Tag: children

Categories
life

Running Around

It’s been a long time since I went three days in a row without a single post. There’s a lot going on in my head, and there was nothing out the that I just had to write about. Coming into today I was thinking that it was time to write about something. I woke up just before 6:00am and when I looked at the clock I decided that today would be a good day to do something else that I have been meaning to do for a while – run.

After the marathon I took time to recover and then I ran a couple of times before deciding to take some more time to recover. Then I took time to catch up on all the things that had suffered as a result of my training. Things got busy at work, and the kids went through another schedule adjustment with Savannah starting school (and Isaac deciding to wake up every night again). The kids decided to do the rounds of sickness. The result was that I have not been running at all since August. I’m hoping to run 1000 miles next year so I should go into the year running a little bit.

I felt that finally running was an excuse to write. Then I found some very compelling material for more political posts. Expect to see at least one more post today. I plan to write on the best argument against vouchers that I have ever encountered (in my opinion), and more thoughts on the brewing health care debate in the nation.

Categories
culture politics State

Bureaucracy in Action

This is what happens when we expect government bureaucracy to manage something rather than leaving things in the hands of individuals.

Loving couple. Loving home. Steady jobs. No criminal history. Kids like them and the birth mother wants it.

Despite all that, Michael Valez and Michael Oberg are wading upriver through the state child protection system to be able to take care of four kids belonging to Valez’s niece. . .

To the state, it’s a simple matter of the law, which says that to adopt or be a foster parent, you must be legally married or single and not cohabitating. Officials asked for clarification of a judge’s directive that Valez have custody of the children, requesting that the court take custody or grant custody to the state’s Division of Child and Family Services.

The rules governing DCFS are quite reasonable – I don’t think that they should be running around placing kids in unstable situations such as with a couple that has decided that they should move in together to save rent. On the other hand we are faced with the question – who is responsible for raising these kids? Is it the state (DCFS) or the mother? I would argue that too often the state is given precedence over the parents and it is only rarely justified. I think that cases like this, where DCFS is actively trying to help the mother to prepare herself to resume raising the children (as they ought to), should make it that much easier to admit that primary responsibility lies with the mother and therefore her wishes, not to mention the wishes of the children, should take precedence over “the rules.” (Maybe if there was a criminal history to consider I would change my mind.)

Luckily reason has prevailed (so far) –

On Friday, the courts took custody, then turned around and granted Valez temporary custody of the children.

“The judge said, ‘I see absolutely no reason why the kids can’t stay where they’re at,'” Valez said.

If only this were the case all the time.

Categories
life

Learning to Ride

I’ve spent the last week thinking that it would be fun to announce that Savannah had learned to ride her bike. I spent an hour trying to teach her. I learned something important – it’s easier with the right size of bike. I was trying to teach Savannah on a bike that was slightly too large for her. Once we switched to the smaller bike she caught on fast. The next day (and ever since) she is on her bike every chance she can get.

This left us with a slight problem, Alyssa no longer had a bike to use since Savannah can only ride the small bike. This morning our neighbor came over and asked if we wanted her daughter’s old bike – perfect size for Alyssa. Tonight I started teaching Alyssa to ride the new bike. She learned to stop faster than Savannah, now if she can learn to start herself my job will be done until Mariah gets old enough to learn.

I can’t wait to take family bike rides with the younger two in the trailer and the older two on their own bikes.

Categories
life

All In A Week

When I left for DevCon last Wednesday Isaac had just learned to sit up. By Saturday when I got home he had just started crawling in earnest. Yesterday when I arrived home from the conference I was informed that he had learned to crawl up the two bottom stairs from the family room to the kitchen. Today – I guess to prove how strong he was – he crawled (unassisted, but being closely watched) from the far end of the family room up to the kitchen and then on up the entire flight of stirs to his bedroom. Not only that he comes to me when I call to him.

He’s a mover now and he knows it. He might be a show-off too.

All this came about in the space of a week. It reminds me that I have to be watching every second at this age because these kids just grow so fast sometimes.

Categories
life

Welcome Cade

Laura told me that we should call my brother to see how things were going and see when they expected their new son to be born. I told her that maybe there would be an email from my mom when we got home announcing his arrival. Little did I know that my mom was leaving a message on my phone at about that same time announcing that my nephew, Cade, was born this morning around 11:30.

Congratulations to my brother and his wife. I can’t wait to meet my new nephew.

Categories
life

Father of Daughters

As Laura was going out to visit a neighbor she (or one of our girls who was going with her) found one of our naked barbie dolls on the sidewalk up the street (has anyone noticed that barbie dolls are naked almost all the time) and threw it back toward the house. I went with Mariah to retrieve it from the street. Mariah saw it and said “Annalise.” I looked at it and told her that it was Erika, not Annalise.

First of all, every barbie looks alike aside from skin tone, or hair color, but secondly, Annalise and Erika are supposed to look exactly alike (except for their hair color) in the Barbie movie they star in. It just made me realize that my life is not my own anymore when I can tell the difference between them and take the time to point it out to my toddler.

I am a father of daughters.

Categories
life

Too Helpful

I have been thinking a lot lately about one of the lessons that I have learned as a parent. Sometimes it is very easy to be too helpful to our children. We may want to tell them more than they can understand, or assist them in doing something when the real lesson they should be learning is to continue in the face of challenges. The beauty of this problem is that we make these mistakes with universally good intentions.

Categories
culture life

Peeling Away

This will only make sense with the background information that I never wanted to buy a minivan.

I love my minivan. That statement, and the rest of this post, is less about my minivan and more about me – and minivans in general.

As I peel away the rough edges of my own pride I discover that I do not care about image like I used to. I did not even know that I cared about image, but in retrospect I did. This is not to say that I have no care for image, but that it is different than it had been.

Before I chose to get a minivan I had decided that I did not want that minivan image. Basically that was because the image is not popular. It truth there is nothing wrong with it. I hated all the arguments about SUV’s using too much gas. The fact is that the mid-sized SUV’s have about the same gas mileage as the average minivan. It’s not great mileage, but it’s no reason to choose a minivan over a mid-sized SUV (at least once the optional third row entered the Ford Explorer and Chevy Trailblazer class) because they could seat the same number of people and got no significant disadvantage in fuel efficiency and I might as well get the increased towing capacity and power of the SUV – besides the image thing.

When the time came that I was faced with the need to grow out of two carseats in the back of my sedan I changed my mind on the stance I had held that I would rather make car payments on an SUV than own a minivan free and clear. I made the wiser choice (financially speaking) and now I look back and realize that I have come to care less about the image, more in line with what I used to believe was already true. I have also came to wonder why I ever hoped to own an SUV rather than a minivan. Who wants to open the back door of an SUV (of any size) when they have the option of sliding doors on their van. That also makes me wonder why anyone ever made a minivan with hinge doors to the back (the older models of the very minivan I bought – Mazda MPV – did not have sliding doors) when sliding door are so functional/versatile and save so much space in my garage.

Today I am thankful, not so much that I have a minivan that I like, but more because I got to catch a glimpse of growth within myself which is always what I am striving for anyway.

Categories
life

New Addition

In preparation for our new addition to the family we have added a new addition to the family. Pictures can be seen here. It is our new car. Pictures tend to be of those features we are most proud of (read ‘those things that we would never have looked for, but which will almost certainly be useful’) such as the six-disc CD changer, the moon roof, the luggage rack and the towing package.

Categories
life

Life

I spoke about life overcoming death. It just occurred to me that we have another instance of life replacing death as the focus of our existence. Later this year we will have another life to think about.