I believe the most appropriate term to call you these days is rascal. You’re old enough to know you’re being cute while at the same time being sneaky. And on top of that, your sincere curiosity only adds to the cuteness and the sneakiness.
As you are now becoming quite ambitious in your attempts to add words to your vocabulary, you have stumbled upon the word pop. A couple of weeks ago while I was holding you, you passed a little bit of gas… I knew immediately as I felt the vibration on my arm.
You looked up at me, as if you were asking for my confirmation, and asked, “Pop?”
I obviously immediately laughed: “Yes, good. You did just have a pop.”
To equate passing gas with the word “pop” was not something I could credit anyone in our family with. You just took it upon yourself to associate the sound you made with a word you already knew.
Therefore, you now make a habit of announcing every time you pop. But what I really love about it is that you continue to still sort of ask for my confirmation.
And now you have moved on to calling out everyone else’s pops.
Without surprise, you say “pop” a lot when your brother is around. He enjoys your special skill in identifying his mischievous actions.
I will say, I didn’t expect that you’d be able to identify what it meant to pass gas, or that you’d have your own designated word for it, before your 2nd birthday.
But hey, you have a 7 year-old brother. It comes with the territory.
Therefore, sometimes without me even realizing what I have done, you’ll look up at me:
“Daddy, pop?”
That’s your special way of saying, “You and I are the only ones in the room right now- and I know it wasn’t me, so…”
It had been a particularly difficult night, with your sister waking up several times every couple of hours. I received little rest, as I got up each time to help get her back to sleep. So by the time Mommy left for work around 6:15 AM, I collapsed on the couch in the living room, as I trusted you to take care of your sister while I was out of commission.
When I woke up about an hour later, I was delighted to see that, in your creativity, you took it upon yourself to transform an Amazon shipping box in to a couple of helmets for both you and your sister to wear, in the boat you also constructed from the same box.
I am always so proud to see you take initiative to lead your sister in fun activities, which require no direction from me or Mommy. It’s important that you figure out on your own what to do with your time, without needing me as your entertainment supervisor all the time.
The look on your sister’s face, too, is just priceless. She obviously didn’t quite understand why the two of you had box helmets, but she gladly went along with it; just like the day before when the box actually arrived:
You convinced your sister to walk back and forth from the far end of the living room, to the far end of the kitchen, with both of your heads in the box. For good reason, it reminded me of the kind of horse costume where it takes two people to walk; one in the front and one in the back.
I’m just glad that because of your creativity with a shipping box, I was able to catch a solid hour of sleep, while getting confirmation you’re old enough to take care of your sister with your sleeping dad on the couch.
In case you’re planning on watching me attempt to find my doppelganger on that Campbell’s Go soup package on the new Lifetime show, “This Time Next Year”, please note that the network has changed the date of my episode:
It will no longer be airing on February 20th, as The Olympics would serve as direct competition to viewership. Therefore, I am currently waiting to hear from The Lifetime Network on when the official new air date will be. Stay tuned to my blog, as you can imagine I will immediately advertise the new date of Episode 6 of “This Time Next Year”.
I predict the soonest that the new air date would be is March 7th. I know for a fact that my episode has not been delayed by only one week, as Lifetime’s schedule onlineshows that Married at First Sight will be airing February 27th, which is the week after the date my episode was supposed to air originally.
My episode is the season finale of Season 1 of “This Time Next Year”. So while mine is the last to air, I am grateful Lifetime made the executive decision to change the original air date to make sure it doesn’t get overshadowed by the Olympics.
I am so excited to be able to share my experience with everyone in America. Just imagine what it would be like if you had one year to find and meet your doppelganger. Imagine what it would take and what it would be like if you actually accomplished your mission.
And of course, the whole journey is documented over the course of that year.
If nothing else, hey, I got to meet celebrity host Cat Deely!
I suppose once I see the official description of my episode of Lifetime’s website, the new air date will be confirmed. You better believe l will share it here on my blog.
First of all, my wife loves this fancy hunk of metal sitting on our kitchen counter, and the expensive-tasting coffee it makes so quickly.
Secondly, it’s saving us the money she used to spend on coffee most days at Starbucks; whether it was from our shared budget or from her own “blow money” (a Dave Ramsey term). I can honestly say this is an investment, for the money it’s comparatively saving us.
