Celebrating Little Things

Hello Friends,

In general, I encourage the girls to celebrate the little things in life: mornings when we have a sunny walk to school, a bird in the yard, seedlings breaking through the dirt, etc.. Most times the girls entertain my deep thoughts, but I don’t think they totally get the idea. This, however, was something they, specifically the Cricket, understood.

Cricket lost Baby Tooth number 2, and it was even more exciting than the first. She understood how to wiggle this one, so pulling was not required. She was proudly announcing how she “just pushed it with her tongue and it came out!”

That’s it there, bottom row, her left. Alright, maybe she didn’t fully grasp jutting out her chin, but you get the point.

A baby tooth is actually small (quite!), and we did celebrate. The tooth fairy came, magic dust sprinkled all over the nightstand as usual. Cricket put her dollar safely in her jewelry box the next day. A little tooth, a little magic, a little money and a little celebration. Right now, that was a big deal for all of us. Even Sweetie cheered for her little sister’s tooth loss.

I sincerely hope you all are finding small things to celebrate during these weird times. Some days that’s easy for us; some days we celebrate if we didn’t scream at one another. I think we all need to keep looking, keep trying, to find things to celebrate. The alternative is crummy.

I want to end similar to my last post. We are here, and we are healthy. And we’re glad you are too. We’ll see you soon, friends. Behave, be safe.

Back to (Home) School

Hello Friends,

I hope this post finds you doing well: safe, healthy, and coping with the social distancing measures. We are home still, and healthy and safe too. We are (still) all in this together.

Last week we returned to at-home classwork. The girls’ school schedule worked around Easter, so their 10 day Spring Break was in April. It was a nice break from home-schooling, and we learned a few lessons for our return.

Many of you are also dealing with home-schooling right now, so I won’t dig too deep. Sweetie had a fun volcano project last week for her STEM class, and I thought I would share some of the highlights.

Everything started with a salt dough volcano. As you see, Sweetie was good about sharing the project with her sister. Once the volcano dried, it was time for paint.

I had to laugh at this stage. I set each girl up with four colors of paint. As you can see, everything melded into “grey”, and that is not so bad (we’re big fans here at our house). The project culminated in the eruption-good times!

This was project was a fun part of our week. I was talking with Momstar on Friday (her son killed it on this project, btw), and we realized neither one of us had done a volcano project in Elementary School. The girls enjoyed the different stages of the project, and they loved eruption day. I was glad they got into the project, and worked well together. It was great to have them interacting but not competing, and complaining was minimal. Best part for me, very low screen-time!

Clearly, I’m not sharing anything profound today…and I’m fine with that. I wanted to share this project as an example of a little thing that brought smiles to our in-household. I hope you and your family are finding smiles, big or small, during this wierd time. Honestly, smiles are hard to find on some of these days, but they’re around. So behave and be safe, friends. We’re here, and we’re glad you are too.

Baby Tooth Gone!

Hello Friends,

We are celebrating over here, as Cricket just lost her first baby tooth! She’s been walking around with a loose tooth since January. The adult tooth erupted in February, but that little one wouldn’t give up.

We kept telling her all month to wiggle the baby tooth and play with it (all per Dr. Johnny’s directions). She didn’t really get the idea until two weeks ago, then she started to show that tooth some attention. We were supposed to call March 1 to schedule the “extraction”, but I kept pushing it off – it was getting so loose! Last night was the night, and wife was the hero. Post bath she grabbed a tissue and POP! (yep, it actually made a noise).

Cricket was very excited. She now joins all her school friends who have been losing teeth. Of course, the Tooth Fairy stopped by her room. We got to hear about it at 4:30 this morning!

Almost too small to see!

On to the next adventure. I hope you all are doing well out there. Let’s close in honor of Dr. Seuss and one of the girls’ favorite books, “teeth, you find them everywhere!”

Ettabetta Boop

Hello Friends,

We’re going to keep on with this theme of equal daughter representation. Cricket’s class just held their Superkids Dress-Up Day. Funny thing, she chose Ettabetta, just like Sweetie did two years ago.

