Funny Stuff Little Brother Says: Pizza

Who says it has to be vulgar to be funny?

That's always been on of my favorite things about the Muppets; that they could mix-in adult humor while still keeping it clean for kids.

So, this week is dedicated to Little Brother, and all of the funny stuff he says. (And for those of you who know Little Brother, you know for a kid under age 3, the boy can talk.)

Last week, a virus went through our family like a hurricane.

After Mom-E was pretty much confined to bed for 24 hours, I decided it was my turn to come down with it, too.

I held out as long as I could, but eventually I up-chucked into a wastebasket, pretty much as the boys came in to check on me.

Being curious boys, they of course had to sneak a peak at the wastebasket.

Little Brother took one look, and reflexively uttered:

"Dad-E, that looks like PIZZA!"

Nice.

I would've settled for "Dad-E, are you okay?"

(My thought was that it looked like pig slop.)

At least now I know why the kid won't eat pizza.

To all you pizza chains, I suggest you give up any R&D on liquid pizza.

Have a good week,
Busy-Dad-E

Kappa Gamma Nu

Happy Fatherhood Friday everyone. Join the "rush" to visit of all the other great bloggers over at dad-blogs.com.

At the age of 5, Big Brother is already pledging a fraternity: Kappa Gamma Nu.

But you probably know KGN by it's other name, KinderGardeN.

Now, I wasn't in a frat, but it sure seems like Big Brother is being "hazed" in a way, so far this year.

And by "hazed", I mean Mom-E and Dad-E are asked to buy or send something about every week.

The school is always sending notes home, "Please have your child bring in..."

This has included things like:
-50 cents for ice cream on Friday.
-2 apples for Johnny Appleseed Day
-Some kind of item for an Animal Rescue project
-Donations for the teacher's Christmas present (already)
-A "sweet treat" for teacher appreciation day
-An afternoon snack for 20 children once a month
-$20 for school field trips

All of this is coupled with the fact that Mom-E volunteered to sew seat covers for each child in the class (to store pencil boxes, etc.) The teacher told Mom-E to buy the materials, make them, and she'd reimburse her for what she spent. No other specifiers or instructions.

Mom-E bought the fabric (40% off), stayed up to all hours on many nights, and in total spent about $70 ($3.50/child). I didn't think that was too bad. There's no way you could buy something in a store for that price.

And then when Mom-E turns in the receipts, the teacher takes up a collection (of course: Please send in donations for seat covers), and we get an envelope for $40 with a note saying "is that okay?"

Well, it would be if you said you'd reimburse her up to $40.

(Guess what the teacher is getting for Christmas from us...SEAT COVERS. :)

When it's late and Mom-E and I are really tired, we can't help but extrapolate these requests. If they're asking for this stuff in the first 6 weeks, what's it going to be like next spring?

Some ideas:
1. Please have your child bring in a goat (already trained).
2. Together with your child, please choreograph a ballet for Monday.
3. Please send $250 for a plane ticket for your child (field trip with the goat).
4. A Dolce & Gabbana handbag for the teacher's birthday.
5. Lobster dinner for all children in the class (flown in fresh from Maine).

Can't wait for "rush" to be over. And neither can our wallets. But I have a funny feeling we're just getting started.

Hey, anybody want to by some Otis Spunkmeyer cookies? Big Brother has those for us to buy is selling those, too.

Have a good weekend,
Busy-Dad-E

Telescope Time

Not long ago, Mom-E and I were rocking on the front porch after the crew was asleep, and we noticed a particularly bright "star".

A little reading revealed that the "star" was actually Jupiter, which is closer to Earth than it's been in 50-some years.

I couldn't help but think that the boys might get pretty excited about looking at the moon, Jupiter, and the stars with a telescope.

Apparently, I thought right.

We bought a small, "starter" telescope.

And now every night that's not cloudy or rainy, we go outside and play with the telescope before bed.

"Dad-E, can we have 'telescope time'?"

Not only has it been a great motivator for small men to promptly bathe, jammie, and brush teeth, but it's been nice bonding time.

And we have been successful in getting the Moon and Jupiter into focus. Albeit briefly.

Of course, every time Little Brother looks in the telescope, the first thing he does is grab the telescope and move it away from whatever I spent 10 minutes trying to focus on.

But when it's Big Brother's turn, Little Brother likes to go around and stand in front of the telescope, blocking any view.

But I don't care.

It's more about just spending time with the boys.

Of course, we have had some good questions.

"Dad-E, is Jupiter bigger than our house."

"Yes."

I opted for the explanation of "If the entire Earth is a marble, then Jupiter is the size of a basketball."

"So does that mean that Jupiter is bigger than my school?"

"Yeah, something like that."

I doubt we'll have any astrophysicists in the family, but I really enjoy this down-time at the end of the day with the boys.

See you on Fatherhood Friday,
Busy-Dad-E

Bagelmania

Here at Busy-Dad-E, we've been quite excited with Big Brother's recent progress in the new food department (it's on Aisle 5).

It's increasingly apparent that his taste buds are changing (either that or he's completely sick of granola bars, goldfish, crackers, yogurt, fruit, green peppers, cucumbers, and the occasional fruit snack).

You may remember our excitement over the "discovery" of peanut butter crackers. Big Brother has actually continued to eat them on a pretty regular basis.

This go-around, we capitalized on Big Brother's penchant for cinnamon.

Mom-E finally "broke him down" a while back, when she made some deliciously iced cinnamon rolls for Saturday breakfast. This was pretty much the first non-cracker bread product the child had consumed "in 100 years" (to borrow one of his own terms).

So the other day, we were dining at Panera Bread (pretty much the other restaurant we go to when we can pry the boys off of Subway), when I suggested to Mom-E that we buy the boys a cinnamon crunch bagel to try.

Little Brother couldn't have cared less about trying the bagel, but Big Brother was tempted by the crunchy cinnamon goodness atop the bagel

One bite, and the kid underwent a metamorphosis into a cinnamon bageloholic.

He sat there, and nibbled at that bagel throughout the entire meal.

Mom-E and I sat there, stunned, and watched him eat the bagel (don't worry, we paid attention to the other boys, too).

And by eat the bagel, I mean, the ENTIRE bagel (that was as big as his head).

Okay, so maybe it wasn't the most nutritiously-sound idea to let the boy eat the 4,000 calorie bagel, but when he triples the number of lifetime bread-products consumed in one sitting, it's hard to direct his eating efforts elsewhere.

Fortunately, we didn't have to buy stock in Panera.

Instead, we opted for some Lender's mini bagels, which Mom-E gussied up with butter, cinnamon, and splenda.

He actually announced, "bagels are my new favorite food."

"BRING ON BAGELMANIA!" I say.

I'm thrilled that we've expanded our prom date dining options from Granola Bar Hut to any place with bagels or PB crackers.

Now we just have to convince him the PB bagels are awesome, too. Just give me another 5 years.

Keep up the good work, dude
Busy-Dad-E

ChiLd UnawarEness LESSons

Happy Fatherhood Friday everyone. Unless you're "CLULESS", be sure to visit all of the great bloggers over at dad-blogs.com.

Mom-E and I are (members of) CLUELESS.

I wish I could say we're the founding members, but we're not. Although I did just make up the acronym.

CLUELESS stands for ChiLD UnawarEness LESSons.

Essentially, I'm talking about the work parents do after their kids go to bed.

As much as my children pay attention to detail, I'm amazed that they've never asked questions such as, "How do my clothes magically get clean, folded, and/or hung in the closet?"

It's something (I imagine) all parents have done--put laundry away in their kids' rooms while they're asleep.

But Mom-E and I took CLUELESS to a new level this past week.

You see, Little Brother is going to have a Wubbzy-themed 3rd birthday party.


And Mom-E is making him a Wubbzy costume (because he LOVES to go around in costume--Batman, Robin, Wolverine, Dale Jr--and will do so for hours at a time)

But she's had to do some of the sizing "on the fly."

This meant sneaking into Little Brother's room well past midnight. I sat him up in bed and held him upright, while Mom-E put the costume over his head.

And we had to do this twice.

We couldn't help but have a good laugh over the matter.

I mean, we have no doubt that Little Brother will go totally ape over the costume. Probably won't take it off until 2011. At the earliest.

Which makes it so funny (at least to us) that we actually tried it on him while he was asleep, and he's absolutely CLUELESS that it ever happened.

Makes me wonder what kind of stuff our parents did to us when we were little.

Gramm-E?

Have a good weekend,
Busy-Dad-E

A-B-C-Eye-Aye

Little Brother is working on his A-B-C's, and blessed us with this rendition.

Gotta love the:
1) Voice modulation (he does this ALL the time). It's hysterical.
2) The "reference" to the See-Eye-Aye

Enjoy!

See you on Fatherhood Friday,
Busy-Dad-E

Catch The Wave

If your first thought with this title was


Then you must be about as old as I am (or older).

No, today we celebrate a major milestone for Bab-E Brother.

Last Friday, I came home to find Mom-E and the boys hanging out in our room.

Bab-E Brother was sitting on the bed.

When I came in to the room, I said "Hi, guys!"

Without hesitation, Bab-E Brother flung both arms up in the air, smiled from ear-to-ear, and started jiggling such that I was glad Mom-E was right behind him, in case he fell over backwards.

But the best part was that he blurted out a great big "HA!"

Besides my heart-melting from his response, Mom-E and I were overcome with excitement with his vocalization, which was closer to a "Hi" than when Ross and Rachel's baby on Friends said her first word, "gleeb."

And over the weekend, it appears that his attempts to say "hello" are intentional.

He's definitely started waving at family. Sometimes. When he feels like it.

But, of course, Mom-E and I can't stop eenthusiastically waving at him.

"Wave" to go, buddy!

Have a good week, :-h
Busy-Dad-E