I won’t be able to call her “little” too much longer. There’s so much she does on a daily basis that just astonishes me. I just wanted to write a few of them down here
# prouddad
My little princess got to see her Mom’s production of Cinderella today. It was magical to hear her whisper little things to me throughout and sit on my lap to see a few scenes (where’s the stadium seating, Independence High School??? J/K).
I made sure she did a little extra clapping and yelled out “Yeah Mommy’s Play!” a few times. I thought we’d leave at intermission just due to exhaustion and sitting still but she begged to stay – so we stayed – and she sat at full attention for the longest I’ve ever witnessed my almost 3 year old.
It’s not been an easy start to 2017. While Becky helps lead other people’s kids, I spend most of my time raising ours on my own. It’s very neat though to see Emerson appreciate something that her mother has worked so hard on and literally poured herself into. And it’s great to see her recognize some of the students who have babysat her, picked her up from daycare and become a part of her little world. And when she recognizes one of the “big kids” on stage, it’s just…cool. Amazing. My little girl is becoming a big person in this big world right in front of my eyes.
Impossible things are happening every day and may they never stop.
I’ve got a little series here – at least a two parter, maybe more. The brain has been really active lately.
Distance is just one of those things that happen in life. People come and people go. Jobs require people to change or they just want to see and do something different. I get it, though I’ve only officially ever moved 4 hours and 20 minutes away from where I went home to from the hospital. I am not a homebody as I have seen close to 40 states and been out of the USA 3 times.
I guess the one theme I come back to here is that means that love is everywhere. I have had lifelong friends move so far away that I only see them once a year. While I love being married and having my family, that means shorter trips away from home and having to spend at least half of the major holidays (and vacation days) away from where I would normally be.
Yesterday was Dr. Seuss’s birthday and who doesn’t love at least ONE of his classics? His themes were universal – and so can the people in your life be.
I think the following would be something Dr. S would say to the kids today.
“Take some time. Reread. Think twice. Listen more”.
No one ever told me how hard the second kid would be. Even if L had been like E, I think it would have been hard. But this is just something else sometimes.
Two hands and one kid – they fit. I never know how much of a hands-on Dad I was. Verbal communication isn’t always a strong suit of mine when I can just grab and do. I can multi-task for days but trying to get one kid to get their shoes on while spending 15 minutes rocking the other to sleep or feeding a bottle – not my strong suit. Goes without saying that the almost 30 minute screaming fit we get EVERY SINGLE DAY from L is just draining.
There are moments still when I wonder if I am the right Dad for my boy – moments I never had with the girl. And it’s a wonder because I so strongly wanted the boy first. God, are you laughing up there? You gave me this kid so I will love him through this and raise him the best that I can.
I have been lucky for much of the last 3 years to be able to work from home in some capacity. It’s been a great experience since I get to spend additional time with my daughter – and now infant son – that I would have spent with various people on I-40 and I-65. I probably get another 5 hours of valuable time with my family because of this. Granted, it gets difficult sometimes during the summer months or school/daycare breaks when the kids are home but I wouldn’t change it for the world.
The one thing I don’t do though is actually work from home. Some days I Just need more coffee than I feel like brewing on the Keurig. Some days, I need to be in an area of town where going home after daycare drop-offs and obligations doesn’t make sense. Because of this, the people at Panera Bread in Franklin and Cool Springs probably know my simple order of a small coffee and a bagel with butter before I even walk in. I tend to avoid Starbucks just due to the noisiness and people I know who I might run into there. I have a guaranteed two to three days a week at home for the remainder of 2016 and am going to be trying out a few new spots which I’ll detail here.
Today, Friday, October 14th, 2016
Honest Coffee Roasters in the Factory
https://www.facebook.com/honestroasters/
Great coffee! Busy environment! I DO enjoy people watching and there is a LOT to do here. I was told of this place by a good family friend and it didn’t disappoint. The coffee is good and beautiful….although I feel a little intimidated to ask too many questions being a newbie (are there free refills? what do you recommend? what makes your coffee different?). The coffee looks kinda like what you would get Fido’s.
It was really busy this morning and made me wonder if anyone in Franklin actually WORKS on Fridays. I saw the typical soccer moms and tourists but the traffic flow at 9:45 was a bit surprising. People there seemed to know each other which speaks to a lot of repeat customers (a plus in my book).
As for the work setup…it’s not bad. There looks to be one or two charging stations (whose tables are taken and held on to tightly) and a long bench type table where about 8 people can work. Comfortable height and environment to work with a laptop, mouse and a giant cup of coffee.
