So now I am deciding if I want to start enjoying the taste of crickets during homework time or continue to pull my hair out. I really think I might start eating crickets if it will get him through homework. I just hope I don't grow gills and start doing the fish lips all of the time.
So as one of the lead researchers in this experiment I call fatherhood, it is important to try and find a way to properly motivate the subjects to finish the experiment and get the results desired. This is one of the many trial and error, correct mistake, retest portions of this experiment. DP was easy in this regard. As a gifted child, he wants, dare I say needs, to be the best. We do not have to motivate him. He is self motivated in every manner. He has other things we need to address, but this is not one. He believes in being the best and constantly wants to know how good he is at things. Lu is a little harder. She is 11 and has accepted her role as the only female subject with great pride and enthusiasm. Half the time, I am not sure if I am in trouble or if she is, based on how she interacts with me. Any way her main focus in life is being social. She loves to talk, interact with people, go do many exciting things, and in general re-live my freshman year in college. The last thing on her mind is completing her homework, cleaning her room, or any other routine thing that needs to be done which will take away from her social time. So with her, we have to motivate my restricting her social activities until we get the response we desire. Now Jr. This has been a hard nut to crack when it comes to motivation. I commonly say He just doesn't give a damn. He only likes trains, trucks, and construction equipment. I have tried to get him into sports; no interest. I have tried to bribe him to do stuff, no interest in most of them. When I help him with his homework, I feel like I am retaking differential equations. I get so frustrated and confused on what is going on. Most of the time SuperMom does it with him, so I know she has it worse. All that said, we have found his motivation. This came about because his school is having a fun run. Thirty five laps for donations, etc. You know the deal where the school makes you do more work to give them money. He wants to do it. I was recently telling a good friend of mind that I donated $0.25 per child per lap of his money for this event, and thus he will owe $17.50 later this week. He replied, there is no way Jr will run 35 laps, because I saw him at football practice and he wouldn't run 1 lap. So I thought about his statement and agreed. I told SuperMom that Jr won't run 35 laps so why does he want to do it so badly. Apparently, the principle has promised to eat a cricket if they reach some goal and Jr wants to see him eat a cricket. So now I am deciding if I want to start enjoying the taste of crickets during homework time or continue to pull my hair out. I really think I might start eating crickets if it will get him through homework. I just hope I don't grow gills and start doing the fish lips all of the time.
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So my three subjects are very different as I have stated many times before. I am very excited and interested in seeing the final product these subjects develop into. Lu and Jr are a like in at least one way. Both like to make noise. Lu loves to talk, and Jr is either talking or hammering at all times. I think he is afraid of silence. The other day DP, Jr, and I were going to a meeting at their school. Jr was nonstop babbling about everything. Then all of a sudden, he says let's go through the car riders' lane. I ask him where is the car riders' lane. He replies, It is over by the "Pork a Potty". I start laughing, but DP is almost crying he is laughing so much. DP keeps saying "Pork a Potty" followed by a goofy 7 year old's laugh. Now after the meeting, Jr is asking can we go on a trip. He always wants to go on a trip. I ask him, where do you want to go. He states that he wants to go by the road that he is named after. So, the back story on this must be explained. Jr's middle name was selected because it is the first name of my favorite uncle. He spells his name in a funny way, and we also spell Jr's the same since he was named after him. On our way north on I-75 we pass a road that has the same name and we have always pointed it out to Jr. So apparently Jr thought he was named after this road. So on the way back from school when he said this, I corrected him and told him that he was named after his great uncle. Apparently he didn't hear me correctly because he yells out, "I am named after an aardvark?". Once again DP and I are laughing like little school girls. Now DP is saying "aardvark" over and over and laughing. We had two 15 minute conversations and never made it past Uncle Aardvark and the Pork a Potty. I fear I am losing brain cells daily. September 13, 1935; eighty years ago. How things must have been different than they are now. No internet, no mobile phones, in fact the wired phone was still getting started. In between War World 1 and War World 2. Gas was 10 cents a gallon, unemployment was around 20%, bread was 8 cents a loaf, the Hoover Dam was completed. Many of other great accomplishments happened that year. One common event also happened that year. I guess by now it has happened more than 10 billion times. But the one time it happened in 1935 was special to me although I am positive it was special to many of people. That was the year that one Charles Leo Marcellino was born. As I stated