From the Front Porch

Negative One

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Scott) — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 16:05:00 +0000

Our five year old recently approached his mother and said, "Mom, one minus two is negative one."

A Hundred Million

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Scott) — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 03:09:00 +0000

Just before our youngest's fourth birthday, I was talking to him about the upcoming day. He said, "When I'm five, I'll have five candles on my cake. And when I'm a hundred million, I'll be as tall as the ceiling."

Every Of It

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Scott) — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 03:50:00 +0000

When our three year old doesn't like something, he often uses the phrase, "I hate every of it."

Shampoo

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Scott) — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 07:38:00 +0000

Our three year old was talking with me about car colors. "Dad, your car is shampoo." He meant "champagne."

Unsick

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Scott) — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 16:53:00 +0000

Our kids have had a bout with the flu this week. Our three year old declared his health thus, "I'm unsick."

Like An Hour

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Scott) — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 07:53:00 +0000

Two of our kids were discussing who would get to play video games first, and included me in the conversation. I concluded that our nine year old could play for half an hour, then it would be our five year old's turn. The younger objected to the decision with the following:

"Yeah, but, a half an hour is like...an hour!"

What?

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Scott) — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 00:06:00 +0000

Our nine year old to our five year old: "You have short-term memory loss."

Spanish

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Scott) — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 23:24:00 +0000

Me to my three year old: "Did your brother take his folder?"
My three year old: "Yes, he taked it."
Me: "He took it. Can you say that? Taked isn't a word."
Him: "It's Spanish."

Template Upgrade Problem

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Scott) — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 19:20:00 +0000

I'm having problems upgrading my template for this blog from a classic template ("Rounders 3" template from early 2005) to a new template. I have multiple classic template blogs from early 2005 and multiple new blogs created with the new templates. I want to upgrade all my old templates to the new ones. My first attempt has some problems.

When I upgraded to the new template, I entered the template designer to choose a template. Everything was very slow in loading, and my preview is blank, except for the rightmost 1/2" and bottom 1/2". See photo above. Sometimes, even the part of the preview that shows up goes blank. There are other problems too:

Changing any setting in the template designer is very slow.
The cursor flashes very rapidly between a normal cursor and that rotating circle (MS Waiting!)
The blog page loads very slow from any computer, even though this blog is more simple (fewer links and gadgets) than my other new template blogs. Same profile photo, etc.
My other new blogs with the latest templates don't have any of these problems.
I have two computers, one with IE8.0 and the other with Firefox 3.6.12.
The above photo is from the IE8.0 computer. The Firefox computer gives a normal template design preview, but everything is just as slow with changing settings, etc.
I've changed my template many times as well (Simple, Awesome, etc.), but there is no change in either the template preview or the sluggishness of changing settings.
Occasionally, when going into the template designer, the preview will show the whole blog page correctly for a fraction of a second, then change to what's shown in the photo above, then it may completely go blank.

Any help is appreciated in advance. Thanks!

I Amn't

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Scott) — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 04:36:00 +0000

Mrs. Scott placed our three year old on top of the kitchen counter to cuff his pants. He said, "Look at me. How tall am I?" I replied, "You're the tallest one in our family!" He countered, "No, I amn't."

Meet In The Future

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Scott) — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 02:40:00 +0000

As we were driving by the street where Mrs. Scott's grandmother lived 30 years ago, I noted it to our 8 year old: "You never knew your great grandmother."

He replied, "I met her in the future."

Post

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Scott) — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 05:12:00 +0000

This is a post. It's been a long time since there has been a post here. But this IS a post. It may not look like one, but it is. I've neglected this blog, and Mrs. Scott has hinted that it may be hijacked. We'll have to wait and see.

Measure

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Scott) — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 18:39:00 +0000

Mrs. Scott had the tape measure out to size something up. As she walked past our three year old's toy car in the driveway he asked, "Mommy, can you see how measure my car is?"

Growing Up

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Scott) — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 21:08:00 +0000

Our two year old today as I told him someday he, too, would take showers:

"I don't want to grow up."

Day Of Boys

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Scott) — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 00:52:00 +0000

Today, our five year old got four hits in his pee-wee game, out eight year old caught a lizard at the fields and our two year old carried the bag for his toddler-sized fold out chair with purpose. Sometimes it's just the small things.

Da'yy Tah - Revisited

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Scott) — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 21:04:00 +0000

Before our youngest turned two, he was saying "da'yy tah" for "daddy's car." I posted about this previously. Now that he's older, he has no problem pronouncing it correctly. A couple of days ago we went out the front door and my car was parked in the driveway. "Da'yy Tah!" he proclaimed. Then he turned around with a big smile on his face and said, "I used to say that."

A Sport That Makes You Sweat

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Scott) — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 04:22:00 +0000

Mrs. Scott was coughing (the result of a waning cold) and exclaimed, "I hate coughing." Our eight year old proclaimed, "Coughing is a sport that makes you sweat."

Open Space

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Scott) — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 17:22:00 +0000

We have several open space areas near where we live that I take the older kids occasionally. These are hilly areas that have been open for ever and have been turned into parks with little human intervention. So far, we've seen a coyote, hawks, snake skins, pheasants, field mice, lizards, cows and jack rabbits. Neither kid has seen all of these, yet.

The Middle Letter

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Scott) — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 08:43:00 +0000

Our two year old asked Mrs. Scott which letter was the middle letter of the alphabet.

Too Fit For Me

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Scott) — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 04:08:00 +0000

When something, such as an article of clothing, doesn't fit our two year old, he says, "It's too fit for me."

Au Revoir

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Scott) — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 06:37:00 +0000

The cousins were over recently, and when they were leaving, our eight year old came out of nowhere with the following question, whispered in my ear: "Dad, how do you say 'good bye' in French?" He butchered it, but oh, well.

"F" Is For Grandpa, "B" Is For Grandma

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Scott) — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 07:35:00 +0000

Not only has our two year old taught himself the alphabet, he's figured out the first letter of each of our family member's names. He says, "M is for mommy. D is for daddy," and so on, including for his own name and the name of his brothers. We never set him up to think like this, he just did it.

Then last week, he blew us away. He started saying, "F is for grandpa" and "B is for grandma." Obviously, the letters don't correspond to the first letters of the words "grandpa" and "grandma." Rather, F and B are their first initials. Again, we didn't teach him the association of letters and their sounds, either. Really scary.

Alphabet Boy

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Scott) — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 08:32:00 +0000

With no input from parents, our two year old taught himself the alphabet with the Blue's Clues Alphabet Power DVD in just under two weeks. Now he notices letters everywhere and calls them out. He's scary.

Say What?

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Scott) — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 08:49:00 +0000

As we exited the house to head down the stairs, our two year old handed me his sippy cup in order to grab the hand rail. "Can you put this in your purse?"

Dad: "I don't have a purse."

Today Tomorrow

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Scott) — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 03:54:00 +0000

Our two year old: "Dad, what's today?"
Me: "Today is Sunday."
Two year old: "No. Today is tomorrow," followed by a big smile.