Category Archives: Emotions

June 11, 2012

Penny For My Thoughts

By Brad

Penelope “Penny” Alexandra, born 06/09/2012 at 6:18 AM. 5 lbs, 3 oz & 17″ long.

Prologue #1:

I’m sure most lame jokers will use the “Penny For Your Thoughts” quote to her for most of her life, whether it’s a silly older relative or a drunken dude at a bar trying to woo her but I WANTED to be the first man in her life to make that dumb joke, just to be clear.

Prologue #2:

My wife struggled for 5 days in the hospital to keep our new peanut in the womb with 5cm dilation but with a few bad contraction bouts quelled by medication, my wife’s uterus couldn’t take it anymore and had to release Penny to the world. Her water broke little after dawn at 5:05 Saturday morning and with my mother-in-law making various moving violations to watch Maddie as I too bent some laws I made it in time for the emergency C-section.

The C-section vs. Marathon Vaginal Labor Birth

I will preface this paragraph by saying I am mostly speaking as myself and not my wife, although I have first-hand experience alongside my wife and she has expressed her thoughts to me on this matter. However, I will admit that I am just the supportive husband and NOT the child-bearer going through the bittersweet ordeal of childbirth…I will not make the mistake of glibly speaking as if I know what my wife went through.

Maddie was born vaginally with about 16-hours of labor. I was there the whole time, consoling, caressing, calming and coaching my wife with the nurses. We had music from our own iPod and we even had windows to see outside. I witnessed the joy and miracle of seeing my daughter’s head emerge into the world. We held the little baby immediately, took pictures and I even cut the cord. Not long after every family member in waiting was able to come to the room and meet Madeleine. It was a very happy and joyous day for all.

With the emergency C-section, my wife was numbed with anesthesia & strapped to a table with her arms out-stretched and tied down. I was in uncomfortable scrubs with a mask recycling my own hot morning breath and tried as best as I could to console and calm my wife who was shivering, very very nervous and blind to what was really going on beyond the make-shift cloth wall the doctors put up. I tried to take some peeks but was advised to stay down as many dads who thought they can handle the sight have fainted and sent to the O.R. themselves and missed the rest of the procedures. Within a quarter-hour’s time Penelope was out and healthily crying ‘hello’ and within minutes was whisked away with me to the NICU being only 34 weeks in utero. They didn’t even ask me if I wanted to cut the cord.

I was with Penny for another 15 minutes in the NICU while the doctor’s and nurses did their thing. I was very elated and relieved that she was big for 34 weeks and seemed perfectly healthy. I was very overjoyed and proud when she squeezed my finger in our first bonding moment. I then went to see how my wife was in recovery and stayed with her for an hour or so until the grandparents & Maddie arrived. The rest of the day I was bouncing back and forth in the NICU and my wife’s suite making sure everything was OK. At lunch time I took Maddie home for lunch and for a nap. I returned later in the evening with Maddie for a short while until I had to get her home for dinner and bed time. Since her birth I have been away from her and Wendy and sleeping alone at home. The last word in Lonesome is ME.

From my perspective this was such a bittersweet birthday for me, my wife and Penny. She’s already the second-child and the amount of bonding and time spent with her on her birthday was pale in comparison to Maddie’s. I realize it was circumstance but it’s still a shame. I’m relieved and very happy, especially that my wife and Penny are healthy and fine and just need time to get in the swing of normalcy but I was very much detached and side-lined that day. I was a wee bit more sad than glad. My wife told me she very much prefers the vaginal labor hands-down from the delivery aspect. If given the opportunity to relive Penny’s C-section she probably would opt to get knocked-out completely as the strapping of her arms and lack of vision was too much for a premature birth from a very worried mother’s perspective. But she too is going through some tough emotions right now too being so distant to our newest bundle of joy.

