Quiet time

7 am on a Saturday morning. Before Evan, I'd still be laying in bed asleep or just starting to wake up and listening to Truman snore away. Today, I'm on my second cup of coffee listening to Evan start to rouse through the monitor. He usually wakes up happy and I love listening to him "sing" in the monitor as he thinks about getting up for the day and plays with his Elmo and Cookie Monster toys.

I really enjoy this time. I turn on the TV, complete the daily Sudoku challenge (finished in the top 50 today!) and read the morning headlines. Working full time and then being the "stay-at-home-Mom" on the weekend makes me appreciate and cherish quiet time to myself. During the week, the commute to and from when I can listen to whatever music suits my mood or just be alone in my thoughts is entirely too short some days. I admit, sometimes I will take a longer route home just to make sure I clear my head, sing along with a couple of songs from the Glee soundtrack, pretending I am a good enough singer to be on the cast. It's amazingly therapeutic.

Like it is for most people, life in the Corporate world can be frustrating and stressful. Many of my colleagues joked this week that we got "1/2 days" because we left at 5 or 5:30 due to some pretty impressive snow showers. Quiet time helps me get over my frustrations and stress so I can leave them at the office and not bring them home. I don't get to spend nearly as much time with Brian and E as I'd like to, so I do my best to not taint that time by bringing the office home with me.

But little boy is calling now at 7:30. He wants to eat and start his day. After my little bit of quiet time, I'm ready to start it, too!

Papa Bear Instinct

You know, it's funny being pretty much a stay-at-home dad. I love being able to take care of Evan. I love the bond that has developed between him and I. I love being able to show him new things and teach him about the world. I'm especially excited about this coming summer...since he'll be a bit more sturdy to travel and should be ready to venture out of the house and we can explore.

I've got a job that allows me to arrange my schedule and lets me have this time with Evan. Linda, on the other hand, works in the corporate world and has the usual 8a-5p Monday through Friday job. It only made sense for me to stay at home with Evan once Linda went back to work after maternity leave. It's funny though...lots of my friends and coworkers shower me with praise for being a stay-at-home dad. I'm not doing anything spectacular...if the shoe was on the other foot, would they shower Linda with the praise I get? I know it's still a rarity for the dad to be the primary caregiver, but this trend is growing...

Recently I discovered an area stay-at-home dads group that gets together twice a week for play dates, and every month, they have a "dads night out" which is where we leave the kids at home with the wives and just the dads meet up for drinks, movies or whatever. I'm excited about this group, that has about 70 total members, and it gives me the chance to get out of the house and Evan around other kids...helping both of us socialize. It looks pretty cool...every Wednesday they meet over at a group member's house during the late morning to afternoon. Then every Friday they have, what they call "Adventure Fridays", which is an outing of some kind...whether to just the park or museum, or to a civil war battlefield or the zoo, or whatever. I contacted KCDADs organizer, Mick, last week and he invited me out to Fun Run last Friday.

I dunno why or when it started, but when I'm thrown out of my comfort zone and meeting new people, I get nervous and a bit anxious. I never used to be socially retarded, but over the past few years, I developed this weird uncomfortableness or awkwardness around new people. I hate it...but figured I'd overcome my insecurities and try this group out.

Evan & I show up and quickly meet up with Mick. There's about six or so other dads there with their little ones...ranging in ages from 3 months to about 4 or 5 years old. Everyone seemed to be really nice and welcoming. Mick gave me the overview about the group...and another fellow dad, Shannon, invited me out for the upcoming Dads Night Out next week. I'm still rolling around in my head if I should go or not.

Another fellow dad (I've forgotten his name) warned me that his son, who is about 2 or 3 years old, is the most difficult one of the entire group. He explained that his son has always been difficult since he was a baby...but he seemed to be doing okay that day. Evan seemed to love the interaction with the other kids and Fun Run. They had an area designated for 3 and under with large colorful toys and other cool stuff. Evan was fascinated by this one large wheel thing that had balls inside. However, he encountered his first "bully" (if a child that age can really be a bully?)...the aforementioned child. He was on the other side of this large wheel, playing with the paddle that hits the balls around. He saw Evan staring in wonder at all the bright cool colors...and apparently he didn't like that. He stormed around the corner, covered Evan's eyes with his hands and yanked Evan backwards and hit him on his head. It happened so fast, and I was right there with Evan the whole time... I snatched Evan up and the other kid's dad came over and scolded him for it. He asked if he knew why he got into trouble and made his son apologize to Evan. It then happened again, Evan was still playing, and he got mad that Evan was still there, and came back around and tried to hit Evan on the head again. His dad was there and stopped him before it happened.

