I really have no words to express how proud I am of this little guy and trying to rationalize the time that has passed since his birth is impossible. 3 years ago today I held my first child in my arms, weighing in at just over 3 pounds, before he would be whisked away by 15 nurses to the N.I.C.U. to be hooked up to machines for the next 4 weeks. Scared, terrified, and wasn’t sure what was going to happen. Doctor kept telling us that he was a fighter. 3 years later they couldn’t have been more right.
With the energy of his mother and the persistence of his father this 33lb brick house is… wait, am I writing an intro to NFL Films?
Teaspoon, you’ve been an amazing little man in our lives and an incredible big brother to the O-man. Thanks for making the last 3 years an incredible ride and I smile with pride as I watch you grow up. You’re already rocking at pre-school and have shown a passion for hockey (thank you God!), are a role model to your younger bro and have better manners than most adults. Raise a bottle of chocolate milk buddy, you can kick the Most Interesting Man in the World’s ass.
I’m having a really difficult time judging time lately. Yesterday was the 3yr anniversary of when I was given my walking papers from Ericsson as the company started its shutdown process. Since then I’m making a living off a career that didn’t exist back then (well it did but but I don’t think anyone took it seriously), bought a house, had 2 kids and graduated college.
In other words things have been moving pretty fast and I haven’t had time to stop and look around which would explain how 36 crept up on me. Is it the downside of 30 or push for 40? I always put relation of age to where/what my brother was doing then which is a bad idea since it was the early 90′s. Lushie informed me that I’m at the age now that her mother was when we met. *UGH*
I was going to put a pic of myself as a squirt but decided at the last minute to refrain — the fact that the scanner is in my bedroom and if that thing wakes up the kids I’m a dead man.
I’ve been reading a couple of books that have made me re-evaluate how I do things online and approach business opportunities I passed on in the last year. What’s coming up will be fun, different and creative. The hardest realization was coming to terms with what I can do with my limited free time and being very selective going forward on what I can/can’t do.
Nothing over the top planned this year but one tradition I will keep is calling my mom this afternoon at the time I was born and ask her if she remembers how awesome my birth was. She’ll lie and say it was beautiful, I’ve watched the birth of both of my sons and know that my mom probably called my dad a slew of profanities.
cheers!
Oh OK here’s ONE picture.
This weekend I took Teaspoon out for a couple of firsts. First hockey game and first basketball game for his 3rd birthday coming up at the end of the month.
He has been asking me to take him to a hockey game all season so that was a no brainer. The real question was if he would be able to sit in his seat for 3 periods since the game was at 7 and would be pushing it on his bed time.
From the drop of the puck his attention was locked in and I thought the kid stopped blinking. The action was fast and he did his best to keep up with the only time looking away was to take a bite of chicken fingers. This was met with hockey moms gushing over him and he knew how to play it.
Towards the end of the first period the PA announcer gave a basketball update for the RMU Men’s basketball game. I felt a tug at my jacket and heard “Daddy, we go watch bas-ket-ball. pleeeeaassee.” I caved in.
We arrived to the men’s game at the start of the second half and once again he was mesmerized by the fast pace of a sport. What broke his attention though was Mr. Slice from Hometown Pizza. He’s never been afraid of larger than life figures before but this one was unique. He actually chased the pizza around so he could get a hi5 and then finally calmed down enough so I could get the picture.
Just before the game ended I could see he was winding down so he snuck in one more pizza hug and ran to the door. Only thought in my mind was “Please god dont let him run on the court”!”. He didn’t.
When we got home he ran to his mom and shouted “mommy! mommy! pizza! bas-keet-ball! haw-key!” Moments later he crashed hard.
We had a fantastic night and its great to find inexpensive yet competitive sporting events in town. He probably won’t remember this night but I most certainly will.
My wardrobe for years consisted of jeans, t-shirts, a few polo shirts and 1 white dress shirt to which I had 40 ties to cover me for any occasion and capped off with a pair of black chucks.
Well I still have the black chucks but part of that whole streamlining my life finally brought me to my closet and the hole I made was a significant one. The picture you see is one of many piles. Concert/beerfest/random sports t-shirts all are going on a permanent vacation to Goodwill.
I wasn’t aware of what a pack rat I had become even while my friends busted my chops when I moved over the amount of t-shirts I had. I’m also very anal about how they were in my closet. You see I had my “good shirts” and then ones I kept in my dresser. My dresser was the lesser worn shirts or ones that I used when doing dirty work. The closet was my snazzy collection (yes snazzy). High quality concert and beer shirts along with my good Pens swag. They would be arranged by color and then by genre and all have to be facing the same way. It was more of an organizing thing so I wouldn’t spend forever looking for what I need. Plus when you have as many beer shirts as I do you need to keep things together.
I really don’t know why I held on to these. Maybe it was memories to a certain shirt or my affinity to hold onto everything I ever got as a gift (thanks my dad for that trait).
I looked at my closet today and basked in the glow of all the space I now have. There are a few t-shirts in there (I need to have some pressed ones for work) but I’ll need to resist that urge, come beer fest time, to keep adding to my collection.
Its become tradition in our house to celebrate Groundhog Day every year. Not really sure why but it’s a holiday I latched on to when i first moved to Pittsburgh and then when I found out we had family in the area. Every holiday I can expect some type of care package in the form of groundhog themed cookies or trinkets. This year we took it to a disgustingly cute level and all four of us were sporting Groundhog Day shirts straight from Punxy.
That is a picture of my boys watching the celebration on TV. Teaspoon isn’t quite sure what’s going on while my youngest is just happy that he stopped teething for now.
I know when they get older days like this will seem corny and stupid as they rebel but today its for us.
It’s 1:22am and I have no idea why I’m wide awake. I’ve had a lot on my mind lately with my birthday coming up this month (woohoo), how I consume media and what I’m doing next.
Take for instance this post. I’m writing it on my DROID from my bed when I should be sleeping. Should I keep up a blog or use my Tumblr feed more?
Every day there is a new hot service that pops up and since I work in social media for a living I need to decide if its worth my time or that of my employer to have a presence on it. Not as easy as it may sound.
Keeping up with what we do have is already very tedious and exhausting but hopefully new tools I’m pushing to have in place will take some of that burden off.
Oh yeah February. Almost forgot about ya for a second fella. o O (Fella? How do we know Feb isn’t a lady? Why do I even care? Focus spoon!)
So this month will be an interesting one. Weather should be incredibly nice, taxes need done, county should bend me over and shove a new assessment up my rear soon and a certain utensil turns 3. Mix in pgh beer week duties, that podcast thing I do, write and get merchant ideas together the shortest month could be a pain.
Life moves pretty fast. If you stop and take a look, you’re probably blocking traffic. Get the hell out of the way.
