Blizzards and Tornadoes

For those of you not familiar with the weather on the East Coast we don't really get many a tornado, but we do get plenty of blizzards. Right now we're getting snow coming down so hard with such strong winds that it's literally moving sideways. And it's not supposed to get much better over the next couple days with forecasts calling for as much as a foot and up to two feet for some points east of here. It can really bite the big one, but as natural disasters go it's pretty tame since very few ever lose their houses like in tornadoes or earthquakes unless you don't shovel off your roof after the third foot starts to accumulate.

As for tornadoes, I'm not speaking of the weather related phenomenon, but instead of my son who turned 2 this past July. That leaves him right smack in the middle of what many describe as the "Terrible Twos" which leaves me scratching my head on a daily basis at this point. While I still think some overreact and demonize this point in a toddler's life by exaggerating tales of disobedience to the level of a minor war, there is much to ponder when it comes to the behavior the boy has been displaying of late. He wails about getting his way when if he'd merely asked for the thing in the first place I would have given it to him without question. When he doesn't get his way he crawls across the floor like he's reverting to a previous state in his development. By the end of the day it does look like the aftermath of a battlefield much of the time, but more than getting frustrated with him I'm interested to figure out what exactly is going on inside his head and I don't think it's just because he feels like being a royal pain.

So, for the first time in awhile I think I'll be turning to some of the child development books we bought before my son was even born. In many instances I have avoided reading them for fear I'd become one of those parents that asks the doctor why my kid isn't meeting every little developmental milestone at the exact moment the books tell me he should. That isn't to say I never look, but he knows most letters and numbers and his vocabulary is growing daily to the point where I can actually have a conversation with him! That also entails him getting into more trouble as his skills advance and is resulting in this most recent stage in his growth. More than anything, my common sense tells me that his "terrible" behavior is just the understandable stress of learning how to become a sentient being where everything is just a little bit alien to him. And if any of us were put in a similar situation, I think we'd be more than a little bit cranky too.

Behind on Blogging

The last month has been a busy one and has yet again kept me from blogging. I don't know why I essentially apologize every time I let so much time go by in my blog, but I usually feel compelled to do so since I'm probably neglecting other things too. Truth is, I've been pretty busy getting my laptop running again after it stopped working (and still isn't running very smoothly) and my continuing issues getting painting done around the house. On the first issue, I accidentally knocked the cord out while the system was accessing the registry, which I now know is really bad. I ended up having to reinstall everything and with the move I can't find many of my software disks.

Not good.

On the second issue, the woman who owned the house before us didn't know what primer is used for when painting, so I've had to sand just about everything, everywhere! It's been a pain in my ass and I haven't even touched my zendo yet. Hopefully that will come soon, but I'm pretty much through with making predictions. The good news is that I have a good portion of the kitchen painted and it looks pretty damn good. I think anything besides the bland white walls in every room would be an improvement, but I think the wife and I did well picking colors.

In a weird last piece of news, we have a neighbor with lots of lawn equipment and time on his hands. I've been pretty clear with him when we've chatted that I want to do the lawn work myself so I learn how it's done, but he seems to keep ignoring that and mowing my lawn anyway. He's a nice guy and doesn't mean any harm, but I was planning to use the leaves and grass clippings he removed for compost. I just wish when I asked someone not to do something, they listen...actually, doing what I ask to be done would be nice too, but I won't get greedy.

One Becomes Two

Just a quick entry today as I've finally gotten that "other blog" started! As I state in my first post there, I won't stop posting here, but I did want to keep the focus of each one separate for now. At some point they may come together again, who knows? If I could predict the future I think my daily routine would be different...or would it? LOL!

Anyway, here's the link and I hope you'll join me for both sides of my blogging life: http://thezendoproject.blogspot.com/

Cheers!

Things, They Are A Changing

As my regular readers know, I have been struggling with the decision on whether I should continue my doctoral program. I have gone both ways for a long time, but now I have officially decided to stop. I have known it was the right thing to do for some time now, so it's good I finally listened to myself. I wish I knew exactly where I was headed, but the possibilities of the unknown are more attractive than what I've left behind.

Over Labor Day we went up north to see my parents and we had a great time, but the boy and I came back with nasty colds. He was actually better at dealing with it than I was! The funniest thing has been trying to teach him how to blow his nose because it's not something you can really convey through action. To him it just looks like I'm holding a tissue up to my face and making a funny noise. So, many wipes later we're both back to normal and breathing through our noses again.

