All Judgemental

I'm noticing how other people parent their kids and I'm feeling all judgemental.

"How could they let their child talk to them like that?"

"Don't pick him up, let him cry." "Pick her up, don't just let her cry."

I gotta back away from the judgment, I know it'll come back to haunt me. But what are you supposed to do when you see an overweight 5 year old walking down the street eating an double scoop ice cream cone and drinking a Coke?

It's a tricky thing these days to discipline your child in public. We were in the park the other day and Coleman was picking up balls and tossing them over a fence. From across the park I yelled at him to stop. He kept going. I made my "mad daddy" march across the playground, he quickened his pace, getting a few more balls over the fence (giggling, laughing, having a great time.) As I got closer he saw I had my "mad daddy" face on. (In the old days, there would have been a slap or two across his bare legs - we can't do that anymore.)
So I got close, in my "mad daddy" whisper.
"I told you to stop, and when I tell you to stop, you stop."
I picked him up and dropped him on the bench for a time out.

I turned around, all eyes were on me. I walked back across the playground and resumed normal conversation. They were all a bit uncomfortable. After a sufficient time out, from across the park I told Coleman to come here. He walked across.
"What do you have to say?"
"Sorry daddy."
"When I tell you to stop, you stop."
"Yes daddy."
"Go play."
He skipped off, the time out already a distant memory.

There were about five mommies/babysitters there. I know they were judging me.

Coleman for President

Last year Harold Ford, a black man running for Senator in Tennessee, was on the verge of winning. Two weeks before the election, a TV ad appeared, a young white actress playing the stereotype of a “dumb blonde” talked about meeting Ford, a 36-year-old bachelor, “at a Playboy party.” At the end of the ad, she winks and says to the camera, “Harold — call me.” He lost the race. Just a couple of weeks ago, a video surfaced on You Tube of this very lovely young white girl singing "I got a crush on Obama. The whole black man, white woman thing is a very touchy subject. I blame OJ. Hopefully when Coleman runs for President, this won't be an issue. I want to get all the skeletons out of his closet now.

Family

Coleman with his cousin Hoyt Alexander King III.

Taken on the beach last week in Cape May, NJ during our yearly family vacation. Baby Hoyt, as we call him, just turned one. Coleman will be three in September.

I just love this picture.

I loved hanging out with my cousins. We all used to live so much closer to each other. Now we're all separated by states and time zones.

None of Coleman's cousins live close by, so we treasure these moments. Everybody is at least 2 hours away. In the grand scheme 2 hours isn't a lot, but when you start to think about spending 4 hours, probably in traffic, loading up the car - we live in New York, so that would be a rental - it's a huge effort. We have to start making more of an effort, look at those boys!!!

Gentle Giant

He's so big, what a bruiser, what a tank! I'm so tired of hearing that. Coleman is the same size, the same height and width as every other little boy his age. In fact there are definitely a couple of little boys who he plays with that are bigger. They have bigger feet, wear much bigger clothes sizes. Coleman wears size 3T very comfortably and since he turns 3 in September, he's right on schedule. The other bigger boys wear 4T and even 5T clothes and are almost exactly the same age. The other bigger kids are white.......................