Dad, you need to help me!

Stake conference was three weeks ago here in Vancouver. After it was over, while we were waiting for Mom to catch up with friends Julian decided to he needed to go to the bathroom. So he and I went in together and Julian went into the stall.

While he was attending to his business transaction he kept peeking under the stall to see where my feet were. About that time the missionaries walked into the bathroom to hear me say "don't worry where my feet are, just worry about going potty" across the bathroom at Julian. They got a chuckle out of this. This is were it got good.

Here's the deal. Julian hates to wipe himself when he's finished and he always tries to talk Olivia and I into doing it for him. He does that with other things too. He asks for "help" and then expects us to do it for him. He's been taking care of his own business since he started kindergarten. Also, whenever we go to the bathroom in a public place for some reason Julian takes literally 20 minutes to go potty and 5 more to wash his hands. IT DRIVES ME CRAZY!!!! He never takes that long at home. Aahhhhhhh!!!

Anyway, Julian starts asking me to come in and help him. I calmly tell him that he needs to do it himself. Julian gets a little louder and asks again. "I'm not going to help you Julian, you can do it."

Julian: But why won't you help me?

Me: Julian you've been doing this since kindergarten, you are a big boy and can wipe yourself.

Julian: I don't want to do kindergarten stuff anymore, I want you to do it.

Me: Are you going to do my daddy stuff for me and go to chiropractor school?

Julian: Yes.

The missionaries starting laughing at this point and stood listening for a few more seconds before walking out.

We continued talking back and forth and then President Christiansen from the stake presidency and Ron Ricks walked in as I was saying "you don't wipe my bottom and I'm not going to wipe yours." President Christiansen looked at me and said "that sounds about right."

After they left Julian and I continued to debate over whose responsibility it was to wipe his bottom as President Barrus and president Harbertson came in and smiled at me as they left.

Finally Julian emerged from his potty tomb and washed his hands so we could leave. When we got back into the cultural hall where we were sitting almost everyone had left already. The good news is we got out of the parking lot really quickly.

Not everyone gets to argue about wiping bottoms in front of the missionaries and the stake presidency but I'm glad to say I can scratch it off my to do list.

Ramming speed!!!!!!!

We had the missionaries over for dinner on Saturday. Livvy and I were finishing up with our delicious Indian cuisine dinner when the missionaries arrived. The boys, naturally, decided they would show off by running around and making noise.

Tristan decided to take it up a notch and ran head on right into Julian's ear. Both were left on the floor crying. Julian said he couldn't breath he was crying so hard. I picked Tristan up and asked if he though bonking heads was a good idea or not. He said he thought bonking heads was not a good idea. ;)

Bonk!!!

One little Tristan jumping on the bed. He fell off and bumped his head. Julian called the Daddy and the Daddy said, no more Tristan jumping on the bed!

Tristan likes to jump from his bed to Julian's and back again when he should be sleeping. I guess he was tired of regular jumping and jumped so hard from Julian's bed that he bounced off his own bed and kept going off the other side onto the floor.

I try to embrace the "parenting with love and logic" skills which say the consequence should teach the lesson and not me which lets me be the good guy. :) "I'm sorry you got hurt Tristan, when I fall off the bed I get hurt too. That's too bad."