Your Holiday e-Card

The Busy-Dad-E family wishes you and yours a Merry Christmas!
(in 3-D this year, an improvement from last years' 2-D Pac-Man tree).


So sit back, put your feet up, have a cup of hot chocolate, and relax by the fire with loved ones. And maybe even play a game of 'Packer-man' (as Big Brother calls it.)

We'd join you, but we're busy chasing small men around the house and have forgotten what the word 'relax' means.

See you on Fatherhood Friday,
Busy-Dad-E

Fear Detector

So out of the blue, the other night, as we're tucking Little Brother in bed, he points up to the ceiling and asked, "What's that?"

"That's a smoke detector."

"Oh. What's that for?"

"If there's a fire, it makes a loud noise and tells us to get out of the house."

"It makes fire? When is the fire coming?"

"Uh oh."

All logic was off at that point. I might has well have been trying to convince him that chocolate is not a vegetable. He was pretty much sold on the idea that the smoke detector was a living, breathing, fire-making fear detector...that turns your skin green (because of the green light).

Apparently, he did not notice the smoke detector in his room for the first 9 months we lived in this house.

And apparently, it makes no difference that there's one in every room in the house.

So, in a full-blown regression, suddenly there have been nightly requests for "Will you sleep in my room?"

And even after escaping his room, there have been the middle of the night screamings awakenings, complete with a crying 3 year-old pleading to crawl into our bed.

Even lifting him up so that he can touch the smoke detector initially wasn't particularly helpful.

However, after about a week now, I'm pleased to report that things are a little less scary.

There are still the requests to stay in his room, but we're quickly able to leave with "Can I go put on my jammies?", or "I need to help Mom-E with laundry for a minute."

And we haven't had any nocturnal visitors for a few nights now.

I just hope there's no occasion any time soon for a smoke detector to go off for real, even if only for a low battery. Otherwise, we may have an extra resident in our bed indefinitely.

Have a good week,
Busy-Dad-E

Underage Jokester

Happy Fatherhood Friday!

Apparently this is Bab-E Brother week here at Busy-Dad-E, between his love for Puffs on Monday, and his deep-sea diving expedition Christmas tree adventure on Wednesday, and now today.

I promise that I'm not being partial; trust me, with 3 boys, spreading the time and love is a constant challenge.

I've always been a fan of the changing pad. Don't think me a fool (or someone with a congenital inability to smell) for saying that. I've loved interacting with each of my boys in that venue. It makes for great eye contact, and opportunities to be just plain silly.

This includes a lot of zerberts, smiles, giggles, faces, and other antics.

A favorite of Mom-E and I is to put "little man pants" on our head and then shake from side-to-side, while we're diapering.

An important function of this effort, is that it's distracting and helps keep bab-e feet out of poopy diapers.

And besides, there's no other good place to store the pants while you're diapering, so why not use yourself as a coat rack and make your child laugh in the process?

Bab-E Brother finds the "pants-on-the-head" bit hysterical, and it always causes him to unleash belly laughs that rival Santa's.

What's funny is that now, if you hand Bab-E Brother his pants, he puts them on HIS head and starts chuckling.

Apparently we have a funny man in the family.

Either he's mirroring us, or auditioning for the role of "family clown" (or both).

Um, excuse me son, I need to see your license, or I might just have to charge you with underage jokestering.

Lord help us when you can walk. And that day is coming soon.

Have a good weekend,
Busy-Dad-E

A Christmas Tree Story

"It was like preparing for extended deep-sea diving."

Happy Wordless Wednesday,
Busy-Dad-E

Puffs Dad-E

Okay, so Puffs Bab-E Brother is a more appropriate title for this post, but Puffs Dad-E is catchier.

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING PICTURE MAY CAUSE EXTREME EXCITEMENT AMONGST BABIES AND TODDLERS. VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED.


At least in our house, these things are like crack for babies.

And I mean no disrespect to the fine folks at Gerber; we love this product.

They're like "melt-in-your-mouth" cereal, which is great for babies learning how to feed themselves. (However, when they melt, apparently they cross the blood-brain barrier, and stimulate the "pleasure center" in the brain, thereby reinforcing the need for (continuous) Puffs.

To paraphrase the Corn Pops jingle:
Bab-E Brother's 'gotta have his Puffs'.

To paraphrase the New Kids on the Block:
"You got the right Puffs, Bab-E. Oh, oh, oh-oh-oh. Oh, oh, oh-oh. Oh, oh, oh-oh-oh. The right Puffs."

To paraphrase the movie Rain Man:
I've had to leave a restaurant before to go to a grocery store (fortunately it was next door) to make an emergency Puffs run after leaving them at home. (5 minutes to Puffs. 5 minutes to Puffs.)

If he is sitting in his high chair with no Puffs in sight, Bab-E Brother uses a loud shrieking sound as a gentle reminder to us to "please give me my Puffs appetizer".

