Nostalgia

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Happy 1st Birthday to My Son, Jack-Man!

November 16, 2011 at 6:18 am , by 

One year old, today!

Exactly a year ago today, after 22 and half hours of “coaching” my wife in labor, which consisted of me proclaiming stock phrases like “Oh look, here’s the head!” for the final three hours of the delivery, along with, “Baby, I’m so proud of you!” my wife finally gave birth to our dark Mexican baby. I will always remember the way he was silently starving for air as soon as the doctor pulled him out. He looked so mad.

Granted, he eventually morphed into the Norwegian little boy we know today as “Jack-Man.”

A few weeks later we moved him to Alabama, suffered mutual unemployment, then singular employment but still couldn’t afford to pay the bills, Parents.com contacted me about switching my daddy blog “Dad from Day One” to their website and so The Dadabase was born, then we moved back to Nashville and got our old jobs back, we had to buy my wife a new (used) car, then tried to move back into our townhouse but realized there was serious water damage that destroyed part of our living room ceiling, and I guess that leads us to where we are today: Finally, we have sense of normalcy that we’ve been desperate for.

And Jack has been along for the ride the whole way through, both oblivious to the chaos and eager for more excitement.

I admit, I don’t exactly know how to act. I mean, everything’s actually going pretty well right now. We’re officially moved back into our home and made it ours again. And I’m nervous to even say it- what if I jinx it?

Wouldn’t this be such an appropriate time to learn, “Surprise! We’re having another baby!” For the record, that is not the case. All I mean is that I’m so accustomed to life being crazy with some kind of constant fiasco, that I almost expect some kind of shocking surprise like that.

Wow, we as parents, have survived our first year! Sure, it’s awesome that our son is now a year old; so cool. But seriously, we not only survived raising him thus far but we made it through a lot of wacko stuff since then.

We as a family have made it through; thank God. Going through a whirlwind year like this has surely left us with unsettled psychological issues that we need to sort out with Jason Seaver (the psychiatrist dad from Growing Pains) but until then, I’ll continue using my writings here on The Dadabase to serve as my own psychiatrist.

Oh yeah, and in the midst of all this, my wife and I both turned 30. What a year to turn 30!

Okay, back to my son… He’s a year old today! Happy Birthday Jack!

Man, I am so in love with him. He’s the best baby/puppy/robot/Ewok/Red Hot Chili Peppers fan/gummy bear I’ve ever had for a son.

I think we’re all gonna be okay.

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Red Hot Chili Peppers for Babies?

November 8, 2011 at 9:38 pm , by 

Eleven months.

After listening to nothing but the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ newest album in the car for the past two weeks straight, I switched to the mellow, non-consumerism theology of Jack Johnson. But my son didn’t like that very much.

You might think that I am 43 and my son is 13. Actually, I’m only 30 and he’s just eleven months old.

Something funny about my son is that he has never been able to chill out and go to sleep when confronted with appropriate lullabies and soft music. As a newborn, it took Taylor Swift’s upbeat and rockin’ album, Speak Now, to soothe him into Slumberland.

Several months later as I began driving him to daycare, he needed any given Weezer album playing in the car. And it’s been that way since July.

But a couple of weeks ago, I found the Red Hot Chili Peppers newest album, I’m With You, at Best Buy for 10 bucks. Since then, my son Jack has to have it playing on the stereo speakers.

If I try to trick him and switch to something like Jason Mraz, he wakes up and starts crying. So Red Hot Chili Peppers it is; for a total of 80 minutes a day as I chauffeur him to and from KinderCare; I work just down the block from his daycare.

Jack is such a laid-back little boy. But he makes up for it in his refusal to easily fall asleep when he needs to. It’s a struggle- always has been.

In fact, I depend on those daily naps he gets during the car ride. So if it takes a funk rock or punk rock, or even ’80′s rock to get the job done, I’m all for it.

I guess there’s just something about steady bass lines and up-tempo drum beats that help him relax enough to forget about the fact he would rather be exploring the world; especially now that he can toddle. (He turns a year old a week from today and will officially become a toddler.)

So if you’re looking to catch a ride with Jack and I, you better believe we’ll be jammin’ to the beat of “The Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie.”

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Do the Halloween Hustle (Free Pumpkin Carving App!)

October 26, 2011 at 12:03 am , by 

Eleven months.

As if Halloween wasn’t already a cool enough “holiday,” with all the free candy and the part about getting to dress up as whatever you want and get away with it, there is yet another really good reason to love Halloween:

You don’t have to feel guilty for not celebrating it for the “right reasons!”

It’s not like with Christmas, where people preach to each other about the cliche of “getting so caught up in the hustle and bustle of Christmas that you forget the real meaning of it all.”

And while I would love to enjoy my Peeps with a clear mind, I admit how easy it is to get distracted by the delicious pastel commercialism of Easter; instead of being reminded of how and why Jesus Christ was raised from the dead for the sake of mankind.

