Owner: D is for Dad URL:http://www.disfordad.com Join Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2007 19:34:19 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: Content from different voices around what it means to be dad. The moments when we revel in the joy and success of our kids, as well as those times we are just trying to keep them from hating us. Site statistics:Click here
Mahal kita! 2007-10-29 13:25:48 Daughter #1 has always thought “it sucks” that I speak several languages, and I never taught her to speak any other than English. Lately, she’s been trying to learn Spanish by choosing it as an elective in school. She seems to be doing well.
Today I checked my cell and found a text message from my daughter; Nothing extraordinary as we text each other frequently, but this one just made my day. It simply said “Mahal
kita!”, Which means “I love you!” in Tagalog (one of the languages I speak).
I just sat back at my desk and smiled as a feeling of warmth came over me. There is nothing quite like an unsolicited, unrehearsed, spontaneous gesture of love from your child.
I just thought I’d share that with the world.
“Mahal din kita, unang Anak!”( I love you too, daughter#1!)
The Unintentional Family Bed 2007-10-29 09:30:08 The Back Story
It started when girl number 2 was just an infant. She was a terrible sleeper and the only thing that would calm her was to eat or cuddle with mom. Since mom breasted the girls, eating and cuddling typically occupied the same physical space, our bed.
We didn’t begin this practice in the bedroom. The girl would be fed in a rocker in her room and after several weeks of her still not sleeping, and mom absolutely exhausted, the transition to the bedroom began.
Eventually we got her sleeping in her own bed, but never through the night. She would always wake at some point requiring coercing back to sleep. This was true in the crib months and into the toddler bed. Some things did change once she made it into the toddler bed.
Once free of the confines of the crib she took advantage of every opportunity to come into our bed in the middle of the night. We tried many things. A baby gate at her door to keep her in her room. Letting her “cry though it.” She was stron Read more:Family
The Jerk 2007-10-24 09:00:44 One Saturday this summer my family and I were visiting a friend. The day was really nice. BBQ in the backyard, billiards in the basement, a good time. The only problem was my twelve year old daughter was being a bit moody and giving me lots of attitude as a result.
One particularly difficult exchange between the two of us left me following her upstairs at which point I muttered, “Jerk”, under my breath. Not brilliant on my part, especially because she heard me. I don’t know how she did, but she did and it resulted in her tears and me feeling like a rotten dad. I apologized many times and thought the incident was behind us.
Fast forward several months and my daughter and I are finishing up dinner, the last two at the table. Somehow our conversation led me to saying, “I hope I never do anything so stupid to keep you kids from visiting me on my death bed.”
She looks across the table and says that could never happen. She would visit me for sure. She then adds
Ripples in a pond 2007-10-22 07:00:50 Although my son has a great personality, and a heart of gold, he seems oblivious to the fact that he repeatedly does things to irritate people. His teachers have complained that he seems to march to the beat of his own drum, and no measure of cajoling, pressure and consequences seem to get him to follow simple rules until he is good and ready. Simple rules, or commands, like “Pencils down!”, are not heeded until he is done writing his last sentence, or completing the final touch of his drawing. This has landed him in hot water more than once.
I recently found an opportunity be be alone with my son. I took this opportunity, away from the distractions of life - TV, toys, chores, to bond and explain things a little bit.
The setup: We were at the edge of a lake on a calm day, readying our bait and tackle. I bent down, picked up a few stones from the lake’s edge, and tossed one stone in the placid water. Concentric rings immediately radiated from the point of impact and co
I.C.E., what a cool idea! 2007-10-16 08:38:08 In the midst our scout meeting this week the Den Leader, a Police Officer and therefore a first responder, talked to the scouts about I.C.E. (In Case Of Emergency). He handed out a list to each scout asking them to fill in the blanks. The list contained words like “Dad’s Cell”, “Dad’s Work”, “Mom’s Cell”, etc. This list was to be posted on everyone’s fridge at home. We already have a similar list, but that wasn’t the part that struck me as a great idea. At the very bottom of the list was the acronym I.C.E. He asked that every parent consider adding ICE to their cell phone contact list. In the ICE contact he wanted us to fill in the information of whom we would like contacted first in case of an emergency. The more information the better - Cell, Home Phone, Work Phone, Address, basically whatever the individual cell phone could handle. He also suggested that there be an ICE2, ICE3 etc., for the times when the individual
Good on ya, boy! 2007-11-05 07:00:01 As parents we spend a fair amount of time hoping our children will do the right thing when it counts. Recently my son had an opportunity to do just that.
