December 2014

December 26th or as most refer to it, the Day After Christmas is here. Kids are playing with their new toys, many parents, like myself are back at work and Santa is resting and relaxing after a busy Christmas night.

As I sit at the office and reflect on Christmas morning, I had a few things that have continued to pop into my head that really stood out.

  1. The boys really did a great job of sharing yesterday morning. They each got completely different sets of toys, which I am asked a lot if we have a duplicates. We have really tried to avoid that, but it does happen occasionally.
  2. The boys really asked Santa for only 1 toy each and the reactions when they got those were priceless.
  3. I got to witness Baby A and his cousin last night have a conversation about Santa and the toys that they received. I just wished that I had caught the whole conversation on video, because it was priceless.
  4. Christmas day for adults is and should really only be about the kids. Nothing else matters.
  5. Seeing Christmas through the eyes of your children, there is no greater gift.

As I sit at work this morning, the day after Christmas, it is quiet. A much different than yesterday morning, to say the least. The boys had an amazing day. They are blessed more than they will ever know.

I’m going to take a few days off from blogging and enjoy some time with my kids.

So from my family to yours, have a safe and happy holidays!

Read more

It is finally Christmas Eve and this year is a little different than previous year. Both boys work up around 1am this morning and both had pink eye.  There is nothing normal about pink eye on Christmas Eve and being sick.

We started the morning at our pediatricians office and both got antibiotics. We got home, the rested, took meds and ultimately Baby B ended up taking a nap.

I wanted to try and keep some sense of normalcy to our Christmas Eve as possible. Church was obviously out, but we could watch some classic Christmas movies. So we have watched Charlie Brown Christmas and Rudolph and Elf is up next. I made a Christmas concoction that smells great and smelt like Christmas. And now I am making Wassil.

I wanted to try to blend traditions from both my wife and my childhood’s for Christmas Eve for the boys. This year has been amazing, for so many reasons. This year, the boys actually “got” Christmas and Santa. So this has been a lot of fun for them, but also for me.

So tonight, as we all try to get better, my wife is now at Urgent Care being seen for pink eye, I ordered Chinese and the boys and I are watching Christmas movies.

We will eat dinner together, watch Christmas movies and read some Christmas books. And I hope that this isn’t a Christmas tradition being started with being sick.

Tonight, enjoy the moment. Enjoy the innocence of Christmas Eve. Enjoy the moment of seeing Christmas through the eyes of your children.

Read more

This morning, as I sipped on my morning coffee and watched the boys looking at the Christmas Tree, I just couldn’t help to stop and think about my mother in law.  And I am not sure why today she popped into my head?  Maybe it is because last night we got the cookware that she has ordered shortly before she died? Maybe it was because my wife and I had been talking more about her?  Maybe it is because she and I loved Christmas and I see that love starting to form with my sons and see their excitement.

But whatever the reasons are, I was was blessed beyond belief to have had such an amazing mother in law, my biggest regret is that she was taken from us entirely too soon. She was kind hearted, loving and just an amazing person. Before my wife and I were married, she joked with us about our children and how they would be and the challenges that they would present.

My mother in law and I shared many common loves. Her daughter first and foremost, but cooking, a good glass of wine, a good joke and more importantly, Christmas. We were big kids when it came to Christmas and she and I would often sit and talk for hours by the Christmas Tree on Saturday mornings.

Today, as I sit and watch the boys interacting with each other and looking at the ornaments on our Christmas Tree, I really miss my mother in law. I miss her for so many reasons, her smile, her laughter, her advice, her hugs, her voice when she would sing in church and from a really selfish way, the fact that she never got to meet her grandsons.

And of course, the boys favorite ornament on the Christmas Tree, is the Charlie Brown ornament with the true meaning of Christmas. Every year that she is not here, gets a little better, but I wish that she were here with the boys looking at the Christmas Tree this morning

 

Read more

A few weeks ago, my wife discovered Flaxie Packs while at a Christmas fair. When she first told me, I wondered why she got them, but that night, I wanted to hug her.

Baby A has struggled with his sleep almost from Day 1. So, when my wife talked with the owners of Flaxie Packs and they mentioned that some use it for their kids to help them sleep, it was worth the money to try. Well, that first night, Baby A slept through the night for the first time in quite awhile.

He loved that it was warm and it immediately got him to settle down and start relaxing.  Every night now, before he goes to bed, he asks if we can warm his Flaxie Pack.  And as I type this post, my son is sound asleep, snuggled up with his Flaxie Pack.