Strike that, sometimes just to get him to sit in the high chair, you have to bribe him with Puffs.

And Cheerios are NOT a suitable substitute for Puffs. If you put a mixture of Puffs and Cheerios on his tray, that little booger will (like lightning) pick out only the Puffs to eat.

(Maybe we could put him in charge of sorting all the socks in the laundry.)

Fortunately, we are finally starting to branch out a little from Puffs to bananas and other table food.

Anyone know a good Puffs detox programs?

Have a good week,
Busy-Dad-E

Happy Meal Mania

It was only a matter of time.

After countless trips to Subway for chips, veggies, and juice boxes, Big Brother has discovered that there’s a whole world of ‘Kids Meals’ out there.

And after years of subsisting on granola bars, crackers, yogurt, fruit, and veggies, Big Brother has acknowledged that french fries and chicken nuggets might not be so bad, after all. (In moderation, of course.)

In retrospect, it was perhaps obvious that the way to get Big Brother to emerge from his eating shell was to bring to his attention the fact that Kids Meals come with a toy.

And so, this tale starts with a random request for “I’d like to have French fries”, that left Mom-E and I with multiple arm bruises, having pinched each other so hard.

“Uh. Sure. We’ll stop right now.”

To our amazement, he willingly ate some fries.

It didn’t take long for this to balloon into, if I try some chicken nuggets, can I have a Kids Meal.

“Heck yeah. And if you eat it all, we’ll throw in a second one. It’s only a staple food of 99.9% of toddlers/small children. The other 0.1% doesn’t need you anymore.”

And so we managed to eat about 1 whole chicken nugget. Willingly.

YES YOU HEARD ME RIGHT, BIG BROTHER, BUSY-DAD-E’S OLDEST AND BELOVED SON, WILLINGLY ATE A CHICKEN NUGGET.

Next stop, World Peace.

Granted, he likes fries better than chicken nuggets. And along the way discovered that honey makes a most excellent dipping sauce.

But still, we’re on to something. And sure, the prize in the Kids Meal sweetens the deal, but if it gets him to eat, hey, who cares?

And this change has the added benefit of Little Brother joining the party and eating some french fries, too. (No nuggets for him yet).

I’m so glad that his tastes are changing and expanding. It will make so many things easier for him and us. And his future prom date.

Of course, we can’t eat fast food all the time (I hear my arteries screaming, “Nooooo!), but for now, it’s a good trade-off to encourage his expanding tastes.

Beware sandwiches, you’re next (on the menu)!

Have a Happy (Meal) Weekend,
Busy-Dad-E

Scary Tooth Fairy

As you know from earlier this week, Big Brother recently lost his first tooth .

And despite being at Papa’s house, 600 miles away from home, we assured him that the tooth fairy would still come.

So that night, we got the boys settled down in bed. Big Brother and Little Brother cozily bunked together. Big Brother had tucked his tooth in a bag under his pillow. We told both boys that while they were sleeping, the Tooth Fairy, would take Big Brother’s tooth for her collection, and in exchange give him some money.

There were also lots and lots of questions about: How big is the tooth fairy? Does she fly? How does she know where to come? How does she take the tooth and replace it with money so quickly? How does she carry everything? What does she do with all those teeth?

We tell the boys good night, and all of a sudden, as we start to leave, Little Brother shudders and shakes with a look of utter horror.

In short, he’s terrified by the thought of the Tooth Fairy’s pending arrival, and insists on me holding him while he falls asleep in another room, despite reassurances.

(Apparently Santa and the Easter Bunny are okay, because they don’t actually come into your room.)

Not wanting to wake up Bab-E Brother, who’s in a crib in the same room, I oblige. And promptly nod off. Mom-E wakes me up about 2.5 hours later, having napped herself.

It’s almost midnight, but a trip to Walmart is still in order, as we need to stock up on a few items for the first leg of the trip home. While at the store, I find Matchbox cars on sale for $0.77. So in addition to some cash for Big Brother, I get each of the boys a car of their favorite color, a “peace offering” from the Tooth Fairy, which was also explained in a letter.

At about 3am, Little Brother woke up to find himself in bed with Big Brother. Still terrified of the Tooth Fairy, and not noticing the Matchbox car above him on the headboard, Little Brother comes screaming running into our room, and piles into bed with us.

In the morning, Big Brother was ecstatic about his “payday” and Matchbox car. We have plans to go to a participating Target store for redemption soon.

And Little Brother has also been inseparable from his car for the past 3 days.

If you ask him now “Is the Tooth Fairy a nice ‘grirl’?”, he says “Yeah.”

But somehow, when he loses his first tooth, I’m thinking he’ll sleep with one eye open that night.

See you on Fatherhood Friday,
Busy-Dad-E