The football season was well underway and my son was really showing his chops. He was playing defensive tackle and nose guard and was leading the defense in tackles, points and yards. It is safe to say that this year, his Junior year, was probably the best year of his life.
The offense wasn’t having as good a go of it. They were struggling horribly. The Varsity quarterback had been injured in game one and was out for the season. They ended up moving a fifteen year old kid, Ronnie, up from Junior Varsity to fill the spot. This kid did a pretty good job the first couple of games. Any mistakes he made were under the umbrella of his age and inexperience. When game four came around and his performance was terrible Ronnie ended up getting demoted and rode the bench for most of the remainder of the season.
From the stands this seemed
Trick"ed" or Treat! 2007-11-01 11:18:33 My son went trick or treating last night like most of the nation did. When he got back to Grandma’s (home base for Halloween), he and his cousins dumped their loot on the living room floor in neat little piles. They went on with the task of “trading goodies” like they’ve done every Halloween. I watched them for a couple of minutes , then proceeded to where the grownups were congregated and chit chatted with them for a bit.
After the grownups had dessert and people started packing up Pyrex dishes, the task of mobilizing the troops for the ride home began. Costumes were haphazardly tossed in crumpled brown paper bags, and the clutter slowly began to disappear. When I told my son to grab his pumpkin shaped treat bag I noticed there was barely any candies in it and I began questioning him as to the whereabouts of the rest of his stash. Before he could answer I looked at my nephew’s goodie bag and his was overflowing. I remembered them counting each of their sp Read more:Trick
What is a hero? 2007-11-01 11:07:59 It irritates me to no end when I hear people call professional athletes “heroes”. I’m sure there are a handful among them who really are, but I think labeling most of them as heroes is a little much.
Making obscene amounts of money playing a game does not automatically put you in the “hero category” in my book. I’ve witnessed basketball players break the rules of the sport by “travelling” (running without dribbling) 30 feet and making a perfect lay-up, all without a ref blowing his whistle because the offender is “THE” major celebrity on court. Tennis players who have meltdowns while cussing out the line judge, Soccer players knocking an opponent unconscious because he was a better player and taking him out of the game would improve their odds of winning, Athletes beating and degrading women, in the tabloid news for infidelity, the list goes on. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want these thugs to be my kids&rsq
The Little Man’s Little Gift 2007-11-08 22:24:35 I am the oldest of two and my little man is the youngest of our three. Sometimes I have trouble understanding him. He will do things to raise the pulse rate in his siblings (and me) with regularity. My wife reminds me that people look for attention in different ways, I wish he would pick a different way.
He is a very bright young man with an amazing energy. Even though he can really wind me up like a cheap toy, he gives me a gift on a regular basis. Whenever we are walking together he will reach for my hand and I take it and hold on tight. This simple act of holding my hand is a great gift. I think it means (without saying a word) I trust you and love you.
So the next next time your little one, or your wife, reaches for your hand grab it and hold on tight and tell them you love them too.
meme - seven random things 2007-11-08 13:52:11 I was tagged by
Erica at Crummy Cupcake with this meme. Having never participated in a meme this is new ground for me. Consider this an opportunity to learn a little more about one of the ‘D is for Dad’ contributors.
The rules of the game are:
Link to the person that tagged you, and post the rules on your blog.
Share seven random and/or weird facts about yourself.
Tag seven random people at the end of your post, and include links to their blogs.
Let each person know that they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
I know, the suspense is killing you. Here goes:
When I was a kid in the fourth grade I made my first foray into entrepreneurship by buying $10 worth of candy at the local 7-11 and reselling it for a profit during recess. My enterprise thrived for a few weeks until “the man” finally got word and shut down the operation.
