For2dadsake Podcast

Rock - A - Bye - Baby

Daniel Aguilar
Daniel:

Hello everyone. And welcome to the third episode of four, two dad sakes podcast. My name is Daniel Aguilar and here with me is my brother. Jonathan Aguilar, John, how's it going tonight?

Jon:

Uh, pretty good. Pretty good. Uh, tonight was a little busy. So before, you know, getting everything ready for the podcast, um, we had a back to school night for, uh, my son killing. Um, he is in kind. So nothing too serious, but, uh, it was always fun going in there seeing how small the chairs are and, you know, seeing all the stuff they have in there. So it was pretty cool. Um, a lot of, uh, information taken, but pretty fun. Pretty fun. What about you, how's your night going? Or did you have a question?

Daniel:

Well, I have a question, but I was just gonna say like, it's pretty. Interesting though, when we go like, so for instance, when I did my clinicals for, LA unified school district, I had to go to like a bunch of different schools and. Even though there were different schools. They all looked exactly the same to me. And it brought back so many memories from back when I went to school and like how the chairs are still the same, the classrooms are basically still the same, the playground, the cafeteria. So it's just, every time I walk into a school, it just brings back a lot of memories of my childhood. I'm not sure if how about you? oh

Jon:

yeah. Oh yeah, you definitely get transformed for a second. And then you realize they, I mean, for, at least in the classroom I went in today. They have a lot better stuff than than I did. I remember in kindergarten when I was at school, we did like needle necklaces and, uh, I am pretty sure they said at one of the tables, it's at the iPad station. So, um, things have changed quite a bit since I was in

Daniel:

school. Right, right. Yeah. As far as my day goes, it's, uh, you know, just business as usual go to go to work. Nothing really eventful happened. We are expanding and we are hiring a lot more therapists and, that where I work at it's the business is really starting to pick up. And so we're starting to become a lot more busy, so, which is good, because. For me personally, the time goes by so much faster when I'm working. When I don't have a kid to see maybe, you know, they are sick or they're on vacation or, you know, they just forget they had a session that day. I usually have to sit at my desk and it's a good thing because, you know, I get a little downtime for, for me, but. The time goes up by a little bit more slower when I'm at the desk rather than treating, a kid. So, after work came down to our house, as I mentioned before, we're having a lot of construction around. And so wasn't surprised when I pulled up and there was, the fir yard was all dug out. Because you know, one of the things they're doing is laying down new pipes and. actually, the house is completely dark because we're getting the house rewired. And so I had a bringing a lamp into one of the rooms and to record those podcasts. So I'm thankful we had electricity. Otherwise I wouldn't be able to record tonight because of lack of internet, but

Jon:

I was gonna say, was it safe to plug in to the outlet?

Daniel:

Yeah. Yeah, we asked. Okay, if there was gonna be, electricity available, they said, yeah. So wasn't yeah. So, all right. So first segment of tonight, John, how was your weekend?

Jon:

Weekend was pretty fantastic. Um, let's see. So Saturday Daniel, you were a big part of my, uh, weekend on Saturday. We had our final two drafts, uh, for fancy football, one dynasty, one regular season. Uh, we got together with all our guys in the league. Good times having fun. Um, you know, was able to really relax and unwind. And then Sunday was actually really cool. We, um, stood home and then we, uh, did a little outing, which was not like anything special, but we went to Sonic to get the kids. Alush get a little snack, get outta the house for a little bit. Um, and then, yeah, uh, on Sunday night, um, my wife and I, we actually kind of had like a little staying at home date. so, uh, we got that, um, one of the board games of the, um, uh, what was it called? It's um, it's pretty much, it's a murder mystery game. To killer, uh, to hunt a killer. Um, so I'm sure you guys have seen that on, uh, on, uh, social media and whatnot, but pretty much you're emergent to this, uh, crime scene. You get there's clues in the box, you gotta figure everything out. See if you can figure out who the, the killer is. Um, we had some wine with it. It was a good night. It's tiring because there's actually quite a bit of reading and you actually really do have to think, but, uh, it's actually pretty fun. Have you seen that?

Daniel:

No, I have not, but my first question is, is what slushie did you get?

Jon:

Oh, easy blue coconut.

Daniel:

I'm not a coconut guy. I'm a red cherry or blue raspberry. Sign me up for, for those out of

Jon:

those two, I would go blue raspberry, but yeah, uh, yeah, blue. Coconut's where it's at. Yeah,

Daniel:

definitely. No, I've never played that game before, but, Sherry and I did subscribe to,, a venture. I think a venture. box