Now with a lot of "free time" on my hands, I've mostly been working on small projects around the house and out in the yard. It's only today that I feel that the house is becoming uncluttered! Part of it though is the reduction in my stress level which I think has been all to the good. Something else that will help that is my often referred to "other" blog project that will finally be revealed by this weekend! My idea is to have it be interactive, so get ready to offer your opinions!

Last but not least, I've added some new pictures of the boy from the last 9 months and if you haven't seen him lately he's definitely changed a lot. I'm really looking forward to doing more activities with him and can tell that his positive outlook on life is rubbing off on the old man. I love ya boy! I think the changes I'm going through will be good, but they are a bit scary. Just one step at a time, right? Make sure to breathe.

Spam, Spam, Everywhere!

At this time last week I thought the biggest issue facing my return to a less hectic life was met with everyone's favorite email treat, Spam. For the last few weeks the amount of spam accumulating in my inbox has been crazy, but now it's up to an insane level. Most of it is fake messages from eBay members, so those are easy to spot, but since I do sell on eBay I obviously have to open most of them. I'm also getting ones on themes I'm more familiar with like, "I'm the lawyer for Prince Sidar of Qatar and he'll sign over his fortune to you if you just send us $1,000" Everyone gets those, right?

Anyway, it's made life at the computer a bit more difficult that normal, but add that to the boxes we still have to unpack and I'm running behind. Oh poor little me. :) I've fallen out of touch with some folks I really wanted to keep contact with during the move and it just became impossible. Well, maybe not impossible, but certainly more difficult.

So, fortunately this post should signal the beginning of my emergence from chaos, at least from an online standpoint. We leave on Friday to visit my folks back in my hometown which we haven't visited since last December! That'll be a nice getaway I think and I'm sure the boy will love it. Hopefully, I will too!

Tomorrow I'll have some pictures (yes, I finally uploaded them) and perhaps I'll finally reveal that new blog project I mentioned before. Well, let's not get too ambitious shall we? Maybe that won't make it until we get back from our trip, but sometimes miracles do happen. Now, go out and enjoy that summertime before it's all gone.

Boxes, Boxes Everywhere!

I finally got the desktop set up this evening and I'm still surrounded by all our collected crap! We've been just keeping ahead of things and I'm very glad we're done with the moving part. Not that I'm overcome with joy about finding room for everything, but trust me it's nothing compared to all the hauling. As you might expect, my other blog project hasn't gotten anywhere yet, but having the main computer setup so I can download pics is a big step in the right direction.

I've mainly been busy doing my househusband duties of trying to keep the lawn green instead of brown, washing our large collection of dirty laundry (new washer and dryer...yay!), and generally making sure the boy doesn't get hurt while he dodges all of our belongings that are stacked in the dining room. He's been a real champ through the whole thing and continues to amaze me with his happy go lucky outlook on life.

So, as things begin to settle in I hope I'll be blogging more regularly. I won't make promises there since I haven't done so well in the past when I say that, but I think it'll happen. I also have to catch up on friend's blogs that I have accumulated in my Bloglines account. Sorry everyone! I'm sure you miss my witty (or not) comments more than life itself! ;) Now, if I can just find my way out of the boxes maze to find the stairs, it's off to bed. More to come...

Change of Scenery

Well folks, it's been another long pause in entries, but this time I have a damn good reason. We moved into a house! We've been staying nights here since Saturday and have all the large stuff moved. We still have a mostly empty apartment to clean though and have to be out completely by Sunday. It's been kinda weird to be honest since it doesn't seem like we live here! We're very happy though and once my muscles stop hurting I think we'll settle in nicely!

I've been thinking a lot about where I'd like this blog to go since I often feel like I'm showing off by talking about the good side of things. As is always the case, there is bad stuff too but I'm never excited to mention that stuff. I'd like to do something positive with my "blog time", so I've decided to start another one. I'm not ending this one necessarily, especially since the other will be a project based blog that will have an obvious end point.

Now that I've teased it a bit, I'll just say that it has to do with the little room here in the house that I'll be using as a room for my Zen practice. I have a name picked out for the blog and will start on it soon, but I have to do some work on the rest of the house first! And we have to unpack. It'll be up soon however and I'm hoping to make it interactive with my readers helping me make various choices about how to design the room. Stay tuned!