A couple of years ago my son and I were on a rather large lake in a borrowed row boat when the pull to start the Read more:things
HallowThanksMas 2007-11-07 22:24:15
I was walking through Wal-mart with my kids on the Sunday after Halloween. My daughter was getting the hunger cranks so I allowed my son to hang around the toy area until I finished feeding her.
I plopped myself down on a bench set up for display and started to feed her a bottle of milk.
Strains of an unfamiliar melody quietly wafted throughout the store, barely audible above the clatter of wobbly shopping cart wheels and the occasional “price check!” on a walkie-talkie.
I started feeding my daughter, and as she went into her feeding trance I went into my quiet place, something I normally do when boredom sets in. I must have gone into some kind of “zone” because after about 3 - 5 minutes the once quiet songs over the store PA were now clearly heard above the rest of the din. I soon found that, although I had never heard them before, I knew the words to the songs but the melodies were unfamiliar.
I furrowed my brow trying to decipher the song when it dawned o
School system woes 2007-11-06 07:19:25 Although I am American, I was born and raised in a "Third World" country. I went to school at 7:30am, and was released at 5:00pm. That was a full day of school for me, not this rinky-dink in at 8:00am, and 2:30pm dismissal. I can honestly say I am grateful, and lucky, that my schooling occurred elsewhere. I am constantly reminded of that when I read news articles from major news outlets, or actual printed literature, riddled with misspellings and misused words and written by people in my age bracket. I know of people in positions of authority, making important corporate decisions for large companies, yet unable to properly punctuate. These things simply didn’t happen when our parent’s generation ran this place(U.S.). Don’t get me wrong. I am not infallible, I make mistakes, but at least I try to produce the most accurate product I can when it is to be exposed and disseminated to the the public.
Our country, as advanced as it is, is so plagued with bureaucrac Read more:School
Missing Pieces 2007-11-13 06:00:51 My father was always reluctant to share stories from his past. Mom was the story teller.
Dad has been gone for a few years now, and only a handful of stories from his past remain to be recounted.
Dad had his kids late in life, and so there was a pretty big generation gap between us. I left home at an early age (17) and joined the military. When I got out of the military after 10 years, I purposefully moved to the part of the country where he and Mom settled to be closer to them in their golden years. Dad passed away a few years later. Although Dad lived until he was 79, I only got to spend a total of 18-19 years of my life with him. Those last three years with him were great, but I wish I had had more.
I never really knew much about Dad’s past. Don’t misunderstand, he didn’t leave us, he just didn’t like to talk about his childhood or formative years. He was born during the great depression, and grew up in a time of turmoil (WWII) and was pretty "Old School Read more:Missing
Pointless Story I 2007-11-11 15:35:16 My son is an avid Star Wars fan. He’s got Lego’s, Action Figures, and Transformers all created, or inspired by, the marketing Juggernaut that is
LucasFilm Ltd.
At dinner recently he was again explaining to me how cool and unique the Star Wars saga was, and how he had not heard any other story quite like it. I decided to have a little fun at his expense.
I told my son that I thought Mr. Lucas had creatively tweaked some parts of the Bible. My son was not amused and was questioning my blasphemy of Lucas and his empire. He asked me to support my claim (not in those words). The list below is what I came up with on the fly, but I’m sure I could find more if I tried. I explained them to him in detail, but I’ll spare you the step by step conversation.
Anakin Skywalker (Jesus) = Immaculate conception (born without the aid of a sperm donor)
Midiclorians (The Holy Spirit) = Possessed by certain individuals giving them clarity of thought, strength, wisdom, etc.
The Fo Read more:Pointless
I never liked playing tag 2007-11-10 17:48:01 I’m not sure if it was the chasing after others or being chased; either way it seems the
BusyDad tagged me for this meme. He claims it isn’t retaliatory. You be the judge.