The circumstances around this dress-up day are funny, because the detour showed up in the Google search results for “Superkids Ettabetta”. For some sites this is an everyday occurrence; for me, it was a reason to do the happy dance. I learned about the search results from two different Kindergarten Moms, whose daughters also dressed up as Ettabetta (she’s pretty popular). They came across Sweetie’s pictures in their search results, then followed the link to the blog. It was great talking with them about D³, as only a few parents at school know about the blog (self-promotion is not one of my strengths).

You all can check out Sweetie’s picture from her Kindergarten year, and of course, here’s the Cricket:

Feel free to form an opinion about “who wore it better”, just be sure to keep it to yourself! As for me, I’ll never tell. Really, though, Cricket is enjoying the Superkids program just as much as Sweetie did, and she is now reading nightly. I know I mentioned in my last post that the milestones are less exciting with the second child, but this reading stuff is still so cool.

So that’s the start of our week, friends. No puns this time around, but I do hope all is going well for you and yours. We’ll see you out there!

100 Days-Take 2

Hello Friends,

This post is ultimately about Cricket’s recent “Hundred Days of School” project, but it’s gonna take a minute to get there.

We just celebrated the 100th day of school, with both girls taking on projects. As I was watching Cricket’s come together, I thought back to Sweetie’s project from her Kindergarten year. Then, when I didn’t post a picture on the exact day, I realized I had fallen into the “second child” cliche.

I’m not sure how it is in your family, but we constantly struggle to give the girls equal treatment. Sweetie is older but quieter, so she can drift to the background easily. Cricket is second but gregarious and grabs your attention. But a look at their photo albums shows the extent of this problem. Sweetie’s starts in the hospital and is consistent up to her third birthday, some pages bursting from the stack of un-sorted photos. It’s a veritable Encyclopedia Brittanica of the start of her life. Cricket, on the other hand – cliff notes. No, really. Many pages with no photos or any information recorded, even though she’s been around for over five years.

And that’s how it goes with the second kid, right? Parents have less energy in general, the developmental milestones are expected and no longer unique, and you don’t cling to every little thing that happens, you don’t hang on every behavior and correct it to an expectation. Huh, reading that makes it sound bad, like I’m an awful Dad. But I know I’m not alone here, folks.

So here’s my attempt to bring balance to our house. Celebrate! Behold Cricket’s 100th Day Project:

Just a panda strollin in the foothills

Mommy helped bring this image together, but Cricket did the painting and placing. That includes counting and hand-painting all 100 of those noodle-bamboo shoots. And the “100” cloud? All her.

All in all, I think this project went well. It served as a good reminder to me to celebrate the girls’ accomplishments, however small, as equally (and specifically) as we can. Cricket engaged the project, which was very cool to watch. And, we made the trip to school without the project getting ruined. Now if only she had allowed the teacher to keep it to display with the rest of the class…

So remember, friends, second children need love too. And for those of you with more than two kids, you have my respect. Given that my hairline is receding and graying from two, I don’t think I could handle another! We’ll see you out there, friends!

Didn’t Get the Memo

Hello Friends,

Clearly, our garden was not notified when Summer ended two weeks ago. We are still pulling tomatoes and zucchini from the vines.

Some of the tomatoes are getting ugly, but overall it’s a good looking yield. And obviously, we let this squash go too long. That was a problem this summer: we searched for zucchini and couldn’t find them, then we found them and they were way too big. I guess we’re out of practice.

Historically, we have kept the garden as a hobby. This year’s success made it exciting and fun again, and it makes it feel alright that we took a year off. Technically, I think the agricultural phrase is that we chose to let the garden go “fallow” a year.

It’s time to clear the bed and preare for the winter, so I’ll empty the compost bin and mix on the leaves as they fall. We already have a plan for next year, thanks to raised beds that Wife found. They have a compost area factored into their footprint, so, come Spring, we will be overhauling the space. Oh, and writing about it, of course!

