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July 15, 2009

Dreams of a 7 year-old

Filed under: — brendan @ 14:08 IST

Elana and OE spent the night away last night, so Patrick slept on her side of the bed. This morning I happened to wake up before him (not a common occurrance, for sure). It was really cool getting to watch him sleep. I picked up my book and read for a little bit, then heard him start to make a scared, whimpering sound—in his sleep. A dog would have paws jerking in unison, the dream sending him running across a vast green field. Patrick said with his eyes still closed, “Dad, have the tables moved around in the office?”

“No, they’re still where they were,” I answered.

“Good. I want to keep the old table for a really really long time.” His movement settled, and he continued to sleep quietly for another 15 minutes or so before waking up.

Parenting can be so cool sometimes.

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June 7, 2009

Why Legos are a great parenting aid

Filed under: — brendan @ 16:12 IST

… they give you reasons to get great pictures when you’re away from home and miss your family. 🙂

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March 28, 2009

Best movies for kids? Our list

Filed under: — brendan @ 07:45 GMT

With our older son making his way through age 7 and no sign of stopping, we decided to try to find out what would make for good movies for him to watch. He’s old enough to actually enjoy a lot more of them.

Are we missing anything? This is our list to use to make random selections. Not to check off each one like we’re expecting he’ll see everything. 🙂

  1. The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T
  2. The Adventures of Robin Hood
  3. Alice in Wonderland
  4. Annie
  5. Babe
  6. Back to the Future
  7. Bad News Bears
  8. Bambi
  9. The Adventures of Baron Munchhausen
  10. Batteries Not Included
  11. Beauty and the Beast
  12. Bedknobs and Broomsticks
  13. Bee Movie
  14. Beetlejuice
  15. Big
  16. Bolt
  17. A Bug’s Life
  18. Bugsy Malone
  19. Cars
  20. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
  21. Chicken Run
  22. Children of Heaven
  23. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
  24. Chronicles of Narnia
  25. Cinderella
  26. Cloak and Dagger
  27. Coraline
  28. The Dark Crystal
  29. Eric the Viking
  30. E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial
  31. Fantastic Four
  32. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
  33. Finding Nemo
  34. Flight of the Navigator
  35. Ghostbusters
  36. Groundhog Day
  37. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
  38. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
  39. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
  40. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
  41. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
  42. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
  43. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
  44. Hook
  45. Horton Hears a Who
  46. Howls Moving Castle
  47. Ice Age
  48. The Incredibles
  49. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
  50. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
  51. The Iron Giant
  52. James and the Giant Peach
  53. The Jungle Book
  54. Karate Kid
  55. Kikis Delivery Service
  56. Lady and the Tramp
  57. The Last Unicorn
  58. A League of Their Own
  59. Lilo + Stitch
  60. The Lion King
  61. Little Fugitive
  62. Little Mermaid
  63. Madagascar
  64. Madagascar 2
  65. Mary Poppins
  66. Meatballs
  67. Monsters, Inc.
  68. Monsters vs Aliens
  69. Mrs. Doubtfire
  70. The Muppet Movie
  71. My Life as a Dog
  72. My Neighbor Totoro
  73. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
  74. The Neverending Story
  75. Night at the Museum
  76. Peter Pan
  77. Pinocchio
  78. Princess Bride
  79. Princess Mononoke
  80. Raiders of the Lost Ark
  81. Ratatouille
  82. The Red Balloon
  83. Secret of Roan Inish
  84. Shrek
  85. Sleeping Beauty
  86. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
  87. Sound of Music
  88. Spiderman
  89. Spiderman 2
  90. Spiderman 3
  91. Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
  92. Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
  93. Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
  94. Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
  95. Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
  96. Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
  97. Star Wars: The Clone Wars
  98. Superman
  99. Superman II
  100. Superman III
  101. Time Bandits
  102. To Kill a Mockingbird
  103. Toy Story
  104. Toy Story 2
  105. Transformers
  106. Wall-E
  107. Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
  108. War Games
  109. Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
  110. Willow
  111. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
  112. The Wizard of Oz

I’m not going try to link all of those over to the IMDB. Heh.

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March 14, 2009

2 year-old potty-training—himself?

Filed under: — brendan @ 10:32 GMT

A few days ago our two year-old son was convinced a number of times that he had to use the toilet. Gestures varied but the intent was clear. Each time, nothing happened. Again.

When he believed he was finished, he stood up and pulled up his pants. He looked at me questioningly with his hand reaching back towards the toilet.

“You don’t have to flush it, sweetheart. You didn’t actually go!”

