For over three years now, I’ve been razzed and quizzed about Disney Princesses. To my credit, I now know most of them, though occasionally I mix up a couple names. I won’t lie, I’m pretty proud of the fact that I do know most of them and that I can have a “princess” conversation with Ella. Today, however, a new wrench was thrown into the works – in the form of My Little Pony.
Sam and I are not sure where she came to know about My Little Pony. It may have been something that she watched at Nana’s house. The conversation stemmed from a juice that Sam bought her at the store today. It was one of those bottles with the character heads on the top of it. She asked Sam what the character was, and Sam told her she wasn’t sure.
As the conversation continued, it became very clear that she knew many of the characters by name. Sam grabbed her phone and looked up My Little Pony Characters and started saying the names. The more names Sam threw out, the more I chuckled. There was Pinkie Pie, Cozy Glow, Sweetie Belle, and Apple Jack, just to name a few. When my wife said, “Scootaloo,” I laughed out loud at how ridiculous these names were. By the way, we soon found out the character on her bottle was Rainbow Dash.
So Ella is a fan of this My Little Pony. The new challenge for me will be knowing them all. How many are there? I had no idea. It can’t be that many, right? WRONG! I looked it up! According to a site called “The My Little Pony Trading Post,” it depends on if you want to count all the various series, versions, and re-issues. From what I gathered, there are somewhere between 300-1500 different My Little Ponies.
God help me try to remember the names of those things!!!
Every now and then, I have to blog a story just so I won’t forget it. This is one of those times.
We have one of those inflatable pools for the kids. You know the ones I’m talking about? They kind of look like this:
Ours is a bit bigger than the one above. We only fill it half way, but the kids just love it.
Over the weekend, I was out weed whacking the yard before mowing. It was already pretty hot outside. The kids were outside, too and decided to just jump in. Sam was outside with them and just let them play in there with their clothes on. The issue was that Ella was still in a Pull up and Andrew was in a diaper. Well, you know what those diapers do when they get wet!
At some point both the Pull Up and the diaper had absorbed about all the water they could. Sam had the kids take off their clothes and they wound back in the pool naked. As I passed the pool on my way back out to the backyard I said, “Don’t poop in the pool,” and continued the yard work.
It wasn’t long and Sam called to me. “Come here! Andrew wants to show you something.” As I came around the garage, I saw Andrew standing on the driveway. It took me a minute to realize that my son is smarter than I thought. He didn’t poop in the pool. Instead, he chose to poop on the driveway.
Many readers know I work in Sleep Medicine. Every year there is a sleep conference in Detroit that we try to go to to earn our Continuing Education Units to keep our registry. That conference was last week.
Sam and I drove down to Detroit early Thursday afternoon. (The kids got a sleepover at Nana’s house.) The conference took place at one of the casinos. When we checked in, they asked if we wanted an upper or lower floor (we chose upper) and whether we wanted a city or river view (we chose river). It was a nice view!
After speakers were done on the first night, Sam and I went to a small mixer where guests could have a drink together. We hung out with a couple of my coworkers and folks who graduated from the same sleep program. They had raffles while we were there and Sam won a Tim Hortons gift card. My coworker won a $100 Amazon card.
We went up to our room and we were exhausted, but hungry. We decided to order room service ($$$$$). She ordered nachos and I got a burger. When it arrived, it was apparent that we should have just shared the nachos because it was HUGE!!
After the conference on Friday, we had hoped to go out to a nice dinner. Because room service was SO expensive, we decided to get something on the way home. After getting the kids from Nana’s, we ordered pizza and brought it home.
Just a side note: As parents, you can’t wait to get a night or two alone and away from the kids. Of course, when you do, you can’t stop thinking about them and are overjoyed when you see them again!
Clubs
My son, Dimitri, turned 16 on Sunday. I told him I wanted to take him out golfing. It’s something he and I have never done together and I knew it would be a good time for us to connect and chat. We decided to go Saturday morning, and the weather was perfect.
