7 Months Later....

My last post was for Katie's birthday, and this one comes a few days after she turned 19 months old. And, I apologize. And it's not that she hasn't been interesting in the last seven months, it's simply that I haven't been able to find the energy to post. She's walking. She's talking. She's running me ragged. She's three feet tall and 35 pounds (that's an "average" three you old, in case you didn't know). She can reach all the tables, all the door knobs, and most of the shelves in the house. She still spouts a lot of gibberish, but she'll say things like "Daddy? Where are you?". She exclaims "It's a Jahrap!" when she sees her favorite stuffed giraffe. When she sees me, she'll say "Hi da-da da-da!". When Harry comes in the room "It's a cat! Meow!". She currently imitates the Cookie Monster, saying "Cookie!" And pretending to chomp on something. And, when she's in a good mood, she'll count to 13.

She's terrified of Santa. I mean He really freaked her out, unlike the Easter Bunny who she thought was a giant stuffed animal. So, we didn't force her to sit on his lap. We were at an event at the Norco library, and Santa was super cool. He was friendly to her for about an hour, waving and tempting her with a candy cane. She finally warmed up to him enough we got a photo of her and Ann standing next to Santa.

We have her in Mommy (or Daddy) and me swimming lessons. Well, calling them "swimming" lessons might be premature. Perhaps "Introduction to Swimming Concepts". She loves the water. Holds her breath well. Enjoys splashing.

And... now you're caught up. I'll try to be a bit more diligent about posting in the future.

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And now for a diaper change....

Brian
muse.platypionline.com

Triumph of the Will (and the wallet)

Moving has enabled us to cobble together an actual nursery for Katie. I'm strangely proud of this, as when we first had her, the idea of her having her own room was a little far fetched. So, wanting to share, I set up the tripod and my little Canon Powershot A75. It's my old camera, relegated now to being the diaper bag camera, it doesn't get used much as even my phone comes close enough to it in quality and tops it convenience. Still, what it does that my new Kodak Z712is doesn't is it lets you take as many photos as you want in the panorama assist mode. So I believe this is about 17 or 18 photos stitched together into a 360º panorama of Katie's room. It was actually about 375 degrees as I started and ended with the door, but it looked funny having the door in there twice, so I cropped it off the right side.
Anyway, the last piece was the book shelf that sits on her dresser. I built that a couple of nights ago.

Oh, and I really don't care for The Wiggles.

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And now for a diaper change....

Brian
muse.platypionline.com

Growing Up Dad

Monday, September 25th, 2006. If I ever forget the date, I'll certainly never forget the day.

My wife Ann and I have been through a lot lately. We have recently moved across town after sharing a duplex with her parents proved less than ideal. She had recently started a relatively good job accounting for the police department when City Hall called dibs and yanked her away to a really good, career path, job as a city accountant. With all of this going on the last few months, finding time to be intimate was rather difficult, to say the least. So, of course when she really started to complain about an upset tummy, I naturally assumed stomach flu. So did she. After three or four days, however, she decided to take a test. Then she called me to bring home another test after work (I didn't know this was the second test).

I want to keep this blog, and eventual podcast, family friendly, so I'll say I was thinking something that sounded kinda like "Oh Shoot!", only it wasn't. Well, the results of the second dip test made us decide she should go to the Urgent Care clinic. Well, three strikes makes it sound so bad, so lets say it was a third strike, only we were bowling. We were three for three on positive tests. Three up, three down, end of an inning.

Yep, I am going to be a dad.

Full disclosure here, I'm already a dad. When I married my wife I took her then 10 year old son as my own. He's a great kid and I love him a lot. But, let's face it. Jumping on the train at ten is hardly starting from scratch, and our relationship has a lot of "buddy buddy" in it that comes from being a "step" father (as if that's any less important or difficult a job). But, here I find myself, at 34 having thought "He's 14. I'm almost done!" only to hit a chute instead of a ladder and going all the way back to start.

Am I excited? Oh heck yeah! I started a blog, and I'm planning a podcast! I went right out and bought two books on being a dad. I started a blog, and I'm planning a podcast! Which is where y'all come in.

Why "Growing Up Dad"? Because, like I think all first time expecting father's feel, I feel so scared, alone, and overwhelmed that the welfare of a little tiny baby is about to be entrusted to my hands that I think I might just hurl. I pray every night "God, all I care about is 'healthy'. That's all I want. Please." And I wish someone was here to do it with me. So, why not do it in public, on the web, where new fathers can go with me, and more experienced fathers can help us out as we are "Growing Up Dad".

Up front. I plan on this being a RESOURCE. I'm already working on book reviews and interviews. I'm subscribing to a couple of parenting magazines. And I know a boat load of great dads, my dad included, that I plan to mine for wisdom gold. I plan to cover the whole enchilada. Marriage. Siblings. Clothes and Toys. Educational stuff. Recall notices. Everything I worry about is going right here. And I figure I got a good 20 YEARS worth of content coming up. And I want to also say right up front, if I can get relevant sponsors or advertisers that can help me make this a great place to come, I will. That's way down the road, if at all. However, I wanted to be up front and make this pledge. I will always be open and honest. If I mess up here, you'll be the first to know. I hope we can build a great community here. If you want to write me a personal note, you can write to growingupdad at gmail dot com. Goodness, I haven't installed spell checking in FireFox yet. Well, I hope you'll forgive me.