; it is difficult for me to solely support either standpoint.  But since she is my wife I do tend to keep her happy.  And so as a compromise we included him in the family picture but we also just took a pic of the four of us (my wife and I and the two girls).  This infuriates my parents though.  They 100% disagree with ever NOT including him.  They believe that he should be in every shot.  But we DO include him; just because he is not in every photo doesn't in any way mean we leave him out of anything.  Going on a family vacation without him... yes that would be leaving him out (and we would NEVER do that), not cutting him from a few pictures... 

The problem is, and I am starting to agree, is that my parents are so intent on including my son that they are actually excluding both of our daughters.  The pics are a good example because my parents ordered a 5x7 of the family and a 4x6 of our newest addition to the family!  That sent my wife off the deep end and with good reason.  There are multiple 8x10 of my son in my parents’ house and at least one of our oldest daughter.  There won't be any large photos of my parent's newest granddaughter...  That upsets me too!  She IS one of my children and I expect them to love her just the same!  I am sure that my parents will try to make the argument that $30 for an 8x10 is expensive but they will hand me a $50 gift card to Wal-Mart next week!  Also to mute the money excuse... they are going to spend $32 on the two pics that they are getting.  One of which is the family photo that is not really that good.   So spend your $30 on the 8x10!  In addition, if they want 4x6 of the newborn I can print them 175 (from shutterfly for example) for the price they are paying for one! Come on admit it my wife is right, you refuse to buy a big pic because my son is not in it...

All of this is definitely solidifying my wife's defense and I am starting to agree.  They are all my children and I am starting to take offense that you won't love them individually.  Why do they always have to all be together?  When we did our Christmas card this year, it included an individual shot of all the kids and one of them all sitting together.  Why is a photo of the two babies together such a taboo that you can't buy at least one photo.  The two little girls are adorable and even if my son was a child of my current wife and I, I would still just take pics of the two little girls.  You are not betraying my son just because he is not in every photo on your wall.  He came along 7 years before our oldest daughter together.  There are many photos of him without the girls, why can't there be a few photos of just the girls? 

I believe wholeheartedly in equality for my children but this is starting to seem like exclusion just because the oldest grandchild isn't in a pic. What are your thoughts?  Are my wife and I being unrealistic/unfair to my son?

It's Complicated, but sweet!

Since this is my first blog it is only fair to share a quick little background...

I am a father of three.  My oldest is a son, Taylor, 8 years old.  I have two beautiful daughters Grace and Sophie, age 18 months and 1 month respectively.

The purpose of this blog is just a little daily journal with no pressure to publish every day...

Like most nights...  last night for Sophie was good, she slept from 11pm 'til 2am and when my wifes' boobs woke her I woke the baby.  I got up, picked her up and took her to the play pen where we change diapers and proceeded to do the "dooty" (haha, bad pun).  Same as if you had your undies ripped off in the middle of the night, it woke her up and she realized she was hungry too!  So I handed her to my wife and she fed her and I went back to bed.  Rinse and repeat at around 4:30 or 5.  However somehow this morning it worked out that the baby was eating about 6:15 and I had the alarm set for 6:30 to get ready for work.  Grace decide to wake up about this time too.  Most mornings we try to get her to sleep later than this by putting her in our bed downstairs.  I laid back down too just to help her back to sleep.  Next thing I know it is 6:55 and I am now in panic mode to get ready for work and Taylor ready for school.  I get Taylor's lunch made get a shower and get ready.  Meanwhile my efforts to keep Grace asleep didn't work, she was up anyway and I'm late.... Oh well such is life! :)  She was going back to Mommy's day out today anyway so it helps mommy that she is already awake.  Taylor and I get out the door with technically plenty of time to get to school/work.  Typical senseless panic....

Work was same as usual, so-so.  I got some work done without working too hard....  ha ha  I love my job just less motivated some days than others.  Had lunch with a friend at work.

Mommy called and informed me on the Mommy's day out outing.  Grace really enjoyed her first day back after a month break.  She walked in like a big girl, which helped Mommy immensely.  The only real point of mention for the morning was the phone call I received from my slightly panicked wife saying she couldn't figure out how to open her gas tank door.  Now before you scratch your head and say "how is that possible?"  we just purchased a 2006 Nissan Quest 2 weeks ago and had yet to put gas in it.  Luckily I had seen the button on the drivers side door a day or two ago and neutralized the situation quickly.  Thank goodness, because as a Father/Husband I hate to see my wife in panic mode and fail to be able to provide a solution.

On a side note, yes we joined the minivan club.  We realized with 3 passengers there was just no way around the 3rd row seating necessary.  It seemed cruel to shove an 8 year old between two strapped-in, over-sized car-seats...

The evening after work was fairly uneventful.  Grace chased her older brother around the living room for a while until one of the ladies at church brought us dinner.   After dinner Taylor played some Wii and Grace got a bath.  One really cute point of interest was while Taylor was playing Wii, Grace picked a remote case and started mimicking Taylor playing Wii.  My wife and I both looked at each other with that "that's soooo friggin' cute" look.

It was a good day, we are prepared/looking forward to many more.