Recently we took the family to Walt Disney World in Florida. Actually, it was Julie's parents that took us to Florida. It was quite the trip. Disney World is always fun and the kids had a blast. Unfortunately it was especially cold and rainy for the so-called "Sunshine State" and we all brought back more than souvenirs from the Germiest Place on Earth -- namely a nasty, nasty gastrointestinal virus and some lingering colds. Despite a week of diarrhea and vomiting that followed, the trip was worth it, in large part due to my wife's diligent planning before we left.  

Not long ago, the Multiples and More website asked for tips about traveling with multiples. Having just ventured to Florida with four kids aged four or younger, I've got some sage advice here for anyone heading to Disney World with multiple ankle biters.

Tips for Traveling with Multiple Kids  

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Ever been around anyone who just seems to ooze wisdom. I have and those people are very admirable to me. They seem to have the right answers at the right time and are able to speak into situations or people’s lives words that penetrate deeply. That is the type of man I hope to be.

I have this long-standing dream of when I reach the age of 70 or older, people will seek me out because of the wisdom I posses. I will be recognized for my this very thing, people will look to me for answers as well as knowing I lived my life to the fullest, that I always have the right words to say for any situation. That may be a far-fetched dream for some, but for me, this is what I truly desire. I am attempting to live each day fully and take in all I can so one day I become the man I wish to be.

So how does one become wise? Great question and I believe there are a few ways in which this can take place. First of all, if you want to be wise, hang out or place people in your life who consistently demonstrate making wise choices. I also believe these type of people will be genuine and honest in all that they do and live lives of integrity. Somehow we tend to pick up traits and characteristics of those around us we admire. A lot of life has to do with stealing good ideas from other and applying it to our life.

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Because you all four people demanded it. It's the return of the feature my wife and mother in law are sure to hate.

BABIES IN BEARDS

Disco

 

Do you want your baby featured in "Babies in Beards"?? Because honestly, this can only go so far before I shelf it again, right?? Email me a link of your baby you want me to beard. C'mon, show a little child deprecation. They'll get over it. It might take years of counseling, but live in the now.

 

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The plan this weekend was to get ready for the "brush pick up" on March 15th. Brush pick up happens twice a year (usually in March and August), and is the time we are able to throw whatever the heck we want too in our front yard and the city comes by to pick it up.
I was going to start on Saturday, but my wife went to spend my hard earned money on make up a Mary Kay party. I will never understand women and their make up. Tell a woman about AVON or Mary Kay and they go crazy. Women will place orders every three weeks for new make up. The kids could be eating top ramen for two weeks, but somehow she's still able to get her super shadow eye liner with rotating extended bristles.
It was a last minute invite and KC really needed to get out for a little bit before she killed her husband without the kids. She had a good time but was sidelined with a migraine and I wasn't able to get outside.

I was going to attempt it on Sunday as well after Church, but it teased us with light rain the entire day.

This means I will have to take everything out to the curb everyday this week after work because we are attending a birthday party this weekend and nothing I plan ever happens the way I expect it too.

A great thing that happened this weekend was that Em finally accepted me as her daddy. For nearly three months she hardly had anything to do with me. I would hold her, she would cry. I would sit down with her, she would cry. I offered her money, she took it, then would cry.

KC would call after being out for a few hours and I would stressing out like a mofo. Em wouldn't let me put her down without crying. I could get her to fall asleep, but then the it's like I laid her in a pile of sea urchins because she wakes up right away.

There were times where I could lay her down, but then four minutes later she would wake up again.

But I am proud to say that she has given me a chance. After almost 3 months, we have settled our differences and she decided to make up with me.

She now smiles at me. She lets me sit down with her and not cry. She also lets me put her to sleep for longer than four minutes.

It's a big step in our relationship because I was ready to book a flight to Maury to see if she was really mine.

So now we're cool.
Have a great week my friends.

