they want us to what!?!

I attended a flu forum late last week as part of my job. The presenter offered all of the latest CDC recommendations for flu (seasonal and H1N1) for this fall. And much to my dismay, they are encouraging parents to get all children aged 6 mos. to 4 years old both the season flu shot and the soon-to-be released H1N1 vaccination. In fact, children in this age group are on the priority vaccination list. Call me paranoid, but I'm not enthusiastic about subjecting both my kids to a drug that has been hastily formulated and produced in mass quantities. It just seems way too risky.

Am I being ridiculously over-protective?

Also, for children, the H1N1 vaccination requires two shots. This is in addition to the two flu shots they're recommending for children being vaccinated for seasonal flu for the very first time. That means a total of four flu shots per kid. That's torture.

I think we'll take every precaution to prevent exposing our kids to the flu rather than injecting them with a strange drug.

death to max & ruby

I mean it. I absolutely hate those little hair-brained rabbits. Unfortunately, every time you ask Z-Dub what he'd like to watch on television, his reply is "Max & Ruby."

For some reason we can't break him of his obsession. And I don't understand it either. Every episode is the same. That bossy bitch Ruby is hell-bent on doing something or getting something and little Max is always interrupting. Although, at the end of every episode it turns out that Ruby was in the wrong and Max was in the right. It's probably a good message about how being bossy and single-minded can backfire, but that's beside the point. It's just too annoyingly wholesome for me.

Also, where in the hell are their parents? Seriously, these two little hares live on their own. They have no adult supervision except for when Ruby's "bunny scout leader" or their grandma stops by the house for a visit. Other than that it's young Ruby caring for her toddler brother Max. No wonder she's bossy, she's got too much responsibility. And, since when do rabbits live in houses?

Personally, I prefer when Z-Dub watches Phineas & Ferb. It even entertains me. Who doesn't love a little summer vacation angst?

It's kind of funny how Z-Dub's cartoon tastes have evolved. He went from Backyardigans to Caillou to Little Einsteins to Wow Wow Wubbzy to Max & Ruby. He's getting onboard with Phineas & Ferb, and he's caught onto Bernstein Bears lately too. Who know's what'll be next. Perhaps Hung on HBO. He is, after all, fascinated with his "pitoy" (penis).

creative discipline

We've learned quickly that the "Terrible Twos" were a cakewalk compared to the "Treacherous Threes." Not only is Z-Dub full of what appears to be super-human energy and spunk, he knows how to back talk like a true master artist. He also loves testing our parental authority.

Lately, we've been challenged when it comes to discipline. While "time outs" and threats of "if you don't stop, you're not getting any dessert" or "if you do that one more time the police are going to take away all of your toys" work most of the time, he's getting a little too savvy for them.

It's time to get creative and I think I have a great idea -- Boot Camp-style discipline. We're talking push-ups, laps, etc. I've taught Z-Dub how to do push-ups and he can pull off about three in a row. If he's acting up and fails to heed the complimentary warnings, I can just say "drop and give me three!" or "you have to do one lap to that house down the street and back. And don't let me catch you walking. I want to see some speed!" The beauty of this type of discipline is that it can be employed virtually anywhere. And as an added bonus, he'll be extra fit.

I don't think this type of discipline is cruel either. After all, it's just exercise. The only risk I would probably run into is Z-Dub growing up to hate exercise. He may associate it with a negative and never want to exercise when he gets older, becoming a resentful, lazy, fat slob. Hmmmm....I guess I have to think this through a little bit more.

What are your creative approaches to discipline? Have they worked?

the elusive vacation

We need a vacation....badly. I have a week off coming up at the end of June, but we still haven't planned what we're doing. This is mostly due to some medical issues that may need to be addressed during that time. What needs to be done, where and exactly when will not be determined for another few days, so planning has been placed, frustratingly, on hold for now.

We'd like to hop on a plane and head off to an exciting, exotic location, but that probably won't be feasible this year. With Z-Dub's surgery earlier this month and some other medical appointments in the family, we've had to fork out nearly $1,500 to pay insurance deductibles, uninsured diagnostic tests and for prescription medications. Needless to say, it's been one extremely expensive month so far. It's probably going to continue to be as such for the next couples months as well.