On Sunday, both my wife and I spent a huge amount of time in the NICU while Maddie was having fun with my folks. I finally bonded properly as I held Penny in my arms and fed her some bottle. I had my moment and it was great. I am now the very proud and overjoyed father that I should be. My heart belongs to her as much as it belongs to Maddie. I could cry thinking about her at any moment of the day.

The Worse. Waiting Game. Ever.

At over 5 lbs, Penny was one of the biggest preemies in the NICU. Which is great seems like it’s a cake-walk right? Wrong. She’s still just 34-weeks and she still has the same hurdles to overcome. Mostly it’s the feeding on her own. She has t learn to properly suck her bottle/nipple and not choke on it. We take drinking for granted as we do breathing but there’s reason’s a baby needs about 40 weeks in utero and that’s to learn this stuff. She’s doing OK with it so far but the doctors tell us that it could be about 2-3 weeks until she can come home with us. This is the hard part. In a few days time my wife will be discharged and every day, for however many weeks Penny’s in the NICU, we have to commute to the hospital to see her. With an older child that’s easier said than done. I realize or sacrifice that my time is more devoted to Maddie. That’s expected for many reasons but the two major ones are that Penny needs her mommy way more than me, especially if she takes to breastfeeding and second, with the surgery recovery my wife is in no condition to play with Maddie yet and there’s not much for her to do at home but rest. She can rest in the NICU and spend quality time with Penny. But it’s tough to make this sacrifice, however I am fine with this fact because POPPA PENGUIN will have her (and big sister Maddie) all to himself once maternity leave is done.

Oh boy.

So we will wait and hope Penny does well, sooner than later and try to maintain our good attitudes and humor until she is home and we can then spoil her little peanut-butt rotten.

Epilogue:

Sure I am an emotional wreck right now. Sure I feel distant and anxious to welcome my newest daughter home. I am also anxious at how her big sister, Maddie will be affected by this new baby in her life. I am also exhausted and drained as well as overjoyed and excited for our futures. Juggling all these emotions and thoughts are totally expected I know. I’m just so relieved that Penny is healthy and doing well. But right now I’m more relieved that my wife is good and will be back to her old self; mobile, cramp free and happier to be out of one of the most harrowing experiences she’s ever put through. That is something I’m more grateful for to be honest.

 

1 Comment | posted in Conflict, Emotions, New Experiences

February 23, 2012

2012 Is Already A Very BUSY Year (and Already Looking To Be Busier)

By Brad

Firstly I must apologize my faithful readers for the long absence from my last post which ironically was about writing more frequent posts as a New Years Resolution (oops). As my title dictates this is a so far a very busy year for the household. Mainly, gearing up for this:

YES!!! We are expecting another bundle of joy this summer. We are very excited. More-so that Maddie will have a baby SISTER!! That’s right I will be out X-Chromosomed even more now. I meant to post this good news at the usual 12 week mark but some events and annoyances got in the way. First off, we took our time telling our close friends and relatives. Surprisingly with a pre-schooler I tend to make keeping in touch not a first priority all the time and have relied too much on Facebook, Twitter and texting to be my main means of communication. I do have the good sense not to tell my close friends that we’re having another baby via Facebook messaging or texting which explains the procrastination. Some of my good friends don’t even know yet or haven’t responded to my Facebook announcement that I posted last week (perhaps they haven’t seen it). But I wanted to tell most of my good friends on the phone and that took longer than I expected. We also took our time waiting to find out the gender and wanted to package all the news together instead of installments.

On top of all this we are in the process of finishing the basement, mainly as a playroom for Maddie and a place to store all her toys, which doubled since December, and we can have a less Romper Roomed living room. So I had to clean out the whole basement that had years of accumulated stuff so the guys could work down there and that took a lot of my time. But it’s looking great so far and we’re excited about that.

