Making the connection...

[lazygood4nothinbum]

I remember thinking that the chickens WANTED to be our great dinner and felt special to be on that pretty plate in the middle of the table.

"you mean this animal actually wants us to eat it?"

YouTube - Hitchhikers Guide - Ok, we'll Meet the Meat, thats Cool

fast foward to 6:00/09:45

"good evening madam & gentlemen...i am the main dish of the evening...may i interest you in something off my shoulder perhaps, braised in a little white wine..."

 

[Moemg]

Does Gabe have the Geo Track system ? I bought it for my grandkids and they love it . It's the perfect size for young hands .

 

[whitestick]

And where is his Dell XP based laptop?

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

You really want me to take a picture of his Latitude? Unfortunately it only runs win98...

He's got several computing goodies, but he's mostly interested in his Leapfrog Clickstart. Its got some built in educational type games and takes plug in cartridges. Uses a regular keyboard layout and an optical mouse, so it helps set him up for regular computer use.

I hadnt seen the geotrax before but it looks interesting He's got one of the old fashioned wood track train sets and a very large recessed train table, with enough tracks, bridges, garages and whatnot to amuse him for a while. He spends about an hour a day rearranging the tracks and tinkering with different options. He's just discovered the little trestles that let you add second and third levels and has turned out some real rube goldberg setups.

 

[Marquette]

Oh I knew, I just did it to tick him off. Dads payback.

Wait, you knew the difference between a truck and a helicopter too? Thank goodness, you might still have a few years on him!

just kidding, his thought process is awesome.

 

[whitestick]

You really want me to take a picture of his Latitude? Unfortunately it only runs win98...

He's got several computing goodies, but he's mostly interested in his Leapfrog Clickstart.

Naw, just pulling your chain.
Actually, my grandson, who's 2, also is more interested in his Leapfrog, although he does come in PaPaws room to look at the Mac, and play with the keyboard. Wish I knew a few more words of his language to understand what he is asking for. I think it is why are all of those PCs sitting there turned off, and only the Mac is in use all the time
Done hijacking, back to the OP discussion.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Nah, hijacks are the way we do business around here.

Funny about little kids language. I'm around him all the time, but my wifes out of the house a few days a week. I have to translate for her all the time. He's mostly quite understandable but some of the stuff coming out of him is hysterical for a three year old.

 

[Dreamer]

Wow, he has really grown and is still cute as ever! Sounds like he is one intelligent child.

 

[ladelfina]

I'm always encouraging sis to write this stuff down.. it's TOO funny! She only had time to send me the tip of the iceberg once in a while:

"If you lose your video, your head will CRAASH off. And if you find your video, your head will stay on. For a long, long time."

[Son] has named his daddy's sweater===> "It's A Boogie Dawn" !?!?

Taking cues from W, [Son] has taken to assigning nicknames to all the children he meets: He declares to the children that their names are such as Sky, One, and TwigsFormer.

...he heard the power tools whirring in the garage, came halfway down the stairs and called out to me, "Mommy, is that a fire drill?"


Mom: Would you like a molassas cookie?
[Son]: No thanks, I'm planning to position for an Oreo.

At 4, he declared he was a trans-Neptunian object. He coined the word "twoodler" for a toddler who is 2. And he "doesn't know how to use the cat."

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

He lifted up his little electric ride on car, hooked it to the back of his police car (dont ask), and shinnied under it. Loudly declaring "I can see the problem right here...Gunka! (my dad) Go get my tools so I can fix it!" A minute or two later when my dad was still standing there snickering, he pulls his head out and says "HEY! Do you WORK here or not?"

 

[Nords]

How is it possible your light-colored carpet does not show a spot with a 3-year old around?

What CFB has inadvertently omitted is the fact that last week the carpet was white...

I don't miss those years a bit, but I really enjoyed it when our kid would go down for a nap, connect another 10,000 cerebral neurons, and wake up smarter. The reverse phenomenon seems to occupy the teen years.

 

[megacorp-firee]

It seems Gabe has made his first connection with what he eats and where it comes from. One of his favorite foods is chicken, he'll eat it all day long. We've been over at the park near the zoo sanctuary a lot lately, where a lot of feral chickens congregate, and he's been chasing/petting them. They're rather tame for wild chickens.

Anyhow, last night I gave him his dinner and he pointed at the chicken and said "Ahhhh! No chicken! I dont want to eat that NO MORE!". I asked him why and he said "Because I like to play with them better."

Wait until he figures out where bacon (his second favorite food) comes from. The have several big old pigs at the sanctuary. At least pigs arent called "bacon".

Might have a vegetarian coming along. Although he's no big fan of vegetables either. My wifes tricky though, she purees beets and puts that into brownies and cauliflower puree goes into cupcakes. Seems the chocolate masks any beet flavor and the cauliflower is so bland that it disappears into the cupcake. Actually makes both the brownies and cupcakes moister and fuller bodied too.

