My Oldest Son Doesn’t Like His Name!

Linus awaits the Great Pumpkin. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Hmmmm.  I seemed to have had quite the dilemma here in the urban daddy household last month when my oldest child, 7-year-old “Linus”, told me he doesn’t like his blog name.

He said it’s “yucky”.

“Do you know why I call you Linus on my blog?” I asked him… “Do you even know who Linus is?” I continued.

“Nope”.  He replied.

So I went scrolling back through my older posts and I showed him this post from February 20th, 2008;

http://urbandaddy.wordpress.com/2008/02/20/re-introducing-the-urbandaddy-family/

In that post I explain to my readership that I will be referring to my oldest son as “Linus” instead of the “Happy Boy”.  Not because he’s not happy anymore, but because the similarities between him and the character Linus are striking.

Let’s take note:
Though young, Linus is unusually smart.
Everyone likes to think their child is smart, but we have had Linus tested and we know that he is unusually smart especially in mathematics and music.  He does have very strong language skills (often using words like actually, & similar at the age of 2-years-old.  He makes interesting connections, and has a fabulous memory.  He hasn’t quoted philosophers or found the Great Pumpkin yet, but at the time of this comparison, he was just 3!  Now that he’s 7, he’s doing just that (without the Great Pumpkin).

 

In addition, Linus is almost never without his blue blanket(s), which in our case, is striped.  And we don’t let it out of the house, although, if we did, believe me, it would be with him everywhere.  And like Linus’ blanket, Blankie has magical powers.  If Linus falls and hurts himself, blankie makes the pain feel better.  If he’s scared, Blankie makes him feel less so.

 

I let him read that post and he thought it was pretty cool, but he was not convinced.  He also asked about “Stewie”.

 

So here is what I told him about his “little” brother, our second child, the one we used to call the weed because he was exceptionally long when he was born and continues to grow tall and long.  We started calling him ”Stewie”.  Yes, him.  While Stewie is one inch shorter than Linus right now, and wearing the same size clothing for a boy 22 months younger that Linus, we felt Stewie better fit his character.

Our Stewie is a character and a half.  He’s stubborn, he’s tough and I swear he’s trying to kill us.  He’s very on the ball, he’s very bright and has been known to mutter obscenities in a British accent.  No.  That last bit I made up.  Our Stewie is always thinking..  Always plotting and like the character on the show, Family Guy, has a fondness for chatting to animals. 

I mentioned numerous times in the past that I felt Stewie was trying to kill me – he was the cause of my herniated disk in my back and he arrives at my bed at night and just stands there… Staring at me.  It’s kind of creepy, to be honest, but he’s determined to get what he wants even if he has to stand by my bed when I fall back to sleep after I’ve told him to go back to his room.  

Stewie Griffin (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As for our youngest and only daughter, we called her “Berry” from birth, for reasons I think only family and friends understand, but changed her name to “Boo” after she was featured in the show at Disney this past summer. 

The post about that change is right here; http://urbandaddy.wordpress.com/2012/08/30/a-change-at-the-urban-daddy-blog-bye-bye-berry-welcome-boo/ 

So after all the explaining all this to him, I took to YouTube and showed Linus video about the Linus character on Peanuts and I watched as his serious face turned to a smile when he realized the similarities. 

He turned to me and said; “When I start my own blog, I’m going to refer to myself as Linus too.”

Whew.

Dodged a bullet.

Have any of you had issues with your kids and the names you chose for them on your blog or have you decided to use their real names?

Are you hungrier than a 5-year-old?

Are you hungrier than a 5-year-old?

I doubt you are hungrier than my 5-year-old!

Let me preface this by saying when we moved 2 years ago into our new house the first thing we did was re-do part of the kitchen to allow for a much bigger fridge for Stewie.  The fridge that came with the house was not going to be enough for the 6 of us (Me, Urban Mummy, Linus, Stewie, Berry and our Nanny – let’s call her “Gamay”), but we were most concerned about Stewie!  This boy can eat and he’s only 5.  He’ll eat us out of house and home by the time he is 13-years-old.

