Fox in Socks

Beware, Kids are get more than you may think!

Have you had the pleasure of reading “Fox in Socks” by Dr. Seuss?

A wonderfully fun book that has to be read out loud, turning your tongue inside out and upside down.

Mr. Fox is playing a game with Mr. Knox.

Mr. Fox can easily recite tongue twisters, Mr. Knox cannot.

Pulling this book out has been a memorable experience to me for more than one reason.

Fun: It’s fun to read and Stella enjoys it, smiling and giggling throughout.

Association: Stella likes to assign characters within the books she reads. Pointing out different figures in a book she will tell you who each “person” is; Here is opa, here’s mommy, this is Carsten, leah, Franzi, Daddy and so on. For the most part, I thought this exercise was arbitrary act of randomly assigning names that she new to figures on a page. There was no connection between the real people she knew and the figures on the page.

Reading “Fox in Socks” has changed my mind about this.

First of all, the last set of rhymes where the tweedle beetles are doing battle in a ….

At first Stella said she was one of the beetles however, once they were in a “tweedle beetle bottle puddle paddle battle muddle.” It was game off.

She didn’t want to be in a bottle.

Second. Stella assigned daddy to the Mr. Fox character. He is the one that is having fun while reciting these silly rhymes. She then assigned Mommy to Mr. Knox, the one who can recite the rhymes at all. The other day when Daddy wasn’t around, Mommy was asked to read the book. She struggled with some of the rhymes.

Stella stopped her in the middle of the book and told her “it is okay Mommy, we can read another book and Daddy can read this one to me when he comes home.”

A level of comprehension, association and connection that I did not expect form a 2.5 year old. She recognized that Mr. Fox is the one that can easily say the rhymes; she assigned a character profile to this figure in the book and finally associated it with a real life person who fits this profile.

Recitation: Finally, Stella has only heard this book 2.5 times; twice from Daddy and the half time from Mommy. Despite this limited exposure, out of nowhere, later in the evening, she begins to recite the “Bin and Ben Band” and the “Blue Goo” rhymes.

Wow!

Have some fun, go read this with your kids today!

Active Attack

What do you do when Mommy and baby are away?

Daddy and daughter get to play!

Rough house and run

Soccer and giggles

Scream a bit louder, the glasses do clatter

Short …

Pause…

Hide and seek

Couchy trampoline,

Piano duets

And tickle attacks

To bed a bit late

A futile attempt

To tucker her out

It wasn’t enough,

Still quite alert

She’s in this space

Between needing that nap

And too much daytime snooze,

Will dad ever get his evenings back?

Dunk!

Have you wondered what Stella’s “helmet” that she’s had on her head the last few photos is?
For those of you who were wondering, now you get to see the practical application.

It’s a mini bathtub bucket thingy which baby’s love.
After some problems with the belly button healing, we got clearance from the Doctor that Emmett can take the big dunk.
And boy did he enjoy it.

With this bucket all we have to do is support his head (making sure he doesn’t go under). And through the buoyancy he has all the freedom he wants.
Next step: installing a lazy Suzan.
He (and Maja) spun in circles.
As well as thoroughly soaking the bathroom floor.
Good that I suggested we remove the carpet for this ordeal.

Do Witches Make Fishes

HI all,
I wanted to take a moment to plug a new book that is out but you may not have heard of.

"Do Witches make Fishes"

This book was written by Jason Mayo, another daddy blogger. In fact after searching many blogs on my limited time, his is the only other daddy blog that I have found entertaining, insightful, funny and worth reading on a regular basis... and much more entertaining than my blog.

You can check out his blog here.

Any way, he has written a cute book that has great illustrations and the proceeds all go to charity.
You can get the book at:

amazon.com

amazon.de

amazon.co.uk

Enjoy.

I hope things will calm down soon that I can start blogging on a regular basis again. Right now, we’ve been extremely happy if we get five minutes of sleep.

jeremy

On Call

Mondays are my night for sport.

My repose

My one chance to get out

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Routine

Do remember the routine?

