Figure Drawing

Little Brother likes to scribble on paper, usually when Big Brother is working on his 1,987,654th revision of Batman.

But most of the time, it's been just that - scribbles.

Recently, he started drawing Tornadoes, which basically consisted of making spirals on the paper.

Then, out of the blue last week, he drew his first figure! Completely with hair, eyes, nose, mouth, and legs. Drawn, of course, in his favorite color, green!


Doesn't it put you in the mind of a McDonald's Fry Guy?

Or maybe I'm just hungry.

Way to go Little Brother! Can't wait to see more of these!

Have a good week,
Busy-Dad-E

Pancake Poochie

Bab-E Brother is obsessed with dogs right now.

Just about every other word out of his mouth these days is either "doggie", "puppy", or "ruff ruff".

Even the word "waffle" almost comes out "ruff ruff".

And every animal - from dogs to cats to elephants to zebras to brothers - are all doggies.

And so is the box of Aunt Jemima mix.


Say WHAT?

Every time he sees that box in the pantry, he points at it and blurts out, "Doggie! Doggie!"

Yeah, it puzzled us, too, for awhile.

My best guess is that our vulture Pupp-E, who literally stalks Bab-E Brother for scraps (or snatches food directly from his hands, them being at the same level), has gotten waffle pieces (or whole waffles) from Bab-E Brother enough times that Bab-E Brother associates the two.

Thanks a lot, you little pancake poochie theif.

At least Bab-E Brother is happy and excited about the idea.

Happy Fatherhood Friday,
Busy-Dad-E

Mismatch Day

(Also known sometimes as "When Big Brother Chooses His Own Outfit" Day - although today really is Mismatch Day at school).

Happy Wordless Wednesday!
Busy-Dad-E

Mathnastics

As a first-grader, you'd expect that Big Brother's weekends would be all about fun and all about being a kid - toys, games, playing outstide, cartoons (although he's currently lost TV privileges for a few weeks, but that's for another post) - but lately he's willingly turned to learning for fun.

Big Brother really likes math.

So much so, that a while back, I showed him how to "carry the 1" when adding numbers.

He loved it! You'd think I'd just bought him a Nintendo DS.

So much so, that one of his favorite new pastimes is to keep adding numbers to get bigger and bigger numbers.

He starts with 2+2=4, then 4+4=8, 8+8=16, and so on, until he gets to about 4 quadrillion.

He'll sit at the table for literally an HOUR doing this.

Our kitchen table is now often covered in papers like this:


Gramm-E and Grampap-E got to see this firsthand the other weekend, and Gramm-E appropriately called it his "Mathnastics".

Well said.

Way to go Big Brother. Mom-E and I are proud and delighted at your love for learning (and math), and we're happy to help you fill your "blender" with the biggest "math smoothie" possible.

You are definitely our child. We love you.

Have a good week,
Busy-Dad-E

I Am Responsible

Happy Fatherhood Friday!

Big Brother brought home the following essay from school the other day, which Mom-E and I both enjoyed very much.


Several thoughts ran through my head while reading this:
1) Unbeknownst to us, is he attending a bilingual school that teaches English and German in the 1st grade (Vee have vays to make you responsible, zat is true).
2) He has secretly been listening to the Georgia Satellites (Keep Your Hands to Yourself).
3) He was secretly entering an essay contest where the rules were "Fewest vowels used wins."

Fortunately, I've seen that pretty much everyone in his class writes very phonetically.

Have a good weekend,
Be responsbile!
Busy-Dad-E

I Have Writer's Block

Stuffed Animal Love Triangle

Bab-E Brother has created the makings for his very own Jerry Springer episode.

You may remember the stuffed animal love of his life, B, who must never leave his side.

Well, the other weekend, Bab-E Brother cheated on B with Little Brother's Pumpkin Bear (a Build-A-Bear Bear whose only clothes are a Santa suit and a pumpkin suit.

We were driving home from a mini-vacation trip and Little Brother was passed out in the middle of the mini-van. Bab-E Brother was screaming his head off, until he snuggled up with the overstuffed bear who is almost his size.

Suddenly, B found himself relegated to the floor of the mini-van, against the droppings of dirt, tissues, and granola bars.

(Pumpkin Bear found himself stage diving into the same mess, as he's so bulky that Bab-E Brother couldn't hold onto him.)

But apparently, Pumpkin Bear was pretty much a "one mini-van ride stand", because after we got home Bab-E Brother started giving him the cold shoulder, not returning his phone calls, etc.

Instead, Bab-E Brother set his sights on Big Brother's inappropriately named triceratops, Mr. Donkey, who Bab-E Brother sometimes calls "Donkey" and sometimes "Doggy".

Of course, having both a nap time and a bed time allows him to snuggle with each of his sweathearts without the other knowing.

And it also helps that neither animal can talk, lest they find out about each other.

Because if they ever did, the stuffing might start flying.

And then we might need to call Jerry.

Have a good week,
Busy-Dad-E

Work Incentives

How would you respond if someone proposed you, "Hey, if I let you unclog the hair from the drain in my bathroom sink, then you have to rub my bunions for an hour."

You'd probably be all "Yeah right!", "Uh...NO!", etc. (to put it politely.)

Little Brother apparently didn't get this memo.