For example, in the car on our way up to T&T grocery in the Promenade Mall in lovely Thornhill, Ontario on the weekend Ms. Urban Daddy was engaging the children, asking them what they wanted to be when they grew up when Stewie bubbled up and asked if there were going to be “samples” at T&T?  His mind is almost always on food.

As an aside, if you have never been to a T&T grocery store, you must go there!  There is a location in the Promenade Mall in Thornhill. and one on Cherry beach in downtown Toronto.  T&T is owned by Loblaws and they carry Asian foods.  Our children love T&T because of the samples they give out during the day and for the fresh dim sum and sushi they make which we pretty much always buy and eat for lunch or afternoon snack.

When the kids hear T&T they know they’re going to eat while we shop and since the samples are of things we hope our kids will want to eat, like tofu, fish balls, dumplings, and many other unique items we would never think to include in our very healthy diet.

Instead of buying a product, like fish balls, for example and experimenting at home, the kids can give thumbs up and thumbs down to them on the spot and if they like it and will eat it, we can buy it.  It makes a lot of sense and is a great way to expand any child’s food options.

The sample stations at T&T are usually manned and the kids know to ask nicely and in return they are given one sample to try unless there are different flavours and they want to try them too.  I won’t let them try coffee, or sweets or anything we will not purchase – like pork products – but we have tried some pretty crazy samples over the years.

The one sample per station rule works for everyone except Stewie – who already at 5 eats more in a meal that his 5 foot 11, 230 pound father (me).  At the store he tries pretty much everything and if he likes it – and if the food station is unmanned, he’ll eat and eat and eat until someone catches him.  He always uses a new toothpick, he’s a bit of a clean freak that way, and he’s not a pig eating everything he just casually takes another, then another with a giant smile on his face.  Free food!

That penchant for eating reminded me of our last cruise.

The last cruise we went on, when the off shore excursion was to the cruise lines private island, we got up, ate a huge breakfast, then hopped on the tender to the island.  By 9am we were baking in the hot sun, playing in the sand with the shells and laying on a raft.letting the tide take us away, when out of nowhere, Stewie started to get VERY agitated.

It was not just past 10:30am and the anger turned to frustration, which turned to tears.

We brought him back to the beach chair and spoke with him about what was bothering him.  The sun?  The heat?  The sand?

It was none of those.

He was hungry.

Fortunately, the cruise ship was setting up a lunch buffet on the island and were almost done getting it ready, so Ms. Urban Mummy walked over and came back with some fruit, some veggies and some water.

But Stewie did not want any of that…

So all of us walked over to the buffet and immediately, Stewie saw what he wanted.

“I want a burger!” he proclaimed.

“At 10:30am?” I questioned.

“Yes!  I want a burger!!!” he said, with his voice borderline agitated, frustrated and again close to tears.

“Okay” we said and by 10:45am after a huge breakfast 2 hours earlier, Stewie was eating a burger.  We could see his demeanor changing as he was eating it.  There were some blood sugar levels dipping here.  But good little Stewie was not done with his first burger… He needed a second one, which he ate quite happily if my memory serves me correctly.  He was still 4-years-old at this time, too.

Then after being burned to a crisp, we headed back to the ship for nap time for Stewie and Berry at which point, Stewie started to put up a stink as he was, “hungry”.

So I took him upstairs to the buffet and we sat at he ate yet more food.

Man can that kid pack away the food.

I should have seen this coming.  This is the same kid who at about 1 1/2 years old was sitting in his high chair at a family resort just north of Toronto eating a meal – soup I believe – and very slowly, when the waitress came and took away the inch left in his bowl.  He did NOT like this and spent the rest of the week with his head on a swivel and every time a waitress walked near the table – ours or others – and he would wag his pointer finger and say, “Never , ever, ever take Stewie’s food away”.

