I noticed something recently. There is a saying that is used to indicate that people are all pretty much the same: He/She puts his/her pants on one leg at a time, just like everyone else. As Annie was putting on her jeans, I observed that she puts her pants on both legs at the same time. It was then that I realized that I do the same thing. It wasn't something I taught her necessarily, but she has adopted that way of dressing.

Also, when she sits on the ground, she sits like me. I seldom sit on the floor with my legs crossed, but rather with my legs bent to the sides and behind me. I've done it all my life, and somehow she picked this up as well.

Those are pretty mundane, but there is one thing she's adopted that while I find it funny now, will most likely become annoying. This morning when I went to her room to see why she hadn't brushed her teeth, I found her brushing her hair (and doing a fine job). I informed her that it was getting late, and she needed to brush her teeth and take her vitamins. She made an exasperated expression in the mirror, extended her left arm towards me in a jerky motion, palm facing me, fingers together. At first I thought this was something that she learned from her mother, but I realized she learned it from me. When I'm on the phone, she knows she's not supposed to just blurt out something at me (I have con-calls at wierd hours sometimes). This is exactly what I do to her when she interrupts me on the phone.

Lastly, and I don't know if this is really a habit, and further don't know how she learned this, but Annie behaves in new groups of people just like me. She watches everyone quietly, and figures out everyone's role or general behavior. Then she inserts herself and works to be a leader. It may not be the best social behavior, but I don't think it has hurt me much. Hopefully, she will make it work for her if it continues.

We'll have to see what other traits of mine she picks up. I pray she doesn't end up so demanding of herself and others that she has difficulty maintaining a long-lasting relationship. Not that she will be having any relationships before she's 20...

Hoping she'll pick up the "trait" of being an engineer.

I have just survived "Family Literacy Night" at Annie's elementary school. She really wanted to go, so we did. It's one of those relatively chaotic things that drives me nuts. In general it's all mothers and kids. You'd think that would make good odds for me! However, they are all married, or not "my type".

Annie was so excited to go, but sort of froze in the face of so many people she didn't know. She was happy to see a couple of kids she knew, but only saw one of her close friends towards the end. She and Nicole suddenly found new reserves of energy, and were running circles around me, picking each other up, and generally being silly.

There was a drawing, which we didn't win. Annie was concerned that she didn't win anything, and I had to tell her that it was because she was with me, and I never win anything. It's hardwired into my DNA. She confidently informed me that she was lucky, and she could win. In a way, though, I might have won. She made me a deal that if we won, we had to go to the potluck at daycare tomorrow night, and if we lost, we didn't have to go. I'm thinking of cashing in those chips... Don't get me wrong, I don't dislike gatherings of people, it's just that these functions are generally populated with mothers. Conversations usually exclude the single father, and degenerate into gossip about things I couldn't care less about.

Anyway, I survived, and Annie had a good time!
Lone Rooster

The marketing folks for the industry that supports kid stuff have got an easy job. The create marketing drives that appeal to the demographic that has no money to spend, but has the ability to repeat themselves so often that they often get what they want. Except at my home. When I was a kid, the fastest way to discover you weren't going to get the newest fad toy was to ask for it. Poor Annie has felt that. Don't get me wrong. Sometimes they have good ideas. I picked up a tube of toothpaste for Annie that plays a song while she's brushing. The goal is to encourage brushing for the correct duration. This is good stuff. It works for a little while. In fact, the toothpaste went off while I was in the grocery store, and wouldn't shut off. By the time I got to the truck, I was ready to throw it in the bushes. She now brushes while it's on, and then puts it in her drawer. It generally goes off again, much to her dismay.

But there are other marketing ploys that have no use. Until recently, I've not offered Annie cereal for breakfast. We either make oatmeal or bacon and eggs. I caved and bought Cheerios recently. She sometimes has Cheerios as a snack. She just rushed up to me, having found the prize in the box. The prize that in my day was buried in the cereal, and in this box was next to the bag, and I quickly shoved it below the bag. No prize until the end of the cereal! However, she found it, and with glowing eyes and total excitement showed it to me. It's a crappy little video game that she figured out with no assistance. She put it down within three minutes, and started fantasizing about what the next game would be.

