My oldest turns 2 years old & my youngest hits 2 months today.
With all of the hardship that happened on Teaspoon’s birth and his time in the NICU I’m blessed to have a healthy and happy son today.
Enjoy your pass to be a maniac, tomorrow I go back to laying down the law 
Here are pics from his birthday party over the weekend at the Toy Lending Library
Yesterday I took Teaspoon for his first ever haircut to get him ready for his 2nd birthday this weekend. Since the kid was pretty much bald until almost 1 I figured that he would have been a bit more relaxed once this day came. Yeah, that didn’t happen. In fact he was fine until the throw was snapped in place. Not even Elmo could save this day. There was a bright side to his 5 minute meltdown, the stylist gave me an envelope with his hair clippings in it. Oh buddy we have many more of these to come.
Renegades mount up!
Pittsburgh was bitchslapped by a winter blast yesterday and into the morning. Unlike previous storms roads were… who am I kidding. Roads sucked, people drove like jagoffs and it was mass hysteria. Its 12:30am and few of us have seen a plow even thought it started snowing 10 hours ago. Took me 2 hours to get home tonight and mmmm yeah the city is in a state of suck right now.
Things I saw that lead to some of the chaos
- if you drive a sports car keep it home. You don’t have snow tires and spinning out up a hill is inevitable
- because you drive and SUV or truck doesn’t mean you can do 60 in a 35. Well it does but you’re sliding as much as us
- if you stay in your lane traffic would be a lot faster
- stop racing plows
- stop honking. no one is moving for you and the sound interrupts my Pearl Jam. this makes me stabby.
We’ll be melted out within 24 hours so sit tight tomorrow if you’re lucky enough for a delay. Be smart people, you’re not that important where your need to be somewhere trumps safety.
OK now it’s official. I’m in the next age group for just about every survey until I’m *glup* 50.
I woke up to Teaspoon curled next to me. He rolled over and cracked me in the face.
Mom called this morning and I learned that she was induced on this day because her doctor wanted to see me born before his vacation that Monday. She was 42 so in the 70′s this was a big deal. I hope he enjoyed the trip. They probably gave me a smoke and shot of whiskey when I came out.
My brother was 17 when I was born and I was baptized on his 18th birthday the following month. You think he’s let me live that down? hell no.
I don’t remember my 5th birthday but I bet all of my aunts, uncles and cousins were drinking Old Milwaukee pounders.
I remember my 10th birthday because it was at the YMCA indoor pool in Harborcreek and we had ice cream cake. I think we tried to drown someone.
I remember my 15th birthday because.. wait, I dont. I had braces so I was probably traumatized.
I don’t remember my 20th birthday. I’m sure it involved me and The Shaggy Dog saloon in Erie where I was already a regular for a year. Did you catch that?
I remember my 25th birthday because it was at the Deckhouse in Cranberry and we came back to the Bordello of Booze for a night of beer pong. That night was a marathon of endurance.
I remember my surprise 30th birthday at John Harvard’s in Monreoville with my new(er) bride, close friends and family.
I’ll always remember my 35th birthday because I’m spending it at home with my wife and 2 boys. The greatest gifts I have ever received.
I’ve had reservations about turning 35 tomorrow but last night while working the hockey games I had 2 middle aged ladies ask me if I was a senior in college or a grad student. Since I’m about 10-12 years older than the traditional one I just smiled and said I was flattered.
Today I got to sleep in until 7am (*ha*) and after everyone had their mid Sunday morning nap we took the kids to the playground in the mall. While there Teaspoon was running around like a mad man and playing with just about every kid there. On one trip down a popular slide he biffed it and came down backwards. A little blonde girl came over and helped him up and then ran around with him.
I have a long road of him breaking hearts and dad’s pounding on my door in front of me
I’m spending my day attending a college hockey double header of Colonials with the final game vs RIT already sold out.
Little known hockey facts about me
- My first hockey game was watching the Erie Golden Blades with my cousin Leslie when I was in 2nd grade.
- I still have ticket stubs from the Erie Panthers
- My family never taught me to skate, they would take me to public skates and tell me to figure it out.
- I have the ticket stub from my first pro hockey game somewhere. My brother took me to a Pens game at the Civic Arena in the 80′s where player Jimmy Mann sat next to me. Jagoff still owes me a stick. Find out why.
- One of my friends on our highschool team had more penalty minutes than ice time. Rumor has it he was suspended for trying to stab someone from the rival school with his blade. Wouldn’t surprise me. Now he’s protecting our country.
- Until my nephew Ben started to play hockey I was the only fan of the sport in my family.