House & Home

Well, faithful readers, I have yet again been away for too long. Usually it's something minor, but this time it's a biggie: My wife and I are homeowners! We just bought a modest house in a fairly well to do town and couldn't be happier about it. I've been dead tired from washing, sanding, and painting and the last thing I've wanted to do is write a blog entry, but it's about time I did, don't you think?

We closed about two weeks ago now and have been working on the house on weekends and spent the 4th over there too. One BIG help has been some rain over the last two days that was light but steady, the kind that the soil can actually absorb instead of these "Global Warming Specials" that give you a horrific thunderstorm with two inches of rain, but in the span of about 60 minutes! It's not that I don't know how to water a lawn, but how much do you water it? What's the best time to do it? I know the answers now, but you wouldn't believe the amount of time you spend learning about what formerly seemed like such obvious things.

So, that's obviously taken up most of my time with packing and watching the boy taking up the rest. He's growing like a weed these days and becoming more intelligible everyday. He's still sticking mostly to one or two word phrases which seems a little behind for his age, but the kid also knows half the alphabet now which is supposedly way ahead of his age. All I know is that he seems to learn more everyday and that can only be a good thing. Larger statistics are pretty much meaningless when it comes to your own kid, although I know they are useful for teachers who have to deal with 20+ at a time. However, in one way or another your child will always been an outlier of some kind...and that's a good thing!

Anyway, the boy is being fussy about eating his banana and keeps asking for his favorite "Appis" known to the rest of us as applesauce, so I best run for now. Pictures will be coming soon, I promise!

Counting Down

Last night after my wife came home, we were sitting in the living room with the Boy and his Sesame Street coloring book. It basically has all the major characters with an emphasis on Elmo (Don't get me started on Elmo since that's for another time). At the moment the Boy can say "Ehwo" (Elmo), "Ocker" (Oscar), "Growrow" (Grover), and "CooCoo" (Cookie Monster). He'll easily point them out to you in a book or when the show is on, but we heard a new one yesterday that made us laugh.

The Boy has always been very interested in The Count and although he will only say the numbers 1, 8, and 9, he tries to count along as best he can. So, when my wife pointed to a picture of The Count yesterday, the Boy said what I thought was "Haha!" which is pretty cute by itself, but we soon realized that he was saying something different. If you remember anything about The Count, it's usually his monicle or his bat like features, but his trademark is a very particular laugh followed by loud thunder and lightning. Well, every time you show the Boy a picture of The Count, you get a huge smile and a hearty "Ah Ah Ah!"

Yes, these are the little things that make other people with kids go "Awww!" and people without kids say "Jeeez!" I used to be one of the latter, but now I find such things as cute as buttons. :)

Long Time Gone

I know I seem to write this same entry every few months and I'm sure it's getting boring, but there has been some really heavy crap going on lately that really makes blogging seem very unimportant. I'm not saying that it is since I find posting to be cathartic, but it has seemed that way. It's nothing I really want to write about at the present time, though perhaps I will after some time has passed.

That class I was teaching this past semester finally ended about a week ago and I'm glad it's over. My crop this year was less than stellar to say the very least. That's not to say that I didn't have ANY good ones, but they were much more scarce than last year. It's good for the resume (the pay sucks) and I like doing the planning, so I'll still do it if they'll have me next year. I'm actually hoping to teach some different courses this Fall or next Spring. We'll see.

The boy is as healthy and spry as ever as he nears his second birthday. I'll get the pictures we've been taking up soon for folks to see, but suffice it to say he's developing as he should. He has this thing where he likes to introduce my wife and I to everyone we meet as if they couldn't tell. He points to my wife and says, "Mama", then to me, "Dada", and ends with a big grin. People eat that up, especially in the checkout at the grocery store. He's definitely a boy now as opposed to a baby, but it's just another step along his journey. I don't bemoan the passing of one stage and just look forward to the next with anticipation.

The thing I most want to accomplish in the near future is to explore what it means to say I'm a Buddhist. As I type this I think I said the same thing in my last post, so excuse the repeat if that's the case. I've been reading a book my mother got me last year called "There's Nothing Wrong With You" by Cheri Huber, who is a Zen Buddhist, and it's not your typical book. However, it is very Zen in turning the responsibility for our lives back onto ourselves, but at the same time realizing our oneness with all that surrounds us. Next I want to start reading a book a friend gave me as a gift last year that I began reading but never finished. I had been planning to start reading that book again, but with the aforementioned "crap" the Huber book was much more applicable. I also have to start seeking out other Buddhists to really learn what it's all about.

