Jackie Chan

After watching some Jackie Chan clips on YouTube, Soen wanted to have a kung fu fight with me. But first he wanted to show off his new moves, seen here. Sound effects provided by Grandma Bonnie.

The coolest move isn't on here. That's where he jumps up and kicks me with both of his feet. Everytime he does it he says, "Did you see that Daddy? That was AWESOME! Let's go show Mommy and Grandma Bonnie!"

third blog in one day

Just going through various video clips I've taken over the past month or so. This one is a little long but I like how much is going on here. There's Sadie eating ice cream while Soen and Mommy talk. In the beginning he's talking about the "barn house," which is what he calls our old Philly house. Not sure why. I like the weird music that comes in halfway through the clip, which is usually followed by wife saying, "love the music, husband." (Note to all my colleagues: See? I even inflict "Difficult Listening Hour" on my family!)

The second half of the clip is a good example of Sadie imitating Soen. She's in the imitation phase now. Earlier today she saw me practicing my golf swing and started doing it herself. I tried to catch it on film but of course she just wanted to grab the camera. That's the trouble with filming Sadie when she's not eating.

Oh, the bib Sadie is wearing says "SOEN, Santa's Little Helper."

Solstice!

In case anyone is wondering what Solstice looks like at our house. Pretty much looks like Christmas. Stockings, presents, tired parents. You can't see it, but there's even a tree. The night before, I told Soen if he got up before the sunrise he wouldn't get his presents. Well, sure enough, he stayed in bed until Mommy went up and got him. Grandma Bonnie tried coaxing him out of bed, but he wasn't budging until one of us got him. This was from Saturday morning. I apologize to family members who were hoping to see the kids open your presents, but the battery died one minute into filming. (Of course.) So, this is all there is.

just plain cute

I know it looks like I asked them to do this, but this was an actual spontaneous cute moment that I happened to catch on film. I think they did the loop twice before I got the camera out and taping.

Drama Queen

Not the bippie butt dance.
I tried to capture the dance I described in the previous entry but of course, as soon as the camera was rolling it became show-off time. As much of a mess this video is, I like it as it pretty much captures what life is like in our house.

In other news, Soen went to the doctor yesterday and got four shots. When he was younger he didn't know what was coming, and so the shots weren't quite so awful. Now, however, he knows what's coming, so he gets all worked up ahead of time. This is understandable, of course, but we were a little apprehensive about the visit. But Wife prepared him and he took it like a champ. He still cried, of course. Actually, he did the silent scream. Afterwards he told Mommy that he didn't mean to cry. He only cried because it hurt.

That story stands in stark contrast to his behavior regarding the boo-boo he recently got on his knee. He got it running down the block and falling, while on a walk with wife and Sadie. He screamed bloody murder until one of the neighbors ran and got him a band-aid. Then he limped home like he had a thigh full of shrapnel. This was Sunday. He's still limping. Not only that but he walks around holding his pants away from his knee. All day long. We're not talking about a serious wound. It's a scraped knee. But for every activity he has to take into account how this will affect his boo-boo. He's on his sixth or seventh band-aid. He keeps saying it's getting better, but refuses to stop babying it.

The other day I called him a drama queen. He said, "You're a drama queen." While I disagreed with his premise, I did think it was a good counter-attack.

Potty mouth

Reason number 85 why you don't need toys for your kids.

Not sure exactly when or why it started, but a few weeks ago Soen started peppering his speech with scatological words. Now we're lucky to get a word that's not "poop," "stinky butt," "fart," or some (rather creative) combination. And usually when he starts talking like this, he'll point to his butt, which of course, since he's naked, is exposed for all the world to see. He especially loves to do a little dance where he shakes his money-maker, points to it, and goes off into a rap about stinky poops and the like. This of course draws ire from his parents, and of therefore if all the more attractive to do. It's like he's addicted to saying this stuff. And of course it's hard not to laugh when he's singing the Land of the Lost theme song and substituting every other word with "poopy."