His usual response was a contemplative, “Oh!” Then a nod of agreement as he exited the bathroom.

This last time, Slow-Brain Dad stayed behind for a moment to consider what had been happening. Every one of his little sitpushnothinggetup actions was followed by a keen interest in flushing the toilet.

Tick tick tick

D’oh! He’s more interested in the fun of flushing the toilet then actually using it!

Deduction is clearly my true skill.

I wonder now if our seven year-old used the same trick. I must have blocked it from my memory.

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June 13, 2007

Beware the fury of an angry parent

Filed under: — brendan @ 19:34 IST

The road I live on leads to a cul-de-sac, so we don’t get much through-traffic. However, enough homes are on the road that strangers who don’t live here often visit those who do. No problem. We have family and friends do just that. But there’s a behavior problem involved.

The “Children Playing” sign at the entry to the road needs to be twice its current size, and have lasers attached which will blow out the tires of the fuckers who go tearing up and down the road so maybe their car would flip and crush their useless skulls in a mesh of metal and glass.

Ahem.

There are more than six children on the road under the age of 10. They love to play together, and go running up and down the sidewalks or ride on their scooters or even their bikes. All of the parents are trying to get them into the habit of looking before the go running into the road, but reality being as it is, sometimes they don’t follow our instructions.

A couple of days ago a lady was coming down the road from the cul-de-sac at an incredible speed. I’d just walked my son down to play with his friends, and wasn’t in a glowing mood, so I stood in the middle of the road waving my arms. When they slowed down, I saw a woman with at least four children (not a seatbelt fastened around one of them) looking at me curious as to why I’d signaled her. I yelled (I won’t be silly and try to suggest I was speaking calmly), “SLOW DOWN, there are CHILDREN on this road!” I was looking at her own kids more than her while I said it. She looked sheepish and drove away…a little more slowly.

Just now, I was walking home with my son’s broken scooter as he went running with his friends up the sidewalk in some game I wasn’t privy to. Down comes a red Volkswagen burning enough fuel to reach its 0-60mph rating pretty quickly. I repeated my Hit me, you fucker pose, and when he slowed to pass me I saw the 20 year-old (at best) looking at me like I was nuts when I yelled basically the same sentence again, word-for-word. To help him deal with the repercussions of his actions, he went tearing out around the corner—again, not losing control of his car, much to my dismay.

I don’t want speed bumps on our road, but at the same time I want something better than the sign no one looks at. I know kids are going to come running out from behind parked cars, and I’ve yet to see more than a few people honor the 10mph rule for this sort of road.

Given that, I also don’t want some useless sack of shit given the power to take away my son’s life.

Jesus, time for some wine.

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June 3, 2007

Look, it's spinning!

Filed under: — brendan @ 10:11 IST

Eoin, age five months, decided to start fidgeting at 4:30am and was awake for real at 5:15am. He and I went downstairs so Elana could get some sleep.

In the kitchen, we put the kettle on for some tea (as you do), and Eoin and I started brainstorming. Well, first the sopping wet diaper and damp sleepy suit—certainly the culprits that woke him up—had to be changed. Eoin’s expression as he looked up at me, his gorgeous blue eyes sparkling with innocence, was nonetheless consise and to the point: What should we do? (I channel my thoughts through his random facial expressions.)

His brother Patrick, age five years, was to attend a birthday party that afternoon and we still needed to make the cake. Patrick’s food allergies make it difficult to go to that sort of event because he’s usually unable to eat any of the food. To smooth the process a bit we make our own double-layer chocolate cake with cholocate icing and contribute it to the festivities. Luckily it’s pretty tasty and devoured at most parties. In addition to the cake, lots of parents are incredibly accommodating and put a lot of effort into asking us what sort of things are safe for him to eat, and adjust their plans to use them instead. Absolutely amazing.

I parked Eoin in his exersaucer and started getting the ingredients together. Oven now heating up, I made it past the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt when he started to fuss a bit. I moved the exersaucer to give him a change of view and got the water, vegetable oil, white vinegar, and vanilla together. As I started mixing, he started to complain that this just wasn’t interesting enough. What to do?

Our kitchen is an open plan style with a room next to it lined with lots of shelves like a big pantry, an Ikea cabinet as our folding table, and a washer and dryer stacked up on each other. The washer sat with a finished load of laundry started before we went to bed last night.

Hmmmm.

A few minutes later I finished prepping the cake tins, the batter ready to be poured. Eoin was a couple of feet away from me, staring with fascination at the washing machine in front of him as it did a new rinse cycle. It began to spin faster and faster, and he giggled with delight.

