Puzzle Answers
PUZZLE ON PAGE 57
Page 48
January 17, 2014
The Dispatch/Maryland Coast Dispatch
The Adventures
Of Fatherhood
ower outages test the
mettle of parents like
nothing else.
Fortunately, last week-
end's event took place
while we were at Disney
On Ice, and we were able
to avoid coming home for
several hours until it became evident
we had no other choice.
At my house in Berlin, the power
was out about five hours. Once we
realized the power outage was go-
ing to be an extended event, Pam
and I agreed there was no reason to
hurry home.
Eventually, though, we decided it
was time to get the bedtime rou-
tines underway, albeit in a dark
home. The kids rolled with the pun-
ches and that made it much easier.
Carson really enjoyed being read
books via a flash flight, so long as
he could hold it. I briefly considered
a candle and quickly realized that
would be insane to tempt a 4-year-
old with in his room.
Within a couple minutes, Carson
was fast asleep with visions of
Mickey and friends dancing through
his head, or at least that's how I
envisioned it.
Soon enough power was restor-
ed, and Beckett realized that meant
he needed to turn in as well. He was
probably the only person in town
rooting for the outage to continue.
he family had our first
"Disney On Ice" experi-
ence last weekend.
I went in with low ex-
pectations, which were
quickly squashed. I am
not referring to what I
thought the Disney folks
would put together. I just wondered
how my boys were going to be dur-
ing the two-hour show. Sometimes
it's best to assume ahead of time
that some situations are going to be
stressful. Be prepared for the worst
but hope for the best philosophy
seems to work best for me.
With this particular event, my
boys surprised us by being angels.
Beckett, 5, was absolutely perfect
the entire time, and Carson, 4, was
as close to being a model child as
he can be in his current crazy phase
that often involves random acts of
meanness, deviance and the occa-
sional wicked head butt.
Both kids were enthralled with
the entire spectacle, and it was
probably the easiest two hours of
our weekend because they were
entertained and realized they could-
n't go anywhere. In fact, they were
so enthralled with it all that the
thought probably never crossed
their mind to try and go elsewhere.
Since it was such a lovely expe-
rience, and it was Saturday after-
noon, my mind wandered to what
was happening in the NFL playoff
game that was on television at this
time. All the while Mickey and his
crew were dazzling us on the ice.
Every once in a while I would
sneak a peek at my phone to see
what the score of the game was,
and each time I could feel the eye
balls of my wife on me. I didn't even
bother looking over because I have
seen that look plenty of times and
already knew her thoughts. It was
something along the lines of, "real-
ly? Is it that important?"
In all honesty, thanks to the kids
being on their best behavior, it was
a great way to spend a Saturday
afternoon, even if I didn't get a
chance to see any of that game.
eeing my kids run is a
good thing.
In fact, during Beck-
ett's sports practices, I
root for his coaches to
make him run, and I hope
it's a lot because tired
kids are a wonderful thing.
That's why when the players
were not listening to their coaches
at soccer the other morning, I was
applauding the decision to make
them run until they were ready to
listen.I wish I could utilize the trick on
my sons at home sometimes. It
would be a lot simpler and easier to
just make them run around for a
while rather than trying to have a
dialogue about why so and so is
making a bad decision and why this
or that is a sign of disrespect.
I believe one of the coaches said
something along the lines of, "No
listening equals lots of running."
That would make a great sign
somewhere, so long as it's accom-
panied by my all-time favorite sign,
"Beware: Entering a drama-free
zone."
am and I took Beckett to
eat steamed crabs for
lunch and see "Frozen"
over the holiday break.
I couldn't help but
think about how far our
boy has come because
there was a time when that would
have been a tortuous experience,
but with him now 5 years old (he
likes to remind me he is now well
past 5 ½, actually) he is showing
maturation signs. There are still mo-
ments of immaturity and bizarre an-
tics, but he is beginning to grasp
good things will come to him if we
can trust him and he can show he's
a big boy.
It was my first movie experience
with Beckett. Pam had taken him
before without any issues. I was
pleasantly surprised by how intent
he was to watch the movie, some of
which he watched from my lap. That
always warms the heart.
Later, we were talking about it,
and he gave his movie review, say-
ing, "I really liked it, but there were
too many girls in it. I wish it wasn't
about a princess."
You see, he is not much into girls
these days, as evidenced by a
photo taken at Park Place Jewelers'
Men's Night Out recently. There
were two Ravens cheerleaders
there posing with guests, and they
planted a fake kiss on his cheek for
the photo.
He wanted no parts of that, and
the picture shows him wiping the
kiss off and clearly irritated by the
attention.
That's a keeper photo that I will
proudly show him some years down
the road.
(The writer is the publisher and editor of
The Dispatch. He and his wife, Pamela, are
proud parents of two boys. This weekly column
examines their transition into parenthood and
all that goes along with it. E-mail any
thoughts to editor@mdcoastdispatch.com.)
P
P
S
T
BySTEVE GREEN
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