So, that's it for now. Hopefully my next post (or more importantly the two or three posts after that) won't be another one of these redundant recaps! Breaking from the cycle? That would be cool!

Tragedy at Virginia Tech

I was just getting my son his lunch when I found out about the shootings at Virginia Tech. Details are still coming in and the authorities don't have all the facts, but right now at least 31 people are dead, many presumably students, in the worst mass shooting in U.S. history. I also heard someone say that the anniversary of Columbine is just 4 days away and that type of viloence has now spread from K-12 to the area I have dedicated my studies to, colleges and university. There have been shootings on campuses before, most notably the students shot by National Guard troops at Kent State in the early 1970s, but there has never been anything like this on campus or off.

I was very affected by Columbine when it happened, but this one has hit me harder. I'm not exactly sure why, although I'm sure my connection to higher education has something to do with it. I had always theorized that high school shootings were due to the pressures and lack of self determination felt by the shooters, thinking that such wouldn't be the case at a university. However, now that I think about it I shouldn't be surprised. I should obviously reserve judgement until we find out what happened and it may have been a more targeted attack. I just can't imagine what the students are going through and as I heard them talking to various eyewitnesses there was an erie calm in their voices that was clearly the result of shock.

There will be a lot of analysis done in the days following this event and I suppose we'll find out more after that has been completed. However, I think that like Columbine we'll never really have all the answers. I just can't imagine why someone would go this far and kill so many people. It's just hard to comprehend right now.

Paper Placemats

There hasn't been much to post this last week since I've been cleaning the apartment. My parents were supposed to come this weekend to see us and the boy (ok, really just the boy), but the snow that cancelled baseball games last week is cancelling travel plans all over the northeast. Suffice it to say that cleaning up cat fur off the carpet doesn't make for very exciting blog posts, but if that kind of thing interests you, try one of these which work wonders on carpets!

Except for my inability to hit high notes and still sounding like a lifetime smoker, everyone in the household is healthy again and the boy is back to his old tricks. I was warned long ago that the real trouble starts when toddlers start exploring in the third dimension: furniture. We've created a reasonably effective buffer so he can't get into too much trouble, but I feel like I'm guarding a POW camp where the prisoners are always working on methods of escape. Today I went upstairs to visit the little daddy's room and when I returned I found him sitting in a chair "reading" an issue of Consumer Reports with a very suspicious look on his face. It gave me the image of someone quickly trying to look casual after doing something in secret. But he's not that smart yet...right?

I've always tried to keep a balance between teaching the boy new things and remembering to just play with him and have fun. However, he needs very little prodding from either myself or my wife since he loves books and will sit for extended periods pointing at the pages and talking a blue streak in his own little toddler-speak. He seems to be very fond of vowels, especially A, E, and O, sometimes I, but is not real fond of U and Y is something we just don't talk about. ;)Every time I take him outside our apartment he notices the letters on each door as we go down the stairs and says them out loud as we go. It's basically teaching him the alphabet song except in reverse since we live on the top floor.

So, fortunately I have another week before my parents show up and hopefully we can pawn the boy off on them at least one night so my wife and I can go somewhere without kids menus or paper placemats. Actually, I wouldn't mind having the placemats since it gives you something to do before your food comes, you can draw inside the lines for a change, and it helps you to remember that you don't have to clean up the table yourself. For non-parents, that might not sound like much of an evening, but it really is the little things, trust me.

Let's Play Ball...in the Snow?

If you know me well, you know I'm a rabid baseball fan and have been since I was a kid. Some wonder how I ended up a Boston Red Sox fan since I've lived in New York my entire life. Short version: My Dad was a Brooklyn Dodgers fan who followed the Mets after the Dodgers left Brooklyn, married my mother when both were going to college in Connecticut, and was offered a ticket to Game 2 of the 1967 World Series at Fenway Park in Boston. Since then he's been a Red Sox fan and I have too. It's not always easy being in New York, but that got a bit easier in 2004 when the Sox won it all and made grown men from all over New England cry like babies.

As a fanatic, the beginning of April is a joyous time since the boys of summer start their work after a long cold winter. I'm used to seeing wide green fields of grass bathed in golden sunlight, but while the boy and I were watching today it was snowing instead. What? It's not exactly a new happening and it has been more common since Opening Day was moved from the third week in April to the first one. One time my Dad and I went to an April game at Fenway which was delayed for about an hour or two so they could shovel the outfield! I remember one of the outfielders slipped on the wet grass and broke his leg, so he ended up being out for the season. Fortunately, I haven't heard of that happening this year.