It was six in the morning, another beautiful Irish day beginning outside. The cake went into the oven, the kitchen got cleaned up, and sanity reigned—for a moment. From one spin cycle to the next.

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May 25, 2007

Bigger, and bigger, and bigger

Filed under: — brendan @ 14:32 IST

Sometimes they both sleep through the night, and then the smaller follows it with long naps during the day. And blink they’re bigger.
The boys on the couch
Patrick would walk around carrying his brother forever if he was given the chance.

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May 6, 2007

Accepting your child has lost his own mind

Filed under: — brendan @ 20:43 IST

We’re up early, just the guys. A squirmy four month-old Eoin is in my arms, protesting the fact that his dad’s just not made to breast feed him. Since his mom will be up shortly, I won’t grab any from the freezer. On the TV I’m watching Jon Stewart.

Patrick, age five, comes downstairs in his new Spiderman robe and plants himself down on the couch. “Can I watch something?”

“This is almost done.” I hear a sigh of resignation, the muttering of this is so boring hidden by closed lips. After Jon’s Moment of Zen, I make the MythTV box go to the set of children’s shows it’s been recording.

Seeing the first appearing on the list, I ask, “How about Bob the Builder?”

His answer surprises me: “I don’t like Bob any more.”

“What?! Why?”

“Bob’s stupid. He’s only for babies.”

“Why do you say that?” I ask with genuine curiosity. I already know the answer, but still, you have to ask.

“My friend at school says it too.”

No surprise. A short list of names quickly takes form in my head. “Which friend?”

“I don’t know.”

“Well I still like Bob,” I inform him, and press the button on the remote to make it start to play. I’m sitting in the chair still trying to hold on to fuss-monster Eoin. A few minutes pass, and out of the corner of my eye I can see Patrick watching the TV with me.

As the show continues, Eoin adds his own baby-speak commentary to the current episode of Bob. “Eoin, please, I’m trying to watch Bob the Builder.” By admonishing his little brother I seem to have given Patrick some sort of signal to share his opinion.

“Actually, I do like Bob,” he admits suddenly. Then he carefully qualifies that statement when I look over at him, a look of surprise appearing on my face. “But only a little bit.”

Small victories like this are all I can hope to get. We’re entering a new phase in our parenting: we now have to roll with the punches as these darling classmates attempt to change Patrick’s own mind.

Sure, he’ll be unconsciously fighting this sort of thing for the rest of his life. How to help strengthen his inner confidence when he likes certain music, believes something is wrong, or disagrees with what someone said? I don’t want him to care what people think of his clothes. I want him to try lots of books, music, sports, activities, food, everything. Then he can decide what’s good from his own experience, not what everyone else is telling him.

Accomplishing this is so incredibly difficult that most of us only succeed in small steps. It’s always going to be hard to keep your own thoughts, even as you’re still finding them and developing them. The reality that he’d be going through this so soon is the single biggest shock to me. He’ll grow from these experiences, of course, and I know he’s strong in his heart and will—and mind. All we can do is show him disagreement with others is okay.

The boy watching Bob the Builder across from me has smiles playing on the corners of his mouth. He is back to himself again, if only for a moment. And he knows I agree with him.

It’s apparently still safe to like Bob the Builder—a little bit.

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April 18, 2007

Productivity = Nap Time * 2

Filed under: — brendan @ 14:34 IST

Psalm 4:17 And the lord our God said, “Nay, thy sleep shall in the second hour of the first nap reach a full and happy end. Thus with great joy thee shall fill thy good diaper, and we shall all rejoice.”

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February 24, 2007

If he's a big brother like this at 5…

Filed under: — brendan @ 21:25 GMT

Patrick did a couple of amazing examples of what makes him a pretty amazing big brother to two-month old Eoin.

We were getting ourselves together for a journey up to Blackrock to go shopping at the supermarket (SuperQuinn, better in so many ways than the Tesco alternative in Dun Laoghaire). I was adjusting Eoin’s car seat with its owner sitting in the pram doing a bit of fuss. Without saying a word, Patrick went over to him and started pushing the pram in circles helping calm down Eoin while I was finishing. I came out of the car and Patrick pushed the pram over to me, delivering the focus of his care.

Later, while driving home, Eoin started doing a good old cry. Patrick announced, “Tears!” Elana and I started offering reassuring comments to try to calm Eoin down a bit, and Patrick reassured us, “Don’t worry about him.  Don’t worry about him—when we get home I’ll wipe his cheeks.”

Oh my GOD, how can I put words to how much I adore him in moments like these.

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