Possessive a little?

His behaviour there came to light in his little sister last week when we at dinner at Safari on Avenue Road in Toronto, when 2-year-old Berry needed to go pee.  She looked back at the table and said, “don’t touch my food”, “don’t let anyone take my food”, “I’m still eating”. and she kept mumbling “I’m still eating” over and over again as she walked to the bathroom.  When she returned and her food was still there, she smiled and with a look of relief on her face, she said, “Oh!  My food is still here.  I came back, and my food is still here!”.

But back to Stewie… There was the time we went to St. Thomas, Ontario to see and take a ride on Thomas the Tank Engine and Stewie was probably 3-years-old.  After a full day of fun we went out for dinner to – of course – the Mandarin Restaurant.  After eating a pretty large meal, matching me plate for plate, I went to get a soup to wind down my meal and with that soup I grabbed 2 teriyaki shrimp to eat.

Stewie finishing his second bowl of soup too, turned to me nd said, “I want shrimp!”.

How did he know what shrimp were?

Okay, so I went back to the buffet and brought him back 2 peeled shrimp.  He stuffed them in his mouth so fast, Urban Mummy couldn’t take a picture of him eating them.

He finished and asked for more.

After bringing him another 10 shrimps, we were laughing as were the elderly couple sitting beside us watching how much food this boy has packed away.  Figuring he should stop before he explodes, I brought him teriyaki shrimp instead but he loved those too.

So fast forward now, and we’re all finished eating, when Stewie after finishing his 32nd shrimp declares that he is full.

We gasp, and pack up the family feeling sorry for the Mandarin who made money on the few noodles that Linus ate but lost a ton of the massive amounts of food that my skinny 3-year-old just hoovered back.

That trait remains to this day.

Just last week Urban Mummy made mini-pizza’s for the family.  5 small ones for Linus and Berry to split, 3 for her, 3 for me and 3 for Stewie.  She ate 1 and a half. I managed to eat 2 – but probably should have stopped at 1 and a half as well, while Stewie ate all three and needed a snack before bed.

And yes, we have had him tested for worms.

He’s fine.

He’s hungry.

He’s a growing boy!

Thursday Thirteen – You know you have lost touch with the adult world when…

Hello to my happy readers. As my 2-year-old daughter Berry would say with much excitement in her voice, “You came back!!!”.  For those of you who are first time readers, welcome, feel free to come back at any time, and if you’ve come here accidentially, thanks for the hit and please come back unless you are looking for Santa Claus porn. 

Because I’m a giant loser, I find myself not needing to dip into the almost 80 blog posts sitting in my draft folder for this weeks Thursday Thirteen, but instead I felt compelled to reach out to my readers with kids and form a bond.

Below you will find the 13 ways in which I realized I have lost touch with the adult world.

Sit tight and here we go.

13. I saw what appeared to be 2 hookers walking through the side streets near Eglinton and Allen Road last night in mid-town Toronto, on my way home from the office – probably heading to one of the many massage places with neon lights that light up on the very quiet Eglinton strip (pun intended) after dark.

For some reason even I cannot explain, I began singing this following song – out loud – in my car, to the tune of the Dora the Explorer theme;

Do do do DO do DO do… Hookers.
Do do do DO do DO do… Hookers.
Hookers, hookers, HOOKERS on Eglinton.
Hookers…

If you know the theme, you know what I mean.

12. I sit down in front of the television infrequently and instead of checking out the regular stations, Ch22 - Sportsnet, Ch30 TSN, Ch53 Headline sports and Ch 418 the NHL network, my fingers immediately press ch65 which is Treehouse TV.  A bad habit indeed because once the kids catch a glimpse of one of their shows the begging begins.

