Jeff's Journal

with special guests

I realize that the Flu Vaccine is for the flu virus, but why the hell can't they create a vaccine for nasty viruses like the beast that hit the whole family? Our son has had it the longest, but thankfully it didn't hit him as hard as D & I were. He's off to school, while we are both home to get checked out today. I've already seen my Doctor this morning & The wife sees her doctor this afternoon.
All I get from my Doctor, "Sorry, it's just the virus going around. Have some super cough meds ( cough syrup with codeine, ;-), go home & let it run its course." 
On the flip side, I kinda feel like I've gone back to Junior High, cuz this is the first time since then that I've had a Doctor write me a note proving that I could go back to (school) work..
Additionally, I think that this must be a record for me to have used up all five of my sick days before the end of February.
bleh.... 
Enough!

OK, 

So I'm at the dentist, because one of my crowns needed replacing. Three weeks ago, they took off the old one, made the impression, gave me the temp crown & now the new one was in. So, they get to work & pull off the old crown, show me the nice new gold crown (Shiny!), and get to work. Test fit, shave a bit off the crown here, test fit again, shave a bit off there, test fit again, a bit more shaving, ALMOST there... so we get down to the last adjustment, and while she is trying to remove it the last time, I feel something drop into the back of my throat!!. Automatically, my throat reacts & swallows! I immediately bolt upright desperately trying to stop mid-swallow, & ask (already knowing the answer), WHAT WAS THAT? Of course it was the gold crown, now partially stuck in my throat trying to decide weather to keep going down or set up a new home.  I spend the next moment or two trying to bring it back up, without vomiting, to no avail. Finally the dentist dejectedly (is that a word?), gives me a glass of water & tells me that we are pretty much out of luck (unless I vomit, and I have NEVER been able to induce this). 
Then, with us both realizing there is some humor in this, she tells me that I could always watch for it "upon exit", because it could be sent to a lab to be disinfected/sanitized & still used (although she wouldn't recommend this course of action), OR we create a new mold, and I come back in two weeks.

I chose the two week wait.   

Still seeing the humor in this, I did ask how much the crown is approximately worth. Her guess, approx $80-$100.
So I refer back to my Subject: That's gonna be some expensive sh*t, OR What would YOU do?

(Thankfully they still had my temp crown so that I didn't have to waste even more time getting that recreated as well )
Welcome to my Saturday morning.
Yeesh

I know that everyone had there commuting nightmare last night, so let's share! How bad was it for you?
For me, my normally sedate 30 minute commute, transformed into FOUR AND A HALF HOURS!!!
Which included my having to borrow a corporate loaner cell phone (because of all the days to forget mine at home, YEP I managed to do it on the worst snow storm to date, this year!), making frantic calls to my wife (who also didn't get home until almost 10:00pm, lovely F'ing Ride system), The Ride system, and the parents of a friend of Jonathan's to beg for them to pick him up from School towatch him until I could come pick him up (turned out to be approx 8:00pm, when I finally got into Watertown). Oh did I mention that we just met these folks for the first time, last week?
The one upshot to all this,and I don't know about anyone else's experience, is that I had probably the most considerate grouping of drivers all inching along together, that I've ever experienced... No honking, cutting people off, yelling or screaming.... Wierd....
I hope that everyone made it home safe...

 Mixed feeling on my own parental responses to a child not doing what they are asked/told OR Thanks Mom for ingraining in me reactions that I swore I would never do to my own child.....

I am actually looking for advice on this, so comments are welcome and requested.
Jonathan has reached a stage (probably normal for his age of almost 6), where he is REALLY not listening to what he is asked/told to do. We ask him multiple times to stop doing somethings, and the like. He then proceeds to do it again, we ask him why he does it again when he knows it will get him in trouble, and instead of the Bill Cosby , Parenthood skit, answer: "I don't know". We have actually gotten the flat out answer from him of: "Because I wanted to". He then gets his punishment, and then moves onto the next thing, and it happens again...wash, rinse, repeat.  Most likely all typical for a 5-6 year old I'm sure. Here's where the mixed feelings come in.   
Wait for it..........

