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Showing posts from May, 2016

Shopkins Must Be The Devil

The number of childrens' toys you can step on are legion, and each has its own home on a pain scale that ranges from "ouch, sharp army man knife in my foot" all the way to "I just tripped over a doll and fell down the steps." Your move, foot. And then there are Shopkins. Now, I know that Legos are the big toy everyone posts about. Posting about how you stepped on a Lego almost seems like a right of passage. And sure, a well placed Lego to the foot hurts.  But so does a Shopkin. And at least I've had fun with Legos. And blocks made it on my list of the only 10 toys you absolutely need to have. You can build towers with Legos. Legos are the original SimCity. Minecraft is Legos reimagined. Both of those are just electronic knockoffs of Legos, really. And Legos are so well loved they remain insanely expensive. You can build the Death Star  (not to actual size I'm assuming...) - for a mere $584 (... but at this price, who knows). At 405 pieces,

Stop Making Parenting Harder Than It Is

Parents of all stripes, but new parents especially, are prone to worry. And why not? The early months of parenting are unlike anything you've encountered before. You are bone tired and lost at sea, having never been too sea before and without any way of knowing where you are, or even if you are on Earth. Many parents react to this situation by promptly taking out an auger and drilling a hole right through the bottom of their boat. The question is - right after "hey, where did they get that auger?" - why? Why do parents make it harder than it has to be. For one thing, if your kid does it, its probably normal. Like 99.9% probably normal. You see parents in advice columns and busily pounding away questions at Google like... My kid does X, is it normal? In fact, the first five Google suggestions for "my kid does..." are: 1) doesn't want to go to college 2) doesn't sleep 3) doesn't listen 4) doesn't play sports 5) doesn't eat

Mom! Mom! Mom!

Mama; mama; mama; mama. My daughter kept repeating the same name and getting no response, which is a shame because my wife was only a room away. Seems sad, doesn't it? And it is. But not for any of the reasons that you probably think. Because while she was saying  mama, she actually wanted me . She was looking right at me, in fact. Mama; mama; mama; mama. If it was a one-off thing, I'd probably chalk it up to a mistake. Heck, I'll run through each of my kids' names before landing on the one I want sometimes. Sadly, its not; a one-off thing, that is. Sadie is notorious for loving when her family is "close." I love that about her. But its one thing to miss Mom; I get that. Look sweetie, I miss Mom too. I should mention Mom is around every weekend all weekend long and for long periods pretty much every day. I'd wager a guess my kids see both their parents more than most kids see a parent who works. Ingrates What gets me is that the minute I corr