Kirk blAug

A couple of weekends ago, Chris, the boys, and I, met up with her cousin and his family at Six Flags . I had never met this cousin of Chris's before and it had been years since she last saw him, but both of our families had recently moved to Missouri. He had mentioned on Facebook that he and his family sometimes sought refuge from the small town they live in at Six Flags near St. Louis. I commented that perhaps I need to take Chris and my boys there sometime soon, to which he suggested we meet his family there. It turned out to be a great idea. We took turns with watching kids and going on rides that Tsunami and their littlest were too young to ride. Chris and I even took the chance to get one rollercoaster's worth of alone time while we rode the American Thunder and we returned the favor for them. It was a Sunday so the park was not too busy. Most lines were less than fifteen minutes to get on. By mid afternoon, however, a storm was starting to roll in so those of us in line

Before his nap today, Jupiter picked out Man Gave Names to All the Animals , written by Bob Dylan and Illustrated by Jim Arnosky, as his story. This is a book we picked up at the Kirkwood Public Library the other day. I normally let Jupiter choose some books from the shelves, but on this occasion he had already put his full attention into the dollhouse and a new friend he found who was playing with the dolls as well. Instead I, being keen to his storybook tastes, went ahead and picked out a few that I thought he would enjoy. I was in a bit of a hurry that day since it was getting close to lunch time and I had to bike back home with the boys to make their meals. Because of this, I did not even notice that Bob Dylan was the author until just before reading it to him this afternoon. The words are the lyrics to the famous Bob Dylan song of the same name. Arnosky's introduction mentions that he asked Dylan if he could paint what what he imagines when hearing the song and make a children

Imagine a scenario where you are sitting in a public place where there are a lot of strangers around, such as a restaurant. You are minding your own business when one of these complete strangers comes out of seemingly nowhere and starts telling you about how cute you are, touching you, pinching your cheeks, and running their fingers through your hair. Or maybe they even start rubbing your belly. Perhaps after that, they start making assumptions about which sexual organs you have. Does this not seem like off putting and even rude behavior? Well, some people seem to think that doing these things to infant children and pregnant mothers is perfectly socially acceptable. I can understand friends and family wanting to touch a baby and most of them have the common courtesy to ask first and get some sort of non-verbal cue from the child, such as a smile or a warm look, that it is okay. But a complete stranger in a random restaurant? I was caught off guard when a fellow restaurant patron did

Yesterday Jupiter did a little of what I was talking about in my last post. He changed it up a little. I did not tell him about my post and he does not read very much yet, but to be honest he was the inspiration for that post. I have shown him how to put his underwear on about a thousand times, by my count. Sure enough though, he came out of his room with his underwear on backwards as usual. At that point I said something along the lines of, "Dude! You got your underwear on backwards again. Is it a special holiday or something?" Only this time instead of going back to his room to try it again again, he said, "Yep!" There I was delirious and confused about what just happened. So I did the only thing a person can do. I took off my shorts and my underwear. I placed my underwear in their full and backright position. I then zipped back up, informed my friends and followers of the rule of the day, and went about my business as usual. I have come to determine one pro and

It seems to me that there are a limited number of days that we humans have to live. While I still have days left, I think I would like to experience a little bit of as much as I can. I also think that the best way to do that is to live every day differently. I would not go overboard and say jump out of a plane or climb a mountain every day. Some day I hope I will do both of those things, however there are a number of small things you can do to change it up so that every single day has something interesting and new. For instance, try different foods at restaurants you commonly go to, have tea one day instead of coffee, or ride the bus to work instead of driving. Better yet, ride your bike to work. Maybe you could wear your underwear backwards . Who would know? These are the kinds of incremental changes I make to my day to keep things interesting. It seems to keep me sort of sane. You know, somewhat. I think it is a good idea to make a big change in the way you do things every so often a

Hello there loyal readers! After all, you must be pretty loyal to come back to my blog with the infrequency of posts that have been happening here. Rest assured, this blog is not going away. It just needed some rejuvenation time. I think I will probably be exploring my capabilities with video a little bit more as well as perhaps doing a few more regular post such as the story review I did a bit over a week ago. With that said, my excuse for my absence of regular posting has been due to the title of this post. Or more specifically poor attention distribution. It is something that we all struggle with whether you stay at-home with the littles, go to work to provide for your family, or even just among friends. Paying the proper amount of attention to those you call loved ones is very important. We all get caught up in what we are doing long enough to fail to give someone their deserved attention at some point. I think it is a good idea to keep re-evaluating that constantly. For example,

I am no parenting expert. I do not really think that such a thing actually exists. But I am pretty sure that what is going on in this video qualifies as bad parenting: Couple put their baby in the machine to scare him but it turned out to be a bad idea as the machine had auto lock system and it took the child for a spin.The child suffered minor injuries and is safe. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coYoIHj91HA&w=420&h=315]

Today Jupiter picked out Older Than the Stars , written by Karen C. Fox and Illustrated by Nancy Davis, to read before his nap. This is one of my favorite books of his. It is about how the universe started and how we all got to be here. Every time I read this book to my now, three and a half year old son, Jupiter, he understands a little bit more of it and is completely amazed at how things began. The illustration in the book is simply beautiful. It is fun to look at and discuss the things that Jupiter sees in this book from the neutrons, protons, and electrons all the way to the plants and animals that formed on earth. I highly recommend this book for any child or adult who is wondering the hows and whys of our existence.