Father's Day, a Dani, Tori, and Tommy Guest Post.

Hey, Tori, I've been thinking.  Isn't Father's Day coming up?  Are we supposed to be doing something for Daddy? (Tommy)
Tommy, can't you see I'm busy playing on Mommy's tablet?  Leave me alone.  (Tori)

Oh, wait!  Tommy, you're right!  Father's Day is coming up. What should we do?
I dunno, Tori, let's ask Dani.  She knows everything.

DANI, DANI WE NEED YOUR HELP!
DEEDEE DEEDEE HEP HEP!
What do you guys want? (Dani)
Dani, it's almost Father's Day, what are we going to do???
Deede, faga day, doooo?
Don't worry guys, I've got it under control.

I'm totally online right now ordering Daddy some really cool stuff, and getting us Father's Day shirts to wear.  Tori, go in the kitchen and get me Mommy's wallet.
OK Dani.  What are we getting Daddy?
What do you think we should get Daddy? 
Let's get him some coloring books!  And some cookies.
Coookie!  Cookie!

GUYS!  We have to think about Daddy!  He's super fun, and he doesn't want coloring books!  Remember when we climbed in his shirt and we were the three headed Daddy monster?  Maybe we should get him a new shirt?
Daaaddy!  Kitty!  Funny!

 Hmmm, you're right, Dani.  I will sit here and think about it.  What can you buy for the best Daddy in the whole wide world?  He gives the best hugs.  Can we give him hugs?  He likes brownies, can we make him brownies?
Cooookies!
Now you're thinking, Tori!  We can bake him brownies.  Let me get Mommy to help.  I think we should color him some pictures too.
Crayons!  Paper!  (puts crayon in mouth)
Okay Dani, I'm going to draw a picture for Daddy.

 Daddy is good at pushing us on swings.  I will draw the playground.
Playground!  Outside! (puts on shoes)

 Daddy always takes us outside.  Remember when Tommy helped him mow the lawn?

 

When I think about Daddy, I am happy.  He is big, and brown, and tall.  He gives me kisses, and he taught me how to snap my fingers.  He plays the Beatles for me, and he gives the best hugs!

Daddy always reads books with me.  And he makes the best pancakes.  I love pancakes.

Pancakes!  Pancakes!

 

Wes,

Dani, Tori and I join Tommy in raising our sippy cups to you, this Father's Day.

I couldn't have asked for a better husband or father.  You are the foundation of this family; the solid base from which we all grow, together, learning, loving, and striving to make you proud of us, and hoping that you always know how much we truly adore you.

Herding cats.

That's what toddler soccer is like.  When you have a fifteen second attention span, dribbling drills don't really work.

 

 Although Tori did manage to do the "put your foot on the ball when we blow the whistle" a few times.

 It's like watching a pinball game during their games.  The ball bouncing everywhere, kids running in all directions, knocking each other down, and the complete inability to kick a ball into an unmanned goal.

 At least my kids didn't cry.  There were a handful of kids that after each play would wail and run off the field because they didn't get the ball.  Dani would just pick dandelions when she got bored.  Tori kept wandering off to the sidelines to say hello to the babies in attendance.

It's fresh air and sunshine.  That's about it, which is plenty at this age.

I took Dani and Tori to check out my new office today; they love the playroom.  Then we went out to lunch--at a restaurant!  They were amazingly well behaved.  After that, we braved two stores, Target and Kohls.  As we were finishing up, I spotted a Beatles shirt in the teen section.  I showed it to Dani, and we nabbed an extra small for her.  "I like it, Mommy.  But I wish it was the Beatles without the mustaches and the shorter hair.  I like them better."

With a love like that, you know you should be GLAD!

It's full-on Beatlemania in our house.  Well, for the toddlers.  Big Man's been playing a lot of the Beatles for Dani and Tori.  And Dani wants to torture me is happily singing the songs.  It's pretty adorable to here her version of things.  Like, "It's been a hard day and night, and I've been working like a dog."  It's really pretty cute.  And, she's Paul, Tori's Ringo, Big Man is George, and I'm John, apparently.  Tommy, he's Pete Best or something, but he can hum the tunes too.

 It's been a week of interesting Dani-isms.

Tonight was the one that made me realize that my daughter knows how to completely maniuplate me I've been working a bit too much, "Mommy, I had a bad dream last night.  You went to work and never came home again.  Ever. It was really scary."

 The other night we were watching a bedtime show, and Dani informs me, "Mommy, that's a Sphynx.  Those are with the pyramids in Egypt."  After I scooped my jaw off of the floor, I gave her a hug and told her she was a smart little girl.  She replied, "I'm smart, because I have a smart family."

She's been really into letting us know just how smart she is lately.   Two nights ago at dinner, she asked me about people who hunt cavemen, and whether they would hunt us too.  After a brief explanation of there being no cavemen presently, she tells me, "Mommy, I'm smart.  I know everything.  Well, maybe not everything.  But a lot."

 

We took a potty break where I was informed that, "Mommy, my poop is bigger than the universe."

 And later the same evening, when Dani was again professing her wisdom, I talked to her about it.  I told her that it was wonderful that she is so smart, but that she also needs to be humble.  That when she goes to pre-k in the fall, there will be kids who don't know how to say the alphabet, much less identify the letters and sounds, that some won't know their colors, that she will probably know more things than many of the other children.  We talked about how everyone has different skills, and knows different things, and that she needs to remember that everyone has to learn together, even if it means going a little more slowly than she would like to.  She replied, "Mommy, if they don't know things that I do, can I help teach them?" 

And we went to the park, and Tori and Tommy were adorable and all those good things too.  Tommy can now climb up and down the stairs (and my lower back thanks him for that).  Tori is flirting with being potty trained, and all is well.

I went for an annual physical, and to my surprise, I'm doing okay.  Like off the charts good.  Literally, when the doc was reviewing my blood work, he was commenting that it's incredibly rare to have the good cholesterol number higher than the bad (which mine was, with a rockin' low 144 total cholesterol) and that the labs were great.  My blood pressure is amazing, and apparently I'm going to live another year.  Literally he was so nice about it--I was like, hey doc, do you think they mixed up the vials?  I'm glad to know I'm so healthy for being a fat sedentary slug.  I asked him if that meant I could grab a whopper on the way back to work, and he said it was fine.  I'm guessing that somewhere, some poor, fit soul, is being told by their doc that they have the cholesterol and organ function of a nearly 40, overweight, overstressed mom of 3.