Lets Go SWIMMING!!!!!

The best investment our family has ever made was buying a family pass to Sioux Falls Public Pools last year and this year.

Last year, Henry was barely big enough to walk around in the pool, and was a little bit scared to do anything without holding Daddy or Mummy's hand. He needed a lot of help going anywhere near water past ankle length, and although he loved going to the pool, he was a limited in what he could do.

This year, pool time is PARTY TIME for Henry. He starts saying "pool, pool, pool, swim, swim" as soon as we get to the Laurel Oak Pool. Finding somewhere to put our stuff is a challenge more because I am trying to stop Henry running to the pool while attempting to find a seat.

I should mention at this point that Henry is addicted to keys. Car keys, house keys, key chains. He loves holding them. We have allowed him to hold our car keys with the remote unlocking and door opening fobs, but that has come back to bite us a few times. When my Mother visited in December, we went to the car to discover that we had a tail lamp bulb burned out and a half dead battery thanks to Henry remotely opening one of the minivan doors the night before, and lights having been flashing on the van for 12 hours.

Daddy lesson learned: The kids no longer get to play with car keys.

Our 23 month old probably shouldnt be running around with a set of keys, but, in my opinion, every parent has 1 or 2 things they let their kids do, which is not recommended, and letting Henry run around with Keys is one of ours.

Anyway, the biggest battle at the pool is usually getting Henry's keys off of him. He knows that he cannot play in the pool with keys, but he has trouble parting with his beloved keys. Henry eventually overcomes his key separations anxiety, but it can sometimes result in one of his newly patented jumping up and down, stamping feet, throwing whatever he gets his hands on, screaming, turning red, terrible 2's preview, meltdowns.

So once the meltdown is over, he runs to the pool (even though Dad has told him many times not to run at the swimming pool... another lesson he has learned but ignores) and whips down any slide he can, runs up to the floating frogs, the big dinosaurs, and the pool bubbles, and has the time of his life. The beauty of it is that we went to the pool 4 days in a row, played for about an hour each time, and he never gets tired of it.

I am usually the one chasing Henry around the pool, and helping him play. In the meantime, Marisa and Gemma hang in the very shallow water watching the chaos. Gemma gets her feet dabbed in the water and loves it. She also gets attention from little kids love to come and say hi to the baby.

After about an hour, Henry is pooped out ready for bed, Gemma is happy having been held for an hour without being put down, and parents are exhausted. The best part is that thanks to our $50 investment in May, it is a free evening of fun.

Fathers Day Ponderings

A beautiful fathers day had me realize a few things and showed me just how wonderful my family is.

I woke up to presents of McVitees Digestive Biscuits, a Crunchie Bar, and an Aero Bar. All wonderful British chocolate bars which are very difficult to find in the US, however, the World Market in Sioux Falls has them, and my fabulous wife had surprised me with them.

My other big surprise was Sirius Satellite Radio. With a lot of long road trips for work these days, I will be taking full advantage, as well as enjoying all the Chelsea games on the radio (a bonus since we have no more TV) and of course, the unmistakable tones of Howard Stern in the morning.

When installing the radio in the car, I had Henry with me "helping." By helping, I mean he was stealing every cord, putting on the car's emergency lights and adjusting the air conditioning. We listened to a little Howard Stern together, although, I quickly realized that Howard uncensored was probably not suitable for a 23 month old (bad Daddy). I was particularly worried when an hour later at lunch he started saying a word that started with "f" and ended with "k". It was a great relief when I realized he just wanted me to pick up his fork.

Lesson learned, no uncensored radio on the way to daycare.

We did finally also cut off television today. With the digital revolution, we now have absolutely no TV, since you cannot pick up local channels with rabbit ears any longer, something the customer service rep at Midcontinent Communications made very clear to me in an attempt to keep my business.

Over the course of this last trial non-TV week, I have noticed, I do not really miss television. I really did not need to watch the Twins each night, or watch "John and Kate plus 8," (although I am curious about what their big announcement will be tomorrow). I am being more productive at home, and the kids are doing fine without television. Marisa and I also now talk more! Talk to my wife? Shocking I know!!

Finally, we had rain all day today until approximately 3pm. At 4pm, it was 80 degrees outside so we went to the pool. There were approximately 4 other people there, and they were all Dad's smiling having a good time with their little kids. Not only was it great to virtually have the pool to ourself (Henry actually got to sit on the big dinosaur that is usually full of pre-teen kids), but it was awesome to see other Dad's having as great a Fathers Day as I did.

There were a number of other highlights today, such as eating breakfast at Dennys (classy I know), a super fun Skype video call with my Mum, and wishing my own Dad and Grandfather a happy fathers day also.

Now sitting down with the kids in bed, I cannot help but reflect back on the day and see how lucky I am to have 2 amazing children, and a stunning wife who cared enough to make today as special as it was.

In re-reading this, I have realized this is a very sappy blog, not something that I meant to happen, but just this once, I am going to let the blog be sappy. I will be back to practical with the next one!

TELEVISION FREE FAMILY - at least for now

Over the course of this last weekend, Marisa and I had a revelation.

We watch WAY TOO MUCH TELEVISION.

When Henry wakes up, he immediately says "TV" or "Remote".
I find myself putting things off to watch something on TV, and for those of you who know me, it's not always sports!

We always had a TV on in any room we were hanging out in, even just as background noise. It really hit me when I noticed Gemma, our 4 month old, zoning in on the TV.

My solution is to go TV free, cancelling all of our TV subscriptions. We have HBO, DVR, 2 digital boxes... all gone!

We are starting a 1 week trial of this, but I can say that after 2 days, I am feeling refreshed.

Our house is quiet at night (when the kids are sleeping). Marisa and I are forced to talk to each other more, and I think we will be more in tune with each other, than in tune with the TV.
I really think it will force us to be more creative both with our spare time, and with how we play with our kids, rather than just letting Bob the Builder be our babysitter.

The other thing that made me consider this idea was the thought of the things I am exposing the kids too inadvertently from television. We watch shows where kids people call each other "idiots" or people hitting each other. This sort of stuff I tell Henry not to do, so I wonder about what example I am setting showing him this stuff on TV either on purpose or by accident.

At lunch today, a couple of people were watching an MTV show, and I realized just what rubbish there is on TV. This again showed me the crap I am putting into my head on a daily basis.

We are doing a 1 week trial to see how it goes, but at the moment I am enjoying being Television free. We will see if it changes come Football season.