DadStayedHome

My hope for Natalie.

Posted on February 8, 2016 by dadstayedhome

I am the youngest child of 3 boys in my family. I always looked up to my brothers. To this day I still do but in a much different way. Now before I lose you this isn’t going to be one of those I had a horrible childhood and while my brothers were outside playing I was stuck inside looking out the window at them while finishing my chores. That’s simply not true. I had a great child hood. Grew up the first part of it in south florida with great friends in a cul-de-sac that I still have great memories of. I just hope that Natalie gets that its ok for her to take the reins and lead.

By now I’m sure you’re well aware I stay home with the girls everyday. I get to watch them soak up everything like a sponge and then when we least expect it they wring it all out like a sponge. It’s awesome to watch. It’s fun to watch miniature versions of you running around all day. Even the bad stuff its fantastic to just think about I helped create that.

Back to my point. The other day I took the girls for a walk before we went to go surprise mom at work. In typical fashion Kendall ran ahead to the lead and Natalie waddled as fast as she could to keep up. Every so often Kendall would turn and say “come on Natalie” and stop for a few seconds for her sister to catch up. While all this was going on of course I got a few pictures to send off to mom so she knows whats going on.

Having two kids close in age has its challenges. I also won’t neglect the fact that it also has a ton of advantages from hand me downs (toys or clothes) to I have not wasted one single diaper so far. While I was looking at the pictures Kendall and Natalie were outside playing and Natty was trying to figure a toy out and I instinctively said “Kendall show your sister how to use her toy”.

That was my ah-ha moment, we always tell Kendall to help or show your sister. We don’t let Nat-Bat figure it out. We don’t allow her to trial and error, we don’t give her the chance to have the independence of I did it all by my self. We don’t let her fail. I’m a huge believer in its ok to fail because you can learn from it. One of my favorite quotes of all time is by Michael Jordan himself.

I understand that I’m not ruining my kid with this (at least I hope not) but it probably isn’t the greatest thing I could be doing for her. I want Natalie to know that its ok if she leads the way, or picks the activity we do next. It’s ok to have your own voice and make your own shadow. Not that I feel like following in Kendall’s shadow is a bad thing, I just know that Natalie could leave behind a pretty badass shadow her self.

Painting was done by the talented Addison DiMartino

Posted in Kid stuff | Tagged dad, dads, dadstayedhome.com, daughter, DiMartino, family, family life, Homosassa fl, Kendall, natalie, stay at home dad | 34 Comments

$12, a ruined shirt and a little clean up.

Posted on February 2, 2016 by dadstayedhome

What does $12, a ruined shirt, a little clean up and 20 minutes get you? Memories, and in our case some good pizza. I’ve been on a little cooking with the girls kick lately and decided we were going to make pizza together. I kind of decided last minute to do this whole pizza thing so everything was basically pre-packaged. I’m sure I’ll work on a homemade version shortly but for now here’s a few pictures of the fun.

Kendall enjoyed spreading the sauce on the crust and of course Natalie loved eating the sauce from the jar.

The following day we used the left over ingredients to make pepperoni omelettes for breakfast.

Posted in Kid stuff | Tagged cooking, cooking with kids, family, kids, parenting, stay at home dad | 8 Comments

Dad and the girls make waffles (and a mess)

Posted on January 24, 2016 by dadstayedhome

For dinner last night it was just me and the girls. I have really been in the mood for some reason to cook/make things on our own. I know it can be hectic, messy, and not to mention stressful to include the girls when I cook but I find it very fulfilling. It’s so much easier to hand them the iPad or let them stare at the tv to keep them distracted but hearing them giggle and participate in astonishment is very rewarding. So when the girls woke up from a nap, I asked them “would you girls like to cook waffles for dinner?”. Kendall heard cook and she was all in (she cooks on a play set at school and loves it). Natalie heard waffles and waddled as fast as her tiny little legs could carry her to the kitchen. So up on the bar stools they went and we made waffles.

Once we finished making them, eating them had to be just as much fun. No way we were going to be satisfied with just making the kitchen a mess we needed to move over to the table. There we continuously giggle, talk, feed the dog, and in Kendall’s own words “it’s berry good daddy”.

While making the waffles you will notice that Natalie manages to eat about half of the raw batter. Kendall kinda touches the waffle iron and I may or may not get a kiss or two.