Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Monkey See
Tonight was a guys night around our house. Not the typical drinking beer, watching football and grunting like apes kind of guys night, but it was most certainly a guys night. Let me explain.
Mom, Diva and a few other girls are attending the Taylor Swift concert tonight. Now, this is probably on of the major highlights of Diva's life. She refers to Taylor Swift as her sister and can sing most of her songs from memory. She's 4, it's ridiculous. Ok, so I come home early from work so the girls can go out and eat before the concert and they are out the door soon after 5:00 pm. The boys haven't eaten dinner yet, however, they were surprisingly happy. This is somewhat of an anomaly lately as they have been in some strange growth spurt, teething, generally pissy mood. We play for a while as their super healthy frozen mini corn dog meal is heating in the oven. Hey, I said it was a guys night. I sat them down for dinner and they ate like horses. Does she EVER feed them? Once dinner is finished I wipe them down and put them in the floor to play while I clean up the kitchen.
When the kitchen was clean I decided to play with them in the floor for a while. They are even happier now than they were before bedtime. While I sit in the floor, Donkey keeps bringing me books and playing in his new chair. Shrek will go play with his toys for a while then come give me a hug, then go play with his toys again. This is where the most guy thing of all guy things occurred. It all started like this, I farted. I know, crude, but it happens so let's move on. At the time, Donkey was strolling across the floor and upon my event occurring, he looked at me, stuck out his tongue and made a fart noise. He then proceeds to laugh so hard he falls over in the floor. I have never seen him laugh so hard in my life. I was afraid he was going to hyperventilate. I'm talking one of those mouth open, belly shaking, toes curling laughs. His brother is looking at him like he is an idiot and he comes over and gives me a hug. I assure him his brother will be fine and everyone goes about their business. Now, I was thinking about the whole chain of events and I had convinced myself it was pure coincidence. Until he did it three more times.
If you follow me on Facebook you know that not long ago I had a status that went something like this. "Donkeys latest developmental milestone is sticking out his tongue and making fart noises." But, it was just something he did. He had certainly never done it on cue, and in the correct context.
So we had our fun and played in the floor for a few more minutes when Shrek strolled over to me, gave me a hug, laid down in the floor and farted. Without missing a beat Donkey looked over at me and made his new favorite noise. They both laughed at each other and went on about their business.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Ross Car Bomb - On The River
First of all, I was helping one of our friends put together a pre-fabricated shelf for her desk at work. You know, one of the little pressboard things with pre drilled holes. Now, anytime I am assembling anything in the floor, little miss thing is right there up in my stuff. Tonight was no exception. Now that she's 4 years old, she is not content to just observe quietly. So here is what she said:
Cinderella: "Dad, let me do that because I'm really good at screwing..."
Cinderella: "Huh?"
This dancing and carrying on went on for a good 30-45 minutes. There were other people taking pictures and cheering her on. I should probably check you tube this evening.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Time Marches On
We have twin boys, but when you get to know them they couldn't be more different. It's certainly not what I expected when we found out we were having twins. Not only are they not identical, their personalities are FAR from identical.
Shrek is the jolly old fat happy kid of the two. For the most part, if he has been fed, is dry and has something to gnaw on, he's a happy camper. He laughs at everything, especially his dad. Not just little smiles but deep wrenching belly laughs. He was 18lbs a couple of weeks ago when we went to the doctor. He's definitely the larger of the two. All those things are what he is, here's what he isn't. He's not what I would call "a thinker". He flirts with Cinderella's dolls and looks confused when they don't talk to him. He shrieks at scantily clad women on the television. And he drools. Goodness he drools. He's that kid that has to wear a bib at all times. At least it isn't a helmet, right?
Donkey on the other hand is the stoic quiet type. While he will occasionally smile at you, for the most part he just looks at you. I never thought a six month would be able to make me feel like such an idiot, but he has managed. While I'm acting like a fool trying to entertain his special brother, he's just starring at me with an air of disappointment. He's like Stewie on Family Guy. If he could talk, I'm sure it would be condescending. Donkey seems to be about two or three weeks behind his brother developmentally. He's not rolling from his back to his belly yet, which is his brothers latest trick. He does, however, eat from a spoon much better than his brother. He LOVES sweet potatoes and about any other orange vegetable. Green beans on the other hand are completely unacceptable. He's up to 16lbs now and if he keeps eating like he has been, he's going to catch his brother in no time.
Cinderella turned 4 a few weeks ago. She clearly loves her brothers to death and will not leave the house in the morning without giving them hugs and kisses. The boys on the other hand look at their mother and I like "she scares the hell out of me". It amazes me the way her mind works. She seems like such a big girl these days. On the other hand, we have had some attitude problems that we have been attempting to put an end to. I've always heard about the dreaded teenage years, but it seems like she may have started a little early.
