Friday, December 30, 2005

One of my proudest moments

as a Stay at home dad...

The Princess saw the mop bucket sitting on our front porch and she proclaimed "That's Mommy's bucket."

Right on, baby girl.

The Boss Lady's Christmas rock

C'mon over sometime and let The Boss Lady show you the rock she got this year. It is a beautiful thing. Too bad she can't wear it to work. But the bruises and blisters that it left on her hand. Those she wears proudly.

But free is free.

Monday morning we started moving about 10 yards of pea gravel from across town to our back yard. Yes, we could have bought some and gotten it delivered, but free is free.

Some friends bought a new house and the previous owners took a huge playscape when they moved. But they left behind a 20 foot square pad filled with pea gravel about 10 inches deep. And our friends wanted it out of the back yard. So I got stupid, or maybe stupider, and said we would take it and use it under the kids playscape.

Three days of hauling rock with a pickup truck and a small trailer left a pile in the driveway bigger than The Boss Lady's car. It is kind of impressive and dumb to think that the wife and I moved all of this rock by ourselves. And we still have about a third of the rock to bring over here.

Yesterday I started moving rock to the backyard, because we were out of space to pile anymore in the driveway. I moved about a quarter of the pile to the playscape. I'll post some before and after pictures, soon. But for now, gotta go move some rock.

Tuesday, December 27, 2005

Three days without

telephone service - not so bad. Even got to miss The Mother of the Bride singing Jingle Bells for the kids, a family Christmas tradition.

Of course, since she got no answer, she tried many times to sing to the kids. But then again, the phones were out, so we missed ALL of the singing calls!

Three days with spotty DSL service and lots of dropped connections - gawd awful. I thought I might have a stroke before I got back online.

Saturday, December 24, 2005

Santa brought her world domination

A few days ago someone left three books and a board game on our front porch. They aren't Christmas gifts, I guess, because there was no tag and the presents were not wrapped. I assume that one of our neighbors left them for us.

The books, the first three in the Hank the Cowdog series. The board game was an almost new game of Risk. Looks like it might have been played only a few times.

Tonight after Santa's snacks were left out and the kids were off to bed, we set up the game board. The Boss Lady whipped my ass. In an hour and a half.

Years ago my roommate and I would keep one game of Risk going for an entire weekend. No such luck for me tonight. It was an ugly bloodbath. Made even uglier by the wife's gleeful gloating.

Now she has a case of blood lust and is curling up with a DVD copy of War of the Worlds. And I think she might be waiting to conquer Santa, when he comes down the chimney, too.

Tuesday, December 20, 2005

That's my boy!

Last night we took the entire herd to the Trail of Lights. And while there the kids waited to see Santa.

Do you know what The Talker asked for? Do ya?

Proud father gleefully puffing out his chest...

An iPod

I don't think he knows what an iPod is, but if it is good enough for dad to want one, I guess he wants one, too.

For the record, I am pretty sure I over heard The Princess ask for a set of tires for an old Chevy truck....

The stress might be getting to him

The boy slept almost two hours late this morning. And the first words out of his mouth?

You can't eat glitter.

Could this be a response to having too many females in one household? Or is he just going insane at an early age?

Help! I'm out numbered

The Talker and I are seriously out of our league this week. The balance of power has shifted to the dark side of the household, since there are two extra female people staying here this week. Making the score for the week, 2-4. They win.

We are still out numbered, even if we add in the animals. Then, the score is still 4-5.

We brought two nieces home with us on our quick trip and they are staying a few days. And they are almost teenagers. Which makes me feel really old and uncool, all at once.

Help me Obi Wan. You are my only hope.

Saturday, December 17, 2005

Fun with family

The AtHomeFamily is off on a road trip for a couple of days. Heading to a family Christmas party at The Sister of the Bride's house this evening and a bigger family thing Sunday afternoon.

The weather might get nasty while we are up there, so wish us luck and bring on the fun and food!

Thursday, December 15, 2005

The Music Man

This week the kids and I have been very crafty. We have made cars out of boxes that are big enough for the kids to walk around inside of and pretend they are driving, and the crayons have taken up permanent residence on the dining table.

But tonight The Talker and I worked on a project that we have been planning since we found a big rubber band last week at the park, a shoe box guitar. But seeing as we haven't bought shoes in a while, we had to modify the design a little and use a plastic box.

And The Talker can rock this guitar. Just check out his Rockstar pose...

We are proud to be 100% baby bed free

The Princess has been climbing in and out of her baby bed since last weekend. So Sunday we set up the toddler bed in her room. I was hoping to get it painted pink or purple before she needed it but now it looks like she will be snoozing in the same silver toddler bed that The Talker used.

