Daily Pixels: Tomato Thief

Tomato Thief

Tomato Thief

Marley and The Hyena love fruit and vegetables.  They’ve feasted on organic goodies since they were pups.  But Beans, he’s not a lover of the veges.  

That is, until he realized they were readily available in the backyard.  Now we can’t get him to stop snacking throughout the day.

Week Seven – Promise

Sweet Chucks

Sweet Chucks

Promise as defined by Merriam Webster Dictionary is:

1 : a declaration that one will do or refrain from doing something specified

2 : reason to expect something; especially : ground for expectation of success, improvement, or excellence

Promise is a heavy word.  Full of strong connotations; commitment, trust, dedication, honor,  hope, optimism.  And the Dude can dig it.

Promise holds a strong significance at Casa de Dude.  We don’t live by too many rules.  Sure, rules are created on the fly all the time; “Don’t cover your room with glitter.” Or “Don’t draw hearts on furniture.”  But those don’t feel like real life rules.  They feel more like reminders.  There’s really only one consistent rule around our house, and it centers around a promise.

The essence of a promise is commitment.  The knowledge that all parties making and accepting the promise understand the pledge is not to be broken.  Yes, promises and contracts are broken all the time…disagreements keep lawyers employed.  But within a family, promises hold a special weight.  A level of commitment beyond the average contract.  A trust sealed with unconditional love.

The one rule in our house is:  We never break a promise.

This one rule sets the true “rules” apart from friendly reminders.  And The Princess does an amazing job of differentiating between the two.

Kids are kids, they aren’t going to follow every rule, nor does the Dude’s constant reminder to “question authority” imply they should.  Dirt will be played in just after a bath is taken, the scooter will be crashed into the wall despite pleas to cease and desist, and rooms will be messy even though the clutter makes the Dude’s skin crawl.

But some rules are nonnegotiable; “Do not go in the water without an adult.” Or  “Do not use Little Dude’s head to practice Tae Kwan Do.”  When opportunities arise  to apply a nonnegotiable, a promise is in order.  And to close out an official rule discussion, the Dude generally ends with “And what’s the rule about a promise?” which the Princess promptly replies with “We never break a promise.”  At this point, I know I can walk away without the slightest glance back to ensure the Princess is following the guidance bestowed upon her.  She understands the weight of the promise.  Hopefully we can say the same at 16.

In addition to a solemn oath, promise can imply the “expectation of success, improvement, or excellence.”

The movie Beautiful Girls has a great quote that explains the fundamental nature of promise.  I don’t remember the movie much, but I recall thinking it was pretty good…plus, the dude in the scene is wearing a Celtics jacket, so it’s gotta be decent (and the dude with the quote was in Dazed and Confused, which again lends credence to this movie…somehow).  At any rate, the quote is great…

Fits like a glove.  The quote is a perfect description of the thoughts flowing through the Dude’s head when Mrs. Dude graced his path.  And the premise of the quote fits perfectly with kids.  “Bottled promise.”  Perfect description.

Week seven falls into this category.

It was not a week without challenges, but the bigger picture is bright.  Feelings of contentment and hope rather than seeking answers to the riddle that is an infant.

Little Dude is growing and self-regulating.  Digestion is improving.  Sleep is improving.  Crankiness is improving.  Acid Reflux is improving.  Smiles are multiplying.  Coos are developing.  Life is good.

The weekend was the perfect cap on week seven.

Mrs. Dude started back at work on Saturday.  Two days per week.  This left the Dude with the kiddos and bottles of milk for the first time.

An at-home parent has a lot to juggle.  I was up at 7:30 and didn’t eat breakfast until 11:00.  Lots of balls in the air, but everyone was in a great mood, and the hours sped past.

By the time late afternoon rolled around, Mrs. Dude was home, there were no serious injuries, and the Dude was kickin’ it in the backyard watering the plants and enjoying a great early August evening; light breeze, warm air, problems stripped away by the carelessness of summer.

To culminate an already storybook weekend, Tropical Storm Colin moved up the Atlantic far off shore but close enough to send fun waves just in time for the Dude to make a solitary escape to the beach.

Ideal.

Full of promise.

Life, please promise more…much more, of the same.

What’s the rule about promises?

We never break a promise.

I’m holding you to it.

Put a Sling On ‘Em

Moms are trying to creep in on Dads’ cool territory.  Dads are riding high on the cool dad trend, and moms everywhere are green with envy.

Moms are great for hugs and kisses and to put Band-Aids on the cuts, but dads are the the voice of reason that sends the kid down the giant hill on the skateboard that creates the cut.

We’re cooler.

But in an effort to be fair and balanced (like Fox News), in response to the two dad videos I posted last week, below is the moms’ rebuttal.

I have to say ladies, in comparison to the dad videos, the production value leaves a bit to be desired.

