I Want To Be A Baseball For Halloween

I have 3 boys old enough to trick or treat this year. So the annual "what am I going to be for Halloween?" started early just after school started in September. Luckily, two of the boys wanted to be Boston Red Sox players. "Easy!," I said to myself. Manny Ramirez has long shoulder-length hair, which I made by taping black yarn to the inside of the Boston Redsox hat. They wore their little league baseball uniforms with Boston Redsox shirts and looked great.

My oldest son, on the other hand, wanted to be the 756 home run baseball that Barry Bonds hit. As an engineer, I prided myself by thinking that I would come up with some clever way to make him look like a baseball. Well, after about 2 weeks of trying various thoughts and designs, all I could do was make my son look fat, but not like a baseball. He was getting a bit concerned and volunteered to be something else. He decided to be a basketball trading card instead. "Great!," I said.

Well it took some doing, but I managed to scan one of his basketball cards and blow it up to about 2 feet by 3 feet in size. I put the image on a large poster board and cut a hole out where he could stick his head through. I'm happy to say that it all worked out well and all his friends and classmates approved of his basketball trading card costume.

Another successful Halloween accomplished. Now, I just have to figure out what to do with 3 large bags of candy....

Aiming At The Toilet

We have four boys, so it is not surprising to me when there is a little urine around the toilet that didn't quite make it. Recently, things were getting worse and my wife and I were scrubbing the toilet all the time, trying in vain to keep the bathroom smelling nice. One morning this week during breakfast, my second son got up to go to the bathroom. I happened to be walking by the bathroom, and I notice him aiming at the top edge of the toilet as a game. Of course, he is missing half the time and, well, you know. Yuk!

After a long lecture, actually a short yell session, I made it clear that if he wanted to play the aiming game while peeing, he would have to clean it up. He didn't seem to like that so much. The bathrooms have never smelled so nice. Well, as nice as a bathroom in a family with four boys can smell.

Oh To Be Young Again...

I had the pleasure of walking my three boys to school this morning, as I do every morning that I don't have a meeting at work. The 9 year old heads quickly off to his classroom and friends. The 7 year old gives me a hug and runs off. I walk hand-in-hand with the 5 year old to his kindergarten class. I help him hang up his backpack and make sure that he is okay. He gives me a big kiss and a big hug and I'm off.

This particular morning, I bumped into a neighbor and hung out in the school-yard for a few extra minutes after the school bell rang. Out of the corner of my eye, I notice my 5 year old with a classmate holding the daily attendance list, and heading for the office. Everyday, two kids from each class gets chosen to bring the attendance list down to the office. My 5 year old had this big smile on his face. You would have thought it was Christmas morning from the beaming eminating from his face. I just stood there admiring the simple joys of a child and longed for days gone by when such a little thing as delivering an attendance list to the office brought so much joy.

Oh to be young again...

You're Not a little boy anymore!

The other day, I was rushing through the usual morning routine. Get up at 6:30am and get myself ready. At 7:00am wake up the 3 boys that are school age and get them breakfast. Since my third son has just started Kindergarten, after two weeks he is still having difficulty with the early wake up call. Pre-school started at 9am, so he is having to get up a whole hour earlier.

This morning was no different. The older brothers were already up, dressed and eating breakfast, when I had to wake up and carry my third son to the breakfast table. After nudging him repeatedly to finish his breakfast, we finally were ready to head out the door. He began to whine about his socks not feeling right and then his shoes were too tight. Of course, it was getting later and later for school.

I finally got flustered and scolded my 5 year old with, "Hey, you're in Kindergarten now, you're not a little boy anymore, so let's get going." As soon as those words left my mouth, I realized that my comment was ridiculous. Anyway, dads say stupid things, just like little boys. Oh well.

3 Days of Sleeping-In!

This was the first week of school and, of course, the end of Summer. Three of the boys this year will be attending the same elementary school. My wife and I are quite pleased with this arrangement, since it means fewer locations and times to have to drop off at preschool and elementary school. We still have the myriad of play-dates, baseball practices, swimming lessons, piano lessons, and so on.

For our third son, this was the fulfillment of his wish of finally being able to walk to school with his two older brothers. As with many younger siblings, he has been ready for elementary school for many years, having attended all of the school's special events as a family. The part that he wasn't looking forward to was the 8am starting time (preschool started at 9am). He was always snoozing when his brothers were getting up and ready for school in years past. True to predictions, it was very difficult to get him up and fed in time for school. You'll notice that I did not say, get him up and dressed. The main reason is that with 4 boys, we learned from experience that it is just as easy to have them sleep in there shorts and T-shirts after evening showers than to have to fiddle with pajamas in the morning. We can get all of the "I want to where these shorts with this shirt" stuff over the night before.

After a long week of school and getting up early and struggling to get our third son ready, I was very proud of him that he had made it through his first week. I came home from work to pick up something and happen to see my wife driving in with our third son after school. He got out of the car and raised both arms in jubilation and exclaimed "three days of sleeping in!" (This happened to be Labor Day weekend; to explain why this was a three day weekend.)