Fighting the Bad Guy - Week 3

Into the third week I realized that my WonderKit task list was being ignored.  I had figured out my daily routine and only needed to pull it up now and again to remind myself how easy it is to think you're getting it all done only to realize the three things you've forgotten you had to do... it's just like a real job!

So I joined Instagram.  Also...

I'd moved on to this "Self-Help" app called "SuperBetter" that puts everything necessary for a happy healthy lifestyle into the form of a video game.  Very cool idea... worth looking up.  It's most fun looking at your procrastination, disorganization, and electronic-distraction as fighting bad-guys...  this week certainly illustrated how I am definitely the villain in my own story.
Monday was fun.  Full of failures but us men bonded...

Since then it's been pretty fun-filled.  A quick trip to the electronics shop for a sheepish return; "why?" they ask -- oh because it was too expensive for my DW to handle... you know how it is... chuff chuff... deep shame..."

By Wednesday I was getting tired of Evan asking "are we going to Grandpa's house NOW?" and answering, "No, Wednesday Evan, that's ______ days from now..." "Why?" "Because Grandpa has work to do..." "But why?"  "Oh, right, you don't know anything do you..."

So we went to Grandpa's house and enjoyed the sunshine, the mock-pool and some pancakes done on the BBQ.  I'll leave that one for you to imagine.

By Friday we had been back to the zoo -- the penguins were at their best.  Our friend Kare providing accompaniment and some fresh excitement about being back at the zoo.  She bought us a snack to cool us down under the sun... forgetting that the oldest doesn't like chocolate (I know, right?!) we let him try a pickle-on-a-stick... well - more like a large-brined-cucumber... this thing weighed more than 2 pounds easily.

He wasn't really too happy with that so we laughed and Aunty Kare bought him a popsicle.  I ate the pickle. I got a tummy-ache... I regretted eating the pickle at roughly 2am.  But it was worth the laugh.

We did get a morning with Mom down town which was a huge highlight for everyone, and every-so-often the boy slows down and just reads to himself. I have proof.

But as I watched the youngest do a header down the back stairs yesterday I realized that I've got a long way to go...

PS:  Big thanks to my father-in-law and his friend Morris for fixing the brakes in my car, and watching the boys while I finally got to the hair-cut issue...

So why was Monday so epic?  I didn't have any pictures to go with it, so I saved the best for last...

In week 2 I had purchased a stereo for the living room under the guise that it would improve our lives immensely to have measurably excellent sound emanating from a central location/gathering point within our humble abode.  And we all know that goes. Well...

After she got past the sheer immensity of a 12" sub-woofer, and I had convinced her that the 80's had not called and asked for their receiver back we had but to wait for my three channel bar-speaker to arrive on special order so I could get it all set-up.

Monday night I got the phone call, by 10pm I had it set up and we sat down to watch some high-def Netflix and... it... was... underwhelming.  I was certain that when I showed how you can run video through an audio receiver, and how their is an iPod remote that controls the system, and that you can watch one thing on the t.v. and listen to another thing elsewhere in the house that the shock would cause her to swoon, and I would catch her, kiss her back to life and she would say, "my hero, how your manly stereo completes our country ensemble so elegantly".... but that didn't happen.  Why?  I don't really know...  I was sure the guy at the store told me it was nothing short of a guarantee...

By Tuesday morning it was all packed up and back at the store.  And I feel all gooey on the inside for doing something right.

By the way.  Don't set up a high-end stereo system with a three year old who can't sleep bouncing around the living room.  It's bad for EVERYBODY.  I generally don't lose my cool, I often look at these situations as "including my son in the lessons of life as a male" however in this case... well let's just leave it at that...

The same day I tweeted about how you should not necessarily involve your boys in the delicate art of curtain hanging either.  The story goes:

Feeling heroic, our humble hero, on gentle prodding from a glib and mechanical iPod reminder-banner decided that it was time to finally re-hang those curtains that had been sweeping the floors in our room for the better part of the past year.  Out came the drill-motor, and wall anchors, levels, and screw drivers.  The boys, fascinated by noise and the smell of gyp-rock dust, were like flies to a dung-heap... learning that not only is it okay to write on the walls, but you can drill holes in them as well.

Never - let me be clear; NEVER put your drill down with the 5/8" bit still in it if you're not okay with holes in your wall...  "But WHY Daddy?"  Also -- keep your pencil behind your ear at all times.  If it falls off, while you sweat-away holding the curtain-bar two feet above your head, thelevel in one hand while you balance precariously on a soft foot-stool, then STOP what it is you're doing and really think about if you are qualified to be doing this job.  Then extract the pencil from your 1yo old's mouth, and start again.

What lesson have we learned from Week 3?  Don't get cocky.  You might think that by the third week you are now super-dad.  You've got everything worked out, and nothing can surprise you.  Kids won't get hurt, you've got eyes in the back of your head... there's no way he'll put THAT in his mouth...