Gotta Protect Savannah From Dudes Already?

So in our church congregation, Kalynn and I just got assigned to teach Sunday School to the kids that are turning 8 years old. Before we completely split into our class each Sunday, all of the kids(including their teachers) aged 3 to 11, meet together to have singing time. So that means we get to do that with Savannah; it’s dope. Before we’d have to just drop her off and go to the adult classes. Anyways, a few weeks earlier, another mom had sent Kalynn a few pictures of Savannah and her son holding hands as they walked to class and just thought it was the cutest thing ever. Let's just say she was way more stoked about it than I was. 

Fast forward to our first Sunday in singing time. Savannah and her class ended up only sitting 2 rows in front of us so I was excited just to observe her a little bit. Anyways, her and the same hold hands kid were just playing around and laughing with each other which was obviously fine. But all of the sudden the kid starts trying to kiss Savannah; like on the face. So Savannah starts putting up her hand for some defense and is leaning basically all the way sideways in her chair trying to avoid this kid from kissing her. This goes on for another minute or so and at this point I’m like(in my head) “Really, homie? That’s how we’re operating today?” So I irritatingly look over to Kalynn who I think kind of shoulder shrugged at me and then calmly walked up to them and just said, “hey bro, no kisses. Just play but don’t try and kiss her.” Literally all I said and in a normal tone as well; nothing demonstrative. 

Anyways, this kid responds as if I just super yelled at him and stole his most prized possession. He gives me a dirty look, his eyes start to well up, he starts sucking his thumb, and then begins to completely avoid Savannah. Like Savannah is sitting in the chair immediately to his left and he starts leaning as far to his right as possible, looking to his right at the ceiling; all while still sucking his thumb. So Savannah starts tapping him on his left shoulder trying to get his attention to play and he won’t even acknowledge her. Lol In fact, everytime she taps him he kind of yanks his body/shoulder away from her in that pouty way, you know how kids do? Lol So Kalynn gives me a dirty look as if I was out of line and obviously I’m like, “I didn’t even do anything. I literally just told him to stop kissing her.” Lol 

So this is basically how the rest of the 30 minutes went. He assertively avoided Savannah’s attempts at playing and occasionally would look back at me, thumb in mouth and puppy dog faced, almost just to see if I was looking, we would make eye contact, and then he would shoot back around in his chair as if he’d seen a ghost. Lol I mean I really didn’t care that this was his response but I thought it was a little unnecessary and unfair for Savannah.

I wasn’t sure how I would be received in the primary after that based on his reaction but a few of the other teachers seemed to find it fairly humorous and smirked at the situation a little bit. This atleast helped to reassure me that I wasn’t that crazy. Lol Not that I was that worried about that. I really was just shocked that this kid responded the way he did based on what I did. Literally was having a meltdown for what I felt like was basically nothing. It was interesting. 4 years old and I’m already having to be Savannah’s body guard a little bit. Practice for the future, I suppose…

Hope y’all are doing grrrrrreat. Peaceeeeeee.. 

Potty Training Savannah

 Potty Training Savannah

One day we decided to go get our grub on at the Cheesecake Factory. As chance would have it they seated us next to a couple who also had a few small children. Shockingly, we started talking about our kids. During the chit chat, somehow the topic of potty training came up. At the time, Savannah was still in diapers, but we were thinking about it. The husband of this couple told us that all they did was let their son run around naked for about a weekend while taking him to the toilet every 15 minutes to build the habit of going. If I’m not mistaken they basically told us that he was pretty much potty trained after that weekend. So in our minds we were like “Dope. Sounds easy. When the time comes we’ll definitely give it a try.”

Eventually, we did give it a try. We stripped her diaper off and tried to stay as consistent as possible with taking her every 15 minutes; phone timer activated. After the first few times she didn’t seem to be loving the idea of what was going on. It seemed like we were cramping her playtime style a little bit; too many interruptions. So we then tried to use Skittles and Starbursts as some “conditioning reinforcement” every time she would simply sit on the toilet; even if she didn’t “go.” Regardless of what we tried though she just kept peeing in random places around the house. Which was fine at first because initially you've got to expect at least a couple accidents. However, as her “shooting percentage” continually dwindled, the patience began to dwindle as well.

