*forward dive straight position* still have that worrisome splash *sigh*

g’evening pups — how ya’ll doing tonight?

Hi, Suz. Here’s a funny story: I have these two identical twin grandsons who seem to have inherited the family sense of humor. Recently their mom asked them if they wanted to call their Auntie to tell her they love her. (I think it was her birthday.) One boy said, “Yes.” The other, the feisty one, said, “I’m busy. ‘Other brother’, you just tell her you love her two times. Okay?” I’m still laughing. They are going to be a hoot-and-a-half when they are teens.

dearie! *snort* they are going to be a hoot how was your day?

Extremely foggy at the coast…. but my daughter and I drove with the boys out to the hinterlands for a family gathering and had a nice, warm afternoon.

The little boys are just 4 and they are great travelers. They laugh and joke on these rides….until they fall asleep from the hum of the road. They don’t whine (much)…. and can be easily happied-up with some fruit or rice cakes. They are a delight. My daughter and I get to chit-chat and the boys are amusing companions along the way.

we are supposed to get down to 49 tonight *woohoo* was a lovely 71 here today with white fluffy puffies and a soft breeze. my girls were good car travelers — gotta start them off young and it sounds like your little guys got that too :) makes it so much easier when traveling when the kids travel well

And I instinctively said to my own kids, “I can’t hear you when you whine.”

And they believed me.

So we’ve never dealt with whiny kids! And that is a gift, let me tell you!

Aloha Suz and lln pups…! I hope all is well in your hamlet tonite, Suz…!

its amazing what ya can pull on them when they are young — my girls both remain convinced that putting their shoes upside down under their bed prevents nightmares

aloha tut — how’s paradise tonight? tis currently 54 outside and a lovely 72 inside. i think this place is small enough that cooking warms it up

That’s great! I’m going to share that with my daughters. Love it!

*heh* Now why on earth would ya tell them a silly thing like that, Suz…? ;-)

Hey Suze…

And, of course, the reason I couldn’t ‘hear’ them when they whined is that it made my head explode….. but by just saying, “I can’t hear you when you whine” everything changed and they gave up whining as a manipulative technique. Life is good!

i think its the affirmative act of them putting the shoes under the bed (doing something) and then having the shoes upside down (doing it different) that had the effect. every time they complained of having a nightmare, i would ask if they had put their shoes under the bed and they would sigh a no. if they said yes, i would then confirm they were upside down. if they were, then i would suggest moving them from under the head to under the foot or visa versa.

You’re slick, m’dear…! ;-)

made their nightmares their responsibility instead of mine. also wanted them to have the idea that they did in fact have something they could do to prevent having a repeat nightmare. power of positive thinking. and i was trying to stop jen from crawling into my bed when she had one. worked so well with jen that i did it with steph too.

hey thatguy — how ya doing tonight?

Agency! The act of acting, the power of taking charge. Isn’t it great!

gotta stay one step ahead of them. my mom said the hardest job there is is the ‘civilization of children’. i agree

It really is such an important job. Not that any mother gets much credit for the work. But, wow, mothers get slammed if their kids don’t behave properly, so one might as well just dig in and do the hard work.

Plus…. who wants to deal with snotty, misbehaving kids?!

I wanted to enjoy my kids. And I did.

yup! one night i was in her room in the wee hours trying to console her and saw her shoes next to the bed and inspiration struck. the next morning she was so happy that her nightmare didn’t return that putting her shoes under her bed became part of her nightly routine. one i encouraged :) lardy, she musta been 3 or maybe 4 at the time.

:) and we both know its even better with grandbabies

astronut woody

what up, guys

And How…! ;-)

hey bfl – what up wich chu?

Indeed! Recently I put one of the boys in time out because he decked his brother (and for no good reason!… and it was the more gentle one who did it!) I went in to check on him and he was crying but trying to stuff the emotions, and I said, “no, it’s okay to cry; you feel bad and that’s a proper emotion…. just go through it…. get to the other side of it.” (This is something I learned from years of working with juvenile probationers.) He cried a bit more and got to the other side. I asked, “Are you sorry for hitting your brother?” “Yes.” And I could tell that he meant it. I asked his brother, “Are you ready to accept your brother’s apology?” Bro said, “Yes.” (Remember these are barely 4 year olds!) I asked assaulter if he was able to say, “I’m sorry.” …. and he was. Hugs all around and back to business and fun.