If we are able to take some time for a vacation during that week, it'll probably be just a quick trip to our homeland of Southern California -- perhaps San Diego. It'll still be fun, but nothing like last year when we went to Montreal. Speaking of which, I wrote an article for Uptake today about  vacationing in Montreal. Feel free to check it out . It was difficult to write because it made me yearn for a return trip. I definitely want to go back for the Jazz Festival and to see more of the city. Maybe next year.

Anyone else have plans for summer vacation this year? Want to invite a family of four?

kid talk

Z-Dub amazes me every single day with words that come flowing out of his mouth. Sometimes they're funny and other times just out-of-left-field strange. For example, right after waking up this morning:

Z-Dub: "The coyotes are all over Grandma's house! Pandora (sister-in-law's English bulldog) is going to eat the coyotes...and the bats. Bats are flying around Grandma's house. And the chipmunks eat Pandora's food."

Me: "Huhhh!?! Did you have a weird dream?"

A few minutes later while walking down the stairs to have breakfast and get ready to head over to Grandma's house:

Z-Dub: "Daddy, I want to ride the city bus."

Me: "The city bus? How very environmentally conscious of you."

Z-Dub: "Huhhh!?!"

As we're walking out the door:

Z-Dub: "It's raining for us outside."

Me: "No it's not! It's hot!"

Z-Dud: "I want to go in an airplane. I have poo poo in my tummy and I go poo poo in an airplane."



I'm not even at work yet and my brain is exhausted.

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In other news, my latest Uptake.com post about treating your special mother to a poolside retreat in Las Vegas for Mother's Day got picked up by the Los Angeles Times online travel blog. Cool!!!

cough, cough, sniffle

Z-Dub's surgery to get new tubes in his ears as well as his tonsils and adenoids removed is scheduled for Saturday, but we've run into an obstacle. Yesterday he suddenly became sick with a high fever, cough, runny nose, sneezing and an overwhelming urge to whine. As a result, his surgery may be postponed another week. They can't do it while he's ill.

In the meantime, HotMomma is off to the pediatrician with him this afternoon to get checked out. He hasn't sprouted a curly tail and started oinking, so I'm not concerned that it's the swine flu -- oh, excuse me, I mean the H1N1 flu. I don't want to piss off the pork farmers or pig lovers.

It's kind of weird for him to be sick now. The weather is awesome, and even borderline hot (we're almost at the century mark today). And the entire fall and winter season, when colds and flu are common, he avoided any and all illness. Considering his track record, we were ecstatic.

I'm sure hoping it's not the swine...err H1N1 flu. He hasn't even been around any pigs or Mexicans lately. If he sneaked out of the house for a quick midnight rendezvous with a hot Latina in Cancun, I think I'd find out about it.

a post of randomness

Oh dear blog, how I've neglected you. It's been five days since my last post. And, frankly, my last post was nothing more than an embedded You Tube video. Not much to it really. 

Life has been kind of crazy lately. We've been reinforcing the potty training with Z-Dub. He's starting his third week diaper free. He's had a few accidents, but that's expected. He gets distracted by "fun" and forgets that he's not wearing a diaper. He also tends to "hold it" too long before telling us he has to go. As a result, some of his accidents have been while his pants were coming off to use the toilet. 

Speaking of Z-Dub, he's turned into a raging three-year-old lately. He's literally a back-talking, hitting, stubborn brat of a boy. We're working hard to get him under control, but let's face it, he's three and it's how kids his age act. We're trying to find a healthy balance of discipline and positive reinforcement when he's being good. So far, the most effective punishment is withholding toys. And threatening kidnap by pirates seems to be working as well. He scoffs at time out. 

Meanwhile, little The Deuce just keeps eating, pooping and growing. He's been teething lately, so he's a little on the grumpy side. Not too bad though. With the warm weather, he's been enjoying time at the pool. In celebration of a friend's birthday, we had a private cabana and pool at Green Valley Ranch Resort yesterday. The weather was beautiful and The Deuce and Z-Dub and their cousins had a blast splashing in the pool. They also like the endless parade of delicious food. I enjoyed one too many mojitos. It was a great day. 

Want proof, here's some pics.

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that we got Z-Dub one of these over the weekend:

It's a Disney's Cars television set. It was an award for all of his peeing and pooping in the toilet. It'll also be great to "take away" as punishment for bad behavior. Just thinking ahead.

the weird dream

Ever have a really weird, vivid dream; the kind of dream that you remember every little detail of? I had such a dream last night and I'm still trying to analyze it.