Jon:

or a venture challenge, adventure challenge. I saw

Daniel:

that one and I think what, so basically what it is, it's a, for everyone who doesn't know it's like a date night in a box. And so mm-hmm you can buy one, you can subscribe monthly. It all depends on what your, you know, what fits in your budget. So one of the ones we got was, you had a bake, a apple pie, but the. The thing goes, one, the person that baking the pie has to be blindfolded while the other person can't talk to the person that's being that has a blindfold on. So you have to work on your communication skills., which leads to, you know, maybe like creative ways on how to like. Proper instructions on how to cook the pie. So it was, it was a very fun little date night we had so, recommended for everyone to check it out. They're not a sponsor, not night yet, but not yet. We had a good, good time. Good. All right. Yeah. So, like John said, our weekend started off Saturday. The thing. The fantasy football league, John and I are in, we've been with these guys for the last 15, 16 years. 16, I think. Yeah. Yeah. And I think the last time we were all together was before the pandemic. So you gotta go back to 2019 and it was nice to see everyone and get everyone together. And. I love it. Last year, we were in Vegas and Vegas was great. A lot of amenities, a lot of perks, but it wasn't the same because everyone couldn't come. So mm-hmm this time everyone did show up. It was great to see everybody. And John and I. Our responsible dads and we Ubered home. So when you get together with your, with your, with your buddies, with your girlfriends, please do not drink and drive. Not worth it, not worth

Jon:

it at all.

Daniel:

All right. And so let's go into our news topic of tonight. What's hot. What's not. Um, John, why don't you go first? What's what's hot

Jon:

in the world. I'm gonna leave actually. I'm gonna lead off with what's not okay. Fair enough. Okay. Let's switch it up a little, keep our listeners on their toes. Um, so my what's not hot was, uh, today on Monday, uh, the 29th. NASA was supposed to be launching a rocket out past the moon. And if I'm not mistaken, I believe this one's supposed to go the furthest that any rocket has ever gone, um, due to technical difficulties. they didn't launch it. They weren't able to. So, uh, it's been rescheduled for Friday this September 2nd. So, um, I'm not sure how many people out there are fascinated with outer space or anything like that, but it's always, you know, something I've always kind of been interested in. So I saw that in the news thought that was pretty cool. What to, to

Daniel:

read about. I'll be honest with you. Did not know about this until you brought it up. When you said this is something you wanna talk about tonight. And so, it's interesting how times to change. And so like, meaning like back in, like in the sixties, seventies, when this did happen, it was such a big deal. But for some reason, nowadays, maybe cuz it's already been done before. Don't know. yeah, it's just interesting.

Jon:

I think it's cuz no one really falls NASA on Twitter or Instagram

Daniel:

is NASA still a Z. I thought they got rid of NASA. Um,

Jon:

nurses. Uh, what is NASA to call off the watch? I, I do remember that NASA was getting like defunded at one time or something like that. Gotcha. Okay. Now that you bring it up, but I, I, I do believe they're still around.

Daniel:

Don't worry. I'll cut that out. Don't worry. No, got it. Got it. Cut it. I'm kidding. Got back

Jon:

check. Oh, and a shout out real quick for fax checkers. Uh, mechanical pencil is what I was struggling on. On the last data address. Yes. So shouts shout. To, uh, Brandy and both Kika corrected me and told me it was a mechanical pencil where you said play with pretend you gave yourself a shot. It was, it was always fun to

Daniel:

have. Yeah. And. You can blame that on why you lost again, but we'll get into that later on in the episode. and what's hot for you, what's in your news. So what's

Jon:

hot for me, and this is more on the personal level. So, uh, as far as like what's hot, what's not, I'm gonna try to keep it, you know, personal and also something in the news to kind of. Just random facts, but, uh, what's hot is I'm actually looking to go back into school. That's great. Online, obviously, cuz with work and kids don't have too much extra free time, but um, but yeah, gonna be looking to go into school, uh, probably look into like Rio Honda college, just go for the AA at first and then, you know, take it from there. So that's, that's pretty.

Daniel:

That's great. And do you know what you wanna do? Uh,

Jon:

yeah, something in psychology. Okay. Something that I've always been interested in. Um, I know a few therapists have told me that's definitely my calling, so, um, I've always kind of felt it in my bones, but I was one of those people that got outta high school. Like I'm not gonna go to college. That's too much schooling for me. And, um, as you get older, you kinda just realize it's not that big of a deal. So. I've always kind of let things, I, I always created obstacles in my way. I should say. And said there was one reason I couldn't go over this for that, but, um, yeah, I'm definitely ready to, to go back and then do start working in psychology. So I'm looking forward to that.

Daniel:

Well, man, I'm proud of you. you know, just, you know, never give up, and. I always get a lot of, one of the questions I get asked when I meet a parent and, and they see what is occupational therapies. They always want to know like how long is school? And I just tell'em, if it's you see something, and this is something you want to pursue, don't think of it. Don't think about how long the journey is. Just go for it. Just dive right in., I put off schooling for occupational therapy for a couple years, because I didn't want to give up a full-time paycheck and mm-hmm you know, like I said, in the first episode, Went back to school, second day of the program, you know, surprised having a baby. And so you just have to go with it, just deal with it. You know, life is gonna happen and, you know, go for your goals. And so like, again, I'm proud of you. If, is there anything myself Sherry can do to help, you know, we'll be there for you guys. Ah, I

