Abby Turns 2!

Today is Abby’s birthday.  Sitting here, thinking, its hard to let it sink in and realize that what has felt like such a very short amount of time, has in reality already been a couple of years.
I still remember her being tiny, cuddling up to my neck to sleep, and always fighting to be swaddled in her blanket.  How being able to simply raise her head was a big event, and how I used to go check on her, and have to look at her chest rise and fall because she was so small and quiet as she slept.  I still can feel the combination of anticipation, anxiety, and worry as she came 3 weeks early.  I can still feel the fear in my chest as my four month old laid in a crib, in a hospital room for a week, doctors never being entire sure what was wrong, and the subsequent worry in the back of my mind the next few times she got sick and ran a high fever.  I still can tear up, if she gives off this one type of cry, where you know she’s in pain, or not sure what’s going on as I have to help hold her still to get a shot.  Where Canaan, through all the adversity I have to go through and have gone through, is my strength, Abby is my heart.
It amazes me, how this little girl; who sometimes has such a short attention span because she wants to bounce from one thing to another, can sense and know, when I need a hug or a kiss from her the most.  When I need to see her smile to get me out of a funk.  Its like she can see through me, and know, no matter what.  (And yes, I’m sure in ways this will bite me in the butt in 14-16 years, but damnit I’m going to enjoy it for now)  No matter what, even if I’m not in the mood to smile, she knows she can shoot me this one type of cheesy grin, and there’s nothing I can do about it.  (On a side note, it amazes me she’s already figured out to use this to try and get out of stuff too.)  Even something as simple as the way she says certain words, gets me to grin and my heart to swell.
There is no question, in my mind, that she makes me a better person, a better man, and even makes me strive for more.  Where it used to somewhat upset me, all the things I got to experience with her I didn’t with  Canaan, she’s helped me realize, how important it is to make the best out of what time I do get with him.  Her love and admiration for her big brother takes my breath at times, but has also helped to heal some of the scars I’d built up.  She has healed my heart in many ways that no one will ever realize.
There isn’t a day that goes by that my baby girl doesn’t amaze me in one way or another.  Not a day that she doesn’t give me something to smile about or at.  There’s not a moment that goes by that she doesn’t make me proud to be her Daddy and thankful that she’s my Bug.  I love her with everything that is in me.  She is my heart and my inspiration.  She has been the center of many of the greatest moments of my adult life, and today, she’s 2.

Abby 2nd Birthday Invitations

They didn’t come out exactly how I originally envisioned, and part of that came from not having the time I wanted to, and the difficulty I was finding in working with compatible software with the Cricut we have at the house, so I had to simplify the design, but they still came out good, and people seem to be liking it, so that’s all that counts.  I just wanted to do something she could be proud of later, when she’s ole enough to appreciate it.

A Simple Crayon to Make Daddy Happy

While I’m sitting here in a small town in Kentucky waiting on a phone company to get back in contact with me, I thought I’d sit here and take advantage of the town’s free Wi-fi to write up and share a little something that happened earlier.
To give you some background, Abby loves going through stuff, like any kid her age does.  Now that she has figured out how to work a zipper, if it has a zipper, she wants to see what is inside.  Well last night was no exception when it came to my laptop bag.  I of course had no issue with her going through it, as she wasn’t going to hurt anything, plus it was keeping her happy and occupied thinking she was doing something special going through Daddy’s bag.  At one point, she brings over a notepad I carry in the bag that I use for writing down downs, and sometimes doodling when I’m bored.  Of course I ripped out a page for my Bug, letting her sit next to me and draw with her crayons on one of Daddy’s sheets of paper.  Nothing special, nothing really extravagant, but it made her happy and brought joy to her eyes, and that’s what matters.
Well, I’m not sure when or how since I was sitting right next to her, but the little booger managed to draw on more then the one sheet of paper I ripped out for her.  Earlier I was searching my bag for a cable that I typically carry with me, and found that cable replaced with 2 crayons.  Fortunately it wasn’t a big deal she had taken the cable out of the bag, but even if it had ruined the entire day, I don’t think it would have mattered, because seeing those two crayons sitting in my bag just brought so much joy and love into me that I couldn’t help but smile and laugh a little.  On a day that I’m already dragging my feed before noon, my baby girl finds a way to breath life and energy into me and brighten my entire day and demeanor simply by leaving two colored wax sticks in my laptop bag.  Now of course I’d like to sit here and think that she did it on purpose.  Being clever enough to know if she left them in my bag, that at some point Daddy would see them, knowing she left them there, and it would bring happiness and a smile to him, brightening his entire day up.
You would think that would be the extent of it, but nope!  I pull out my notepad, to make a few notes on my hours the past few days and some random thoughts I had, and what do I find?  A brown doodled mess!  So if the crayons weren’t enough to bring me a little big of joy, the doodle that my baby girl somehow managed to sneak into my notebook for me to find has brightened my entire day!  She might not be 2 just yet, but I’m giving my baby all the credit in the world on knowing how to make her Daddy happy, on what will end up being another long day for me today, she’s managed to give me the extra step to get through it with a smile.  Thank you baby.

