Today was back to school after a two week hiatus.  What a glorious quite morning it was too.  And getting back into the groove wasn't as difficult as after the month off for Christmas break.   I have no idea how we're going to handle the whole summer off from school!

Well, the chaos started almost immediatey when the kids got back from Nana's house this evening.  Super Michael started getting into Super Kailynn's business and she started going WAAAAA and it just degraded from that point on.

It all ended up with a huge temper tantrum from Super Kailynn that lasted the better part of an hour and turned into a major time out incident.  Terrible Twos indeed.

Kailynn has taken to the whole Terrible Two thing in spades and she is making it all her own.  When you look on WikiPedia under Terrible Twos, there is probably a very interesting picture of Super Kailynn throwing herself on the ground and pounding her little hands and feet on the floor to show her immense displeasure with you not giving her what you want.

With any luck, this is just a phase and doesn't continue much longer.  I don't know if the Super Parents can maintain dealing with her temper tantrums too much longer.

I'm curious if this is just a girl thing, or if other people's boys have problems like this.  Super Michael really wasn't too bad during his two's, but Kailynn has taken to it like nobody's business.  It's very interesting to see the differences in the two kids. 

My theory is that Super Kailynn is going through some sort of intense competition phase with Super Michael and just taking it to a whole new level, because most of her temper tantrums happen when they fight over something that she wants from him.

Just a theory though. :)

Well, it's spring break here and the schools are on two week hiatus.  Super Michael has been off for a week and has this week off as well.  He spent a couple of days at Nana's house last week, and is at Nana's house again this week for a couple of nights. 

It's pretty quite when Super Michael isn't here and Super Kailynn doesn't have anybody to fight with, so she plays by hereself quitely and nicely.  She listens to Super Mom and myself and there's absolutely no whinning or crying.  She's like a completely different kid when Super Michael's not around.  Otherwise, when he's around, she's completely into the whole terrible two phase and doesn't listen and has several temper tantrums a day.  It's pretty amazing to see the difference when her brother's not around to compete with.

We still miss big brother though and look forward to him coming home tomorrow.   :)

Easter has come and gone at the Super Mega household, and I think the Easter Bunny gave us the most eggs.  Both super kids woke up on Easter morning with their Easter baskets in their rooms around 6AM and Super Kailynn started crying because she didn't know what it was.  Super Michael, having been through this particular holiday for a few years was quite a bit more excited, and knew exactly what this was.

Super Kailynn, upon figuring out the basket was a good thing progressively got more excited as she learned that candy was involved.  Unfortunately, she hasn't yet learned to take wrappers off of the candy when eating it, so she sticks the whole thing in her mouth, wrapper and all and starts chewing on it.  Eventually, the wrapper comes out all coated with chocolate, but most of it has gotten to the right place.  Heck, this is the same kid that eats the WHOLE orange, including the rind, so I guess this is the same concept.

Baskets were quickly put aside when both super kids looked outside into the backyard, however, and saw a layer of eggs spread across every visible location.  The Easter bunny spent a considerable amount of time at the Super Mega household that night, because there were somewhere in the neighborhood of 150 eggs spread out everywhere.  Considering there are only two super kids present in the household, the super parents thought this might have been fairly extravagant for the Easter bunny, and maybe the Bunny needs to trim back a little bit next year and maybe focus on "hiding" the eggs instead of just throwing them all over the lawn.  The is also a good idea considering the Easter Bunny had to get up at 5AM and spent a good part of an hour to get the eggs out before the super kids normal waking time of 6AM.

Still, much fun was had at the super household, and both super kids had a good time.  They both had to unload eggs a couple of times to make more room in their baskets.  Super Michael in particular has a very interesting method of hunting eggs.  Personally, I wouldn't consider it very efficient, but maybe I'm not looking at it from a 5 year old perspective.  Every available square foot was filled with eggs in the super backyard.  Instead of just starting at one end of the yard and progress across the yard picking up eggs, both kids would pick up and egg, go to the other side of the yard, pick up another egg, then go to other part of the yard and repeat the procedure.  All of this was done running the entire time to try to beat the other kid to as many eggs as possible.  It was quite comical to watch, and it definately made for a much longer egg hunting adventure.