I haven’t been on a course in at least 3-4 years. I knew I was gonna really golf badly. He hasn’t been out in at least a year, since leaving the golf club at school. Thank goodness it was a slow day in the course.
I hate when you’ve always got someone waiting for you to tee off or shoot. I realize it’s part of the game, but I always feel rushed and often just want to hit so we can go. Dimitri and I were far from professionals out there, so it did take us a bit longer than usual. We finally let the twosome behind us play through.
He is like me in that he has his favorite clubs. He rarely uses his driver, but he can crush a ball with his 5 wood. I have a 7 wood that I used to hit well, but topped it every time Saturday. I had a few good drives, just enough to keep me coming back.
We bent the rules a little bit, and had plenty of mulligans (redos), and impost probably a dozen balls in the woods and water. Despite all of that, it was a great time together. He, naturally, beat me by two strokes. I can’t wait to do it again.
Croup
Sam called me while I was out golfing and said that both kids sounded sick. Both had low grade fevers and a cough. By the time I got home, Ella was sounding better after taking some allergy meds. Andrew’s fever was gone but still had a cough and that raspy voice.
Sam wondered if we should take him to urgent care or ER. Everyone we talked to said wait to see how he was in the morning.
That night at bedtime he cried a lot. He wound up in our bed. He woke us up with a nasty cough and wheezing about 3am. He fell right back to sleep, but it was enough to freak us out a bit.
At 6am he woke up sounding worse, so we rushed him to ER. Nana met us there and brought Ella back to her house. We planned to be there a while and Sam packed loads of snacks just in case.
They got us right back and he was seen almost immediately. We weren’t sure what to expect because we were there right at shift change. However, once we were in our room, the nurse came in, followed by the doc. Once the examination was done, she told us it was croup and she gave him a steroid and told us he should be back to normal in a couple days.
How fast were they? Well, we had finished with the nurse and the doctor AND the meds were administered all before the registration gal came to our room! We actually had to wait to get registered before we could leave! Total ER time – about 70 minutes.
Ella decided she wanted to have a sleepover again at Nana’s, so when Sam left for work last night it was just me and Andrew. He really improved throughout the day. Before bed, we stood on the porch and watched the thunderstorm together.
Andrew is still sleeping and Ella should be home later today. The house should return to it’s normal chaotic state shortly after her arrival.
Yesterday was the first day of summer and my family is certainly ready for it! We got an early start a few weeks ago with our day trip to the beach in Caseville, MI. At home, we’ve got the big sprinkler that looks like a fire hydrant and a blow up pool in the yard for the kids.
This week, my wife bought the kids a rollercoaster for the back yard. Ok, it is hardly a roller coaster, but the kids do love it. There is a unicorn that they sit on and it slides down a track. They love it!
It’s the perfect size for Andrew and by the look on her face in the next photo, Ella loves it too!
Once they get to the end, they take the unicorn back up and do it again. It’s fun to watch them!
Pass the sunscreen – these two are ready for a lot of summer sunshine!
Now, as far as the new kitty is concerned …. it looks like he’s packed his bags and is read to go somewhere ….
Well, the kitten woke me up about 3:30 this morning. He’s an early bird apparently. So I decided to take advantage of the kids still sleeping and I made a pot of coffee. I figured I’d read a bit.
I then remembered that today is Father’s Day. So I wanted to take a moment to wish all the dads reading this “Happy Father’s Day! Cheers to you!
I am blessed to still have my dad around. We are closer now than ever. There are a few blogs I have written about him and I will post links here for new readers:
Truth is, I could write a book about my dad (and one day I might!). I can always count on good conversations, memories and laughter when we chat. He sent me something recently that I am debating turning into a blog. He is an amazing father and I’m so lucky he is mine! Happy Father’s Day, Pop!
I also want to say Happy Father’s Day to my Father-in-law, Tony. I can’t begin to tell you how lucky I am that he is in my life. You have seen so many of the projects that I’ve completed here (the nook, grout and tile in the laundry room, building an entire new room for Ella, and countless others). I would have had to hire someone for all of those things without him. He’s another amazing dad.
