Stuff Marlo says

A week ago, Marlo was at the park with her mother and grandma. I wasn't there but I will tell the story anyway because it's funny.

So Marlo met another little girl who was five years old. She was pushing Marlo on the swing and telling her about her family. This is how to conversation went (at least how it was told to me):

Little Girl - "I have a big brother... and I have a big sister"
Marlo (not to be outdone) - "Umm... I have a big butt"

Krewe of Marleaux - Marlo's first second line

Happy Mardi Gras everyone!

Man I haven't been to Mardi Gras in a long time. I really miss it. Not just the actual day, but the season leading up to it. It was such a magical time in my childhood. The costumes, the music, the food, the parades and everything about the season still holds a place in my heart. Even as a moody teenager, I was never too cool to dress up or to go to parades with my family.

The Krewe of Nereids in Waveland, MS was always a blast. Before the parade started, we would walk the route to see who we would run into. You never knew who it would be but it was always like a reunion. It was tradition for my brother and I to buy beaucoup pounds of crawfish after the parade. We'd then rent some flicks, go back to the house and just spend the rest day eating crawfish while watching movies.

I want Marlo to experience the same magic as I did as a child. Unfortunately we cannot make it this year. However, I decided we could have our own parade right here in LA in the living room. We set up her stuffed animals as spectators and marched through listening to traditional Mardi Gras tunes. So here is Marlo's first Mardi Gras and first time to dance the second line.


*Here is the after party picnic

Acts of kindness in children - A short story of compassion

A couple of weeks ago I took Marlo to her ballet class. Yes, ballet with 2 year olds, it's as adorable as it sounds. A bunch of little girls in tights and tutus running around, learning the basics of the dance. Sometimes it's just chaos, but the teacher uses little tricks to bring them back to order. Sometimes it's so cute your head will explode.

Anyway, there are segments where the girls learn to wait there turn (this seems to be the hardest task and usually causes someone to cry). After one of those lessons, one of the girls was really upset. The other girls had followed the teacher to the walk-in closet, where she (the teacher) usually grabs some new item to give to the girls for the next lesson. However, the upset girl remained away from everyone, crying. Her mother called to her but she didn't budge. Marlo saw her and walked over. I wasn't sure what was going to happen. I knew Marlo was kind and sweet to adults but I didn't know how that transferred over to kids her age.

The next thing she did melted my heart and then filled me with pride. She hugged the girl and told her "Don't be sad". The little girl hugged her back and stopped crying. Then she took the girl's hand and told her "come on" as she led her over to the others. If there were a record for best "awww" performed in sync by a group of 7 parents and 1 teacher in a single room, then we definitely broke it that day.

I told you.... sometimes it's so cute your head will explode :)

 

 

p.s.

 

I'd like to think that most of us inherently want to help others, at least when we are very young. The world changes us over time unfortunately. The wicked in the world will exploit the kindness in ot...hers to get ahead in life. For this reason we have to form rules as we get older. We put up walls to avoid being manipulated or targeted from these types of people. However, Marlo is at the age where none of that matters right now. And I love to watch her as she teaches me how things could be and how things SHOULD be.

Marlo singing and performing "Let It Go" from Disney's "Frozen"

  I posted this on Facebook but thought I would put it here before I forget about it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvx8HQNjnPc

Slacking

I've been slacking on this but I have my notes. I just have to transcribe them to this medium. i.e. copy and paste. lol

Math Dad

Math Daddy problem of the day: at a rate of 5 inches per step, the baby covered the distance of 20 ft. how many steps does that equal? her rate of travel is 5in/1 = 20ft/x . 12in per ft, so 20*12= 240

so 5/1 = 240/x cross multiply and get 5x=240, divide both sides by 5 and x=48

you then divide x by 2 and that gets how many steps Marlo took with her left foot after she stepped in poopoo.

so a total of 24 steps I have to clean from the living room into the dining area (the lighting is low so it's hard to see exactly where).

So if you think you're done with math after high school and college... think again.

Gender Discrimination and Sexism (but not in the traditional sense)

I see many stigmas arise on social media when a father is shown with very young children as the main caregiver. Mostly from women (don't flame me for this it's just how I see it), comments on videos or pictures showing a SAHD (stay at home dad) in his daily routine. About 50% of the comments are negative. Okay maybe not that much, but it's a lot. The common theme of these is stating that a man isn't cut out for the task. Again, most of those comments are from women.  I think it's funny because I can guarantee that many of these women would be up in arms if men were to comment negatively on a visual of a woman doing a traditional male task/skill.

Whatever the case, many fathers are stepping up to the plate now and I am proud to be one of them. Some of us are more inept in the start than others but we learn fast... you have to because those babies learn even faster so we have to keep up. If you're a SAHD and have stumbled across this blog then I salute you along with everything you do on the a daily basis. You rock! When you see all these posts/blogs/images about how hard it is to be a mom and you want to scream out "hey!! what about us SAHD's?". Please just remain silent. We don't need to gloat like those women. We know what we do and don't need confirmation from social media. We don't need a holiday named after us or an appreciation day in our honor. We will remain unsung until our children grow up and give us a shout out on live television, after they just won the Superbowl. Or when they make an Olympic commercial showing all the SAHD working with their little athletes from day one. This will be our time to shine.

And yes I realize I am contradicting my point a little by creating this post. However, I don't see this ever going viral for the masses to see. I just want to give a head nod up to those dads and say "sup... good job man".


p.s. here is an example of what I'm talking about. Just view some of the negative comments about this video, which I think is awesome and cute
daddy hairstylist