Long lost in a pile of junk paper of bank statements, 4th grade homework, unpaid bills, etc. I just found this classic hand written note.

When J wakes up

• Change diaper
• feed the boy: 4 spoons (spoon is inside the tin) of “Kasha” and add milk (2%, warm).
• can give him some banana (if still hungry)
• Play time
• then around 2h later can give a litte snack (cheese or bread) a little drink (juice is on the tbl) * mix water 3 * 3oz.
• should sleep now.

I’ll be on the phone or online

Kiss

Hope be back for lunch.

So after the shock of waking up in the deep end of the pool I got to, following the list to the letter.  Things were going well for the first few points and I was thinking that I’m a super dad until the food wasn’t enough and the begging started.  So i simply repeated the steps so far that had worked well pouring more food, juice, food and milk into the kid. Problem solved for another 30mins or so until it was poo time.  Hey, that wasn’t even on the list!  Negotiated the situation well enough though and with just one more oz of milk he was back to sleep.

Dream kid so far!

While Richard and I were at the Monster Jam this afternoon Tatiana was busy training James.  By the time we got home he was already walking around with semi-confidence.  The icing on the cake was the little dance at the end!

It’s been a while since I posted but nothing really jumped out until now. Elena’s mum finally got her US visa last week so we went for a drive up to Texas for some shopping. On the way we stopped for a few photos with one of the daily stunning texas sunsets.

Of course I couldn’t resist putting the first one up on facebook and it got some classic comments. . .

Jose Angel Cantu Guzman baby on the road
Peter Speight Place of birth, I-35 South Texas
Jose Angel Cantu Guzman At least it’s the road and not on a mc donalds
Rod Saclier Are you serious? I seem to remember you tempting the gullible but really???
Gene Hewitt she did not…..nooooo!??!
Tim Benson You’ve put on a bit of weight since I saw you last Peter …
Alice Duijnhouwer Ouch that looks awfull
Peter Speight The Parkes and Garden guy (complete with gun, hand cuffs, lights on his truck) stopped to assist which was great. Elena’s Mum was trying to speak English to him and he was trying to speak Spanish to her while I was busy with Elena.
Juan Pablo Leal G nice picture
Alpaslan Bazlamatçi Elena is having pain and you take your time to take picture of her while you should hold her hand !!! çok ayıp
Alison Speight So, a Mexican child at last
But what you had to go through to get one…hai raab!
Helene Uys Are you serious? Did she actually have the baby on the I35?
Bryce Bishop That’s an excellent pic…
Dylan Speight REALLY!?!
Sabrina Bazlamatci you guys are funny yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
Dmitry Garin You are a man, Peter! Congratulations!
Natalya Maximova Oh my God!!! Peter, tell to us truth. Are you serious?
Alice Duijnhouwer Where are the pics of the little one? is it a girl or a boy?
Anyway congrats all of you and Richard and James!!

Here is the actual photo that we stopped to take. . .

And a couple more . . .

I found these helpful hints from Focus on the Family on a tag stuck to some clothes.  I liked it a lot so put it up here to share with you.  I didn’t ask the authors, James Dobson, Inc. for permission but I’m guessing they will be ok with me sharing thier thoughts amoungst my friends.  I had a look for thier website too but couldn’t find it.  Maybe they will contact me if they get upset with the reproduction???

1. Children thrive best in an atmosphere of guenuine love and undergirded by reasonable, consistent discipline.
2. Heredity does not equip a child with proper attitudes: children learn only what they are taught!
3. The footsteps a child follows are most likely to be the ones his parents thought they covered up.
4. Praise and criticism at home should be distributed as evenly as possible.
5. It is through loving control that parents ecpress personal worth to a child.
6. If you never allow a child to want something, he’ll never enjoy the plreasure of receiving it.
7. There are so many necessary “no’s” in life that we should say “yes” whenever we can.
8. Grandparents can be invaluable to the world of little people. For one thing, “They are the only grown-ups who have time.”
9. trying to control children by yelling is as utterly futile as trying to steer a car by honking the horn.
10. Loving discipline cncourages a child to respect other epople and live as a responsible, constructive citizen.