My husband, the opera singer.

Me me meeeeeeee!  Obviously, my ex husband was and is insanely selfish on every level of his life.  Every decision he ever made and continues to make is 100% for his own best interest.  Whatever is going to make him happy in the moment is what he is going to do.  In addition, he needs to be the center of attention at all times. No matter what the setting is, all eyes and ears must be on him.  He will make sure of it.   It's a quality that tricked me into falling for him, and I'm sure the quality that helped convince so many people to trust him and lend him money etc.  He has a charm and personality that demands attention (despite how I have colored him in this blog, when he lays it on, he lays it on thick and, to my misfortune, is very good at it.).

It drives me crazy that he is so oblivious to this fact.  So much so, that it is slowly but surely affecting his already bad relationship with his kids.  He doesn't realize that once you have kids, it's supposed to be all about them.  He still needs to be the star of the show.  Yesterday, during a skyping session, my 3 year old was trying to tell him that he learned how to use safety scissors that day in school.  Big time exciting news for J.  Something he has been looking forward to, and something he was very proud of.  John wouldn't shut up for 2 seconds to listen to him.  I don't even remember what the hell he was rambling about.  Probably teasing him in one way or another trying to be funny-- like, he'll look around the room (via webcam), spot a toy of J's and be like, "Hey! gimme that football! That's daddy's football!"  All the while, J is trying desperately to speak and be heard.  And then he doesn't understand why the boys don't want to come to the computer for their daily skype time. Idiot.

This past weekend, I took the boys upstate to visit with their dad.  We took them out to the mall where the big event of the day was J's first time ice skating.  Personally, I can't stand ice skating, or any other winter sport for that matter.  But John was hell bent on taking J out onto the ice.  It was tougher than either one of them thought it would be. J was sure he was going to be able to do it himself, and I think John envisioned the two of them hand in hand gliding gracefully around the rink in the perfect father son picture.  Naturally,  crashed down the second his tiny skate made contact with the ice.  So, John took both of his hands and sloooowly started their first lap.  I could see it was exhausting on John who was hunched over, using all of his might to hold a flailing J up and keep them on the right course without any slip ups.  I told him that I was going to take R into the mall right outside the rink to let him run around where it wasn't so cold.  It was definitely not even 10 minutes later that my cell phone rang. It was John telling me that J wanted to stop now and go on the ferris wheel.  So full of bologna.  There's not a chance in hell that J was the one that initiated the idea of quitting.  John realized that it was hard work to take a toddler skating, and that was that.  He will take the easy way out every time, regardless of whether or not it means cutting short the activity that he had been building up in J's head all week long. Weakling.

After a fun filled day at the mall including ferriswheel and carousel rides, punching balloons, smoothies and pizza, we headed back to his sister's house to watch a movie.

J discovered a microphone under the tv with all the video game equipment.  He was so excited and asked if he could play with it.  His cousin (who the mic belongs to) said sure.  So J asked me what song he should sing, and I said Twinkle twinkle.  Right on cue, John took the microphone out of J's hand and started a mock interview with him. 
John:  What is your name sir?
J: J (tried to grab mic back)
John: and what is your full name? where do you live? blah blah blah.

During which, J tried desperately to take the microphone back, to no avail.  Finally I stepped in and was like, "Dude, give him back the mic! What are you doing??? He's trying to play and you won't let him!"  So finally, J got to sing Twinkle twinkle, and it was caught on flip video.. which I need to try to upload.
 He is seriously demented. John, that is.