summer » CoupleDumb

Fun Hair Friday

Jun 182010

          They just built a new shopping center down the street from our house. With the exception of the supermarket, the stories are still vacant, or so we thought. With the boys in tow, at the mouth of the supermarket, a man walks up with flyer and says, ‘The barbershop around the corner opened today and they are giving free haircuts’. Since the boys looked like little British kids with uneven hair and, in Rick’s case, pasty skin, we finished shopping, dropped the bags in the car, and went for haircuts.

          Gotta give this place some love right up front. It’s called Fade County. Look them up on Twitter @FadeCounty. All the barbers were guys, less the stylists of Jose Eber ilk and more like graffiti artists tagging your head with perfectly straight lines and sharp corners. There was a lot of hand shaking and chest bumping. With our three year old in the chair, the barber cracked just enough of a smile to show that he was friendly without breaking his masculine demeanor and shaved Ricky clean. Even with the moving target of a three-year-old’s head, this guy did not break a sweat and Rick’s head couldn’t be more precisely edged even if the barber used a t-square.

          In the other chair, Bobby, the six-year-old, decides that he wants a Mohawk. We have an opinion in our family kids should be able to express themselves, as long as it is not permanent and won’t get them in trouble at school. It’s a haircut, not a tattoo and school is out, so…. ‘The boy wants a Mohawk, give the boy a Mohawk’.

          Summer is the perfect time to let go and have some fun. It’s also a good time to let the kids experiment with being something a little different from their normal ‘school self’. We all know the value of a good haircut. Every woman knows that, if she wants to make a change, she just needs to change her hair. Every guy with male pattern baldness knows how right it feels to go from bald to well groomed. And we’re old and jaded.

          Kids get to test and research who they want to be on a day to day bases and summer is the best time to do it. So we say, ‘funny haircuts for everyone’.

          By the way, Bobby looks like a shark and wants everyone to see him. Ricky looks more like a shaved peach and is enjoying people kissing his head.

Don't Pee In The Pool

Relationship Rejects

Jun 172010

                Summer time in Florida is slightly cooler than summer time in Hell. Not even regular Hell. We’re talking the Hell where Hitler, Sadam Hussein and that nun in second grade ended up and there hourly punishment involves pliers, crazy glue and head cheese. Living in Southern Florida, where we already are under sea level and just waiting for a chunky kid to jump in to the ocean so we can lose all of the Keys, we live around water constantly. Whether your house has a pool, is backed up against a lake or a canal, or even the ocean, respecting the water is essential. Enjoying the water is a just a perk!

                Water safety is no joke and as we have learned in the last few months, some kids learn these skills the easy way and some need special instruction. Two months ago we actually enrolled both of our sons in swim classes. When your parents have the jocular opinion that swimming should be done suddenly and with clothes on, you learn to swim just like soldiers learn to keep their head down during the war. SURVIVAL!

Here are a few water rules to maintain your family healthy and safe this summer:

-Always provide adult supervision when children are playing in or around open water.

-Never assume a child or adult can swim.

-Always model appropriate water behavior (never push people in the pool, Dad).

-Install and maintain a pool fence. (pool alarms are cool too).

-Get certified or recertified in CPR this summer. Hey, do it as a family!

                Our kids love the pool and we are definitely using the pool this summer. Swimming is a fun, healthy way of spending great time with your family. Biggest perk of all? Swimming and fun in the sun is a great way of exhausting the little buggers so you can have some adult time. Then later, Daddy and Mommy can enjoy the pool.