Someone’s Birthday is coming up…

Well, I did it last year, and again this year I’ve taken it upon myself to make up the invitations to Bug’s birthday party.  I have a lot of ideas I need to take the time to expand on, including taking advantage of a Cricut that I’ve yet to use. Since she was born, Bug has been obsessed and loved elephants, so I wanted to do a little Calvin & Hobbes homage with Abby and her elephant.  Still a ton of work to do, but still wanted to share what I’ve done up to this point.

Lego Night

Okay, I’ll come right out and admit this.  I have recently went back to my childhood and developed an interest in Legos again.  I’m pretty sure it started when I was reading another blog by a father, about getting his daughter a Lego set, but I’m not setting that in stone. (Nor will I say its just my overwhelming inner child finding a new way to break free)

So, while trying to figure out some stuff to do with the kids, I decided that getting one or two Lego sets, something we could do together, would be a nice attempt, a test we’ll say, at doing something that gets them away from watching TV for more then 5 minutes.  Well, I decided to start with Canaan since I had him this weekend, and he was simple enough to find a Lego set for.  Toy Story has been his life for the past year since Toy Story 3 came out, so when I saw a few different sets at the store, it was simply a matter of picking which one.

I went with the Woody and Buzz to the Rescue set, which recreates a scene from the first Toy Story movie, where Buzz has a rocket strapped to his back and they’re on RC.  The best part about this one is that RC works where you can pull the car back and it takes off on the floor, and when I say takes off, I mean this little toy has to kick to it!  First time on the floor, ran into a chair leg and pieces went flying!

Anyway, I wasn’t sure how much coaxing it would take to get Canaan to sit at the kitchen table and do this with me, but amazingly enough, all it took was putting together the Woody Lego character, and he was all about it, ready for the next piece, watching the car come together.

Although I had to do most of the building, he was able to help, and was very intense with what he was doing (just look at the picture), and I have to say, he had more fun with it then I expected.  He’s already ready to do another set, already has looked through the book seeing what other Toy Story sets he can get (I’m wanting to train set, I’ll admit it), so it definitely looks like we have something new to do on those “down” nights. So I have to admit, Lego night was a complete success, with hopes of repeat performances in our future!

The Sauce……The Sauce!!!!!

A strange thing has been going on with Canaan lately, he has developed what seems like a phobia to sauce. (In this case, saltomaphobia for anyone curious.  I know you were wondering!!)  When I say sauce, I don’t mean like ketchup or bbq sauce or anything like that, he’s never liked those. (Yes, a kid that doesn’t like ketchup DOES exist!)  The newest thing this weekend has been that he doesn’t want anything to do with pizza or spaghetti sauce.  I realize that these quirks and changes in him will be more out of the blue for me, especially when there could be a simple cause or reason and I’m unaware of it, but this just seems, well…..weird.  He’s never had issue with pizza or spaghetti when he’s been here in the past, and now, he was nearly in tears on the thought of having to eat spaghetti for lunch.

Fighting with him over what to eat isn’t anything new, he has an affinity for junk food, and I’ve had to have more then one argument with him regarding not having cereal for lunch or supper, but this is different.  It bothers me when he has quirks like this and I’m unaware of the origin of it.  It bothers me more when, I go to ask him, about anything really, and he clams up.  I do my best to be there for him, and for him to realize he can rely on me, and confide in me, but its hard to maintain.  We have a few good weekends, then a few bad ones.  Fortunately, in this case, we came out good.  He ate his lunch, even showing pride in the fact that he ate the spaghetti, realizing and admitting that it was in fact good, even saying he’d eat it again if asked.  The biggest hurdle, and I know this in advance, in two weeks time, when he’s here again, I’ll likely have to have the same arguments with him.  Its just part of it I guess, I just hope that rather then just weathering the storm, I’ve managed to take a step up on the ladder and he begins to realize, that even though I’m not with him every day, that I do love him, want only the best for him, and won’t push him in the wrong direction.  Even when its something as simple as sauce.

Welcome Home

Thought it would be appropriate to have an opening “Welcome” post to this new site.  I’m aware I’ve brought over other posts, but this is the first new post for this site, just for this site, and you can view it as a start of new things on here.

What brought all this about?  Well, January of ‘10 I started my blog, called it Geekasms and ran with it.  Posted randomly, whatever suited me at first.  That quickly changed and after over a year of adjustments and evolving, Geekasms.com (geekasms.us for now) is finally a site that I want to run.  Its less of a blog, and more of a site for information, hopefully that people find useful.

So, with that, the site having a definitive feel and theme, its hard to fit more personal stuff like things going on with the kids, my family, local stuff, the Wordless Wednesday post and more.  Problem is, I still have a desire to post all of that.  I suppose you can say I’ve been bitten by the blogging bug and want to write more, I want to be able to increase the coverage of blogging fathers in a world where blogging mothers dominate.  Thus, my new BLOG, and yes, this will be a blog!

So sit back and relax.  Feel free to comment or yell opinions, and I’ll apologize ahead of time because on here, I have no intentions of holding back, so sarcasm, questionable remarks, cursing, and side remarks in parenthesis will be the norm! 

OH!  And welcome to the new digs for my fatherly ramblings.