Tidy Husband

Eligible for the seniors discount and the Happy Meal deal at the same time.

  1. Sugar High

    I have nobody to blame by myself.

    When we go to the outlet mall, we get her some sugar. It’s assumed.

    a black and white photo of a long hallway

    Photo by Nestor Mehanikov on Unsplash

    In my defense, we don’t go often but every once in a while we do go and have a look around and usually come out with more sugar in our bloodstream than when we went in.

    Today we were there with Abuela as there’s a store she likes to visit while here and across the aisle is a candy store that sells nothing but weird overpriced candy so it’s an easy few minutes to kill while we leave abuela alone to shop in peace.

    Once the novelty of the candy store waned, we tossed a few quarters in the gumball machine and now we’re the proud owner of a bouncy ball that will probablyy meet it’s demise after it goes through the dog and I find it in the yard.

    The tradition is we go to Yogen Fruz and we get her a frozen yogurt. Healthy yes? Um..not really. Because then we top it with sugary candy so the nutritional balance skews to the unhealthy end of the chart.

    Here’s a photo:

    Not the best, but it is the end of summer so what’s one last treat yes?

    After we got home, she went and found a friend to wear off all that sugar so in the end it worked all out..

    Except, the day wasn’t done yet.

    Tonight with Abuela here she made us a diner pie for dessert

    Banana Cream to be exact:

    Lookout bloodstream! Here comes more sugar!

    And OMG did the sugar hit afterwards. She was inside singing at the top of her lungs and eventually we just sent her outside to sing and play with sticks or something, anything - get out of the house!

    So…ya. The sugar count was a little higher than planned today.

    Tomorrow, it’s carrot soup for her breakfast.

    Me? I’ll have another slice of that pie.

    Until Next Time,

    TH and Co.

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  2. Homesick

    It looks like the idea of being away from Mom and Dad for so long has been realized and there have been tears.

    gray and white concrete house

    Photo by Dillon Kydd on Unsplash

    These tears mostly happen at night so we’re not sure if they’re just tired tears as we get this at home too. If you recall there’s some bedtime tears about missing her friend Diamond as well.

    I’ve been told that she’s fine in the a.m and is happy to be with Abuela. Today they went over to her Aunt’s and from the photos I saw of her, she was eating very well and living her best life so who knows.

    But, it’s been a week and that’s when the homesick seems to happen - the novelty wears off a bit and home starts to look real good again when you’re away, regardless of age.

    AI created this. It kind of looks like her. I think.

    I’m told she even misses the dog, and if you have met my dog there’s not much to miss. Sure, the dog is sweet and as illustrated the other day just wants to be a lap dog but this dog will not win awards for being smart, that’s for sure.

    It’s not like we left her with some long lost relative we only see once every few years. We talk on the phone to Abuela every day and she’s been in the child’s life since Day 1 so it’s not like she’s around strangers.

    At one point, she was going to come home tomorrow, but cooler heads have prevailed and she’s there for one more day at least - tomorrow she goes to the zoo, which is perfect because that’s the one field trip she missed from camp.

    I’m a homebody too (BW would argue too much at times) so I get it. There’s something about having your own bed and being around your stuff and the familiar sights and sounds of home.

    Like they say

    Heck, after a while even the dog starts to look good.

    Hang in there, little one. Our hearts haven’t forgotten about you.

    We miss you too.

    Until Next Time,

    TH and Co.

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  3. A Day at the Beach

    This was her idea. As all things, they start with “Hey Dad!”.

    “Let’s go to the beach”

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    she sat like tihs for some time. just happy to sit there and be at the beach. That’s Canada in the distance.

    “Okay, we can do that”, I replied.

    She was determined to get there by 10am because her new best friend Diamond told her she was going to to the beach too. Spoiler: Diamond was not at the beach.

    My days started wih her in my room at 6am.

    “I’m excited for the beach”, she told me.

    “Go downstairs and watch YouTube”, I replied.

    A few hours later when it was a much more reasonable hour to be awake we had breakfast and then somehow all three of us managed to remember the towels and chairs and umbrellas and snacks and off we went to the beach!

    We’re really lucky and we should take advantage of this more - the beach is a 15 minute drive which is great and heck, there’s even a view of the old country in the distance.

    We did all the things one does at the beach:

    • Fought with the umbrella.
    • Heard the phrase “watch me” about a million times
    • Said the phrase “be careful” about 2 millions times
    • Got sunburned
    • Had overpriced snacks from the “Sand Shack”.
    • Wondered if we would ever get her free of sand ever again.

    This summer camp has been really good for her this summer. It’s now her beach and she was happy to show me where the bathrooms were and we went to the blue playgound they have and she was right: they have a zipline. It looks like a lot of fun.

    They go to the blue playground during camp but they are not allowed on the zipline because of safety, she told me. I can see that- they only have so many staff members and they can have fun on the other things like slides and swings.

    She is getting less afraid of the water. Is she actually swimming yet? No.