Speaking of rap, I was flipping through the radio with him in the car the other day and happened on a hip-hop station. Normally he doesn't pay too much attention to the radio, but he immediately wanted to hear more of this particular song and he started asking me questions about it. So, it turns out my son likes Eminem. Eager to pursue this line of music I played him some Beastie Boys and Public Enemy--momentarily forgetting that they use words a little more crass than "poopy." Nope. Not interested. I keep trying to get him interested in music more, but he just tunes out. Every once in a while, though something will strike his fancy and I add it to my Soen play list, which is as follows:
-Ring of Fire by Johnny Cash
-Little Honda by the Beach Boys
-Bonanza Ska by Carlos Malcolm and his Afro-Jamaican Rhythms
-Ana Ng by They Might Be Giants
-Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds by William Shatner*
-Blues X Man by the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
-Lose Yourself by Eminem
-and of course, Deck the Halls

* I once tried playing him the Beatles' version of Lucy but he wasn't interested. At first I was taken aback by the very thought that MY son would prefer William Shatner to the Beatles, but still, I had to admire the force of his conviction. Now I've come around to his way of thinking. The Shatner version is way more interesting. Having said that, I'll be interested to see if that comment draws as much mockery as my Santa posting did.

Santa vs. Daddy

Sorry it's been a while since I last wrote. Been meaning to but just haven't gotten around to it. Anyway, I'm back.

So, this week Soen's school is putting on a holiday show, which of course means a Christmas show. I was dimly aware that this was coming up but imagine my surprise when Soen came home one day singing "Deck the Halls." I almost fell over. I always knew this day was coming but it came faster than I expected.

In case you don't know what I'm talking about, I've been on an anti-Santa (anti-Christmas) tear since the day we found out Michaela was pregnant with Soen. I won't go into all the reasons for it, but let's just say that wife and I have decided to celebrate Solstice instead. Aside from that decision, though, we haven't really figured out how to pull this off. We have been celebrating Solstice, I guess, although it has always been conveniently celebrated on Christmas day, since that's the day we have off from work. But as far as having a family tradition... well we haven't really figured anything out yet. Nor have we really put much thought into it, which is a shame, since this year Soen has become very aware of the Christmas tradition--especially where it concerns Santa Claus. His knowledge about Santa is quite stunning since he's never heard a peep about him from us.

(Having said that, my parents took Soen to see Santa when Soen was like a year old. I was a little annoyed about it at the time, but I figured he'd never remember. Then two days ago he recounted the visit in exquisite detail. It's probably the only memory he has from that time. How wonderful.)

Anyway, we've never said anything to him about Santa, but when I was taking him bowling this past Saturday, he saw a Santa figure and proceeded to tell me all about him. I gather he picked it up at school. He knows every detail. And as he was telling me all this I felt like a deer caught in headlights. All I could muster was, "Oh yeah...? Really...? Is that right...? Naughty and nice?" Then he said, "I like Santa. Do you like Santa, Daddy?" I would have rather he asked me where babies came from. So I lied and said I thought he was all right. Only two days before that Soen was telling us about Santa and, to nip the whole thing in the bud, I said, "Yeah, but he's not real, buddy." As soon as I said it, though I felt like I had made a big mistake. Like he was going to run to his schoolmates and tell them the awful truth and that I would be forever known as the asshole who blew Christmas for everyone. Well I didn't have to worry about that. Soen corrected me: "Yes he is, Daddy." End of story.

So, I'm not sure how we're going to handle this. As far as Soen is concerned, Christmas is coming and so is Santa. He even asked if we could put some lights on out outside trees and bushes. One of the reasons I wanted to avoid Santa was because I didn't want to lie to him. But it seems that that has been taken out of my hands.

Ever since I mentioned that I wasn't going to do the whole Santa thing, all of my friends and family scoffed at me. So, I can only imagine that any of you who are reading this are feeling a certain amount of schadenfreude at my predicament. I will keep you all informed how this all goes down, as I can only imagine it will make for some hilarious reading. I know that I'm not going to be a jerk about it, but at the same time I don't want to encourage it. I gotta talk to some Jews to see how they deal with this. After all, we're not going to celebrate Christmas, nor are we going to be putting out cookies for Santa.

At least not this week.

(Oh, this video: Soen has been very into superheroes lately. Wife being the genius she is cashed in on the post-Halloween sales and bought the boy a Spider-man costume, which has reduced his naked time almost by half. Maybe I should tell him Spider-man will come flying in on Solstice Day with a web-full of presents. Hmmm...)