Showing posts with label Parenting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Parenting. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 12, 2017

MDC 34: Breaking A "Funny" Bone




     Backstory time! Since the last episode, Adam has gone through a wave of illness and injury that has lasted for over a month.
 What started as a flu that the whole house had, turned into a sinus infection. After a wave of antibiotics and prednisone, the infection was gone but the cough had gotten worse. A stabbing side pain led to a trip to urgent care and the discovery of a cracked rib. A new prescription for codine cough syrup hoped to relieve the cough and help the rib heal. It didn't help. Back to the Dr. with a new rib fracture. This time came with a new wave of cough treatments including tessalon perles to help the cough, symbicort to open up the lungs, and Aleve for the pain. Now, after over a month, it finally looks like things are getting under control.
 On the more positive side of things, it's the holiday season. We recently placed our amazon order for the boys gifts and ouch is that a hard number to see all at once. We have a system so that the boys all have an equal number and type of gifts. Something they want, something they need, something to wear, and something to read. It also helps with when grandparents want to buy things because we already have an amazon wish list set up along those guidelines.
 Things have been good with the boys. Bug turned 4 and got his latest set of shots. He was definitely not happy about that. Sam has been growing his vocabulary and been using more short sentences. Damien has been doing great in school. We've all but thrown out Charlie's contract because he wont keep up with it.
 ReAnna's last words this week: a joke barely worthy of a Laffy Taffy. If you think it's funny, or if you agree with Adam and can't roll your eyes hard enough, let us know on the Mom and Dad Cuss Facebook page. Thank you everyone and we'll catch you next time.



Monday, November 20, 2017

MDC 33: Crime and Punishment and Turkey





 It's been a busy time since we last spoke. As seems to just always be the case, we're both sick so excuse the coughs and sniffles. At the same time we're both thoroughly medicated so as things progress it starts to show.
 In happy news, our littlest munchkin has graduated to his toddler bed. He now captains the pirate ship bed that has lasted through all 4 boys. That means that Bug now gets moved up to a brand new twin bed like his big brothers. The absence of a child in our room is taking getting used to but is ultimately great.
 In less happy news, our oldest, Charlie, has been super ultra deluxe level grounded for the foreseeable future. In a nutshell, lying, stealing, sneaking around, poor school behavior, fighting with his brothers, all crammed into about 2 weeks. Since our regular punishment methods haven't worked, ReAnna called a "Mom Pow-Wow" to come up with a more creative course of action.
 With all of that out of the way, let's not forget that this week is Thanksgiving in the US. This year we're gonna try to make the meal as gluten-sensitive as we can, on account of ReAnna's meds.
We're making cornbread stuffing from scratch, and attempting gluten-free rolls. Short of that there aren't too many issues. After all these years we've got our little family Thanksgiving down pretty tight.

Friday, August 25, 2017

MDC 29: One "Sick" Show





     This episode is literally "sick." And by literally, I mean literally. Both of us are in the middle of fighting off some sort of crud that the boys managed to bring home on the first week back to school. That being said we actually end up spending most of our time talking about all the wonder drugs we've taken to fight off this crap.

Friday, August 18, 2017

MDC 28: School Changes and Shopping Meltdowns





School Changes and Shopping Meltdowns

     We're back! After an unplanned 3 month hiatus, we have returned to share our tales of our summer break, and changes in the new school year. In so many words, we didn't think, when we started this podcast, about the time commitment that would be necessary every week(ish) to produce the show. That being said, between the busy season at work, summer vacation, household duties, ReAnna going to school, and limited home time to do all of those things, the podcast kinda has to take a backseat to everything else in our lives. But we're back, hopefully more regularly.
     First off , we chat about the bomb dropped on us by the boys school the day before we left for our summer vacation back to Texas. Along with the Principal leaving at the end of last year, the Kindergarten teacher, among others, left over the summer and the Montessori program that they were in was ended. Without that program we had no reason to keep them in that school, so we went through the task of finding another quality school closer to home. What an adventure that was.
     Recently, ReAnna has gone gluten-free. No it's not for any hip fad diet reasons. Her medication for her  hypothyroidism has the side effect of gluten sensitivity. Lets just say that when you tell a woman who can just sit and eat a whole loaf of fresh bread in one sitting that she has to cut off the gluten, she gets a little depressed. The good news, it hasn't been as diet crippling as we thought. (Spoilers: good Mexican food is almost all gluten free.)
     We go on a bit about our newfound love of online grocery pre-order. We do almost all major shopping from our computer and just pick it up at a scheduled time. We even did back to school that way. At the same time, ReAnna has a minor meltdown talking about why she hates shopping, especially at Wal-Mart. (Honestly it's worth listening just to hear that part.)