HotMomma, Z-Dub, The Deuce and I were being chased by mobsters and the police simultaneously. We were in a strange city, which, based on the signs, turned out to be Jacksonville, Florida, even though it looked nothing like Jacksonville. There were big hills in the city, like in San Francisco.

At different points in the dream were at the beach, hiding among the throngs of sunbathers. Later we were hiding in a mall and a used car dealership lot. It was there that HotMomma surprised me with her car theft skills as she hot wired a beat up, old, orange VW Bus. Later we were involved in a high speed chase with the police and it did very well around the curves considering the kind of vehicle it was. Later we were on a cruise ship as it was exiting a bay. With the police on board, we jumped off into the water and magically ended up on jet skis. From there we were being chased by mobsters in speed boats. Throughout the dream, innocent folks were falling victim, but somehow we always eluded capture. It was very Jason Bourne.

The dream ended with a real yelp from The Deuce, indicating that he was awake and ready to eat. Just before that happened, in the dream we sought sanctuary in the home of a very nice and helpful lesbian woman who was in the middle of shampooing her carpet. Not that carpet, you perv!

tweetle dee...

Jamaipanese posted this YouTube video yesterday. It's so funny, I thought I'd share. Check it out:

 
Speaking of Twitter. You can follow me here.

just random ramblings

Pardon my absence over the past few days as my day job continues to be crazy busy. Planning and implementing a marketing and public relations campaign for the launch of a new academic program that operates a clinic which requires patient recruitment is hard work, especially at the eleventh hour. The workload will probably not subside for another couple of weeks as I have media tours and interviews scheduled, special events, commercials to tape, and marketing materials to be written, designed and printed. It's amazing how much time and effort this type of thing takes. You have to be really good at time/project management.

Speaking of time management, this experience will probably serve as great training for my next big endeavor. Although most people might think I'm nuts for doing it, but I have enrolled in an MBA degree program. I'll be attending classes after work on Friday evenings and on Saturday mornings beginning in August. It's going to be tough, but I should finish my degree in 14 to 17 months.

I've been wanting to get a master's degree for quite some time, so I'm looking forward to doing this, despite the rigorous schedule I'll have to maintain. I'm confident I'll be able to accomplish it while providing enough attention to HotMomma, Z-Dub and The Deuce. HotMomma has been quite supportive and encouraging in my decision to do this, which I totally appreciate. I'm also confident that I'll still be able to devote time to this blog as well as Uptake, although I've sucked at it lately. I only wrote one article this month. I plan on sitting down and writing a few articles in the coming days. Hopefully I can produce a month's worth.

But right now I need to get ready for the Superbowl. My money is on Pittsburgh, but Arizona has been full of surprises this year.Who are you rooting for?

weird search term

I learned today that this blog is first on the list when you Google search "see jay-z stick where he pee at in the toilet." It takes you to this post. 

Very interesting.

a monday mess

Last night Z-Dub's cousins were over. They played upstairs in his room before heading downstairs for dinner. Later, when we took Z-Dub up for his shower, we found his bathroom floor flooded. They had messed with the toilet and it overflowed. Believe me when I say mopping toilet water is no picnic.

Of course, I launched a full investigation, complete with a heated interrogation of Z-Dub. At first he blamed everyone but himself. Later, upon full examination of the evidence I figured it out and was able to coerce a confession out of the little culprit. Apparently his cousin and he decided to fill the commode with toilet paper and flush it. Obviously it couldn't handle the mass quantities of soggy paper.

He was charged, tried and convicted in the court of Daddy and sentenced to bed.

On a side note, when I arrived home I changed into one of my old t-shirts. Z-Dub asked what it said below the picture. I replied "don't spank the monkey." Later he told HotMomma "no spanking the monkey!!!" Then, even later, The Deuce spit up on my monkey shirt.

Yep, it was another interesting Monday night in our house.

a much needed break

The arrival of Friday couldn't come at a better time. I'm watching the clock and eagerly waiting for the end of the work day. To say it's been a trying week is an understatement. Work has been insanely busy and the added stress of worrying about our nephew has left me exhausted. I'm sure HotMomma feels the same way.

Now that the weekend is upon us, it's time to let loose and have some fun. We're going to party tonight. I'm having a drink few drinks. I may even get brave and sing a little Karaoke. That will definitely require more than one drink.There's some stiff competition among a group of friends to score a 100 on the system. Only one person has accomplished this so far. The song was Zombie by the Cranberries and she sings it amazingly. Of course, we think she practices a lot during the day, which gives her a huge advantage over the rest of us talentless fools.