Jon:

appreciate that, bro. Of course, of

Daniel:

course. Um, okay, so first I'm gonna start off. What's hot in my news and something John brought I think in the fir first episode, I'm a tennis fan. And so tonight the us open it's back and having been able to watch it, cuz a lot of things have been going. But there had been two upsets now I couldn't see the matches. So I couldn't tell you how exactly how it went or my thoughts, but,, Taylor Fritz, probably the number one American player,, lost tonight. He was a 10 seat and the big one is, uh, I'm. Messes up, but, uh, Stefan, uh, to, to pass from Greece, he was the four seek one of the favorites to win it. and he, he lost. And so those were two really big upsets tonight, as well as, um, Serena Williams is back and she won her match very easily. And I don't know if you know this, but this will be her last tournament before she

Jon:

retired. I was gonna ask. Yeah, I was gonna say, I think I heard this is her last go around.

Daniel:

Yeah. Yeah. She's had an amazing career and, it's coming to an end. So it's been a while since she's won a major, I don't know if she's gonna win one this year. but you know, hats off to her for, an amazing career. Like she got to play tennis for a living, so I'm jealous. Yeah.

Jon:

and this one's on hards hop.

Daniel:

Yeah. Yeah. There's four. There's four., actually there's three services. One is clay. One is grass and one's hard courts. And in America, the traditional tennis court is a hard court. But if you go to England, you're probably see a lot of grass courts. And if you go to Europe, like in Spain, France, you'll see a lot of clay courts are around the parks and schools. And so, and. By what's not is again based out of New York, the banning of selling whipped cream to 21 and under, people, thought this was very interesting. They're trying to limit the exposure to, I guess people were, or kids were abusing the. the can came in. And so in the whip, its yeah. So no, well I shouldn't say no more of that. I'm not sure if it's gonna fix a problem, but uh, I would say this isn't

Jon:

hot. This isn't good news or this isn't bad

Daniel:

news. Well, I just, if you want whipped cream, you know, you have to get the, what do you call it? Whip it in. Frozen check.

Jon:

Oh yeah. In the

Daniel:

tub. Yeah. Cool. Whip. I mean, that's what it's called. Cool whip. Cool. There you go. Yeah. Yeah. So that's a bummer. I mean, especially if you're under 21, if you want a 70 also there's. I mean, there's, you don't have to just use it for dessert. You can use it for other things. I won't go into it, but yeah, whatever floats your boat. Yeah. Many things, many, many things it's important for, uh, for married couple to keep things spicy. So

Jon:

date night, we could start off with a, a catcher killer or, you know, catcher murder, and then boom. we're

Daniel:

pretty. So, yeah. so I also have an announcement for tonight. So as, you know, as, as dads, you know, we kind of get, tend to, or I just say, sorry, parents, as parents, we tend to get lost in work and family. We have a lot of things on our plate and priorities seem to get. Shuffle around some things, you know, are, go up the list, some things go on the bottom, they get neglected. And for me, I will say after a few years, my weight has been not a priority. And so basically I would like to get back on track. So this is what I'm gonna do., I'm gonna be posting my. journey. My challenge, as far as weight loss goes on. Instagram. And my, my goal is to start a community for people who struggle with weight loss. And it'll be a, my goal is to create a, a group of people who can get together and, check in with each other and, for support and hopefully, um, I can get to. I am starting a weight loss challenge. And if this is something you want, like to be a part of, you can message us or, at 42 dash six podcasts on Twitter or Instagram, you can message me privately, or you can master me at my personal Instagram as in D as in Daniel. Aguilar 2, 4, 2, 1 on Instagram. So, if you wanna show your support or if you want an update on my, my weight loss, feel free to check in on Instagram and I'll be sure to, you know, keep things posted and, yeah. Looking forward to it.

Jon:

Awesome. Awesome. I don't wanna step on your toes or anything, but I mean, if you want, I could kind of join you. I've actually have been working on losing weight. Um, nothing extreme. Um, but I'm down about four pounds now after two weeks.

Daniel:

Okay. Congratulations. Thank you. That's

Jon:

good. You can't. That's good. You can't tell. I was surprised you didn't say anything. Yeah. Um, no. Uh, and I think it's important just to kind of touch that. Um, just cuz you go on a diet or you go on a weight loss challenge, don't go into the deep end right away. That's how a lot of people just kind of get turned off by it.

Daniel:

Yeah. I know a lot of people that tend to just, they don't do the results fast. They tend to get right. They get frustrated and they. Give up and they don't think about it. And so what I'm looking for and what I'm hoping to get out of this is a lifestyle change more than anything. Very good. I'm not necessary to looking to drop the weight as fast as possible. Although that would be nice, but I'm just trying to. Make more of a lifestyle change, make more smart decisions and set a good, example for my kids, cuz kids are smart. So if they see daddy eating a bowl of ice cream at night, they're gonna want a bowl of ice cream at night. It's just, oh yeah. It's just, yeah. You know, they see daddy going for an extra slice of pizza. They're like, oh, well I'm gonna go for an extra slice of pizza. So again, trying to lead by example and. yeah. See where this takes me.

