Valentines

Two quick observations at the dinner table. Alex asked me if people kept growing, if we all ended up like giants. I told him we capped out at around 18, and we get older, but not taller. Just fatter.

The kids looked at each other. Then burst out laughing. Alex then stuck out his tummy to pretend to be a fat boy while Zoe pointed and laughed.

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So Alex finished his dinner and wanted some Valentine chocolates, and Zoe said, "You finished your dinner fast! You're like a squirrel!"

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This morning after breakfast, the kids wanted some of the chocolate that they had given each other. Zoe has a hollow chocolate dog and Alex has a chocolate fish, which was alright I suppose. But then Alex requested the head of the fish, and Zoe wanted the dog's nose, so my wife snapped the head off the fish, then took a butterknife and proceeded to stab at the dog's face, chipping his nose off for Zoe to consume. Now there's a slightly disgruntled snoutless pooch on the table staring at me, plotting my demise.

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So following the extensive incriminatory playlist from Rock Band that I posted, I had actually purchased some new music before my wife's unspoken comment about how I should quit buying new music for a while. Never heard them before, but I decided to preview them on the Music Store, and they sounded pretty good. Just caught my attention. So I bought the 3 pack and now I'm a fan of The Fratellis. And because I care, here's are the videos of the songs I bought.





And the Third Video isn't embeddable, but here's the link.

Awfully fun to play as well, just haven't sung or played bass. Drums are fun on those...

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We've been going through a rough patch with Alex lately, and it's not easy to really describe because we don't honestly think that he's misbehaving to get attention, or he has ill intentions, but he just always manages to get himself into some kind of disagreement with us. One day it will be arguing with us when we tell him to do something, or not listening to instructions, or sometimes he would just do something so inexplicable that we just don't know what to do with him. So we're constantly having to balance ourselves between being sensitive to his needs, but also not letting him get away with everything. If we were too sensitive to his needs, we risk enforcing and enabling his behavior, which means that he'll stay developmentally behind, doing things that he should've grown out of a while ago. If we are too harsh, we risk alienating him, making him feel inferior and unimportant. So this balancing act is now a constant with us. Making him feel included but giving him room, being firm on his behavior with compassion. This parenting gig is tough, man. The kids have been hinting at a dog and I can't even fit that into my life. There's a guy a couple years older than me at work with 5 kids, one on the way, and I just think he's flipping nuts. I can barely handle two with an imaginary pet.

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So part of their Valentine's gift was a promise from Christmas to get them Build-A-Bear creatures, and we just so happen to make it to the mall yesterday when I remembered. So we went in, and 60 some freaking dollars later, we have Stella in a stunning pink evening gown, and George in some casual cargo pants with a T-Shirt. The kids have been as attached to their new friends as the boxes they came in, and they seem to really form an attachment to them because they were created right in front of them. At least that's what us parents want to believe to keep from losing our poop for spending all that money on stuffed animals. Well, there's a first and last time for everything.




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So listening to Smodcast, and being an avid surfer of the internet, I know a lot of things because I'm twisted like that. So I was talking to my wife in the car and it went like this:

Wife: So did you guys use to do Valentine cards in your school when you were young?

Me: I was at an all boys Christian school. I don't think that was something they wanted to promote.

Later...

Me: So I said to Dansen, the premature guy would be the King of the circle jerk because he would never have to eat the cookie and for once, he would feel good about himself...

Wife: So did you use to play that?

Me: What? No! What the @#$!%$@...

And then I went on for minutes talking about football, Jessica Alba's ass, and cars. Then I clubbed a seal to death with my bare hands and then fornicated with with the carcass. Manly, manly stuff.

Except I think the seal was a female.

Hmmm.

Random Listing of Property

Because no one asked in particular, here's a list of my downloaded Rock Band Songs.

Amazing Journey
Ashes to Fire
Baba O'Riley
Bounce
Burn You Down
Can't Stand Losing You
Casey Jones
Charlene (I'm Right Behind You)
Chiron
Crazy Tuesday
Creepin' Up the Backstairs
Database Corrupted
Desperate Times, Desperate Measures
Die, All Right!
Dune Buggy
Excuse Me Mr.
Feather Pluckn
Flathead
Get It On
Gimme Three Steps
Give It to Me
Going Mobile
Good Times Roll
Headphones On
Henrietta
Hey Baby
Hitch A Ride
I Wanna Be Your Man
I'm Gone, I'm Going
I.V.
If I Ain't Got You
Just What I Needed
Ladybug
Leaving Here
Like a Fool
Limelight
Living' at the Corner of Dude & Catastrophe
Magnetic Baby
Message In A Bottle
More Than A Feeling
My Best Friend's Girl
My Sharona
No Regrets
Peace of Mind
Prequel to the Sequel
Promised Land
Roam
Rock and Roll Band
Rock Rebellion
Roxanne
Smokin'
Something About You
Sons and Daughters
Space Cowboy
Spiderwebs
Sprode
Still Alive
Sugar Magnolia
Sunday Morning
Synchronicity II
Take the Money and Run
The Feeling
The Joker
The Perfect Drug
The Time is Wrong
Truckin'
Truth Hits Everybody
Uncle John's Band
Who Are You
Wonderwall
Young

71 downloaded songs, with 55 songs from Rock Band and 84 songs from Rock Band 2... 210 songs total. I think my wife just made me feel guilty for buying 50 songs... Um, yeah.

Flower

I am completely smitten with this game. I could spend hours doing this. Best 10 bucks ever.

Dreading the return to work tomorrow, but at the same time it'll be a nice distraction. Sometimes being at home is an exercise in self control, because I can't really do what I'd like to be doing, namely playing bloody first person shooters, watching any assortment of movies, and sleeping countless hours irregularly. Instead I have to regulate everything so that my kids don't grow up to be such a passive consumer like myself, and in a way, its probably better for me if I don't constantly flood myself with media.

The kids would look at me for entertainment, asking me what to do, if they can play video games and such. So I render myself duller than normal, bringing out a magazine and just planting myself in the living room. So now I'm around, not doing anything interesting or fun, and the kids turn to each other for entertainment instead. Then I remember that I have a phone and I can be a chatty blogger, and so here we are.

Took Mom to Ranch 99, the Asian supermarket in Kent that always smell a little off, but always is packed with people. Today was no exception, with more people than usual. While my mom shops, the kids and us usually just stall by the arcades and quarter vending machines, so we bought about 2 dollars in crap, half of which is already broken. But the kids are contend, then we go to a Japanese restaurant and I fix me up some udon and California rolls. Life is pretty good but the mango smoothy was the tops.

I wonder now what my mom used to do or think about when I was a kid. Was she busy with her life while just keeping a watch for me or waiting for me to go to bed so she could do whatever she really wanted to do? I guess a big hurdle for me is I can't render myself too oblivious and I tend to read too much of a situation. I think about how to be a better Dad much more often than what a good Dad I've been. Same goes with how good a son I've been, what I've been doing with my life, how my career is stacking up... I do too many self assessments. Detrimental more than constructive too. Damn, I wish work was swamped so at the end of each day, I would feel an enormous sense of accomplishment instead of this feeling of perpetual waiting. Waiting for orders, waiting to move up and to do something more productive, waiting for things to happen.

Well, there's always some sign that needs replacing at work.