BusyDad mentioned this in the comment when I tagged him,
I might have to tag you back because…
and then this on the post he tagged me from,
I swear this is not a retaliatory blog-by tagging…
hmm, thou doth protest too much?
Hey, I’m just playing around Jim . I won’t be able to tag others though. I’ve already tagged everyone I feel ok about. If anyone reading this would like to be tagged just say so in a comment and I’ll be happy to oblige.
Ok. The rules.
You have to post the rules before you give the facts.
Players must list one fact that is relevant to your life for each letter in your middle name. If you don’t have a middle name then use a name that you like.
When you are tagged, you must write a post containing your own middle name game facts.
At the end of
What the cluck? 2007-11-19 07:00:22 A little over a decade ago my then 5 year old daughter and I were tooling around the neighborhood. She was in her usually pensive state when, from out of nowhere, the following verbal exchange took place.
“Dad, are Chicken and Chicken spelled the same?”
“HUH?” (both eyebrows arched)
“Are Chick-en…… and Chic-ken spelled the same?” (with strained emphasis)
“Well, yeah(with Duh intonation)! It’s the same word.” (one eyebrow arched)
“No Dad! I mean Chicken the animal(paused for effect)….. and Chicken the food. Are they spelled the same?”
“I, I, …. don’t understand?????” (eyes crinkled, looking at her suspiciously)
“OH just forget it Dad!” (5 year old huffing)
This verbal ping-pong was repeated several times and the exasperation was growing on both sides when the proverbial light bulb snapped on. It was close to dinner anyway, and my wife was not going to be able to ea
7 days 2007-11-16 10:12:28 Years ago my family and I caravanned up to a Town called Frankenmuth in mid Michigan. We did some shopping, and sightseeing, and when lunchtime rolled around we ate at one of the famous restaurants in town. It served what it claimed was “The Worlds Best Fried Chicken!” , or something to that extent.
My 15 year old niece was about 6 or 7 at the time and was known to be a “food waster”. She would load her plate, despite her parents’ protests, and end up getting full with one or two bites. In order to keep the peace during our meal I spoke to my niece beforehand and told her that this particular restaurant did not like to throw food away. I embellished my lie a little more by saying that leftovers were met with the penalty of washing all the restaurant’s dishes. The bigger the pieces the longer you’d have to stay and wash. My niece rolled her eyes and laughed at Uncle Joker (her nickname for me at the time).
My breakdown of the consequences went s
Conversations in the car I 2007-11-15 06:00:52 On the way home after eating too much pizza. The 16 month old is asleep and the 3 year old is eavesdropping.
Dad: I’ve got heartburn, should’ve brought the TUMS.
Girl: What did daddy say?
Mom: He said his stomach hurts
Dad: I didn’t say my stomach hurt. It doesn’t. I have heartburn.
Girl: What did daddy say?
Mom: He said his heart hurts (laughing)
Dad: My heart doesn’t hurt. It’s the place between my heart and stomach.
Girl: I have God in my stomach
… silence
Mom: No sweetie, you have God in your heart
Girl: Is God an angel?
Dad: Good question!
Mom: No, God isn’t an angel
Girl: Where do angels belong?
Dad: Another good question!
Mom: Angels belong in heaven sweetie, with God.
Girl: Angel’s belong in heaven AND in the snow?
Dad: (laughing)
Mom: Well, yes angels belong in the snow if they are snow angels.
… silence
Mom: Life is confusing isn’t it?
Girl: Yes, confusing.
A Little Bear’s Influence 2007-11-21 06:00:13 While I understand, and agree, that a child’s place is not in front of the television, I also know there are times when setting them in front of the television is the only thing that works. We have found this to be especially true since bringing our second little girl into our day to day household.
Of course, this power comes with great responsibility.
We’re fans of
Noggin, and occasionally PBS and Disney. We only own one DVD of any of the shows on these networks and that is
Little Bear - Rainy Day Tales. These days you find Little Bear
playing on Noggin and quite honestly this is the only show that can captivate the whole family (Mom, Dad, Big sis (3yr) and little Sis (16mo)).