When the basement’s all finished then I have move all the stuff back down as well as my collectibles and DVD collection which is in the other bedroom which will be the new nursery for Baby Girl #2. When that room is empty I then have to rip it apart, paint it and get new carpeting, finish the closet and install a new ceiling fan. If there’s time I should (to be fair to Baby Girl #2) attempt to do a room-wide mural on the walls like Maddie’s room. I haven’t even entertained the idea of designing a whole new theme to make it different than Maddie’s, which is forest-themed. So Baby Girl #2 will also have a forest-themed mural, albeit with different posed animals and different trees. Sorry kiddo, nothing too fancy. In the midst of all this we should have ordered new furniture. You keeping up with me?

So the clock is ticking my friends. Right now we’re super-excited but also super-nervous about having TWO children running around. So many unknowns like How will this new baby sleep? Will she give us the same troubles as Maddie or whole new problems? Or will she be even easier? Will Maddie be super-sweet to her sister or insanely jealous of the attention taken away from her? That one right there is my main concern to be nervous. Not so much that Maddie needs constant attention but I never really know with Maddie. She’s one tough girl to pin-point. We told her a few weeks back and she seems to be really excited as well to be having a baby sister but when Baby Girl #2 is actually in Mommy’s arms most of the day, what then? It is extremely cute and heart-warming to see Maddie talk to my wife’s belly and rub it to say hello. I’m sure we’ll see a lot of hugs and hair-pulls.

But as Bill Cosby said, “You aren’t a true parent unless you have at least two children.”

So this Stay-At-Home Dad’s role (and sanity) will be drastically different this summer I guarantee that. I’m sure I’ll survive but at what cost 😉 So in advance I do apologize for the lack of posts or for the frequent outbursts and complaining! Time will tell.

Wish me/us luck!

Leave a comment | posted in Emotions, New Experiences

December 30, 2011

Happy Anniversary Poppa!

By Brad

Just a quick post regarding the one year anniversary of my first posts for Poppa Penguin. Yesterday was the anniversary actually and it feels good I’m keeping up with the blog. I’ve done 36 posts which at an average of 3 a month I could be writing more. When I first envisioned this blog I thought I’d be writing more. I also thought I’d be complaining more and entertaining more. I suppose this could be my New Year’s resolution. I have a thing with just writing a post for writing’s sake though and that’s another reason I’m not posting that much. I’m not going to post on the site every time Maddie does something new or funny. That could be so boring. If I have a bad day as a SAHD and probably should be writing as a form of catharsis, in truth I just want to unwind and sound saner than I could. I edit myself too much I guess. I don’t know how many of you are reading my blog and I’m hoping you enjoy it most of the time. I wish I was more informative to other parents but in reality I’m like you, learning as I go along. Not everything I learn or do is novel or ground-breaking. In all honesty we’re usually late in our good discovery’s. Hopefully I’ll learn to not edit myself so much but I just don’t want this site to be so diary-like with every post being so “me-me-me.” I’m trying to make this as universal as possible and the first thing I say when I think of a subject or post to write about is: Would someone else find this interesting? So maybe 2012 I’ll hopefully not care so much for that question and write my heart out.

It also seems, fatherhood and stay-at-homehood wasn’t as rough and tough as I thought starting 2011 with a 1-and-a-half year old would be. The terrible-twos, I’d have to say, could’ve been worse. Now I know what most of you are thinking and that’s “wait until she turns three.” And all I can say is I hope I’m close to saying the same thing this time next year. Although who knows what surprises are in store 😉 WHO KNOWS!!!!

I almost forgot to tell you that we successfully converted the crib to a toddler bed and Maddie loves it! She gets in and out with such joy and loves her Yo Gabba Gabba sheet set. Our two biggest fears with converting was if A. she’d take to the change from crib to bed and B. staying in the bed now that she has access to exiting the bed now. Well so far she loves her bed and stays in the bed until we enter the room to get her as if she was still in the crib. Strange but I guess that’s what she’s used to. It’s so much nicer to be able to kiss her goodnight (which we couldn’t do easily with the crib rails) and the last few nights read bedtime books to her while she’s cozy in the bed. And even though this is an indication of her growing up, I’m happier with the new arrangement and wasn’t that sad to see the crib go away.