I’m trying to. I think we had one once upon a time. But it seems like eons ago, something way beyond sleep depraved memory.

I think it went like this: read a book with mommy, cuddle with daddy, snuggles in with her blanket and baby doll, daddy exits room, mommy and daddy have some quiet time before bed.

I think that’s what it was like

Once upon a time

Before…

Before we had a baby

A baby with no biological clock

A baby whose digestive system is realigning itself.

I can’t fault the kid, he’s in pain.

You see the strain

Cramp, cramp

Face pulled tight

Beat red

Moan, moan, whine and

BLAST out the back end.

Quiet…for a few minutes

Repeat, this time with uncontrollable screams.

He’s tired,

He wants to sleep too

Before a two and a half year old

A two and a half year old who needs extra attention.

Before two kids who suck up every single breathing moment

Leaving you panting for just five minutes

Sport

The act of physical movement, increasing metabolism, building muscle, breaking down fat.

This is a foreign concept.

The spare tire is growing.

One notch further on the belt

10 hour work days

2 hours in a car

Once home, dinner, bed time routine, crash

I don’t move

It’s dark out when I leave work

No more garden work

Oh yeah I got little kids,

Scratch that, don’t think about garden work or working on the house.

No physical work, at a desk all day, in a car

I feel like a fat flabby slob

The love handles have extra large grips

For what? There’s no time for love

Monday Night

Monday is my night

My reprose

My one chance for some kind of movement.

Two hours of running and jumping.

It gets my blood pumping.

At least I get a night. The kid is attached to Mommy’s breast. She doesn’t get a break. The only sport type movement she gets is pushing the stroller and doing curls with both kids in her arms.

The evening starts with a wound up older sister. Turns out she had an extra long nap.

She doesn’t want to go to bed. She’s not tired. She’s bouncing off the walls. Lights on, lights off, cuddle with daddy, back in bed, cuddle with daddy, back in bed, lights on, lights off.

Doesn’t she realize I need to go to volleyball? Patience, she needs you to be there.

She’s playing with her damn hippo night light, totally ignoring me. But I gotta be there. I twitch a muscle, she asks where I’m going.

Finally she’s quiet, I’m allowed to leave the room.

All’s quiet down below. I ask mom if she thinks its okay for me to go to volleyball. Crazed deer in headlights look returns my gaze.

“You’ll come back if I call?”

“Of course” I say “I’ll take my phone with me. Don’t give me that look, all is quiet here. Be a little more positive”

To which she retorts, “I’ve stopped being positive. There are no quiet nights”

45 minutes later as I get the ball to serve, my phone rings. A faint voice on the other end asks if I can come home.

5 minutes later I enter a quiet house. This doesn’t seem right. I make my way upstairs to see a bright and bushy 2.5 year old, a zombie mommy and comatose baby sitting in the bean bag chair.

“He’s been screaming at the top of is lungs for 30 minutes. He disturbed Stella. He only quieted down 2 minutes ago.”

Daddy takes Emmett to give mommy a break but to no avail, he’s gotta eat. I take my turn upstairs in sister’s room. I have to stay!

I stink

I try to ignore it

She buries her head in my arm

The stench will most surely make her pass out.

It seams to enliven her.

Daddy drifts in an out. Some time later daddy wakes up, he desperately needs a shower.

As soon as he moves a head pops up. “where’ you going?”

“Daddy has to shower, you can hear me shower through the wall. When I am done, I’ll get my blanket and come back. I promise” “you need to lay down I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

Daddy exits a dark and quiet room to de-stink. Upon returning he finds his daughter with all the lights on, bouncing (or should I say taking flying leaps) in her bean bag chair looking at her books. She turns in great surprise and greets me with a big smile.

It’s flippin 11pm. My alarm goes of in 6 hours. “child, you gotta be tired!”

“Neeeeiiiiinnn!”is her reply.

“We’ll it’s lights out, we’re going to bed.” Through sniffles and bouncing from bed to bed, we drift off to sleep until the beep beep beep of my alarm at 5am.