Category: pictures

Introducing Thing 4

Thing 4For those of you who have been following SuburbanDaddy for awhile, I’d like to introduce the newest addition, Thing 4! I’m not sure which is bigger news – that there is a Thing 4, or that Thing 4 is a girl.

I’m happy that with three older brothers she will be very well protected in her teenage dating years. Forget about the nerves a teenage boy will feel having to face questions from her dad, SuburbanDaddy, for the first time. How about the gauntlet he will face going through Thing 1, Thing 2, and Thing 3.

Thing 3 already needs to be restrained if you try to take away his milk or Buzz Lightyear toy. Image what he’ll do if you make his little sister upset. Of course, with three older brothers, she will probably be pretty tough herself.

Over the next few months, I look forward to sleepless nights, spit ups, and lugging around baby gear. I also look forward to a whole new set of material that I can write about here. That’s the real reason we added a Thing 4.

Most Disgusting Back Seat Ever

I installed a new car seat today, trying to figure out how to fit 2 boosters + 1 toddler seat + 1 infant seat into a Honda Pilot. The trick is arranging them to minimize opportunities for hitting, touching, and throwing things at each other.

Since the seats were all out I thought it would be a good idea to vacuum the car before installing the new one. Here’s a picture to give an idea what the back seat was like. I’m not sure the photo does it justice. It was disgusting.

Parent Abuse

I am regularly abused by Thing 3. He likes to randomly jump on me, bop me on the head, and generally use me as his personal jungle gym. Lately, he has become very bossy with his newly emerging ability to talk.

“Daddy, sit”, “Daddy read book”, and my personal favorite “On Daddy head” which means put this on your head.

I suppose I bring this on myself because I put things on my head to entertain him.

This hard to see, grainy image is not a captured terrorist. It is me being held captive by a 2 year old so he can jump on, climb on, and torture me by hitting my head with books, toys, and various stuffed animals. And I love every minute of it.

Cold Turkey

Last night we embarked on Phase II of the great migration in preparation for Thing 4. Last week, Thing 2 moved in with his big brother. Other than staying up late talking and playing together, it has gone remarkably well.

Yesterday was to be the day Thing 3 moved out of his crib and into 2’s old room and toddler bed. He didn’t want any part of it and desparately wanted back to his crib.

SuburbanMommy suggested we have him sleep in the new room but in the crib. So I started to wheel it over. Except it wouldn’t fit through the door. So I took the door off. Then I couldn’t get the crib past the railing and had to backtrack back to the original room.

All the while, Thing 3 was crying while watching me take his beloved crib out, flip it upside down and all around, probably traumatizing him to the point that he’ll be the only Kindergartener who sleeps in a crib.

Bottom line: we caved.

Today I took a different approach. I went for cold turkey. I’d rather have a few days of hell than weeks of a slow, painful, drawn out transition.

Incredibly, it actually worked. Once he realized there was no going back, Thing 3 embraced the new room and bed, and he was sound asleep before long.

Now, if only potty training could be this easy.