Jon:

There you go. There you go. Nice.

Daniel:

All right. Tonight topic, should we get into it? Yeah, let's dive right in. All right. So tonight's topic is bedtime routine and this is a big topic. Well one, because John has kids, I have kids and then then. This is a question. I get asked a lot about the kids I see at my job. One of the things is, and this is what we'll start off, John. Um, it was what we call transitioning. So basically kids are playing right. They're playing, they're having fun. Uh, whether they're playing with Bobby and daddy or they're playing with their brother or sister, they're doing something active. then it happens mom or dad. All right. It's time to go to bed and some kids handle it. Well, some kids don't. So how do you get your kids to transition?

Jon:

One thing that we normally do is we'll give them like, um, Kind like a five minute warning. So like, alright guys, you guys got like five minute or 10 minutes until, you know, we start getting ready for bed. Um,

Daniel:

that's an excellent strategy by the way.

Jon:

thank you. Mm-hmm um, another, another way we may do, we may not announce. Okay. It's bedtime. But if they've been playing with like toys and there's toys everywhere, we'll start talking. Okay guys, in a few minutes, we're gonna start pick, cleaning up. We gotta start, you know, getting anything put away. And then normally by the time they're done putting stuff away, cuz they're not having fun putting stuff away. They're uh, they're kind of unwinding while doing that. And then that's when we'll get'em and say, okay, well let's go use the restroom. Brush your. and go get change. And then that's kind of our transitioning, you know? Yeah. And

Daniel:

the reason why that's a great strategy and that's like the number one thing I recommend to like all the parents I work with is because kids, especially at a young age, they're learning how to control their emotions. So when they're happy, they're happy they're over the moon. And when. disappointed when they're sad. That's when the tears come and they're trying to learn how to control their emotions. So when you tell'em, oh, it's bedtime and they're in the middle of doing something, you're gonna get a tantrum. You're gonna get negative feedback. But if you go to the timer system, okay. You know, you show'em on your phone there and there's also different apps out. that are meant for bedtime timers. So you can look at wherever what phone you have, like whether to Google play or if it's through the, apple store, but you can just use a regular timer on your phone. And that's what I do. And we set the timer and to 2, 3, 5 minutes, whatever you want and you let the clock do the work and long as. The kids know there's a timer. They can start to accept that, Hey, play, time's coming down. I'm gonna have to get ready to put my pajamas on, brush my teeth and go to bed. And so, yeah, that's just a great, great strategy. Good

Jon:

job. I will say though, be careful with the whole using a timer. Like we have a Amazon echo. We'll tell Alexa, set a timer for five minutes or whatever. Mm-hmm It can fire back as your kids get older, because if you, if you say, okay, Hey, we'll go in the backyard and play in five minutes. Then we just, you know, relax, maybe, maybe do this real quick. They'll say Alexa, September for five minutes, and then you gotta stay true to it. So, uh, just be, be prepared for that one. And if for those

Daniel:

who haven't used a timer and you think this is a good idea, You have to do it more than once you have to. And we're gonna go into about being consistent, in a minute, but you just have to just keep doing it over and over and over again. And eventually the kids will get used to it and they'll get more on a routine. Cuz I can't. I can't lost count how many times I told parents. Alright, let's try the timer this week and let me know how it goes. And I come back the following weekend. Oh, how did the timer go? Oh, well we used it that first time, but it didn't work so well, so we haven't used it again. And it's like, well, has anything changed? Well, no. And so now we're back to square one, trying to. Figure out a solution. So, you just, because it doesn't work the first time don't give up, you just keep going at it and eventually we'll catch on. That

Jon:

does go, um, hand in hand real quick then, uh, for parents that have younger, uh, younger ones that are in the, on the crib and you wanna do sleep training, I'm not sure if you guys are familiar with that, but that's where you, um, put the baby down the crib, you, you know, Give them pass fire. If you, you and pass fire, or you just get them, you know, as comfortable and then you walk outta the room, they're gonna cry. I believe I'm not mistaken mistaken. He's supposed to give it like two, three minutes. Go in there for no more than one minute. Shush him again to lay back down and then walk back out. And again, they're gonna cry and each time you step out, you extend it one more minute. So if you did three minutes, the first time you go four minutes and then you go five minutes and this is showing them. that you're not leaving them forever. That they're, you will be there if, if you know, you're, if they need you, but, um, at the same time, it's also tiring them out. And you do this for about two, three nights, and I guarantee you eventually, like by the fourth or even fifth night, when you put'em down, they don't cry anymore. And it also teaches them to sell. So it's a battle because especially when they're crying, you want to go in there, you want to, you know, hold them, give'em, stop crying, but it's it's for the long term, it's better for them. And it's teaching themselves sued. And this also helps with them being able to sleep through the night because when they wake up in the middle of the night, instead of them crying for you to go get them, they can sell suit and put themselves back to sleep. And that means more sleep for mommy and daddy or the parents, I should say. definitely. Uh, and that goes hand in hand with, to what Dan's saying, just because, you know, the first night they cry, they even go to sleep. The second night they cry. They eventually go to sleep. It doesn't mean it's not working. It means you just gotta stay with it, stay with the pattern, stay consistent, and then you'll see that end result that you want.

