Our Family Chronicle

Fresh snow - but word of bad roads, bad traffic and wind made us decide to stay in town. Alex and Melinda took this opportunity to build walls and prepare for combat. They both were outside braving the wind and snow building their strong hold and preparing for the inevitable onslaught of snowballs. All of this preparation started before I was even out of bed. Sure enough Brendan and Kalin came over just before noon and sides where taken. After a brief warming up and a little food in their stomach the battle was on. The snow balls flew back and forth for most of the afternoon. They had one glitch when a couple of kids from around the corner utilized some gorilla warfare techniques to attack both sides and then retreat. Alex and the gang found this irritating as they wanted to just battle each other but they survived this third world attack and proceeded to wage war on each other. The good news was that after crawling around in the trenches fighting off frost bite they were able to come in to safety and warmth. As they tended their battle wounds they drank hot chocolate watched TV and discussed which battle strategies worked and which ones didn’t.

Tags: Kid's and animals, other kids, parenting by Randall
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The seemingly endless number of fears that pop up – how much sympathy? How much empathy? How much help? How much tough love? Melinda has at this time in her life a growing number of little phobias.   One that has become of particular annoyance is her fear of the bathroom – in our own house.  Evidently a spider was in our bathroom once upon a time and a young girl that has never before showing fear of bugs of any kind, including spiders, has been afraid of the bathroom ever sense.   Actually, Panayota says that her fear is because her brother scared her saying monsters are in the bathroom.  This fear becomes draining as we try to get her to brush her teeth and Melinda fights going into the bathroom to do this simple chore.  I tell her she must go and she tries to avoid it and tries to force mom to go with her.  Some how being ten feet away is not close enough.  For awhile Panayota indulged this needy act but recently has started to tell her she would be just fine by herself (time for a little tough love).   I am the parent that told her that she needed to brush her teeth but for some reason it is Panayota’s fault.  Melinda was upset about having to brush her teeth and it was Mom’s fault because she didn’t go with her.  What a lacking compassion person – I mean Mom.

Tags: Melinda, parent guilt, parenting by Randall
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Dr., Mr., Mrs., or more to the point Dad, Mom… Different titles bring up different perceptions. Dad and Mom bring up a number of different possible life roles. Dad and Mom – caregiver, nurturer, teacher, nurse, councilor, (hopefully) roll model, and so on. Husband, Wife, Lover – these roles get lost once the PARENT word is spoken yet it seems that we spend so much time as parents that we forget the other parts, the parts that make us who we are (or were) even when the kids are not around. When the kids are around I find that Pattie and myself refer to each other as Mom and Dad. Labeling of each other starts out simple enough as we talk to our children and tell them to go get their mother or father. After a few years Pattie and I talk to each other in front of the kids as mom could you help Melinda. She in turn would ask dad to help with this thing or that. Eventually we start calling each other mom and dad on a regular basis and now if we are not careful we talk to each other like that even when the kids are nowhere to be found. I caught myself doing just that today as I asked mom what she wanted for breakfast? I looked around and noticed that neither Alex or Melinda were in the room. Pattie is not my mom and she is much more than just a mom so why am I calling her mom. This is a habit that needs to stop. I enjoy my role as dad, as parent and all the perceptions that come with that role but .. – we (I) need to be careful not to lose the other roles of our life – other parts of ourselves, the parts that made us- Pattie and Randy before children and hopefully helps us to be good parents now. So though Pattie is indeed a good mom I will start remembering that she is more. And I will call her Pattie or Panayota

Tags: Relationship, parenting by Randall
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Yep – today Randy paid his dues for missing his first day of work at the ski area.  Okay, when they said they were opening for the weekend we (Panayota, Tanya & Randy) all thought that meant Saturday not Friday.  All three of us and we heard a few more forgot to go to work.  So Randy and I had to choose another peak day to make up for it:)(  Randy was given a bunch of 4 to 5 year old beginner skiers today.  Although they are delightful – it was a lot of work especially without a magic carpet.  Randy’s feet are killing him but I did rub them out so not soooo bad.

Sidebar:  I and the kids did ski a couple of runs but decided that was good enough cause the snow was not that good and with only a few runs (now that we are so picky) and a bunch of people we called it done early.

Tags: Uncategorized, family activities, health or lack of by Randall
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Good day. Business is looking up. Sally and Rob stopped by to say “Hi” and are headed up to see her parents for Thanksgiving. Savannah came over to have some pics of herself that I will use to make some myspace animations. They turned out very cute.

I am going to play ski instructor tomorrow while Pattie and the kids put some time in skiing. I think we are going to break down and lock our skis and uniforms up at the ski area so we don’t have to drag it back and forth.

This is just some crazy (gift from Prime Time Rec Center event) sticky snow ball or snow man head or some odd thing that sticks to the wall.  The kids have been sticking it to my walls and ceiling for the last couple of days and I found it entertaining so I posted a pic just for the fun of it.  

Tags: family activities by Randall
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