Pulling out all the stops

Now that Kristin is home full time the kids get pretty attached to her, especially Cole. Or at least it seems that way since he is more verbal than Henry. Therefore, every weekend I have to make it my job and number one priority to win Cole back to my favor and regain my status as the #1 favored parent. Kristin does her best to let me have 100% kid-time on the weekends as she is pretty much done with them come Friday night.

Luring them back to my side isn't an easy task and over the past few weekends I think I am starting to fail.  I feel like I will never be able to compete with "Mommy." I try all the Dad tricks; throwing him up in the air, walking around the house and bumping into walls, falling down and having no part in any disciplining. I've even started to take Cole on Father/Son outings. One weekend we went to the Public Market for lunch. This past weekend Cole and I met Joe and Jason at Mo's in Wauwatosa to watch some basketball. I hate to admit it but Cole's favorite part was the Irish dancers, not the basketball. I am also embarrassed of my parenting at Mo's. I let Cole stand and jump around in a high traffic aisle, crawl on the floor (once eating something), and did not keep him safe from being touched by a couple of strangers. These are all things I would bitch about if I would see someone parenting in such a way.

In the end, weekends just aren't long enough. We have tons of fun and just as it seems Cole and I are BFFs again, the weekend ends. At the end of the day (weekend), more often than not, he still gravitates to his Mother, prefers to be held by her, calls out her name first when he wakes up and goes to her when he gets hurt. I'm not pleased, but until Kristin starts to do her part and bring home some bacon, I will have to learn to live with it.

I think I need to step things up and start coming home with gifts. Presents should do the trick. At least we have two kids. Hopefully Kristin will be so busy with Cole grabbing for attention Henry will have no choice but to choose me as his favorite parent (and thus become my favorite son).

Cole brought his own lunch to the Public Market. Don't worry, it is allowed there.

Cole loved people watching and listening to a guy playing music.