Good food, good drinks, good company and crazy fun is exactly what we need tonight.

We also have family visiting this weekend, so hopefully we can plan something adventurous to do.

pussifying my boy and phone books

Z-Dub is constantly surrounded by girls. His cousins that live nearby are girls and our neighbors' kids are all girls, so he obviously is influenced by them. Lately he's been spending a lot of time at his Grandma's house playing with the girls. Over there the other day, prompted by his older cousin, I witnessed him playing with dolls and carrying a purse on his shoulder. I understand that's what the girls want to play and he's greatly outnumbered, so I didn't let it bother me.

However, later when we got got home and got him ready to take a shower, I noticed that someone at the house painted his toe nails. That's where I draw a line. I asked him who did it and he replied "Grandma." And apparently this isn't the first time she's done this. He and Deuce are her only grandsons. She had only daughters and up until both of the boys arrived, she only had granddaughters. I can understand how she may not know how to play with boys, but I'm going to have a little talk with her and hopefully the nail painting will not be happening again. I better do it soon, because it wouldn't surprise me if things escalate and I go to pick him up and find him wearing a girl's dress.

It's unfortunate that on my side of the family there are primarily boys and he rarely gets to play with or see them because of distance. I think he'd have fun with them if he only could.

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Why do the telephone companies bother delivering phone directories anymore? It's a huge waste of trees if you ask me. Mine goes straight from the front porch into the recycling bin. All the information I need can be found on the Internets. I think the books should be by request only instead of just delivered to those who don't want them.

pee, poo, milk, web traffic and snow

We're still struggling with potty training Z-Dub. He's two years and nine months old and he has absolutely no interest in using the porcelain thrown. He made that clear the other night as I was getting him ready for his shower.

Me: "Z-Dub, do you want to try and go pee pee or poo poo on the potty before your shower?"

Z-Dub: "No Daddy. I too little."

Me: "What do you mean you're too little? You're a big brother now."

Z-Dub: "No. Mommy go on the potty. Daddy go on the potty. [Z-Dub] too little."

I guess we'll have to wait until he's "bigger" before he finally decides to answer nature's call in a toilet.

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We have a mini refrigerator in our master bedroom. This is because it's incredibly dry here in the desert and we're thirsty a lot. It's a pain in the butt to go down stairs to get water in the middle of the night, so the refrigerator provides easy access to bottled water. We also keep a sippy cup of milk in there at night, just in case Z-Dub wakes up thirsty. Last night he did just that, except he decided that rather than waking us up he'd quietly wander out of his room and into ours, open the refrigerator, grab his milk, close the refrigerator door and head off back to bed. That was such a "big boy" thing to do.

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Finally, thanks to my snowy Las Vegas pictures this blog broke a traffic record yesterday. I got more hits on this blog by noon yesterday than I get for an entire week. This was all because of Google searches for "Vegas snow pictures." I checked and we were listed first in search results. Cool!

And speaking of snow, although much of it has melted in the Valley, our neighborhood in the foothills above Vegas is still covered in a thick white blanket of snow. I guess it's going to stick around for a few days for us.

looking ahead

I'm thinking of getting my master's degree. Perhaps an MBA with a marketing concentration or a MA in Strategic Communications or Marketing Communications.

Do I have time? Probably not, especially with two kids now.

Do I have the money? Well, that can be worked out. My employer does have tuition reimbursement that will pay for half of it.

Why do I want this? I have no idea. I just know that I have an urge to expand my educational resume. Perhaps it will lead to an even brighter future, financially and professionally. Not that I'm in a bad place now. I actually love my current job.

It's obviously something I can't start in the immediate future, but perhaps in a year or two. In the meantime, I'm going to start my research and planning. I did a little today. I can earn an MBA or MA online through Boston University or George Washington University. Either one would be cool. Or I can do the in-class thing here locally. I haven't decided.

Oh, and I want to learn a foreign language. Perhaps something Asian.

I think I'm thinking too much. There really isn't enough time in a day.

weekend randomness

Here's comes a lot of randomness...

We got all into Skype this weekend. My brother introduced me to it last weekend, so we decided to register and invest in a new, though not too expensive, web cam. We got HotMomma's sister and her family in California all signed up as well. We all had a blast "seeing" each other all weekend long. Z-Dub is particularly amazed at seeing his cousins on the computer screen while talking to them. It freaked him out a little bit at first, but he quickly got on board with it and was waving at the screen. It sure saved us on long distance charges since we used it to make most of our calls. Cool!

