I have showered and put on clean clothes

It is eleven in the morning and Noah is taking a nap, it is rainy and cold outside and I am waiting for the second and third loads of laundry to be done. Monday is Laundry day. Am I doing something productive while I wait? No. I am staring at the TV watching a show geared towards stay at home moms and trying to get some tips on blogging. I have showered and put on clean clothes.
We have an extremely busy week this week with a going away party, Marti Gras gathering, Church service, and a pot-luck. Why am I telling you this? Well I have nothing else to write about, the TV show I was watching said the bloggers they interviewed posted daily, some at the same time each day, I became inspired. I am also hoping that as I type some clever line will come to me that will make you laugh, So far it is not looking good. Until that line comes to me here are five ways to keep your child and yourself entertained:

1. While eating make noises like Cookie Monster
2. Dance and/or sing for him
3. Fly him around the house like superman
4. Give them a new toy to play with
5. Take that new toy and play with it yourself

Tune in next week when I will tell you how much fun it is to take care of a four month old while fasting.

Silly Make Them Up As you Go Songs

Generally when I have house work to do I put Noah in his little chair and sit him where he can watch me and we can “talk”. This normally works out well and he is sufficiently entertained. Sometimes however he finds watching me attend to these mundane tasks less than interesting and I often have to sing/rhyme and dance to keep him from crying. Though this is a horribly inefficient way to get chores done it is amusing.

We have neglected the kitchen for the last few days. This happens when we do not put the clean dishes from the dish washer away as soon as it is done. Of all house work, I hate cleaning the kitchen the most; on the flip side it drives me batty when the kitchen is not clean. Though not batty enough to get off my duff to clean it right away. Today I reached my batty peak so after breakfast I began to cleaning. Noah found this less than a desirable way to spend a half-hour, so I found myself dancing and singing/rhyming silly make them up as you go songs while shelving clean dishes and stacking the dirty ones in the dishwasher. I began to feel as if I were channeling the Marx Brother's brand of silliness.



The dancing and singing/rhyming do not just happen during chores. They also happen at random times for a multitude of different reason but mainly because I like to make up silly songs and Noah likes to see me “dance.” I encourage this kind of behavior from all Dads. It not only entertains your child but it also reminds you not to take life so seriously. Below is one of my greatest hits, feel free to use it at the next diaper change.

You have stinky pants
So I will do the poopy dance
Lift up your left and lift up your right

(these are your legs as you hop back and forth)
What’s in that diaper will give me a fright

Repeat all lines as many times as you see fit.

Thanks Dad

The non-descript brown book sized package was resting by the back door when we returned home from our afternoon walk. It was addressed to me and Noah, in my Dad’s handwriting. Stamped on the package were the words   “media material”. I hoped inside was the book Dad and I both loved so much.

I opened the package while Erin and Noah looked on, inside something was wrapped in Christmas paper, with a note;

I knew at that moment it had to be Robin Goodfellow and the Giant Dwarf. I tore open the paper as if I were a child on Christmas morning. There was the book that could make my Dad and me laugh before we even opened the cover. It looked newer than the tattered and torn copy from my childhood, and yet it was not brand new as I thought it would be. As I opened the cover a picture postcard of Tomie de Paola (the illustrator) fell out, odd I thought as I turned to the title page, and then it all made sense. The inscription read:

The book is no longer being printed, which makes it all that more special, that it is signed for Noah and I brings tears to my eyes. It is the simple things in life that mean the most; that is one of the many lessons my Dad has taught me over the years and continues to teach me even now. It is something that I plan to teach to Noah, I just hope I can do as good of a job as my Dad.

Childhood Dreams

Had the two major events of my teenage years, an unplanned pregnancy at seventeen and the death of a best friend a year later not happened, would I have chosen a different path? I have been mulling over this question a lot these past few days. Thinking about God’s plan and the dreams we have as school children. How if we are patient enough then the things we dream eventually happen, though maybe not in the order we thought.

By the time I reached 7th grade I had decided that I was going west to ski after high school. By 10th grade I had concluded that I wanted to get into the search and rescue field and spend my life helping people in the backcountry. I would get a black lab, go west, eventually meet the girl of my dreams and live happily in our mountain home. Then on a warm night in May 1996 I no longer wanted that dream, I just wanted to return to the carefree post graduation simplicity of the morning. I wanted our friend back. I bounced around the East after that; first to Pennsylvania to work, Florida and then New Hampshire for school, then Massachusetts with lofty dreams. Eventually I landed back in Vermont, working jobs I hated while dreaming once again of escaping west. I convinced my roommate we needed to move and we began to make plans. Two months before we were to leave I backed out. A few months later I met Erin, a year and a half after that we moved west.

Today sitting in our home in Utah with our black lab, the mountains visible through the dining room window, Noah in his swing and Erin knitting him a new hat I know my childhood dream has come true. God had and has a plan, though I am not always privy to it. The order of events may be different and the path not what I thought. The outcome however is the same and even more wonderful than I could have imagined.

2010 Goals

The smog settled into the valley just before Christmas and save for a few days it has stubbornly refused to leave. The storms have passed us by and unleashed piles of powder from the Midwest to the East Coast. This time of gray sky reflection has gotten me thinking of what I am going to do in 2010 and how we are going to spend the sunny days when they do come again.