Nobody was shamed — for hitting or for crying. Everyone got their feelings felt. Apologies made and accepted. Life went on. Plus for everyone.

i sure wish i knew what i now know back when they were wee ones. i have a lot more patience now

Isn’t that the truth! I grew up in a home where shame was the big deal. I didn’t want to do that with my kids and I’m trying to help my daughters avoid it with their kids. Sorrow for bad behavior is one thing, but shame is just so not appropriate!

tut you got any new pix of the munchkin?

Oops….. did I get too wordy and put the thread to sleep? Sorry.

Ooh La La, Suz…! ;-)

yeah, we started talking about this last night—- apparently, the consensus is that I can’t turn back the clock and need to move on and be the more patient person i am now

i don’t think it is you at all dearie. tis just the way things are at the lake… comments rise and fall like the tide

i saw him back in the late 90′s. dood still had lotsa energy for putting on a good show

yeah— and that’s the exact thing we used to hear from the nuns, and sometimes my mom– “you ought to be ashamed of yourself”

sure wish they had figured out a way to turn back the clock. and i am still waiting for those jetson cars

The little momma has been posting some gems on Crackbook recently, I’ll send some your way soon…! She’d posted one yesterday, when he was about a week old grinning away…! A priceless shot…! ;-)

I’m here!!!!!!! Comments!! Awake!!! ‘snot a school night,so I’ll have comments!!!

*laughing*

sweet! jen and mike are real good about posting stuff to facebook too. facebook has been all forked up for me lately — comments poofing and when i click on notifications, it clears it out without saying what they are. i have to go to my accounts to see the notifications. pain in the tushkie

what i wouldn’t give; oh well, any more penis stuff from Jill Biden today

I like Jill and Joe-good people

*heh* Sometimes it’s a tsunami and sometimes it barely tickles the toes…! ;-)

none that i heard but then again, i’m just a consultant nowadays

No reason to go back and try to undo when you can move forward doing better! I often think of my narcissistic ex-husband who actually was put in his sister’s dress by his sociopathic dad and made to go fight the neighborhood bully. That kind of thing actually was done by nasty-dads in the 1950s. Yes it was.

My ex never processed what was done to him. Instead he idealized his dad…. his dad could do no wrong. So my ex turned out to be a crapass dad himself.

We all made/make mistakes. Work through it and go and do better!

just happened to me– “you do not have permissions to do this” or some bullshit like that; some whackjob is removing my comments to—- she posted a “you didn’t build that” thing-sooooo yesterday, man

What’s your thoughts on the ‘timeline’, I’m certainly glad that Firefox has the app that squelches the Timeline…! ;-)

was talking to my mom on the phone tonight and she was complaining of facebook problems too

saw their stock is still way down

does it? i didn’t know that. hell, let me go find that in ff addons right now. i forking h-a-t-e that new forking timeline

yeah, i figure they don’t want to hear much about the past and “you were so cute when—–” they’re really loving entering adulthood and I’ve gotta appreciate that; they’re about the future and i need to be too (although I do have GREAT memories)

Now here’s another funny for you: One of my daughter’s good guy friends put up something about how he hates the term ‘onboarding’ that is floating around the educational and business world. This was a Facebook moment. I was feeling sassy and commented, “I haven’t been onboarded for, oh, years now. And I miss it.” Next comment was from my daughter: “Oh dear god.” I quickly took down my sassy comment … which my daughter said she actually found amusing. I told her I figured she wanted me to go play with my own friends. She did not disabuse me of that notion.

i was having problems-not just on FB-with my typing cursor thing always going backwards to the beginning and i was positive i was hacked and had trojans and malware and virus, oh my! looked up that problem and it seemed most of the time people with similar weirdness had a busted touchpad; so i disabled mine–all better; i need a new ‘puter and to get a question mark and a period again

i love it when i get that ohmygawd moment from my girls ;) that and the infamous mother exclamation that emphasizes the fact the word has two syllables

i keep my touchpad turned off for that very reason. i don’t like touchpads at all. i’m an old school mouser

just got this on FB on a thread where someone wondered just why would ANYONE vote for Obama:”They’ll vote for him to keep increasing the government and their reliance on the government as if that is the answer”

Wanna take a quick poll: You all agree with that, I assume

I have been ever glad that I raised kids with sublime and outrageous senses of humor. god knows how I’d have gotten along with them if they were stupid or lacked sassy humor.