Daniel:

good point. Good point. Okay. So second item is you want to, again, something we've already tied into the first one is you want to be consistent with routine. So make sure that goes with time and things that you do before you go to bed. So for instance, we try to have our daughter, cuz now she's in school. We try to have her in bed by eight, 15, every. So we'll start usually like around seven 30 to give her her warning, like, okay, it's whatever you're doing, let's wrap it up. And then. She knows once she's done with that, it's gonna be wash up, brush her teeth, pajamas, comer, brush her hair, bedtime story, lay down and off to sleep. She goes, and usually, I would say nine times outta of 10, she's usually asleep by like 8, 8, 15, the latest. So, um, John, what does bedtime routine look like for you guys?

Jon:

um, so I would say around seven 30 is when we start getting all the boys to settle down, um, start getting teeth, going, teeth, brushing, um, changing into pajamas and pretty much what we do now is, uh, my wife will sleep downstairs, feed our youngest our six month and then, um, I'll take the boys upstairs and get them in. Normally, I'll read a book to them, just a short story and then, uh, get them in bed. And then since they're in bunk beds, they're normally okay. Being there by themselves. Um, I remember before with my first son, when he was in a room by himself with his bed, we would need to lay with him until he fell. um, now they're okay in there. And so I'll come back downstairs and see if, you know, my wife needs help with the little one and whatnot. Yeah. But, um, one key factor, I will say that leads to this with, along with consistency is set that set that time. So if it's seven 30, if it's eight 30 it's, whatever, whatever works best for you and your family, um, just try to stay as consistent to that time as. Yeah,

Daniel:

absolutely. Absolutely. Okay. And so the next one is usually after dinner, we try to limit screen time. So if I were to leave the iPad out in about my kids would jump on it and want to spend a lot of time on it now. We've actually done a good job of monitoring. How much time they spent on the iPad, as well as there's only like a couple apps and they're all, they're both educational apps. So they're playing like educational games. But still, you want to limit screen time after dark, just because the kids zone out and when they're done, when you take away that iPad, the fact that they've been sitting all night, they're gonna. They have a lot of energy, right. So, and then too, they can get a little bit addicting. So they might have a harder time letting go of that iPad rather than, okay. They're running around in the backyard for like 15, 20 minutes. You might be able to bring them in and transition to bed a lot more easier than again, have them having an iPad to their face or them just zoning out, watching TV.

Jon:

Uh, I concur uh, no. Yeah. Uh, luckily my, my little ones here, they, they're not too big on tablets, um, or anything like that. We had like one or two apps on there that we've shown them. They've been interested in a little bit, but nothing, you know, huge. Um, on the weekend we let our, our oldest. Watch, um, a little bit of like, uh, Disney plus in his bed when he goes, when he goes upstairs. And, um, normally by the time we go out there, go turn it off. He's asleep. But, um, other than that, yeah, they don't really use tablets or anything like that. That's

Daniel:

good. That's good. Which leads me to what I just said right now. Try to focus. during a physical activity after dinner, and this can be just running around the house, running the, the backyard. It could be getting them to jump, not on the furniture of course, but just, you know, getting jump around. one of the things during the pandemic I, did in the backyard was. One day Danny and I went in the backyard, I got a piece of chalk and then I did a little hopscotch area and then I threw a big arrow and it was a big circle and it said, okay, 10 jumping jacks. Okay. And then I did different stations throughout the backyard and she loved it. And so getting them to move again, it's gonna tire them out. And again, it's gonna be easier to transition. To a bedtime routine, rather than them just sitting around watching something.

Jon:

And if you're in a weight loss challenge do with them, there you go. Get some exercise with them, have fun. They're gonna have a good time seeing, you know, their parents jumping up and down with them and stuff. So, yeah. And then people also sleep well that night.

Daniel:

Yeah. and then, in our house. We do story time. Daughter loves it. She looks forward to it every night. So we do a couple things. One is. We'll read it as a family. So she'll pick a book. We'll sit together. We'll read it. She'll follow along. I honestly think this helped her with her, her reading., I don't know if John, I don't think I mentioned this to you, but last week, Sherry and I found out that, Danny's in a, what they call a combo class. And basically what they did was they took last year. There was three kindergarten classes at that school. and they combined those three classes and took the top 10 smartest kids. Or I was gonna say the smartest, but the ones that tested the highest and who, scored the highest throughout the year and Danny was in that top 10. And I actually think she finished first in our class, her individual class. And so, yeah, so right now, so I honestly think that had a lot to do with the. You know, with her sight words, because, you know, we sat with her and she didn't read it, but she followed along. And so she got to see firsthand what letters, what sounds they make, what words looked like and putting a story together. So very important, milestones for, for a kid her age. And so, and then number two is, I do have an app on my phone and when. After everything's done off the checklist and she lays down it's it's her she's tucked in. We I'll play, a story on my, my phone with no, it's no screen. It's just, it's all per audio. And, within like two, three minutes she's asleep. And so, yeah, so that's pretty much how story time works at our house. Do you guys, do story time at your house?

