Be A Good Dad

BeAGoodMom can quiet a screamy baby

beagooddad — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:52:11 +0000

Whoever took my happy baby home from her birthday party and left the screamy thing in her place, could you please bring my baby back?

I put her to bed way early last night figuring that she must be tired and that’s on a night I was planning on letting her stay up a little late to watch The Great Pumpkin with the big kids.

She woke up with more complaints this morning. Some of it is being a little under the weather but at least half of it is just bad mojo.

I was watching her this morning while BAGM got showered and dressed. The Giggles Impostor was not happy.

My laptop was nearby. I fired it up and Giggles squirmed next to me to see what was happening.

I went to Be A Good Mom and we started looking through the pictures. Then we watched the slideshow in the upper right corner. It kept her quiet for several minutes until it was time to get the big kids onto their buses.

Feel free to use BAGM’s site whenever your kids are inconsolable. If that doesn’t work, you can always try busting out your photo albums. Those seem to work well, too.

photo credit: ThouArt

Guess who just bought his first Christmas present of the year

beagooddad — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:46:49 +0000

That’s right. I did.

It’s for BAGM. She hates when I make a big deal about stuff like that because she gets so excited and just has to know what it is.

I normally would have waited a month or so to buy her present but they need time to make it which, well, takes time. Several weeks.

That’s all. Carry on.

photo credit: fdecomite

Quieting a talker during story time

beagooddad — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:36:34 +0000

Pookie has been quieter than normal recently. He had a head cold that left him a little drained. For whatever reason, his echolalia diminished quite a bit during these last few days. Yesterday, however, it was back and strong as ever.

He chattered while playing with his toys. He chattered during dinner. He chattered while getting ready for bed. And then he started chattering during our story time.

We were reading Clifford’s First Halloween. Getting ready for the weekend, you know.

There was no way that Geetle and Giggles could pay attention with Pookie making his own noises. I asked him to be quiet a few times like I normally do. Normally it works well and when it doesn’t we normally have a quick story time.

He didn’t seem to be able to stop talking so I asked him to read the story to us. Without hesitation, he plowed right through the rest of the book.

I can’t believe I haven’t thought of channeling his need for talking into having him read us the night time stories.

I have had informal conversations with Pookie’s teachers about the difficulties we might face when Pookie starts mainstreaming. One of the areas they always mention is that he will not be able to consistently stay quiet during story time or other moments like that. I wonder what he would do if a teacher asked him to read a book out loud to the class.

photo credit: kevindooley

Giggles is 2 years old

beagooddad — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 17:57:20 +0000

Giggles turned two on Saturday. We had a medium handful of people over for the party. BAGM already wrote a post about the birthday party complete with pictures.

Giggles had her two year checkup with the doctor today. She’s developing just fine. She has a little cold but nothing to worry about at this point. She got her normal seasonal flu shot booster and some other booster type of shot. We heard that our doctors office still doesn’t know if they are going to be getting the H1N1 shot but to call them every week because they should have at least one week notice before they actually get their hands on it…unless of course they never get any.

Pretty normal stuff.

We had been looking forward from switching Giggles from whole milk to the 1% the rest of us drink. It will make our refrigerator very happy. So, our only real surprise from the visit is when the doctor told us that we should keep her on the whole milk for another year.

Bummer.

I sort of thought that whole milk until 2 and then lowfat afterward was kind of a universal thing. I guess like most medical things, you really are supposed to talk with your doctor.

photo credit: law_keven

Homework with a kid from the neighborhood

beagooddad — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 17:30:25 +0000

Yesterday was the day that BAGM is responsible for our half of the babysitting co-op with our friends in the neighborhood. BAGM and the other mom always have the kids do homework right after school before they start playing/watching TV. Due to a mini-emergency with the girl, I ended up helping Geetle and the 2nd grade boy with the second half of their homework. Part of his homework was reading and/or being read to for 15 minutes.

His parents have a little trouble getting him interested in reading. I think his reading skills are fine but I think his confidence in his reading skills is still a work in progress. The first book I picked out was vetoed as being a chapter book and “I don’t read those books.”