The Little Bear episodes manage to pack a great story in the space of about seven minutes. The stories are so good that my wife and I, on more than one occasion, have said we could do a lot worse than aspiring to be as good of parents as Father and Mother Bear. I know you’re thinking, &ldqu
Wins and Losses 2007-11-29 06:00:12 The fall youth sports schedule has concluded and the winter schedule is just starting to organize. There is about a two week break between the seasons. I was taking the schedules down from the information collection unit (refrigerator) in the kitchen and noticed something, no one had written down any W’s or L’s on any of the schedules.
How could that be? We played 15 - U10 (age 10 and Under) soccer games, 6 sixth grade football games and 12 - U14 (age 14 and Under) soccer games and no one in the family recorded the outcome?
Way to go family! You get the point of youth sports: practice hard, learn to play with others; improve every week , understand what it feels like to win AND lose and then go on to the next sport!
Read more:Losses
The Deer Hunter 2007-11-26 07:00:24 Although I don’t purchase gory video games with decapitated heads and blood spurting from torso’s, my son has a couple of shoot-em-up games in his collection. Like any boy, he has a few toy guns in his toy box, and like’s playing with loud, obnoxious, rat-tat-tat type toy guns. In a
prior post I mentioned that my son was adamant about wanting to go hunting and bagging him some game; It didn’t matter what. In that post I also mentioned that I am not a hunter. (I’ll eat anything, but I don’t like the waiting in the bushes at 4am, paying for the license, paying for the slaughter, etc…)
A few weeks ago we were in the yard doing some work when our dogs started barking and jumping at the base of an evergreen tree. There was a rustle in the branches and a very young, flightless, pigeon chick fell out of the tree. One of our dogs pounced on the chick and snapped its neck before I could rush over to protect it. My son rushed over excitedly to see the Read more:Hunter
It finally feels like Christmas 2007-12-07 21:51:37 Christmas is hard, lets go shopping.
Oh, sorry. I live with far too many girls and waves of Barbie nostalgia will sometimes break through.
We have finally decorated the house, inside and out, and collected all our children so we could hunt for the perfect Christmas tree. We typically like to get this stuff done the first weekend after Thanksgiving but it didn’t work out that way this year.
When your family is split by a divorce it can become really hard to continue with the traditions that have always been. Each year for the past twelve years or so my wife and I have looked for and found our Christmas tree with my oldest kids. Today these kids are sixteen and twelve respectively and do not live with us. My wife and I also have two small girls together that are three and a half and one and a half.
This year the three year old is really into the whole Christmas thing and her little sister is excited in a very cute way just because her big Sis is. The excitement of the little kids Read more:Christmas
Shrimp Eyeballs 2007-12-03 07:00:07 I am pretty proud of the fact that my kids are not finicky eaters. My son stays over at friends’ houses all the time, and their parents are in awe at what he eats. Brussels Sprouts, Asparagus Spears, pretty much anything put in front of him. He has his limits, however, but they are ridiculously mundane foods. He eats potatoes, Miracle Whip and Mayonnaise, but will not eat potato salad. Weird huh?
We frequent Dim-Sum establishments (’cause Dim-Sum’s just yummy) and have our fill of eclectic dishes. One dish I always order is the Crispy Fried Shrimp
(Head, tail and all). My son’s favorite part of the meal - you guessed it - the SHRIMP’s EYEBALLS! Don’t ask me when he started doing it. It’s happened for as far back as I can remember. Once he even asked the waitress for nothing but a plate of eyeballs. The waitress was quite perplexed and had the manager come over because she thought her English was lacking and she misunderstood the request. We al
The price of winning 2007-12-17 08:09:01
Snag some Hot Chocolate and cookies and get comfortable. This is going to be a long one.
Last year was my initiation into the world of Pinewood Derby Racing. I have waited all my life to be involved in this event. To me, Pinewood Derby is the embodiment of many things I hold dear in life, and it is a metaphor for everything that Scouts and Scouting should be - Craftsmanship, Sportsmanship, Camaraderie, Competitiveness, Honesty, Father/Son Togetherness and bonding and a host of other -ships’, -ness’ and -sty’s.