Jon:

Um, I mean, throughout the day, like on a weekend mm-hmm um, if we're tired of running around and everything, that's kind of our go to, to be able to sit down. I was like, oh, you guys wanna read a book? And we have a ton of books downstairs and upstairs in their room. Um, normally the books that we have upstairs in the room, like, like I said, I'll lay down with them and read a book. Um, one of my favorite books growing up and still to this day, it's I just loved. The story behind it and everything, but, um, is the giving tree. And my oldest, he knows that's my favorite book and he loves hearing it. But, um, yeah, I, I, I like to have fun when I read. So like, if there's the characters in there, if they're talking, I do the voices and I kind of get into it. And I always, uh, whatever the title is, I always finish it with, uh, as read by drop and aler. And the kids, they laugh, they have a good time with it. So, um, we don't have like a designated time per se, but we do read often with them and, um, and you absolutely write like kids, even my son's in kindergarten, we've worked with him with his letters and, you know, sounding him letters out and stuff. Can't say he's reading right now. Kids remember so much. And even if they're follow along with the same book, you're reading it over and over again. There's literally been times where I was reading and like I might to paraphrase like, uh, the word and in there or something and he'll correct me. And I said, no, it's this. And tell me what the line actually is. I was like, oh yeah, you're right. That's, that's what it is. And, uh, you remember the words. And so even if like Darren was saying, if you read along, if they follow you, as you read along. They might see the word, like can C a N. And when they just look at it somewhere else, they may not know what it is, but right there on that book, on that page, they know that's can, and that's something you could build off of as far as, you know, reading and learning and all that stuff.

Daniel:

Right. Right. And then my last one is. I think it's important to have something in the bed that comforts your, your kid. So like Danny will have, like a stuffed animal or mm-hmm, something that she has in her bed that she knows that's there to, you know, keep her, do you guys have anything like that for your kids?

Jon:

They have stuff, animals in there, they rotate from top bunk to bottom bunk, to not even caring if it's there. Um, the ones that I kind of get a little. not worried about, but just kinda like they're gonna roll over and it's gonna hurt them. But like, sometimes they wanna take like their dinosaur up, like, oh, I want to take, you know, dinosaur with me. I was like, okay. But you roll over in that thing. That's gonna hurt. It's gonna poke you. Um, but yeah, no, they, they have their own little things that they, uh, that they hold onto or that they have with them. Good. Good, good.

Daniel:

Well, that's the list I got. Do you have anything like. Did I left off or you like to add,

Jon:

um, as far as liking to add, uh, what was one obstacle with, uh, either, either child that you guys had to overcome that you felt was like your biggest struggle. Whether it was getting the only struggle itself or

Daniel:

no, the only struggle we've had so far is, the pandemic. So obviously during the pandemic, I don't know if I shared this on here, but. My wife, actually, my family we got it early. We got it back in, I think April 1st, 2020. And that was when we were, well that's when I was working at a school nursing facility and got in from one of my patients and came home and gave it to the whole family. And, so after that, I mean, I was home for, because I took. Some PTO and I didn't test negative until like four weeks later. So. I was home a lot and my daughter's bedtime routine went out the window and she was going to bed super late and getting her from getting her off that schedule and into back to her normal schedule was a challenge itself because she knew. she's like, mommy, doesn't have to go to work tomorrow. Daddy doesn't have to go to work tomorrow. Why do I have to go to bed? If we're just gonna wake up and go swimming, you know, go in the backyard and, and just hang out. And so that was a little bit of a challenge, but other than that, I mean, it's been pretty consistent.

Jon:

How long would you say it took to kind of get that back into her old routine?

Daniel:

A long, just a couple days, but I think the fighting, the stuck, the fighting and just like, you know. Okay. And that's when the, the timer came in. Yeah. And so that's when we started using the timer and, and it wasn't until I started actually doing research and I found out that was a really effective method and that's something I teach to all my, my parents, that I work with right now.

Jon:

Nice. Nice. Yeah.

Daniel:

All right. All right. So that concludes tonight's topic. If. If any of you have any recommendations on things that we might have missed, please feel free to share it on our Instagram page or our Twitter handle is four, two death takes podcasts. So,

Jon:

um, or if you guys are dealing with something that, you know, maybe we didn't touch that much on and you want to get an opinion or anything like that, feel free to ask.

Daniel:

Cool. All right. So last segment of tonight, dad draft, um,

Jon:

got a good feeling about this one. So

Daniel:

as of right now, John, last, last week again, which brings his record to oh, and two I'm a kill this last week. I was, it was a little closer. It was a little closer. It was the topic, um, 57% to 43%. So it was, it was a little bit closer, but I still, what do remember to magnetic pencil? Maybe, maybe. So what I did was I told John, you know what, tonight you can choose the topic and we'll go from there. So, John, what's your topic? all right.