Maddie is a very very good egg and I hope she stays that way. She sometimes acts irrational and whiny but when she does she punishes herself with her own time-outs. Which sounds very odd but when we attempt to correct her or try to explain to her how she should react to something she takes that as disciplining and walks to her room for a time-out. We try to stop her, because we didn’t want her to take a time-out, but she does it anyway and is much happier and calmer for doing so. My readers probably think this must be the most strict household and I must not be 100% honest to how I actually disciplining her but I have not held back anything. I sometimes yell at her. I sometimes scream when I’m at my most frustrated but that’s about it. She is just understanding, maybe too well, good vs. bad behavior and discipline.

Happy New Year to my readers, my awesome wife and adorable daughter, as well as my family. Hope 2012 brings much happiness and laughs.

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November 23, 2011

“Is it Crissmiss time?”

By Brad

We’ve been hearing that a lot around the house lately as we gear up for the mega holiday, and probably the first Christmas where Maddie totally understands it. She has written dictated letters to Santa asking for numerous items and toys and keeps asking “Is is Crissmiss time?” The hardest part is trying to plan, plot and dole out her list of gifts to the many family and friends for Mads for the big day. But before all this hooplah I had a small something to say in regards to Thanksgiving.

I just want to give Thanks to my family and my In-laws for being so supportive, loving and generous to Maddie as well as to me and my wife. Its such a joy seeing how much Maddie loves and cares for you after just 2 1/2 years.

I want to give much love and Thanks to my super-duper wife for the sacrifices she makes and not asking for anything in return. I cannot live my life without you and I am grateful each and every day for you and our great loving relationship. I am eternally grateful for the role you have allowed me to live being a Stay-At-Home. I cannot thank and love you enough for everything you do and provide for all of us.

I want to give many many Thanks to the brightest star in my life, the reason I [literally] get out of bed every day. A child who makes me laugh, cry, and impresses me each and every day. I am very grateful to be able to see you grow into the amazing little girl you are becoming. Seeing how smart, polite and even headstrong you are every day is an absolute blessing. Being able to stare at you and smell your beautiful curly locks as you sit on my lap playing games on the iPad is a gift that I’m very fortunate enough to get every day. Hearing your sweet and funny voice attempt new words every day is a gift. Just watching you run around the house is music to my ears. I cannot tell you how much I love and adore you enough. Sure, Daddy could take breaks from you but I miss you dearly when we’re apart. It is an awesome pleasure to share in your life and these memories and experiences are things I will surely cherish for my entire life.

Happy Thanksgiving from Poppa Penguin.

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September 6, 2011

First School Day (Never Say Goodbye)

By Brad

As the title suggests, today was Maddie’s first day of school. Now she went to that toddler fun class last winter and spring but with me by her side. Today she out of the nest for the first time all by herself with all new people and kids as well as a whole new foreign place.

Before I rant on how it was more nerve-wracking for me and my wife and that she had a good day at her school I want to give a little advice first.

“Just Walk Away. Drop off the child and just walk away.”

I wish our folks had the foresight to tell us that. My wife and I even kinda knew this sage wisdom instinctively but we foolishly went against good nature and thought when we shouldn’t have thought. We said “good-bye and have a good day.” How could you not. She was already exploring her new environment not looking for us and we had to remind her that we weren’t staying. She cried. And cried intermittently for the first hour but for the remaining two hours she was fine. We tell our folks what we did and they tell us, “you never say goodbye.” Thanks for the heads-up.

But she survived and even liked it. Has been talking about it all day. She even seems cockier or more self-confident too. She keeps reminding us that her drawings are on the refrigerator. We are extremely proud and a little sad.