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If you've noticed, I'm not posting everyday like I used too. Partly due to the fact that when Ladybug stopped taking quality pictures with my cellphone, that feature ceased to exist.
I was able to get away with five posts a week before because two of them were blow offs if you were. Ladybug's Portfolio and the Thursday Throwback. The Throwback didn't get very good reception, so I backed off doing that one as well.
So without two easy to schedule posts, I'm left with three again.
Though I am tempted to bring back Babies With Beards (Week One / Week Two), just because I know it upset my wife and MIL.
Disco is a machine. The only reason you know he has a broken arm is the cast he's wearing. He's been amazing. He hasn't had to have any pain meds since Monday. He doesn't let us help him with anything. He gets on the couch and up to the table all by himself.
When the Castologist was putting the cast on, Disco said he wanted a pink cast. I vehemently talked him out of it. I talked him into the light blue one you see above. The main reason was so we could all sign the cast.
I thought later that it was a double standard. I wouldn't have minded that Ladybug picked a light blue cast, but I would have pushed for a pink one though.
Ladybug is 4. In clothing size, that means she should be a size 4T. Since we don't live in a perfect world and she is a tall beanpole like her Daddy used to be, she has to wear a size 6 in little girls. Notice the "T" is no longer there. I found 5 shirts at Wal-Mart Wednesday night for 4 bucks each. She looks like a big girl now. This makes me sad.
She wants to go to school very bad. Her birthday is in October, so she's a "late starter" in that regards I guess. We're going to try to hard to get her into a Pre-K this coming September.

I took 24 off my DVR list. I loved the first 4 hours of the show. But after the assassination attempt, I felt it was crap. Especially with that blonde chick and her d-bag ex-boyfriend. I really wanted Freddie Prinze-Gellar Jr. to get all Jack Bauer on people, but when I was watching he was just in the background. A few recorded episodes sat unwatched and I just had to let it go.
If I knew that having kids would mean I would constantly have piles of clothes on my couch, I would have possibly thought twice about having so many. Or maybe I should get rid of some of the couches.
I'll leave it there. But before you have a great weekend, be sure to check out Dad-Blogs.com for other dad's who have couches with clothes constantly as well with Fatherhood Friday.
Have a great weekend my friends.

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Sometimes being a dad you can be a real jerk to anyone. If things don't go your way, you could become a grump or d-bag and take it out on your wife and kids.


You don't really mean the words you say and you hate the tone you use, but sometimes the stress of everyday life takes over and takes control of you.


You wish you could take it back. As the kids get older they'll remember it more the more often it happens. They become reclusive from you, but you say to yourself "I'm doing what I need to keep the family afloat."


You feel bad for the way you acted and ask for forgiveness. Usually they will, but will need time to deal with the unintended hurt. The younger one's are quicker to forgive you because they trust you.


When the stresses of finances, children, marriage, work, personal and everything else that goes with being a dad make you feel like you can't handle this, and you feel like you can't do anything right.


Until you find something that gives confirmation that you are.

 

Have a great day my friends.

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When I walked into my niece's birthday party at 1pm on Saturday, and a time travelling prophet came to me next to the skeeball games and said, "You will be in the Emergency Room in 4 hours."

I would be like, "You travelled all the way through time just to tell me this?? This is my family we're talking about, if we don't go to the Emergency Room on weekends, the hospital administration sends an ambulance out to our home just to make sure we're okay."
If anything of emergent proportions happens in my family, it happens after 5:30pm and on weekends.

Never when it's a normal pediatrician's working day.
I actually had two niece's who had birthdays this weekend. One for my sister's daughter and the other for KC's brother's daughter. We never get invited to my sister's daughter's birthday, but we sent a gift with my dad.

So we chose the one where we'd get free pizza.
The kid's had a great time. Grandpa's took turns watching Ladybug and Disco in the play area.
The question of the afternoon was, "What happened to Celi's eye??"
My 15 month old daughter is recovering from a black eye. The kids were playing in their room one evening (see what I mean after hours), a toy was thrown, her face caught it. It's healing up nicely though. But it's still not healed enough for people to think you toss your kids around.
Ladybug wanted her older cousin to hang out at our house. We managed to squeeze her in our van to take her to our house. If MaddSkillz was with us, there would have been no way she would have fit.
Maybe in the Stow-N-Go??
So we get home, Disco is passed out from pizza sauce, icing, and ice cream. The girls want to go play on the trampoline, which I'm cool with.
Disco wanted to go out as well. I thought for a second that he shouldn't, but decided that it wouldn't hurt for a little bit.

Well I was wrong.

I was changing Celi's diaper on the floor of the living room and looked out to the back yard. Disco was crying on the trampoline. This happens often because his sister can be a punk, but the look on his face was pain.

I ran outside and he was holding his arm. I picked him up, looked at his arm and could tell it was broken.

Crap. Dang Time Travelling Prophet was right...

I carry him inside and KC is about to feed the hungry baby. We had honestly only been inside the door 4 minutes when this happened. The baby had been screaming in the car because she was hungry.

I said I would take him to the ER and KC would stay with the kids (most importantly Em).

I pulled a shirt of mine out of my drawer, ripped it, and made a sling for him.

My 2 year old son wasn't having that.

He was in pain and I needed to get him help.