Potty training continued this weekend. We had three peeing accidents on the floor and no toilet success. Bribing has failed thus far. We're going to have to change our strategy a bit. On a brighter note, Z-Dub may actually make an honest politician one day.

Let's see, what else? Oh, on Saturday we went to our neighborhood's Fall Festival Extravaganza. It was a good time with a lot of free food. We love free food. Here's a pic of Z-Dub and his chick, Tallulah. And, yes, his shirt says "My Daddy's A Stud Too!"

And finally, thanks to Whit, I'm now writing for the blog at UpTake.com, a really cool travel search and discovery site. I'm covering family vacations in the Las Vegas area. Yep, you heard me, family vacations in the City of Sin. Most of our readers are probably well aware that the mega casinos tried to push family travel back in the 90's, building theme parks and other attractions that appeal to families. The concept was later abandoned and Las Vegas reverted back to it's more lucrative focus on adult debauchery. However, many people still bring their families here for vacation. I'll be writing about some of the things they might enjoy during their visit.

Check out my first post here. Please feel free to leave a comment on the site and let me know what you think.

And, finally, Chuck Westbook has put together a coalition of bloggers with a mission to draw attention to great, but overlooked, blogs. Check it out and see if you want to be part of it. It's a novel idea.

votin'

I got an absentee ballot in the mail today. And, early voting here in Nevada starts next week. I haven't decided which route I'll go or whether I'll wait until Nov. 4, but I'm looking forward to finally exercising my right to vote and putting an end to this contentious and critical campaign season. For good.

monday randomness

While four day weekends are great when you're enjoying the time off, the repercussions of such a long absence from work suck butt. Big time. I've returned to 12 voicemail messages and 276 unread e-mails. I also have four scheduled meetings today -- one right after another.

It's going to be an exhausting day.

In other news, I'm also broke. With the weather suddenly turning arctic (for us) and only one pair of his pants actually fitting him, we had to high tail it to the mall to buy Z-Dub some new fall/winter clothing. Now he's the proud owner of several pairs of jeans and some long sleeve shirts. We also got him two pairs of Vans shoes. One pair is black with flames and the other is black, white and grey with skulls. They're bad ass and he loves them. With the new clothes, we had to get him a hair cut yesterday as well. Now he's got a cool new faux hawk 'do to go with his new threads. He's quite the trend setter.

Does that sound totally lame...calling him a trend setter? Oh well, I don't care. We think he is. HotMomma goes out of her way to make sure he's dressed nice every day. She makes sure he's one of the "cool kids" and not the kind that look like they just rolled out of bed and put on a pair of dirty sweat pants and t-shirt.

Do you take the time to make sure your kid is presentable before going out in public? Just wondering.

I also mentioned before that we went Halloween costume shopping for Z-Dub. He tried on a few and we allowed him to make the final decision on what he'd like to be. His choice will soon be revealed. Stay tuned.

weekend update

My birthday weekend has been a fairly good one. My parents and one of our four-year-old nephews are here visiting from North Carolina. We all went out for dinner last night at the Yard House. This morning it was breakfast with the family as well as my aunt, uncle and cousin at the Las Vegas Hilton. They were visiting from Phoenix. It happened to be my cousin's birthday today. We also did some Halloween costume shopping and took the kids to Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay.

Z-Dub and his cousin are getting along well, except for occasional scuffles. It's expected. But they are funny too. Z-Dub kept referring to his cousin as Miles (not his name) and his cousin kept calling him James. I guess neither one knew how to pronounce each other's names.

Z-Dub also keeps following around and imitating his older cousin. It's something Z-Dub will have to look forward to when Z-Jay arrives and the roles are reversed. I'm sure he'll be just as frustrated as his cousin.

And now, as I type this, Z-Dub keeps getting out of bed. He's using every excuse he can think of. His last one was that his pee pee hurts because of water. He asked me to put lotion on it. WTF?

HotMomma keeps flipping the television channels from Keeping up with the Kardashians and The Girls Next Door. Frankly I like Hef's girls better than that whacked out Kardashian family. She also keeps flipping to the movie Little Children on HBO. Every time she does there's a whole lot of humpin' going on between Kate Winslet and some guy. Why can't she just watch the movie through to the end? Apparently she came into it in the middle and wants to watch it some other time from the beginning.

I think it's time to go to bed.