And lastly, I am happy we now own the Gaggia Brera Super Automatic Espresso Machine because it truly does make amazing coffee. Granted, I’m just an instant black coffee kind of guy. Monday through Friday, twice a day, that’s what I drink. But on the weekends, my wife joyfully makes me a rewarding latte, which is the equivalent to the 6 dollar version you’d find at a local coffee shop; and in my opinion, better than Starbucks anyway.
Yes, it’s true: We are now technically owners of a small coffee shop in our home, in which we are the only customers. We drink up all the profits!
It’s probably no surprise to learn that the Gaggia Brera Super Automatic Espresso Machinewas my Christmas gift for my wife a couple of months ago. When it comes to us getting each other gifts, we simply directly tell the other person exactly what we want; perhaps with a gentle nudge thanks to an Amazon link.
This isn’t the kind of coffee maker most normal people own. In fact, we may be the only people you’ve heard of who actually own one of these.
But my wife had researched for months, as she wanted to find the most affordable version of the fanciest espresso machine that exists and that definitely makes great coffee. She has a talent for finding the best overall selection that exists.
So if you’re on the look-out for the best deal on an espresso machine that makes expressive-tasting lattes that will impress guests when they drink your coffee, I can already assure you the search is over. Trust me, my wife knows best when it comes to something like this. Trust me.
All you have to do is click this link for the Gaggia Brera Super Automatic Espresso Machine. That takes you straight to Amazon, which will help you find the lowest price available. Who knows? You may even find a better deal on it that we did.
A decade ago, I had just proposed to the love of my life. We hadn’t even been dating for a year yet, but I was already feeling at that point that my proposal was past due. That’s how much I knew she was the one.
I proposed on January 14th, and our wedding day was less than 6 months away, on July 5th. I suppose that’s just how our story goes. We didn’t need a long time together to decide to get married, nor did we require a long time to be engaged.
The entire year of 2008 is a blur to me. In early January we were just dating, and by early December, we had already been married 5 months. That really puts things in perspective now, in hindsight, what a big year that was for us.
At some point that year, my wife and I spent a day at Bed Bath & Beyond where we had registered for our wedding. When it came time to pick out the dinnerware set, she found a red set that she really liked.
Then we realized that for some mysterious reason, the same set in blue was half the price. So we went with blue.
Amazingly now, after nearly 10 years of using that dinnerware set, from Bush to Obama to Trump, and with two new smaller human members joining our family, all pieces of that set have survived other than a bowl and a cup. That even includes a move to Alabama and back.
Ten is a big number. Just a couple of weeks ago, my wife got to pick out new jewelry from James Avery for Valentine’s Day. That’s the only new jewelry she has gotten (or said she’s wanted) since her engagement and wedding rings back in 2008. So it was a big deal.
So while we’re in the spirit of my wife getting new things, in convenient accordance to our upcoming 10th wedding anniversary, we now have a brand-new set of dinnerware:
It was not a rash decision. My wife obsessed over, I mean, carefully studied, dozens of sets online through the course of a week.
She then requested my opinion, as well as our son’s, to give her further direction after she had finalized her selection to the top 3.
I have learned over all these years that often, when she asks which one I like the best, whatever the thing is I’m helping her to decide, my answer only reinforces her own decision; which is never the same one I chose.
Amazingly, this time it was different.
Even though she was leaning towards another set, our son and I both chose Melange Dinnerware, Nantucket Weave, and apparently we swayed the vote!
Now obviously, with me being a man, you can imagine that in the end, my choice in our new dinnerware set was not a passionate one.
But now that the new set is here, I have to say, I am very pleased with our decision!
It’s like a crossroads of both Country and Class, which is how I think of my wife. Yeah, she’s from northern California but she loves Country music and grew up on a 5 acre farm with sheep, pigs, cows, chickens, and rabbits. She’s arguably more Southern than I am, yet I was born and raised in Alabama!
Soon, when you see pictures of our kids eating at the dinner table, you won’t see the decade old blue cups and plates anymore; as we start phasing in our white wicker-looking ones.
I never would have thought that picking out a new dinnerware set would be worth writing about, and on your end, reading about.
Yet here we are.
Now let’s see, so far this year, my wife has gotten a new set of jewelry and dinnerware. Meanwhile, I’m still driving my 2004 Honda Element that I’ve owned since January 2006.
Hey, I wonder if I will finally get my Jeep Wrangler I’ve been wishing for all these years?
Nah, probably not. Old Hondas just never die.
By the way, if you’re reading this because you are already actively looking for the Melange Dinnerware Nantucket Weave set, just click here:
