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Daddy's Boy

Phew! The way things are going I didn't think I would ever get to write in here again. Seems like there has been a lot of drama in my life as of late and gosh darn it, I'm gonna vent and talk about the good things.

1. How long must a ceremony last before it is considered a solemn event? Is a one hour graduation ceremony really and less reverent and significant to a student body of less than a hundred students? I'm a teacher and it delights me to see my students graduate, especially knowing the trials and tribulations of some of the students that I have had the privilege to teach, but come on, three hours?

I'm not sure which was worse, the 20 minutes it took for each of the 80 some students to file into the gym-step, hold, hold, hold, step, hold, hold, hold, step... (you get the picture?) Or, was it the 25 minute long key speech that no one could here. I'm going to give the speaker the benefit of the doubt and assume he had some really wonderful words of wisdom that he was sharing, but with only being able to hear one string of words every two minutes, the effect was of listening to a drunken old man telling a story about back in his day when he is just at the edge of passing out. "You kids, murmur, grumble, mumble, blah, blah, blah, blah, mumble, grunt, snort, blah, blah, and another thing. blah, blah, blah...." (again, getting the picture) Or, maybe it half hour listing of every single scholarship the students received, or ...I don't know the back of my black cap had become exceedingly interesting at this point and I don't really know what happened after that.

2. Parents need to stop enabling failure in their kids. When a teacher calls up a parent and says, "your child is not performing and if this continues they will not be able to graduate." The parent ought to be asking how they can help. I have student trying to give me every excuse in the book for their child.

"If he's tired let him sleep all day. "

"He's hungry, let him leave in the middle of class and go to McDonald's he'll work better. "

"I thought your program is self-paced, so why are you picking on my daughter?"

Yes, mam, my program is self-paced, but that does require a pace and not stagnation. If your student sits six months in the program and is no closer to graduation than they were six months ago how do you think that is going to help them graduate. Showing your student that if they need to complete forty-four credits to graduate and they get only one every six months it will take them 22 years to meet those requirements hardly constitutes picking on a student. Unless, objective mathematical proofs have suddenly become offensive.

Okay, enough venting. Now for the good stuff. The picture of the tough guy above. That's Daddy's Boy, sorry Mom. I probably shouldn't let it inflate my ego, but in a room full of people, including Mom, Baby Boy needs to know where I'm at and needs to be held by me. Sometimes his zeal to hang out with Dad is a challenge, like when I'm trying to cook. If I'm standing in the kitchen, he has his arms wrapped around my leg and his head is tilted back and he cries until I pick him up. I usually try to carry him over to Mom, so she can hold him and I can get back to cooking, but he drops right out of her lap and comes back to me. It's not easy getting the meals done, but I love it and wouldn't want to change it.

We got to go to the zoo again last weekend. Baby Boy got to hang out with his cousins, Trey and The Princess. Trey is 6 months older, and is going to have the nickname whether my sister and her hubby like it or not, my father will see to it. The Princess is five and is going to be called that in this blog, because she loves her Disney princesses. The boys rode in Baby Boy's wagon throughout the trip and got along well. The Princess was a big girl and walked almost the whole way. The only time she didn't was when I asked her to keep an eye on her baby cousin. She only conceded to ride in the wagon as a favor to Baby Boy. I think the highlight of the trip was the butterfly exhibit. The zoo has a wonderful exhibit filled with butterflies. Trey tried climbing everything and anything that brought him closer to the butterflies. Baby Boy was most interested in digging in the dirt around the vegetation. The Princess showed remarkable patience and held still until a butterfly landed on her. She wasn't about to leave until one did.

A Kiss For Your Thoughts

I don't get a chance to update this site as much as I would like, because I have a commitment to doing a daily update at step-family talk and I usually can't get any more than that post written before work starts. I am enjoying writing for the site as it gives me much of the same opportunities that this site offers. I get to write about being a father. I'm still trying to find my feet over there. I've been trying to figure out how I'm going to write five posts a week about step-parenting.

I've been doing lots of reading on the subject and the sad fact is, there isn't much advice out there. Truly I could some up almost all of it very quickly: The bioparent should do the disciplining, don't push to have your stepchildren call you mom or dad, establish a good relationhip as a friend and mentor-especially if they are older, authority can be earned, but only after a good deal of time, it takes time for children to come to terms with their bioparents separation, make your relationship with your spouse the first priority. OR...love your spouse, love your kids, and give everything lots of time. All of the advice and papers out there are just variations of when I listed above.

How many ways can you rewrite the above information? So, I started yesterday with what really amounts to a reflective journal that will hopefully become a year in the life of a stepdad. I think I and anyone that actually reads the posts will learn more by experience and reflection than by re-reading the same old regurgitated advice.

So, what does the above picture have to do with this post? I just like the picture. It was taken by Big Sis and it shows how much she loves her brother. And, I like Baby Boy's pose. I love how he isn't looking directly at the camera. He looks as if he is okay with the kiss, but there are more important things to be thinking about. And, it shows off his dimples.

Big Sis, her friend, Baby Boy and I got to go to the zoo this weekend. Mom had to work. It was about 92 degrees and very humid, but it didn't stop anyone from enjoying the day.

We are fortunate to have the zoo so close. I bought a year pass, so that whenever I'm not sure what to do on the weekend I can always head to the zoo and not worry about the cost.

I was worried about staying for too long as the sun was quite relentless and I didn't want babyboy burning. I covered him with a kids spf 50 sunblock and applied it every hour. It seemed to work just fine, as long as I can get him to keep his hat on.

I'm not sure which animal was his favorite. He particularly liked the bears, even though they were off in the far distance. I think he recognized them from "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?"