Sleep has been a big issue lately….mostly kid 1 deciding that it’s unnecessary- lies I tell you!
Anyway,both kids are sound asleep after a fun filled day..on their backs. I love the stillness still ❤️
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Happy 18 Months, my boy!
A year and a half old! Man, how time flies…and doesn’t (especially at 1AM which you have decided is your new wake-up time). Love you LCW!
Becky and Christmas….
I love that Christmas is the one time of year that I can guarantee that Becky will check the mailbox every day. She loves seeing all the cards come in from our friends and family and loved ones…maybe even a few gifts too 🙂
Lincoln! 500++++
This is a much delayed post. Life has been busy. Thanksgiving, weddings, traveling….
If you know me, you know that I’m a nerd for numbers and dates and times…(and just a nerd in general). Today, Lincoln hit 500 days old. It just strikes me as fascinating. His 1st birthday seems so long ago yet his 2nd so far away. Love you little buddy!
Wife (and Teacher) Appreciation Post
My wife….there are a lot of words to say about her. She’s not perfect but she works so hard at it. Married life with her has been interesting and fun. There have been roadblocks and stumbles but at the end of the day, we are us and we are together. Always together. I can’t even keep track of all the adventures and awesome memories we have shared. It’s amazing to look back at the photo albums from our first years and just see conversations and moments come rushing back.
This year for her professionally has been a bit rough. I guess it started with the social media age but nobody confronts anything head on. They go around and around instead of through (maybe to a possible solution). If they knew my wife, they would know how much this eats at her. Eats at the very soul and core of who she is. How her stress level from this can rise enough to shut down her immune system. Teachers (high school ones in particular) have to put up with a lot. Administrators, department leads, parents…and oh yeah, students who are 14-18 years old and are testing the limits of everything daily.
I may be biased because my mom and many of my aunts and uncles are teachers or educators but I have such respect for their position. E and L are gonna be in trouble because I’ll probably take the teacher’s word over theirs. I can guarantee you though – there won’t be any anonymous letters or secret meetings with the administration unless I talk to the teacher first and am ignored or don’t feel respected (and I probably won’t have to jump in because wifey definitely knows how to speak her mind).
Becky’s job isn’t easy. It’s stressful for all of us. But it enables her to serve people in a way that she’s really good at. Seeing kids come together and have a support group and show their talents – theater invigorates and energizes like nothing else.
It’s why 19 years later, I have forgotten most of my high school teacher’s names except for Ginger Hilbun, Karen Dean, Leonid Mazor and E. Frank Bluestein.
Gardening Dad
I have never had a green thumb…never. But the past few years, I have started to skew more green.
Last year, I completely dug up the area by the mailbox and put in fresh dirt and mulch. We (E and I) put in some flowers and had beautiful color from summer into late fall.
This year, I decided to try my hand at gardening. I’ve never had so much as a leaf come out of any of my previous attempts at lettuce, tomatoes, radishes, carrots…all fails and HARD fails at that.
With the advice of a good buddy, I decided to give tomatoes a try again this year. And FINALLY something worked. My tomatoes looked wonky at first but, man, have they been producing. We are probably going to wind up with about 100 cherry tomatoes total off of a $2 pack of seed. It’s been so cool to see what water and dirt creates. I’m excited to try more next year. The coolest thing of this has been how much my daughter loves pulling them off when they get “red enough”. She even reminds me to water them now!
We also have some lettuce that I’m hoping fully comes out before the first frost hits.
Funny part of this story – I don’t really like tomatoes.
Lincoln’s Godmother
First off, who would invite 50+ people to their house for a birthday party for a kid that wasn’t their own? And the majority of the kids are 3 and under and into EVERYTHING. If Becky asked me this question in 20 years, I’d just start laughing.
Anyway….
We chose Mrs. Andrea Maguire to be the godmother to our son, to help us guide him in the teachings of Christ. And it may be the best and most immediately validated decision we have made in a long time.
