Times, They Are A Changin?

There's definitely something weird going on.. Not sure what it is though. Daniel has always been big into Superman and Douglas into Batman. It's like blasphemy if you even look at it as the other one will freak out saying "no that's mine"! Same way with some stuffed animals. Douglas has this puppy which he affectionately calls, well, puppy. And Daniel this very soft and cuddly blue bear, appropriately named, well, blue bear. Daniel also has this white pound puppy he just calls white. I don't know where they come up with these names.

Now it gets weird. Earlier this past week, Daniel actually gave, not traded mind you, gave his blue bear to Douglas for him to have in his bed while he sleeps. This is the blue bear that goes with him to his grandparent's house every weekend. He cannot sleep without it. Instead he wants to take this alligator.

This alone, while a little weird, would not have been such a big deal.

However, this past Saturday he allowed Douglas to wear his long sleeve Superman shirt. Ok, he's being nice and sharing his shirt. But then, in a stunning turn of events, said that he could keep it in his drawer! I had to ask him 3 times to make sure I was hearing it correctly. This essentially means that he will no longer wear it. Because they wear the same size shirts, their drawers are kind of interchangeable, however they do have "their" shirts that only they wear. The Superman shirt was definitely one of those and is now being discarded like an expired coupon. Douglas then gave his Batman shirt to Daniel which is now his to wear along with puppy to sleep with.

It gets even weirder. I went in to tuck them in before I went to bed and didn't even realize until the next morning that they had switched beds!!

Are they growing up realizing they want different things?  Are they just going through a phase? What are they going to do next say that they don't want to wear Angry Birds, Ninja Turtles or Phineas and Ferb underwear anymore?  Oh, that is going to be a sad day..

How to Diffuse a Tantrum

For centuries, as long as there have been children, there have been temper tantrums.. Actually, as long as there have been adults there have been temper tantrums too..

But the hard part is what to do once it happens.. You can see it coming too. They ask for the toy and you say no. First, they get really sad when they don't get what they want. With some kids you might even get that lip quiver trying to make you feel badly. Then they might hold their breath.  And when all else fails, they start crying loudly and falling to the floor wailing. Then, the last step is to go boneless. It's really quite simple and depending on the parent, effective in getting what they want.

Except when you know how to diffuse a tantrum. Knowledge is power. Every parent is afraid of that situation when you are in public, perhaps at a supermarket or department store and the tantrum starts.

I have to say I cannot take credit for this. My wife is the one who came up with it.

When you see the tantrum start, follow these 3 easy steps to diffusing most tantrums:

1. Tell the child they are doing it wrong.

Huh?  What are you talking about?  Just trust me. Clearly the child will stop to look inquisitively at the parent trying to figure what they mean. Don't they understand that I am trying to throw a tantrum here?

2. Tell them how to do it properly. Show him that it's stomp, stomp, arm, arm and not arm, arm, stomp, stomp.

You will have the most bewildered child in the world at this point. Is my adult human really trying to tell me how to properly perform a temper tantrum? I'm the temper tantrum master don't they know this?

And then, when you have them all sorts of confused, lay the big one on:

3. Then, you flop down on the floor and flail!

Seriously, just do it. Your child will think that this is so funny and the best thing ever. Don't get me wrong, they will throw the tantrum, but they'll be LAUGHING while they do it.

Not only did you just change your child from crying to laughing in a matter of a minute, you just diffused a potentially embarrassing situation (especially if you are in a public place) and you didn't lose your temper yelling at your child.

While I can't guarantee success, I can say you have a much better chance of making a bad situation into a funny one. It seems to work with a 100% success rate in our house.

And as you are leaving the store, be sure to bow to the rounds of applause from the other parents. You will have earned it.

It's Like It's Their Sex

This post is in collaboration with guest contributor Jeff Blasbalg.

I have 2 boys so I don't know how it is with girls. I can only guess that the days are filled with playing dress up, dolls and dance recitals.. But that's just a guess. It might be something totally different, but I don't know.

What I do know is that I am a guy. And it's no secret that guys think about sex. There was some study done that said a guy thinks about sex like 40 times a minute. Now I didn't do the study, but that seems a little extreme. Or dead on, one or the other.

But anyway, even if it's 30 seconds out of every minute, guys think about sex a lot. Well, obviously 4 year olds have not discovered sex yet (at least we hope not). So what do the lives of 4 year old boys revolve around? Super Heroes. You name it, they love it. Superman, Batman, Spiderman, Hulk, Green Lantern, etc. It doesn't matter which one sometimes, just as long as it involves a super hero. We're talking t-shirts, bathing suits, lunch boxes, sheets, towels, sunglasses, plates, cups. Seriously, it never ends..

And it's all they talk about.. It's all they do. You think 40 times a minute is a lot to think about and/or talk about one subject? These boys live and breathe super heroes every waking moment of every day. It never ends.

I wonder what's going to happen when they discover girls and start thinking about things other than super heroes? Well let's just hope they upgraded their sheets by then.

Future DIY'er

I don't even know why I bother..

I've never really been very handy.  I mean, I can hammer, use a screwdriver, wrench, etc..  But you're not going to see me out there framing a garage or anything.  I did put down hardwood floor in my hallway and the dining room..  While I did have some help (someone to measure, cut the pieces, etc), I think I contributed mightily.

As anyone who has tried to assemble kids toys knows, they are not always easy to complete.  True, some of them are extremely easy and the instructions are pretty clear; others not so much.  One such Cars 2 race track is one of those not so much, at least for me.  While it was pretty simple for the most part, there is a Big Ben (Parliament) Clock Tower that the ramp comes down from and another that lies under the tower and goes up.  Those ramps meet up, but don't connect and it's pretty cool.  Additionally, when the clock says 12 then you can open the other side of the clock and a car will fall out and slide down the track.  However, you need to open it first naturally in order for the car to be placed inside.  You would think that would be the easy part, but nowhere did it say how to open the clock.  Just that when it says 12, it can open.  I couldn't for the life of me get this clock to open. 

Max however sends Finn McMissle down the ramp and the car hits this little lever that's hanging down and what do you know.. the damn clock opened..  He was so excited..  I was, um..  excited for him.. yeah..  that's what I was..

I guess I shouldn't have been surprised.  The day before the boys had woken up early and had gone down to the playroom.  They wanted to open another Cars race track set they had.  Max had brought up the Fisher Price screwdriver to show us the tool we needed to assemble it.  Hey at least he knew what the screwdriver looked like.  There's hope for him yet.