Letter Sounds

Joshua is starting to take a strong interest in understanding the sounds letters make - the first step in reading and writing. We play games every night where he has to guess what letter certain words start with. As time goes on, he's getting it right more and more often. There are some letters that understandably trip him up - "k" and "c" can be confusing, "w" can be confused with "y", etc. You don't realize how tricky the English language can be until you see it through the eyes of a 4-year old. But overall, he's doing great. The trick is to keep Rebecca from yelling out the answer before Joshua can.

At night he likes to "read" some books before he goes to sleep (ususally Scooby-Doo), which means flipping through pages and making up words to go along with the pictures. I'm just happy that he's taking a proactive interest in learning. Watching his progress is a lot of fun.

Happy Thanksgiving

For this coming Thanksgiving holiday, the Dad World Blog encourages all dads to spend some quality time with their kids this weekend. We all work really hard during the week, and some of us don't get to spend as much time as we would like with our families. So, for the next four days, we encourage you to get down and dirty with your kids. They miss you. They want your attention. Give it to them. Don't get stressed over all the craziness going on around traveling, cooking, getting the house ready, etc. Just relax and enjoy the time away from work with your family. (Advice for myself, as well as everyone else)

Reading

Rebecca has been on a tear lately, reading every book she can get her little hands on. She's now reading at the G level, which I think is pretty good for a first-grader. We recently took a trip to Boston, and she sat in her car seat reading out loud the entire two and a half hour ride. It was better than listening to the radio, and it kept Joshua content and quiet for the whole trip. A win-win all around.

Jen recently bought a nice comfortable chair for our dining room, with the idea that she will be able to sit and read in it in her downtime (ha!). But whenever she goes for the chair, Rebecca is in it quietly reading her latest Junie B. Jones book. I guess we know who has dibs on the new chair. But no complaints from Jen.

Back To School

Both kids recently started school again.

Rebecca is now in first grade, and has started a new school. This new school is a little further away from our house than her old school, so she now takes a bus. As usual, Jen and I were a little anxious about her getting on a bus for the first time. But, as usual, Rebecca took it all in stride and got right on the bus the first day, and had no issues. She is now very proud of the fact that she takes a bus to school, and will tell anyone willing to listen all about it.

Joshua started his final year of pre-school. Since the building, classroom, teachers, and students are all very familiar to him from the past 2 years, Joshua needed little time adjusting to the new year. He's very excited about the newly renovated playground, and is happy to be back with his good friends on a daily basis.

Important Information About Medicine Overdoses

Check out the below link to a 60 Minutes piece about the experience Dennis Quaid had with his newborn twins last year. While at the hospital, the medical staff gave his twins an extremely high dose of the wrong medicine, putting their brand new lives in danger.

When it comes to giving our kids medicine, we should be extremely vigilant, whether it's given by a parent, a grandparent, a caregiver, or a medical professional. Even if it's something as seemingly benign as Children's Tylenol, we need to pay very close attention to the dosage and timing intervals, and pay very close attention to our kids for any signs of an adverse reaction. Our kids depend on us to look after them and ensure their safety - let's make sure not to let them down. The effort is minimal, but results can be dramatic. -- Something every Dad should be thinking about.

Click here for the 60 Minutes story.

Big Changes - No Pacifier, No Diapers, No Crib

Joshua has gone through a lot of major changes in the past few months. Since April, he has been potty trained, moved out of his crib and into a real bed, and given up his pacifier. Each of one of these things on their own is a huge deal, but when they come fast and furious like they have with Joshua, watch out....

When each one of these events happens on their own, they seem like normal progress for a little boy. But when you take a step back and really consider how much Joshua's little life has changed in recent months, it really is amazing. We are in such a rush for them to keep progressing and moving forward, but when the change you were pushing for finally happens, you start to wonder what happened to your little baby and how did he get so big so fast. I guess it's the dichotomy of parenthood.

Either way, we are very proud of our little boy and will do what we can to ensure he grows up to be a well-adjusted, responsible person....just not too fast.

Loose Tooth

Rebecca just recently lost her first tooth. It had been loose for about 7 months now, which to me seemed like a really long time. But Rebecca was patient throughout, and would update us daily on the progress of her tooth. She referred to it as her "wiggly" tooth. For the past couple of weeks, it seemed like the tooth was barely hanging on, and all the while we had to make sure we didn't give Rebecca anything too crunchy to eat.

