Octopus

Another quickie from Mommie:

I asked Gamble to carry his own blanket down the stairs like a big boy.

How does he respond? "Mom, how do you expect me to carry that down the stairs? I am not an Octopus!"

Oh, he's discovering the typical parent's dream of having many arms to handle everything.

Poole and Company

From Mommie:

Well, apparently, Poole has a friend. His name is Kim and yes, he is a boy. In addition, he has another friend. His name is Sorry, which is his nickname. It's short for Surath (I think). There is also this whole story that Pool is never around for Gamble because he is always at practice. He apparently takes softball, soccer, and tennis lessons and in fact, is never at school because he is always practicing.

Have you ever known a kid to have an imaginary friend who is never around?

This reminds me, we really should get him into a sports class.

Four

I put my boy to bed tonight.

He was three.

When he wakes, he'll be four.

I'll never see my three year-old boy again. I'm kinda sad, I think.

I'm going to really miss my little three year-old. We've had a really good year together.

Happy Birthday, baby boy! We love you!

I'm going to go check on my three year-old one last time before bed, I think.

Chow

We've been watching Random closely, and one thing we noticed is that she's been watching us closely.

Especially when we eat. All the time. Whenever we're putting something in our mouths, she's watching, fascinated.

So Nicole decided to give her what she wanted.

With the camera ready and a little bowl of rice, Nicole set out to feed her some solid food.

She hated it. Cried and spat it out. Sometimes, she spat it out forcefully.

Tonight, Nicole tried again. It was a huge success. Somewhere recently I heard that you have to introduce a food to a baby seventeen times before it will like it. For Random and rice, the count was simply two.

She went through it, and everytime Nicole stopped feeding her, she freaked out. She giggled and squealed. And she lit up every time she saw the spoon, arms waving in a frenzy.

Chow on, baby Random!

Action Hero

Well, it's Gamble's birthday tomorrow, and I stopped by Toys R Us on the way home tonight to see if I could find something cool for him. I typically don't get him presents at all, but with him getting a little bit older, I thought I would pick him up stuff we would like to play together with.

You know. Man stuff.

He's been playing a lot with action figures. He has Dora and Swiper, Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Raphael, some number of evil looking robots with light-up swords, and he mixes and matches them with great delight, creating stories and having adventures.

So I figured on some figures.

Full disclosure. I got him a Spiderman "Bump 'n Go" Web Rider (with motorcycle). He'll almost certainly like it, but I'm really hoping he likes my other two action figures: Bumblebee of the Autobots, and Barricade of the Decepticon. Transformers were the bees knees when I were a lad, and I'm looking forward to showing him how they work.

I'm expecting to hear a Spidey, Swiper, Michelangelo, and Bumblebee melee within days.

Poole

"Well, I don't want to do that. My brother doesn't like it either."

"You don't have a brother, Gamble. You have a beautiful baby sister."

"Well, actually, yes I do have a baby brother."

"Lukie?" For the longest time, he kept calling his cousin Luke his baby brother. He still can't get the whole familial relation thing yet.

"No, Daddie. Pool. He's my brother. He's right here," and he gestured with a sweep of his hand.

Uh huh.

You know, I'd always heard about this imaginary friend thing. I always thought it was kind of a joke, or something the parents suggested so the child would occupy himself while being able to talk to a "friend."

Or maybe a psychosis.

Now I know for sure that it's not something I suggested. It's something he seems to have come up with on his own (or better yet, he probably got it from day care. Yeah, that's it. Day care).

And on occasion, he refers to his good friend Pool, which I always see in my head as "Poole", and sometimes, there's another friend with Poole. That other friend's name is Water. Except that Water isn't always around, and Poole's his brother.

Oh, brother.

Father's Day

I wanted to go to the Cheesecake Factory for father's day, so we went. Aside from the great time, the great food, and great dessert, it was overall a wonderful treat from Mommie to this Daddie. I didn't mention this particular event to her at the restaurant, however.

There was this guy with a group of tattooed friends who walked by on his way out, and he was wearing a "Danger: enormous penis" novelty T-shirt. I wanted to jump up and yell, "OH MY GOD! HE'S GOT AN ENORMOUS PENIS! RUUUNNNN!!!!" and book out the door, leaving the other restaurant-goers to gawk at him embarrassingly.

For some reason, I find myself with a strong dislike for novelty T-shirts that have messages I don't want my children to see.

And that thar? Means I'm too old.

And a father.

Happy Father's Day, everyone!