Always

Happy 9th Birthday Justin! They just grow too fast. He wanted steak and noodles for his birthday dinner, but Mom convinced him that he really wanted steamed crabs. Even though the crabs were from Texas they were pretty good....still not as good as middle of the summer crabs.

The interesting part of dinner was the PRS Guitars contigent taking up all the tables around us. They were a colorful group. And Mr. Paul Reed himself was right next to Justin. Being 9 he had no clue. Maybe it was a sign.....maybe I have a guitar hero in the making.

Posted by Brian Levay at 8:00 PM | Permalink

There is a reason a kid should have two parents and being a father of multiple little ones I can give pleanty of examples. Take for instance yesterday, when I asked Shane, our 5 year old, to go to the basement and bring up a gallon of milk. After a minute of silence he casually walks up the stairs and screams, there is no freakin' milk in the basement!

Of course Mom was plenty mad and was about to lay into him big time. On the other hand Dad thought it was about the funniest thing ever and spit milk up through his nose. And that middle ground between those two reactions is the measured response you need to give to your children. If it was just mom there he would have been on the steps in timeout crying. If it was just Dad there we'd be high-fiving and saying good-one. With both of us it is a stern warning (strike-one) and a correction on the best way to say there is no more milk...

Mom, get your ass in the car and go get some milk!

Posted by Brian Levay at 12:30 PM | Permalink

The two younger boys have been very interested in their piggy banks lately. Mostly it has been to empty them out, fill them back up and ask Daddy for some more money. This got me thinking, is a piggy bank the best way to teach a child to save? Sure it is, if, when you really empty it you take most of it to the bank and use a little bit to buy something fun. Then I saw this piggy bank and I think it describes everything we should be teaching our children about finances. Save. Spend. Donate. Invest. Now instead of going to the bank and Toys R' Us when emptying the piggies we'll have to stop by church and T. Rowe Price. The only thing I see wrong with the pig is the portion sizes. If it is supposed to mimic reality the entire pig would be Spend and the the snout would be split between Save, Donate, and Invest.

Posted by Brian Levay at 9:30 PM | Permalink

Each of the kids has their favorite stuffed animal to go to sleep with. Some are bears. Some are tigers. Some have more than others. The animal responsible for this particular post is highlighted in the picture above. As you can see, "Bear" is old, tattered and missing lots of stuffing, but he still gets his job done.

For those of you with kids I'm sure you know what nite nite time is like when a sleeping toy is missing. Well this happened to us and I was so proud of our 6 year old. When we gave up searching he didn't cry and he didn't pout. He just walked off to have some quiet time by himself.

It is when he came back that things changed. He calmly asked me to help him hang these pieces of paper around the house.

I wasn't too sure what to say, but I think it is about the cutest thing I have ever seen:

There is a Happy Ending. We found "Bear" hiding in a toy container the next day.

Posted by Brian Levay at 11:30 AM | Permalink

January 9, 2006