11. Like my kids, I have found myself not caring about the colour of my socks when I head into the office. It used to be black socks for everything unless I’m wearing blue pants, then it would be blue socks and brown socks for brown pants but because my kids regularly wear, for example, an orange shirt, with green pants and red socks, I’m feeling their vibe. I’m not sure those without kids would understand other than to think I’m  losing my mind.

10. I heard a song by Anthrax called “I’m Alive” which I really love right now but instead of singing that I find myself singing a children song that has words in it like, Syria, Oman, Pakistan… and what’s worse about this is that Stewie played it for me on my birthday saying “It’s daddy’s favourite song”. He knows it and I don’t. DOH!

9. I needed to move an icon from my iPad into a folder and ended up giving it to Linus to close off once I finally figured out how to move it – UrbanMummy showed me how to move them but not how to turn it off.  He knew without hesitation.

8. I needed to get through a level of Plants Vs. Zombies but couldn’t figure out how, so I gave it to Linus and Stewie and they had it done in 2 games. That used to be me…

7. I need to make more guy’s nights out to talk about real world topics not having to do with, or involving diapers, trips, programs or any more to deal with a vasectomy.

6. I have read over 1000 children’s books in the past year, and precisely 1 pleasure book for my interest and it was a Dan Brown book which I polished off in just under 2 weeks.

5. Before my ball-hockey game on Monday night, instead of my normal pre-game ritual of pasta, Advil, tums/rolaids, stretching and very loud aggressive rock to get my mind focussed, I took tips from Linus (who hates hockey and has seen me play twice) and his tips WORKED!   In honour of Ron Simmons who is going into the WWE Hall of Fame, I say this; “DAMN”.

4. See the previous discussion about my kids clothing “style” and wonder why it is that I ask them if my clothes match in the morning before I leave for the office.  That’s like me asking Urban Mummy who tells me I look fine when the room is pitch black and she cannot see me, and is the first to comment when I arrive home at the ned of the day with; “You wore THAT to work today?!?”

3.  As Daddy carpool, I take my kids to karate, swimming, parties, Beavers and any other kid only or family outing (like trips to sleepyville) and I am unable to yell or swear at other cars, bikes or people.  I also am banned from singing in the car or listening to my music. 

2.  I spend so much time in the children’s rooms at night – bedtime routine is happily my task – that my daughter has said to me repeatedly, “You have no bed.  Stewie in Stewie’s bed, Linus in Linus’ bed, Mummy in mummy’s bed and Berry in Berry’s big girl bed.  you have no bed.”  No matter how many times I have tried to convince her than mummy and daddy sleep in the same bed she won’t buy it because she never sees me there.  She’s 2.  Yet, I try to convince her over and over again.  Why is that?  It’s a giant waste of time with a 7-year-old, let alone a 2-year-old.

1.  I spend my days waking up at 6am when the kids get up.  I wipe butts, I smell hands, I smell stinky breath, I deal in diapers (thankfully no more poo).  I cook on demand, entertain on demand, feed on demand.  I’m their bitch.  I keep the TV low at night when watching sports.  I have not watched a movie which has suggestive content, the potential for nudity or swearing or inappropriate TV in 7 years.  What’s up with that?

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Happy 5th Birthday Stewie!

Happy 5th birthday to my son I call “Stewie” here in Urbandaddyville. 

We were so happy when you turned 4 because you were as big as a 4-year-old and no one believed that you were 3.  Now that you are 5 you look like you are 6.  You and your 6-year-old brother share the same the same size shirts and pants, and you’re 4cm shorter than him. 

You wanted a bag of marbles for your birthday and you got it.

You wanted a magician for your birthday (but not Tricky Ricky) and you wanted cupcake decorating at our home but just yesterday you asked us if you could have your party at Active Kids Zone.  Your party is Tuesday.  There are 24 kids coming.  It’s too late to make these changes, and we’re not using AKZ since they refused to refund our money for a camp that your brother was sick for.

You went this afternoon to write your journal.

The worse your brother behaves, the better you do.

