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.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Monday, January 14, 2008
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. ;)
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."
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."
Saturday, December 15, 2007
I am done with school for three weeks!!!!
I am pretty excited but you should see Livvy. She is super excited to have me home. We've already started making our plans for the "big projects" and goals to accomplish in the next three weeks. True to a married couple our goals were slightly different in there approach. I was thinking of all the things I actually do with some of the legendary "free time" I have been hearing about. This involved exercise, reading non-school books, hanging out, etc. Livvy, on the other hand, was thinking about all the things she could accomplish with me now home, including reorganizing the entire house and Tristan proofing--he is getting into more and more stuff with his independent tendencies. Despite our different approaches our goals were actually quite similar as for both of us our goals required each other. We'll be married eight years this march and we're getting the teamwork thing down fairly well.
I finished off the school quarter thankful to be done and thankful to be passing. I have not been earning what I would call bad grades but that has not been my goal. My main goal with school beside the obvious become a doctor is to be with my family as much as I can. It would be very easy for me to spend all my time studying and being at school but I would miss out on the childhood of my children and my relationship with Olivia would suffer. So I spend time at home and get okay grades.
I am pretty excited but you should see Livvy. She is super excited to have me home. We've already started making our plans for the "big projects" and goals to accomplish in the next three weeks. True to a married couple our goals were slightly different in there approach. I was thinking of all the things I actually do with some of the legendary "free time" I have been hearing about. This involved exercise, reading non-school books, hanging out, etc. Livvy, on the other hand, was thinking about all the things she could accomplish with me now home, including reorganizing the entire house and Tristan proofing--he is getting into more and more stuff with his independent tendencies. Despite our different approaches our goals were actually quite similar as for both of us our goals required each other. We'll be married eight years this march and we're getting the teamwork thing down fairly well.
I finished off the school quarter thankful to be done and thankful to be passing. I have not been earning what I would call bad grades but that has not been my goal. My main goal with school beside the obvious become a doctor is to be with my family as much as I can. It would be very easy for me to spend all my time studying and being at school but I would miss out on the childhood of my children and my relationship with Olivia would suffer. So I spend time at home and get okay grades.
Tristan woke up before Livvy and I this morning--I had left the door unlocked because I went in there to chase away bad dreams Julian had of not being able to find his car seat--and decided to be independent again. There should be high suspense music playing right now and for those who read Olivia's blog, see the link, you will know why.
Tristan had pooped in his diaper and decided to take care of it. So he did what any three year old would do I guess. He took off his poopy diaper in the playroom, left it there, and went into the bathroom. As anyone knows when you poop you need toilet paper; lots of it.
After personal hygiene came cleaning up after your poopy diaper still in the playroom. The best thing for that is soap of course!
Having thus cleaned up his mess he could now inform Dad that he needed a new diaper. Groggy eyed I followed Tristan into his room where he got me a diaper to put on him and told me that he pooped in the potty and wanted a sucker. "I used toilet paper too!"
"Let's go see" I said. With that we went into the bathroom. The toilet was full of water with a huge wad, probably the whole roll, of toilet paper clogging it. For some reason there was one Q-tip in there too.
Tristan had taken off when I walked into the bathroom so after I fixed the toilet issue I followed after him to let him know the proper amount of toilet paper required to actually flush the toilet. I walked into the play room and stepped on something slimy.
Being the scientist that I am I looked down at what I stepped on and then I smelled it.
It turned out to be soap, thankfully. There was soap on the rocking chair, some of the couch, on the floor, and on a storage bin lid. I am thankful for that last one because it was easier to clean up. In looking for where the soap was I found the diaper... It wasn't so bad except for a glob of matter on the floor. Though I am still watching my step while in there. The carpet is multicolor and it's a little hard for me to pick up isolated brown spots in there because I am partly color blind.
At least this time Tristan was trying to be productive. He used up an entire roll of toilet paper and half the bottle of soap but he had good intentions. Our goal this winter break is to potty train him at all costs. I'll let you know how it goes.
Tristan had pooped in his diaper and decided to take care of it. So he did what any three year old would do I guess. He took off his poopy diaper in the playroom, left it there, and went into the bathroom. As anyone knows when you poop you need toilet paper; lots of it.
After personal hygiene came cleaning up after your poopy diaper still in the playroom. The best thing for that is soap of course!
Having thus cleaned up his mess he could now inform Dad that he needed a new diaper. Groggy eyed I followed Tristan into his room where he got me a diaper to put on him and told me that he pooped in the potty and wanted a sucker. "I used toilet paper too!"
"Let's go see" I said. With that we went into the bathroom. The toilet was full of water with a huge wad, probably the whole roll, of toilet paper clogging it. For some reason there was one Q-tip in there too.
