It’s been a while. Seems life can just zip you along and before we know it months have passed. Well, the boys have done a lot of growing. 6 and 4 now- Kindergarten and preschool. JT our youngest has grown quite a few shoe sizes with an independent attitude to match. He’s really finding his voice and letting his opinion be known. As parents we have the gift of having gone through it with Q, our oldest. His personality continues to blossom. He’s a real character with a wonderful sense of humor. What can we say we love the kid.

Summer is almost over. I took a break. I’m back. The boys have been attending school two days a week over the summer and that has given Mami and me some time to ourselves.

 

But the big day is only weeks away for Q...

That would be his first day of Kindergarten. I have mixed feelings. 

 

First, I’m excited because I know he’s ready. I also know it will be a change for all of us.

 

The other day Q asked, “Papi, how many more days do I have in preschool?”

 

I said, “a few more weeks.” Then I asked, “How do you feel about Kindergarten?”

 

“I gonna miss my friends,” he said.

 

I could feel a sympathy pain settle into me stomach.

 

He asked, “Do you know anyone at my Kindergarten. “No”, I answered, “we’ll both be making lots of new friends.”

 

Q and JT had normally had long days at preschool. Now they’ll be shorter for Q. That will be logistical challenge for all.

 

And, yes, JT is now in preschool. He made the move from the toddler program over the summer. Mami and I talked with the teachers about the best way to transition him to preschool. We thought about a couple of half days with the toddlers and half with the preschoolers. (Both programs are in the same building). The first day JT spent with the toddlers he pretty much decided, while you guys work this out I’ll just settle in. He made the move with no problems.

 

As the summer comes to and end, like always, new roads are opening up. So, let’s get to steppin’

 

--DiggyDaddy

 

This has not been a place where I usually bring up my politics but today I make a change.  I have become so accustomed to blogging about what my boys do and say that I have forgot to mention the process I go through to do it.  First of all there is a lot of translating that happens when I write about JT because JT speaks Spanish.  That’s right.  I became aware a couple of weeks ago that I’ve never talked about the language situation in our home.  With some of the political goings on in our country these days I think this is a good time.  Well here it is.

 

 

My kids watched “Happy Feet” this weekend. One of the boys’ favorite scenes went something like this:

 

A little penguin named Mumbles catches a fish and offers it to another penguin named Gloria. “No Mumbles. You caught it,” she says.  “No, take the fish, I want you to have it,” Mumbles says. “No Mumbles, really. You eat it,” she says. Mumbles tries again, “I want you to have it.” Just then hungry birds swoop down trying to steal the fish. 

 

Mumbles hangs on for dear life only to be lifted into the air. Mumbles is twisted him and twirled but refuses to let go of the fish. The birds finally give up and let go of the fish and Mumbles who drops onto the ice below.

 

Somehow Gloria finds Mumbles. “Are you okay?” she says. Mumbles mumbles something like, “Ache da ooid ish.”  “What did you say?” Gloria asks. Barely able to get out the words, and with fish still in his mouth, Mumbles says, “Take…the stupid…fish.” “Oh,” Gloria says. She takes the fish and eats it.

 

My boys thought the scene was hilarious.

 

Cut to a Saturday afternoon. A Birthday party with our family

 

Q and his cousin had been playing for awhile. They come running to me and the cousin told me, “Q said the “S” word three times.” 

 

Since we don’t use that phrase the S word, Q had to ask me, “Papi, what’s the “S” word?”

 

I guess it could have been easy enough to say, “The S word is stupid. Don’t say it Q.” But I wasn’t sure if I should repeat the word since the cousin was having such a strong reaction to it. I decide the best way to approach the situation would be to complicate it.

 

“Son,” I said, “you remember in Happy Feet when Mumbles caught the fish and then the birds were trying to take it and then he told the girl penguin, “Take the stu… fish?” (Purposely omitting the word stupid)

 

“Oh yea, Papi,” he said.

 

That is the ‘S’ word,” I said.

 

Doing his best impression of a beat-up penguin Q said, “That was funny Papi, when he said, Take… the stupid… fish.”

 

“Ooo, he said it again,” his cousin screamed.

 

“Uh…Q…” I start but my son was already running off yelling repeatedly, “Take the stupid fish, take the stupid fish,” and laughing louder each time. His cousin was close behind screaming, “He said it again…he said it again.”

 

As the scene came to a close I took a moment to congratulate myself on what I saw as yet another parenting job well done.

 

--DiggyDaddy

 

We were having lunch in the back yard. Mami, Q, JT and I (Papi) all sat around a table enjoying our spaghetti and sausage. JT (3) kept asking for more sausage. In general he’s been asking for more meat to eat these days--protein for a growing boy. Q (5) has been asking for more Papi time-- role modeling for a growing preschooler. 

 

Recently the boys had been into watching their DVD of the animated film Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs. You may recall it’s the story of Manny the Mammoth, Sid the Sloth and Diego the Saber-toothed tiger and their discovery of a subterranean world of dinosaurs. 

 

This got us to talking about the usual stuff, “Are mammoth’s elephants? Who was the smallest dinosaur? And who is stronger Superman or the Hulk? Yea, the last one is kind of a tangent. But that is how my boy Q is thinking these days. He jumps from topic to topic and is always coming up with amazing questions.

 

While we were talking JT put a piece of spaghetti in his mouth. He let the ends of the spaghetti dangle out the corners.

 

“Look Papi,” he said. “Hey, you look like Diego,” I said. To which Q asked, “Why, Papi?” 

 

“He looks like Diego because Diego has long teeth like that.” I said. “No he doesn’t Papi,” Q said. I was a bit confused.

 

“Sure he does,” I said. “Diego has long teeth that come out the corners of his mouth.”

 

“Papi, he doesn’t have long teeth.” Q insisted.

 

“Ok son, “I instructed, “Maybe you think they’re tusks but they’re not. They’re long teeth that look like sabers. That’s why Diego is called saber-toothed tiger. Go look at the DVD box is you don’t believe me”

 

Q looked at me for a second before saying very slowly (as is to help me understand),

 

 

Q has been asking what ancestors are. I explained that ancestors are those people in our family who lived before us. The topic seems to make its way into many of our conversations these days.

 

This morning Q asked what comes after fall. I said winter.

 

“Papi,” he asked, “why doesn’t it snow here in the winter?”

 

“Because it’s too warm here,” I answered.

 

“Why did you want to live here,” he asked.

 

“This is where your grandparents came to live,” I said.

 

“Why?” he asked.

 

I went on to tell him a simplified story about...

It’s been raining on and off the passed few days.  During our Friday drive to school I asked my boys how the rain gets up into the clouds. 

 

Q, my five year old said, “What is it called when the water gets so hot it goes up?  What is it called?”

 

“It evaporates,” I said.

 

Q continued, “When the water evaporates it goes up to the clouds and then the clouds get full of water and then they let go of the water and they fall on us.”

 

I love it, I thought to myself, he understands evaporation.

 

“Ok JT,” I said to my three year old, “now you tell me.”  

 

 

 

 

 

 

JT went to help me replace some sliding closet doors at my parent’s house.  Mom chose mirrored doors so my Dad got very nervous every time JT picked up the hammer or screwdriver.

 

I enjoyed having JT with me. We’d talk about how to do the job and for a while he went off and play in a corner by himself.  JT's a character and was a lot of fun.  That is, until nap time rolled around...

 

JT asks for a bedtime story every night. And every night he wants it to be about Captain Hook. It also has to follow some specific guidelines:

 

When JT notices that I’m getting near the end of a story and he hasn’t made an appearance he’ll say...

 

 

 

 

During our drive to school on Friday Q, my five year old, was playing with a hairbrush. Of course my 3 year old, JT, immediately started yelling that he wanted the hairbrush but Q refused to share...