Read more

It is funny how becoming a parent changes the way that you view things and your reactions. For example, Baby A has had a few pee accidents at school and when he told me Friday that it happened again, I just smiled, hugged him and said “It Happens!”

I had two choices, make a big deal out of really nothing and more importantly, make my son feel bad like I was upset with him or blow it off and make it really a non issue, which it was.  Kids need to learn that in life, there are important things to get upset over and then there are things that just don’t matter in life. I want my kids to know right from wrong. I want them to learn that there is a time to be serious and a time to laugh. I want them to understand that it is ok to make a mistake, because It Happens.

I’ll never forget when I was 16 years old and I had only been driving for a few months. It was a winter Monday morning, I was approaching a curve at about 30 miles per hour and I never saw the black ice. I remember after I flipped my jeep, my dad is going to kill me. As I got out of my jeep, I surveyed the damage and was pretty sure that it was totaled, but I did the hardest thing to date, I called my Dad. That was the longest 15 minute wait for my Dad to arrive and I remember apologizing and him stopping me. He asked if I was ok? And when I mentioned the jeep, he stopped me again and asked if I was ok? I reassured him that I was and he said simply, “it was an accident, it happens.”

My accident cost a lot of money that day, but the lesson that I learned was that my father could have come down on me or he could have taught me about love and that sometimes that the best lessons in life, are taught with the simple phrase, “it happens”.

So later that day, my sons and I were talking and I was not paying attention and I dropped my apple on the floor and Baby A looked at me and said “Daddy, it is ok, It Happens”.

Read more

This past Friday night, my wife and I went to her Christmas party and we had decided that I would be the DD so that my wife could have a good time and have fun with her co-workers. Somewhere during the night, I started thinking back to a song that I heard previously this week by Edwin McCain and the song is called “Sorry I’m a Little Sober“. The verse that kept going through my head was:

Sorry, I’m a little sober
In the morning I’ll be nursing and cursing
My clarity hangover

I kept wondering, how many in this room are going to wake up tomorrow with a hangover? How many are going to wake up tomorrow tomorrow with a headache and more importantly, regrets?  My biggest issue is that I’m going to have a clarity hangover and grateful that I was sober.  Sure, I still will have a beer or a glass of wine, but right now, I’m enjoying just being a little sober and seeing things in different ways. Now, I realize that this sounds a little like I have a drinking problem and that isn’t the case at all. At most, I would have a drink a night, maybe 2 during a game. But I am seeing that being sober in a different way though and to me, sober isn’t just with drinking, but life. I

I am using this time of being sober and my clarity hangover to focus on the important things, working out, losing weight, my kids, being a better dad, etc. As of yesterday I have lost 11 pounds in a month! I don’t know that I would have been as focused on this 3 months ago. Maybe I wasn’t thinking clearly because of work? Stress of life? Kids? But today I am focused. I am thinking clearly and more focused and determined on what really matters the most in life.



Read more

Last night the boys and I were playing before bed and for whatever reason, Baby B just came over and grabbed a hold of my neck and kept saying “Thank you Daddy, you rescued me!” And then he would kiss me on the cheek.

Baby B isn’t always the most out spoken or affectionate for that matter. He is an amazing kid. He has increased his vocabulary tremendously, so to hear him say that I rescued him, was amazing.

But I got thinking about it while he was hugging me, I didn’t rescue him, but instead the boys rescued me. They have taught me so many important things in life, showing me the importance of giving to others, having patience when it is easier to not, and to find the fun in the most simplest of things.

The boys also showed me that I needed to take better care of myself too. Lose weight and I’m down 10 pounds in 1 month. Drink less, so instead of 2 beers or glasses of wine a night, just 1. Eat healthier, instead of those burger and fries once a week, eat a salad or chicken instead. And it is ok to exercise more than 1 time a week too.

So as I kissed Baby B before he went to sleep, I quietly whispered in his ear “Thank you son, you rescued me too.”

Read more

I only recently became aware of Give Tuesday (search on Twitter for #givetuesday ) and I’m really glad that I read the article & found out about.

Give Tuesday is all about giving back to your kids, but especially Giving Time, because our time is so precious and is something that all of our kids want.

I’m fortunate to have two great boys, that I love spending time with them, so for Give Tuesday is just another day.  But I am going to do one thing different for Give Tuesday and that is, when I walk in the door, my phone is going away. I want to make sure that I give my sons 100% of my time and attention. We’ll grab dinner on the way home and I’ll sit together and talk and laugh. But no distractions. Just my time and my time with them.

So make this Give Tuesday not just a one day event, but the beginning of an everyday event.

 

Read more