You see, Little Brother loves "blue potty". "Blue potty" is the Lysol stuff that we use to clean our toilets. I'm not sure why he has so much fun squirting this into the toilet and swirling it around with a brush, but he does.

(Okay, I'll at least admit that "blue potty" smells STRANGELY MINTY GOOD. Good enough that if guys ever got weird cravings to eat non-food stuff like what happens to pregnant ladies, I'd probably have me some "blue potty".)

So the other day, it was Little Brother's nap time, and he didn't want to stay in his room by himself. "I'm scared. Will you sleep with me?" (This is a recipe for a disaster with domino-like effects.)

Instead, Mom-E proposed to him, "I'll let you use blue potty, but if you do, you have to nap by yourself."

Amazingly, he agreed! And with ENTHUSIASM!

Little does he know that Mom-E suckered him into cleaning his own toilet, and taking a nap by himself, meaning that Mom-E got some precious alone time during the day while both boys slept.

Go Mom-E, FTW!!

Have a good weekend,
Busy-Dad-E

Danimalism

In addition to voice immodulation, Bab-E Brother also appears to suffer from Danimalism.

What, might you ask, is Danimalism?

It's the compulsion to drink Dannon Danimals yogurt smoothie drinks.


If given unrestricted access, the boy would drink them by the keg.

It's at the point where if the refridgerator is open, he expects to get one, and fusses in protest if he doesn't get one.

If given 3 minutes alone with an open fridge and a straw, he could probably down the entire contents of the package you see pictured above.

Such is the diet of our (almost) 2 year-old, which pretty can be broken down as follows:
52% Danimals, milk, and yogurt
47% Condiments (no joke)
1% Actual food

Okay, not quite that bad, but still...

So Mom-E and I have resorted to deception to deal with Bab-E Brother's Danimalism.

We hide them in our small fridge in our closet, and ration them out accordingly.

Lord help us if he finds their new hiding place.

Perhaps he's just self-medicating for his voice immodulation, to keep his throat from getting dry?
(I know mine would get dry if I sang that loud all the time.)

See you on Fatherhood Friday,
Busy-Dad-E

Caged Spider-Men

Below is what happens when you put 2 parents and 3 boys under the age of 7 in one room at the Holiday Inn all weekend, and the oldest two boys self-restrict their diets to pretty much Fruit Loops.



Have a good week,
I want my bed back,
Busy-Dad-E

Voice Immodulation

One of my favorite SNL sketches is Will Ferrell's character with Voice Immodulation (VI).

"And a little bit softer now. And a little bit softner now."

Although he's not yet 2, it appears that Bab-E Brother may be showing signs of VI, and specifically the LOUD subtype.

He only has one volume: fortissimo!!

When Mom_E comes to pick him up at the gym, EVERYONE knows it from the blaring "Hi, Mom-E!"

When I get home from work, I can hear "Dad-E" before I even get out of the car, not to mention the garage.

(You can just imagine how much fun we have in church.

And of course, in the car, it's trumpets-blaring most of the time.

Here's Bab-E Brother "winding down" in his crib before bed, and by "winding down" I mean that this is a muted version of his usual.

Enjoy.



Have a quiet weekend,
Busy-Dad-E

Lego Bey Blades

As you may know, we're all about Bey Blades at our house.

Even Bab-E Brother likes to play, and by play I mean sit with his brother's while holding a Bey Blade. (Just don't even think about trying to pry it from his death grip, lest you desire deafness from his screams.

"Bee-Bee" (Bey Blade) wasn't his first word, but ranks up there pretty high.

And while I love my childrens' imaginations, sometimes they ask demand you do things that require a PhD in MacGyver.

"Dad-E, make us a treehouse out of toothpicks!?"

"Okay...Sure."

If you're not familiar with Bey Blades, they're small metal tops that spin and "battle" against other tops.

Well, it took a little while, but we actually figured out how to get Legos to spin.

And, of course, my reward for making one Lego Bey Blade was to make more.

So below are the fruits of our labor the past few Saturday mornings as well as a short video of one in action.





Let 'em rip,
Busy-Dad-E

Junior Art Critic

So the other evening we forgot to get anything out for dinner out of sheer fatigue we decided to goout to eat.

At the end of the meal, as the boys were running to the bathroom and around the restaurant, Bab-E Brother suddenly developed a very concerned look on his face and an almost vacant stare.

"Uh-Oh" he uttered. (One of his new favorite phrases.)

"Did he poop? No."

"Did he drop something? No."

"Did his mild fall over and is now soaking the table and our belongings? No."

Suddenly it became clear that he was looking at this picture on the wall.


He keeps staring intently, with a concerned look, repeating "Uh-Oh."

I asked him a bunch of questions, which mostly resulted in more "Uh-Oh's."

But eventually he said "B". (Gar-E Bear).

"Where's B?"

And he proceeded to point to what I would call the "suitcase" in the man's hand in the picture.

And he continued to say "Uh-Oh." and "B." with a nervous expression.

Mom-E and I are still a bit perplexed.

Did it look to him like the man was going to drop "B"?

Did he think the man took his "B" (even though he was holding him)?

Either way (or some other way), it was a most curious sight to behold.

I'd really like to know what was going on in his mind.

Perhaps it's time to go to an art museum.

Have a good week,
Busy-Dad-E