Sunday, January 25, 2009

A Plumbing Manual

Plumbing. Its a necessity. When it doesn't work, there forms a ripple in the space time continum. When one doesn't want to use the great invention that is modern plumbing, all sanity is lost.

The following manual is being published due to the lack of manuals in this area.

Chapter 1: Developing the desire to use the plumbing.

If an individual lives in your house that shows disinterest in utilizing the household facilities to urinate, you must first discern the cause of said disinterest. In my experience, this could be due to several factors:

- Too busy with the current activity at hand;
- Unconcerned with wet pants; or, possibly
- Laziness

Professionals suggest that ways to overcome the above may include candy after successful peeage (aka bribery) and utilizing only positive praise. In some cases toilet targets can be helpful (unless said family member is a little girl). In no means must the parent revert back to diapers. This is regression and should be avoided at all costs.

In my professional parenting experience, I have attempted all of the above, with limited success. We are not above bribery by any means and utilize candy to its fullest. Alas, the greatest success seems to have come by merely uttering the words "you don't want wet pants" and continually suggesting use of the facilities. Since 100% success has not yet been achieved, look for the follow-up edition to this manual.

Chapter 2: Utilization of the toilet to its fullest.

Toilets are designed to handle two forms of waste - solid and liquid. Liquid seems to be the easiest for young family members to master. In some instances, particularly in the male of the species, the transition from standing to the seated position for purposes of excretion can be a difficult transition. It is here that the experience of professionals fails and fails miserably.

If said child has qualms about discharging excrement in the toilet, no amount of bribery or cajoling will help. It only makes the boy more anxious about the endeavour.

I have no solution or conclusion to this chapter. See the follow-up edition to this manual.

Chapter 3: All household plumbing fails.

Sometimes, particularly it seems on weekends, a terrorizing situation occurs. This is something the husband refers to as a back-up. Often the husband is convinced that he himself is a plumber and can rectify such situations. Alas, you may find yourself in a situation of wandering from room to room where dirty water fills sinks and the smell of Drain-o waifs through the house.

In this situation, this author suggests waiting it out for the day. The following day, be prepared to contact professional plumber.

Yes, in all aspects of household plumbing, there are leaks, back-ups, stinks, and sheer terror. The cure may be long in coming. When at the end of your rope following such situations, this author recommends grabbing a large glass of Riesling and listening to the following: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SA1KfRuE-Ic (and no, it isn't MCC)

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To escape the aforementioned potty woes of the weekend, we partied - Giada's (aka Baby G) 1st birthday party. Baby G's parents are our good friends Chris and Sharon. Chris and I used to work together at Isler before we both jumped ship for greener pastures.

At the party, the kids took part in their first ever game of Pin the Tail on the Donkey (see video clip below). Siena was quite adept at this.
That's Siena's #3 there. Course, her second try netted the #9 on the Donkey's eye, right next to Mason's #5 on the Donkey's nose.
This money shot is DeCicco playing Wii baseball.
The kids also played Mario kart on the Wii with the big boys. Lets just say that after their demonstrated driving abilities, neither were allowed to drive home. They had fun though.
And cake and ice cream...
Giada enjoyed her big #1 piece of cake too, though at times she seemed unsure of what to make of all the attention bestowed upon her.
I think the bigger kids enjoyed the opening of the presents even more than Giada. She got lotsa books and fun things though.
Here's video footage of the big party. Note Siena's Wii knock out punch on Mason at the end of the second video. He's fine but his arm is a little sore.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

The Marathon Continues

Yup, the Siena pottytraining extravaganza continues. Status same as last weekend - pee in underware leaves her completely unfazed.

We did very little noteworthy this week. I did workout 5 days. Much of my motivation comes from being such a crappy athlete as a kid - I blame DNA. Course, DNA probably could have been overcome with a bit of effort. As a kid I didn't have the diligence to do what it would have taken to be good at a sport and without natural ability to make up for it, I stunk. But I had fun.

Here's me (second white jersey from left) in 1st grade soccer. I'm the one watching the action. Somehow this shot made the Tualatin Times.

