Friday, March 23, 2012

Bullseye

Demi found a good Friday activity for the boys.  The local rod and gun club is offering a free 90 archery session on Friday evenings.  Caz got his bow for Christmas, so we figured he would be all for it.  Demi took it a few steps further and made it a boys night out for our boys and their crew.  I stopped by on the way home to see how the shooting was going.  They were outside, being a great spring evening.  It was unseasonably warm. We actually had to worry about mosquitoes.
     Afterward, we went out for pizza.  Well, pizza for the boys.  Demi was good and got a salad.  I couldn't resist trying a burger, since it was a new place for us.  There are 30 different types of wings there.  Coco says that we have to try them all.  He's quite the connoisseur of wings.  He went right for the buffalo wings with garlic.    He also picked the winner.  My Parmesan and garlic were not the best.  It's a bit loud in Pizzings, but they do have a lot of TV's in there.  The free popcorn is a good gimmick.  Dessert was the topper, deep fried Oreos and fried dough balls.  The dough balls were the winner of that round.  We had more than enough for the family with just those.  We carted out quite a bit of left over from that meal.  It's good to find the family friendly restaurants.  Pizzings is worth a try out, if you are so inclined.  Maybe not for the toddlers.  But 5th grade and up, should be fine.

Monday, March 19, 2012

Taking Care of Business

Every now and then, parent have to do something responsible.  Well Demi and I covered that and then some today.  We update our estate planning.  Update is the key word.  We acted responsibly years ago and created an estate plan.  Admittedly, we were long overdue to review it and make updates.  We took a good hard look at it.  We met with our lawyer and reviewed our options.  Then we chose a path, laid out the critical data and elements, and started forward.  Today we took a big step towards finalizing the new plan.  It felt like closing on a house.  In fact, I think we signed more documents today than we have in either of our mortgage transactions.
One more round and we are done.
     I would urge all parents to enact some kind of estate plan.  If nothing else, devise a list of guardians for your children.  Now is a good time, since new laws were enacted to cover guardianship for our kids in a variety of circumstance.  You can now name a temporary guardian if you are out of the country, or otherwise temporarily unavailable.  You can designate a guardian in case you are temporarily incapacitated.  I do believe it is a parents responsibility to provide that security for your children in the event of unforeseen circumstances.  That means providing financially, physically, and emotionally.  Do you really want to leave it in the hands of strangers and the courts?  Do you really want your surviving loved ones to have to deal with endless amounts of red tape? Wouldn't you rather dictate the terms of these things?  Protecting your kids from beyond?  I know my answers to these questions.  Do you?

Saturday, March 17, 2012

St. Patrick's 5K

Caz ran his first race ever today.  I am very proud of him.  It took a little convincing.  And some incentive.  About an hour or so of XBOX.  But it was worth it.
     I signed up for this 5K a few days ago.  It was held over in Marsh Vegas in Brant Rock. The town shut down the esplanade.  People were milling around in green, shamrocks, and leprechaun hats.  I am pretty sure the Guinness was flowing early.  Music was blaring.  The vendor tents were all up.  I am not sure how much Caz took in but I think he enjoyed himself.  I told him at the start that he did not have to wait for me.  I reassured him that he would see the route laid out and could meet me at the end.  He even picked our meeting point.
     When we started, the pack was thick.  We were really hemmed in.  I thought it might not go over well with Caz.  But he took matters into his owns hands.  He swung wide and ran through some backyards with some other kids to get in front of the pack.  Pretty clever, actually.  I figured I was too old to pull that off.  I thought for sure that would be the last I saw of him.  But after we made the turn and headed into the last mile, I caught sight of him. I slowly moved up on his right.  I knew he could drop the hammer on me at any time.  So I purposely, didn't let him see me until I could see the finish area.  Of course, I thought the finish line was closer than it was, so I started my finish kick early.  Caz would have dusted me anyway, but that didn't help.  He seemed ho hum about it.  I hope he liked it.  I hope he will run again.  But we will see.