Time is flying so fast. She’s not even two and a half and already she’s in preschool. My wife has been in a daze all day and I think she’s a tad depressed that our baby is already making teachers laugh and bringing home stuff for the fridge. I’m just happy that she liked it and that we, as parents, survived the leaving her with strangers bit. I’m a bit pissed we made her cry by saying farewell but it wasn’t a disaster and turned out great in the end like most new things Maddie experiences.

1 Comment   |  tags: , | posted in Advice, Emotions, School

August 15, 2011

Filling the Void

By Brad

As a Post Script to my previous post, I’d like to give a ton of credit and admiration to my loving Mother and Step-Father, who not only filled the void left by my dead-beat father but made me happy, healthy and made sure I had a good life. My mom is a very strong and moral person who made sure me and my brother were not affected so negatively by the divorce and nurtured us, practically by herself, for many years. I owe all that I am to my wonderful mom. I am a great parent by her lead and example of what a great and loving parent should be. I cannot thank her enough for all that she endured and persevered through emotionally and that through her strength we came out better than OK.

And much love and thanks also for my Step-Father who I also learned that, you don’t have to be related to be a great parent. I also lead by his example of what a good and moral parent should and should not be. He may not have the same genes as me but I am proud and honored to be called his Son. I cannot imagine my life without him and his support. He has been by our side longer than my biological father has and is my one, true father.

I love them both very dearly and I take pride knowing they have a wonderful son who became a great husband and father himself.

1 Comment | posted in Advice, Daddy blog, Emotions

August 15, 2011

My Father Is Dead and I Shed Not A Tear

By Brad

This past weekend, my estranged father passed away. I have not spoken to him in over 15 years. My brother and I in sound mind and wisdom disowned him. We were fed up with the bad behavior, the lack of love and affection as well as attention and we felt in our heart that he had given up on us so we gave him essentially what he wanted and that was free from his responsibilities and ties to us and our mother. I was a high school graduate so I really knew what I was doing at the time plus some teen angst mixed in I’m sure. But after the divorce he kept moving farther and farther away making it harder [or easier] for all involved to stay better in touch. He stopped calling us as much and the holiday and birthday cards/gifts were either months late or not received at all. In other words he gave up on us. I never regretted that letter nor looked back at that fateful decision that should be a very sad and hard decision to make but even as I learned of his demise on Saturday evening I felt nothing. Couldn’t even think of a positive memory shared with the man. I went on enjoying my evening with a good friend and watched movies and drank some beers. On my late night car drive home that same evening I tried in vain to feel sad or sorry or even hate or anger but none were to be found.

I tried to feel something because quite frankly the man who gave me life is gone for good and still nothing came. My mother’s first husband and Maddie’s grandfather is never going to be seen again and still no emotion. After two more days and spending time with my wife and daughter and my brother and mother yesterday I still feel nothing. I’m not ashamed to say I don’t feel an ounce of sadness because for 15 years he has been but a memory for me; he was already essentially dead. However, I still felt a ghost of him lurking in the shadows of my life and the possibility of him contacting me was slim but it was still feasible to still see him. Well that ghost is gone now. I’ll never talk to him again nor will be know my wife and his beautiful grand-daughter. He died utterly alone and that was his choice.

I’ve been thinking about my father a lot in these past 2 years since I’ve become a father myself. He was the inspiration [or lack thereof] for fatherhood I needed to be EXACTLY the opposite the man, husband and father he was. He abused and ruined not only his life but his family’s as well. A very bright man who not only fell from grace but stayed there for good and is now the greatest failure I will ever be unlucky enough to know. My daughter is MY LIFE now. No question or doubt. My sole motivation in life is to make sure she is happy, healthy and lives a great life. Even if she hates me I will make sure she lives a great life. My father didn’t give two shits when we wrote that letter to him. He asked me if I wrote it and stood by it and told me [TOLD ME!] he loved me and that he’ll always be there for me. But, Hey, at least I can remember vividly the last words my father told me. At least for his sake it was sweet albeit completely hollow. If Maddie wrote me a letter telling me to never bother with her again, I don’t care what continent I was on I’ll be on the first flight back to her. Of course I plan on never being too far from her ever in her life anyway to get to a letter. My esteem is high enough not to feel that my father left us because we didn’t make him proud or even make him happy. He was just never cut out or equipped to be a father. Maybe too selfish to fully give all of himself to his children but he made a ton of mistakes and we as his sons were willing to live with some of those mistakes to still call him Dad but then he made even more and worse mistakes. And now he left a very poor, miserable and lonely corpse.