Thanks to Gareth from "Gareth's Random Ramblings" for the twitter message that inspired us to get off our butts and get the show going again.


Thursday, May 11, 2017

MDC 27: New Puppies, and Toddler Glasses





Fun changes in the Higgins household! In the last couple weeks we've gotten a puppy, we've gotten Bug glasses, ReAnna got a promotion, and we got some shocking news from Charlie's school.

Friday, April 21, 2017

MDC 26: Glasses, Teeth, and Tada!





  • This week we talk about Adam's close call with a deadly wrong way driver. 
  • It looks like our little Bug may need glasses for a lazy eye. 
  • Charlie is gonna need to get a tooth pulled to make room for a new one.
  • We chat about our high school days and turn on the competitive streak talking about ReAnna's academic decathlon days. 
  • Talking about the kids at ReAnna's water aerobics class somehow spins us into pain and death and Adam's disregard for his personal safety. 
  • Finally, we end up realizing how old we're getting as our younger siblings have birthdays. 
  • In the mean time, Sammy makes a few appearances with his new "Tada!"


Thank you to Lily, our first supporter on Patreon.

Wednesday, January 25, 2017

MDC 22:Leading by Example




Leading by Example


     This week we discuss the best way to raise the kind of children you want. We're not talking about how to get you kids to behave, or how to make them stop fighting with their brothers. Those sort of things are pipe dreams. We are playing the long game and talking about how to turn your children into the kind of adults you want them to be by leading by example.

Tuesday, January 10, 2017

MDC 21: Dads are Parents Too




Dads Are Parents Too


     What is your image of a "traditional" family dynamic? Is it the one where dad goes to work all day while mom stays home to raise the kids solo? Or is it the one where mom and dad both go to work and leave the kids with a nanny or babysitter resulting in a total detachment from raising the kids? This week we are talking about how our family dynamic functions in a much less "conventional" way.
     In our house, we have a sort of topsy turvey system. We function in a way that turns both traditional family and gender rolls on their heads. We both work full time, but we also don't use babysitters. ReAnna works a traditional day job in an office and Adam works overnights. Further flipping convention, ReAnna makes more money. What's more, Adam is essentially a stay-at-home dad in the day and works a full time job at night.
     We find it strange that this is so strange. Why is it that in 2017 men are still thought of as being inept as parents? People still seem to think that it's mom's job to take care of the kids while dad sits in his "man cave" watching sports. In our house ReAnna is the one that can't be disturbed during a football game, and Adam is the one doing ALL of the cooking. But for some reason today, simply being a capable father on any level makes you a "superdad." A dad that actually takes his kids to doctor's appointments without his wife is some kind of magical unicorn. This should be the rule, not the exception. If a home has two parents in it, they should both equally parent. There is really no excuse for being an inept parent. You have a kid? Raise it! The end.





Tuesday, November 1, 2016

Friday, May 6, 2016

MDC 6: Teaching Tolerance


Teaching Tolerance 

We are back from our "moving hiatus" and this week we jump back in with an incident that occurred while we got settled into our new home. Long story short, our oldest son called ReAnna "fat." This lead to the idea of how to teach tolerance to our boys. We go from the initial issue of fat shaming and teaching respect to generally being accepting of others.
We come from very different backgrounds but both have grown to be very inclusive in our friendships. We also have quite a varied family makeup including people of all sizes, races, sexualities, religions, and political views. All this considered, it is somewhat surprising to find that any of our boys would show that sort of behavior, especially towards their mother. We aren't 100% on how to approach this all yet, but it is definitely a lesson that needs to be handled appropriately.