I knew there was a reason for my DD's in-laws (farmers) number their cows. They are for milk, but the uh elderly ones end up as the occassional supper. It would be tough eating Elsie ...

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

What CFB has inadvertently omitted is the fact that last week the carpet was white...

What I'm omitting is that between the camera flash and the bright sunlight outside the picture window right behind Gabe, the carpet looks about 20 shades lighter than it is. Its sort of a medium mocha color. And I steam cleaned it the week before. And its so full of toys that the dogs dont wander through it.

I don't miss those years a bit, but I really enjoyed it when our kid would go down for a nap, connect another 10,000 cerebral neurons, and wake up smarter.

Ahhh...the joys of naps. Gabe still takes 2-3 hour snoozes in the afternoon and thats the only time I can get anything done without an extra pair of hands magically appearing in the middle of whatever i'm doing.

The reverse phenomenon seems to occupy the teen years.

MORE good news! Because I think i'm in a race to maintain discipline over Mr. Independent and I figured that since I'll be hitting 60 by the time he's well into his teenage years that I'd have to use a combination of physical size, followed by intelligence, followed by financial leverage. Good to know if I need a boost in the intelligence area that all I have to do is put him to sleep.

 

[Nords]

... by the time he's well into his teenage years that I'd have to use a combination of physical size, followed by intelligence, followed by financial leverage.

Yeah, sure, good luck with that. The only assets you get to have are a whole lotta patience & stamina.

Any object or activity confused as a conflict with parental authority immediately becomes overwhelmingly compelling, even if they normally would be disgusted by it. Mix it up with sex/drugs/rock&roll and you're lucky if you win one out of three.

I may be occupationally biased, but I think the best parental guidance is in Sun Tzu's "The Art of War" where he says that victories should be won without fighting any war at all. Use their emotion & angst against themselves. Merely the threat of embarrassment in front of their friends/teachers. Parental zen & jiu-jitsu.

Lately we've gotten some mileage out of "Well, let's talk about all the things that could happen and you decide what you want to avoid" and "It's not whether your mom or I think you should do it, it's whether you think this is the best way for you to achieve your goals" or "How well has that worked out for your [unemployed or pregnant or awaiting trial] alleged friends?" I especially like "How many hours would you have to work at your job to afford that?"

An interesting educational tactic (we're still working on it) has been our parental "AP Classic Rock History" series. Any commercial sound track or a movie cameo is fair game for an e-mail followup with the story behind the song, the lyrics, and a YouTube video link. Salacious behavior is a bonus. While she's rocking out (or laughing at the outfits & antics) I point out how Steven Tyler or Janice Joplin or Keith Richards or Rick James or Eddie Van Halen or Alice Cooper spent a large part of their free time (and money). The "Well, they turned out OK!" defense is met with a cataloging of all the family, friends, & fortunes they lost along the way. I think I really scared her when I told her that Keith Richards' cameo in "Pirates of the Caribbean" was done using his own hair and without any makeup.

A couple years ago an 18-year-old acquaintance of ours had a fight with her parents, moved out, and asked if she could stay with us for a few weeks. She used to ride dressage with our kid but now that was out of the question-- she spent all her time looking for a room to rent, working the KMart midnight restocking shift, dealing with a dying truck transmission, and struggling with the bureaucracy to take her GED and get into a (any) college. In the evenings we'd all talk about those types of struggles and how to solve the problems. We encouraged our kid to spend a lot of time with her. Those weeks made a gargantuan impression on our then 13-year-old.

I can vouch that when you ask a teenager "What were you thinking?!?" the answer will either be "Hunh?" or "Uh, about what?"

You can try to [-]arm[/-] prepare yourself by reading the comic strip "Zits"...

 

[ladelfina]

Nords, those are great lines... I like how they are non-confrontational and just simply ask the kid to work things out logically where possible. I think a lot of kids' frustration comes not only from being talked "at", but from being talked down to. I had a lot of confrontation with my dad (even though I never really did anything bad, I just have a big mouth). If he'd taken that tone with me, it would've taken the wind out of my sails, for sure.

 

[Marquette]

Just an fyi...

The frontal lobe of the brain isn't fully wired until well into your 20's. That means that:
1) critical thinking isn't the strong point of a teen, so keep that in mind when you wonder why so many of them act so stupid.

2) your brain is going to wire up in direct relation to how it's being trained. For instance, world-class pianists have a much stronger wiring between their auditory and motor controls. So, Nords, getting your kid to repeatedly exercise that frontal lobe is going to pay off handsomly now and down the road.

 

[MikeD]

My father's favorite, when asked by us if we could do something clearly outrageous, was to say "Just do whatever you think is right."

Worked every time.

 

[Achiever51]

When DD was younger, we used the line: "Remember every choice has consequences, some of which may be life changing. We're not going to tell you you can't do (fill in the blank), but if you CHOOSE to do (fill in the blank), you better be prepared to also face the consequences -- good and bad -- of your decision."

I knew we finally hit a nerve when I heard her repeating the line to one of her friends on the phone!