I have only written down my yearly goals a few times in my life. The last time was in my mid twenties; I typed them up and hung them on the wall next to my bedroom door. I failed so miserably at obtaining any of them that I gave up on any future lists. Despite this I am a goal oriented person and it was my wife’s comment about this fact that got me thinking about goals for this year. With my new role in life I have a lot of time on my hands and an impressionable mind to entertain. With this in mind and a hope to save some shred of sanity I took some time the other day to write down my list of easily obtainable goals, save for the number seven, for 2010.

1. Get a wicked goggle/sunglass tan
2. Hike every other day
3. Hike all the trails in Mill Creek Canyon
4. Hike from Neff’s Canyon to Mill Creek Canyon
5. Write a blog entry at least once a week
6. Spend more days and hours per day outside than inside
7. Get three powder days
8. Build Noah a toy box

I would like to say something profound about my list, but really there is nothing profound about getting a wicked goggle tan. This list, however simple, really has nothing to do with the words that make it up and has everything to do with introducing Noah to the beauty that is outside our door. So that he knows that the world is not just computers, text messages, video games and fancy stuffed animals that know his name. It is about adventure, learning and exploring the world around you. It is about using your imagination to create something so amazing in a place so beautiful that when the sun begins to sink into the Western desert you do not want to go inside but you do; dirty, tired and hungry and full of wonderful stories to tell mom during dinner as a family.

Look Ma I am a Cartoon Character

When you become a parent you gain the ability to turn into a cartoon character. I should have remembered this change since I was less than an angle growing up. There was more than one occasion when steam came out of my Father’s ears and my Mothers head spun around with anger. It seems though we round file these memories as we grow older and only remember the times when you had to take a spoon full of Cod Liver Oil each morning.
Our baby monitor came with a sensor pad to alert parents when the baby is not moving, in not moving I mean not breathing, if no movement is sensed for fifteen seconds an alarm sounds on both the monitor and crib side unit. Noah enjoys doing the back stroke while he sleeps, it is not uncommon to find him facing ninety degrees from the position we laid him down in.
Erin worked the night shift the other night so I was on my own. I am happy to report that it went much better than the first night. The night itself was fairly uneventful; crying, dirty diapers, warming bottles, feeding and rocking. Around 5AM Noah’s coos came through the monitor, I prayed he would go back to sleep for just a bit longer and I rolled over. Fifteen minutes later the non-movement alarm sounded. I shot straight out of bed, about four feet in the air, managed to get myself vertical by the time my feet hit the ground , my legs like many cartoon characters spun madly for a moment before I took off out of the bed room. I screeched around the corner on one foot ran straight through Noah’s door, leaving a hole the shape of my body, and reached the crib with a thud and the rug bunched up to my knees. There Noah was laying the width of the crib directly under the monitor screaming to the rhythm of the alarm.

Fishnets For Christmas Trees

This past week my wife and I have been preparing for the family to arrive, both sides, from all over the world.   It started by going to the local Home Depot to pick out a tree. Home Depot we discovered three years ago has really good trees at a decent price.  Once we have found a tree it is my job to take it off those foolish spikes they use to stand them up.   Grunting and heaving I wrestle the tree to as open an area as possible and shake it vigorously, then stand as still and as straight as possible while Erin looks it over. 
 I like to think I know what I am doing when it comes to picking out a tree because I worked for a Christmas tree shop for a short time in high school.  I did such things as organize wreaths, paint pine cones and sell trees. That however is a story for another time.   Not satisfied by the first tree Erin wonders off to check out other trees while I stand guard over the tree and Noah who is snoring loudly in his car seat.     Soon Erin finds the perfect tree which I wrestle off the spike and hand off to happiest employee in the world who then stuffs the tree through a contraption that puts a giant fish net stocking over it. Then he ties the tree to the roof of our car and we go merrily home, hoping all the while that the employee knew how to tie a good knot.

 I have to take a moment to say that this current experience of getting a tree is much easier than when I was a child. Back then Dad would load my brother and I into the giant brown station wagon before dawn and drive us deep into the woods of Vermont. We would then walk through snow up to my arm pits for miles until we found just the right tree. Before cutting it down we would pose for pictures looking tough with our bow saw and multi colored winter hats with giant pom poms on top.  After we had cut down the tree we would drag it the several miles back to the car and head for home.  Dad would then spend the next week trying to get the tree to stand straight in the tree stand that looked like a oil pan with fly buttresses welded inside.

 Putting on lights is also my job and a lot harder to do when you are holding a child.  First of all you have to make sure that you do not poke them in the face with a branch.  The other thing you do not want to do is wrap the lights around their leg or arm for this can cause the tree to spin and you never get anywhere.  Placing the child in the tree is also not wise for they get pine pitch all over them and you have to explain to your wife how an 8 week old got pine pitch in their ear.

The tree was not our only adventure this week we also ran errands for six hours and bought one other gift while standing next to each other.   We are still going to wrap some of the gifts and put them under the tree. I may even act surprised when I open it, but that will be because by next week I will have forgotten what I am getting. 
The likely hood of me putting something out before Christmas is slim so I will wish everyone and Happy Christmas or Chanukah or whatever you may celebrate. If you are enjoying the blog please tell others. If you have comments please feel free to post them.

Cheers!