Will return = YES. IT looks like you can also work in some of the bench seats in the Factory too so I might have to try that out one day.
The world can be a hard, hard place. I think we all know that. This can be made even harder as a parent and compounded by being a person of color.
I’m no saint or even a great person. I don’t actually do much for the world as a whole. I donate blood 2 or 3 times a year – that’s it. Besides that, I give away my old junk to Goodwill. I try to spoil those I love at holidays or birthdays. I still send birthday cards in the mail – although Kid #2 has gravely disrupted this practice.
I will occasionally donate a Starbucks drink to the person behind me in the drive-thru line but, even then, I kind of want to wait around for the reaction. I hold doors open for everyone but again, if they don’t say “thank you”, I get a little irritated. I’m not the change I want to see in the world. I do believe in the Affordable Care Act as I believe everyone has a right to basic healthcare even if we have to pay a bit more money. I give my kids and my wife all that I have and whatever is left over, I try to split between my family, friends and myself.
I generally stick to myself end try to do things myself without asking for help. If I come to your house and you offer me a drink, I may be as thirsty as a camel in the desert but I might say no just out of habit. It’s just something in me. During a very difficult time for my family recently, a few random people in the world stepped in to make a few moments a lot more manageable. Thank you to:
These are all small actions but they were not asked for but just given. And even 2 weeks later, they are still embedded in my memory.
Our wonderful friend Jenn Sanders started a meal train for us so dinner would be one less thing to worry about. My co-worker Jonathan James (he of the T-Rex downtown Nashville run) donated a gift card to us as well a meal train started for us so dinner was one less thing we’d have to worry about. On the first night back, Andrea and the Maguire family welcomed us over for dinner, support and some time to have someone else love on the kids.
I’m not sure what my point here is. I guess just thanks and thanks and thanks. And sometimes…the world isn’t such a bad place. And the smallest of action can have the biggest of effects.
The Cubs DID IT! 2016 World Champions!
I have loved this team for so long – they have come so close to being here before in my lifetime but this group of guys deserves it. The right mix of veteran and youth. Guys willing to defer to their egos. I honestly would be OK if they lost every year for the rest of my lifetime because, after 108 years, this team proved that anything is possible.
The law of averages says that with between 20ish and 32 teams in MLB of the last 108 years, the Cubs should have at SOME POINT had a good enough team to accidentally win a World Series. Heck, it’d been 70ish years since their last appearance – another thing that the averages should have figured out.
I spent so many afternoons after school as a kid watching WGN – sometimes with myself, sometimes with my neighborhood buddy Nick Baggott. We traded baseball cards and dreamed of getting to Wrigley. On a middle class income, a trip to Chicago just wasn’t happening. I loved the players and, of course, Harry Carey.
Some of my favorites as a kid
Shawon Dunston – never got the respect I thought he deserved
Ryne Sandberg
Mark Grace
Greg Maddux
Rick Sutcliffe
Joe Girardi – underrated as well
Jerome Walton – what a bust but what a GREAT rookie season
One of my favorite all-time Cubs games was a HUGE comeback win over the Astros in the late 80’s/early 90’s (http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1994-08-29/sports/9408290168_1_shawon-dunston-error-cubs-manager-mark-grace). I can remember just not believing what I saw. Snatching victory from defeat. I can still see the old living room, the grainy WGN TV, the sights and sounds and the excitement.
Fortunately, as I got older, I was able to go to Chicago quite frequently. I worked in the suburbs of Illinois for around a year in the mid 2000’s and was able to go to a few games, even joining some already wayyyy in progress at discount rates. I went to Milwaukee with my friends to see the Cubs play in their home away from home (sorry, Brewers fans). My bachelor party was a 2012 Cubs Spring Training trip with a few of my fellas in Arizona. It’s still weird to think that many of these starring players on this team weren’t even Cubs then..or were in college or maybe even high school. Kris Bryant – not drafted yet. Same for Schwarber. Rizzo? He may have been fighting cancer still. Arrietta – a bum in Baltimore. Russell – was he still in diapers?
I still can’t believe they did it and that the season is over. Next year WAS this year. I spent more time that I care to admit following the games on my phone (in the bathroom, traffic, during a work meeting). My friend Travis and I talked about them almost daily – I think it’d be funny to go back to some of his during their losing streaks when he said the team “sucked” or “wouldn’t do anything” 🙂
Of course, this Series win doesn’t do anything for me personally. I’ve still got a wife 2 hard headed kids, a job, a mortage, blah blah blah but the World does seem a bit brighter and more full of possibilities The Red Sox and Cubs have been World Series Champions within the last decade. In fact…of the last 12 winning teams, they now own 4 of them (2004,2007,2013,2016)
GO CUBS GO!!! My son Lincoln will know you as winners from the first season of his life and my daughter has “seen” back to back 90+ win seasons.