I became a father 21 years ago. 5 years another son was born. 3 years ago, another blessing came with my first, and only, daughter. Finally, my third and final son arrived 20 months ago. Dante’, Dimitri, Ella and Andrew – four amazing kids – each with distinct and wonderful personalities. What an honor and privilege to be their father!
Parenting is the hardest job you will ever have. Throughout all the difficulties in life, this job is 24/7 and it is the most important! Rereading the following blog brought all of that home for me again:
Dante’ works today, so we’re planning on getting together tomorrow. We’re going to meet at a park and have a pizza picnic. The last time all four of my kids were together was around Christmas. I hope that I am able to get them all to sit still for a picture.
I’m starting to ramble, so I apologize. Even though today is supposed to be all about “me” (as “dad”), I am pausing to remember all of the great men, fathers and father-like figures who played a role in preparing me for that role as “Father.” More importantly, I am thinking about the four special children who officially gave me that role!
On the old Soupy Sales show, one of the easiest way to set up a joke was to have someone come banging on his door. One of my favorite lines (that no one else finds funny) goes like this:
(Door Knocking)
(Soupy opens the door) “Yes?”
(Man at door) “Well, I guess you don’t like cats!”
(Soupy) “I don’t like cats? That’d ridiculous! Dizzy Gillespie is a good friend of mine!”
I wasn’t always a cat person. My brother and I always had dogs growing up. When I moved to Ludington in 1991, I was living alone and someone suggested I get a kitten to keep me company. From that moment on, it seems I have always had a cat around the house.
When I was living in Flint, there were stray cats galore in our neighborhood. Each neighbor had a different name for the same cat. Ralphie for us, was Boots for our next door neighbor, or Stanley for our neighbor across the street.
Larry was my cat from Ludington. My dad disliked cats, so when I moved home, he went to stay with my brother. Over the years there was Callie, Frankie, Tigger, Moe, and Lorenzo (who still lives with my older sons.)
Maizey has lived with us for about 3 or 4 years. Originally, she was supposed to be my wife’s cat, but I think she stays by me more. When I go to bed, she jumps up and wants me to pet her. She will often jump up on my lap on mornings I get up before the kids. I will have a cup of coffee next to me, a book or my phone, and Maizey purring away.
So why all this talk about felines? Recently, Sam said she felt like Maizey needed a friend. She felt like she was lonely. She said that she doesn’t really come out as much as she used to. I reminded her that it was probably because Ella and Andrew tend to chase her around or try to grab her tail!
So for a little over a month now, Sam will occasionally show me pictures of kittens that Facebook friends are selling or giving away. I did not think that she was serious about getting Maizey a friend, but I was obviously wrong. Today, we welcomed a new kitty to the house.
Say hello to Mowgli! Sam wanted to name him Bear, because she says he reminded her of a bear. When Sam asked Ella what we should name him – Mowgli came out of nowhere. I can’t tell you the last time she watched Jungle Book, listened to the story or read the book, so I don’t know what made her think of it. She seems pretty sure that Mowgli was the name – so it is. I suggested to Sam that maybe Bear could be his middle name!
Tuesday was my wife’s birthday. She wanted to take the kids to the Detroit Zoo. It was the perfect day! The temperatures were in the mid-70’s and the sun was shining. We got to see all the animals that we hoped to see and the kids (and us) had a blast!
You may remember that Sam’s favorite animals are penguins. When we were married in Florida, we paid extra to actually see, and hold a penguin. She was especially excited to go to the zoo because the new penguin exhibit was now open. It didn’t disappoint.
They were really active Tuesday. There is a part of the exhibit where you can actually watch them swim around you. It was a very cool thing. The kids loved it.
Sam wanted to get something “penguin” for herself for her birthday. She was thinking of a stuffed penguin or maybe a t-shirt. We planned on stopping back there on the way out (the penguin exhibit has its own gift shop).
I got to see my favorite animal as well – the otters. They were also active and swimming around where we could see them. I could be wrong but before we even went inside, Andrew showed me that he liked otters, too!
We got to see the zebras, giraffes, rhinos, and monkeys. As a matter of fact, the line of the day came from Ella when she saw this one:
She said, and I quote, “That monkey’s butt is really red, mommy! He needs some diaper cream on that!”
The reptile house is always neat because the alligators are in there with a lot of other animals, but it is always hot as blazes! The kids really loved that this huge turtle was swimming in front of them!
After being there for some time, Ella said she was ready to go home. We started our way back to the penguin exhibit to get Sam her birthday prize. Now let me tell you something about my wife. It is never about her. She is the most unselfish person I have ever met. As we were walking back to the exhibit, Ella said she wanted to have her face painted. Without thinking twice, she said she didn’t need to get anything and got Ella her face painted.
She wanted to be a butterfly and the look on her face when she finally saw the finished product was one of the best moments of the day.
My dad lives close by, so we stopped to say hello. Sam’s car was in the shop getting new tires put on, so we couldn’t stay long. The kids were happy to see my dad and he was equally happy to see them (even though we woke him up from a nap). Naturally, they had to go and bang on the keyboard in his music room.
We got the the tire place just in time and picked up her car. Once we were home, we finally got to grab dinner and sing happy birthday to Sam. She loves red velvet cake, so Ella, Andrew and I baked one for her! It came out better than I could have imagined. Bonus – no egg shells fell in the batter!
By the end of the day, Sam was exhausted. You see, she worked the night before and we literally left for the zoo after she got home. Even though it was her birthday, it was more of a day for the kids and it was an amazing time for all of us!
As I have mentioned in the past, my daughter loves princesses. When she was born I had to do a crash course in princesses to make sure I knew them all for her! She, of course, is my favorite princess!
She has beautiful hair. It is long and naturally curly. She has these amazing ringlets at the ends. However, with long hair comes issues. She is not too keen on the hair washing and hair brushing process. Because she doesn’t always let us brush her hair, she tends to get snarls and tangles. In recent months, Sam and I have fought her quite a bit about her hair. So we decided it was time to trim it up.
She always talks about her hair being “Rapunzel” hair. She’s pretty much right on about that. It was really long!
We told her that we were going to get it trimmed and asked what princess hair she’d like. Snow White was suggested and she said she’d like that. Prior to the appointment, Sam messaged our hair gal, Shari, and let her know exactly what we were going to do. This way, there was no discussion before the haircut started.
Both Sam and I worried that those beautiful ringlets would be gone forever with the cut. We had to remind ourselves about the fighting at bath time and the snarls/tangles, etc… (Spoiler) We were both happy to see that after we got home, the curls and ringlets were still there.
As Shari pulled bits and pieces of her hair up and clipped them out of the way, I stood and watched as she took the scissors and made that first cut. I’m not sure why this bothered me so much, but it did. I swear it looked like she had taken 10-12 inches off the back!
In the end, she still is as beautiful as ever. Her hair is easier to wash and brush. She is no longer Rapunzel, and is now Snow White.
She did say that she misses her Rapunzel hair …
If I am being honest, I think my Princess Ella is much prettier than Rapunzel, Snow White, or any of those Disney Princesses anyway!
I haven’t posted in the last 5 days. It is not often that I get time with my entire family, so my focus has been on them.
The weather has been just perfect. Even though we are officially still in Spring, it felt like Summer! We’ve got a water table that the kids love to play at, but we took advantage of the warm weather and set up their new sprinkler.
We picked this huge fire hydrant up at Sam’s Club and the kids love it. Water shoots from the side “plugs” and there is water that spins out of the top. Even my wife knows that you are never too old to run through the sprinkler.
Memorial Day was very laid back and I worked on some projects (more on those in another blog), but Tuesday was just the best day! Sam planned a day at the beach with the family. She also knows how much I have talked about my childhood summer vacation destination ….
As a boy, we spent many summer days in Caseville. I have written about it in the past. Prior to having kids, Sam surprised me with a day trip there. I was like a little kid! I remembered so many places. I have since told her that I would love to take the kids there. So we combined their first trip to a beach with their first trip to Caseville.
Choosing to go on the Tuesday after a holiday weekend had perks! We pretty much had the entire beach to ourselves! It was perfect! We lathered the kids up with sunscreen and before we could get some on ourselves, the kids were running toward the water!
Andrew loved every second of being there. At first he spent his time chasing seagulls, but eventually made it over to the water.
Neither kid has ever been to the beach, so they had no idea just how hard it is to run in the water. Both of them fell almost immediately and freaked out a bit. The main beach at Caseville is perfect for them because it doesn’t get too deep for a while. You can walk out pretty far and still be above water.
Ella was a bit scared after she fell in the water, but I walked her out a bit and held her hand all the way back because she was scared.
The water was cold at first, but that was always the way it was growing up. You know how it is, you go under water and then you are fine. There was a bit of wind that day, which made it a little chilly, but it was still fun to be there with the family. We even tried to build sand castles, but Andrew thought it was more fun to step on them once they were built.
Sam prepared a fantastic picnic lunch for us. She made sandwiches, packed some fruit, and plenty of water, iced tea, and juice boxes. She found this cool beach blanket that was perfect for us.
Of course, once the food came out, the seagulls were very interested in our picnic! Andrew wanted to throw them food, but we stopped him, thankfully. You know once they get a nibble of food, they want it all!
There was a point where the kids were cold and shivering, so we brought them up to the playscape and let them run around a bit. We were both surprised when Ella said that she was done with the beach. She said she would like to come back, but was ready to go home.
One thing we didn’t do was go by the old place that my grandparents had just out of town. We figured the kids were pooped, so we’d just head home. We did, however, stop by the new Caseville sign and get a family selfie.
The sign is a new sign. From what I read, they did a big upgrade to a lot of the signs in town to make them more “uniform.” What’s cool is that on the left of the sign the word “Caseville” is spelled out in the International Nautical Alphabet. You can see it a bit better in this picture of the kids.
After our long drive home, we decided that we didn’t want to cook. So we took the kids to the local pizza place and had a nice family dinner.
It was a fantastic day! Sam and I, however, realized soon enough that we had forgotten to put sunscreen on. Sam’s back and shoulders were just fried and my head was also pretty toasty. So we’ll be keeping the Aloe close by for the next couple days!
This afternoon when I got up for work, I sat by the window in our living room with my cup of coffee. On the baseball field behind our house, two teams were playing one of the final games of the season. Ella was sitting on my lap, and Sam was on the floor with Andrew.
Suddenly, I saw a bird that I had never seen before land on one of our outdoor chairs. I stared at it for a minute because I though it was the weirdest looking robin I had ever seen. Only it wasn’t a robin. It had a red chest like a robin, but it was blue!
I called Sam over so she could see it too, but it flew away before she got a look at it. All the way to work, I felt like I must have seen it wrong. Was it really blue? Yes. I was sure it had to be. Thank you Google – I wasn’t seeing things.
Come to find out, I saw my first ever Male Eastern Blue Bird. Google says that they “are vivid, deep blue above and rusty or brick-red on the throat and breast.” When I saw a picture, it confirmed that it was the bird I saw.
Sam and I have talked about getting a bird feeder to put near the back of the house. I think the kids would love watching them. All those birds will certainly drive our cat crazy, too. Oh, and we’d have to make sure it was squirrel proof. We have plenty of those chubby critters hanging around. (I wonder if I have told my squirrel story on here before… I may have to check the archives!)
When I think about birds, two things come immediately to mind: (1) Wallace Wimple from the old Fibber McGee and Molly radio show. (He sounded like the cartoon character Droopy and often spoke of his Bird Book) and (2) Monty Python’s Book Shop sketch. The first photo above and the next one are totally taken from the sketch.
If you have never heard it before, you have to listen to it. It is one of those very well written and very funny comedy sketches. John Cleese is brilliant in it and it was one of his favorite sketches.
Various Ramblings of a Nostalgic Italian 