Comic: Put Your Pants On!!

Artwork by Adam White, courtesy of Jakob Marketing Partners

Ask Your Dad - Time Machine Edition

Long before I met Stevie, and even longer before I met Captain and Duchess, I was living in a house with my dad, my sister, and my newborn nephew. My sister got pregnant young. She was 19. Our family rallied together, and for the first year of my nephew's life we all helped raise him. She took over from there and has been doing a fantastic job since. 

I was writing back then too, just not as publicly. 

This past weekend I was going through some of my writing from that period of my life and came across this. I think it is worth sharing here. It was a moment in my life that helped to shape the dad I try to be now. Hope you enjoy it. 

Love, Dad

Product Review - The Zen Swaddle

Hey readers! I don't generally do a lot of product reviews, but the folks at Nested Bean reached out to me through Twitter and offered to send me one of their Zen Swaddles to try out with the captain. As you may remember from my 5 Things I Forgot About Having a Newborn post, at that point we were getting about an hour a sleep every night. So we were willing to try about anything. Since Stevie is the one who has been using it, I asked her to write up a little review. Thanks for reading!

-Dad 

P.S. This is an unpaid review. They only sent us the product.

Dealing With Infant RSV (Maybe)

Captain has been sick for almost two weeks. It has been horrible. His tiny little cough is huge. I don't know if that sentence will make any sense unless you've had an infant with a cough. I don't even know if it is really RSV. You'd think after three trips to the doctor in the last week they'd be able to tell us. Instead they say "It sounds like bronchiolitis… which could be RSV, and since the treatments are the same, we're not going to test for it. Just keep jamming this torture device up his nose and make him scream and cough more and as long as he keeps eating then he'll be OK."

But he's not OK  He's miserable. I didn't want sadness to be the first emotion I recognized on my son's face, but I can see it. He finishes coughing, and then he finishes gasping and then the fear goes out of his eyes and is replaced by this horrible sadness that says to me "I have been coughing for a quarter of my life dad. This sucks." I can take a frown. I can't take a frown that quivers on the edges.

Leukemia Lymphoma Fundraiser - Week 2

What a great week! We raised $535.00 dollars for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society since last Friday. That brings the total raised to $625.00. That is fan-freaking-tastic! Training has been a pain this week because living in Utah during the winter is basically like living in the tailpipe of a running diesel truck.

So since I would like to help cure blood cancers without actually getting lung cancer I've been confined to the treadmill - which I hate. I get distracted and drift. It's not pretty. Anyway - stop picturing me on a treadmill. Let's celebrate!

Taking My Kid to the Store Doesn't Make Me Brave

Captain and I went grocery shopping this past weekend. As I wandered the aisles I kept passing the same older lady. We must have been on a similar aisle weaving pattern. Each time we passed she looked into my cart at the Captain asleep in his car carrier, looked at me and smiled. I like people smiling at my kid. It makes me happy that I have a little smile machine. It's good to put those vibes into the world. 

Finally, around the third pass she looked at me and said "So cute!"

"Thank you! I like him. I'm thinking of keeping him." I replied. I probably use this joke too often, but it's a nice ice breaker and it makes people laugh. I like making people laugh - puts good vibes into the world. 

"Where's mom?" The nice lady asked me looking around like mom should be coming around the corner any moment.

"Oh, she's at home." I said not looking around because mom was at home and not coming down the aisle at any moment. 

"Really! Oh, you're so brave!" She said somewhat surprised. 

"Uh, thanks." And then I was looking around for the rogue, rabid honey badger I assume she thought I was intent on fighting at some point during my grocery shopping trip – because I couldn't fathom any other reason why she would be calling me brave. 

It couldn't be because I, a male, had dared venture to the market with this tiny monster…

Actual picture taken at time of incident!

Lukemia Lymphoma Fundraiser Week 1 Update

Week 1 - Total Amount Raised $90

Here is the original post in case you have no idea what I'm talking about. 

Great week of training. I ran three times, twice outside in less that 20° temperatures. I am slow, but I am determined. Next week my goal is to run 15 miles during the week. 

Thanks to Jim Garcia, Sara Owen and Dave Martin for their kind contributions. Every dollar counts and every dollar helps! You are all heroes. 

Congrats to Dave Martin for winning this week's prize for donating to the Leukemia Lymphoma Society! I'll be writing a custom children's bedtime story for Dave! I'll be doing weekly drawings from now until May while I continue to raise money to research and cure blood cancers. Next week's prize is a personalized thank you video from the Duchess herself! 

If you would like to hop on the cure cancer bandwagon, click the picture!