I put him in the car, but he didn't want to go. He kept yelling "Stay Home!!!"

I started the van and he would unbuckle his seat belt. He wouldn't stay in his belt. I had to come back inside and suggest an ambulance. KC said we can just all go.

I held him in the backseat as KC drove us to the ER. When we got there, I jumped from the van with him and raced to Triage. They took us back right away and put a temporary brace on him.

He had no idea what was going on. We got a room and he freaked when he saw the hospital bed.

All my kids freak when they see a hospital bed, they have imaged of needles and IVs being stuck into their precious little arms.

I assured him there would be no needles. We sat the bed, tried to relax and watch SpongeBob.

We had all the information needed to check him in, but we were missing one thing.

A shoe.

 

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Saturday January 19th, 2002
After leaving his sister's baby shower, a very nervous dork calls a very hot chick on his pre-paid cell phone and asks if she wants to go out to dinner.
She says yes.
He picks her up at her mother's house. He waits on the couch of the living room. He meets her mother who is watching Pay it Forward. Her mom is super nice and likes the nervous dork.
They go to Joe's Crab Shack and have a great time.


Friday May 16th, 2003
It's the hot chick's birthday, well actually the day before. Our dork is going out of town the next day to a buddy's wedding so this is as close as he can get.
He brings the hot chick to Joe's Crab Shack for the first time since their first date. Their waiter brings a bowl of whipped cream and offers to pay for their food if she can find the cherry before everyone is done singing Happy Birthday. The hot chick's face gets covered in whipped cream. Right before the song is over, someone runs up and informs that they forgot to put the cherry at the bottom.
No free food.
Good times were had by all.

Friday February 27th, 2004
On the way home after work, the hot chick calls the dork and tells him that her son will not be going to his dad's that weekend because of his spelling bee competition on Saturday. The son will be going the next weekend instead.
Crap!
The dork's mind goes into plan rearrangement mode.
The dork had an engagement ring that was burning a hole in his pocket closing on two weeks now. He was only going to pop the question if the son could be there too. The plan was supposed to be for the following weekend, which is now no good because her son will now be with his father.
The dork calls the hot chick's mom.
She's at Target.
The dork finds her in the party supply row, and asks her what the plans are for tomorrow evening.
She informs the dork that it is Grandpa Flores' birthday and everyone is getting together.
This is perfect.
A year or so earlier, the hot chick had told the dork that she had a dream where he asked her to marry her in front of their families.
He asked her mom if they could have the party at Joe's Crab Shack. She said she could arrange it.
The dork now rushes to where the hot chick's father worked. A co-worker finds him and let's him know the dork is there to see him. The dork apologies for the time and the short notice, but explains that it is very important that his grandson be present at the event and he won't be available for three weeks and the dork can't wait that long.
He asks permission to marry his daughter and he gives his approval on the steps outside a school building at Cornerstone Christian School.
The dork tells him to be at Joe's Crab Shack at 5:30PM the next evening for the proposal.
The dork then calls his brothers and dad to please be there at 5:30PM.
He knows he told them 5:30PM because he said it half a dozen times.
The dork tells their friends that night and tell them the same location and time.


Saturday, February 28th, 2004
The spelling bee went until about 2pm that day. The ring was in the dork's pocket and as the day progressed the more his stomach started to twist in knots.
The hot chick got a call from her mom who told her that Grandpa Flores' birthday will be at Joe's Crab Shack at 4pm. The hot chick thought it was weird, but didn't question.
They meet everyone outside Joe's Crab Shack and exchange pleasantries. Everyone goes inside and sits at the big table set up.
At 4:30, one of the dork's brothers shows up with his fiancé.
SERIOUSLY?!?! AN HOUR EARLY!!!!
He tells them to find a table on the other side of the restaurant and not get noticed by the hot chick.
One brother keeps calling for directions and the dork has to keep getting up from the table to explain to him how to get there. But then they never make it anyways because his wife got sick in the car. Honestly, the dork thinks it was just because she liked being a fun ruiner.
Other people started getting there well before the scheduled time. His father showed up at 5:00. He had specifically told them 5:30pm. Do not come into the restaurant prior to that. It is not like it's freezing outside, they could have stayed in their cars. But no, they had to form a huge gathering at the front door.
Did they want to screw this up for the dork?
Now the dork is extremely nervous. Noticeably nervous. He can't eat his food. Neither can her son. It must have gotten to her as well, because she had to keep going to the bathroom.
At one point the hot chick even passed up one of their friends going to the bathroom.
The dork runs to the front door and introduces everyone. Then runs back to the table before she gets back.
She notices that he's not eating, he blows it off as not being that hungry. She goes to the bathroom yet again and figures that it has to happen now or it will be forever ruined.
She returns to the table and he is not there. He is at the front of the dining area with the house microphone.
He calls her name over the microphone and asks her to stand up, grabbing the attention of the entire group and the entirety of the restaurant.
He goes off about how these events were fast forwarded because someone special had to be here and he couldn't wait three more weeks. He explains how he was supposed to memorize the poem he was about to read, but because he only wrote it two days prior he didn't have time too.
The poem consisted of 102 reasons why he loved the hot chick. He mentioned inside jokes, TV shows they've watched together, movie lines, the way she smiled, laughed, walked and sang. He mentioned the way she touched her nose and how she held his hand. He brought up good times, bad times and perseverance. He included her son and how great of mother she is. He brought up relevant bible verses that pertained to them and the reason why he chose Joe's Crab Shack as a place to propose to the hot chick.
Her mind was racing. She was concerned that the dork hadn't talked to her dad yet, but then saw that he was standing behind the dork. Her only concern now was the fact she hadn't been able to get her eyebrows done.
The dork finished his poem. He then got on one knee and presented her with...
A bowl of whipped cream.
She smiled and laughed then questioned if she had to stick her face in there.
A very nervous dork let her off the hook too quickly and presented her with the box that held her engagement ring.
He placed it on her finger and it fit perfectly.
She says yes.