Heck, I can’t even have a guilt-free conscious on Columbus Day, because it’s basically just celebrating when a Spanish-sponsored Italian explorer “discovered” a continent of natives who would ultimately be conquered by Europeans for their land. I guess that’s how the history of the world goes- dividing and defeating; not that I’m okay with that.

But with Halloween, all you have to really do is just have a good time. It gives parents a reason to have just as much fun as their kids.

Now, I guess technically, Halloween is based on a pagan holiday where people celebrate their dead ancestors coming back to life or something like that. I don’t really care.

Because Halloween has become so commercialized in modern day America that all it’s about is pretending to be someone you’re not and getting free candy for it. I won’t argue with that.

To help celebrate the upcoming sugar rush, I personally invite you to download Parents magazine’s free Carve-a-Pumpkin app:

Carve-a-Pumpkin from Parents® magazine is the easiest — and safest (no knives involved!) — way to make jack-o-lanterns with your family this Halloween.

Choose from five different pumpkin styles, then either “carve” a design of your own, or pick from our library of wacky eyes, noses, and mouths.

Add a message and you’re ready to share your creation with all your friends! This easy-to-navigate, take-anywhere tool is perfect for families on the go. Products from Parents magazine help moms and dads celebrate the joys of parenthood and raise kids in a healthy, safe, and loving environment.

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Boo the Pomeranian Reminds Me of My Son

October 25, 2011 at 10:54 pm , by 

Eleven months.

Having a son means that there is always a part of me floating out there in the universe. Whether he’s simply just asleep down the hall or away at day care while I’m at work, part of my brain is constantly thinking about him.

He is in everything I see. He’s in every random thought I have; from Gummy Bears to a Pomeranian with a buzz cut.

A few days ago on Facebook I saw a picture of two Pomeranians posted by one of my former students in Bangkok atGlobal English School. So inevitably, the following conversation followed:

    • 4 people like this.

      • Nick Shell What kind of dog is the one on the right? It’s look unreal!

        October 20 at 12:32am · Like

      • A-ngoon its look unreal because its smile right ?? they both are pomeranian but the right one have a shorter hair ka nick:)

        October 20 at 2:46pm · Like

      • Nick Shell The right one reminds me of my son :)I am probably going to use this picture on my website about him.

        October 20 at 7:09pm · Like

      • A-ngoon
        ‎:)

        October 21 at 11:38am · Like

It turns out that this Pomeranian happens to be famous; his name is Boo and his Facebook page has well over 2 million “likes!”

I can’t look at Boo and not see my son Jack; the way Boo is smiling, the shape of Boo’s face- that is my son as a Pomeranian! 

Granted, a Dadabase post like this one will never show up in the Top 5 Most Popular Posts section on the right side of the screen. It’s so out there, I know. But I just couldn’t keep this enchanting and bizarre photo from the world; simply because I love to talk about my son- even in the form of a yappy little dog.

Maybe it’s just me that somehow sees the abstract resemblance. But I’m sure I’m not the only parent out there who thought their child looked like something just as weird. When you look at the world through my eyes, you see Jack-Man in the strangest of places.

Passing the Mic:

Do you think Jack looks like Boo?

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My Baby on Wheels Learns to Walk

October 23, 2011 at 11:52 pm , by 

Eleven months.

Yeah, I know; that’s a pretty weird title…

My eleven month old son, Jack, is learning to walk. Up until now, he has simply been a “baby on wheels,” trampling over anything and everyone in his way. I think of how cartoons, like the Road Runner, had legs that essentially transformed into wheels once they got moving.

Jack also reminds me of a toy I had back when I was 5 (in 1986) called The Animal, a toy SUV that had tiger claws than came out of the tires when it needed to climb over a surface.

But over the past couple of weeks, Jack has been experimenting with standing and walking. He can stand on his own for close to ten seconds and can take up to six steps before he falls; not that I’m necessarily in a rush for him to gain more independence.

Of course, his further independence means my further responsibility. When I think of all the milestones of a baby’s progress, the first steps are definitely pretty high on the list. I feel like so many camera commercials capitalize on this event.

I am fascinated by the way he falls- in safe, slow-motion. It’s just funny because I know if I were falling down after walking a few steps, it would be fast and furious, possibly with a Tokyo drift. As for Jack, each time he breaks his walking stride with a fall, he’s as graceful as a cat landing on its feet.

Seeing Jack walk is almost as weird as if an animal were to start talking to me all of the sudden- it’s just thatenchanting and seemingly unnatural. My “baby on wheels” can crawl and use toys to skate around the floor with, but… walk?

Baby steps, baby steps; that is what it will take- for me to finally get used to see my infant walking instead of crawling.

Passing the Mic:

How old was your child when they finally started learning to walk? What new tricks did they start doing that sort of freaked you out?