As a father now I just can’t fathom treating my family the way he did. The boozing, drugs and womanizing really fucked up his life to ways I can’t believe I once called him Dad. It was sad and tragic when I was growing up but as a proud father now myself It’s downright deplorable and embarrassing that a very smart adult could treat himself and his loving family in such a destructive way. Now I’m not unique going through this life experience. Which is the sadder and more tragic aspect of this article. Many many fathers are, in a word, dead-beats to their families and it’s such a sin.

My father’s father, one of the greatest men I ever knew, told my father after the divorce “You messed up with your wife, Don’t ever mess up with your children.” Sound and wise advice I have to agree with 110%.

Sadly he didn’t heed that advice and that’s why I have zero advice from my old man. Who, at the young age of 62, is now dead with only his brothers as his next-of-kin.

However, the lesson he gave me to NEVER BE LIKE HIM, speaks volumes to my ears.

N.A.B. 02/09/1949–08/13/2011

1 Comment | posted in Advice, Child raising, Daddy blog, Emotions

July 26, 2011

Hooray For Hollywood

By Brad

A few days ago we successfully attempted to take Maddie to her first feature-length movie at the cinemas. Happy to report she sat through the 10-12 minutes of loud, annoying and underwhelming previews; a 5-minute short and the whole hour-and-10-minute movie — Winnie The Pooh. It was great. She ate popcorn [she called them corn-pops!] and drank both her juice and the small lemonade we purchased. She was mostly quiet, although no louder than the other dozen kids in a kids’ flick. She showed enthusiasm towards the screen [“It’s POOH BEAR!!!!”] and even asked “More Pooh Bear” when the credits were rolling. She was a bit antsy and moved her location a few times [from my lap to her own seat to Mommy’s lap, etc.] but between this experience and last week’s plane trips I’d say she is a great patient kid…more than I could have hoped for anyway.

Another great thing about her first cinema experience is that I am a HUGE movie buff/geek. I literally own over 3,000 DVDs, have countless toys, books and other merchandise regarding films and drive my wife crazy with movie-quoting although I try to tell her that all my friends, really good friends, communicate via movie quote frequently. My first cinema experience I was two years old as well [The Empire Strikes Back!!] and I was really wishing and hoping that my daughter would be good in the movies as well. After the movies Maddie kept asking us to go see Pooh again and I promised her that in the coming weeks her and I will go again. I love going to the movies, always have and with a decent-sized cinema literally within 15-minute walk from us I’m sure her and I will be going countless times together. Until she gets a whole bunch of friends and I have to drop her off at the mall.

PS: Also this past week I popped in Toy Story 3 for Maddie, who funnily enough knows who Woody, Buzz and Jessie are from other Disney books and toys she owns. Besides the 20-minute TV shows she knows and loves I really haven’t shown her a feature before and wanted something different to show her and much to my surprise she really likes it. Well, I’ve only seen it once with Wendy when the DVD came out and I was told that a lot of grown men were known to get misty-eyed at this movie. Well I was no exception and held back hard at the ending. Watching it again with Maddie I’m STILL getting chocked up, not just at the ending but at other parts of the movie. It’s crazy. A movie has never had this kind of reaction for me. Maddie has watched it about 5 times now and I still hold back tears. It’s not sad tears either but I think I’m just so happy watching it with my daughter and thinking in the coming years she may have favorite toys of her own and I can’t wait to watch her imagination with playing with them. But damn, Toy Story 3 is like cutting an onion for me. It’s worse than Terms of Endearment and Field of Dreams COMBINED!

