There seems to be a dizzying array of activities out there for toddlers to choose from: gymnastics, t-ball, swimming, karate, music… the list goes on and on. Fortunately, many of these have trial days, where you can take your little guy in and see if he likes it. We did this with the boys with […]

There’s a town called Oviedo not too far from where I live. The strange thing about Oviedo is that there are chickens wandering around for no apparent reason. I’m not sure if they raise them and release them, or if there is just a large feral chicken population. At any rate, after eating breakfast at […]

With kids, sometimes, the problem isn’t getting straight answers, it’s getting relevant answers. For example, I’ve been trying to get our oldest son to be a little more observant. At dinner each evening, we discuss what we did during the day. Usually, these are fairly awkward discussions, as C still occasionally gets “past” and “present” confused. […]

Taking toddlers out to a restaurant is an exercise in creative distraction. That’s not something I’ve had too much of a problem with in the past. Now, however, the banging and the singing are starting to lose some of their appeal and I’m having to stretch a little bit more to keep the kiddos engaged […]

C has been waking up earlier and earlier these days. I get up at 6, so it hasn’t been too much of an issue for me. This morning, however, we heard the little guy wake up at 5:30. It wasn’t too long before he came running into our room jumped up on our bed, and […]

Now that C is starting to push 4 years old, I’ve been starting to work on getting him to be a little more respectful. He has a bad habit of shouting “No!” when he doesn’t want to do something, and I’ve been letting him know that that’s not how he talks to daddy (or mommy […]

We’ve been doing our best to teach the little guys good manners. Among other things, they are learning that they are not allowed to shout down whoever else is speaking. Instead, they are supposed to wait for a pause, and then say “excuse me”. Despite C’s insistence, they are not allowed to shout “excuse me”, […]

C has been having a fairly rough time of it when it in the sibling wars that are constantly raging through our household. His biggest problem lately involves hitting. He knows that he’s not allowed to hit, and that if we catch him, the punishment is pretty severe. His little brother, on the other hand, […]

We do a lot of singing in our household. This is not because we’re especially talented at it, but more because it’s fun. We’re always drumming, singing, or humming. The songs that I know (mostly classic rock with a heavy does of 80’s movie and TV themes) are significantly different than the songs that they know, so […]

Against my better judgement, J decided to teach C to go potty standing up. Why do I say against my better judgement? Because he’s just barely tall enough and he’s easily distracted. This is a combination that seems to me like a recipe for disaster. Once she put the idea in his head, however, she quickly […]