All in all, it was a pretty busy weekend.  Saturday morning the Super family went to the local city egg hunt and had a blast.  The top picture is Super Michael trying to beat all of the other 5 year olds to the most eggs.  He ended up with about a dozen eggs, which, considering the amount of other kids wasn't a bad number.  Super Kailynn was pretty disappointed that she couldn't run over the other kids because she was too young.  They setup a special area for the little kiddies to hunt eggs in a "safe" place, which wasn't near violent enough for Super Kailynn.

After the egg hunt, we wandered over to the new local library and all got our library cards.  The super kids got their first cards and some library books, so all was good.

We then ended up at Super Grandma's for the rest of the day, then came back and colored some eggs for the Easter Bunny to hide the next day.  By then, all the super kids were pretty wiped out, so it was nite time and dream about Easter egg hunts and yummy candy.

So, the lesson learned this Easter is that the Easter Bunny needs to cut down on the quantity of the eggs next year and work on the quality of the hiding spots.  We have TONS and TONS of candy and all four of us will probably be hyper for MONTHS.

I don't know about you, but I don't remember having homework back when I was in kindergarten.  I think the goal back then was to make sure that I didn't pee myself and to keep me from eating my own boogies.  And that all by iteself was a pretty large chore.

Nowadays, with the whole new batch of punk kids born after this new fangled century mark, they actually have homework in kindergarten.  And it's HARD homework.  They have to be able to count out money, spell a bunch of words, be able to recite stories from memory, tell time and advanced quantum physics.  Just yesterday, my son had to be able to figure out something about string theory or something.  I suggested he borrow my shoe lases and he just looked at me with this LOOK.

I'm just amazed at what they learn in kindergarten anymore.  Especially when they come home and something pops out of his mouth.  What's really scary is when he looks over my shoulder while I'm programming and starts correcting my math!  "Give me a BREAK dad, don't you even know trig?"  I really start feeling like an old fossil, and I haven't hit 40 yet!

Then I start to think of what it's going to be like as he gets older.  If I think Kindergarten is tough, what will I do when he's in 6th grade?  Should I just start saving for tutors now and admit that I'm not really that bright now?

Now if they started having exams on Star Wars or Battlestar Galatica, or even some Xbox 360 matches, I'd be top of my class everytime.  I can even scarf down a twinkie in the 95th percentile like nobody's business.  I'm pretty good at stuff like that.  Oh, and sitting on the couch staring at the TV.  I'm AWESOME at that!

With one kid in Elementary school, and one kid in daycare, we are a little fund raisered out at this point in the year, and we still have several months of the school year left!

Between books, candy, fun runs, picture days, and just general teachers asking for stuff for the class room, we're a little tapped out.

Now I can understand that the teachers are strapped for cash and I don't expect them to pay for stuff in the classroom, but at some point it just becomes too much.  Talking to other parents at school, this is a common theme.  We take in candy and wrapping paper order forms into our work and sell our kids trinkets, but everybody else at work has the same order forms. 

And we take the order forms to our friends and family members to beg for money from them, but we're running out of friends and family to hit up.

I wonder if we can use all of these "donations" as a tax deduction?  And what would you put on your tax form?  $500 to buy candy bars from school?

I just got through laying down with Michael in his bed.  Generally, each night, when it's time to go to bed, we watch a nite-nite cartoon for about half an hour, then we go upstairs, read a story, then it's sleepy time.  I have to lay down in bed with him because he has this fear of monsters.  Sometimes I only need to lay down with him for a few minutes, but other nights I have to lay down much longer.  Sometimes as long as an hour until he falls asleep and I can slip out without him waking up.  If I do come downstairs and he's still awake, sometimes he yells down for me because he's still scared.  Using logic on him doesn't work at all.  We've told him that monsters don't exist, that they've packed up and moved away, that they burnt up in the fires, but he doesn't listen to anything we say.

