Octopus Overlords

Hiccup wrote:3 year old daughter now, here's a few recent highlights.

I can't believe she's 3 already and that you have another on the way!

Jag wrote:

Hiccup wrote:3 year old daughter now, here's a few recent highlights.

I can't believe she's 3 already and that you have another on the way!

I think the same thing everyday.

Probably will be saying "I can't believe she's 30", though I'll probably exclude the "another on the way" part of it from here on out.

My 2 yr old was super excited for st pats day parade. He wouldnt go without wearing his pirate hat.

We had our annual Azalea Festival this weekend and they have a big street fair with vendors of all shapes and sizes. My daughter (2) kept seeing kids with these bubble guns that shoot streams of bubbles when you pull the trigger and wanted one. Since she had been really good all day we decided to get her one.

What followed was one of those feel-good things that made you believe maybe the world is OK after all. She stood on the corner and as people walked by she'd smile and shoot them with bubbles. What was fascinating to me was the reaction of people that got "attacked." She aimed at kids, teens, college kids, business guys, homeless people, senior citizens. Every single one had the biggest grin on their face. Some would laugh, some would throw their hands up in surrender, some would laughingly try to run away, but every person not only reacted, but reacted really positively. Of course my daughter was thrilled at all the attention and sat on the corner blowing bubbles until she had emptied the bottle.

Maybe bubbles are the great equalizer. Less fighting, more bubbles.

Huge bubble fan here. Even have one of those big cloth wands to make the big, big bubbles. So happy to read this story, I believe that bubbles are magical. Think about it, why would Glinda the good witch come and go in a bubble it they weren't magical?

I'm beginning to wonder if I have an issue with things contained within another that adventually release with a pop.

Has anyone seen the Glee movie? Me neither. A...friend...told me that there is a incredibly cute portion where a 4 year old imitates Blane during a song - from the hand motions to the head bobs - while in full Warbler uniform. It was really remarkable. So I heard.

Note: We have Tivo and our kids have largely grown up with the concept that they can watch whatever they want whenever they want (much to our chagrin).

Daughter 5.11: I want to watch Olivia.
Me: Okay, I'll turn this one on - Olivia's Dogwash
Daughter 5.11: Daaaaad, we've seen that one 500 times. ***beat*** 501 would be a lot.

My wife and daughter were playing together with her toys in the kitchen. Then, this exchange:

Daughter: I want to watch the Wiggles now!
Wife: Ok, but you need to clean up your toys first.
Daughter: (thinks) *You* can clean up the toys, and *I'll* watch the Wiggles
Wife: (bursts out laughing)
Daughter: (joins in laughing, then thinks and pauses) I'm not joking.
Wife: (laughs harder)

My 8 year son in the first day of Sunday school:

Teacher: Who can tell me what the Bible means?
Son: Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth.
Teacher: That's actually pretty good.

At dinner the other night, Aubrey 4.5 already had us laughing as she told us how she pestered my mom early that morning into waking up.
I'd decided to stop eating and take the rest of my serving home, but wanted a taste of my wife's meal. She jokingly gave me grief about eating her meal after saying I was done with mine. When she reached over to get a taste of mine, Aubrey starts chanting, "Fight! Fight! Fight!..."

On Friday night I was watching "That Thing You Do" with Thing 2, my now teenaged daughter. During the scene where The Wonders ("That's the Oneders") are playing at the Hollywood Cavalcade of Stars, they showed a shot of the old switching board that looked a tremendous amount like the one that I used to use back when I was in college.

Me: You know, back in college I used to use a TV control board like that...

Thing 2: ...but then you took an arrow to the knee???

So I JUST had my first child a week ago. (Thank you, thank you.) His name is Ethan Alexander.

Right after he was born, Ethan was screaming his head off, obviously. My wife couldn't hold him right away, so they set him on the warming table while they cleaned him up. I walked over and started talking to him, and he stopped crying immediately and started trying to open his eyes. I put my finger nearby him and he grabbed it tightly.

Now I understand why parents love their children so much.

Eel Snave wrote:Now I understand why parents love their children so much.

Yep.

Now all you've got left to learn is why parents are seriously annoyed by their children.

Enjoy.

GreenGoo wrote:Now all you've got left to learn is why parents are seriously annoyed by their children.

Our Eldest has a constant running monologue sometimes. Sometimes for really long periods of time. It's draining in that you're always trying to understand what he says and what he wants, but the reality is he's just pouring our random thoughts. It leaves no room for my own thoughts, and it's mostly just constant random mental wanderings.

...the fan turned on with the lights and then Loki jumped on the bed and Inga was there and she needs a bath and I made a tower out of blocks and mommy wants candy and my tummy hurts it needs candy and my bed makes a tent see see daddy the tent and the kitty is there...