Jon:

So me as a, just my personality, like to have fun. So we're gonna go with four games that, you know, you can enjoy with the family. Okay. So, okay. You wanna do three or four or how many you wanna do? Uh, let me

Daniel:

see. So let's do five,

Jon:

five. Okay. I'm anxious of you like it.

Daniel:

And then. what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna take the second pick. Okay. Okay. Tell me, gonna give you the first pick. I want you to have the best possible draft out there, and I want you to have the number one overall pick ah, I'm due.

Jon:

So that's a looking good for me. All right. So with the number one pick overall. It's gotta be a classic. It's gotta be one that, you know, all kids and family members can enjoy. Let's go shoot some ladders, shoot some ladders, shoot some ladders basic, pretty much anyone can play it. You got a little one. I mean, going down the ladder kind of, or going down the shoot kind of sucks, but who doesn't going down? Who doesn't like going down a slide. And when he gets to climb the ladders. All right. How much closer the victories have you ever played treat in ladder? I have not

Daniel:

even heard treat and ladder. So is it you heard of it? Is it shoot or shoot fruit shoot, shoot shoots. That's what I thought you said

Jon:

shoot and ladder. Yeah, it pretty much looks like a big, like. Calendar, like there's a square. Each moves a square. So you roll dice and say, it says three, you move three squares. So at the square, if it has a ladder, you go up and the top, the point of the game is it get to the very top left. So you're just corner going in a snake. If you at the square you land on is a, is a shoot and you go down, then you obviously you're further back than where you were.

Daniel:

So. I just think it's interesting. He said, I'm gonna pick a classic and you pick the game, which probably half people who live in this don't I never even heard of it. So do you think that's a new game? No, I'm just saying I've never heard of it before. I mean, and so how can it be a classic if you know, if not, everyone's heard you've been around for

Jon:

decades. That's how that's, how, what makes it a

Daniel:

classic. Okay. So, um, they Ize you, you need get out. Jonathan, Jonathan, Jonathan. Okay. So first one, I'm gonna go with, I played with my daughter and my goddaughter and they love these two games and I think this is a classic, uh, Candyland, Candyland, land tomato. Um, yeah, they. My daughter, when she was a little younger, loved this game and played it with my goddaughter and you know, I lot of benefits of, uh, of playing candy land simple, and it's fun. And that's all you need. That's very important when you play games with kids'

Jon:

more, more simple than rolling a Dyson moving.

Daniel:

Mine my next game. I'm gonna go with connect four, but this is something I use with all my treatment. So these are kids three and under, um, We don't obviously play the correct way, although you could cuz it's fun. And again, this is my daughter. She loves it. But the reason I like this game because it teaches kids on, uh, fine motor skills works on their, their tripod grass on how to, uh, pick up the, the checkers, get some eye hand coordination to. Drop in, in the, the correct slot. They like it because it makes the sound. And one of the things they like is at the end of the game, when you have to release all the, the checkers, it all falls down and makes a big noise, big mess, and they love it. Um, also too, it really teaches them too, how to. Um, follow the rules and you know, they have to wait their turn. It's not just go, go, go, go. They, they do one, someone else does one and it teaches'em, uh, how to follow the rules and to play along with another person. So

Jon:

I trying so near yourself, cause I'm going, pushing is really hard.

Daniel:

I'm going with connect four. All right. John's on you

Jon:

all. So the next one, this is aim for the kids. Uh, played with nieces, played with my sons, played with the nephew. Pretty pretty princess. Okay. By that look, I'm assuming you never played that before either. Nope. Boom. Okay. Shocker. It's called pretty pretty princess. Yes. Okay. And that's what that's, that's how you win. You become a pretty, pretty princess. Okay. So this one, if you wanna break down, you know, everything, it's, uh, it teaches kids to wait their turn. It teaches kids that to share pretty much. So what you do is you spin a dial and you can get, um, so you get two earrings. You get a bracelet, a necklace

Daniel:

crown. Yes. Layla I believe, or I played this with, uh, with Danny before. Yes. So you have played it.

Jon:

I have played this before. Yes. Okay. So sometimes some of the kids, they lose a piece of jewelry that they, you know, want. So you go, well, you know, this person's turned ish play with it to share. So that's always a fun one. The kids love that one. That's a good one. All right. So this next one, I, I want you to gimme a ruling on it, whether it classifies as a game or not as far. Quote unquote board game, but would you say Twister's allowed? Yeah, of course. Well, okay. Cause it's not a board game per se, so that's why we'll go

Daniel:

twister. Okay. Finally picked a good game. I think it was gonna happen. All right. So here's a lot of, uh, lot of games on my list. Um, and you

Jon:

haven't picked one good one yet.

