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Oakland Zoo Membership half off for new members @ Groupon.
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It's been awhile since I posted here. More on that in another post entitled 'Summer Happened'. It's been a nice hiatus but now it's good to be back writing...
The "Incident". Up to now, in her brief 6 years on this planet, Maddie has cruised through life incident-free. Many minor "accidents" - a bruised elbow here, a bumped head there, but no real scary "oh my god" moments. We have been lucky. And yes, many "mis-communications" - mostly with her parents. Frustrating times, these. Her little face will turn red and her feet will stomp all the way to her room, a loud slam as her door shakes in its frame. Moments of sadness as well, tears welling up in her big, beautiful, brown eyes. But none of this quite prepared me for what was about to happen. Upon entering 1st grade Maddie quickly made a friend. They became best friends. They did everything together. Maddie followed her around like a puppy. Since she is one of the youngest in her class, she tends to defer to her older peers. She let her best friend take the driver's seat in their adventures. Maddie was happy just to tag along. Soon, a playdate was set up. We met her parents and we all clicked. Everything was progressing swimmingly. And then it happened. The "Incident". Maddie and her friend were in line participating in a P.E. exercise. Maddie's friend turned and told her that she smelled and that she should go to the back of the line. Maddie complied, and crumpled inside. That night during bath time Maddie mentioned what had happened to me. It had taken her by surprise. I could tell she wasn't sure what to feel. And I wasn't sure what to feel, either. Initially, I didn't realize what a huge, traumatic event in Maddie's life this really was. I thought, 'Hmmm, P.E., they don't really sweat much in 1st grade, do they? How could she smell? Something she ate?' I failed to grasp the emotional impact. Then, later that week, during our parent-teacher conference, it came up again. Maddie's teacher had noticed a change in their relationship and she was sad. She thought it was wonderful that Maddie had confided in me and felt it was a testament to the strength of our bond, our father-daughter connection. I felt two very powerful emotions: 1. PRIDE - I was so elated that Maddie had shared her experience with me. There I was, on the bow of the Titanic, tears in my eyes, screaming, "I"M ON TOP OF THE WORLD!" This was the moment I had been waiting for, the moment that I had worked for these past 6 years, the whole reason I had become a stay-at-home dad in the first place. 2. ANGER - After the shock subsided, I was mad. I wanted to grab Maddie's little "friend" by the shoulders and shake her: "What the hell is wrong with you, you...bully??!! Do you see what you did to my daughter?!!" It became an awkward moment for me, every day before and after school, having to face the mother of the "bully". She is the nicest mom in the world, a wonderful parent, and yet a small part of me was blaming her for what happened to Maddie. We never found out what exactly happened. We put our collective parenting minds together and tossed around some theories. Maddie's friend has an older sister...maybe she was transferring some anger or frustration...we don't know. Maddie is doing fine now and has made a new friend. All has been forgiven. We eagerly await with trepidation the next "Incident". Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, Life goes on, yeah La La, how the life goes on...
more @ http://www.googoodadda.com |
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Buena Vista and First Ave in Walnut Creek. Shouldn't be too hot for the Creek. I'll have some potato salad and fruit. |
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Awhile back somebody posted a PDF of the awesome book Go the F** to Sleep. The book has hit the big time and somebody got Samuel Jackson to read the book aloud. See the link below. Awesome stuff!
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My daughter will be at New Sprouts Chinese Summer Camp this summer. I am the President of the Board for New Sprouts, a 501(c)(3) non-profit Mandarin language and cultural educational program based in Oakland. I have to tell you the teachers and classes are great (let me know if you would like info on after-school and weekend classes as well)! They offer 1-4 weeks of fun-filled Chinese language and culture with different themes and guest visitors and field trips and activities each week: 7/25-7/29: Chinese Art & Music If you've always wanted your kids to get a little more culture and experience a second language, this is a great intro. Enroll online: www.newsprouts.org or call for more info, 510-206-5666. You can also email me atcalmo28@yahoo.com. Thanks for your time!--Mohammed Hill
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I feel incredibly lucky to be in a position where I CAN reflect and muse and ponder, and set down those thoughts in writing, and share it all online. My wife and I have worked hard to create a shared parenting environment to give each of us some space to explore our own interests and goals while fully supporting the other and our children. Her salary supports us. Anything I make is a bonus. We don't pay for childcare. Without support from family and friends, financially, emotionally, I don't know how we could do it. My days as a Stay-At-Home Dad have been filled with so many powerful and transformative moments, I wish I could record them all and share them with friends and family, and someday pass them on to my daughters. We capture what we can through photos, videos, memoirs and the like (like this blog), and recount with knowing smiles the small, hilarious, and touching stories of our children's mis-adventures, and maybe this is all enough for us to feel satisfied, content that someone else on this planet knows how special they really are, like we do. And yet there is so much more that is not shared, that is not talked or written about, so many moments that we have experienced as parents that have enriched us and made us who we are today. It is all there, I know, sitting in our parenting minds, perhaps never to see the light of day, and maybe that's ok. What would the world do with all that pain and frustration and sorrow? Surely the world would explode from so much joy, pride, and contentment. I wonder if these thoughts ever occurred to my parents,and their generation, and those that came before. Maybe they did, but then were they quickly extinguished? Who has time to philosophize when there's a house to clean or a meal to prepare. Just keep moving and get through the day. No complaints. No excuses. It's all just part of life. And at the end of the day, the last thing you want to think about is how to be a better parent. Perhaps when I am older, when my children are older, I will have more time to breathe, and then I can reflect and look back on these days with an easy grin. But will I remember everything? I fear not. I do not trust my aging brain, and I feel that if I do not record it now in some manner, then perhaps it will slip away and be lost forever. (This is the second part of a series. You can read the first part here.)