You have developed a bond with your baby sister because you can boss her around and she loves it.

You told us school was boring – after 2 days - because all they made you do was colour.

You have not slept through the night or in your own bed for the last 5 months.

You’re awesome!

We love you.  Happy Birthday.

It must be Sunday… I can’t wait for work to get everything done!

Whew.  I made it to Sunday night.  That’s a big deal considering what this week held for me and what next week has in store.

Before I begin, however, can I ask that someone… Anyone… Remind me via the comment section to this blog, or through my urban daddy Facebook page, or @urbandaddyblog on Twitter about this comment should I mention it ever again in the future.  Thanks.

Here is the comment:  I think my daughter, Berry, may be a little OCD.  Why?  Because I asked her to help clean up in the kitchen earlier today and I caught her laying on her tummy on the floor.  I thought she was playing, or looking under the table, but no, she brought over to me a poppy seed.  Yup.  A poppy seed from a bagel. 

She had me remove it from in between her fingers as she said, “clean up.  Dirty”.

At first I thought it was humourous, until she brought me another, then I stopped her when she went for more.

 

So I never made it to the CIBC Run for the Cure since I finally succumbed to the horrible flu that felled my entire family over the past few weeks.  The highlight of the weekend for me had to be falling asleep while playing with my daughter for an hour when my wife had the boys out at the Science Centre.  She merrily played on.

Don’t forget you can also subscribe to my feed, and “like” me on Facebook.  Don’t miss a single “exciting” post.

 

True to my word, I took the Country Style challenge, day one, and I picked up a large 2 cream, 2 sugar (not to be confused with the Tim Horton’s large double double) and considering it was 5pm and I expected the coffee to be bitter, I found it to be okay.  I went to the location at Dufferin, just north of Roselawn – a drive through and got a not so white, very sweet cup of coffee which seemed to get better as it cooled.  I can’t help but think that these guys would be better off settling on 2nd fiddle after Tim Horton’s – possibly through offering a better food option, but there is no way these guys compare to Starbucks.  IMHO.

I also was leery about having the coffee there so late since I know Timmy’s has that 20 minute fresh pot policy, and I’m sure CS does not.  For all I knew that pot could have been simmering for an hour.

 

Another memorable moment from this past weekend was Stewie singing the entire Dora the Explorer theme song to Berry.  He knew every word and was on key.  Sure he hates that show… LOL.  At least I prefer this behaviour than his frequent attempts to get Berry to play with him, or follow him. 

This is a common occurence between him and her;

Him: Berry!  Come play with me.

Her: NO!

Him: Yes.  Come play.

Her: NO play, Stewie.

Him: Want ice cream?

Her: Yes!!!  Want ice cream, please.

So she follows him.

 

Now remove “ice cream” and replace with key Berry-favoured words like “Dora” and “Chocolate”.

This explains why she woke up last weekend from afternoon nap shouting, “Berry want ice cream, please”.

 

So you want children, eh?

So… You really want children, eh?  I certainly did.  Now that I’m exhausted and running around every weekend taking the three of them to birthday parties, I have a different perspective on how to keep these kids from beating each other up on a daily basis.

Here are some things the kids have done in the past few days which I had to share.

The other night after Stewie went to bed, I heard music coming from Linus’ room.  I walked inside and there he was sitting on rug in the middle of his room, clock radio playing some am radio station, and his little sister Berry dancing in front of him.

“Change the station, Daddy”, he said.  “Put on something with a Rockstar” he said as he strummed his imaginary guitar. 

I put Q107 and Enter Sandman was playing .  He stood up and started dancing with his sister.  Then he got down on the floor and started break-dancing.  I was laughing but I sat down on the edge of the bed to watch.  The highlight was when he got off the floor and said to Berry, “your turn” at which point she lay down on the carpet and began breakdancing too. 

Hilarious.

The kids and I danced for a couple more songs, then we all went off to bed.