She has been a Godsend to us on more than a few occasions recently. We met her through her insanely talented son Andrew who was in Becky’s theater productions for all 4 of his high school years. He had starring roles pretty much from the time he was a sophomore. The kid just has IT. Not to mention, our daughter fell “in love” with him. I can still hear her during Pippin when he fell down (on purpose) on stage. “Oh no, Andrew fall down”.
Anyway, I first met Andrea on an IHS theater trip to Chicago. A bunch of high school kids, some parent chaperones, a long bus trip … Good bonding time. I could never have imagined how big a part of our life she would become. Just in 2017 alone, we have had celebratory dinners for mine, Andrea’s and Becky’s birthday with our families. We spent Thanksgiving with the Maguire family and friends. If there is even a major storm in the area, guess whose basement we have an open invite to use?
Andrea and her husband Martin are just big, warmhearted people. They work well off each other. They have raised kids who are free to be themselves, able to speak their mind and kids who know they are loved. Becky and I hope to replicate some of these traits. They are selfless and always willing to lend a hand. They had our kids for one of our few overnight getaways we’ve taken and it’s probably the most comfortable we’ve ever felt because we knew they were in good hands (even after we had a stupid car break-in that blew up our plans for the day and caused a lot of unnecessary stress but enough of that nonsense). The kids have gone to church with them and Emerson will even let Andrea do her hair (a BIG deal). Lincoln Maguire, anyone? I chuckle sometimes when I think of our multiracial children just “showing up” with them at church one day 🙂
All that to say….Andrea is just a special, special person. Andrea truly loves our kiddos and they adore her in return. She’s one in a million and we are so fortunate to have her and the entire Maguire family in our lives. When we visit their house, it’s not like going to a friend’s. It’s like being home.
(And Martin is pretty cool too)
Like father, like daughter……
I am a black man who went to a mostly white K-12 school system and then a mostly white K-12 college. And I work in a field that is…well, you get the jist. I, however, have to straddle both worlds because on the outside I still look different. I’ve made my peace with it and tend to generally ignore world events for my own sanity and because I narrow my world to only the ones I know and love.
My daughter and son are in a daycare that is mostly white(actually all white, except for them) in a mostly white city, neighborhood and community…stop me if this is sounding like deja vu.
I was stopped in my tracks by something that happened the other day on a little daddy-daughter outing. I know this will change in the future and as she ages but for now, I want to bottle up this innocence and spray it whenever life gets touch.
My daughter picked out this doll at the store the other day because it looks like her. Because of the hair.
Why can’t it just always be this simple?
Things I Didn’t Previous Know About Being a Dad – Volume 1
- Showering will be a luxury…and not an every day event.
- The kids breakfast leftovers will become my breakfast
- The stream of dishes and laundry will never end…there’s always more
- Dad jokes are awesome! (mostly)
To Lincoln’s Godfather
Godparent Series – Kid #2
This was an easy one. It’s about my best friend for over 20 years. Man, has it been that long. I am the godfather to his firstborn son and he’s the godfather to mine. Even though he has to travel a lot for his job, he made the time away from his wife and kids to come visit us in Nashville a few months and meet Lincoln (and give this dad some MUCH needed family getaway time).
Seeing how Travis has transformed into such a family man, lowered his temper, raised his game and become such an amazing father has been nothing short of amazing. He has helped make me a better man, shown me how to do things the right way and given me honest and solid feedback when I ask him for advice (and given me a love for trying to grow my own food). A best friend isn’t one who just blindly agrees – we all need some challenging. Check and check.
I love his family and he loves mine and we are pretty much brothers, probably closer than many real life ones. It’s amazing we have lasted 19 years (senior year at GHS) since living in the same city with maybe a visit or two a year to actually hang in person. The app Voxer has helped a lot along with social media and texting. It’s a challenge but we make it work.
There’s a thing about life-long friends. As you get older, you forget about some of the adventures you had. Travis made me a video for my 37th birthday and looking through them, I can’t believe all the life we have lived. I forgot even BEING in some of those places. It’s a beautiful life and an awesome friendship with him as my bro-pilot.
To my Cubs-loving, movie-watching, Memphis Tigers bball fan and fellow Germantown High School thespian, I love you…man. And my son is lucky to have you in his life.
