We had an Easter potluck yesterday. It was a nice gathering of family, good food and, of course, an Easter egg hunt. At one point Q came to me and said he wanted a superhero mask. As a superhero myself (Papiman), I recognized the importance of a good superhero mask.  Still, my powers don’t really include fashioning custom superhero masks. Nonetheless, I set to work making something that I hoped could pass, even vaguely, for a mask. 

 

Q brought me a piece of paper. “Papi,” he said, “I want a mask so that no one can recognize me.” In the other hand he was carrying a small plastic “slinky” toy.   He stretched the slinky, stuck his nose in it and then let it go. As it hung on his nose he said, “And I can put this on my nose so that no one knows it’s my nose.” “Ok son,” I said and set to work.  I took the...

 

Our youngest boy JT turns three years old today. Hurray for him and hurray for us. We started the celebration on Monday with a trip to an amusement part. It was a great place called Adventure City, which was recommended by friends because it’s geared toward the little guys. The park is not too big but still has a good assortment of age appropriate rides including a fun mid-sized roller coaster for bigger kids and a smaller one for the little kids.

 

When I was younger I used to love amusement parks (and I still do). But I remember wondering why my parents didn’t seem very excited about getting on faster rides with us. Well, yesterday I gained some insight.

 

 

 

 

One of the joys of parenting comes when you see your child use some skill you’ve taught them. During these moments a parent realizes that their work of imparting life-lessons to their children has not been wasted.

 

That was the case yesterday…kind of. 

 

 

This morning was all about the Three Amigos. It was Papi and the boys, the Tres Caballeros. I felt good and boys were in a good space. Things had moving along nicely as we pulled up to their school.

 

Then, as we got out of the car I reached for the lunch boxes. Where were they? Sitting on the kitchen table at home, that’s where. As I ushered the boys into their classrooms I reassured them that they would get lunch. “Promise,” I said.

 

As I walked back to the car I’m thinking, “How could I forget their lunches?” It’s time for Plan B. Always have a Plan B. What’s Plan B…?  

 

News Flash…

A genetic mutation is spreading across preschools the world over.  The mutation seems to be triggered by age, generally around age 5 and results in an extremely slow response time to simple directions or down right defiance.   Parents everywhere are shaking their heads, wondering what to do with their 5 year old mutants. Government forces are waging a campaign aimed at getting parents to register their mutants at local Mutant Etiquette Student Service Centers (MESS-C) as a way of heading off the decline of human civilization as we know it.

 

Mutant Etiquette Student Service Centers are codenamed: Kindergarten 

 

 

I think that the teachers at Q’s preschool do a good job of preparing the kids for Kindergarten. Still, it is inevitable that rumors should spread about this mysterious children’s garden everyone’s being shipped off to. Q’s most recent comments to me about Kindergarten include...

 

 

I drove my two boys to preschool this morning and I just happened to use a different route to get there. My 5 year old son, Q, said, “Papi, are we going to school?” “Yes,” I said. “How come we’re going there another way?” he asked but before I could respond he went on, “Papi, let’s play colored cars.”

 

“I thought you wanted to know why we’re going to school another way.” I said. “No.” he responded. “I want to play colored cars.”

 

“Ok, let’s look for a red car.” I said.

 

 JT, my 2 year old, jumped into the conversation, “Papi, look” 

 

 

 

 

My son Q helped me put a load of clothes in the washing machine. After that we drove to the store. On the way he asked,

 

“Papi, how did people wash clothes in the old days?”

 

My thoughts went way back to the days before more modern conveniences and I said, “Well, people might have washed their clothes at a river.”

 

“Did you ever wash your clothes at the river?” he asked.

 

 

Mami and I don’t watch a lot of TV these days. Yesterday, we treated ourselves to watching the entire Academy Awards show. And trust me when I say, the treat didn’t come easy.

 

In order to do this we had to prep the boys about two hours before the show. We let them know, “Tonight Mami and Papi are going to watch something on TV. We’ll put on a movie for you guys and we’ll watch our show.”

 

They seemed pretty indifferent. When the time came we put an “Ice Age 3” DVD into the laptop and pushed, play. Hey, this might work out after all.          --Cue the scary soundtrack--

 

My 2 year old – JT, had a meltdown this morning. If he were writing this entry he’d say that I, Papi, had the meltdown and that he just had a strong difference of opinion. But he’s not writing this blog. 

 

JT and I have an on going debate about my hair gel. It pretty much goes like this,

 

JT, “Papi, I want hair gel.” 

Papi, “You don’t need hair gel.” 

JT, “A little gel?” 

Papi, “Ok, you can have a little hair gel.” 

JT, “No, a lot of gel.” 

Papi, “Ok then, no gel.” 

JT, “But Papi…..I want gel.”

 

How we get into this debate varies. How the debate ends usually depends on how the debate began. I’ll explain.