She did end up “going” a couple times in the toilet but very sporadically and with no type of consistency. The look in her eyes was one of “I don’t really know what’s going on” and she didn’t really seem to be connecting what we were trying to accomplish. This, along with many opportunities to improve our pee clean-up game, led us to temporarily wave the white flag and put her diapers back on. We would still try to catch her when she would disappear to go “boop” to try and get her to do it on the toilet, but every time I would pick her up in that moment, she would act as if I was a stranger attempting to abduct her; seemed fairly traumatic. Lol So we basically just chalked it up to her not being ready and gave up for the time being.

I can’t remember how much time had taken place since the white flag waving(a few months at least), but one day we were at Walmart and decided to get her a little Minnie Mouse toilet. Our thinking was that she would think it was so cool that she would want to sit on it and use it. Anyways, the day we got it, Savannah and Ray were joyfully playing with it in the bathroom. They were loving it and continuously pressing the buttons that would make the artificial flushing sound; it was a dope toilet. Lol Anyways, as they played, Savannah was definitely giving off the vibes that she viewed this as a baby toy meant more for Ray than for her. She played around with it for a little bit and then all of the sudden out of nowhere simply climbed up on the real toilet and went to the bathroom on her own. Then she did it again. And again. And again… Literally the only thing we did was to help her flush and wipe but she just kept using the toilet on her own. It was the craziest thing. 

She’s rarely had any accidents since that day and we basically did nothing to potty train her; she did it on her own with a little help from an overpriced, plastic Minnie Mouse toilet. Who would have thought… 

So whenever the topic comes up, based on our experience, I just tell whoever to just let the kid rock and roll whenever they’re ready. I’ve read that pushing too hard in this area could end up being fairly traumatic for the kid long-term. Don’t know how factually accurate that is but take it for what it’s worth.

Anyways, peaceeeeeeee.

          

First Day Alone As A 3-Time Dad

 First Day Alone As A 3 Time Dad

After Kay gave birth to Jrue, she stayed home from work for about a month or so on maternity leave. She watched Jrue while I was mostly responsible for Savannah and Ray; which was fine because that’s already how it had been for the previous few months. However, I knew the day would come when Kalynn would have to go back to work and I would be home with all 3 girls…alone. To be honest I was sort of dreading that day... I mean dreading might be a little too strong of a word but I knew there would basically be no room for error with this infant. Kalynn basically probably handled 99% of our first two’s baby needs(as I’m sure most other mothers do) so I was a little inexperienced. Partly because Mom’s are superheroes and just handle that shiz and partly because I’ve learned that I’m not a huge fan of the completely helpless baby phase(I mean does it ever not happen at the literal most inconvenient times or what..? Lol). So I would have to be doing all of that for Jrue while also making sure to keep Savannah and Ray alive. Tough ask. 

So the day comes and I’m probably blowing smoke to Kalynn talking about how everything will be fine yada yada yada just to calm her nerves, ya know. Anyways, everything WAS fine for the most part and the day was going fairly normal/smooth. That was until Savannah started to spin Ray on an office chair that we had put in our apartment so Kay could work from home when needed. At the time, I was busy feeding Jrue a bottle so I wasn’t super accessible to them. They had spun on this chair many times before and everything had always been fine. I think one of the major contributing factors to what would happen next is Savannah had pulled the lever on the chair that made it lift to its highest point. And because I was a little preoccupied I had never really noticed that had happened.. So at this point the chair was maybe 6 inches taller than normal.

One of the lamest parts about this whole thing was that I was feeding Jrue in a different chair that was literally only an arms length away from them. So, Savannah was spinning Ray and they were honestly having the time of their lives…until they weren’t. Eventually Ray was over it and was trying to get off the chair. Savannah, who was behind the chair, couldn’t see Ray and coincidentally spun the chair at the same time Ray was attempting to get off. Ray ended up falling off head first and obviously put her arms down to try and catch herself. After she landed, she ended up crying and holding her arm for an abnormal amount of time which was starting to concern me a little bit. I’ve had a few broken arms in my day so I was trying to give her some of the “tests” that I remember doctors giving me and she seemed somewhat okay. She just kept crying though and that wasn’t normal for her.

