4 year olds and PMS

OK......lest the regular readers of this blog (is there more than 1?) think we are a combination of the Cleaver/Huxtable/Walton families...spending every weekend in happy bliss while I drop meaningful witty lines everywhere.....today was not a happy Sarah-Daddy day....

The tantrums started early and often....after a parental stand off that damn near required an intervention by the National Guard (are there any left in this country?) Sarah finally pulled herself together and we went to a children's museum. She was petrified of a fairy tale exhibit. (Remember, last week she was up for throwing herself down an icy hill in an inner tube.) We decided to go see a puppet show...."Salsa Cinderalla".

If you're familiar with the brilliant comic Jeff Dunham's "Jalapeno on a Stick"....it was just like that! Except....not funny. Or Brilliant. Or Entertaining.

Afterwards Sarah and I went out for pizza. In true 4 year old with PMS character, she didn't want any pizza....until I got mine...then she wanted mine....all of it.

Some days Sarah is a joy....some days she is a challenge.

Getting "Tubular"

As a child of the '60s I grew up with playgrounds that had metal slides and teeter totters....and lived. My parents wouldn't think twice if they didn't see me all day long. I rode my bike all over town. I played baseball without a helmet. I didn't have a cell phone so my Mom could find me. She told me to be home at dinner time and I did. It was a different world.
We would go sleigh riding on highway cloverleafs. If you got going really fast you'd have to fall off because the sleigh was going to be soon competing with the cars attempting to get on the Sunrise Highway. Nobody was ever killed. We froze our "keysters" (that's NY for bottom) off, played all day, went home and had hot chocolate.
I wanted my little girl to experience the fun I had as a child of playing in the snow. Since it's starting to look like winter is never going to come here, we piled in to the car and took a two hour ride to go tubing.
Thirty seven "are we there yet"s later....we arrived. I was a little concerned that Sarah would take one look at the slopes, decide they're scary and we'd be back in the car in 10 minutes. She's petrified of inflatable lawn balloons in Home Depot...you never know what's gonna press her "DEAR GOD...GET ME OUT OF HERE" button.










Nope...when it comes to snow...we're raising a daredevil. She couldn't wait! We had a blast, up and down the hill. I'm sure it's the most fresh air she's ever gotten in one day in her entire life. For Dad it was the most fresh air and FUN I've had in a long time! It was 60 degrees...the snow was melting. The slopes were fast, the lines were short. Sarah's smile probably contributed to the "global warming"....ear to ear all day.
When our session was over we had pizza on the deck over looking the slopes. Sarah was tired, Daddy was tired, but for me there was a sense of satisfaction that we made a big time memory today. She couldn't wait to tell Mommy, brother, her friends at school, the NY Times...it was big in her world.
Two minutes after getting in the car to go home she was asleep...that kind of "drool on your chin" power nap that you can only obtain after intense excitement.
When we got home there was a cold beer instead of a hot choclate. It's been a long time since I've fully appreciated dry underwear and socks!

Sarah Daddy Day....

Today for most of the world was Saturday....in my world it's called "Sarah-Daddy-Day".

For the regular viewers of this blog (yeah, right, like anyone is reading this) you will soon realize that Sarah, our 4 1/2 year old little girl tends to make sure our universe revolves around her.

Saturdays are special for us...I get to spend time with our little girl, my little girl gets to spend time with her Daddy, my wife gets a break. One of the weird things about having a child in your 40s that you didn't expect to have is you feel so fortunate you tend to turn them in to the "Golden Child".

We are no different....we spent her first few years making sure her crown fit comfortably. There is no doubt...this has bit us in the ass in a number of ways....a topic for future blogs.

Today was kind of a typical SDD...we went out for lunch and then to the park. We'd still be there right now if Golden Child had her way. This evening GC and I went out for Ben and Jerry's (double break day for Mommy...Daddy got a nap in the middle)....my hope is the sugar will wear off before midnight.

Sarah was "chatty" today. I love that as she gets older she talks up a storm about all of the things we've done together. It's important to me to know that if I get hit by a bus tomorrow she will know her father loved her.

Every women I've ever met who had problems in their lives had bad relationships with their fathers. With every push of the swing at the park it is my dream that Golden Child will eventually be well adjusted Golden Woman.

Whatever happened to MP2 players?

OK....so it's my first blog...and my first post to my first blog.

I've been fighting technology for decades. I bought a cd player only after they released the first 3 Beatles albums on CD. At the time I said I'd only buy the really important stuff on CD and just buy cassettes of everything else. Currently I own about 280 cds.

About a dozen years ago I said I'd be the last person in America to own a cell phone....now you're issued one shortly after birth. The only place I go today without the damn thing being attached to my hip is the shower. (When Verizon comes out with the waterproof-MP 3 playing- text messaging- internet browsing- back massaging cell phone I'll be there.)

I resisted buying an MP 3 player because I couldn't possibly work out while listening to music. How would I know what the news channels at the YMCA were talking about? (Well....just read the closed captioning. I've noticed that apparently spelling isn't important at Fox and CNN.)

I had friends tell me that satellite radio would change my life. I said "Why the hell would I pay for radio?" After noting that the local talk radio station went for EIGHT FREEKIN' MINUTE LONG COMMERCIAL BREAKS and my commute often involved an hour plus long ordeal in the car I finally gave in. Sirius has made me love driving. It's amazing....you don't even get annoyed when the moron in front of you is driving 10 miles per hour UNDER the speed limit. Road rage murders are prevented every day by satellite radio.

So now....I once again bow to societal pressure and join the new- hip- cool thing...the blog world....or as I like to think of it....personal therapy without a bill.

I've noticed most blogs seem to be musings that people would otherwise spend a lot of money talking to a "mental health professional" about. Either we've run out of therapists (highly unlikely) or people are so busy with all of the trimmings of our modern world to find time to actually talk.

I have a few things to talk about.....but I've got to go check my work computer, answer a text message, watch my station's news....and try to be a good Daddy/husband......the joy of being the 21st century Lou Grant.