Finally, it started to "wiggle" a lot more than it had previously. And Rebecca saw blood in her mouth from the wiggly tooth, so Jen decided to take a look. While she was poking around, she decided to twist the tooth a little, and lo and behold, the thing came right out. It was a very exciting moment in our house.

Rebecca had already made a little box to place her tooth in for the Tooth Fairy. And that night, after she was sound asleep, the Tooth Fairy came and gave Rebecca a nice $10 bill. We had to explain to Rebecca that a first tooth is worth more than the rest, and she shouldn't expect the same for each subsequent tooth. The Tooth Fairy can only afford so much.

Summer Camp

Both kids are in camp this summer, having a great time. Joshua's camp is at his pre-school, and has many of the same kids. So for him, it's not much different than school. The only difference is he runs around like a wild man all day, plays in the sprinkler, gets sunburned, and comes home completely exhausted and ready for his mid-day nap. Everything a 3 1/2 year old should be doing.

Rebecca is going to camp at a local private school that converts to a camp during the summer months. She gets to go swimming twice a day, make lanyard necklaces (box stitch is her favorite), pay Mohican Idol, and learn new songs that make fun of her teenage counselors. And just like her brother, Rebecca comes home totally exhausted.

The joys of summer....

Happy Father's Day!!!!

The Dad World Blog would like to wish all dads out there a happy and healthy Father's Day. And we hope you take full advantage of this day, as it's your one day to do whatever makes you happy.

Big Boy Bed

We recently bought a real bed for Joshua, and he is loving it. We let him sleep in his crib for about a week with the bed in the room. This gave him time to get used to it, and we needed more time to go out and buy all the accessories - most importantly - a good bed rail. We then let him help us assemble the bed rail and put all the sheets and blankets on the bed. He was so psyched and couldn't wait to just climb in and bury himself in the soft comforter.

We have somehow convinced Joshua that he is not allowed to get out of his bed unless Mom or Dad take him out - so for him it's basically Crib 2.0. We'll see how long this lasts, but for now he's sleeping like a baby (?). Fingers crossed.

Giants!!!!

Congratulations to the NY Giants on an awesome win this past Sunday. Unbelievable. An amazing game all around.

Ice Skating Lessons

Rebecca recently started ice skating lessons. The first lesson was a complete disaster. We had missed the first session, so we were a little confused about the protocol and process. The kids have to wear helmets for the lessons, so I put Rebecca's bike helmet on. It seemed to fit properly when she tried it on, but after her first fall on the ice, the helmet became lopsided on her head, and remained that way for the entire lesson. I knew it was bothering Rebecca because she tried to fix it, but as she raised her hands to her head she began to lose her balance, and quickly dropped her hands to her side. On top of that, I forgot to put her gloves on (she was the only kid out there without gloves). So everytime she fell, her little hands would get colder and wetter. But she managed to make it through the 30 minute lesson without losing her cool.

Finally, the lesson came to an end, and all the kids made their way to the other side of the rink for "free skate". Rebecca didn't know where to go for free skate because she had missed the first lesson a week earlier. So she was totally confused and bewildered, with cold hands, helmet askew, and quickly losing her ability to keep herself balanced on the skates. Her instructor had skated away, and disappeared without even picking up on the fact that Rebecca was lost. She looked terrified, and I could only sit and watch from the bleachers, and yell to her to go towards the free skate area. She, of course, couldn't hear me because I was behind the glass wall, and the acoustics in an ice skating rink are really bad.

Eventually she made her way to the door, found me, and quickly became hysterical. I tried my best to calm her down, but she was pretty upset. I made a deal with her that she could miss the rest of free skate, but next week she had to participate in the lesson again. She agreed, and began to calm down. Since then, she's had 3 more lessons, and she is definitely improving. Jen and I have taken her skating a couple of times as well to get some practice. Even though her first experience was pretty bad, I didn't want her to be discouraged and avoid ice skating for the rest of her life. So it became our mission to make sure she got back on the ice, and had a positive experience.

So far, we're making progress.