Mrs. Dude’s new theme song:

Put a Sling on 'Em

Put a Sling on 'Em

Daily Pixels: Dinner

We are on a picture taking rampage.  So, to help justify Mrs. Dude’s willy nilly spending spree on the new camera lens, we’re going to start a new Dude Knows Best section, Daily Pixels.

It will most definitely consist of pixels, possibly multiple, and we’ll do our best to hold true to the daily schedule…please check back (or better yet, subscribe in the top right corner of the blog).

First installment, Dinner:

One of the benefits of being gifted fresh, local shrimp (thanks Rex) is that you get to handle the full shrimp, head and all.

The downfall is that you need to take the time to remove the heads, but that is far outweighed by developing a sense of connection to the local ecosystem handling and preparing the full beast rather than the frozen, headless variety shipped from Asia purchased at most local Quick-E Marts.

Plus, you get to freak out The Princess!

The Princess & The Shrimp

The Princess & The Shrimp

Week Six – Firsts

Snoozing

Snoozing

Life is full of firsts.  Firsts continue from day 1 to the end.  I’m sure my Grandfather never realized we’d all be experiencing “Tweets” on regular basis.  Not that he knows what a Tweet is, or email, but you get the point; we all have the potential to experience firsts until our last day.

Like every aspect of an infant’s life, firsts are intensified.  Infants experience firsts at a breakneck pace.  Everything is new to them.  And new parents love to point out the firsts; first giggle, first hang nail, first poop on a Tuesday when it’s raining, etc.

The Dude and the Mrs. fall into the exuberant category when it comes to Little Dude’s firsts.  We often comment to each other about silly firsts, but this week held some significant firsts…from the Dude’s perspective anyway.

  1. First shower with Daddy.  A short but sweet shower to close out the day and put a smile on Little Dude’s face…he digs the water.
  2. First nap on Daddy’s chest.  Up to this point, Little Dude had a hard time getting comfortable and staying still long enough to nap with the Dude, but the bonding is getting stronger and Little Dude’s calm periods are extending…hopefully.
  3. Mower

    Mower

    First time mowing the lawn with Daddy.  I have a rad new (old, but new to me) “reel” mower (think 1950’s-style push mower) that’s lightweight and makes no noise, so Little Dude was able to nap in the front pack while the Dude mowed away.

  4. First trip to the beach.  Saturday offered a relatively cool and overcast day, so we took the opportunity to get Little Dude acclimated to the beach.  His first experience consisted mainly of nursing.  Mrs. Dude wouldn’t let me take him body surfing.
  5. The start of his first Shark Week on Discovery.  The beach and Shark Week are not related in any way.  The Dude likes to think of sharks like unicorns, imaginary…don’t tell the Princess unicorns aren’t real.
  6. First evident quality inherited from the Dude.  Mrs. Dude has some strong genes.  Little Dude is an identical replica of the Mrs. when she was an infant; people have actually mistaken her baby pictures as Little Dude.  It’s been a struggle to find the Dude in The Boy, but not anymore.  Mrs. Dude declared this week that Little Dude has the Dude’s toes!  That’s right, he’s my boy!  Yeah, it’s just toes, and I’m kind of thinking the Mrs. was just being nice, but I’ll take it.

Crankiness Update:

Acid reflux was confirmed this week, and we got an increased dose of medicine.  Mrs. Dude also cut out any food with taste from her diet to be safe.  Thankfully, these adjustments seem to be working…for now.  The acid reflux symptoms have decreased quite a bit.  Notice, I did not say the crankiness has decreased.

In the ever-changing landscape of an infant, another crankiness source arrived on the scene.  Could The Boy be hungry?  He’s eating almost every two hours, but this week, the “I need food now” cry has increased in frequency and intensity.

We decided to do a little experiment.  Mrs. Dude pumped while I fed Little Dude a 4 oz. bottle.  He downed the bottle in about 20 minutes, and passed out for four hours.  Mrs. Dude was only able to pump 2 oz.  This isn’t a definitive answer.  He may get more when he nurses, and it’s only one test, but it does show interesting results.  Could it be that he’s not eating enough?

He’s gaining weight faster than expected, so clearly he’s eating.  Perhaps a growth spurt this week?  We are going to try to work in some additional pumping in an attempt to increase the milk supply and build some more reserves (and by “we” I mean Mrs. Dude…thanks Mommy), and keep an eye out for the hungry symptoms.

We’ll see what excitement week seven brings.

Dad’s Are Cool!

Is this a new trend?  Are Dad’s cool right now?

I was sent the below videos today by separate, unrelated sources.  Both are great parodies of a Dad’s life, and judging by the number of views they’ve had on YouTube, they seem pretty popular…even Toyota has jumped on the Dad bandwagon.

Dad’s are funny creatures.  It’s a big shift from single dude to dad, but great dad’s are successfully making the transition every day, and it’s pretty funny to watch…and experience.

Seems the Dude is in the right profession.  I suspect the high dollar sponsorships will follow soon.