He tried to sneak out of it by suggesting that he read something to Geetle off in another room.

Sorry bub.

I convinced him to join me on the couch and grabbed our copy of Frog and Toad Are Friends before he had a chance to really think about it. He really seemed to be hoping for a meteor to crash through our front window to get him out of reading with me.

To help us get on the same team, I told him that he could read a page and then I would read a page and if the book happened to be too hard, I would read the rest of the time. We would be a team. I asked him what our team should be called. He said, “I don’t know.” So we became the “I don’t knows” with a quick high five and were off and reading.

I read the first page and then he read his with no trouble. As we alternated back and forth, I used some funny voices and asked some “Do you yelling at the flowers will help them grow?” He seemed to warm up to the story and even laughed at a couple of my goofier questions and funnier voices.

15 minutes later, we had made it through two of the stories in the book. We did another I Don’t Know high five. I asked him who the greatest readers ever were. He said, “Who?” I said “I don’t know!” and we high fived again. Then he rushed off to get away from the crazy guy and get his play time in before his mom came to pick him up.

photo credit: Cayusa

A Math Trick for Counting by 2s

beagooddad — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:57:22 +0000

I was helping Geetle with her homework last night. She had to count to 100 by counting by 2s, 5s, and 10s by writing the numbers on a sheet of paper.

We started with the 2s.

Geetle got off to a good start by writing 2 4 6 8 10 12 and then she started having troubles and getting frustrated and ready to kick my…well she was getting mad.

So I showed her that counting by 2s is really just saying every number but when writing them skipping one and then writing the next. She plugged away at it. Slowly. With her hand cramping and her anger bubbling until she was ready to kick my…well she was still mad.

While she wrote them, I had her start a new line after each 10, 20, etc. I was hoping she would notice the 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, rinse, repeat pattern. She didn’t.

But eventually she had them all written out. I congratulated her on getting through it and then I showed her the pattern.

Then she started screaming and yelling at me for trying to trick her by not showing her the trick and how we just wanted her to not watch TV (they get to watch some TV after homework on Wednesdays) and she talked about hating me and being ready to run away from home.

I didn’t know all of that started at 6.

After that, she effortlessly made it through the counting by 5s (I think that’s from all of the telling time practice they are doing) and 10s.

She did learn an important lesson in dividing by two. She learned that when you scream and yell at the parents, the 60 minutes of TV time magically turns into 30.

Go Math!

Dreams of Math Nerdom

Stacking the odds in the battles

beagooddad — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 18:59:13 +0000

Geetle -vs- the world has been gradually gaining momentum. She is a very emotional and very vocal girl who apparently is not afraid of losing her allowance…until she actually loses it.

Shoes, hair style, TV time, and dinner choices have brought out the big guns several times over the last couple weeks. Enough that BAGM and I had a long talk about it last night after we put the kids to bed. We’re trying to find the proper balance between letting her state her opinion and telling her that at same point she has to shut up. BAGM normally ends up being the good cop and I’m normally the bad cop. BAGM is much more patient than I am.

We made a few decisions about directions we plan on heading with Geetle and BAGM pointed out that Geetle needs to win some battles.

Which is true.

With a two year old sister and a brother with autism, she frequently gets stuck being the kid who can handle her emotions and help us in a pinch which is too much to ask of a six year old. It puts her in weird positions where she has trouble remembering that she’s just a kid. Or maybe she’s fighting to have more chances to be just a kid.

Or something along those lines.

One of Geetle’s frequent complaints is neither of us can cook worth a crap. She’s of the opinion that anything not macaroni, spaghetti (without sauce), pancakes, salmon or oatmeal should be classified as dog food. BAGM and I are just a little too creative sometimes.

So at the end of the discussion, we decided to let Geetle pick out dinner tonight. She frequently asks to be in charge of it but it is normally when she is busy complaining about what we cooked. We are going to preemptively strike and put her in charge of it which will include a trip to the store to buy any ingredients we need. Then, depending on what she chooses, we’re going to let her cook it.