And it looks like she likes her new big bed!

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

Staying with the theme

of the morning cleaning chores, I ran into the kid's bathroom to clean it up and to make sure it was ready for this afternoon's playdate.

A quick inventory of the bathroom floor:

Three pair of 4T underwear, Spongbob and Batman were each well represented

Three boy's socks

One pair of Darth Vader shoes

One pair of Spiderman sandals

Two hotwheels

A pile of sand big enough to build a castle

A Buzz Lightyear pajama shirt

A Spiderman costume, that wasn't even bought until November...

And two red plastic maracas. Music always sounds better in small spaces, right?

So I guess sitting on the john gives the boy a creative outlet, so to speak. And I guess I better get cleaning. The party starts in 3 hours.

Is this really it?

I heard the trash truck rolling around the corner, headed that way. In our house that means two things: Get the last of the dirty diapers out to the curb and run through the back yard and poop scoop one last time. We have to take these drastic measures, because we only have once a week trash pick up. You can figure out the rest of the problem.

So while I am poop scooping my heart out and trying to beat the trash truck to the curb, what song is going through my head? It should be something cool and rebellious like Twisted Sister's , "We're Not Gonna Take It"? Or Even "(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party)", right?

But no. I am a dad. Of toddlers.

So the song of the day? "Isa, Turn the Wheel" from the soundtrack of Dora's Pirate Adventure.

Damn. And I really wanted to be cool. Just once. For a little while.

By the way, I think should serve as an excellent example of exactly why daddy needs an MP3 player for Christmas. And did you scroll down through the Twisted Sister link? That would have been a cool class to take. I bet that professor has an MP3 player.

Monday, December 12, 2005

Got a lid I can borrow?

It is official. My job as Stay at home dad just got a lot harder.

This weekend The Princess successfully climbed out of her baby bed several times. She already knew how to climb in but it was nice because once she was in, she was stuck. Now, she is free to roam, day or night.

I brought the toddler bed down from the attic a week or so ago. I was thinking that we would set it up during Christmas break. No luck on waiting that long, though. She isn't totally sure about staying in the toddler bed all night yet. And for her nap today, she wanted to sleep in the crib. We will keep the baby set up for a while and just swap the mattress back and forth as The Princess sees fit.

I was thinking that we could just make this easier on everyone. We do still have the other dog crate in the garage. And that thing is a lot bigger than a toddler bed...

Friday, December 09, 2005

Ice Day recap

She just better not get used to it.

The Boss Lady was off yesterday, since the whole area was iced in. So she got to sleep late. Because I am such a nice guy.

She got to watch while I folded the laundry that I had just washed and dried. Because I am such a nice guy.

She napped the afternoon away. Because I am such a nice guy.

She even had lunch and dinner made for her. Because I am such a nice guy. Even though dinner was just left over lunch, it still counts as two meals, right?

Me? What did I get? Leftovers for diner and a stack of laundry to put away.

And Brownies. The girls made brownies. So we'll call it even, OK?

Think I'll put this one here...

Told to me by The Talker, 10 seconds ago, after I took the baby's nose sucker thing away from him.

Snot is boogers in your nose. It is very slimy. You take them out of your nose with your finger and put them someplace you would like to put them…


Man, I am glad the computer was only two feet away!

Thursday, December 08, 2005

What a horrible toy... or maybe not.

Since she is home, The Boss Lady is cleaning out the kid's closets today. And that means I have to stay away.

The first step in her clean out involves going through all of the loose toys and throwing away any toy that does not have all of it's parts. Also, she can get rid of a ton of the little gimme toys from fast food kid's meals.

This is where I usually get involved, I end up going through the cast- offs, trying to explain why we should keep a particular piece of a toy.


And this morning I did a double take before I got banished from the trash bag. I found a toy that even I was ready to trash. It was part of a spinning top that had a label that said "Amazin' ADD BOY!"

The wife cracked up and had me read the toy again. And it is not as offensive as I thought. It actually says "Amazin' Addaboy!" As in way to go, that a boy! Not like, Hey you, doped up kid...

The dawn of the next ice age?

This city goes nuts anytime the weather drops below 40 degrees. And since it has now been raining and below freezing for more than 24 hours, this whole place has just about come to a stand still.

Except for the people involved in the almost 200 reported fender benders this morning. 200! Before 9 am? Of course it really helps that the TV news is encouraging poeple to stock up on the essientials like bread milk and batteries, just in case the bad weather stays for a while. You might want to get some tire chains people! Or just wait until the spring thaw -- in a couple of hours.