*eyes rolling*

i was using the mouse but still had the touchpad on; no need for it at all; i spent days e-mailing back and forth with PC Tools customer support

Arrrgh. (Is it still ‘talk like a pirate’ week?)

if you have any comments you’d like me to pass on, i’ll be happy

humor is essential. when faced with either laughing or crying, i try to select laughing each time and encouraged my girls to do likewise. jen, however, sometimes she just need to go cry and get it outta her system.

Here ya go, Suz…! Hide Facebook Timeline with a Firefox add-on…

Would it be rude to suggest that they go stuff themselves? Just askin’.

i don’t think there is anything that can be said that would help them see the truth. i’ve got f/b friends who are that way and i just avoid talking politics with them. they will never convince me they are right and i’ll never convince them that i am right.

of course, i’m real conflict avoidance nowadays

I am a big advocate of crying when it’s called for! What I found, time and again, with my juvenile probationers (as well as my own kids) is that crying helps vent the emotions…. and when actively encouraged to get to the other side of it .. ends in laughter! We are just human beings and sometimes we are overwhelmed with emotion. Vent ‘em. And then enjoy the joy of recognizing our ‘just human’ status. The laughter that results is often the most sublimely joyous!

sweet.. thanks tut — i was unable to find it by searching facebook timeline on the mozilla addons page

she’s still that way. i think she feel things very deeply and it can be overwhelming at times and a good cry purges and gets her beyond it.

*heh* I woulda been sooner but I had 11 notifications I had to tend to…! ;-)

not at all; but i’m just too tired to keep doing this; I just said : “I can’t speak for everyone, but i know that’s why I’m voting for him”—– i’ve spoken of this woman here before– raised a kid on her own, much props to her, kid graduated high school, Notre Dame and got a MA all summa cum laude; she really did an admirable job— and has no fucking clue that the government in any way gave her any assistance whatever in doing that–

And isn’t it great that she feels things so strongly! I, for one, honor folks who feel deeply … and those who don’t. We’re all good!

i had been engaging (ie arguing with) them until the last couple days; i think I’m going to wait until I can safely declare the election over and REALLY piss them off; barring any major mistakes by Obama or Biden, that day may not be far off; i didn’t even rub their noses in Ryan getting booed at AARP

I’ve never quite understood (at all!) how it is that people develop such blind spots. Weird, really. My ex is like that. He and his friends believe they all did it on their own. I know that he benefited from public schools… and scholarships to public university. But he’d be the first to scream “I did it on my own!!!” I just think folks like that are not very evolved.

shit, now my timeline on my f/b page is gone… yikes.

time for me to figure out what happened and then catch some zzz’s. thanks for hanging out with me tonight. am looking forward to seeing what tut’s got on tap for sun and mon — hope to see ya there

g’nite all

Good night, Suz. Thanks for providing this nice spot for us to explore connections. Happy, colorful and interesting dreams!

ditto, suz, always a pleasure

lol-”not very evolved”– never thought of it that way before, but true

chick is so disingenuous- won’t just say she’s a right wing republican, it’s “I examine each issue and educate myself as much as i can and —–” and bullshit

so, when do you all think we can safely say this election is over

Not til the fat lady sings.

Sweet dreams, Suz…! It should be a seamless transition…!

hmmm; i thought that up until today and i’m starting to think it might be over soon;maybe not

CT, how is the Occupation going-are you guys hanging in–

We’re still cranking away, BFL…! We’re in it for the long haul…! ;-)

thought so; what about you– think this election can be declared over anytime soon—- i was like Dearie and thought it was going to be a late night on election night, but oh, man, Romney is just pathetic beyond words

As Mauimom told Neil Barofsky today; “I’m glad that my third party vote won’t affect Oily Bomber’s electoral victory”…! I did vote Nader in ’00 and ’04…! ;-)

so,do you think it’s for all intents and purposes over (really wish i had my question m ark}

it’s moving that way and these things can start to snowball– not into a landslide but with people who were claiming to be undecided

You need to vote for the Oily Bomber, in the City Beautiful, or, at the very least for your down-ticket races…!