Sunday, April 22, 2012

It's Bedtime!!

Kids bedtime is always an exciting time of the day. Even as we try to keep it a solid routine, it almost always turns out different. J will come up with every excuse he's learned so far to try and prolong it as long as possible... "I'm hungry", "I'm thirsty" "I'm poopy." Some nights, especially those on days when he did not have a long nap, or neglected to nap at all, are easy... he's even smiling as he gets into bed because he's so tired. But other nights he's constantly playing a game of cracking the door open ever so slightly to peek out. Then when it looks like were coming his way "slam" he closes the door and runs into bed. Eventually this will turn into him just finding something in the room to pass the time away. Recently he found a pen and drew all over the walls, dresser,  pillow cases and sheets. Two nights ago he came out wearing his mom's nail polish all over his eyelids, eyebrow and surrounding skin. On my turns to go in, I will get him back in bed and tuck him in and then usually threaten him with "Now stay in bed because it's mommy's turn next and she will get VERY angry with you and you don't want that!" I've felt bad for saying that and keep meaning to stop. But last night I happened to walk by the door when it was mom's turn to get him back in bed and I heard softly "daddy will get very angry with you if you get up... so you better stay in bed." Great! Real nice mom!

"What are you doing with the television?"(in Spanish accent)

Have you seen that movie Fun with Dick and Jane where their little boy is practically raised by the Mexican nanny? I had a few fun similar experiences with our son this week that reminded me of that. Don't take this too far out of context, my wife is home with our kids all day long but for a few hours each week we have a Spanish teacher come who only speaks Spanish to our kids. She will take our son J to the park and walk him around the neighborhood and play games and teach the whole time. This has been going on for one month now and the kids have become very used to her being around... maybe a little too used to her.

Example 1:
This last week during prayer J started including her in our evening prayers
Mom: "and we're thankful for..."
J: "Rosa"
Mom: "and?..."
J: "Rosa"
Mom: "and Mommy?!"
J: "and Rosa!"
Mom: "in the name of..."
J: "Rosa, Amen"

Example 2:
This morning while Mom was in the bathroom getting ready and I was on the computer looking up the definition of blasphemy, my kids were calling for their mother(s).
R: "mommee"
J: "Rosa"
R: "mommmeee!"
J: "Rosssaa!"





Friday, April 13, 2012

Random thoughts on public toilets

This is mainly a post for men if they even read blogs. And it may even be for women too, I just haven't been in to many women's bathrooms of late to know if this will all make sense to them.

Have you ever noticed how on some urinals, right down there in the "collection area" there is the name of the company and a phone number. I wonder what they are trying to get you to do? I first noticed it many years ago before cell phones were even very popular so I guess they expected you to write down the phone number somehow while you were there and get back to them at some point and relate your experiences of using their urinal. Now a days with cell phones, it's much more convenient. If you're nimble enough, you can just call them right there on the spot while you're using their product... I'm guessing the conversation would go something like... "Hi there, my name is Bob and I just was calling the number that I see in the urinal that I'm using right now." "Oh yes Bob, Thank you very much for calling and for choosing our product, let me get you to our customer service rep." "Hello Bob, this is Mary from Waxie International, thank you for calling, please tell me about your experience with our urinal today." "Oh well... it's nice, I mean there IS a little splashback still and the little flush sensor went off a little premature, everything else seems to be up to par."  Anyway it would be an awkward conversation because other guy's would be piping in with their comments during your phone call "Hey tell them they need to be a little higher" and "how 'bout making them different colors... we're getting tired of white." "Come on guy's this is my conversation!!"


I used to pretend the little flush sensor on the top of the urinal wasn't really a sensor but was a camera and they would just watch to see when you were done and walking away. And then some guy in a big room of monitors would be like "well he's done!" FLUSH. Every once in a while I'd pretend like I was done and start to walk away and when the toilet flushed I'd jump back in and keep going... then I'd look into the camera "Caught Ya!" I'd say with a grin!


They say 33 percent of men don't wash their hands after using the bathroom... (I think it's way higher than that) I make up for some of them because I double and triple wash my hands sometimes. It bugs me though, the bathrooms that when you're inside the bathroom have the door opening in. And then they have the hand blowdryer so they don't have paper towels and you have to use your shirt sleeve to open the door... or you just have to wait in the bathroom pretending to be doing something until someone walks in from the outside and then you catch the door with your foot... that's always a little awkward. That should be the first thing they think of when designing a building "Now I want all bathroom doors to open out!"

Uncomfortable toilet situation