We've also tried doing the monster spray method and spray "monster spray" around his room each night to scare away monsters but that doesn't work either.

He has several flashlights near his bed that he can use to see into the dark areas but that doesn't work either.

He has not one nightlight, not two nightlights, not even three nightlights, but a total of four nightlights in his room.  And one of those lights is a string of Christmas lights strung up over his window all year long.  If even one of those lights is out, he has a fit.  Oh wait, he has a little lit Christmas tree in his room this time of year.  Almost forgot about that one.

Now I remember being scared of monsters, ghosts, and aliens as a kid, but I think Michael has it even worse then I ever did.  And I never had any night light.  I sure hope he out grows this though.  Just for his own sanity.  That and to have SOME darkness in his room.  I have no idea how he sleeps wth all that light in his room.

And some nights he gets scared in the middle of the night.  Either I or Super Mega Mom have to go into his room to calm him down and we might even have to sleep in his room for awhile for him to feel safe.

And he had this fear even when he was much smaller.  When he was Kailynn's age, it was a miracle to get him to go to bed.  I had to sit in his room listening to him cry for hours before he went to bed on his own.

At the time, we lived in an apartment with neighbors that liked to bang on the walls and party all night, so Michael always got scared of the banging and loud music.  His room abutted their apartment, so he always got the brunt of it.  Calling the land lord several times over this never seemed to fix it, and eventually we moved out and into our current house where we have no noisy neighbors or close apartments.  Still, he has the fear.  Not sure if this is what started it, but it might be.

Kailynn, on the other hand goes down with no problems and we barely hear anything from her the whole night.  Every so often she'll cry out, but it's probably because she's cold or hot or something along those lines.  She has one nightlight in her room, but it's more for our convenience to see in there when we go to check on her then for her.  She'd be just as happy in pitch black. 

The difference is that Kailynn has always lived here in her room.  She's never had to deal with noisy neighbors like Michael and has always had silence in her room...well, except for hearing her daddy snoring in the next room...and her brother yelling out for daddy or mommy when he gets scared.

So, now I'm curious if this all started with the neighbors and it just carries into the present, or if he just has a very active imagination?  Either way, I still hope he outgrows it eventually.

It's Super Mega Dad's Dad's birthday today, so Happy  Birthday Dad!  Without you, well, I wouldn't be around! Here's to many, many more birthday's!  You have convinced me over the years that you can fix anything.  Michael thinks I can fix most everything, but anything I can't fix, he knows that Papa would know how, because Papa is the best fix-it guy anywhere.  Daddy uses glue and tape and lots of hand waving to fix things, but Papa's arsenal includes way more then just glue and tape!  If daddy don't fix it, Papa will!

Now on to today's gripe.  I was at a local fast food restraunt today picking up dinner and as I was leaving the place a mother and her two daughters came storming into the place.  The girls immediately started running around and several times ran right in front of me almost tripping me as I was trying to carry multiple bags of food and drinks out the door.  The mother never once said anything to the kids or to me in apology.  She watched the kids running around, but never once even looked at me.  She just let them run around like crazy kids and paid no heed to them or me.

Why do parents not exhibit any sort of control over their kids these days?  And in the case tonight, I would have been completely embarrased if my kids caused someone to almost fall over them, not once but several times because they were running around them.  I would have appolgized to the person, and made my kids do the same thing and they definately would get a "talking to".

When I'm out and about, I'm glad to say that my kids are very well behaved and always stay close to me and definately don't run around.   They are easier holding my hand, or stand very close by quitely.  I'm pretty proud of them.  Amazingly, they are just naturally this way, I've never had to really get them to do this.  Maybe it's just how they are, or maybe it's just how they were raised?

Along the same note, it just seems like kids now have a sense of entitlement and are very selfish.  Is it because the parents are this way too?  Do the parents start out with a sense of entitlement and selfishness and then instill it into their kids?