Here's 9th grade basketball. We never won a game that season. All I can focus on here are the short shorts and the bangs. It's really hard to maintain sculpted bangs when playing basketball. My legs haven't been that skinny since then either.
This is 10th grade basketball. Luckily we went 21-4. Winning was much more fun. I'm second from the right in this one. My good friend Laura is far right. The shorts are still short. I remember shoving pillows in this uniform to try to stretch it out.
The above was my last year playing basketball. I think most all of my other sports pictures must be at my parents house. Or I burned them in disgrace. At the very least, these days I'm more willing to run hard and push it since I understand the importance and the good things that can come of it. Aaahhh, the benefits of hindsight.
I was never forced by my parents to do sports. They let me participate as much or as little as I wanted to. I liked it. I plan to do the same with Mason and Siena. As long as they like it and are having fun, they can play. I may at least impart a little bit of my hindsight though...they can take it or leave it.
To continue (or conclude) the great MCC country saga, MCC describes herself as a slasher (country/folk/rock). The reader can decide for themselves. Here are a few of my favorites:
The Hard Way CMT Finale w/ Betty Buckley and more http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xf7dn4VrYXs&feature=related
Are you still with me Craig?

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Do YOU have to go pee pee?

Yes, we're working diligently on Siena's potty training. That involves plopping her on the toilet every hour on the hour. For some reason, sitting in wet, sogging britches doesn't phase her. This is how a typical conversation with Siena regarding whether or not she needs to go pee pee goes:

Me: Siena, do you need to go pee pee?

Siena: NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Me: Remember, every time you go pee pee in the potty you get a piece of candy...

Siena: I ready go pee pee now...

In other bad influences, here's the kids this week at YaYa and Papa Ron's house. Apparently there was a lot of wetness involved which was encouraged by said Grandparents. At least mom invested in some boots, not that that kept the kids any drier but whatever...

A boy and his dump truck. That's his new coat that Gloria gave him. He likes it because it's yellow like Mama's coat.
Siena needs no encouragement to get wet.
Those Tonka's are burly dump trucks.
A girl and water...Anne Geddes can't even dream up this stuff...
Jose turned 57 yesterday (Saturday). As my mother informed me, he shares a birthday with Toby the dog. Probably not a fact Jose wants to know. My niece Tristyn is below with friend of the Cruz family Carmen. In the background is Junior, Facebooks newest member. Peer pressure is brutal!
Our 2 nieces - Kendra and Tristyn. Tristyn is wearing one of Siena's baby shirts. Its fun for me to see Siena's old clothes again. At least they can get some use!
Jose and the Grandkids. Andre is the one showboating in back. The kid has some Broadway flair!
Not sure what's up with the "?"...is there some dispute over his age? Hummm.....
Attack of the grandkids!!!! You can't even imagine all the places frosting can be crammed!
The only thing that can get all of the kids seated together in one place is cake. There's the Broadway showboater again!
Ever popular at Cruz family functions is the music! Its Hispanic, loud, and festive. Here's Siena tearing it up with Kendra and her friend.
In other news, I feel no need to prove that Mary Chapin Carpenter isn't country. She certainly was in her earlier years and had her biggest hits on the country charts. Nothing wrong with that. However, here's a clip of recent MCC, circa 2004: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0HR8B8GsMs
In yet further news, I've come to the realization that I still can't peel an orange without making an enormous juicy mess. I believe that skill is a prerequisite to successful parenting. Is there a class on this I can take!?!

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

HAPPY NEW YEARS !!!

WooHoo! No snow pictures this blog!!

This looks like an exciting New Years Eve celebration, doesn't it? We weren't there. We were at home with our friends the DeCicco's (sans Baby G who was visiting grandparents). While the Wii activity was bordering on racous at times, it was still pretty low key. And to show how unenthused we all were about the changing of a date, we didn't even stop our game of Clue when the ball dropped, though we did all guess at that point.

We watched Dick Clark. Its time for him to retire. I also know I'm old when I no longer recognize any of the famous teeny-boppers on there. There seems to be a gap somewhere between Nirvana and Handy Manny that's lost on us.

We had a good time with the DeCicco's but New Year's always puts such a kink in my sleep schedule. Course, I was in bed by 12:22. Still, I was all discombobulated for 3 days...again, all for the sake of the changing of a date which will like me mess me up for the next month anyway anytime I go to write it.

Sunday we went with Jose and Sara to the Oregon Ducks basketball game vs. No. 12 UCLA. Here's our seats...note the rafter. Course, the tickets were free so no complaints here.

Here's an Oregon player shooting a free throw. It was probably a miss. Most of their free throws were.
That doesn't mean the Oregon fans weren't still into it, especially since Oregon put on a nice little run in the 2nd half.
The best part of the day had to be all the healthy food we ate:
Breakfast - German Pancake (thanks honey!)
Lunch - Hot Dog and Nachos
Dinner - KFC
We're shopping for the defribulator later this week.
In other exciting news (to me at least), I found this classic MCC clip on YouTube. This is her performance at the 1990 CMA awards. The subject of the song was likely in the audience. Enjoy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvPnNcOz64w