When I told Kalynn all that had transpired, she was a little upset. Mostly at me, assuming that if roles were reversed, this would have never happened. Maybe true, maybe not. Anyways, lol, I told Kay that Ray was probably fine, but Kay decided to call the doctor anyway and set up an appointment for the next day. Welp, we went in, she got checked up, and of course, it was broken… She had a small buckle fracture in her left wrist…

My first day on the job as a 3 Time Dad and Ray breaks her arm…Lol Literally what are the chances of that. I don’t know if things could have looked any bleaker for me in the moment. I honestly equated it to simply “stuff happens” but that probably didn’t make Kalynn feel any more reassured about our current situational roles at the time. Lol So that was my first day with all 3 girls. Things have been pretty smooth since then as far as I’m concerned, BUT, it all started with a bang...or crack. Lol

Trying to Not Let The Dryer "Shrink" Our Clothes Too Much

4/5/2022

What it dooooooo?!

We are currently in Moses Lake, WaRshington(as Bobby Knight pronounces it…) just living the dream. Kalynn is working at the law firm Earl and Edwards as a legal secretary/assistant and about to do a little schooling to level up to a paralegal while I stay home with the three girls and try not to screw them up too bad… During the months of September to the beginning of March I have practice every night being one of the assistant coaches of the local community college basketball team here. So during those months, Kalynn will come home and we’ll basically just trade spots. Savannah currently loves princesses and will put a tutu over everything she wears, Ray is basically like a chicken with its head cut off running in every direction with very "selective" hearing, and Jrue turns 1 this week and is getting more and more mobile by the day.

I’d say it’s been a pretty good experience for us so far. Just learning and growing and getting a solid taste of “real life.” This is really the first time we’ve ever been on our own and had our own space so it’s been a good opportunity for us.

At the moment, Kalynn and I are currently living the “don’t blame the dryer for the ‘shrinking’ of your clothes” lifestyle. I’m sure many of you can relate. It’s hard once you finish competing regularly in sports to really seek opportunities to push your body physically on a regular basis when it’s just so much easier and convenient to just chill. Lol Plus one of us has birthed 3 children and “apparently” that adds to the struggle as well. Seems fake but…  Jk Jk for anyone that took that seriously. 

They also say that you can’t outwork a bad diet. Which actually does seem fake because I swear when I was playing college basketball, no matter what I ate, I was still losing weight throughout the season. So…jury is still out on that one. WIthout those sports though our diets have definitely been sneaking up on us and we’re starting to try and fight back a little. I started more a few years ago(as I suppose these habits caught up to me faster…lol) while Kalynn has started more recently(making it so much easier for me). 2 quick stories to kind of illustrate Kalynn and I in the eating game.

1st story: 

So when we were dating, Kalynn had softball practice every night. And for those of you who don’t know, Hawai’i doesn’t do daylight savings time so it gets dark around 6:30 roughly every night of the year. So I'd pick her up most days after her practice and rather than go to my house or hers to hang out we’d generally just go for drives. Which usually consisted of us going out to eat somewhere along those drives. My general principle when going to fast food places is to order enough that I think will be “good” and then order a little more. Lol While Kalynn will order something that generally is perfect for how hungry she is(who does that?). On top of that, Kalynn somehow would only eat about half her stuff and save the rest for later while I would eat everything I ordered regardless of whether it ended up being way too much or not. So after doing that fairly regularly for a few months, you can imagine some of the results. Kalynn stayed as perfect as ever while I…didn’t. Lol 

2nd Story:

When we go to the movies, generally we always get popcorn along with some other snacks. Also, from what I hear, this seems to be a habit of children who come from big families but Kalynn and mine had the same amount of people in them so I guess it doesn’t necessarily apply here. Anyways, let’s just say our popcorn eating habits are a little different. And you could probably already guess them based on the previous story. She somehow sits there and finesses one piece at a time. While I’m over here stuffing handful after handful not even sure if I’m even tasting the popcorn or not. Lol Again, probably not the greatest habit of mine. Something that gives me a little reassurance, though, is I brought this story up to my sister and apparently she’s had people tell her “yo, your food isn’t going anywhere” as she rapidly races nobody while eating her food. Lol So I'm clearly not alone.

Aaaaaaanyways, this was not my intentional topic when I started writing but it is what it is I guess. We’re learning that being able to reach some of our “fitness” goals are much more about lifestyle adjustments than anything else I suppose. And us going through some of it right now, seems to clearly be encompassing much of our lives based on this writing. Lol More-so probably just me as I have to continuously tell myself throughout the day “don’t eat that, bro.” Lol It’s good though. 

Hope you all are good. Peaceeee