Last weekend we had a house full of teenage girls, Jayna's niece and her friends came to Tulsa to shop for prom dresses. As a result, I was awarded the dubious honor of staying at home with the twins. Alone. Not the first time I had taken care of the boys by myself, but this time I decided I needed to run some errands. Jayna does this all the time and I respect her immensely for her lack of fear. I on the other hand am not as accustomed to the trials and tribulations of taking twins to any retail establishments. I planned my trip carefully. I had all my stops mapped out and the order in which they were going to occur. My first stop, The Home Depot. I pull into the parking lot and the trial begins. Get the stroller, put the car seats in, strap on the diaper bag, make sure they are warm then we head in to the building. So there I am, strolling through a hardware store with two babies, a land train of a stroller and my extremely stylish paisley covered Petunia Pickle Bottom diaper bag swinging nonchalantly from the stroller. I had to buy a hammer just to man up the trip a little bit.
We made a couple more stops after the hardware store and we all survived. I feel like I'm getting better at this father of twins stuff. Maybe it's more growing accustom to it than getting better at it. I guess time will tell as it seems to keep marching on whether I like it or not.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Clarification for all you ladies
It never ceases to amaze me the sheer volume of products it takes to maintain a woman. Give a guy a bar of soap, a toothbrush and some deodorant and we’re good to go. My wife on the other hand has an entire arsenal of salves, lotions, creams, scrapers, sanders, pluckers, pickers, pushers and on and on. This brings me to my story.
The other day we were asked by a close friend to order something for them from Amazon because we have Amazon Prime. This was not a problem and the product arrived a couple of days later. The product that we ordered happened to a Clarisonic Mia. The description of this new fangled device from the manufacturers web site is: “Clarisonic developed the sonic technology proven to gently yet effectively loosen dirt and oil to clear your pores. The Sonic Skin Cleansing System uses a patented sonic frequency of more than 300 movements per second to clean, soften and smooth your skin. In just 60 seconds a day, the micro-massage action cleans more than twice as effectively as manual cleansing.” It’s a vibrating face brush. It’s very similar to the Sonicare toothbrush, but for your face.
Now, astonishingly, my wife did not have one of these primping devices and was naturally drawn like a moth to a flame. It arrived in the middle of the week and our friend happened to be out of town. Jayna texted her to let her know her dreamy new device had arrived. Our friend told her to give it a try and my wife certainly couldn’t resist that offer. About 10 minutes later I was ordering another one from Amazon to replace the one Jayna had just confiscated.
A couple of days went by and I have heard nothing but how wonderful this wiggly brush is. It’ really exhausting. Then it started.
“OH Michael, you HAVE to try this!!!! You won’t believe how amazing your skin will feel.”
Stop right there. Guys don’t really give a damn how amazing their skin feels. But the incessant nagging continued.
Tonight I was taking a shower and the little device was stacked among the plethora of bottles of god only knows what that Jayna keeps in the shower. Really, we have this tree thing in the corner of our shower with 3 shelves. All of them are full of various products, many of which I have never heard of. I have a little caddy thing that hangs on the wall. It has body wash, shampoo and shaving cream. Three bottles. That’s it. Ok, I’m going to try this damn thing so I can tell her once and for all, WHATEVER… So I take the cap off and then begin the search for some type of product to use with this device. I find a tube of stuff that looks like something that someone would use for their face and squeeze a small blob into the middle of the brush and away I go. I’m working in small circles like I presume you do and I’m starting to feel the effects of this device. I move it up to my forehead and my cheek starts to burn. That doesn’t seem right. Oh well, power through. By the time I finish with my face it feels like I am bleeding from the pores and someone just threw acid on my face. Not to mention the fact that in the midst of all this, I got some of that crap in my eyes and they are burning. Is my skin smooth, well yes, all be it thinner. I didn’t even have to shave, I swear it just pulled all the whiskers out by the root. After a few minutes of recovery I decide to check out what I put on that freakin brush. Turns out it was a microdermabrasion product. Apparently that isn’t necessary with the ultrasonic vibrating brush thingy.
As I’m drying off I’m thinking, now what the hell am I going to tell Jayna. Maybe I just won’t say anything. Then I see the “one step facial cleansing soap” on the rack. Nice.
“Hey Jayna, do you use that Purity facial cleanser with that Clarisonic?”
“Yes, it’s wonderful isn’t it?”
“Oh, I’m sure it is.”
“What are you blogging about?”
So, as I said in the title, I would like to clarify something for women. I don’t ever want to hear how disgusted you are because I can be ready to go in approximately 5 minutes, and it takes you HOURS. All you have to do is open some cabinets and look around to see that the sheer complexity of your daily regimen couldn’t possibly allow you to be ready in under 3 to 5 hours.
I’m sure your wiggly shaky brush is wonderful. I think I’ll stick with some soap and a washcloth.