June 30, 2006

Over on the other blog I pseudo-regularly write for, the blog fathers, William wrote a great post on whether people think sense of humor is genetic. My opinion? Absolutely. Case in point: Hayes.

Yes, Hayes is at it again. His new favorite thing to do is to call Jen “Dada” and occasionally call me “MaMa” or just calling us both “Dada.” Now, normally I’d think this was just a learning curve type of thing, but he’s been calling me “Dada” and Jen “Mama” for a few months, then inexplicably started in with “Dada” for Jen. The other tip-off is that this is totally my contrarian type of humor.

Yes, I think being contrary for contrary’s sake is the ultimate inside joke. It’s the joke that only you get until you choose to spill the beans, at which point you still think it’s funny and everyone else involved thinks you’re an idiot. I think this hysterical.

Apparently, so does Hayes.

Exactly how would I know that, given that Hayes lacks the vocabulary to tell us that this is all a big joke to him? Well, it’s the look. And the delivery. We ask him “who’s that” and point at Jen. He looks at us like we’re stupid, points and yells: “Da-da!” and then gives us his best W smirk.

Yup, he’s playing a joke. A joke on us. I think it’s hysterical.

BTW, I will be ON VACATION ALL OF NEXT WEEK AND WILL NOT BE WRITING ANY POSTS. Can you tell I’m excited? Have a happy 4th!

June 28, 2006

Don’t even bother. Unless the thought of super, super sweet sparkling Dunkin Donuts Hazelnut coffee appeals to you. In which case, boy does Coke have a beverage for you!

June 27, 2006

We had an all twin weekend and let me say, all you with twins (childsplay x2 and two okapis, I’m looking at you), you’re my hero. Not sure how you do it.

Ok, now that I got off my chest, Hayes had a day and a night with 2 year old twin girls in Vactionland (otherwise known as Maine) and then a few hours back in Worcester with my college roomate’s two year old sons. It was a great time.

It was fun to see the differences between the boys and girls. Hayes was a wildman in comparison to the girls, and tame in comparison to the boys. Despite that, he clearly enjoyed both thoroughly.

Yup, lots of fun.

June 19, 2006

Hi! If you’ve travelled here via the Statesman or The Seattle Post-Intelligencer welcome! Special thanks to Paul Nyhan of the Post-Intelligencer and Joe Gross of the Stateman — I appreciate the mentions and the well writen articles! Also, while you’re here, please feel free to disregard the spelling mistakes, you’ll find it makes for a much happier experience!

It’s official, Hayes is saying full sentences — and it’s been confirmed by a non-family/friend third party. He even waited for Father’s Day to bust it out. Yup, that’s the kind of good son I’ve got. Oh, and did I mention it was really funny in that inappropriate but not knowing kid sort of way? Yes, this was one I’m gonna be telling his kids about.

So, let’s set the scene, shall we? We’re at the check out line at Target and Hayes is playing with his two new $.99 trucks (I mean, how can you pass up $.99 trucks? They should be outlawed. They’re so cheap, they’re evil.) The kid at the check out, one of the better kids I’ve seen with youngins, politely asks for the trucks so he can scan them/ At first Hayes is hesitent, but after the first one beeps on the scanner and the kid quickly hands it back to Hayes, Hayes is intrigued and give him the other one, which he also quickly gets back to Hayes. Hayes thought he had a new friend in the smiling kid at the counter.

Flash back to Starbucks, daily, for, say, the last couple of months. Hayes and I are there, I’m getting my coffee he’s eating those high-calorie breakfast treats that they cut up and leave up hoping to entice you to buy a whole one. The girls there a gaga (forgive me) over Hayes. They’re always trying to get him to talk to them. “Bye,” they’ll say, “bye!” But, though Hayes can say it, he’s reticent. “Are you gonna say bye?” I ask. Nope. Then, invariably, he says it to no one as I clip him into his car seat.

Ok, back to Target and Hayes’ new friend. The only way Hayes knows to show he cares is to say “Hi” or “Bye” to someone. He gets an immediate reaction, and he glows. It’s great. So, he tries this trick on his new friend behind the cash register.

“Bye!” He says, “Bye!”

The kid says nothing

“Bye!” he tries again. Still nothing.

“Are you gonna say bye? Are you gonna say bye?” Hayes yells.

The woman behind us, now at the checkout says to the kid,”He’s asking you if your going to say bye.”

The kid blushes. “Bye,” He says. “Bye”

Hayes smiles. His work here is done.

June 16, 2006

For some reason, some reason I could never fathom, the great mom blog, mommybloggers.com wanted me to write a post for them about dads for father’s Day. I guess I know something about being a dad, so I get that part. Anyway, if you can get past the usual spelling mistakes and typos (you’re here, aren’t you?), then it’s worth a look at the first post of mine that made Jen cry. Cars Dads Boys Enjoy!

June 14, 2006

Here comes the ABCs by They Might Be Giants is Hayes’ favorite DVD. Actually, other than Speed Racer, which we deemed to violent (sorry, Speed, your time will come), it’s the only DVD Hayes has watched.

I know that pediatricians recommend that children under two don’t watch TV. I also know that for most of us, that recommendation is not heeded as, you know, we need the extra time to do things like take a shower. Anyway, I would also argue that Hayes has actually learned from the songs/dvd.

For instance, Hayes can do the alphabet from A to C. That’s pretty cool. He also beats the puppets to the punchline when they use words he can repeat — like “no.” They’ll be talking, Hayes will suddenly say “no” then one of the puppets immediately says “no.” So, that’s cool, too. And, there’s even a song about conifers. Every child needs to hear a song about conifers ad nauseum. It’s learning, people.

I, on the other hand, need to hear something different every once in a while. Don’t get me wrong. I’m a big TMBG fan from the early days… ok, Jen is, I kinda caught on round about Flood. Anyway, as cool as they are and the video is, I can only hear “E eats Everything” so many times before it wakes me up at the night on perpetual repeat in my head.

But, he’s learning, right? So, it’s not all bad. And TMBG’s Here Come The ABC’s is one of the best of ‘em. If you need that distraction and are willing to let a little TV into your youngester’s world that isn’t Barney or Boobah, this is a good one. And it’s cool. Cool is… uh.. cool.