Right before we left, Evan was playing with some other large toy that had cylindrical spinning blocks with letters. The same kid was still playing with the large wheel nearby. He glanced over at Evan and me...and came over and got in the way of Evan playing and pushing him out of the way. That's when my papa bear instinct came out. I told him to stop, and that he could play and share, but Evan was there first and not to ever touch or hit Evan again. He stopped and went back to playing with another toy. My blood was about to boil.

I hope that this child isn't gonna be a problem for Evan. His dad knows that he has issues, and is working on correcting them. I just hope for my sanity and Evan, this kid stops what he's doing. This isn't gonna stop me from going to future playgroups...

But in all, I think this group will be a good thing for the both of us...and I look forward to what's in store!

Gonna Have To Suck It Up

Anyone who knows me, knows my disgust and the pure hatred I hold for winter, cold weather and, more than anything, snow and ice. Over the course of the past couple days, the Kansas City area got 4.8 inches of snow. While this isn't the snowpocalypse the media makes it out to be, it still pisses me off. It isn't anything like the Christmas Blizzard of 2009 (when Linda was pregnant with Evan), when we got 9 inches of the white shit Christmas Eve into Christmas Day. Yes, it's winter. Yes, it's January. Yes, it's Missouri... I can't change it, but I can't help but be annoyed by it. I grew up here, but it doesn't mean I have to like it. But...that is gonna have to change, I know, for the sake of Evan. I figure this winter is my last winter that I have to piss and moan about it. Now that the snow is gone, we have to deal with bitterly frigid temperatures and wind chills. Today, the wind chill is supposed to be -10°F. Blegh.

View from our front porch this morning

Growing up, though, it didn't bother me. But working in the travel industry as I do, and have for the past almost 13 years has really made me see how much snow and ice is a pain in the ass...and really screws up things. Once November hits, I wish we could hibernate...or better yet just spend the winters in Caribbean or Hawaii.

As a kid though, I loved playing in the snow. It's always more fun as a kid. Get the day off school, hang out with your friends, go sledding, build snowmen, snowball fights, hot chocolate, watch movies... Even though when Evan gets old enough, I'm gonna suck it up and not show my pure loathing of this crap to Evan. He deserves to have fun like I did when I was a kid... But, Linda will hear all about it. I'll have to vent to someone.

Busy Busy!

It's been a busy past couple months and I'm glad Linda updated any readers we have, or may have left. This poor blog has been neglected too long. When we aren't busy, I just have no energy to post anything. Most days I'm chasing this very curious 8 month old boy around the house...seems he wants to get into everything he's not supposed to...

It's been a busy past couple months with all the running around, holidays and top that off with several doctors appointments both for Evan and for us. He got a cold right before Thanksgiving, then again right after Christmas that turned into a respiratory infection. He's still getting over that. I had taken him into see the doctor New Year's Eve and saw another doctor in our pediatrician's practice. He was concerned with his "barking" cough. He didn't exactly diagnose him with croup, but only said it sounded "croupy". He put him on prednisolone to help him kick the cough. It's sounded much better over the past couple days.

On top of Evan's sicknesses, Linda & I have both battled crap. I came down with strep throat last week...I hadn't had strep since I was in maybe middle school! Linda came down with tonsillitis then right after I got over strep. I'm hoping all this crap passes soon!

All in all, though, Evan had a great first Christmas! I can't wait to see what 2011 has in store for us. Happy New Year to all of you! Below is a video of Evan dancing to South Park's "Mr. Hankey the Christmas Poo"...a bit late, I know, but hopefully you'll get some laughs out of it. I've been meaning to put this up for some time now, I laughed so hard I was in tears when I saw it! Maybe that is just me? I recorded it maybe a month ago... Enjoy!

Warrior Evan versus the Evil Dr. Sleep

Sorry, once again, for the prolonged delay between posts. I have that rare moment of tranquility right now. Evan in his bouncer - and not mad for being in there while I am in plain view - and Truman cleaning whatever remains of breakfast might be off of his hands.