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When my kids ask me to check their homework, the unspoken part of the request goes like this: "Daddy, please tell me which ones I got wrong so that I can correct them and get my 'A.' " But I look at their homework in a different way. I want to know  "Does my child understand the concept being taught?"  Those are two very different things. I have kids in second, fifth and sixth grade and I have found that there are two approaches you as a parent can take to checking homework: one is to lead them to the correct answer, and the second is to make sure they understand how to solve problems.

I think the first thing to note is that it is okay for your child to make mistakes. It is not your job as a parent to make it easy on them by directing them to the mistakes. I have a strong suspicion that my kids' teachers can easily sniff out homework done by a student versus homework done by the parent but in the student's handwriting.  That is why I often opt not to point out mistakes in homework unless it is an error that is repeated over and over.  That said, general sloppiness bothers me (adding instead of subtracting, spelling an easy word wrong) and I wrestle with pointing out sloppiness in hopes my child will be more careful or letting it go and letting the lower grade teach my kids to be more careful.  (I find it difficult to teach a child to check their work and not race to finish. If they depend on you to catch their errors, then they will never learn to catch mistakes themselves.)

The second thing is to say is that it is okay -- and perhaps beneficial -- to go off the homework sheet.  By that I mean that I give my kids extra problems that mirror the ones they've been assigned.  The goal is to check if they can solve math problems or spell words that they haven't seen before but fit with what they have already learned in school. For example, on spelling lists if my kid misspells "night," I'll ask them to spell "bright" and then maybe "sight" just to see if they can pick up the pattern. I might throw in "bite" to see if they can adjust on the fly.  Same goes for math.  If my fifth grader has a difficult time adding fractions, or my sixth grader can't solve for "x", then I will make up in my head a couple of extra problems that are solved the same way as the problems in the homework but with slightly different numbers involved.  I find that when my children realize they can solve Daddy's made-up equations that they are more confident doing similar problems in school.  They actually "get it" in a way that others who only did the assigned problems and nothing more.

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The other day I had lunch with a friend. We aren’t close friends; actually we don’t do much of anything together. We attend the same church and our paths have crossed at social functions and other activities. We were just getting together to check in and see how each other was doing and what was going on in our lives.

The conversation started by him asking me if I was willing to share the story of my life and how I had gotten to the where I am today. I wasn’t expecting that but I wasn’t worried about sharing my story with him. I gave a 20-minute synopsis of my life. As I finished he just shook his head and I could see he had tears in his eyes and he just said: “wow, I had no idea, that’s horrible.” Our conversation continued and we got to talk about being men and my insecurities of being around other men and never feeling like I measured up. He told me that it made sense to him now the reasons I did the things I did and that from his observations it felt like when it came to being husband and father it felt forced. He told me he could tell I was genuine in the things I did, but that he felt I was trying to overcompensate masculinity since I had been robbed of it while growing up. Our time was up and we parted ways, somehow we had spent the whole time talking about me and that wasn’t the initial purpose of our meeting.

As I left that meeting his words sunk in deep and left me thinking about his statement “overcompensating masculinity”. I wasn’t able to shake it, I have thought about it repeatedly and ended up spending more time in retrospect then I probably should have.

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