 

Tonight after having a going-to-bed snack Berry was laying on our bed with my wife.  We have developed a routine to get Berry into her crib without freaking out.  I ask her who is in her bed, and her and I name off the stuffed animals sleeping in her crib. 

Tonight as I picked her up off the bed she reached out to her arms, looked me straight in the eyes, and said to me “dumb ass”.

Still resenting that brilliant idea of mine to teach her those words.

 

This morning Linus was annoying me, our nanny and his brother – par for the course.  He had a piece of “mail” in his hand – something written on lined paper folded in four and with a sticker of the Thing on it.  I was running around trying to get him ready for school – Stewie was too sick to go but then decided he was going and I had a lot on my mind so when he tried to give me the mail, I waved him off.  I’m pretty sure he tried again but I ignored him on that too. 

Fast forward to this afternoon, I found that piece of mail in my laptop bag.  It was the letter.  I opened it up and it read;

“I love you”.

I looked at it.  I choked up.

I thought about him the whole way home and when he greated me at the door I gave him a huge hug and a kiss and told him I loved him too.

Kids…

 

The eating habits of a 4-year-old

Tonight as I gave my son a before bed snack, I was planning on preparing his usual snack – a bowl of plain yogurt with berries (fresh or frozen) and “seeds” which are usually some flax seeds and sunflower seeds.  Lately this has been topped by granola.  But tonight he asked for an apple.  A green apple, no less.  It was at that point that in donned on me that he has been eating an apple before bed for the better part of 2 weeks.  Prior to that it was yogurt and seeds for about a year.  Prior to that it was all about the banana – he could not get enough.  One or two bananas per evening for him.

Prior to that, was the grape phase where all he would eat were grapes.

Before that was the cheese sticks phase.  Instead of giving him expensive cheese strings, I would take a block of cheese and cut strips, or sticks, for him.  He would go through so much cheese in a week.

I’m sure there were more… I just can’t go that far back.

He’s like my wife… VERY much like her.

When she was pregnant with him she ate a lot of chocolate Lucky Charms cereal… A LOT.  Once she gave birth, that was it.  She has never eaten a bowl of any kind of cereal since.  She also went through a sour pickle phase.

Now she’s all about the almond butter spread on toast with a glass of milk.

And speaking about pickles… Stewie ate pickles, fresh strawberries and strawberry applesauce tonight, for snack, before bed.  Ugh.

A Love Story… Stewie and the Food Truck

Love is in the air!

It’s my son Stewie who turns 4-years-old TODAY!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY STEWIE!

He is in love.  It’s the cutest thing.

He is in love with the “food truck”.

For those of you who may not know, Stewie is 1 inch and 1 pound smaller than his big brother Linus. Stewie is 22 months younger than his big brother and Stewie LOVES to eat. It’s not unusual for him to eat 5 meals a day, or to out-eat me, at a buffet or when we eat chicken wings… This kid has a hollow leg and if you look at him, he is not at all fat…

Anyways, knowing this, I thought he would REALLY appreciate to know what the inside of the truck that comes next door 2 times a day, looks like.  The truck with the really funny horn that makes him run to the window.  When I used to work up in the boonies, I called the truck a “death wagon” because the food on the truck was all full of salt and fat.  Eating it for a prolonged period would literally kill you.  Nowadays, the food on these trucks are really healthy. I saw turkey on whole wheat, the other day.  Food on this truck is low-fat, half-salt, all natural and I actually saw veggies.

So one day as the truck pulled up, I walked Stewie across the street and you should have seen the look on his face when this truck opened it’s side and it was full of food.  He gasped.  His eyes got REALLY wide, and I think his heart missed a beat.

“I love this truck”, he said with a gasp.

The driver, with a big smile on his face showed Stewie all the compartments in his truck and then gave him a – yup – cinnamon bun and bottle of juice.  Needless to say, the nanny and I split the bun and he drank half the juice. 

