I Used to Be The Kind of Guy.....

That you would have to put out social feelers to find. You could count on me being at lodge on Saturday, but otherwise you would have to hunt me down in order to have a conversation. A cell phone was the kind of thing that I thought was unnecessary (I had a land line, but I was never really there to get 'a hold' of): a tethering device that I thought it was pointless to have unless there was a darn good reason. Who would want to be tethered? The very thought gave me the heebee geebees. :) I thought that having a bank account was giving yourself over to 'big brother' and using the conjoined check card with it's series of 16 digits was certainly the mark of somekind of beast. I liked flying under the 'radar'. I thought that it was pretty cool to be next to invisible. Not for any particular reason, but more for the abstination of involvement in the mainstream machine. Times have changed......
I (now a 'We') had a baby girl and everything within and without has shifted for me. Now, I am the one that is prominent and 'in touch' and others are trying to dodge the communicae--to stay hidden. Not really, but kind of. I am the one now 'shouting from the rooftops' about my child and who, if I haven't heard from you in the past few days and you are a prominent close-to-my-daughter grandperson I will check in on your state of affairs.
I used to be hidden in the woodwork and now I tweet and post about anything from the kind of coffee I am drinking to whether or not my daughter has successfully learned to wipe her own bottom (It's a 'No' on that one, by the way) yet. The flourishing colors and prominence of social media combined with being a new father and the excitement that comes with that has made me what I am today. I sincerely hope you enjoy my offerings. I certainly enjoy submitting them to the digital aethers. :)

I Never Thought I'd Ever Find Myself Begging Someone Else to Take a Dump

It is a reality with our 34 mo. old daughter Shayla. She's a champ at the last minute when nature will not wait another second, but the preamble to that climax is the part that seems to drag out like a bad movie that you just want to finish already! Since we are the cooks, the janitors, and the overall grounds keepers we are very concerned and have a vested interest in where the 'gifts' finally land. I can think of better things to do than following my child around the grounds waiting for the moment of no return so that I can pick her up and jet her off to the bathroom.
We are not above bribery and have been using it regularly with inconsistent results. She's onto us already,...of course. I can see that we are almost there. There are plenty of praises and high- fives that take place when there is success, but please oh please can we move past this stage?! While there is an imenent poo-poo waiting in the wings(?) there is nothing else that you as a parent can focus on until the evacuation has successfully taken place. If you do you risk an unauthorized deposit....that you, of course will have to clean up. :) The joys of potty training. A gift that keeps on giving.
This is only phase one. After this we must tackle public engagements and public bathrooms. Up until this point accidents have been domestically contained, but of course that changes as we start to wear 'panties only' outside of the house. Oh boy! Fortunately parents are biologically equipped with ability to see the child's impending poo-poo look and there other are other factors that are far more obvious such as the child's inability to remove their hand (whichever they happen to favor) from the crack of their butt.
"Hey", I say "Honey, when you start doing that it means that we need to go sit on the potty. You need to poo."
"No, I don't", she says.
"Okay, whatever you say, but you know you will not be able to really relax and feel at peace until we take care of this. What can I say to make you feel ok about this?"
"Huh", she says?
"Nevermind. You just let Daddy know when you have to go, ok?"
"Ok", she says.
That doesn't really mean anything as I still have to keep an eagle eye on her and look out for the signifying tell-tell postures or any type of personal sequestering. Constipation is no fun my dear.
Aahhh, the joys of teaching proper poo-poo skills. :) I never thought I'd be a teacher of this kind of class. As interesting as it is, it's also pretty funny and has a way of bringing back your own memories of your learning, and boy is that interesting!! Ciao for now...

34 mo. Old Child Poop Training

We are trying all the machinations and styles of teaching and coercion to ever so lovingly prompt our daughter to go in the john. Our success has been pretty good, but still spotty (sorry, no pun intended, but rather unavoidable).
When somebody recommended this little video to us we listened and loved it. Shayla was enthused and has been singing it over and over again, and has taken to even singing along with the little sock guy on her hand just like the video. Check it out. Very funny and...very true. :)

Everybody Poops!!