Which brings me to my next peeve. What the heck is up with marketing a product line called "Bratz"? Unfortunately for me, my ex-family doesn't agree with my disgust at creating a doll market that seems to symbolize everything I don't want my daughter to aspire to. So? They are not allowed here. She will have to go elsewhere for this particular marketing ploy.

Whatever happened to toys that could grow and help a child develop? There are some great toys made for infants, but when they reach this age (five and a half, I'm not allowed to forget the half), the toys turn to crap. The marketing folks grab on to things that will break or become uninteresting within a week, hopefully requiring a replacement toy. Not in this household. My daughter would just as soon build a tower out of left over bathroom tile as her blocks. She'd rather help me with drywall mud then play with her Barbies.

There are companies that cater to this idea, but they are not in the mainstream. I went to Toys R Us looking for flashcards with words on them. I found all sorts of crap, but nothing that had words on them. I'd rather buy a bunch of dress-up clothes that allows her to approach a use of her imagination that another stupid toy that will end up being something I trip over in a week. I may have missed my calling, and should work in the industry to develop children's toys. I see how excited they get when we do our experiments in class. This is the time to push their interests and ability to learn new things. This is a terrible time to waste their energy on confusing toys that have no development impact.

End of Rant.
Don't want to raise a Brat.

I just found Annie by the side of her bed, holding on to a struggling Lilo...

Daddy: Annie, he wants you to let him go.
Annie: I'm going to take him where he wants to go.
Daddy: Unfortunately, I think the place he wants to go is where you are not holding him.
Annie: Daddy! I know where he wants to go, and I'm going to take him there! (Throws Lilo into a fireman's carry, and walks out of room.)
Annie: See? I put him in the windowsill, and he stayed!

As she strolled by me, Lilo was squeaking and looking at me for help. If he'd had hands, they would have been stretched out pleading for me to grab him.

I think Lilo looks forward to the weekends that Annie is at her mother's...

Feeling sorry for the cats

After the tile job, Annie came across the remains of the cuts I had to do. She cleaned them in a bucket, and decided to build with them. So, maybe she's not going to be an astronaut, and take her daddy into space. Maybe she's going to be an architect, and build the most amazing structures on earth. Buildings that are functional but pleasing to the eye. So you can say that you knew where it came from, I'll share this in case you find yourself walking through a major metropolitan area with a new museum that looks something like this:

She has a gift for structural balance, I’m telling you.

Still hoping for the astronaut gig...

This morning I caught a glimpse of the world to be. For years it has been a battle to get Annie to let me do anything with her hair. She'll allow her hair to be braided, but only because after she gets to school, she takes out the braid to have curly hair like her daddy. Pony tails don't generally make it past snack time, and headbands and barrettes last until I walk out the door.

I figured she would get over this, given that her horses have become showcases for ponytail holders and barrettes. They are covered with the things. Well, it finally happened. A few days ago, she wanted barrettes, so we put them in. When I picked her up, they were amazingly still in her hair. She proudly told me that they had come loose, but she figured out how to do it herself. So, now after we brush her hair, she has to put the barrettes in herself. I'm really glad, because I'm a bit miserable at fancy hair stylings for little girls.

So, this morning, I'm ready to go out the door. In fact, I'm standing outside the side door. I knock on the window and ask her what she's doing. She gives me a rather disgusted face, holds up her hand to indicate I need to wait, and turns back to the mirror. She was up on the bathroom counter, putting her barrettes in to her level of perfection. This was further odd, because the mirrors in her room are better, and so is the lighting.

Well, I guess this is just preparation for when she.... (shudder) starts wearing makeup. Maybe the bathroom will be completed by then!

Raising a mountain girl who's stylin'

It's been a difficuilt day, with several highlights.