She will win a battle. She will have a great night. She will get to have fun being a kid…who gets to make big decisions.

Library Love

beagooddad — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 14:46:33 +0000

I took the kids to our library a couple days ago. We had about 20 books checked out that were all due and I figured that would be a good fine to avoid.

We went on Tuesday which is the day our friend watches the kids. She is frequently looking for something to do between 4-5pm so all 7 of us piled into 2 cars and drove the mile to our new local branch. Pookie headed straight for the toys and eventually to the computer. Giggles headed straight for the toys and then eventually to the board books.

Geetle headed straight for the BOOKS. She had three or four books picked out before I even managed to get all the old books returned. She ended up picking out about 7 total. They varied between chapter books, a big book about pirate ships with lots of facts and giant pictures, and even a more kindergarten appropriate book about flying in an airplane, and a couple of book length kid comic books.

Before bed, she asked if she could read one during her reading time before she falls asleep. I said that she could as long as she remembered to return the book to the library book bag in the morning. First thing in the morning, she complained about having to wake up. Second thing she did was carry the book downstairs and put it away.

For a kid like her that reads about a chapter book a night, trips to the library really are mandatory. We have a ton of books in the house and she rereads like a fiend but there really is something special about getting a new book that she hasn’t read before. When we go to the bookstore she always picks the safe books. Books that are part of a series that she is already familiar with. I see her taking a lot more chances at the library because when you can bring home as many books as you want who cares if there are some duds.

If you are looking for another good reason to go to the library, they had a bunch of Halloween books hand picked and set up all over the place. We grabbed a few of those to help get us in the spooky mood.

Parents of the year

beagooddad — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 12:52:13 +0000

BAGM woke me sometime between midnight and 1 AM because Pookie was coughing pretty badly. We checked on him and he seemed okay other than the cough. We gave him some water and everybody went back to sleep.

This morning he was still making the same dry cough but had no other symptoms. He actually was in a good mood and playing with his toys just like normal. BAGM went to buy some cough syrup for him while I fed breakfast. He drink the cough medicine just fine, got dressed for the bus just fine and went back downstairs to play before the bus came just fine other than the occasional coughing.

I have a feeling the cough is either directly related to his allergies or caused because he hasn’t been able to clear all the mucous caused by the allergies. I don’t think he caught a cold/flu from anybody.

So, parents of the year so far, right?

Well, not so fast.

After Pookie finished brushing his teeth and heading downstairs, Giggles was taking her turn in the bathroom. BAGM brushed Giggles’ teeth and then let Giggles brush her own teeth for a few minutes like we normally do. BAGM and I were chatting.

Then I noticed that Giggles had managed to switch to Pookie’s toothbrush somewhere along the way and had spent the last minute brushing her teeth with Pookie’s potentially germ infested toothbrush.

In our family we believe that building immune systems is just as important as building character.

The world through the eyes of a 2 year old

beagooddad — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 16:36:20 +0000

The walk to Geetle’s bus takes about 90 seconds when Giggles is in the stroller. It takes about 10 minutes when she walks. It is just such a fascinating trip that she just has to stop and check out all the amazing things.

For instance the following caught her attention today:

Her new coat has pockets. Did you know hands fit in those pockets?
There are approximately 80,000 leaves on the ground along the route. About 5 of them are good enough to pick up and hand to dad. But you have to examine all of them to know which 5 to pick up.
That one long skinny pine cone. How did it get there?
When did the root of that tree pop up above the ground? And why is it 6 inches wide and 3 feet long? That’s right, it’s for walking on.
Her hat has a chin strap that droops down a couple inches below her chin. “I hold my hat.”
Spinning 30 times around the stop sign pole can make you dizzy enough that dad has to come pick you up before you stumble into the street.
“I running.” Then she stops and looks at me. “Run, dad.” And then she watches me run to make sure I’m doing right before she starts chasing after me.

And then when you get back, you need an immediate milk and snack to recover all those calories.