But now every day when the truck comes, he asks to run over and look inside and when he sees the food, he smiles and the driver gives him food… Nice gig, eh?  Last time it was chips and juice.

I made the mistake of eating his chips late one night and damned if he didn’t notice it.  He was pissed.  Instant tears.  Actually whenever he remembered or was reminded he eyes would well up with tears and he would develop a scowl on his face which he would direct towards me.  I’d get something like, “Why did you eat my chips, daddy?”

So I was forced on night after soccer to buy him a little bad and while he munched away happily, I could tell that he was on the road to forgiving me.  Then his brother told him that I drank the rest of his juice (when he really did) and boy did that set off Stewie!  He ran to “tell mummy on me”.

So now when Stewie hears a truck with a funny horn his heart skips a beat and I’m sure he thinks there is a food truck outside waiting for him.  I will always remember the look of excitement and pure ecstasy on his face when the driver opened up the side of the truck revealing it to be full of food.

He loved it.

Below is a link to some other food truck Stewie would love to see / eat from, I’m sure…

http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/food/10-of-the-remarkable-food-trucks-taking-over-the-u-s-2392644/#photoViewer=1

Comparing one kid to the next

If, by some chance, you have this blog set up in some sort of blog reader, then you will have noticed that you received about 10 posts today, most of the from back in 2007.

So let me tell you why…

I was looking for some information on child #2, referred to in the blog as Stewie (named after the character in Family Guy – as we really felt he wanted to kill us as a baby) but previously known as the “Weed” because he was growing like a weed (still is).

So when #2 was 7 months old, he began clapping, and started pulling himself up on items, like the couch.  #3, on the other hand, has been clapping for a couple of weeks, and is 8 1/2 months old.  She does not crawl yet (unless you count crawling backwards – and getting stuck under items like the couch) but she can get on her knees and rock back-and-forth.  She also shows zero interest in standing or pulling herself up. 

What she is doing, is teething.  She has her two bottom teeth and is now drooling like a fiend.  The combination of the teething and the trying to crawl, plus trying to go from laying on her tummy to sitting up means she doesn’t want to sleep at night, and she gets up in the middle of the night and is really cranky during the day.

Poor UrbanMummy.

Thank goodness for being at work, eh?  Except that I’m REALLY tired now. 

Sure, I could do less work on the computer, or less unpacking, but I need some downtime after a long day @ the office… Don’t you?

So now that accounts for the newest one, #3, aka Berry.

What are my other 2 monsters up to???

Well, #1, the Happy Boy – now being referred to as “Linus” because they both carried around their blankets, had a horrible weekend.  He was not acting the 5 1/2 years old that he is, but acting more like the 4 years old that his 3 1.2 year old brother acts… Get that?

So there was pinching, being bossy, yelling, talking back, a ton of crying and that dreaded baby-talk he does which I DETEST!

He was trying this weekend to say the least.

Now back to #2…

Very mature kid.  Knows what he wants and doesn’t want (just like his mummy)  but he cannot sleep through the night without peeing through his diaper, soaking his bed.

Linus was completely out of diapers by the time he was 3-years-old.  He was really out by 2 1/2, but we made him wear one at night, much to his protests.   Stewie, on the other hand, was out of diapers by 2 1/2 during the day, but he continues to pee a TON and even poo in the morning in his diaper.  I’m not sure if he does it because he is lazy or because he is such a deep sleeper that he doesn’t know…

But I need to find out as I stupidly bought these cheap-ass WalMart diapers and he pee’d through 2 of them last night, soaking his bed and himself.  The only reason he didn’t soak the third one is because he awoke at 5am so he knew to go to the can and poo there.

It is beyond frustrating.

He tells me at night that he is not going to pee – he is going to hold it – but I insist he go pee when he needs to, and if he needs help putting the diaper back, that he should come into our room and wake me up. 

He doesn’t.

