A Whole Lot of Random Life Bits

Where does the time go? Seems like most of my life these days is recorded more on Instagram (@TonyCTD) or the hundreds of drawings/paintings my kids put up on the refrigerator, which by the way, can get a little overwhelming since something always seems to fall off if you just look at it.

Siblings: They’re Born to Annoy Each Other

A few things have changed now that my son is now 2 and a half. He’s mastered the art of annoying his sister. Two of the biggest problems going on right now:

•    When my daughter doesn’t “share” all of her food or dessert, he’ll cry and say “She HIT me!”
•    A few times she’ll come running to me practically crying saying, “He won’t stop pointing at me!” and then he’ll calmly walk into the room, while pointing at her.

Santa: Just Send Money?

There’s a part in “A Charlie Brown Christmas” where Sally has Charlie write a letter to Santa that I remember vividly. What I didn’t know is that I would experience that conversation nearly first-hand with my daughter’s recent visit with Santa:

Santa: So what do you want for Christmas?
Daughter: An iTunes gift card.
Santa: An iTunes gift card?
Daughter: Yes, for at least $25.

Grandpas: Their Dramatic Love Lives…

This has been a bit of a tough year with my daughter, as she doesn’t have a living grandmother like all of her friends.  My wife’s mother passed nearly 10 years ago and my grandmother, the one that raised me, passed away soon after my wife and I were married 13 years ago. It’s something that’s really been upsetting her the past few months, but we are fortunate with one amazing godmother that she sees multiple times a week and who has gladly been an amazing grandmother-type to both kids.
She does have a grandfather on each side of the family and both are under some weird circumstances where they’re both now living with their “lady-friends.” 

My daughter had asked me the other day, “So when grandma’s die, grandpa’s get lady-friends to live with them?”
I never, in a million years, thought I would have that kind of conversation with my 7-year old.

Dad Moment: Learning to Ride a Bike

There are certain moments with my kids that I know I going to remember forever. One of them happened recently when we finally took the training wheels off my daughter’s bike.
I ran up and down the street behind her, which by the way was exhausting! Obviously, I haven’t done any marathon training in awhile. Anyway, all was worth it as she was balancing on her own.
Then came the realization that my little girl is growing up way too fast.

The Most Random And Questionable Halloween Costumes…

Now that Halloween is getting closer, we finally broke down and took the kids costume shopping.

My son is pretty easy; any superhero character for him is fine. In fact, most of his pajamas are some type of superhero costume complete with capes and all. I can honestly say that the kid has been ready for Halloween for the last 6 months.
We ultimately settled on “The Hulk”, primarily because he likes to punch and destroy things and I think green muscles on a 2-year old is pretty funny.

And as a bonus, it’ll make good pajamas for him until Thanksgiving.

As for my daughter, that task was much more difficult as she doesn’t want to wear anything that even resembles a Princess or what could be portrayed as a ‘baby’ character. What a difference a year or two makes.
And what makes it even more difficult, as I’ve mentioned in the past, girl costumes can be pretty borderline with being too adult.

In our search of constant “No’s” and “I don’t think so's”, I couldn't help but to notice a costume trend going on this year -- extremely strange costumes that had me saying to myself, “Seriously??"

Examples:

Princess Leia Angry Bird

"Girls Oscar the Grouch" - is she suppose to be trash or eaten...?

"70's Lounge" - I'm pretty sure that's a kid pimp costume...

"Peanut Butter & Jelly"

"Plug and Socket"

"Toilet"

"Kid Pageant Dress"

I guess one could accessorize this with a Mountain Dew/Red Bull and be Honey Boo Boo...

Questionable Common Sense Advice

Not sure when exactly this happened but my daughter has suddenly gotten into giving advice.

Not only advice but also suggestions, guidance, and pretty unusual bits of information too. She’s been dishing it out to neighbors, babysitters, strangers, kids, adults, animals, manimals, and just about anything that listens.

In fact, when she saw me writing this she told me I needed more “T’s”.
Apparently it was lacking.

Some recent random bits:

• Don’t eat a hamburger outside. A bird could poop on it.
• Octopuses have lots of testicles, that’s why they’re so mad.
• At a museum it’s OK to touch your own art, but not anybody else’s.
• Never ever tell a cat he’s ugly.
• Lionel Richie eats at Souplantation, but only on Thursday.
• You can call Elvis “Chad” at any time.
• If you practice everyday, you can sing underwater.
• When you burp make sure a Tiger is not around.
• Everybody should have one pink dress.
• Crabs have families too; they just don’t draw pictures for each other.
• You need to be 125 to drive a car. You need to be 5 to get married.
• Don’t EVER shake a crocodiles’ hand.
• I don’t even know anybody that has a Kindle. Maybe a Monkey?

Now I'm having doubts about eating outside tomorrow as I'm taking a hamburger for lunch...