Craftsmanship and Father/Son Togetherness- you get to build something cool with your kid, and impart some of your knowledge and wisdom. How special is that?!
Sportsmanship and Competitiveness- The kids learn (or are supposed to) how to win and lose gracefully. Very important in my book.
Camaraderie and Togetherness - All the scouts get to participate in something meaningful to them and see something they all built in action. Very exciting.
Honesty - Ah, Read more:price
I need to see a man about a guinea pig 2007-12-12 06:00:45 It happened innocently enough I suppose. My wife and three year old daughter were stopping by Pet Smart to pick up some dog food. It turns out they were having a sale on Guinea Pigs, and as luck would have it my daughter just loooves guinea
pigs. She took this opportunity to hold them and pet them and become hopelessly attached to them. My wife managed to leave the store without a terribly upset kid by saying those special words, “maybe Santa will bring you one.”
From the day they left the pet store to today each time the girl has been asked what she wants for Christmas the answer is a guinea pig
. It was very clear that I was in real trouble and needed some way out of this without being the bad guy. You see, I have no desire whatsoever to have a guinea pig in the house. They are a rodent like any other as far as I’m concerned.
The days went by and I don’t think one passed without someone mentioning that Santa may bring the guinea pig on Christmas to this devili
Gingerbread "Man" 2007-12-11 07:51:38 A co-worker came in today with an armload of Christmas Goodies that his kids made for us last night. While searching for the best cookie to take back to her desk another co-worker came across this beautiful Gingerbread
Man, lovingly crafted by one of the children. I just had to take a snapshot of this priceless work of art and share it with all of you.
Merry Christmas!
Do U spk "License Plate"? 2007-12-10 07:00:44 “Turn that down!”, “I can’t believe you listen to that garbage!”, “You call that music!”, “Because I said so!”. Do you find yourself saying these things to your kids? Sound familiar? My transformation is complete; I’ve finally turned into my parents!
One thing my parents didn’t have to contend with was texting. Although I don’t mind the actual act of texting too much, the deciphering of the actual message itself takes me longer than writing it. My teenager has even taken to verbalizing textspeak in her daily life. She’ll say “LOL” instead of actually laughing at something. That can get annoying.
I can see it now. Someday, in the distant future, archeologists will find caches of old cell phones and will resurrect them from their discharged state. Their inboxes will be scoured for clues of our now ancient civilization. They will dance around excitedly and exclaim “U-rka! I fnd it! for you see Read more:License
, Plate
, License Plate
The Reason for the Season… 2007-12-21 07:01:50 Oh my goodness look at that parking lot! I am not going anywhere near that craziness; That would be insane! The lines must be out the door and down the street! I can’t do it! I will just have to explain to my son after Christmas that every store in the universe was out of the Star Wars action figure, Kit Fitso&hellip
; You know you gotta go in there. Yes; I know, into the belly of the beast.
This is a conversation I had with myself in a mall parking lot a few years ago as I was stressing out over finding that PERFECT gift for my son who was then 7. At that point I am pretty sure I had forgotten the reason for the season, the birth of a savior.
This summer my wife’s Aunt Margie passed away and at the luncheon after her funeral I remembered that Aunt Margie had a wonderful tradition of reminding the children (and adults) about why we celebrate Christmas. Every Christmas day we gather at my wife’s mothers house for dinner and Aunt Margie would always bring a birthday cak Read more:Season
, Reason
I ain’t afraid of no ghost! 2008-03-10 06:00:27 In my house we have a saying; “The only monster in this house is Daddy!” I created this little mnemonic to make sure my kids are not afraid
of the darkness, or of things that go “bump” in the night.
I grew up in a country steeped in mysticism and legends of otherworldly beings. I have [...]
The Sage 2008-03-03 05:00:28 In church yesterday I watched as a father held his little girl in his arms. She was about five or six, and had her legs wrapped around his waist for support as she peered at the people towards the back of the church.
The service started and we all stood up. The little girl’s attention [...]
Recommend Site To A Friend