I so understand how my parents learned to tune me out.

Eel Snave wrote:So I JUST had my first child a week ago. (Thank you, thank you.) His name is Ethan Alexander.

Right after he was born, Ethan was screaming his head off, obviously. My wife couldn't hold him right away, so they set him on the warming table while they cleaned him up. I walked over and started talking to him, and he stopped crying immediately and started trying to open his eyes. I put my finger nearby him and he grabbed it tightly.

Now I understand why parents love their children so much.

Congratulations!!

Welcome to the club.

Tiks has this game where we pretend to be asleep and then jump up and say, "Huh? What happened?!" like you just woke up.

We were playing it on the couch the other day and she said, "Daddy, go sleepin'!" (Daddy, go to sleep). I did, and then I raised my head up and said, "Huh? What happened?" and she said, "No, daddy go sleepin'. Evermore! Sleep evermore!"

WTF?



(and congrats Lee!)

My son's kindergarten is doing this whole Monarch butterfly thing and so he IS a Monarch Butterfly. So we now have a game where I am a bird and I get poisoned by eating (or tasting) him.

Last night after I had 'sampled' him and reported that he made me feel sick and that "I sure wasn't going to eat another Monarch Butterfly... they sure don't taste good!"...

He said:

"No dad, now you just need to go down into the basement and die."

OHHHHHH Kay then.

LawBeefaroni wrote:Tiks has this game where we pretend to be asleep and then jump up and say, "Huh? What happened?!" like you just woke up.

We were playing it on the couch the other day and she said, "Daddy, go sleepin'!" (Daddy, go to sleep). I did, and then I raised my head up and said, "Huh? What happened?" and she said, "No, daddy go sleepin'. Evermore! Sleep evermore!"

WTF?



(and congrats Lee!)

Just make sure not to introduce him to any shamans.

I had two step-sisters during my mom's previous marriage. At the time, one was around 6 and the other around 4.

They were talking in their bedroom and I was listening at the door.

Oldest: "If you don't stop talking like that, God is going to strike you down."
Youngest: "There is no God."
Oldest: "GOD, KILL HER!!!"

YellowKing wrote:I had two step-sisters during my mom's previous marriage. At the time, one was around 6 and the other around 4.

They were talking in their bedroom and I was listening at the door.

Oldest: "If you don't stop talking like that, God is going to strike you down."
Youngest: "There is no God."
Oldest: "GOD, KILL HER!!!"

So there were two atheists come morning?

stessier wrote:

Eel Snave wrote:So I JUST had my first child a week ago. (Thank you, thank you.) His name is Ethan Alexander.

Right after he was born, Ethan was screaming his head off, obviously. My wife couldn't hold him right away, so they set him on the warming table while they cleaned him up. I walked over and started talking to him, and he stopped crying immediately and started trying to open his eyes. I put my finger nearby him and he grabbed it tightly.

Now I understand why parents love their children so much.

Congratulations!!

Welcome to the club.

[killjoy]Why does your baby tightly grab your finger when you put it into his hand? That's the palmar grasp reflex. The plantar grasp reflex causes the same thing to happen on his foot. In addition to being the easiest to recognize, these grasping reflexes also are often the last to disappear. The palmar grasp reflex doesn't usually go away until your baby is five to six months old. And the plantar grasp won't disappear until even later, when your baby is nine to twelve months old.
[/killjoy]

FYI that's the first thing I remember about my daughter is her grabbing my hand. Somehow the nurses didn't think it was amazing as I did.

Oh and CONGRATS!!!

Octavious wrote:[killjoy]Why does your baby tightly grab your finger when you put it into his hand? That's the palmar grasp reflex. The plantar grasp reflex causes the same thing to happen on his foot. In addition to being the easiest to recognize, these grasping reflexes also are often the last to disappear. The palmar grasp reflex doesn't usually go away until your baby is five to six months old. And the plantar grasp won't disappear until even later, when your baby is nine to twelve months old.
[/killjoy]

I'm an engineer and I learned that during the Mother prep classes we took before our first. I can neither confirm nor deny that experiments were run to confirm this and to track progress in the "Your baby should do this by this month" book.

The first year or two is pretty funny with the growth stuff. I was checking charts like that as well. From 5-6 I think she's just gotten taller. Don't really notice much else. Well she's starting to get good at reading which is cool.

LawBeefaroni wrote:Tiks has this game where we pretend to be asleep and then jump up and say, "Huh? What happened?!" like you just woke up.

We were playing it on the couch the other day and she said, "Daddy, go sleepin'!" (Daddy, go to sleep). I did, and then I raised my head up and said, "Huh? What happened?" and she said, "No, daddy go sleepin'. Evermore! Sleep evermore!"

WTF?