    Is she afraid of getting her face wet and going under water? No, and that’s a good thing. She’ll never be an olympic swimmer I doubt but learning to swim is a life skill she should have.

    After the beach, her friend Ethel came over to play and they played outside for a bit and then wanted to come inside and watch the tablet (NO) and it was deciced they wanted to swim in our pool too.

    Of course it wasn’t a summer day in August without a treat so BW said they could have a popsicle. The kids come inside and tell me they can have ice cream - so I gave them ice cream.

    We show up with the ice cream and BW asks me why the ice cream? I told her because she said they could. I got bamboozled by these two and tricked into giving them ice cream instead.

    Those two are dangerous together.

    She somehow managed to hold it all together even though she had been up since 6am and we had a later dinner so it was 8 before she went to bed. We made it to the toothbrushing stage and she was so tired and cranky that the brushing was a half-hearted at best.

    I heard a few cries of being completely exhausted after a very long day and then she was out.

    As she was going to bed she asked: “Did you have fun at the beach Dad?”

    “Of course, I replied”

    Until Next Time,

    TH and Co.

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  4. The Silent Treatment

    Today I missed the whole bedtime routine and this rarely happens. I ended up working late and came home justas BW got her into bed. We have a surprise visitor for her when she wakes up: her grandmother is here!

    She has no idea that this is happening.

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    The trick is to keep her asleep until morning. Hopefully the summer camp did it’s job and exhausted her. The problem is fireworks. Whomever decided that celebrating starting a country with fireworks never had small children that go to bed at a decent time.

    As I write this, BW is guarding the door in case she gets woken up by these pesky fireworks. We have the noise blocking headphones at the ready for when she wakes up from the noise.

    rectangular white case on gray surface

    Photo by Possessed Photography on Unsplash

    Speaking of noise,

    Last night was a looong night here. First, we had a big summer storm that woke her up with the thunder and then a few hours later the band-aids she had put on earlier in the evening on the smallest injury on her knee - fell off.

    Normal people would live without the band-aid because whatever, but no the child: they had to be replaced at 1am because she’s six. I did what any parent would do: I feigned sleep and let BW take care of it.

    I wish I could write that this was the end of the sleepless night but nope, at 5:45 this morning she came into my room and wanted breakfast. I tried to explain that it was 2 hours until she could go to Camp and that she really should go back to bed

    Cue the screaming.

    Sigh. I got up and washed my face and when I came back into the bedroom she had crawled into my bed and fell asleep.

    Now it’s before 6am and I’m awake and without a bed to sleep in. I made the best of the situation and found a couch that would do in a pinch.

    At 7:30am she finds me and tells me to wake up.

    She then spends the morning telling anybody that would listen that “she had a nap” in my bed. NO, that’s not a nap - a nap isn’t continuing your night in Dad’s bed. A nap happens in the afternoon and it’s something that she will not take even if it’s in her best interest to do so.

    “I’m going to tell my camp counselor I had a nap” she tells me.

    Yeah, that’s great. If anybody needs a nap it’s Dad.

    Here’s hoping for a restful night,

    TH and Co.

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  5. The Library

    a toilet in a bathroom

    Photo by Point3D Commercial Imaging Ltd. on Unsplash

    I heard a new statement get expressed from BW this afternoon:

    NO READING BOOKS IN THE BATHROOM!

    Meanwhile, I am hearing this and wondering if she’s ever heard of Reader’s Digest?

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    Back in the day I grew up with a magazine rack right next to the potty and if I visited friends houses they had different stuff to read next to their potty!I have done some best reading whilst on the throne.

    I have read women’s magazines, men’s magazines (for the articles) and so much other stuff from National Geographic that I would never have learned otherwise. And of course: Readers’ Digest

    And now I learn that this is not acceptable in our house? This is news to me.

    I give credit to my love of reading due in part to the fact there’s nothing else to do in there and the task at hand doesn’t require a big skillset other than um - aiming.

    I think it’s completely normal to read while you’re in there. It’s the equivalent of reading the cereal box at the kitchen table but now you’re at the other end of the cycle.

    In a way I kind of get it. This new rule isn’t necessarily aimed at me but at the child.

    Personally I think it’s great that she’s such a voracious reader that she has the foresight to realize that she’s going to be in there a while so she might was well bring a book to keep her entertained.

    I think the problem is the aftermath of the child reading there. Hardcover books get left on the floor where they could get wet and stepped on and otherwise damaged. Books and bathrooms aren’t really meant to be. I’ve seen magazines mostly in the reading rooms I have been to so maybe the rule is just about books?

    I later was picking up the house while she was getting ready for bed and there it was: the wet book on the middle of the floor. But I can’t be mad at her because she is reading by choice. I can pick up books off the bathroom floor all day if she reads them while she’s in there.

    Besides, it was a good pick: Little Kids - Big Dreams: David Attenborough

    I don’t think I completely agree with the no books whilst in the potty rule

    Besides- wait ‘til the child figures out she can bring her tablet in there.

    We won’t see her for days.

    Keep Reading,

    TH and Co.

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