The Boss Lady is out of school today. And we are planning a family day inside our nice and warm house. Lots of laundry and cleaning to be done.

Wednesday, December 07, 2005

Words that could make me cry

It is raining today. Add to that we blew the entertainment budget yesterday at the bouncers, and we have the makings of a boring day at home. Lucky for the kids, I was out of Dr Pepper. So we cruised a couple of grocery stores this morning.

The kids were little heathens in the first store. This is one of those fancy stores where everything is so expensive unless it is on sale. Turns out nothing was on sale. So we ran across the street to our old grocery store.

The kids were great in this store. Could be that I did not cram them into the basket side by side. Or it could be that we stopped by the bakery and bought a round of fresh donuts for everyone. Whatever. Once home The Talker asked to watch Aladdin. The Princess and I played in her room for a while and then we played built puppies with Duplo blocks. Big fun for all. And none of these puppies bit The Boss Lady!

Somewhere during the middle of all the fun, I left to clean the kitchen. The Princess came to play at the dining table and then I realized she REALLY needed a diaper change. Ohmygosh, how can a 28 pound child do that?

Hint #236 for new dads, if you can smell them in the next room, change 'em.

After a quick snack, The Princess looked at me and said the words that warm a daddy's heart, "Daddy, I tired, wanna nap".

Eloquent, ain't she?

The check BOUNCED!

Yesterday I blogged about out 18 cent check.

So after contimplating what to do with the windfall, the kids, the check and I headed over to the Inflatable Wonderland to see if we could spend it all in one place.

Although the $.18 did not cover out entire admission price, we had a blast. The kids took three hour naps. This means that the going rate of a three hour nap is $1.70 per kid, per hour and a dad with leg cramps from 2 hours of bouncing. A good deal in my book.

In fact, we had so much fun that we went back over there after dinner. This time mommy played, while daddy went shopping for new shoes.

Just FYI, I did not find a killer deal on new running shoes, but I did score a pair of Levis 501 for $28 at the Mervyn's closing sale! So I may still need new shoes, but I look super cool in my new button flys!

Tuesday, December 06, 2005

We're rich!

When we took The Princess to her last Dr's appointment, we overpaid. Not at Target, at the Dr's office.

So in yesterday's mail we got a reimbursement check from our insurance company. Now the kids and I are going to go nuts and try to spend it all in one place.

Which should not be too hard, since they mailed a check for 18 cents! Yep. $0.18.

It cost them 37 cents to mail it to us and goodness knows how much to process the check. I'll update you when we spend the family fortune.

Moving days

This weekend The Boss Lady got a wild hair and decided to swap the kids rooms. She and I talked about doing this last week. Several good reason justified the swap. And after another weekend of toting toys and stuff, the switch will be finished.

The Talker gets a much bigger, but a lot colder, room. The Princess, who cannot stand blankets, gets a room that is a lot smaller in the deal. But she might not wake up with icicles on her earlobes, since the smaller room stays warmer at night.

The Talker? He does not really care. The boy would sleep in his birthday suit in the tundra. He don't need no stinkin' blankets. Besides that, he sweats like a pro football player at night.

Both kids seem happy about swapping rooms. And I know mommy is, because The Princess has slept better two nights in a row.

Monday, December 05, 2005

Hello?

I have been unable to view my own blog pages today. Good thing there has been nothing exciting happening. I'll update when I can access my sites.

Saturday, December 03, 2005

AtHomeDaddy ain't so dumb, now is he?

I have to leave to go to work in a couple of hours.

Real, honest, paid by the hour work. The first time I have done that in about 3 months. And back then I worked 2, yes two, hours. This will be the first time will I have worked more than that in a year or more.

And what would cause me to seek out gainful employment on a Saturday afternoon?

Being broke? Nope. I am used to that.

Nothing on TV? Are you nuts? The Big XII Championship game is on today and I'll miss it.

What could it be? Did The Boss Lady agree to watch 2 extra kids all day? BINGO, we have a winner!

The neighbor kids are here for eight hours. I'll be driving a bus and listening to the football game on the radio, while the wife builds up good will in the neighborhood.

Let's see. Babysitting 2 extras all day or driving a bus for park tours?

Sign me up for a driver's seat.

Thursday, December 01, 2005

Here we don't go again

My keys were missing. For several days. I just found them, thanks to you guys.

I was going to ask for you guys to post where you usually find your keys, after searching for them. And hopefully one of you would give a great comment that would jog my memory.

But I saved you the hassle and found my keys in the garage, on the workbench, under a pile of Christmas light boxes.