Unfinished Dad

Mac and Cheese With Cauliflower

Do your kids like Mac and Cheese?  Do you like them to eat vegetables without them knowing it?  Make this.  

Just do me a favor, when you get to the store, pretend they don't have that reduced fat stuff.  You can say it's because your growing little ones need the fat to grow.

BPA Free Plastic or Stainless Steel

I've never been an overly concerned parent when it comes to in-the-home hazards.  I didn't push for the $220 organic mattress we bought Annie (and subsequently didn't buy for Tilda, though we did switch them for her first four months) and I wasn't gung ho about changing from the original Avent bottles to the BPA free knockoff that Gerber makes.  It's my wife that leads the charge in the worry/information department.  I didn't even know that there was an Avent alternative and I certainly didn't know about Amish crib mattresses; I thought they just made those miracle fireplaces that don't get hot.

I tell you this because we are about to take the next step in developmental safety when Annie becomes the proud owner of a Klean Kanteen.  Her lunchbox will be equipped with the latest in non-illness-causing, eco-friendly bottling solutions.  She will be all the rage at CCPC.

In contrast there are some companies out there that run the Unfinished Dad safety platform.  SIGG, a swiss rival of Annie's preferred bottle manufacturer, seems to have been less than honest about it's BPA free claims during the Bisphenol-A disarmament of 2007.  I admire the way in which the SIGG representative answered the customer's questions without answering them at all.  They are only children anyway.

The Final Post of Unfinished Dad

Well folks, that's it.  I am penning my last post here at Unfinished Dad.  It's time to move on to bigger/better things, i.e. purchasing sports franchises, running for senate, and dating supermodels.  While this blog never made me rich, Microsoft has.  What a turn of luck.  I think I'll take Daniel Smith and Hilary Fox out for dinner in London when I get my many Pounds.  BTW, I love the turn of phrase "consequently you have won..."  As if it were some accident that I'm now a "Great Britain" Millionaire.  BTW redux, notice the great struggle with the word fiduciary.

MICROSOFT CORPORATION PROMOTION DEPARTMENT
Head Winning Claims Dept.
Ticket Number: 008795727498
Lucky Number: 14-21-25-39-40-47(20)
Ref: BTD/968/09,Batch: 409978E.

Dear recipient,

We are happy to inform you that you have just emerged a winner in our 2009
MICROSOFT AWARD PROMO. Consequently you have won (£500,000.00GBP) Five
Hundred Thousand Great Britain  Pounds.You are to fill the claims
eligibility form below and forward your winning Particulars to our fiduaciary claims department :

Officer's Name: Daniel Smith
Officer's E-mail: danielsmith34@live.com
Officer's Tel: +447011184659,+447045701639

CLAIMS REQUIREMENTS:
1. Full Names:
2. Residential Address:
3. Phone Number:
4. Ref Number:
5. Ticket Number:
6. Batch:
7. Occupation:
8. Sex:
9. Age:

Congratulations from the staff and Management of the 2009 MICROSOFT
CORPORATION PROMO.

Regards.
Mr Hilary Fox.
COORDINATOR GENERAL
2009 MICROSOFT PROMO

Nearing The End Of Potty Training. Jinx!

It's been a busy summer here at Unfinished Dad HQ.  And for no one has it been busier than Annie.  From summer camp to vacations to trips abroad as a special Middle East envoy.  You get the picture; for a two year old this kid has a lot going on.  

This is the reason I neglected to tell you that the potty training seems to be entering it's final stages.  She has been—I can’t believe I’m going to use this term—going number one on both the potty and regular toilet for a little over a week.  It's amazing how much joy someone can get out of that.  And now that she knows the general mechanics involved, she sometimes goes every 10 or 15 minutes, just to show you her skills.

Number two was a barrier though.  Something about it scares her.  I don't think that I often decry anyone's poop but my own, so I hope I haven't given her the wrong impression of what it's like.  Yesterday I was waiting for her third post-lunch pee when I said, "Maybe you want to try pooping too?"  She gave me a "whatever" look and then pushed out the holy grail of potty training like it was no big deal.  And on the adult toilet, no less.  The joy she got from flushing that bad boy made me jealous.

I think that when you reach this point it is time to let it ride and go no diapers in the house for a whole day.  She's ready.  I'll let you know how much the cleaning bill is.

No More Complaining

If I get through a single day without complaining about Annie's behavior I will let you know.  She has a world all her own—or so I thought—that I can't always reach.  There are times where removing her from a situation is the only answer.  Other times, "five M&M's" is the thing that breaks the tantrum.  Unlike the family below though, her behavior is 95% good.  The 5% that I complain about is now in better perspective.

When Jani turned 3, her tantrums escalated. She lasted three weeks in one preschool and one week in another. She demanded to be called by different names; Rainbow one day, Blue-eyed Tree Frog the next. Make-believe friends filled her days -- mostly rats and cats and, sometimes, little girls.