It's been fun for me watching games with the boy since he finds movement on the TV interesting but doesn't really have any idea what's taking place. His favorite moment is when they put the score up on the screen and he points to the letters and numbers. He also responds whenever they say "ball" which in his voice sounds more like "baaaah", but the best part is the huge tooth filled smile he gets on his face. After being sick for the last week he's really returned to his old self which is a wonderful thing to see. The kid is just so happy and steady, although he has been more likely to get frustrated when he needs something or simply wants something. I think he's just learning to ask for what he wants and isn't always sure how to do that. Some call this the beginning of the terrible twos, referring to themselves as the ones who have it "terrible", but it's really the kids that have it that way since there's so much they want to do but don't know how to do. That has to be very overwhelming for him at times, but he always seems to bounce back anew.

So, I'm looking forward to watching more games and hopefully taking the boy to one before long. He and I also play soccer with an undersized ball (small for me, just right for him) which my parents gave him last summer. Whether he hears me say ball or from the TV, he goes and grabs it so he can get me to kick it around with him. Eventually I'm sure we'll get him a glove and basebaaaah to go along with his soccer ball, but I think I'll wait until it stops snowing each spring before we go out and play catch.

Under the Weather

The apartment has been a bit of a clinic the last week or so with all three of us getting sick at various times. My wife had a cold which I got and am still getting over while the boy has a rotavirus and the cold at the same time. For most families this is pretty much par for the course and I'm not really complaining, but as a stay at home kid he's been sick very rarely. So, when he began vomiting up every meal last week we were understandably concerned. In some ways it's good for the boy to have some illness since it helps build immunity, but it's not like you'd take your kid to a mall and ask other people to sneeze on him!

After about a week of Pedialyte and Cheerios for most of his meals, he's getting back on track and my wife re-introduced some regular food last night at dinner. During the worst of it the boy was so listless which is so not like him and probably why we were alarmed by his symptoms. The kid is always happy! People regularly ask us, "Is he always like this or does he really like me?" I'm a "honesty is the best policy" type of person, but lately I've wondered if it might make them feel special if I said, "No, he must really like you!". Actually, I think it's both. He's happy by himself, he's happy with us, and he's happy with everyone he meets!

Well, I better go get the boy his lunch of ...you guessed it! I'm trying to shake my own cold and keep waking him up with my latest coughing fit. Hopefully we'll all be back to 100% by the end of the week so we can celebrate Easter and the coming of spring. It's about time!

Time Away

When I was logging in I noticed that it has been quite awhile since I posted: February 20th! Yikes! I knew it had been a few weeks, but I honestly didn't think it had been that long. I had this great plan to post more often and on more interesting topics and obviously that didn't work out like I expected. I want to post, but I think making these grand plans isn't really working.

Recently, I was reading through another blog and the owner was trying to decide whether or not he should split his blog into two different ones. His logic was that he had two very different threads of thoughts to explore and thought keeping two blogs might be easier. I may be remembering incorrectly, but I think he also said he had tried it once before and it hadn't been as successful as he'd hoped. I know I am getting those details a little off, so please don't quote me on that! Anyway, he asked the readers which way he should go and I voted to keep the blog one unified blog and wrote that it wasn't really necessary since I liked the different topics all rolled into one.

Now, I'm not making a particular comment on what he should do since it's his blog since I want him to do whatever strikes his fancy, but I'm beginning to think that we bloggers worry too much about organization, fancy names, focus points, etc. When I think about my own blog I wrestle with all these issues, but as a reader I love the hodgepodge, potpourri, whatever you call it makeup of blogs that take all kinds of twists and turns. So, what's the point? I think I've spent too much time thinking about what I'm going to write rather than actually writing! Or I post pointless stuff like this post!

Regardless, I'm going to go back to posting about things that occur to me, updates on the family (I have a few ready to go!), and all that fancy jazzy stuff. I'm back baby!

P.S. What happened to my profile picture!?!

Happy Birthday/Rest In Peace K.C.