This morning, I was excited to look at the plants the kids had planted. Yesterday, I turned Aidan's plant upside down to show how the plant would try to grow up and towards the sun. This morning, I noticed that it had already done so, and excitedly showed it to Mrs. Friedlund. I was trying to get to work early, but when she asked me to talk to the kids about the importance of this, I couldn't turn it down.

The kids are fairly comfortable with me now, so they say things they might not otherwise say. Note to parents: be careful what you say to your kids... they will remember it and repeat it. While we were waiting for one of the kids to come over, and one of the boys looked up to me, and with a sigh said, "I had chili yesterday, and I farted all day long." It was all I could do not to leave the room to bust a gut...

Annie's been a bit needy lately, and told me that she would be ok with me going to talk to the other kids, but I needed to give her a hug and kiss before I left. I forgot. I was hoping she would have forgotten... wrong. When I brought her home, she told me about her day, and it was good. 45 minutes after being home, she told me that I forgot to give her a hug and kiss before I left, and that she had cried about it. There is nothing wrong with her memory.

I think I've finished root-causing the problem with the system at work. That's good stuff. As long as I can get the powers-that-be to accept it. Hopefully, I'll be able to work from home on Friday.

On the way home today, Annie told me that she left her ice-cream sandwich wrapper in her room, and it melted. She swore that she would clean it up, and she did. However, she also told me that she had chewed through her shirt. I couldn't believe it. She has holes in her sleeves. What were you thinking? "I don't know." Then she sulked, because she was in trouble.

Oh well, a strange, but not bad day...
Looking forward to tomorrow...

I've escaped... for the moment. Today marks a momentous change for us. I had long ago decided that Annie's bed was too small for her. She's been sleeping in her "crib" for five and a half years. Don't get me wrong, it's not a crib anymore. We spent a ton of money on a beautiful crib that would grow and change with her. The crib became a daybed with a guard rail, and then the rail came down. However, the mattress is shot, and she is growing every freakin' day. I can almost see her pants getting shorter throughout the day.

I decided to move the queen-sized bed from my room to her room, and I would get a king-sized bed for all the company I keep in my bed. Ok. I just want something different. I have a bad habit of associating life with material objects, but I'm frugal enough not to get rid of something that has a lot of life in it. So? I cleaned everything out of Annie's room with the exception of her chest of drawers and closet. I cleaned the floor, and was disgusted at what I found... She wasn't. I got lost in her room for all the toys and clutter, and was unsure if I could find my way out. I finally crawled through the detritus of a five year old, and took a wrong turn. I was in the play room. I panicked. I knew there was no way out of the play room for an adult. Fortunately, I don't think of myself as an adult, and managed to navigate a path through the spilled Leggos, the Barbies, the markers strewn across the room, the horses caught in mid-prance, the games that had been opened and scattered, the tractors and dumptruck, and finally found a handle that looked to be part of a door.

Upon my escape, I was confused, and thought I was hallucinating. The living room had become a reservoir of toys. Ten foot wide, 8 feet long, and 3 feet deep, I had to regain my focus. So, I went outside. As usual, my projects take longer than I anticipate. I had many other things that I wanted to cover today, and it looks like I'll be lucky just to get the stuff out of the living room long enough to vacuum the floor. Annie has been tasked with collecting the 5,357 stuffed animals, and putting them in her toy chest. The rest will be separated into trash, toys, and toys she has outgrown. I hope to see the floor before I go to bed, but my confidence is low. I just want to make sure that I can do enough laundry to have her go not-naked to school tomorrow.

That said, it is an emotional experience. I've already put away a ton of books and toys that she has outgrown (although she might disagree). In particular, as I cleaned the book shelf, I had moments of watering eyes over the books she used to love. Most of them ended up in bags to go to people that could make use of them, but I couldn't part with "The Wheels on the Bus". She loved that book so much when she was an infant/toddler. I was sick to death of reading it then, but now it pangs me to part with it. We probably won't read it again, but I put it back on the bookshelf. What can I say? I'm a sentimental young fool.

Well, I've been away long enough. My courage is reborn through my ramblings here. If you don't hear from me soon, call 911.