Tristan had taken off when I walked into the bathroom so after I fixed the toilet issue I followed after him to let him know the proper amount of toilet paper required to actually flush the toilet. I walked into the play room and stepped on something slimy.
Being the scientist that I am I looked down at what I stepped on and then I smelled it.
It turned out to be soap, thankfully. There was soap on the rocking chair, some of the couch, on the floor, and on a storage bin lid. I am thankful for that last one because it was easier to clean up. In looking for where the soap was I found the diaper... It wasn't so bad except for a glob of matter on the floor. Though I am still watching my step while in there. The carpet is multicolor and it's a little hard for me to pick up isolated brown spots in there because I am partly color blind.
At least this time Tristan was trying to be productive. He used up an entire roll of toilet paper and half the bottle of soap but he had good intentions. Our goal this winter break is to potty train him at all costs. I'll let you know how it goes.
Friday, December 07, 2007
Surprise!!!!
Who would have thought that I would blog two times within the same month, let alone in the same year? Not I that is for sure!
I was sitting downstairs with Olivia bemoaning our somewhat frightening student loan budget and debt when I heard Julian crying up in his room. I had just put him in there five minutes before, so being perplexed I went upstairs. Julian was crying on his bed. I laid down next to him and asked what was wrong to which he said "I can't stop thinking about taking Howie's skin off. It seems like a good idea but it's really scary!"
For those of your who may not know Julian has quite the morbid imagination. He used to tell us stories of dreams that would scare anyone, and he just comes up with them. We don't let the boys watch scary shows, nor do we take them to scary places but still Julian just comes up with this stuff.
I was able to calm him down and we had a nice conversation. We talked about how we will be moving after I am finished with school and what kind of places he would like to live. Julian replied that he would like to live where it snows all the time and the snow is this deep (holding up his hands to be about a foot apart). Then he started talking about how it would be cool to live in Hawaii to see the volcanoes erupting. I have no intention of living in Hawaii but told Julina that when we can afford a nice, big vacation that I would take him to Hawaii, to a volcano, so he can see the volcano erupting. Julian became all wide eyed and asked "will it get me?"
"No" I said, "we'll see it from far away... in a boat."
"Oh! The hot lava would get all steamy in the water and sink!" With that he smiled.
Being a dad brings some very pleasurable and memorable moments to my life. Talking with my son on his bed about skinning cats, eternal snow, and volcanoes when he should be asleep is one of them.
Who would have thought that I would blog two times within the same month, let alone in the same year? Not I that is for sure!
I was sitting downstairs with Olivia bemoaning our somewhat frightening student loan budget and debt when I heard Julian crying up in his room. I had just put him in there five minutes before, so being perplexed I went upstairs. Julian was crying on his bed. I laid down next to him and asked what was wrong to which he said "I can't stop thinking about taking Howie's skin off. It seems like a good idea but it's really scary!"
For those of your who may not know Julian has quite the morbid imagination. He used to tell us stories of dreams that would scare anyone, and he just comes up with them. We don't let the boys watch scary shows, nor do we take them to scary places but still Julian just comes up with this stuff.
I was able to calm him down and we had a nice conversation. We talked about how we will be moving after I am finished with school and what kind of places he would like to live. Julian replied that he would like to live where it snows all the time and the snow is this deep (holding up his hands to be about a foot apart). Then he started talking about how it would be cool to live in Hawaii to see the volcanoes erupting. I have no intention of living in Hawaii but told Julina that when we can afford a nice, big vacation that I would take him to Hawaii, to a volcano, so he can see the volcano erupting. Julian became all wide eyed and asked "will it get me?"
"No" I said, "we'll see it from far away... in a boat."
"Oh! The hot lava would get all steamy in the water and sink!" With that he smiled.
Being a dad brings some very pleasurable and memorable moments to my life. Talking with my son on his bed about skinning cats, eternal snow, and volcanoes when he should be asleep is one of them.
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
Hello out there in the great void!!! I think that I am unintentionally trying to see what the least number of times I will post is before I die. I guess by posting this I am hopefully not trying to find out. I am currently sick thanks to one of my classmates at school. Chiropractic school is fun but I get close to quite a few faces and if that face is sick... Oh well.
Olivia and I are waiting to find out how Emily is doing after having her baby. We're praying for you Emily! Hopefully everything will be fine soon.
Unfortunately my brain is fried and I would like to go to bed. I'm looking forward to see how long it will take me to post again. I am also looking forward to seeing how many people realize that I have posted.
Olivia and I are waiting to find out how Emily is doing after having her baby. We're praying for you Emily! Hopefully everything will be fine soon.
Unfortunately my brain is fried and I would like to go to bed. I'm looking forward to see how long it will take me to post again. I am also looking forward to seeing how many people realize that I have posted.
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