above he would have been 80 years old today. I only knew Charlie for 12 years, but they were some of the most fun years I had. Yesterday on the way home from my oldest son's football game, my phone reminded me that it was his birthday today, although I already knew it. The timing made me start thinking how much Charlie would have loved to see DP play football. I was only able to laugh at the thought. He sure loved life and he loved kids; all kids and I was lucky enough to live near him when mine were born. They were fortunate to get to enjoy his love for kids. As the preacher stated Charlie "Doubled down of life". He was one of my Five and I miss him. I will close this by saying I miss you Charlie and "Growing old is not for sissies". I do miss his sayings and his stories. So with the completion of the dock, the kids have decided that fishing must happen everyday. For this I blame both Poppy and Uncle Perry. See both visited recently and worked with the kids on their fishing techniques. Now, as much as one would like to think it was mainly because they wanted to work with the kids, I know that these two guys love to fish and teaching the kids was just an excuse to help them facilitate their fishing. Even though that may be true, it does't change the fact that the kids have learned to fish and love doing it. We fish off the side of the dock and mainly catch small bream. Poppy used hot dogs, but Uncle Perry brought out the big guns and used crickets and worms. Now Bill Engvall introduced us to the Dork fish many years ago during one of his first comedy routines. Recently, Lu, DP, and Jr introduced me to the Jerk fish. What is the Jerk fish you ask. Well since the kids use a cork and drop their lines right next to the dock, the bream are extremely small. These small bream nipple on the bait and often take the bait without taking the hook. This led Lu to declare "I found a Jerk Fish" the first time it happened. Now the kids think that all fish that don't jump on your hook but instead decide to just eat the bait are Jerk Fish. I have yet to catch one of these Jerk fish, but I have caught a lot of small bream. This weekend, Uncle Perry caught a smallest large mouth bass on a spinner. This amazed the kids especially Jr. So every time Uncle Perry threw out his line and reeled it back in, Jr would ask "Did you catch anything?". After the tenth time of Uncle Perry saying no, he finally said yes. Jr asked "what is it?". Uncle Perry replied it is a lily pad fish. The kids thought this was also very funny. Now when I get home I have to go to the dock, usually in the dark and bait some lines while trying to avoid getting hooked by one of the three that is not paying attention. If I don't lose an eye this month, I will be lucky. So this morning, Lu got up early to cook breakfast for the family and the visiting guests. This is abnormal for her because she has hit the age when kids start sleeping until noon. Since she is out of practice with getting up so early, she didn't let the dogs out. She did however let our visiting dog out of her sleeping crate. DP who is the early riser gets up, lets the dogs out, fixes himself breakfast, cuts on the TV and quietly watches a show until we awake. Jr sleeps all over the house although he goes to sleep in one of the upstairs' bedrooms. As often is the case, he was sleeping on the couch this morning when we got up. So Lu got up before DP, almost set the alarm off, and starting cooking breakfast. I came out of my room and let the dogs out and went to have a spot of the couch waiting on my wonderful breakfast to be finished. To my surprise, I step in a recently deposited treat from a dog. So as everyone who has done this can imagine, I did the limp to the bathroom on the side of my foot walk. As I am wiping the gift off of my foot. Jr yells out from his sleeping spot, "Dad, you stepped in poop!" I yelled back "I know but thanks for the information." Our house guest thought this was quite funny. No one ever said Jr was being hunted by NASA. At least not yet. I think he is just a late bloomer. So it is not uncommon for DP to say something that is just too funny. However, recently Jr joined in on the say whatever you are thinking and watch the adults laugh. First, I must say that over the weekend, Poppy came down to visit. Our dock is finished and so he took the kids out on the dock to go fishing. They all had a great time. DP caught the first fish, a medium sized bream. Next Lu caught everyone's favorite gar fish. It was small relative to how big they can get, but long in the kids eyes. Jr sorta caught a small bream. I caught it and then put it back and let him real it back in. Of course, once it was out of the water, DP stated that it was exactly like the one I caught. "No no it is a little smaller than the one I caught", was my reply thinking I was busted. He replied that it was exactly like the one I caught and the one he caught just smaller. Whew, he was talking about the type of fish. Poppy tries to spend a lot of time entertaining the kids when he visits and the kids really enjoy it. Now to Jr. Several weeks ago, Mimi visited. The kids do enjoy when she visits. We were driving in the car on her last day down and Jr says "Mimi next time you come down can you bring Poppy?" She asked why and he replied "Poppy brings all the fun". Now I am not sure why this was so funny to me, but I laughed out loud. |
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April 2018
CategoriesAuthorPracticing medical physicist trying to raise three kids in the south. |