- I played in net for my 2 years at Pitt. For a game I played with the “Jason” mask. We drew stitch marks on it afterwards for everywhere I got hit.
- I bat right and left in baseball but can only slapshot a puck left handed. Goalie though right is my stick side.
- I haven’t skated since 1996
- I own 2 pairs of roller blades I never wore.
- My favorite player of all time is Martin Straka. He’s magical.
I’m gonna need a second or third job if my boys will play hockey. Bah I didn’t need sleep anyways.
Don’t let that face fool you. He just stole your wallet.
Last night was the first time in awhile that both boys slept all night and this morning I woke up with that guy in my face hitting me and saying “heeey hey hey hey da da”. Yes that was cute until he crawled into bed and proceeded to kick me out with a series of bicycle kicks.
When we were planning on what to do with the tax return I sat back starry eyed with all of the possibilities. Ahhh a new fence, new grass, new grill, new smoker, tons of plants for the garden, work on the back porch. Oh we could buy anything!
My single guy friends I can already hear “dude BEER! PARTY! WOOOOOOOO!”. My mom would say “Now Douglas you should just put that away.” Away for what I have no idea. My married friends would say “oh you could go on a nice vacation on a beach. Someone will watch both your kids for a week or take them with you!” My buddy Phil would remind me about the kickass brewing kit I could upgrade to or a balls to the wall outdoors cooking area plus fly him in to show me how to use it.”
Reality comes from my married friends with kids. “Find a sitter, go out to dinner somewhere without a kids menu and fix what the family needs.” That part is whats sinking in. Teaspoon needs new carpeting in his room since its to the point where stretching it won’t fly. The last of moving bills need paid and we have a 2nd bday plus baptism coming up. Gates in the yard need upgraded since Teaspoon is a beast and I have to pay tuition for my final semester of school and Teaspoon is starting preschool for 2yr olds.
Responsibility sucks.
How do you get your husband to get his hair cut? First thing in the morning say he looks like Justin Bieber!
It was getting bad and now its not so bad
On any given workday it takes about an hour to get downtown. Traffic is jammed on all parkways and its mass hysteria. This morning I found the secret, leave at 6:30am. By 7am the city was barely awake and I was able to snap this pic.
Today the Penguins invited select season ticket holders to stop down and take part in a fan forum. It was our chance to let the Pens, CEC staff and Aramark know what we thought of the new digs so far.
Scheduled for only an hour we ended yup going 30 extra minutes and were just warming up. Nothing major for complaints but little things to help out. I gave my opinion of a few issues I noticed but of course I had to mention the lack of quality beer in the arena to the Aramark rep. How do you spend money bragging about all of these local ties when your beer is all Bud, Miller, Coors.
This was addressed with Penn and Rivertowne having their beers available but you can only get them in a couple stands and the ones with it can’t stock enough even when the game starts. I got some names and emails to pass along to some local brewers whom have been unable to get someone to call them back. Seriously, PNC Park has a hella better selection of beer and at $1.50 less a glass.
Weather hit 54F today so in all it was a great day! The Pens were absolutely amazing hosts and took a serious interest in us today. You won’t find that coming from other organizations in this town.
Free food! wooooooohoooo
I’ve signed up for enough mailing lists and facebook sites that I can eat every night this week but since I have 3 other mouths to feed we’ve been getting items that all of us can split. Last night was free pizza at Vocelli’s and tonight was chowing down at Red Robin (yum!). I couldn’t help but get the french onion soup. ahhh yes the dish that if you can make well you can have me forever.
School n’at
I’m finishing up my class on Media Law & Ethics tomorrow and looking towards the goal finally. Going into the final I’ve been flirting with a final grade above 95% and really taking a liking to the course material. If all else fails I guess I could pursue a future there. Plus side though is that I have 3-4 classes left until I graduate. I spoke with my adviser today and she joked if I was burned out yet. 4 years of school with no break lasting longer than a couple weeks… yeah I’m ready to take a breather.
Recaps of previous birthday weeks – 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007
Short short version if you’re new to this concept. 7 days with the 7th being your birthday, you get a present each day. Nothing big but small things between you and your significant other.
Day one brings what could be the greatest of them all. Both boys slept all through the night in both their beds. No one waking up to gte fed. no one screaming and running into our room. No one trying to push me out of bed. Why is this great? Since Owen came home we’ve averaged 2-3 hours of sleep a night and teaspoon has been a beast. Imagine trying to function for 2 months like that. Yeah tensions are high and the slightest thing could set you off. I hope these days are moving behind us.
This was pure heaven.