Excited, but at a Loss for Every New Stage

My project at work was looking good yesterday, so the engineer I was working with told me I didn't need to come in to the lab today. That was great news. I really wanted to talk about gravity with the class today. Last night and this morning I threw together everything I needed. I spent about an hour with the kids, and it was great. I was struggling with how to involve them, but finally stumbled on it.

I went in with a bag o' goodies. I first talked about Newton watching an apple fall, and him asking my favorite question: why? I got a little nervous about keeping them on track when I had virtually all 21 students telling me about the fruit trees they had at home... But, I struggled on. Two at a time, I put students on chairs and had them drop things at the same time. The first set were two identical cups. I asked which one would hit the ground first. Everyone chose one of the cups. When asked why, they each had ideas about which of the identical cups was heavier, and the heavier cup would fall faster. Well, of course they hit at the same time.

My involvement of the kids was to have them all come up in pairs to drop something different, and see which one fell faster. (For those who noticed that there were 21 students, I did the last drop with Rook.) We dropped all sorts of things: super-sized Leggos, ball bearings, floor tile, a roll of toilet paper, a Barbie (makeup by Annie compliments of her markers), a piece of wood, and others that I don't recall. Each time, they said the heavier thing would fall faster. So, I had Annie and Faith on the chairs, each with a water bottle, but one of them was empty. They hit the floor at the same time. We concluded that it didn't matter if one was heavier. However, stubborness runs in young and old humans alike. The next pair of objects brought shouts of the heavier one falling first. Of course, they never did, and when I came to the second to last pair of objects, I asked again: which one will hit the floor first? They shouted out for the heaviest one, again. We talked for five minutes about what we had seen, and then Jerry shouted "they'll hit at the same time!" As the gears turned in the rest of the kids minds, I took a vote. Who thought they'd hit at the same time? A scattering of hands went up, and finally everyone agreed: oh yeah, they'll hit at the same time. Which, of course they did.

Then I really confused them. I pulled out a small feather. The teacher looked at me like 'you devil, you are going to confuse them'. But I had a plan. I asked which one would hit first (feather or ball bearing), and some said the same time, some said the bearing, because it was heavier. We revisited the weight issue, but I admitted that the feather wouldn't fall as fast. That's when we talked about the air. Sure enough, the feather took its sweet time falling to the ground. So, I pulled out a large canister that I had vacuum sealed (several times) with a feather inside. It wasn't as large as I'd have liked, but it did the job. They all saw that the feather in the canister fell much faster than the one dropped in air. It was great.

I lost them a little when we talked about gravity with different celestial bodies, but that was just gravy. Maybe some of them will think about and remember that the tides are from the impact of the moon (I didn't tell them it was also from the Sun... it was confusing enough). Maybe the next time they are at the beach, they will tell their parents that the tides are the result of gravity. That would rock!

Next stop: magnetics

I don't understand it. At home or in the truck, Annie is in a reading frenzy. This morning after breakfast (at the same table that is for homework), she read "construction paper tablet" with only a little help. She is constantly reading things when we are by ourselves. However, yesterday morning, when we got to school, she had to read a sentence that she has read many, many times. When we check in that she is "there", we have to read a sentence, and place her name under what she thinks is the right answer. "Daddy, I can't read." "Honey, you read all the time, you can do it. I know you can." "NOOOOOO! I CAN'T DO IT!" She immediately went into needy/whiny mode, and I had to go to a doctor's appointment (well, orthodontist appoinment).

What is it about other locations or people present? She just shuts down with me when we get to school. Fortunately, her teacher has told me that she will read away when I'm gone, but it's kind of painful. I want her to excel to the best of her ability, and she is really good at reading for her age. During breakfast we always go through a number of flashcards with words. There are somewhere between 20 and 30 words, and she has them flat down. And I don't mean she has them memorized. Many of the words she doesn't remember, and has to spell out again. We can do all the words in a matter of a few minutes now. In fact, tonight we are writing down new ones.

I just wish she had the confidence to do it in front of other kids at school.
Trying...