Leave a comment | posted in Emotions, New Experiences, Toys

July 17, 2011

Maddie Got Her Wings

By Brad

…the cabin shock and jerked a little as we began our descent. The whirring and wheezing of the cabin air (or the outside air) was in constant motion. Subtle little booms were heard as well as the sound of what were perhaps the plane’s wheels bays opening. As we touched down on the runway the slight whiplash occurred for a few seconds as the plane struggled to maintain control and slow down. The plane is now at a low and easy speed as we taxi into our terminal. And the little girl who is in my arms, not because she was scared but more or less bored from sitting still in a stuffy airplane cabin, gave out a very enthusiastic “HOORAY!!” and then promptly fell asleep on my shoulder.

She took her map there on my shoulder for the next half-hour as we exited the plane and walked to the baggage claim. All that time I kept thinking: This is hands-down my favorite moment of our week long trip.

We took Maddie on a week long vacation before to a beach resort town in a nice 2-bedroom condo last summer when she was still 1 and a half-ish. We drove down and she had her own room to sleep and nap. It was a trying yet manageable nice vacation and a good time for all I’d say. This year we were invited by my folks to join them in their Bermudian timeshare for the week along with my brother and his wife. Truth be told both me and my wife (and my mother) were a bit reluctant and nervous about taking the trip because of the traveling and Maddie’s possible terrible twos. We agreed though because it sounded like a great trip to take and with all the family members it might assist us and Maddie in being well-behaved.

Turns out our anxiety was a tad overstated. Maddie was in excellent form, very well-behaved and was very patient with everything from waiting at the airport, customs, the actual plane rides, the lunches and dinners and the bus rides and ferry rides as well. In fact we think she liked the many new modes of transportations she experienced this past week, especially the bus as she sang “The Wheels On The Bus” and pointed out the sights along the many twists and turns on Bermuda’s roads. She napped and slept well as per her usual and ate like a champ. Our only complaint about her was she didn’t like the beaches (not sure if it was the heat, sand or wind that bugged her) but she loved the pool, so it wasn’t the worst thing, although traveling that great distance to a tropical island with great crystal clear water beaches only to stay poolside was kind of a bummer.

So it turned out to be a great and wonderful vacation after all and we have my parents and brother and sister-in-law to thank for helping out and being loving and supportive.

However, and this is in no way a slight to my folks, but my wife and I realized that this was not really a vacation for her and I. We think it’ll be at least a decade to get to a point of a real vacation again for us. As parents with a young kid (and if we add more kids) vacations are really not vacations but being a parent in a new locale. We really didn’t sight-see nor relax poolside/beachside. Even dinners weren’t much different with us eating quick and on alert making sure she was behaved and helping her eat. Until the kids are preteens I would say traveling and vacationing will be really worthwhile. I think even my own mom would agree with me there.

But after all the fun things we did together and all the great meals we did in fact have, coming home again with a very happy child asleep on my shoulder was the best moment I received.

1 Comment | posted in Daddy blog, Emotions, New Experiences

June 19, 2011

Happy Poppa’s Day

By Brad

This morning my wife got my daughter as I still lay half-asleep in bed and as they approached me my adorable 25-month-old says “Happy Father’s Day, Daddie!” every word said with perfect enunciation. It nearly brought tears to my eyes and has made this Father’s Day a perfect day so far.

I wish all my fellow Fathers out there a very happy Father’s Day…Especially all the Stay-At-Homes! It takes a lot more to be a good Dad then to work for a living to provide for your family. I’m not saying I’m special because I’m the one home raising, teaching and playing with my daughter but I am light-years away from my own father who was a horrible example of a good father in every aspect of the role. Anyone could be a father but it takes a lot of love, patience and dedication to be a good Dad. I learned that at an early age and I’m proud to say I’m learning from those bad examples.

2 Comments | posted in Emotions