Category Archives: Family

EHW, Family, General, LCW

The Bird is the Word

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I’ve been trying to explore our little town more lately with the kids. There are so many small things we drive by every day that are probably fascinating them but we just pass by as adults. Linc has been into vehicles for the past 2 years and Emerson noticed the traintracks through the trees on our way back from soccer camp EVERY day the week before. There are train tracks in Thompsons Station right by a local restaurant called Circa so one evening before sundown, that was my chosen adventure.

I chose well! They loved walking on the tracks (which I am not 100% sure are inactive) and there is an old train model that you can climb onto (and down and back on and down as they had me do). I had to include a little bit of safety like what to do if the signal DID come down and we got a few practice rounds in (also, Mom was NOT present for this adventure as she probably wouldn’t have approved and I only told her about AFTER we were home safe and sound).  Anyway, the kids probably did a 1/2 mile walk on and around the tracks each direction. That’s an eternity for kid attention span in my house.

I’d be remiss to skip past the subject of this story. There was what I assume was a family of birds by the tracks – a mom and two of the smallest birds I’d ever seen. The kids were not TRYING to torture ther birds but they have always wanted to catch a bird and hold it. I do not know the reason but no bird has been willing so far. I wonder why…One of the baby birds was a few feet away from the kids on the rocks by the track when the kids decided to chase after it. I was nearby when the little baby bird was running, lost its balance and toppled over. And then was still. Completley still. Had my kids inadvertently caused this bird’s death? Had it small little neck and bones broken by falling just right onto the rocks? The bird was still still. And I swear the momma bird a few yards away was singing a tune trying to call her baby. And my kids had killed it…The bird was still and the kids thought it was sleeping. “Yes”, i said. They tried to get closer but I used my “Dad” voice to keep them back and then prodded them back behind this little area behind a vehicle. I don’t know what I expected to see.

The momma bird coming over and seeing that her baby was dead and doing detective work and having a vendetta against my family forever?

We sat and watched for a few minutes as the kids sang lullabies to the sleeping bird. Eventually, I got them distracted by something else and we walked the other direction. Then, Emerson remembered the bird and we turned around. The bird was gone. Gone! It had been playing dead after falling (didn’t know they did that). I did not see the bird again (the reunion with the family must have been AWESOME and I bet he/she chirped out the entire ordeal).

So crisis averted…we wont’ be having a remake of “The Birds” at my house anytime soon.

 

EHW

Silly Songs…

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Or maybe not so silly. After a tiring day on top of a tiring week, I was trying to catch some of Game 6 of the Finals while the kids did everything in their power not to let that happen. All of the sudden my daughter (in full on princess dress) goes off on this 20 minute original song that went something like this…

“Never gonna stop showing you what I have”

“Never gonna stop doing what I love”

 

Emerson – 1, NBA game – 0.  Super proud of her originality but especially her spirt. You’ve got so much to show the world, girl!

LCW

Lincoln Traits

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There are some things about the kids that I know I will forget as time goes along, The brain can only hold onto so much information and the BIG things tend to take up the most space. There are just some small things that Lincoln does that just make me smile a bit.

  1. He started this a few months ago. When reading a book and turning the page (he turns the pages), he’ll take my finger and make sure that it’s pressed up against the book so the page doesn’t flip back. I never showed him this – it’s just something he picked up,
  2. I’ll admit it. I’m pretty wiped at the end of most days and can fall asleep if sitting still for too long. So during bedtime, if I do fall asleep – or even stop reading too long for his liking – he’ll give me 3 hard taps right on my daddy gut to make sure i’m paying attention. And he smiles so big knowing he’s done it.
  3. He wants to play outside EVERY SINGLE DAY WHEN WE GET HOME…and no matter how many times we say no, he tries to take a car or hot wheel out for just a litttttle spin.
LCW

Being Heard

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Listening is a lost skill these days. We are often heard on social media or in written form. But face to face communication – I know I often fall victim to waiting for my next chance to talk instead of absorbing what someone is saying to me.