One of my biggest pet peeves is hearing someone say "That's not fair".  Well, duh, the world is not a fair place at all.  If it were fair, everybody on Earth would be living in a mansion and driving around in SUV's and have all of their needs met, but the world is an unfair place and that's just how things are in the real world.  You have to work for what you want and that's just how it is.

I hope my kids grow up realizing that they need to work for what they want and need and they are not entitled to anything unless they work for it.  Hard work is the solution to the problem and there is no magic wand to give them something for nothing.

I have grown up knowing this at every level of my being and I may not have a lot, but what I do have I appreciate because I've worked very hard to get it.

Sure, my kids have much more then I had growing up, and I was in no means lacking in anything, but I never had a play room full of toys either, but I still feel that my kids appreciate what they have, and I know that Michael thinks what others feel before acting.  Which I can say, with experience, is not generally how kids these days are.  You can see, most of the time, the gears turning in both kids heads playing out scenarios.  Sure, they are still immature, but chances are, if you give them the choice, they will pick the right choice over the easy one.

Is this how cranking old men start?  Am I cursed to be the guy sitting on his porch yelling at those darn kids to get off his lawn?  Hmmm, maybe that's not such a bad thing afterall.  Someones got to keep those darn kids in line!  ;)

Michael is REALLY into Christmas this year.  He's liked Christmas before, but as he gets older, he gets more and more into it. 

This year he started bugging me before Halloween about putting up Christmas decorations.  I was able to postpone actually putting up the decorations until the day after Thanksgiving.  The first thing he wanted to do was put up his stocking.  He was very anxious to get that out of the way.  Once that was up, he was a lot happier and could enjoy the rest of decorating without stressing out too much.

Now that the decorations are up, he's in charge of the official Christmas calendar and he moves the placeholder one day forward each day in the march to Christmas day. 

All he can talk about is Santa Claus and Rudolph and what they are doing right now and if I think they are getting enough sleep getting ready for Christmas, because we don't want them falling asleep and missing Christmas.  And he wants to know who's in charge of feeding the reindeer and who takes off their bridles after Christmas and the whole thing.  He's definatly keeping me on my toes.

Kailynn isn't AS excited about Christmas as Michael, but she's excited in her own way.  Her favorite thing to do is to go on nightly walks with me around the neighborhood and see all the Christmas lights.  When we get home, as soon as she gets out of her stroller, she wants to go outside and hug the blow up snowman in out frontyard.  She likes feeling the buttons on his front and squeezing his carrot nose.

So, both kids are pretty cute this time of year.  Michael knows exactly what's going on at 5 years old, and Kailynn gets the gist of what's going on, but doesn't completely understand the whole process at 2 years old.

OK, time for some icecream and sit down and watch the last part of Tin Man on Sci-Fi channel, so to all a good night!

You know the honeymoon is over when you have your first fight.  Michael and his little girl friend from across the street got into it tonight.  It was time for her to go home and she started to throw a temper tatrum.  She REALLY likes playing over here, so she doesn't want to go home at night.  Michael proceeded to tell her that she needs to be a good girl because Santa is watching, so she proceeded to tell Michael in no uncertain terms that he is not allowed to tell her what to do in a very P.O'ed way.  Apparently she was very angry and was yelling, and it upset Michael to the point where he cried.  So, now, both kids are crying, so Super Mega Mom and the little girl's grandma had to calm the kids down and get them to make up.  Everything was peachy keen by the time I got home, so everybody was all made up and promises were made to play again tomorrow.  At least their fights are easy to get over.

Winter break is coming up here soon.  Michael gets out of school for almost a MONTH.  Not sure what I'm going to do with him.  I'm going to have to talk to my boss and tell him I need to work from home a lot.

And we're being pounded with stuff to do over the holidays again.  Birthday parties, kid stuff, etc.  Too many things going on.  And our kids aren't even in sports or anything like that.

We definately need to come up with some sort of schedule!

Well, this one's going to have to be a short one tonight.  I have Heros coming up along with Journeyman and then Tin Man on Sci-Fi to watch tonight.  It's going to be a LONG night!