The Nonconformist

Posted on February 24, 2013 by Steve

Kaleb’s school put on a President’s Day performance. The Pre-K classes recited a poem and sang a song.

Kaleb was pumped about the performance, and especially when he got up on stage in front of everybody.

He loved being up in front of everyone performing and he made the most of his performance!

While I was sitting a ways back in the auditorium, I could tell even from there that he was quite animated. Plus, I had seen him practice his song, and he put a lot of creative expression into it. Probably more than was really necessary, but it was cute.

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Huh?

Posted on February 18, 2013 by Steve

The toddlers are going through a new phase in speech development. They are becoming quite verbal as you might imagine, especially Sissy.

I would like to think they are becoming quite articulate. Unfortunately, with me as their model for speech development, I’m afraid they’re beginning to sound like the hillbillies that we are!

I’ve noticed both of them starting to say “I’m fixing” to do this or “I’m fixing” to do that…sorta sounds like me!

But I guess that’s what happens when ya’ll be from the south!

But one speech phenomenon I can’t seem to explain is this: The toddlers add “Huh” to the end of every observation they make.

Actually, it’s more like an observation encased in a question. You’ll see what I mean below.

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Clever Comments: Bath Wars and Liberated Toddlers

Posted on February 7, 2013 by Steve

I have mentioned on previous occasions that on this blog we don’t really have any good advice to give about raising children.

And, we don’t seem to have great insight into being a great parent or grandparent.

Instead, we’re asking for your advice!

We need your suggestions for being a better parent and grandparent!

You know, if you have read many of our posts, that we have plenty of stories to tell about what not to do in raising children, but very little useful information is provided about how to raise children correctly.

So, I’m always appreciative of comments that give good advice or provide some creative solutions to some of the problems I tell you about.

And I’m especially appreciative, when you you deliver it with cleverness. Good advice shrouded in wit!

So, in this post I want to share with you a couple of clever comments we pulled from the Comments Box (either from Facebook or the Comments at the end of each blog post).

I got a hearty laugh and some good ideas from both of these comments.

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The Difference Between Boys and Girls

Posted on February 1, 2013 by Steve

What are little boys made of?
 Frogs and snails and puppy dog's tails.
 That's what little boys are made of! 
 
 What are little girls made of?
 Sugar and spice and all things nice.
 That's what little girls are made of!

The other day Kenzie went to potty and she stood in front of the toilet and announced: “When I get to be a boy then I’m going to stand up to potty!”

Sounds shocking, I know.

But, if you’ve been following our adventure, you might remember that in my first post on this blog I explained how I had addressed this issue by telling her “Girls sit, boys stand.”

So naturally, I assumed that this little misunderstanding was settled.

I never imagined that she somehow believed that little girls grow up to become boys!

But since she lives in a house where she is the only female, I suppose I can see how she might draw that conclusion in some sort of twisted toddler thinking sort of way!

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Sometimes Love Hurts

Posted on January 29, 2013 by Steve

Give me a break! Just give me a break!

Do the toddlers have to fight all the time?

Is everything a competition? Being first? Or preventing the other one from being first?

Is the only toy they can play with the toy that the other one is playing with?

Can’t they just sit beside one another at the table to eat without pushing, pinching, poking, or otherwise provoking each other?

Is it always necessary to incite a scuffle when one passes near the other?

Sometimes, it’s sibling rivalry run amok around here!

In a previous post I discussed how it seems like my main job is Referee…

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When Left To Their Own Devices

Posted on January 23, 2013 by Steve

Lately, I’ve been allowing the toddlers to play more independently.

Independent of me, that is.

They play with one another, if you could call it it that.

It’s more like arguing, bickering and fighting, but that is the subject of another post. For now, let’s say they play together in one part of the house (upstairs) while I am doing something else in another part of the house (downstairs).

That something else I am doing is usually picking up their stuff around the house, washing their dirty laundry (it never ends), and occasionally, to release some stress, I write on this blog while they are otherwise occupied.

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Parental Indiscretion

Posted on January 12, 2013 by Steve

Have you ever lied to your kids?

Now, don’t lie to me! I know you have!

I’ve learned from my experience with raising toddlers that deception is a very important parenting strategy.

See, toddlers don’t know anything. And one thing they certainly don’t know is when you’re lying to them!

They actually believe everything you say!

So, if it’s just 6:00 pm and you tell them it’s bedtime, they believe you!

And it helps that they can’t tell time either!

I figure that parents have to use the naïveté of our young children to our advantage as long as we can. You see, it’s not going to be long before they are teenagers and they will know more than we do because then they know everything!

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Kids Say The Darndest Things – Vol. 2

Posted on November 11, 2012 by Steve

It’s time for another edition of “Kids Say the Darndest Things,” where I share some recent humorous remarks the toddlers have said and, hopefully, you will share some of the humorous things your kids have said.

Because the toddlers are trying to figure out how the world works, their funny remarks are usually in the form of an observation or explanation of the world as they see it from their toddler perspective.

Here’s some of their recent observations:

On Getting Dressed:
Me: “Kaleb, you have your shirt on backwards.”
Kaleb: “Do I need to turn my head around?”

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The Parent Trap

Posted on October 27, 2012 by Steve

Have you ever suffered from bad parent guilt?

You know what I mean. You didn’t do something you could have or should have done for your child! Or you said something you shouldn’t have said to your child!

And then guilt strikes…

You’re a bad parent!

A bad, bad parent!

Because of what you didn’t do or shouldn’t have said, your child will now carry the psychological and emotional scars of your bad parenting with her or him into adulthood.

You’ve ruined their life!

Know the feeling? I thought so. You’ve been a bad parent, too!

And our children somehow know how to recognize, leverage, and take advantage of bad parent guilt.

They know how to use bad parent guilt to try to manipulate you in some way. And if you don’t do what they want, then you’re at least going to feel guilty about it.

I call it the parent trap!

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Why? Why? Why?

Posted on October 9, 2012 by Steve

I have some questions about toddler behavior for which I have been unable to find an explanation!

And if can’t explain it, I don’t know how to respond. But maybe there’s no explanation for what toddlers think or do! (That’s scary!)

So help me out here. Any insights you have to the following questions would be appreciated:

Why do little girls react to everything with an ear-splitting scream? How can a little, bitty girl let out a blood-curdling scream that is so loud and shrill that it makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up?