I hope your garden is wrapping up well, and your late harvest is bountiful! Now starts your planning foor the Spring as well. And for those of you who don’t currently have a garden, you have something to consider during the winter months. We’ll see you out there!

In the Books

Hello Friends,

After a whirlwind two weeks, we can officially say our Summer 2019 is “in the books” (hence the post title). But I return to you as we celebrate our first day back to St. Viator Elementary School for the 2019-2020 school year.

You may be thinking, “Wait, is the Cricket in a uniform?” And the answer is yes, she is. She is starting Kindergarten and that means uniforms, no naps, and the beginning of her permanent record.

She was very excited, even though today was just a one hour welcoming day. Tomorrow is her real first day, but she dressed up just the same (and we don’t really buy into the permanent record thing).

Sweetie was excited too…no, really. She didn’t show it the entire morning, but she was glad to get back to her friends. If only I would stop making her pose with these signs all over the house, and stairs, and outside, and in the school yard. Well, that’s not going to happen.

And so, as I stated, our summer is in the books. But I invoke the spirit of Dad jokes to say that our girls are also in the books. Gosh, that was way more funny in my head. Anyway, we’re back at school now. Best to you and yours as they head back, here’s hoping it’s a smooth and positive end of your summer.

Kindergarten, Here She Comes!

Hello Friends,

Like so many of you out there, we are wrapping up our school year. For Cricket, that means she is done with pre-school, and on her way to kindergarten. Yep, she’s got her certificate and everything.

Logistically, this makes the Cricket an actual student. We now qualify for multi-student discount and financial aid and all sorts of other fun school stuff. And of course, she now gets to wear a uniform-no more “choice A or choice B” in the mornings!

Cricket got to sing a couple of songs, and she and her classmates performed an alphabet poem about their year. Their celebration ceremony was informal, but nice. And no worries about Sweetie. She is off to the Second Grade, right next door to her current classroom. She got sent along with a jovial pat on the shoulder.

We hope you all have a good wrap to your school year, and may your summer start well. We’ll see you out there!

Dad Jokes Abound

Hello Friends,

It seemed like everyone was getting in the Dad jokes this year. I starting hearing them last week, bandied about on radio programs, used in email contests, and, of course, enjoyed between Fathers in preparation for the big day. The Cricket latched on to a particularly “good” one, so here goes:

“What do you call a bear with no teeth?”

“A gummy bear!”

Even better than the joke itself is Cricket’s delivery. She doesn’t always wait for the “What?” after the opening question, and rapid fires the punchline at you. Of course, she’s cracking up regardless of your response.

I hope that the weekend, especially yesterday, was excellent, and that this week is starting off well too. Stay away from those real “groaner” jokes, but stay open to the funny ones!

“Sweet Jokes”, 6/4/2018

Hello Friends,

Sweetie just wrapped up her Kindergarten year. Despite not being surrounded by like-minded comedians, she is still bringing the jokes. The latest example of her humor:

Sweetie: “What do you call a panda bear with no tail?”

Me: “Oohhh, I don’t know. What?”

Sweetie: “A useless panda.”

Me: “Huh. Hmmm.”

I am not sure this was an attempt at humor or just a stab at the Cricket. Her favorite animal is the panda bear and her favorite stuffed animal is her little panda bear, “BB” (thanks Buyo and Panda Express!). To be clear, BB does have a tail.

This joke, along with a slew of others that were left on the editing table, sparked our conversation about the difference between “funny” and “silly”. Funny being genuinely humorous and silly being an attempt at humor that misses because it just went the wrong direction. Like the direction 5 and 6 year old children take…often.That is now a sort of litmus test during our joke brainstorming sessions. It seemed the easiest way to tell Sweetie that her jokes were not funny without crushing her spirit. Double-edged sword though, as she is not beyond telling me, “Dad, that was just silly, not funny,” when I reach too far for a laugh.

On that note, I think that wraps up our current Sweet Jokes series. If Sweetie comes out with something really funny in the future I will be sure to share though. I hope it has brought some smiles to you all out there. It’s been fun for us, and we’ve found that sometimes a little silly can be just as good as some funny.