Things Never To Ask a 4-year-old And Other Exciting Stuff

I can’t even describe how busy we’ve been the past few weeks…

After 3-years of demanding and difficult work, my wife finally graduated from Pepperdine University with her MBA last weekend. I for one couldn’t be more proud of her. Working full-time, going to school, papers, group projects, and having a family wasn’t easy.
When she began our daughter was only 18 months old and at the time we thought it wouldn’t be too straining on our daughter and marriage when in fact, at times, it was downright stressful. But thankfully we all survived and she did it. We’re celebrating the occasion by going to Disney World all next week.
My advice for any spouse thinking of going back to school with little ones is to make sure you don’t overdo it and make time for your family. Take advantage of those breaks between semesters and plan on some time during the week too.

Last week in preparation for the graduation we asked our daughter what she was going to wear to the festivities. She announced that she would be attending the grand ceremony dressed as Cinderella.
That was interesting…

I Am On Facebook…Kind Of.

Thank you all for the invitations but regrettably I am not on Facebook under Creative-Type Dad. I wrote a post a few weeks ago about my dislike of “friending” people and all of the spam that comes with it about people doing stupid things like going to the bathroom, eating, walking to the car, and left the city life for farming. It all drove me insane!

That doesn’t mean that I’m not on it though. I am, but as an 80-year old bee farmer from Norway named Gjertson B Gjertson.
You can search and read about me but I am not accepting any friends. My wall is viewable to everyone and posts of my achievements in mindless Facebook games like Uno and Pet Society, as are my fandom of bacon and petitioning to get KFC to deliver popcorn chicken to my house.
On occasion, I sometimes post nonsense about Norwegian royal’s, news, or my interpretation of bee farming.
It’s all very touching.

And Speaking Of News…

My wife is pregnant with our second child! I can’t even begin to say how much I’ve wanted to spill the beans about this - I’m the worse person to hold a secret. But my wife wanted to wait until people started to think she was getting fat. The baby is due next May, which seems forever right now, but as with our first I'm sure the time will go by much too fast.
We find out what the sex is just after Christmas but that hasn’t stopped my daughter from coming up with names for the baby.

Some “name” suggestions:
-Peanut Butter
-Pickles
-Princess Ariel
-SaunaNana
-Bunny Rabbit
-Super Shiny Baby
-Lightening Bubblegum
-Rainbow
-Blue Waterfall
-Piggy Petunia
-Henry

In the car yesterday she asked me how the baby got into mommy's tummy.
The next few weeks, and months, should be really interesting...

Randomness: First Circus, Potty Training Part 2, Mommy MBA, and 80’s Sitcoms

First Visit To The Circus
Ringling Bros and Bartles & James Circus is in downtown L.A. this week and we're going tomorrow. The last time I went to see a circus was, I think, in 1980 (give or take.) and it wasn’t even a real one. It was in this place east of L.A. and I remember it had Mexican midget acrobats, Nacho Libre clowns, and scared animals. They sold Churro’s (tasty) and Horchita (probably made by the animals) instead of popcorn and cotton candy. We had gone because my dad was able to get some big discount on the tickets (he would go anywhere if there was a discount attached, even if it meant sitting near the smoking gorillas.)
Anyhow, we thought it would be fun to take my daughter to a real circus. And maybe I wanted to go too.

An actual conversion with my daughter:

Me: Wanna go to the CIRCUS?
Daughter: O.K.

Me: There are animals at the Circus

Daughter: ANIM-MALS?

Me: Yup! Real animals, like… Elephants, Tigers, Bears, Clowns…

Daughter: …and MONKEYS?!! Yeah Monkeys!!! I wanna see monkeys, Dad-DEE... MONKEYS!!

Friday is going to be fun...

Potty Training: Part 2
Now that my daughter is 2, we’re kicking the potty training into high gear. We first tried at 18 months, which pretty much trained her to walk the diaper over to the throne, dump the goods (with help), flush, and then cheer. And then there were maybe those 100 instances where she sits on the throne, sings, flips through a book, gets down, diaper goes on…5 minutes later poops/pees. Then tells us she pooped/pee.
Now I’m to the point of bribing. If she goes once on the potty - even a drop, I told here that I’d buy her a BIG pink pony - one that flys, and makes candy!

Mom's And MBA's
My wife was recently accepted into Pepperdine University’s MBA program and I couldn’t be happier for her. From her calculations she’ll graduate in about 3 years, which seems like a long time just knowing our daughter will be starting kindergarten by then. Have any parents out there juggled going back to school with family/work? Advice...stories

80’s Sitcom’s: On The Internet
I have a new addiction - some genius decided to put 5-minute versions of the best 80’s TV shows on the Internet. Now I can watch “Facts of Life”, “Silver Spoons”, "Diff'Rent Strokes", "Fantasy Island", “What’s Happening” (did you know Rerun almost got married? I KNOW!) and one of my personal favorites – “Who’s The Boss.”
I have some requests for more that would be perfect 5-minute episodes - "Small Wonder", "Mama's Family", "Charles In Charge", "Brady Bunch", "Perfect Strangers", "Family Ties", "Growing Pains", "Golden Girls" and "Alf" (haaaaa!) Any other requests?