So as you can see, I was looking to see what my other kids were up to around that age, and in going through older posts, I spell checked a bunch of them and upon updating them, they showed up in the readers…

Interesting!

Happy Father’s Day!

I updated my status message on Facebook a few house ago and wished all my daddy friends a happy father’s day. I really feel that being a dad, makes us guys very lucky… For most of us, pretty much every day is father’s day. It all begins at conceptions. We don’t have to grow the child, carry it for 9 months, and birth it. And, if the child is breastfed only, we can’t help with that either. We kind of get off easy, I think. Plus, if you love being a dad like I do, then it’s even better getting to help out in every way possible… I wish I could be the stay-at-home Dad…

Regarding father’s day, I don’t need any fancy gifts from my kids – a hand made card is more than enough. I don’t really need anything substantial from my wife, as I think she’s already contributed the most to our family and is the reason I’m a father. I have never be 100% certain as to who gets and gives gifts for father’s day. We gave to my father-in-law and wife’s grandfather, and I received from my mother and sister… See how it’s odd?!? But all in all, hanging out with my entire family – wife and kids made the day super-special.

Sure there are BBQ’s and some gifts exchanged, but it’s just not the same as say mother’s day. If you miss that holiday… Look out. For us Dad’s… We go with the flow.

Take my weekend, for example…

Saturday:

I made the kids breakfast in the morning and we were going to have a nie healthy bowl of organic fresh oatmeal, until I was attacked by my family with great gifts, beautiful cards and a lot of love! My 3-yea-old, for example made a card for me in school where he has to fill in the blanks. So the first question was, “My Dad is ___ old”. He put 60. The next one was; “My Dad’s job is ____”. He put “Peeling apples”. The next one; “My Dad weighs ____”. He put “2000 pounds”. And there were more. LOL. I got an awesome book in gardening in small spaces. I CAN’T wait to read this book. It’s perfect! and my 6 custom tailored dress shirts from Maxwell the tailor showed up and my wife graciously paid the duty and included them in my gift. The shirts are… Interesting… 3 of them I love. One looks like a table cloth, one like wrapping paper and one… well… she said I need to keep 2 buttons open, hang big gold chains and put a ghetto blaster on my shoulder. It’s a little bit shiny… OK a LOT shiny.

After breakfast and lots of hugs and kisses, we set off to do some organic strawberry picking / strawberry buffet (fresh peas too) with our very cool cousins. We had a blast. We picked, ate and picked some more. I love strawberries!!!

After getting all covered in berries we went to have some yummy veggie Dim Sum for lunch at the Lotus Pond. We’ve been going there for years.

We headed home around 3pm so our 5-year-old, Linus, would have some rest before a 4pm birthday party.

After the party, it was a quick dinner, some packing and moving of boxes in the garage, then bed.
WHEW.

Sunday:

Sunday’s breakfast was yummy and simple, as we all ate Cheerios with fresh picked berries in it. Loved the way the milk turned pink and the sweet berries.
Then off to karate when both kids had awesome classes today. We dragged mummy and Berry (6-month old baby girl) along to see Stewie try for his yellow advanced belt. He got it! He was SO excited. That kid is all focus.

I also like Sunday morning karate because I get to hang with Supernova Elliott for an hour, drink an XL double double Tim Horton’s coffee and talk about being Dad’s to 3 kids. We also talk music, about why our wives won’t eat red meat, and our frustration with hate mongers.

After karate we hit up a high-end men’s store in Toronto called the Coop for a present for my FIL, and after that myself and the boys walked down to the flower / plant sore for some tomato plants, flowers and a ficus benjamina for my wife. The kids love flowers!!!

We came home, cleaned the garage for a couple hours - packed more boxes – then set off to my inlaws for a BBQ. We had 4 generations of her family there. It was pretty amazing.

Then home ,and bed.

Before long it will be Monday and I get to witness the impact of the G20 firsthand… Can’t wait!