Soccer 2010 Begins

Sorry that there are no action photos in this series but our run of bad coach luck with the YMCA has continued. We are apparently the only team with no coach so I wound up running practice with one of the other dads. Is it right to get mad at the YMCA? My guilt is there over this emotion, but it is only slight. Tyler did a great job and is showing a lot more coordination this year. But, with everyone bigger and stronger than the year before you have to watch out or someone will kick your ball away from you....hard! One thing is for sure, Tyler is a good teammate and appears to get the fact that others are involved better than many of the other kids.

This year there will be defenders and forwards.

I'm ready Coach.
This is my ball.

I think this look is equal to...."Aw, Dad!"

Ty in the mix.

He's a very attentive player.

Dad & Me Science Night 2010

I love Kids at the Creek. This was Ty and my 2nd Dad & Me Science Night. It was very neat to see him see many of his classmates from last year to this and how he would make sure to get close and say a friendly hello to each. We had a blast at the volcanoe, of course, and he showed particular interest in panning for gems. The last photo is the joy he had in the loot he made out with.

Getting ready for the volcanoe.

Let's get this eruption started!
Ty pouring in some of the explosive mixture...

A close-up of the big pour!

Out of order but volunteering for the pour!

Notice two things..the eruption..and the classic Ty stance with the hands on the hips! We see this a lot, particulary when he's naked!

Making a water tornadoe!

Fishing with magnets!

Check out my loot, Dad!

I Love My Days Off

I love my job, but I do not love the schedule. After 3 years of swing shifts I had come to love seeing my kids every day, including my work days, where I could be around for at least 4 hours in the mornings in some way shape or form to help, cook breakfast for the kids and Val, snuggle and play. Now, for basically 4 days out of the week I see them little if at all, am no help, make maybe one breakfast for them and Val and generally become very disagreeable by the end of my week. I cherish my days off and really look forward to having the kids to myself. It helps recharge me and relieves some of my guilt about not being a help to Val all week. I had been hoping to return to a swing shift but I am not sure if that is going to happen, maybe I'll get a 4-10 schedule where I can make it to dinners, we'll see. It will be a huge disappointment if it doesn't work out and the guilt I am feeling about the effect it will have on home is hard to manage. I hope for change and I hope that these days mean as much to everyone else as they do to me.

This little face is a good start.

Getting better...
Ok, Dracula can be a good thing sometimes.

Look who is learning to play together?

And to slide together....?

And to crash together...?!

We are in the veterinarian office at the Kids Museum here. When asked what she is doing, Hailey responds, "I'm working on the computer just like Mommy!"

I may be the only one who gets this but this is the dancing room where Hailey has an absolute blast! It's dark so the flash kinds destroys the mood but there is a projection screen that shows an image of the kids as they get their grooves on. Hailey ran in yelling, "I'm going to shake it!"

Look who jsut got big enough to man her own digger in the dinosaur pit!

A little goodbey photo on the dog statue that usually scares the bejeezers out of Hailey!

Power miners

Inspired by some lego power miner videos, Tyler and Hailey turned themselves into power miners and their slide into some sort of power miner vehicle.

Happy Spot

We are trying a new approach to Hailey's anger and hitting. I created a "happy spot" for her at the top of the stairs (kind of a central place between all areas of the house but still "away" from things). It has a couple pillows and some activities for her to work on. I really want to eliminate her frequent hitting and the repeated time-outs (seclusion on the stairs) clearly hasn't been working. So her happy spot isn't so much a punishment as it is a place for her to calm down and regroup. after all, when she is mad there is no rationalizing with her or getting her to do anything until she has cooled down and changed her own attitude.

I was a bit nervous at first. I introduced it to her one morning when she was angry at Dave. I showed her to her happy spot and she said, "This isn't my happy spot, this is my MEAN spot". I very briefly explained we are calling it the happy spot because she could go there to get happy. I really wanted to give her a lecture about the power of positive thinking but she is two after all.

My plan is to encourage her to go to her happy spot whenever I see her getting upset. Ideally this would be before the hitting starts but her frustrations flash out of no where sometimes so there may be many after the fact happy spots to start out. We haven't terminated the hitting yet but there have been several occasions when she has been mad about something and she huffs and puffs her way out of the room and up to her "spot" and plays with her princesses or beads until she feels better. And I never said a word.

I personally feel better about it. Timeouts are kind of necessary for her because she really needs to be removed from a situation and have a moment of her own to cool off. At the same time, I sometimes felt bad for sending her to the lonely stairs just for being angry. After all, anger is a valid emotion. And the truth is she needs to learn how to calm herself down and deal with her frustrations. So we will see how this works........

Oh and no bugging her while she is trying to get happy (lesson learned early on).

Dad at school

Ty's class focused on community helpers during the month of February. A few weeks ago, Dave was able to go into Tyler's class in uniform and talk to them about being a police officer. Tyler was very excited to and have them him there. Hopefully Dave can write a blog and expand on things a bit but here are a couple of pictures. One of Dave and the class and another of the thank you poster the class sent home.

What's a girl to do

What's a girl to do when the top of her ottoman breaks and she can no longer take her rests like this:

Here's Hailey's solution: