Besties on the Weekends

Every morning, Caitlyn will call out either ‘Daddy’ or ‘Mommy’ to come get her from her bedroom. Which person she chooses depends on what day it is. If it’s a weekday, she’ll say, “Mommy.” If it’s the weekend, she’ll say, “Daddy.”

Just so she doesn’t get things mixed up, she’ll specifically ask what day tomorrow will be, and then proceeds to state who she’ll give the honor to of going to her room in the morning. If either the wife or I try to go in when our name hasn’t been called, we’ll be received with a lot of crying and screaming.

Basically, on weekdays, she only wants Mommy and will ignore and give me the cold shoulder unless I bribe her. On weekends, however, it’s the complete opposite. She showers me with hugs and kisses, latches onto me whenever she sees the wife, only wants to play with me, sits next to me during meals, and insists I take her to go potty and to take a bath.

How she decided on this is beyond me. My theory has been that weekends equal fun. Therefore, Daddy must equal fun. That makes me feel pretty good. What weekdays equal and therefore what Mommy must equal, I leave up to you.

Now that it’s officially summer and school is out, Caitlyn has been a bit confused as to why I’m still around in the morning on the weekdays. As with before, she would prefer the wife over me. But then several classmates at her Montessori school got the enterovirus last week, and the place had to be shut down for two weeks. That has made her extremely happy and in turn, has made every day thus far into the weekend, which means Caitlyn and I have been living it up as best buds.

Would asking the school to shut down for another two months until I go back to work be asking for too much?

Selfie with my buddy

Scary face

 

Playing doctor

Say, "Ahh!"

 

BFF's

Slumber party

 

Fun in the park

Away we go!

 

Check out my hands!

Three amigos

 

Girl talk

Hard at work

 

I can use toothpaste now!

Using chopsticks

 

Covered

Cute as a button

 

Playing with Play-do

Making some pizza

 

Heading to the beach

Help clean my foot?

 

Mind if I join?

Overrun by kids

 

Splish splash

Soaking in the sun

 

Loving nature

Like my rock?

 

Two beautiful ladies

Girl power!

Make a Wish

Before we had Caitlyn, I would zip around town in a Toyota Vios, the cheapest, smallest, most reliable car that could be had for people on a budget. There was really no concern for space. But after Caitlyn came around and there was a need to put in a car seat along with lugging countless diaper bags and various knick-knacks, space became an issue.

Even with me pulling the driver’s seat all the way forward so that my knees were practically touching my chest, the wife would still complain about not having enough space in the back. This would only be magnified when my parents would come to visit for extended periods of time and space became an even more precious, limited resource.

Even after I traded the Vios in for a bigger sedan, complaints would still arise from time to time. It was then that I decided it was time to say the one word most men dread when it comes to buying a car - “mini-van.”

They’re the complete opposite of sporty and sexy, but what it lacks in physical appeal, a mini-van more than makes up with physical space. I realized that to give the wife the space she was looking for was to add a second row in the back. Any extra passengers or bags could be thrown into this row when needed without the wife sacrificing any of her space.

In my eyes, the Toyota Wish was the perfect car for us, especially if we ever plan on expanding our family. It has decent gas mileage, two rows of seating in the back, and is actually smaller than our previous sedan for easy maneuverability in the city. Thinking that the wife would see eye to eye with me, I laid out my well-thought-out plan to finally get her the car she needed.

Unfortunately, her response merely confirmed that women just aren’t the logical and rational creatures they like to think they are. Instead of jumping up and down for joy over the prospect of having all the space she could possibly want, she stated that it was ugly and that it reminded her of a taxi car.

Well, first of all, this isn’t a beauty contest. Beauty is only skin deep. Second of all, having taxi drivers everywhere driving this car is probably a good sign, as it means that it’s a reliable and useful car for transporting people around town.

After much heated debate and discussion, I finally wore her down, and she reluctantly agreed to the car, though she warned me that it didn’t mean she was going to like the decision. But after having ridden around in the car for about two weeks now, I haven’t heard a peep from her yet, which is the wife’s way of telling me that I was right and she was wrong.

And it couldn’t have come at a better time because my parents unexpectedly came up for another two-month visit without any real prior warning. What better time than now to put this bad boy to use! The icing on the cake is that for whatever reason, Caitlyn has now started insisting that the wife sit in the front passenger seat instead of next to her. Win-win for everybody.

Happy times

At the beach

 

Long way home

Picture time!

 

Run, Forrest, run!

Kisses!

View from room

Taking a stroll through the grass

Balancing beam

Picture perfect

 

Strike a pose

Kickin' it

Look what I caught

At Ocean Park

Flying in the water

Feeding time

 

Looking for jade

River stream

 

Looking for Mommy

View from the lake

Fright Night

First and foremost, a happy belated Mother’s Day to one of the hardest working woman in the world who holds down the fort day in and day out and puts up with my annoying habits and shenanigans. Your tops in my book!

After an early Mother’s Day dinner on Friday, the wife and I were cozied up watching True Detective on TV late at night, when out of the blue, Caitlyn comes out of the bedroom and walks to the end of the hallway to the living room. This, in and of itself, is surprising because she never does that. If she ever wakes up, she’ll always choose to shout out our names and wait for us to come to her instead of actually climbing out of bed to find us.

But what happened next was creepy. Instead of looking at us and speaking as one might do when seeing someone for the first time, she had a glazed-over look in her eyes and proceeded to walk silently into the kitchen. My first thought was, “Oh my God! She’s been possessed by a ghost or demon!” My second thought was, “She must be sleepwalking.” My third thought was, “Yup, she’s definitely been possessed.”

As the wife and I watched Caitlyn wander into the kitchen, we weren’t sure what to do. This has never happened before, which made it all the creepier. My mind started racing through all the horror movies I’ve ever seen with scary kids as I began to get goose bumps all over my arms. What's the correct protocol for dealing with demon-possessed children?

A few seconds passed in which there was no sound or movement, so we decided to get up to see exactly what she doing. What we saw was enough to give me chills down my spine. Caitlyn was just standing in the middle of the kitchen blankly staring at the rice cooker. “Why the rice cooker,” I remember thinking. But I suppose looking at a harmless rice cooker is better than looking at the sharp knives on the counter that can slice and dice.

After about ten seconds of this, she turned to look at us. Oh, snap! This is the part where she says, “Time for you die,” in a demonic voice while pointing a finger at us. The wife finally broke the tension by going in and picking her up, at which point, the glazed-over look left Caitlyn’s face.

Looking back, I don’t know if I would have had the testicular fortitude to go in to pick up Caitlyn after something like that. I’ve seen way to many movies where the child suddenly lunges at the person and proceeds to bite and maim the victim. I would have kept her at a good stick’s length and told her to get back into bed by herself, and when I was sure she was asleep, secretly lock the door.

I love my daughter, but I’m not about to have her turn all Paranormal Activity on me. You can never be too careful.

Caitlyn's best bud at school

Happy Mother's Day!

 

It's stuck on my finger!

Making chocolate-covered pretzels

 

Serious about candy-making

Who says I'm scary?

Bully for You

Recently, the wife informed me that Caitlyn’s teacher had told her about a situation at school where a student had taken away a toy that she was playing with. Instead of running to the teacher and telling her what had happened or crying like most children would, Caitlyn just stood there silently watching the kid play with his newly acquired toy. When the teacher brought the boy over and asked her if he had taken her toy, Caitlyn refused to say anything. It wasn’t until the teacher led her away from him that Caitlyn said, in an extremely quiet tone, that the boy did indeed take her toy.

This concerned the wife a bit, though by no means did it take her by surprise. It's not like this is the first time we've heard of such things from Caitlyn's teacher. Our child does lean more towards the shy, timid side. However, that doesn’t mean it’s OK to be taken advantage of or perhaps bullied, in the future.

The wife told Caitlyn that she has to fight back, to take back what is hers. An eye for an eye. Personally, I’m not so sure about that. I’m more of a lover, not a fighter kind of guy. I believe in diffusing a situation, not escalating it. Surely there are more peaceful ways of settling problems than with force, fists, and fighting.

When I was in middle school, there was a kid that bullied me. I would ignore his comments or laugh them off. One day, he decided to punch me in the stomach while in the locker room for no good reason. I tried not to show that I was in pain, but at the same time, didn’t do anything about it. Thankfully, I had a friend who was pretty intimidating looking, and he saw the whole thing. He chewed out the bully and said if he ever tried to bully me again, he would regret it.

A few weeks later, the bully came up to and asked me for a piece of paper to write his homework on. I obliged and in turn, he said, “thank-you.” I still clearly remember this even though it happened years ago because it really threw me off guard to hear that word coming out of his mouth.

Did my act of kindness move his heart? Or was he thinking of my friend’s ominous warning. Maybe the wife and I are both right. Caitlyn does need to stand up for herself, but at the same time, be a person of kindness and compassion. It almost seems conflictory. I’m gonna shake my fist in your face, but afterwards, I’m going to give you a hug. Confusion might be our best friend when dealing with bullies.