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Fun with iMovie '11 and the new "movie trailer" feature. Enjoy! |
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My daughter will be at New Sprouts Chinese Summer Camp this summer. I am a Secretary of the Board for New Sprouts, and I have to tell you the teachers and classes are great (let me know if you would like info on after-school and weekend classes as well)! They offer 1-4 weeks of fun-filled Chinese language and culture with different themes and guest visitors and field trips and activities each week: 7/25-7/29: Chinese Art & Music If you've always wanted your kids to get a little more culture and experience a second language, this is a great intro. Enroll online: www.newsprouts.org or call for more info, 510-206-5666. You can also email me at calmo28@yahoo.com. Thanks for your time!--Mohammed Hill |
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Hello Everyone, The good weather is just around the corner and I was wondering if there are some Dads with Motorcycles that would like to joint me for a weekend day ride to somehwere here in the Bay Area.. Just a fun relaxing ride with the wind in your face ... and we can set up an ongoing thing for the summer. Let me know if you might be interested. ************************************************************************************************ -Only a biker knows why a dog sticks his head out of a car window. -Four wheels move the body. Two wheels move the soul. -Bikes don't leak oil, they mark their territory. -The best alarm clock is sunshine on chrome.
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Juliet was tired. I think. And she was still nursing a cold. It was just the two of us, lounging around the house on a rainy day. Maddie was at school, due to be picked up in 45 minutes. I began to strategize my next mission.
So where were we? Oh yes, Juliet was lagging. My usual method of strolling her to sleep was out due to the weather. She doesn't fall asleep this way in less than 30 minutes anyhow, cutting it too close for my liking. I considered my next option. Although she is 14 months of age now, more toddler than baby, we still load her in a pouch from time to time and wear her around the house like some human-kangaroo hybrid, sans the leaping. Add to that a darkened room and a CD entitled Sounds for Silence("Blended and layered sounds to distract, engage and soothe unsettled babies") and you've got yourself a fine recipe for nodding off. Well, for Juliet anyways. We all know that every baby is different. We became motivated early in on in Juliet's life to find a way to sooth her on account of the colic. It took us many attempts before we hit on the right combination, a customized made-to-order solution that we were frankly quite proud of, as it has undoubtedly saved us from innumerable hours of moaning and crying. Once again, however, the timing of this procedure came into question. If Juliet was still asleep when we needed to hop into the car, the transfer from pouch to car seat would most certainly wake her, and she would not be happy. I know this to be true. I was left with my third and final option - driving her to sleep, old school style. Well, old school to me anyways. This was my method of choice during Maddie's early years - a slow, winding drive through the nearby hills. It usually happened on the tail end of running some errands. As we approached our street I would glance back to check on her status. If she appeared sleepy I would just keep going, zooming by our neighborhood. If not sleepy, then home it was. This all worked fine until she began to recognize our street, becoming highly distraught when I would just blow on by. These thoughts came to me like a dream as I loaded Juliet into the car. All of this felt so familiar, yet it was different now. Different car, different child, different me. Definitely different child. While Maddie had succumbed easily to the lulling movement of the auto, Juliet has been curiously resistant to the magic. In fact, she HATES the car seat. We have taken her on a few long road trips and she has successfully fought off sleep every time, with a mighty will and exhausting bouts of back arching and crying. So it is with some trepidation that I set off on down the road. I whistled nervously. "OK Juliet, here we go!" I flashed a half-hearted smile. She looked back suspiciously. As we began to wind our way past farms with open fields, I turned on the heat and the CD player. Sounds for Silence began to play, tunes that shall evermore be ingrained in my mind. Whenever I hear it now I instantly go into a trance, its hypnotic allure too powerful for the likes of me. I haven't fallen asleep at the wheel yet, but it is awfully relaxing. And when the whole family is riding along, well, look out. It's non stop excitement as we all begin to nod off in unison. Under these conditions, and given our wacky sensibility, we have dubbed our vehicle The Wombmobile. After about a mile I checked on Juliet. Her eyes were closing! And with 5 minutes to go until the Maddie Pickup. Yes! I turned the car around and headed back. Cows and horses turned their heads as we passed, wondering, no doubt, about the jubilant driver and the odd sounds emanating from this speeding vehicle. I pulled up to Maddie's school and parked just outside the gate. She emerged with her classmates a minute later. I went to meet her and led her back to the car. Soon we were home. Just another successful parenting mission. I love it when a plan comes together. (cue A-Team music) * Read more humorous stories about parenting @ www.googoodadda.com
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