I was about to call it a night when I saw that Kurt Cobain would have turned 40 years old today. My brother is only a couple years older than he would have been, so it's not like the greying of Generation X hasn't been in my mind. However, when you think of an infamous figure like Kurt Cobain being an age that I remember my father being (I was 10), it makes you do a double take to say the least. I remember one day over ten years ago being witness to a discussion on whether Nirvana's music would hold up and be regarded as one of the best bands of all time. I feel wholly unqualified to offer an opinion there, but I remember both sides being at completely opposite ends. In the end it was probably due to the fact that one of these individuals worshiped Nirvana and the other hated them with a passion. However, I'd be interested to know what each of them would say now, especially on K.C.'s 40th birthday. Whatever your feeling on him or the band, I add my approval of the overwhelming message on the net: We wish his daughter Frances Bean a peace her father never experienced.

Gen-X Hipsters?

There has been much buzz about an article in Time Magazine on the new generation of parents and the attempt to make their kids as hip as they think they are. Author James Poniewozik writes:

"It is said that children should be seen, not heard, but that expression is sometimes better applied to parents. Until recently the most egregious parental oversharing was usually your sister-in-law's Christmas letter or the guy with the endless stream of baby photos. But there's a new species of chatty dad and mom: the hipster parent-memoirist." Time: 2/8/007

Poniewozik makes the obligatory argument that parenting has changed for the Generation X crowd which probably could have been stated without his article; that's never a good sign for something you hoped would be thought provoking. However, I suppose it is worth pointing out that the "Children of the Children of the 60s" will obviously be more about punk rock and 80s pop than their parents before them. Truth be told, I have felt this impulse somewhat in wanting the boy to listen to "grown up" tunes fancied by myself and my wife, but when I turn on the XM feed from the computer I find that he responds much more to XM Kids than our favorite channel, Flight 26. You'll get the occasional Beatles track redone or some 90s band doing a cover of their own song translated into "Muppetese", but for the most part it's simple songs in 4/4 time.

While Poniewozik takes the time to point out the idiosyncrasies of Gen-X parents, he only briefly acknowledges his own membership in the club while writing the rest of the piece as if he were an outsider. In the concluding paragraph he remarks:

"I sympathize with the parents. But I sympathize more with the toddlers whose bouts of playing with themselves, feces hurling and projectile vomiting are being recorded, page by gigabyte, for posterity. Someday, one will write his or her own memoir of growing up in public."

This idea of our kids growing up with blogs and journals written about their daily routine is especially poignant in my newly refocused blog since I have wondered what the boy will think of my psychoanalyzing his every action, making light of his adventures in peeing into a toilet, or his awkwardness in learning the English language. It'll of course be years before I'd even be able to talk to him about it, so all I can do is press on and hope he'll forgive me for our generation's "family album".

What I think Poniewozik forgets is that everything that our parents thought was cool was too "them" for us to ever take seriously or talk about with our friends. Did any of my fellow Gen-Xers go to into class one day in elementary school and say, "Hey man, my parents saw Hendrix at Woodstock!" or "Check out my awesome Beach Boys t-shirt!". Of course some of us came to appreciate the sounds of the 50s and 60s, but none of that shows up in any of the parents from the Time article. So, why would Poniewozik ever expect our kids to think of us as anything but (to borrow a Baby Boomer buzzword) "squares"?

Right now our kids wear what we want them to and listen to what we like, but that's only for a fleeting few years before we're not the coolest thing in their world. It's not their fault and it isn't ours, but we have to let our kids define themselves and all we can do in the meantime is expose them to our "groovy tunes" and do whatever makes them feel loved but not smothered. Maybe one day down the road if you're lucky, your son or daughter will find an old U2 t-shirt or some old mix CDs and say, "Hey Mom and Dad, what are these all about?" Then you'll probably cry happy tears that make them get embarrassed and red in the face...just like our parents did with us.

Rolling Along

I've thought a lot over the last two weeks about what I'd like this blog to become. When I started I planned to let its function evolve and I don't regret that decision at all. However, I think the blog has become a bit stale and I'd like to infuse it with some new material and a better focus. To that end, I took some time to look into RSS feeds and setting up searches that will help me find content I'd like to read. I thought it would provide grist for the mill while organizing everything that's out there!

While searching for articles about dads and fathers was pretty general and would have resulted in countless hits, the terms "gen x" and "generation x" brought in a smaller number of results that was more manageable. The topics I found ranged from sports to politics to parenting. It's still been a bit overwhelming with everything to read, but that's just honed my organization skills to get articles sorted. There's definitely a number of discussions going on out there and I'll be sharing some of that here.