I ACTED EXACTLY THE SAME WAY AS A CHILD!
No surprise there I'm sure, but they way that I'm reacting is , how I was brought up by my parents, and it is EXACTLY (as I mentioned earlier) how I SWORE I would never treat my own child; With a swift hand (figuratively, we do not spank Jonathan), anger, & (more so of late) punishments.
Today there were quite a few examples of this type of cycle, which, after a few earlier punishments, finally resulted in a punishment right at bedtime, taking away his favorite book before bed, and my saying , completely on (burned in at childhood) Instinct, the dreaded words that I hated hearing as a child; "If you are going to act like a baby, you will be treated like a baby". TO MY 5 YEAR OLD SON! He still IS a baby practically speaking. 
He couldn't fall asleep after that, for over 40 minutes (as I could hear him sniffling in bed over the monitor), until I went in and much more calmly talked to him (again) about not listening, and that when I was a child I too did the same thing, and also got into trouble when I didn't listen.
I am at a loss sometimes on how I react as a parent, not because I think that I am a bad parent, but because I find myself doing some of the things that to this day, I STILL don't want to do to my own child because I knew how bad it made me feel back then.
So I open the floor on this one because I'm not sure what to do about this type of ingrained behaviour.... I know that I don't want to act like my parents did in these types of situations, but I'm finding myself doing it anyway, without thinking, AND before I realize it.
Thanks for hearing me out...

Holy Crap! I've been married for NINE YEARS!! How'd that happen? ;-) Love you Wife! Here's to many more!
:-)

I sit here thinking about Jonathan heading into Kindergarten, both grateful & cursing the fact that I have such a logical/emotional split to my personality. From what I’ve seen, most guys, when their children grow up, tend to lean toward the logical side of things (or hide being emotional VERY well); this is great, my son is growing up! Time for him to “move on up”!  He’s older now He can do more things! Definitely, no more diapers and the like.  Then there are the few of us, who have always had an emotional (sometime VERY emotional) side as well. Tears of joy come to my eyes when I think of MANY occasions during his short life so far with us; Losing his first baby tooth, First time Fireworks, Definitely no more diapers (yes this falls into BOTH categories), First time parades, bringing him home, etc. 

Well, up until this point, I have actually been staying on the logical side of things (as I thought to myself, a rather pleasant change), but (not) much to my surprise, my emotional side is starting to kick in, now that we are 5 days away from Jonathan starting kindergarten. I’m getting torn up about what he will be changing, both good; New school, New friends, New routine, and bad; No more daily time in the car for him & I (singing together has been a joy!), Leaving the daycare that has been a “second home” of sorts for him & of course him losing his two best buds, Sam & Antonio (AKA the “Three Amigos”).  I almost didn’t make it out of the daycare this morning when I dropped him off, without getting noticeably teary-eyed.

He’s not our BABY boy anymore. In fact he is becoming quite the amazing (and sometimes frustrating) little boy. While I have denied it in the past, diapers and all, I very much miss that baby we brought home almost 5 years ago. But at the same time, I am amazed, proud & excited about what is to come for him.

Are my confused musings as an emotional/logical, Worrier/Thinker….Perhaps not all that uncommon?

He was popping off the top of a plastic cup (totally wrong of course) with his teeth, and out it came! Now before you get worried, he had already told me 2 days earlier that the tooth was feeling all wiggly. So chances are the cup just "sped up" the process by a day or two. He's SO cute, with his left-front "gap", smile! Picture to follow (Aries??)
Oh , Just curious, I'm curious to compare notes on what the current "tooth Fairy Rate" is ?  LOL
Oh and BTW, word to the wise, make sure that you explain fully that the Tooth Fairy is supposed to TAKE the tooth, before getting the child all excited about the "reward" for the tooth. When he was informed by a grand-parent on the phone, that it was going to be taken, You could see the excitement drain out of his face. He was momentarily heart-broken, as he didn't want to give up the tooth. So, with some VERY quick thinking of Mommy & Grand-mom, the idea was born to write a note to the Tooth Fairy asking to leave the tooth. so in a bag, the tooth & the note went & then under the pillow. This morning.... one happy child with his reward & tooth in hand. :-)

-J