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A Sunday drive. Fill 'er up!

Yakety Yak, don't talk ...

Nice. We've entered the backtalking phase. Kim is lucky recipient. Addison in naughty corner . Bryson starts laughing after seeing addison cry in corner. For the first time daddy has to say "It's not funny". The laugh at sibling in trouble phase has begun. Neither end anytime soon.
Alan Sheppard-LSG Solutions

Addison has peanut envy

I really wanted to title this as penis envy. As of this morning addison has now told me she wants to stand up when it is time to potty. You see ... Bryson commonly is asked "Do you want to stand up or sit down?". Maybe this is the beginning of another pro-ERA movement.

Penis v. Peanut
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Months ago my son tells me "I have penis", daddy have penis and addison have penis. Niiiiice. This is not going to get you a date dude. Maybe sloppy seconds. Call me conservative but I'm not ready for my kids to be taught the medical terms of their private organs. Even baby A was dropping one of the PG-13 rated private-oriented terms.

After a handful of "penis" shocks thrown at me during diaper change (I won't comment on the duration elapsed over the "few") I had to start replacing the shock word with peanut. It seems to have caught on; however. I have to wonder what is going on in his head after a birthday party recently where peanuts in a shell aka ballpark peanuts were served. And even more wondering when we were sent home with a bucket and we sat outside Sunday for an hour in our chairs shelling and eating peanuts.

As a proud macho father I'm theorizing he's going to love calf fries or lamb fries.

Alan Sheppard-LSG Solutions

7 mos later

What has happened since March? Too much to wait till September to write. Lot's of talking. We are finally - mostly - able to communicate. Bryson doesn't really articulate well when he's upset.  What else? Unexpectedly climbing up the big slide with no fear (Bryson) at the park across from Granpa and Granna's this spring.  Jumping off the diving board at Nanna's and Big Daddy's. Jumping off the cliffs at Lake Tenkiller (both). Tubing behind the boat (Bryson with Daddy).  Addison is demonstrating on a regular basis her need for shoes as a typical woman and sometimes additional needs past normal like her mother. For two weeks in August, Bryson really was so much clearer in his speech and then he went back to the old speech. Weird. I think I need to feed him more of Daddy's cheesy eggs. Swinging the baseball bat correctly - out of the blue - in Sept - with both hands and hitting ball off tee. We hit the tee more than the ball. I'm just glad he finally caught on to the swing action. If he's like me, I may not learn it the first time but I'll take a break a few days or weeks, go back to it and it voila. Addison is all about her music (Songs!). The movies Cars, Bugs Life, Tinkerbell and Snow White are big hits in our household. We stayed with Granna and Granpa for 7-9 days in preparation for next years vacation bible school. We also made Granna reach the point where she was ready for us to go home. The iPad has turned into a great learning tool. Bryson is climbing in and out of his bed and we haven't converted to a regular single bed just yet. He stays in it all night. He was sleeping on the floor in his Thomas train car tent. Then Daddy demonstrated how the tent fits inside the rails/walls of the bed. Talk about super cool. Both jumped into the 50 percentile in size and we re-enrolled in school for the fall with kids our age now.

What hasn't happened? Pedaling the tricycle.

The Blackberry isn't made for this blog post

As we get older day by day in our youth, we seem to just get braver and braver yet it doesn't ever correlate to our so-called smarts. Addison, weeks ago, has decided to become the first of two, relatively (she's a girl as we know), to demonstrate that she can be a rebel and a maverick. Rebels defy rules. Mavericks ... well they do stupid human tricks sometimes. . 