Evan's first Christmas was all we could hope it would be. He was very good at family, church and with more family. You would think the three massive family gatherings in two days would have sent him over his threshold, but he was a very good little trooper. He showed off his mad crawling skills and newly found beginner's walking skills (he can walk when holding on to someone's hands).

I joked on Facebook that he got a 157 new toys. It's only a slight exaggeration. Some of the toys are a little too advanced for him and will be better suited when he gets a little older. So we have put those in a tub for now. His Aunt Noreen and Uncle Anthony bought him a blow up Penguin. The kind you can hit and it always pops back up. He was afraid of it at first, but seems to be doing well with it now. His favorite new toys are a new cell phone, a toy with a steering wheel that makes car noises and the "interactive zoo*."

*My public service announcement for the year - LISTEN to the sounds, songs and noises a toy makes before purchasing it. If you can't imagine being in the same room with those sounds going on OVER AND OVER AND OVER again, chances are the parents of the child you are buying it for also do not want to be stuck in a room with it. Granted, Brian and I get as much amusement out of it now as Evan does, making up alternative lyrics to some of the songs...

TOY SONG: "I'm a very friendly parrot, chatting out loud for all to hear."

LINDA's VERSION: "I'm a very scary parrot..." You all know my hatred/blind fear of birds. Let's face it. No parrot is friendly. Why teach a baby to approach something that could claw his face off and bite his fingers in two? Birds are SCARY!

TOY SONG: "I'm a big and tall giraffe, stretching so high I touch the sky!"

LINDA's VERSION: "I'm a big dumb tall giraffe..." It did actually sound like he said "dumb" instead of "and."

We also have dances for the songs. The one for the penguin goes "I'm a tiny little penguin, waddling here, waddling there." To which I waddle from side to side when listening to.

Evan is back to sleeping pretty well again, which is a relief since Brian and I have both been sick. He FIGHTS falling asleep, though. Yesterday, I incurred a wrath so great that it could have only come from someone related to me because Evan knew I was trying to get him to fall asleep and take a nap. He screamed bloody murder for a solid 45 minutes while I tried rocking him, jumping up and down, playing with him, walking around the house for him until my arms where about to fall off* and I just gave up and put him in his crib. He was asleep 5 minutes later.

*Evan was also sick this week and Brian took him to the doctor. He weighs 21 pounds, 3 ounces. Pick up a giant sack of potatoes and carry that around for a good 1/2 hour and see how your arms, shoulders and upper back feel. You also need to mechanize that sack of potatoes because Evan squirms, fights, wiggles and does everything in his power to try and get you to drop him (thank God I haven't done this!).

With naps, he also wakes up MAD. Like he's pissed that we would allow him to fall asleep. He wakes up screaming and it usually takes a good 2-3 minutes to let him know he's awake now and it's time to play.

Last night, I gave him his bottle. He was so tired he would lift his head up and then it would crash back down on my arm, but he still fought. As he lay in my arms in his room, he started this pathetic "AhhhhhUhahhhhhUhahhhhhh" moaning. It was as if he kept making noise, he couldn't fall asleep. To know if he is asleep you have to watch the hands. He keeps one up and as he drifts off, the hand comes down to rest on his tummy. It was like he had some kind of electric shock on his jammies that jolted him awake every time his hand came down.

Again, we fought. Again, it resulted in giving up and just putting him in his crib with him falling asleep before I got out of the room. I'm beginning to think that he just needs to be free to roll and flail about. If he can't move, he can't sleep. The other theory is that wrestling with me just wears him out so that when he does finally land on the crib mattress, he has no more energy to protest.

On occasion, he'll still try. He'll get up on all fours and crawl to the front of the crib, but it's like his neck can no longer support the weight of his head and he just collapses, rises, then collapses again in a deep sleep that will usually last for the next 11-12 hours. When he will rise for a new day of battling against the Evil Dr. Sleep. My poor little warrior just doesn't know that that's a battle he will lose every day.

In the photo below:

Evan is about to figure out the hazards of opening presents. This photo was snapped just before the box slid on the wood floor, causing little E to face plant. He was not happy. Brian took this photo and I was recording on the video camera. He face planted and I snapped the video camera shut and reached for the little boy, but Brian already had him. Regardless, we had a very Merry Christmas. One face plant in what, I'm sure will be thousands.

Evan examines the goods before opening up his presents... All of these are his.