Sunrise City Review

Quite possibly one of my favorite games to play with gamers and non-gamers alike.  A classic in the making if there ever was one.

Equation for a Focused & Happy Toddler

Cheerios + Bowls + A Pair of Tweezers

Way to go, Lady Rad! Anyone else with incredibly simple, yet awesome activities for the young'in's during the hot summer months when you're a S@HM?

Scatological Report : Our floor will never be the same

Disclaimer:

Lady Rad does an amazing job of keeping the house tidy and establishing a very 50's lifestyle of me walking through the door with a hot, home-cooked meal waiting for me, the kids dressed and happy, and the house picked up.  She probably doesn't know how much I know that takes an enormous amount of prep and work each and every day.  I try to show my appreciation by being able to pick up both of the kids on my way through the door, and entertain them while getting changed and allow LR to put the finishing touches on our family meal.  I love her so much, and the loving servant she is to our home, our kids, and me.

Here's the scene yesterday:

Christmas Trees & Toddlers - the Dilema

The Mu is two-years old, and has gotten his first taste of Christmas Cheer.  Everywhere we go, he manages to point out every St. Nick and Snowman he sees.  So it is with great excitement and anticipation for him and me that we will be getting a Christmas tree soon.

This excitement is, understandably, not shared equally with Lady Rad whose current challenges involve making sure that the Mu doesn't cause too much toddler-destruction while she is needing to attend to Q's nap-training routine.  Normally, this challenge has been met by a diligent child-proofing routine every morning where Lady Rad can be reasonably confident that she can go into another room for 20 minutes while Mu is quietly playing with toys.  Brining a Noble Fir into the front room kind of screws up the entire flow that's been achieved thus far.

Game Closet: Hive

Portable, Durable, Kid-proof

Since making my 2010 resolution to play more traditional tabletop games, Lady Rad and I have rekindled a hobby that has been dormant since the time I insisted the Backgammon set that she inherited from her grandmother was haunted.

I mean, how is it possible for me to lose every single time? Haunted game board, that's how.

So in my desire to find other, non-cursed, two-player games, I discovered this delightful game from 2001 that carries the "Mensa Select" seal of approval.

Pump it Up

This IS what she was talking about, right?

I relish my role as the provider for the SuperRad family.  Most of the time when I think about my role, I think of the normal things - going to work to support Lady Rad as a S@HM to our kids, making enough money to pay our mortgage, mowing the lawn, covering a leaky roof with a tarp in a torrential downpour, etc.

But here was one I never really imagined: Lady Rad's breast-pump finally called it quits this morning; sleep-training Q and addressing Mu's tantrums left her no time to pack the kids up to get another one.  I had our car this evening and so, in the continuing deluge, drove out to Target at closing time and am now the proud owner of a new Lansinoh double-barreled shotgun.

She Sleeps!!!

It happened, it finally happened! One day shy of 12 weeks old and Q slept through the entire night without waking - from 6pm until 5:50am.

I owe this incredible event not just to the Bible of baby books which has become highly prized in the SuperRad family, 'Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child' (which turns sleep training into a magic trick if you follow the directions), but to Lady Rad's careful adherence to the book's advice to watch the sleep patterns of the child and "catch the sleep wave" when it hits.  It hit last night at about 5:00pm, and Lady Rad was on like Robotron - in the middle of preparing Family Dinner, she handed the cooking reigns over to me (thankfully, it was just the pasta that I had to take over the finish line - no one can boil pasta like I can), got Q into her bath, and settled into 2 marathon nursing sessions which got our little girl to Sleepytime after about an hour, and with almost no fuss.

Can this mean that Lady Rad and my nights will start to become our own again? I'm not holding my breath any time soon.  But little by little, Q has been sleeping longer and longer.  Hope in the SuperRad home runs high.

Now we just have to figure out how to transition her out of our bedroom and into her shared room with Mu, without the wheels coming off of Mu's great sleep.  Yet I have no doubt in Lady Rad's abilities, or the provisions of Someone Else.