Poor little old me

For some reason the weekend before my birthday was deemed a 2 day slave labor camp. Lynley worked my butt(ocks) to the bone and she took absolute joy in doing so. In fact, she wore a smirk all weekend. The kiddos, the little twerps, weren't of any help either. I take back everything I said about them on Friday. Clearly I was wrong. Awesomelets... More like the Not Awesomelets - the not helping Dadlets, or rather, the taking Mom's sidelets. Not one of my progeny even lifted a finger to help dear old Dad.

I will remember.

On my super cool birthday, I am not going to let any of them have ice cream cake.

Hmmmmph!

On Saturday Sydney was attitudinal to say the least. She had spent the previous evening at an all girl sleepover and apparently didn't fall asleep until midnight. That lack of beauty rest turned her into a 5 star shrew (and I mean that in the most daddy nurturing way possible.) She yelled at everyone. Well, everyone except for Lynley and I whom she has learned not to yell at. But to her brother, sister and most inanimate objects around the house she was a real witch. Thankfully and afternoon in her room and a night of rest brought our princess back. However, our princess was still of no help to her poor old over worked Dad.

Sunday was Graham's day and boy did he do it first class. Unfortunately, I do not mean that in a good kid way. We have had a lot of success with Graham after reading a few books and working through some of his confidence issues. He has had weeks of solid growth - and, yes, the state championship did not hurt. But yesterday, whoa yesterday, was 10 steps backward. He must have threatened to run away 10 times and his ability to cope melted away at even the slightest move away from what he wanted. Clearly he was yearning for attention but was just in too foul of a mood to receive any of it. It was not a good Graham Day. And it is important to note that he was not of any particular help to his poor old dad either.

Ainsley, as expected, kept a pretty even keel. She was happy, fun, and, as always, ready for more. She had no problem helping Daddy but her help came more in the form of "Before we start will you make me a drink?" or "Now that we have started can you make me a snack" or " Daddy, you missed a spot?" Sure, she was fun and cheery but I quickly came to realize that with her help everything took 4 times as long to complete. With my blushing bride's cracks of the whip just over my head, that simply was not going to get the job done. While I enjoyed her company, she too was of absolutely no help. It was easier to send her on her merry way.

Now I don't want to paint the love of my life as being a brutal dictator. Lynley was nice but she did it in that southern sort of way. She would ask me to take a break from the hard work but she would do it in that way that also said "if you so much as stop for a second you are not getting any for a month." Oops, you probably should not tell her that I said that publicly in my blog. Regardless, I caught the drift.

And so, poor me, right? Not that anyone else around here would appreciate it but poor old little daddy.

Do you think they will feel sorry enough for me to get me a real cool gift?

Nope, probably still relegated to socks and ties. But you can't blame me for trying.

It is a sneaky stab at purpose.