Daniel:

Okay. Okay, again, going back to pandemic, uh, show Kim Netflix that my daughter fell in love with and she used to always make us play it. And. Come to, to learn that a lot of kids love playing it as well. And they actually turned it into a board game and we have it at work. So we have the board game edition as, but the way we played it in my house is that we just basically used it furniture. So, um, floors lava, Flo is lava. Okay. Um, your kids love. And it was fun. It was fun. We got the, the pillows and the couch cushion kitchen, and we put it throughout the living room and. The floor was lava and can get from one piece of furniture to the next. And so, um, it was great. And so I actually, that's a good one. I wasn't, I didn't find out they made a board game addition until I started working at my new job and we had it. So, um, yeah, with the board

Jon:

game and then

Daniel:

I'm gonna go with, um, this is one I used to love playing. I was little, we use it at my work a lot. I know I use it all the therapists use it. Um, let's go fishing. It's the one where, Ooh,

Jon:

that's a good one.

Daniel:

Yeah. So I don't know if you, it's the one where you. Put the switch on and the fishes go in circle and you have some, have a magnet, a magnet attached to the fishing pole. Some have a hook and the fish is Mount open and closed as the, the board spins in a circle. And so that's a solid

Jon:

one. That's a solid one. That's your, what number? Fourth,

Daniel:

number four. Yeah, number four. So you get two more.

Jon:

two more. All right. So the next one I'm gonna go with, um, it's fun. It's exciting. It gets a lot of yelling and screaming operation. Okay. Who doesn't like trying to get those little, little bones out to hit the side. This is, that's always a good time. I actually had'em on my list. You had that one on your list. Yeah, that's actually surprising. All right. last one. Uh, this one, I am gonna go with CLA

Daniel:

plunk.

Jon:

Another one. That's easy for all ages to play. If you guys don't know or remember what that game is, it's a funnel that in the middle has a bunch of little holes. You. Sticks in there you throw marbles in from the top. You start pulling one stick at a time. You don't want the, uh, marbles to fall down when it's your turn. That's the object of the game. Kids love it. It's fun. Diana looks like he's never played this one either. I don't

Daniel:

know. No, I remember it. I remember it. Um, I did not have on my list. I think that's a decent pick. There were just one, I thought for sure you were gonna pick and I was gonna give it to you, but you did not pick it, so I'm gonna take it. Um, they make this regular size now. They make it large size kids. Love. Jingga uh, again, simple. That's all right. Getting the kids to problem solve basic again, we're working off by motor skills, problem solving, um, kids like to, when the, obviously they love to build the tire up and they love it when they fall. And it's just a classic game. And again, we, I use it. and my treatments and as well as Danny and Alex, both love playing with it. So we're gonna go with that one. And so we'll see, we'll see what happens. Hopefully, uh, John can pick up his first victory.

Jon:

You do realize shoot some ladders and cannula are not far off from each other.

Daniel:

well, I'm sure they're very similar, but I'm just saying like, if we were just to do a poll on what's more popular shoots and ladders or candy land, I got a feeling like candy lands will probably win two to one. I don't know.

Jon:

I'm not, so I don't think you should be so confident in that. I, wow.

Daniel:

Okay. ah, let's see. We'll see. I

Jon:

mean, maybe we'll have to throw the pole out

Daniel:

there. You're you're due for a. you're due for a, a good dad drop. So we'll see how wast

Jon:

the first fun dad draft you've had. So I'm excited to see, see what the, what the results are gonna be.

Daniel:

So if, again, if we, um, If you find this poll on Instagram or Twitter, feel free to vote and leave us a comment on if we missed anything. Or if you really agree with one of our, the ones that John and I picked out, um, leave us a comment on what you think.

Jon:

And if you guys, um, come across the poll and you're just kinda like, ah, it's not gonna matter. My pick doesn't count or no one really cares. Dan and I are checking that thing, like every 10 minutes to see what the update is to see who's winning. Um, I

Daniel:

actually check it once in the morning and once a night I don't check it every 10 minutes. Do you, do you

Jon:

okay. I'll check it practically throughout the day.

Daniel:

oh, why do that to yourself?

Jon:

Well, the last one, I didn't checked it's school supplies. I wouldn't wanna win at that one.

Daniel:

All right. Well, at least you view the name of your other ones that you picked. Oh, you're picked, so congratulations.

Jon:

That is true. That's a step up. All right. I am getting better.

Daniel:

Anything you would like to add before we say goodnight?

Jon:

No, I think this was honestly, I wanna say, I think this was one of our best. All right. I know it's on number three. So it's kind of getting an average now, but I definitely think it's coming along.

Daniel:

All right. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Uh, you know, we're still tinkering around on like things that. You know, make us that, that we like things that we don't like, things that we have to work on. And so again, we thank you for, you know, listening this far and hopefully we are getting better. Um, I'm getting positive feedback, obviously. People who are getting back to me through either through people I know, or people leaving me, uh, a message on Instagram saying that they like the contact of, of the show, but maybe just try this or try that. And so that's something John and I are taking very seriously and we're trying to change it up every, you know, episode, see what, see what sticks. And so hopefully, you know, you guys like the direction we're.

Jon:

Yeah, I, yeah, I concur.

Daniel:

Okay. So, all right, so that's it. So from, for myself and John, thank you for listening and don't go changing.