With this new focus, I don't want to lose the stuff I have been doing, like updates on my family, things I'm doing, and whatever thoughts come into my head. Perhaps I'll get bored with the new focus eventually, but I'm just letting the entries flow to see what happens. If I like it, I'll continue. If I don't, I'll do something else. Not much of a plan, but it works for me right now and I think we'll all learn something in the process. So, if you happen upon this blog after I've done a few posts on the new theme, please do let me know what you think. There's a lot to discuss, so let's get rolling shall we? :)

I'm Sorry, What Was I Saying?

Tonight is the first time I've felt able to stop since the beginning of the week, more mentally than physically. My class started on Monday and everything is going smoothly, but there's always a lot of busy work to be done. Answering student questions about access to the course materials, formats for their assignments, testing me to see what kind of teacher I am. It's all pretty straightforward, but it seems to fry my brain pretty well by the end of the day.

The boy has been very expressive this week (another thing keeping me busy) and seems to be grasping emotions like love, comfort, and safety. He's had happiness, joy, and squealing down pat for awhile. Squealing isn't exactly an emotion, but when he belts one out it's distinctly different than the other two. His new word for everything, from Bert & Ernie, to pictures of animals, and of course our feline is "gitty-GAT". He seems to go through cycles where he's constantly saying one word at a time. The kid is so frickin adorable.

You know, I think I've been kind of shuffling along in this blog, not really having a clear focus and I end up talking about how tired I am. It's not exactly an exciting read as a result, although it has been cathartic at times which is only a good thing. I guess I'd like the blog to be about something but I don't know what that is. I started this blog with the intention of writing about a new phase of my life and it certainly has been one. So, where does that leave me?

It's not like I thought I'd have daily flashes of brilliance about being a dad, especially since it doesn't work like that. To be honest, I'm really not sure what I thought! Well, it seems like I may have discovered a thread to follow there. :) I've also wanted to fit in my thoughts and feelings on Buddhism somehow, but I haven't been making the time to learn more about it myself. That's definitely another thread. Interesting...we'll see where this goes.

Snowy Days

Ok, ok...I know this post is a week late, but I have excuse...I mean, reasons! Yeah, that's it! That's the ticket! All kidding aside (well, at least for the remainder of this sentence), it has been a busy week as I start teaching a class next week and am getting all my prep done as early as I can. I taught the same course last spring, so I'm in much better shape than when I started from scratch back then. However, it's always nerve wracking to have 20 or so students looking to you to guide them to no less than a C after it's all said and done.

I also must report that my beloved New England Patriots were bounced from the playoffs on Sunday, but the 3 Super Bowl trophies they've won over the last 5 years does offset some of the pain. ;) While many fans are lamenting the loss and ready to break up the team, the team improved from its results in 2005 and with so many teams vying for two spots in the big game you have to be happy with getting to the final four. There's always next year!

The pictures in this post are from December and I had plenty of shots from which to choose. While the boy was around for the previous winter, his first real encounter with snow came with a visit to my parents. They live about 1,600 feet higher in elevation than where we live, so they had a good amount of the white stuff to do some sledding. I basically pulled him back and forth in the street and he had a grand old time as you can probably tell in this last shot.

Speaking of snow, we're already making up for all that we missed in December and the beginning of January. Driving has been a challenge for my wife on her way to work as the lake effect snow machine is really cranking it out. As I predicted a few posts ago, I'm very glad it's here actually as my allergies were driving me nuts. The skiers are loving this weather no doubt and hopefully we'll get the boy back on the slopes (at least the ones on my in-law's lawn) before it melts.

Jason Jones: Great Dad?

Due to the ice storm here in the east, I'll keep my entry tonight extremely brief and post the boy's December pictures tomorrow, assuming we have power. :)

This is the Daily Show segment I referred to in an earlier post about being a new dad that I was trying to find. My wife and I found it hilarious at the time, so hopefully it isn't stale after a few months time.

Enjoy!

Sunday, Lazy Sunday

It's been a lazy weekend here and that's not at all a bad thing. We're supposedly getting a big storm over the next 24 hours and the only question is the condition of the precipitation that we're going to get. It could be anywhere from sleet, to freezing rain, to heavy snow. At times like this you just make sure you have enough milk for the boy and prepare for the worst...and then nothing usually happens. ;)

The pictures in this post are from November when the boy really went through a growth spurt. He also began using words more purposefully rather than just random sounds all the time. His favorite has been "Mmmmmm" when he eats which I guess doesn't really count as a word, but let's just say that he's clearly expressing an emotional state. Much to his mother's delight (and mine) he actually likes to clean up after himself, although as soon as he's done putting things away he just gets them out again. So, we just have to time it correctly and we're good.

