Kid Vices and Rolls Royce Limo Rides

The kids all have their vices.

Adrienne sucks her thumb and has a special "blankie" that she loves- she normally doesn't sleep without it. Kind of normal for a 3 year old.

Atticus doesn't go anywhere without his pacifier that we call "binky" Until recently he had a strap that clipped to his shirt so he had it on him ALL the time. Now he isn't wearing that but he still can't ride in a vehicle or sleep without a binky in his mouth. Sort of normal for a 3 year old when the parents didn't push him toward giving up the habit.

Then there is Lolo. Starting kingergarten tomorrow and she turned five years old in January. She still can't seem to ride in a car or sleep without a binky. Last night was only the second time in her life that I can recall that she didn't sleep with a binky in her mouth.

The first time that I remember her not sleepign with a binky was this past March I think when we camped out in tents on the parent's property in the cow pasture. She fell asleep in a sleeping bag beside the bonfire and I carried her to the tent where she slept fine without the mouth plug.

Last night Lolo had a sleep-over with her good friend Alyssa. Alyssa's grandfather owns and runs a billion dollar company. Therefore, Alyssa's father and mother are very wealthy. They own a Rolls Royce Limo. Alyssa's father chauffeured Princess Alyssa and Princess Lolo around the town all dolled up in their princess dresses. Apparently Lolo had the time of her life and enjoyed picking up the phone in the limo to instruct the driver where to go next. So she slept without the plug last night. I believe it was out of embarrassment that she didn't use the binky.

Last year when I was taking her to school every morning to drop her off she always made a point to remove the binky from her mouth before she got out of the car to go into school. She would be embarrassed to go to school with it.

So yesterday we had orientation with the PreK3 teachers and the topic of conversation turned to the kids vices. One of the teachers gave the wife encouragement to get rid of the binkys pointing out the future troubles with teeth. I think the wife may be on board now trying to get rid of the vices. We will have to wait and see.

First Day of School

Tomorrow is the first day of school for the kids. Lolo will be in Kindergarten which won't be a big step for her because she went to the same school last year for Pre K4. Adrienne and Atticus are going to the same school as Lolo and will be in PreK3. They too went to a pre school program last year but they were in a different school.

I am trying to figure out how I am going to afford all this private school education.

Too much TV

I am concerned about our youngest daughter Adrienne. She prefers to poop outside in the mulch. She just left me a nice present there.

But more of a concern is that she always wants to watch TV while her siblings play outside. She prefers to sit there glued to the TV and we allow it. Lolo and Atticus regularly play together outside but Adrienne more often than not just watches TV. She will play outside too but not as often as her brother and sister.

About a month and a half ago Adrienne started sleeping in Lolo's bed. She was scared of the dark and regularly slept with all of her lights on. Now it seems to be working better with her sleeping with Lolo.

Jonesing to Ride

I did a thorough clean job on my bike's chain, derailleurs and gears today. I also changed both tires and the front tube. It had a very slow leak but the rear tube did not so I didn't change it.

Have you ever tried to work on your bike (or get anything else done for that matter) while watching a three year old boy and a five year old girl. There were a million questions and just a general sense that I was not paying enough attention to either of them. I tried to accomodate both of them the best I could while changing the tires and tubes.

I put on Vittoria Zaffiro Pro II Road tires I purchased from Nashbar at www.nashbar.com. I got two of them for $44.98. I bought from Nashbar because I thought I was not going to have to pay sales tax but I was wrong. The Nashbar site could have been better because I don't recall it telling me that I was going to have to pay sales tax until I was at the last step of checking out.

Anyway, I am really eager to get back on the bike but I have a trip planned next week. I was gone all last week to Honduras. These back-to-back trips suck but I just hope it helps keep my company in business. The economy has really put a big hurting on us.

Despite the fact that my business is struggling, I did score twice last night thanks to a week's absence, a candlelight bath, a couple of glasses of wine, smooth tunes and a nice relaxing conversation about the offspring. We need to do that more often.

Cha-ching.

Days at the Lake

We took the family and my brother's family to the lake last weekend. We all had a blast just chilling and swimming. It was the first time that we did not have big issues with the boat. For the first four trips to the lake the boat would not start. I cannot begin to describe how badly this sucks. The kids get all excited from the anticipation and we spend quite a lot of time getting all of our shit packed, then we drive 25 minutes to get to the lake hop in the boat and it won't start! So you try to contain the three kids on the dock while you try to get the boat to start. Sucks so hard.

Anyway last weekend the boat started with a jump box (portable battery jumper) and off we drove with five kids five and under. We swam and drove the boat around. The kids loved it.

Lolo tried to waterski for the first time. She wanted me to drive the boat and her uncle to be in the water with her. Unfortunately no one thought to instruct her to let go of the rope handle if she fell. Well of course she didn't get up on top of the water her first try and he held on to the handle and it dragged her through the water. It scared her and she cried a little bit. It was enough to make her not want to try again so she just tried one time.

The kids are now at the breakfast table chanting "Run away, run away from that poop!" over and over again. Classic.