(and congrats Lee!)

You should probably stop reading Poe to her at bedtime.

Getting out of the car today at the daycare, the sitter asks ... "How are you today, sweetie?"

The Eldest, halfway out of the car, pauses and looks at her causally... "I'm still here, somewhere."

My oldest started talking about how much she loved the "Kitty and Mousey" store where you don't buy animals, you buy games. And then she capped it all by saying "and I like it there because I love games...I' guess I'm a gamer like my daddy and my aunt."

Zarathud wrote:My oldest started talking about how much she loved the "Kitty and Mousey" store where you don't buy animals, you buy games. And then she capped it all by saying "and I like it there because I love games...I' guess I'm a gamer like my daddy and my aunt."

Mission accomplished.

My 6 year old is in first grade and learning math. I don't know why, but she's taken to trying to add all sorts of things together.

Kiddo 6.3 - What does tree + branch equal?
Wife - Tree
Me - No, no, no. Branch + Branch = Tree. Tree + Tree = Forest.
Kiddo 6.3 - Ah, okay.

At supper yesterday.
Kiddo 6.3 - What does tree + saw equal?
Me - I don't know.
Kiddo 6.3 - Branch!

I walk in to the bedroom because I hear Shannon (4) sobbing her eyes out.

Me: What's wrong?
Her: I can't find my boyfriend. He is in a mission to Mars. He broke my heart because we didn't get married before he left.

... This is what I have to look forward to for the next 20 years?

While we haven't had more tears, I have since discovered that her boyfriend is supposed to be back on Sunday and Wednesday, but we're not sure if he's on Mars or China or both. And that they are in love with each other "so very much."

Ugh... I knew I shouldn't have done it. I would sit my daughter down and watch a few videos on youtube with her. Now she's 13 months old and wants to be on the computer all the time. I've stopped my computer use while she's awake, but now she's wandering over to daddy's chair and slamming her hands down on it try to tell me something. I think I've created a monster.

I've taught my 10-month old how to high five. It's a great party trick and a hit with the ladies.

My daughter seems to believe that, once she's done with pre-school, that I am going to build her next school. She initially asked that I build the school in China, but after I pointed out that China is "very, very far", she relented and is allowing me to build the school in our neighborhood.

Monday night the wife is putting baby back into the pack & play after he ate. It's about 11-12 at night, so Hallie has been sleeping for ~3 hours.

As the wife is changing his diaper, Hallie get's up and goes to the bathroom, not even looking at wife in the baby room. Wife goes to the bathroom and asks if she needs help, and Hallie says 'no', but wants the her to help cover up again.

They get back to Hallie's room and the wife covers her up. Hallie apparently let's out a 2 second fart. Wife says goodnight and starts to leave. All of a sudden Hallie starts crying, like those big sopping "Mwahhhh".

Wife says "Hallie, what's wrong?"

Hallie, sobbing, says "It smells bad in here"

After we unpacked from a trip to the spirit shop, Tiks decided to go for a ride in the Whiskey Wagon.

[to the tune of the Dinosaur Train theme song] "Jameson train! Jameson train!"

My god, the CUTE! You will regret when that girl starts asking to drink from her new bottle, Lawbeef...

OTOH, my 5 year old is taking me to Mars when she's 10 years old and a big kid who can do whatever she wants. She pinky-promised 2 years ago and I will *never* let her forget. Especially when she's asking for my car as a teenager -- "Not until you take me to Mars." A few weeks ago, we got her a cardboard rocket so she can practice.

She already has plenty of practice with having he "worst day EVAR!!" so I have to be ready.

[to the tune of the Dinosaur Train theme song] "Jameson train! Jameson train!"

We used to push my daughter around in a laundry basket singing Dinosaur Train. I don't plan on starting that tradition with my son, my poor back and knees can't take the abuse anymore.

My 10 going on 11 year old daughter got whistled twice in her hockey game tonight, the first for Kronwalling* some kid on the other team, the second for a very questionable hook. I don't know if it's cute, but I liked it. (the team we played is coached by a real piece of work - think John Kreese from Karate Kid, so a little physical play was called for...)

*

I was trying to explain the upcoming election to YellowPrincess (3).

Me: We have to vote soon so I'll take you to vote.

YP: Yay I want to vote!

Me: We'll you're too young to vote but you can go with me.

YP: I want to do this! (Makes rowing motion)

Me: What are you talking about?

YP: I want to row the vote. (Starts singing "Row row row your vote)

Me: Ummm.... never mind.

My daughter did the exact same boat / vote swap. Took me a minute to figure out what she was saying.

My 3.3 year old daughter was 'reading' a story (looking at the pages and making up something about what the story said). This particular story had a baby in it.

Guapita: "The baby was sad. So she had to die."
Me: