One of the big lessons we’ve worked on with the kids is saying “I’m sorry” when they do something that hurts someone else. It seems like a good idea, but now I’m starting to wonder if we’ve gone a little too far. The other day N jumped off the ottoman on to the couch. His […]
Read MoreA couple years ago, we hit on what is perhaps the easiest game in the world: making faces. All you do is make a face and ask the other person to guess what your expression is. There’s no score. You just take turns making faces. Angry face, happy face, sad face, confused face, and so on. […]
Read MoreI am, all modesty aside, quite talented at carrying kids on my shoulders. It’s an unusual and singularly unmarketable talent, but that’s the way it is. To me, carrying a child on your shoulder is like being a roller coaster. Sure, you can just plod along, but it’s more fun to make it exciting. It’s […]
Read MoreAs I may have mentioned before, we have two big lab mutts. By “big”, I mean that that each dog is a bit over 70 lbs. These are not the “lie down and loll around labs” that you may have encountered. These are the “look, we can stand on our back feet and hop straight […]
Read MoreThe boys were roughhousing again. Since they seem to love it so much, our rule is that as long nobody cries, they’re okay. If one makes the other cry, however, there’s trouble. This seems to be working out, at least somewhat. By “seems to be working,” I mean that now they try not to make […]
Read MoreEpcot with a two year old and a four year old is a lot of fun. If there’s only one of you, it’s actually better than the Magic Kingdom. All the appropriate rides at Epcot can handle three people in one car, whereas Magic Kingdom has rides that the two year old can’t ride and […]
Read MoreThere seems to be a dizzying array of activities out there for toddlers to choose from: gymnastics, t-ball, swimming, karate, music… the list goes on and on. Fortunately, many of these have trial days, where you can take your little guy in and see if he likes it. We did this with the boys with […]
Read MoreThere’s a town called Oviedo not too far from where I live. The strange thing about Oviedo is that there are chickens wandering around for no apparent reason. I’m not sure if they raise them and release them, or if there is just a large feral chicken population. At any rate, after eating breakfast at […]
Read MoreWith kids, sometimes, the problem isn’t getting straight answers, it’s getting relevant answers. For example, I’ve been trying to get our oldest son to be a little more observant. At dinner each evening, we discuss what we did during the day. Usually, these are fairly awkward discussions, as C still occasionally gets “past” and “present” confused. […]
Read MoreTaking toddlers out to a restaurant is an exercise in creative distraction. That’s not something I’ve had too much of a problem with in the past. Now, however, the banging and the singing are starting to lose some of their appeal and I’m having to stretch a little bit more to keep the kiddos engaged […]
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