Wow, I haven’t truly blogged in oh-so-long … At least 3 months!
I have determined why: Facebook, not all my web-finds will go to you anymore! Well, maybe some, but tonight I found some that need to be shared with the mummy/daddy audience of the WWW.
As my wife is soon to produce another human from inside herself, in late February 2015, I have researched what it means and takes to be an older parent. I keep forgetting I am over 40 years old. I have never acted a day over 20, and I will continue to stay young-at-heart! Despite my knees getting sorer, my shoulders aching every night after Mr2.3 walking on my back or throwing himself onto me with his adorable massive hugs, and my ribs getting sore from the laughter we have together, I don’t know what it is like to act my age.
Seriously though, I am closer to 50 … and thanks to IVF we were able to have our second child. Our first child is adorable, well mannered (Mr2.3 says ‘denk you’ without prompting!), smart (he may not be able to read, yet he loves his word books!), imaginative, creative, vocal with a wide vocabulary, yet all the expected aggression of a little boy wanting the world to understand, listen and do as he says! So overall, perfectly normal – as I expect the next one will also be.
I won’t say what age mummy/my lovely wife is (I want to live until my next birthday!), but she is a few years younger than me. Yet never has life been so wonderful, funny, fun, worth the effort and joyous for both of us. Did I say fun? Kids are much more fun than the cynics and non-breeders say it is. Older parents do NOT deserve the bad press or genetic problems of their offspring that is often assumed.
Talking children, it turns out Mr2.3 loves being in the kitchen with Mum. As he gets taller he can reach further – particularly onto the bench space normally reserved for cutting food for dinner. So I have decided that finding ways for him to help is either going to make the time worthwhile, or get him out of the kitchen until he is of age to be a kitchen slave. Kidding. Or am I? Anyhow, here are a few kitchen tools that kids will surely enjoy using:
1a. I have a few friends whose eyes are gonna explode at this contraption. Yet it has merit. I am so sick of finding half-eaten mashed banana in the boy’s day bag or childcare bag. The Banana Bunker solves all issues !
1b. Heck, why not slice the banana before he leaves the house!
2. All boys love a gadget that sprays or shoots his food. If he ain’t flinging it with his hands, he is catapulting it with his food. So this Condiment-Gun will help aim the product in the right direction . Some of it might even hit the correct target. And I don’t mean mum’s hair!
3. Don’t you love it when you are chopping lettuce and you hear this tiny voice say “Me do!” This should make it fun, a tad silly, yet entertaining. Maybe some lettuce might get chopped too! So a karate-chopping plastic-hand in the hands of a under-10-year-old could only be fun. Not that I condone hitting kids at all, but I can see a substitute use for this. A soft paddle to a well-padded posterior is sometimes a handy way to remind a child that NO means NO.
4. Our little dude loves helping making cakes. Particuarlly chocolate cake. More often he holds onto the handle of the electric mixer whilst mummy actually does the work. I am thinking this whisker with King-Kong trapped behind the bars from http://www.perpetualkid.com might get him involved a tad more. Even if it means a little mixture is flung around the room. Hmmmm… now I am thinking this is not a good idea!
5. Mum, why don’t we just get cutting boards that look like the mess that Mr2.3 just made on the kitchen bench?
6. Oh wow, no more spilt pancake batter on the kitchen and dining floor. Nor in the patio, beneath the BBQ, nor even down the hallway. Wouldn’t that be ever so nice!
7. Anything from Fred and Friends will appeal to both Dad and Mr2.3.
8. Ooooh, we need to start baking cookies soon! Forget Christmas and Birthdays, just to have available anytime! I want them chess pieces , racing track and cars , wild animals and jigsaw puzzles shaped … wait, I mean Mr2.3 wants them. Okay, I admit it. I want the popsicle cookies.
9. Extra: Buying these battery salt-n-pepper shakers for my mother in law’s massive collection.
10. Okay, something for the fridge: The Quick Grip Note Refrigerator Organizer . I have been talking about this idea for many years!
11. And because I am dad, I want the Tactical Chef Apron . Just so I can look like I cook in the house. I get to keep food moving on the metal cook thingy in the back yard.
This should be enough to see the lad through to his double-digit years. And keep me fed handsomely with scrumptious delights. Kids. Who wouldn’t have them?
Stephentrepreneur.com 
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