Lunchtime!

Today's been fairly uneventful. I refilled and chlorinated the pool, cleaned the bathroom, and mopped the kitchen while the kids were playing on my computer. Oh yes, I did my exercises, too.

My abs, especially the lower section and my obliques, were so sore today! I think it's because of how many pushups and pullups I did yesterday. Tensing your abs while you do those is pretty intense - I'm glad I decided to coordinate isometrics and calisthenics.

Riene was playing an Elmo reading game on Nick Jr. today. Elmo kept talking about how he missed his mommy because she was at work. Riene commented, "I know mommy isn't going to see us today, that's why we're going to Florida." While it's true that Maria isn't interested in seeing the kids, that's not why they're going to Florida. They're going there to spend some time with their great-grandmother, something myself and my siblings all did when we were there age.

Riene didn't get to spend the summer there last year because Bear wasn't old enough to go, and it wasn't fair in my opinion to just send her and not him. They have a pretty close sibling bond that I don't want fractured because one of them went off on vacation without the other. From my own experience, it's really important for a parent to foster family ties between siblings and the rest of the family. Otherwise, you end up with kids who completely disregard their own family when they become adults, and can't handle having a family of their own. That's something I hope I never see with my kids.

It would be very nice if their mother would take the time to visit them. I can understand (from a biological standpoint) why a father would be able to toss aside all emotional bonds with his kids and go off to party and whatever, but it seems unfathomable to me that a mother would do that. I obviously chose my mate poorly in terms of maternal instinct and loyalty, but at least her genetics were solid. Both kids are smart and resilient.

Then again, a lot of that comes from upbringing. They take their vitamins - the Marvel Superheroes Gummies (although I was a Flintstones kid), and they drink a lot of chocolate milk. The Nestle reduced sugar chocolate milk mix is great, it has tons of vitamins in it too. It'd be better if they weren't such picky eaters, but what can you do on that? I'm not going to brow-beat my kids into eating their brussel sprouts when I'd rather have them all to myself!

They're also pretty smart from reading. Riene reads exceptionally well, and Bear is at the point where he recognizes quite a lot of words - I would say well over 300, but I may be exaggerating a bit. These two are also learning math and numbers from the toy section at walmart. I give them a price limit, then they look for the price tag, and I make them comparison shop. I figure it'll help them work with a budget as they get older, something that I had to learn on my own.