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

D Day

I guess it had to happen.  The stars had to align at some point.  The perfect conditions came to be at the same time.  No, not Armageddon.  Not in the global sense anyway.
     The boys decided on the same night, when Demi and I had zero rest and a short span of patience, to act their worst.  Looking back, it was not about one common thing.  They didn't unite to overthrow the Empire or anything.  They each had their own issues.  They both chose to take our their dispositions on Mom and Dad.  One was overly emotional  The other was just angry.  Raging hormones?  Full moon?  Who can say?
     I will say this though, I was extremely happy with the way that this guy responded.  Sure, I could have yelled and screamed.  I could have responded with anger.  I had every avenue to do so.  I was short on sleep.  I had my own long day at the office.  But I resisted those impulses.  I can't say from where I drew the strength. But I rallied hard.  I didn't raise my voice one.  I exercised a great deal of patience.  I sat the boys down, looked them in the eye and told them that this night could not continue like it was.  I told them that it was unacceptable and that we were starting over.  I gave them each a few minutes to count to 100, breathe deep, whatever they needed to do to calm down.  The I set Caz back to his homework, and had Coco help me with dinner.  I went over board to manners, using "Please" and "Thank you" more than was necessary.  And the boys responded.  They held themselves in check.  They were positive with each other,  We changed the night for the better.

Friday, March 9, 2012

Happy Birthday Little Brother

Happy 38th!  Very exciting.  I know it's not a milestone year, but you have plenty to be celebrating.  Congratulations on expecting #2.  Another round of what to expect when you are expecting.  At least you are not a rookie this time through.  You have some experience to draw upon.  I am sure you will be fine.  Regardless, you may want to read some of the old posts here......

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Can You Hear the Drums, Fernando?

"There was something in the air that night, the stars were bright, Fernando."

There is a great scene (one of many) in Bull Durham where Annie is telling Nuke about Fernando Venezuela.  She goes on to describe how he goes into his wind up and rolls his eyes back into his head, breathing through his eyelids before he delivers a pitch.  I can't help but conjure up that scene after the Lizard King (I am thinking of updating that to the Lizard Prince - I mean after all, I am the King, right?) rolls his eyes at me.  Which is often.  That kid has perfected the eye roll.  It pushes the limits of my self control sometimes.  OK, a lot of the time.  I wonder if that is just another genetic instinct which is present in all teenagers.  Maybe I ought to check Darwin's notes.......

Monday, March 5, 2012

The March Towards Progess

The Lizard King has been trying hard lately to control himself.  Caz has been trying to think before he lashes out. He's working on controlling those raging hormones and emotions.  He is putting some thought into what he is about to say, before firing something fresh off immediately.  No, it's not perfect.  But that is not realistic.  I have to acknowledge the effort and the fact there is a level of consistency with this effort.  Positive reinforcement.  Hopefully that will encourage him to continue.  Baby steps, right?  "Baby steps to the elevator...."
     In turn, Dad has been making more of an effort to keep himself in check too.  I try to repeat myself calmly over and over.  I had a longer threshold of that early on but these preteen years brought it down.  I know I have to work extra hard to speak clearly, hold eye contact, and have Caz repeat things because of the ADD.  I know I have to parse out tasks, one at a time, rather than giving a laundry list to him all at once.  It's really different from how I think, so it's not natural.  But I have to make it work.  It's for Caz's benefit.  That's what Dads are supposed to do, right?

Saturday, March 3, 2012

Marching On

And just like the the snow is gone.  We almost made it through the whole month of February without a snowfall.  That extra Leap Day kept that from happening.  It must be some kind of record for around here.
     It's official though, baseball is done in this house.  Playing baseball that is.  No more little league.  No more rushing out of work to help coach....3 times a week.....no more pitching batting practice.......poorly.....no more squatting for pitching practice......no more grounders.....I think I am actually going to miss it.  That's not to say there's no more catch with the boys.  But I was really hoping one of them might feel the passion to try and play all the way through high school.  That is the key though.  If they don't have the desire, then why bother.  It's not fun for them and therefore no fun for Dad.  I always said, I don't care what activity they do.  The boys don't have to play a "sport".  But they do have to be active and do some kind of physical activity on a regular basis.  I would rather them live a healthy lifestyle.  That education starts now, while they are young.