She threw her shoes at people when angry and tried to push the car out of gear while Michael was driving. The usual disciplinary strategies parents use to teach their young children proper behavior -- time-outs, rules, positive rewards -- failed time and again for the Schofields.

The two paragraphs above are from this LA Times article about a little girl with child onset schizophrenia.  My life is not easy, but it certainly isn't as hard as that.

Check out her father's blog, here.  And thanks to daddytypes for the link.

Revealing Web Pages

The pages that someone leaves open on your computer can talk to you.  They give you all sorts of information about what the other people in your house are up to.  I’m not talking about snooping in gmail accounts or poking around in credit card statements.  I’m talking about the generic web pages that are left open on your computer because they aren’t of consequence.

My wife, for instance, would soon realize by looking at the computer at night that I have very few interests.  She will certainly see you all, because Typepad will be open, but beyond that there is a lot of music, a little sports and maybe a magazine article or two. 

However, when I wake up in the morning, there is no telling what will be left open for me to see.  My wife is a researcher at heart.  When she gets into a topic she sees it all the way through.  Want to know what a skunk ape is?  Mention it casually in front of my wife and watch the sparks fly off the keyboard.  Don’t know who the warring factions are in the ongoing Sri Lankan conflict or feel like knowing who Chace Crawford is dating?  Both get researched with equal fervor.  Just act a little confused and as long as there is an internet connection close she will get you results.

When I google something, if the answer isn’t found in the first five results, I pretty much decide that there is no answer.  I don’t know if my wife delves into the hundreds of pages of content, or if she has access to internet buzzwords that I haven’t heard of, but she finds things that I can’t.  That makes me seems stupid, doesn’t it?  A few months ago, I was looking for a somewhat rare, two-year-old golf bag online.  I gave up after a short while, which is my wont, and then talked about it at dinner.  Later that night I came into the living room to see the exact bag on German eBay.  I didn’t even know there was a German eBay!

So when I wake up in the morning and open the computer, I take my wife’s browsing from the night before seriously.  This morning I found myself reading three separate websites about disciplining your children.  They all involved hitting.  Now, I know that I have a precocious two year old, but I’m not sure she has a real discipline problem.  She sometimes hits her little sister and she does have multiple tantrums on any given day.  I thought this is what two year olds do.  I’m not sure if my wife thinks I need to provide more structure for Annie or if she is looking for ways to do so when I’m not here.

Web pages can tell you what someone is interested in, but they can’t tell you why.  Maybe my wife has a friend whose child hit someone in school or she linked to those pages through someone else’s blog.  Every child has discipline issues at some point, and while I tend not to read other people's accounts of their lives—counterintuitive, I know—she loves to.   Fortunately this isn’t a half-hour television show that requires us to leave this on the table until it becomes unbearable.  I can just ask her.  And it’s not like I woke up to 20 tabbed pages about divorce, or worse, pregnancy.

Hang, um, a belly?

Hang, um, a belly?, originally uploaded by unfinished dad.

Life is about trying new things. So on vacation I gave surfing a shot. It was the last class before my graduation from Camp Dani and despite the small waves and fat man trying to ride them, I did stand up once or twice. Sure I was facing straight forward. And sure this picture doesn't even have a board in it, but really, I did it. You know, now that I look at this again, it looks like I may just be walking out of the ocean.

Back In Chevy Chase

We're back in the DC Metro today and I'm coping with a houseful of chores, two kids in beach mode, and a future with no babysitter to lighten the load.  Let us take a break today and reconvene tomorrow.

Standing T

T Standing, originally uploaded by unfinished dad.

Tilda has been avoiding walking for weeks now. She shakes her head "NO" and sits down anytime you encourage her. But the sand seems to bring out her inner athlete, and she has been getting more and more confident with each hour on the beach. Last night she took about four steps to get to her Grandma Liz. From here on out I will be a stay at home dad with two, count 'em, two walking children.

The Indestructible Toddler

Some events stop you dead in your tracks.  From near hole-in-ones, to first steps, to surfing babies.  When your child has an especially painful wipeout though, your heart basically stops.  In our two plus years none of them have been more than a bruise or a scrape.  I can't imagine seeing your child break a bone or worse.

We had one of these heart stoppers the other day that I still don't believe happened.  Annie was jumping on the bed—I think there’s a nursery rhyme about what happens next—and she took a wrong turn, spinning hard towards the edge and hit her face flat against the wall.  Forehead, nose and mouth all thwacked simultaneously.  She hit the wall with such force and accuracy that she managed to dig her front teeth into the sheetrock.  I don't really know how the blood got on the wall, or how she didn't lose her teeth for that matter, but if there are any forensic scientists out there who want to comment, feel free.

As always with malleable toddlers, all she needed to recover was a bob and a kiss.  She did get her first ice pack, but that was more for show than swelling.