Addison, weeks ago (the same weeks referenced above), had decided she doesn't want to sit in the booster chair at the dinner table. Of course she is two and a half now. She'll be dating and driving soon. She already can count to 10 when she feels like impressing herself.  Daddy came home weeks ago; yet minutes after she made that decision that rebellious night. Daddy notices Bryson is in his booster chair and daddy thinks ... "This was not Mommy's idea."  Fast forward three weeks (without a booster chair). Daddy hasn't made it home as a meeting with a few employees ran late. Everyone starts dinner without Daddy and Daddy doesn't blame them one bit; however, rebels gain confidence and decide to also try the maverick lifestyle. Maybe Bumper had some nostalgic channel on that day because Addision decided to stand up straight in the dinette chair and take the nestea plunge on the ceramic tile floor. That is going to leave a mark. Per Kim, she lost consciousness, she was shaken and she finally came to with a loud cry.  Seconds seemed like minutes. It didn't take but a few minutes for a 2/3rds size golf ball knot to develop on the lower back of the skull. It made the hair push out. Kim loads up the kids and takes off. Kim calls me back. Addison is no longer crying yet solemn and Kim said she looks tired. Daddy requests Mommy to do two things at once. Talk to Addison and drive. Right now it appears Mommy is mad at Dadda. That sounds like a true - false perception question but you know what I mean.  Dadda hears Addison's voice and she starts the chatty kathy role after Kim mentions Nana and Big Daddy. Whew! We meet at the After Hours Minor ER and they tell me go to Major ER. You need a CT scan. Yep, you are right, doc. Off to Mercy Hospital where they were born 2.5 years ago. Three hours later we leave with a negative (that is known as a fine and dandy report in Bangs, TX) report saying all looks fine. She actually did everything the doctor asked her to do such as say Aaahhhh and follow the light on the instrument they stick in your ears, nose, mouth and maybe other holes (I was passed out on the last colonoscopy). Meanwhile Bryson made some new friends and didn't want to leave the waiting area. Made it home about 11:30pm. We got to take turns waking her every two hours throughout the night. She had no problem waking this morning at 8:30 and chatting. Big relief for Dadda that morning. Mommy is wore slick and I'm calling it a real night myself - 24 hours later.

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Footnotes:
1. The summer of 2008 where Daddy back flipped off the 2nd highest cliff at Lake Tenkiller and did an incomplete 540.

Catching up

Lots of new pics at click here   My battery went dead before the game started. No pun intended on something going dead relating to the game.

Kids are picking up words like Bounty paper towels. Addison continue to speak in full sentences yet in her own language. She can even tell stories and express her emotions and concerns in her own language. Rosetta has yet to publish this language. It is a derivative of Kim speaking when she's in a hurry or hyped up. I still think my wife was raised by a Vietnamese nanny but as she's gotten older, it is easier to understand. Speaking of my wife, our kids think it is normal to walk on their toes when barefooted!

The kids finished their first semester of half day school 2x/week. That started back up for the current winter/spring semester and we've added a music class on Tuesday morning. We are also doing gymnastics each Wednesday after work. I mention after work ... it is a workout for the parents too. Kim and showed up in work clothes one day and about lost 5 lbs of water weight in that hot gym. Kids are learning to walk on a beam, jump (that has yet to be closely mastered), hand stands up against pads, trampoline, etc. Their favorite is sliding into the foam pit. Good upper body work to climb out of that one and Bryson wants no help getting out. He likes the challenge. The trampoline will hopefully help them figure the jumping business ... up and down that is. Bryson's favorite things are the donkey kick because he likes to say hee haw loudly and the headfirst slide down the 45 degree pad. They aren't quite there yet but are enjoying the assisted somersaults downhill and assisted handstands. Bryson's first day, he stared at the girls in leotards jumping over 10 ft in the air. I don't know which part of that combination kept him mesmerized.

Maybe some day my kids can pick up where I left on in the wakeboarding world due to aerial awareness in the gymnastics.

Punishing Kids in Dark Areas - No Concussion Involved

I just punished my son for not wanting to cooperate. IOW, he was not being a team player. I made an example of him though. I didn't have a trainer do my dirty work for me though. I took care of business directly. I have moved the naughty corner to a dark electrical closet in the house. If this closet isn't doing the trick, we'll switch to the equipment shed aka the garage. This shed does not have a ventilation fan but does have plenty of tropical plans putting out carbon dioxide for his lungs. This form of punishment will not backfire considering I'm the daddy! For those that are in the dark - pun or no pun? - you need to read about the Texas Tech U-Mike Leach-Adam James-Craig James debacle.