Edit: My “where was I then” moment….at the time of the last out, I was on FaceTime with my best friend in Colorado while the rest of the family was asleep – heck, it WAS well after midnight.
It’s only natural I guess for working parents with children to have a discussion about daycare. One of the first thing that comes up is the cost. I think we should change the narrative up a bit and talk about the “care” part.
I’ll divulge some personal info – for E, my 2 1/2 year old, the cost comes out to about $32 a day for up to 9 hours a day. That breaks down to about $4/hr. Find me even the most desperate of teenagers willing to watch a child for that amount of money. Granted, it’s not perfect. They may give her milk when we would have given her water. They may change her diaper a half hour too late. They may forget to fill out her daily info sheet or any other small trivial thing. They are not her parents – we are. They are just trusted shepherds during the day. We wish ours had a microwave to make a bit fresher meals but understand the liability and space issues around that. Plus, imagine trying to heat up and cool down 20 microwaved meals all with different instructions. I know my kid is special but I Know she’s not the only one there too. Do we wish they were open just a TAD bit later so it didn’t affect B’s play rehearsal and my ability to pick her up sometimes. Sure. Again, small potatoes. For E (and soon L) to be at school with Becky all day has so many benefits. Becky can check on them whenever she wants and there is only ONE place for us to drive in the morning – even for me, it’s right off the interstate so it’s a small detour to drop them off.
But back to my main point, E has been with Ms. Eagle, Ms. Summers and Ms. Thaxton (amongst others but these are the primary people so far…) ever since she was a little over 4 months old. She loves them and they love her. She is learning an insane amount there. Just in this Year 3 of daycare, the phrases and songs she has come home with that were not taught to her by us have been remarkable in scale and number. Even with long breaks for summer vacation, fall, spring and summer breaks, they are a big part of her life and upbringing. During the week, she spends more awake time with them than with us (a sad realization). The other day I stayed around daycare just a bit longer. I think I was a little tired and wanted to make sure I had everything dropped off – lunch, milk, snack,etc. I proceeded to watch 5 of the little girls have back to back to back meltdowns. Some were on the ground sprawled out, some yelling, some of their faces were scrunched up in frowns that looks to be permanent. You couldn’t pay me enough money to have stayed another 15 minutes. But these ladies do it for people who aren’t even their blood or kin.
All this to say, be thankful for the people watching your kids. If you don’t like them, change the situation. I’m excited for L to be there with his sister soon.
Thank you to all the childcare professionals out there.
I know I’m partial but I think my daughter is beautiful. Stunningly so. Her eyes could tell a story chapters long. And that hair, that wild hair that she will probably hate at various points in her upbringing. I had two strangers today tell me how perfect her hair was (and her Mom wasn’t even around to do it) as well as this little girl on the playground say that she was “so pretty”.
I just want to catalog her entire life…she’s growing in leaps and bounds in wisdom and understanding. Some of her best phrases:
“I got you” (I gotchu) – I often say this when picking her up from something high or getting her out of the car. She repeats this phrase to me now all the time in the randomest of situations. So much meaning and context. Emerson, I got you for the rest of your life and you don’t even fully grasp that yet.
“Seven” – she can count to 10 over and over again but there is something lispy about the way seven comes out. It’s all in the “v”…it sounds like maybe a “p” or a “b” and it cracks me up EVERY time.
“I’m getting you all wet” – just what it sounds like. Bath time is time to splash Daddy
“It’s getting dark” – a daily obsession with sun up and sun down
“Other one” – should be “another one” but who cares when it’s said so beautifully
It’s almost like the calendar flipping made fall come this year. We dropped 20-25 degrees on that first day. Runny noses and sore throats followed for the whole house but all were minor.
WIth the cooler temperatures, we were able to get OUTSIDE and play comfortably. The sandbox – BACK IN PLAY. The park – we can go for more than ten minutes without risk of sunburn.
We went to Lucky Ladd’s and had an AWESOME time together as a family. The new giant slides…a MAJOR hit. I think E and I could have done those all day. And my little girl got to ride a horse! Lincoln seemed to have a good time too…..sleepy boy!
Oh..and go VOLS! We got to this cool restaurant called Outlanders Southern Chicken to see the awesome Hail Mary.