This takes on more meaning as a life long stutterer- really bad as a child to where I had to take speech classes and with varying degrees of difficulty as an adult. There have been many occasions where I haven’t been able to be heard…or I’ve had to change what I wanted to say. I don’t think non-stutterers will ever fully grasp the difficulty this can bring to one’s life (but there are MANY worse things)

With these smart devices, it’s a whole new world. We got out first Amazon Echo device around the time my daughter started talking so it wasn’t something any of us were used to. My son had a bit of a speaking delay but we had ‘Alexa’ in the house for his whole life. He has used the phrase “she not hearing me” so many times when he made a broken English request or was too far from the microphone.

 

The joy in his face the first time, “she” played the song he requested Man, priceless. ANd he said “yay, she hearing me”.

 

Yeah, buddy. We all do. Loud and clear. Love you!

 

-Dad

EHW

Computer Skills

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I have been struggling with teacher computer skills to my daughter (the newly turned 5 year old). I just couldn’t explain what a mouse did and how to move it and how to click and…and…and. (also, the keyboard layout makes NO sense to a toddler. Why isn’t a besides b???)

Anyway, one day I was giving L a bath, while E stayed upstairs. What I came back to was…she had opened Paint (and a few other programs and drawn this).

Maybe she doesn’t need my lessons so much after all…

EHW

More Things Emerson Says..

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I hope to never forget this amazing period of time with the expansion of vocabulary and understanding of the world. There are truly some remarkable things that I hear everyday and I just want to capture/share a few

“Dad, don’t you know I love you very much?”

“I just want to sit across from your beautiful brown eyes”
Dad: “I love you”
E: “I love you too much”
Anytime I wear a button down shirt: “Dad, you are handsome like a prince!”
<3
EHW, Family, LCW

The Story of “John Tonto”

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I wonder sometimes what my kids will remember from this period of their lives. It’s been so much fun watching them experience new things and just show them the world. I don’t remember much (or anything) from when I was 2 1/2 or 4 1/2 years old…but I think there are probably some foundation pieces that are still in my subconscious.

Which brings me to “John Tonto”. I have been getting a lot of telemarketer calls lately for reasons I don’t know why and I wish would STOP. Let’s just say I’m not always the happiest to receive these calls and sometimes I let it be known.

One day while E and I were out running errands, I got such a call and I told the person to “lose my number and never call me again”. Since it’s out of my typical nature to talk that way in front of my kid (who I had almost forgotten was in the car), she, of course, inquired who I was talking to. Instead of explaining that it was a telemarketer, I made up a person. “John Tonto”.

I thought it’d be a one-time thing. Never talked about again.

Wrong.

It’s been almost 3 months and when the kids use their toy cell phones, they pretend that “John Tonto” is calling them and get upset and hang up on him. They make me pretend that he is calling me and get upset. Emerson has even got her brother in on the act.

Sample Interaction:

  • E: Dad, pretend someone is calling you..
  • D: OK (picks up pretend phone and holds it to ear)
  • E: Dad, who’s calling you?
  • D: John Tonto
  • E: Ugh. Tell him to stop calling you all the time! Grrrr
  • L: (something unintelligible but it sounds like mock anger)

I hope I never forget this memory of them….and that “JT” loses my number 🙂

-Dad

 

 

 

EHW

My Smart Girl

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I am obviously biased but I think my E is pretty smart. Not Nobel Prize or braniac super smart. But there are sometimes she’ll say something that I didn’t think she’d be able to comprehend or had no idea where she would have learned it where I just stop and we had the following conversation.

Daddy: How do you know that?

E: Cause I’m smart
The thing is. She says it with such authority and with no pause. I love her confidence. I wonder if that’s something she made up on her own, got from a show or has heard from a daycare teacher, babysitter, gymnastics coach or dance instructor? Or something she had picked up from hearing Becky and I talk about her.
Kid, you are smart…and don’t you ever forget it.