This week has been about giving the boy some new foods to try. We wanted him to have a steady course of foods for awhile to settle him into a routine, but we bought pineapple, watermelon, yogurt, and some different cereals so he could experiment. So far he likes everything we give him (still not crazy about carrots) and even gave me a dirty look when I took away his yogurt dish the other day. Tonight's new item? Kiwi!

The boy's best gift this Christmas was a family pass to the local museum that has recently undergone a large renovation. We checked it out earlier in the summer, but now we can go pretty much anytime we want which is very cool. We also get member only previews of new exhibits which this month includes some local Buddhists creating a sand mandala. As for regular programs, there's a toddler book club that I hope will be fun for myself and the boy. Our local library doesn't have any programs he can attend which I think is really stupid, but we're going to try some other libraries in the area too.

Right now I'm getting distracted by the Pats-Chargers game, so I'll leave it at that for now and post the boy's pictures from December tomorrow. However, if I don't make sure someone sends us a Saint Bernard with the barrel around his neck! By the way, what do they put in those barrels anyway? Water? Cocoa? Whiskey? Antifreeze? We'll consider that our Depends Adult Undergarments Question of the Week! Answer correctly and you won't win anything but the satisfaction of answering a really silly question.

P.S. I just noticed how crazed the boy looks in these pictures, but in reality he's just a total ham for a camera. Although, given many of the other pictures I've posted I'm guessing most of you probably figured that out already. He does have some calm moments too...mostly when he's asleep. ;)

Natal Americans: A Growing Problem? :)

This video segment from The Daily Show aired on Tuesday night with correspondents Samantha Bee and Jason Jones. It's called "Baby Talk" and seems like it might become a regular segment. Part of the joke is that they are married in real life and had a baby earlier in the year. Their first segment a few months back was about dads just before Sam came back from her maternity leave and was absolutely hilarious. I will have to track that clip down, but here I present the first installment of what I hope will be a regular feature:

It's possible some may not find the jokes about obesity to be funny, but I think it points out the excess of parents who feed their baby unhealthy foods as well as those that worry about it far too much. So, it takes "the middle way" which is of special significance to me and I just think it's pretty funny. :)

The Holidays: Afterword

Note: I've been trying to upload this post for about a day now, but for some reason I couldn't get it to spell check or upload photos. So, I hope it was worth the wait! :)

It's been another long lull in my posting, so I've already broken my 1st New Year's resolution to post more often. That means 2007 is already tainted, but I think I still have time to turn it around. ;) The big news is that we finally got a good batch of snow today after too many days of nothing but yellowing grass. The ski areas have been hit hard, although some were able to make snow since it was cold enough at night. Even though it can be a pain, I really did miss the snow and got a taste of what it might be like if we ever moved someplace without it. I could certainly live without snow, but there is something about truly experiencing all four seasons that leaves me with a feeling of comfort.

Speaking of snow, my wife and I got some great pictures of the boy over the holidays which I am eager to post, but I'll take some time over the next few days to post a few from October, November, and December first. The pictures in this post are from October and I can't believe how much he has grown. The boy is almost exactly 18 months old now and he's really developing a personality. Any ambivalence he had about saying "yes" and "no" from my last post is gone as he definitely asserts his independence. It's gotten to the point that he whines a bit when he doesn't get his way, but it certainly isn't defiant whatsoever. After a minute or a so he's always back to his normal self.

The holidays were a chore, which is kind of a shame, but as I have said to others I wouldn't have it any other way than to experience this time of year with the boy. So, in the end it was a good time, just very different from when it was only my wife and I. Everything takes longer because you have more stuff that needs to travel with you at all times. Just going down to see my in-laws who live 30 minutes away is tiring, so you can probably imagine my thoughts on visiting my own parents who live 5 and a half hours away. Yikes!

In other news, I actually won my fantasy football league which still shocks me three weeks later. Maybe it was because I didn't think about it as much as someone who plays it every year or maybe it was just dumb luck, but winning something always boosts the ego, albeit in a healthy way...unless you start laying down money on the stuff which is pretty ridiculous. The greatest aspect was that I connected with a few other stay at home dads and that's the real reason I joined in the first place.

If I can get back on track with posts, I'll get the boy's most recent pictures up by Monday, but anyone can feel free to bug me about it if I don't make my own deadline. I hope everyone's holidays were safe and happy!