Dad's Little Helper, and the Other not so "Little Helper"

Vince has become quite interested in what Mike is doing around the house these days. I think he's going to take after his Dad and learn to be handy with tools, and fixing things. Mike couldn't be happier about this either!! When I took this photo I think Mike was in his utmost fatherhood glory as Vince was grabbing his screwdriver and wanting to help tighten some screws! He's going to be a great helper around the house one day!!


It's not so long ago that I remember Mike having a different "helper" around the house when ever he'd be managing projects. This helper has whiskers however, and meows, and would usually "help" Mike in such a way that he'd end up blowing up at his "little helper" and chasing the furry pest out of his sight!! It's true, our cat Animal used to always get right up in Mike's mix when he was trying to do something around the house. This was evident with various projects, one in particular is the time Mike was painting all the window sills. Animal would be right on the window sill Mike wanted to paint, he'd shew her away to paint, but she'd be RIGHT there under his feet trying to get in on the action. I remember this one the best, because I was downstairs and all of the sudden I heard Mike flip out upstairs and curse at Animal! Next thing I know she comes flying down stairs... and while she was running there were little white painted paw prints left on our hard wood floors from where she ran! Mike came running downstairs to chase her and practically split in half with anger, his eyes popping out of his head as he sat there shaking his finger at Animal like she was a little kid, disciplining her about what she did... it had to be one of the funniest of the helping stories I remember!!

Here's to you Animal!

Did I mention that we gave away our second cat Pootie?! She's featured in the above picture being pinned down by Animal. Yes, it's true, we gave her away.... she needed more attention than we could (or wanted) to give to her; especially since Vince arrived. The cat provoked in us the desire to sometimes want to choke her. She would rarely sit on our laps to enjoy our company.. rather she'd meow constantly until we fed her... this would start at about 4am every morning when we didn't feed her until 6am! Anyway, one night when we went out and our babysitter came to watch Vince.... we got home to see Pootie laying on her lap like she was being fanned and fed grapes! We figured it was a good match... she's been at our neighbor's house for over a month now, and I'm sure loving all the attention!

Failed Surprise Anniversary Present

After much debate as to whether or not we should post these pictures, Mike and I decided they were too cute not to post!! We originally didn't want to post them because we felt it would cause undue angst amongst our parents; having Mike take Vince to and from daycare on the bike. I admit I'm nervous about it too, but that's all I'll say about that or I'll get myself worked up.

I originally tried to organize this as a surprise anniversary present for Mike.... my plan was to walk his bike to the shop while he was at work and I was home on vacation for Vince's birthday.... It would have worked out great. I dropped the ball however, and ended up giving the surprise away because I jumped to conclusions that he already knew what the surprise was. I left a search of 'baby seat' in the google tool bar on the computer, and Mike saw it. He mentioned it too me, taunting that it was probably an anniversary present. Well, with that comment I just flung up my arms and told him "Yes! I'm getting a bicycle carrier for you to take Vince to daycare! Are you happy it's not a surprise anymore?!" Uhh.... well.... Lisa.... he didn't actually have a clue as to what 'baby seat' meant!! I could have been researching new car seats!! (or said that I was).

3rd Anniversary, and the T-Shirt Tradition

Yesterday Mike and I celebrated our third anniversary! It's been an awesome 3 years of marriage with Mike, he's the best thing that's ever happened to me; he's my hero and true love and I can't wait to spend many many more anniversaries with him!! We had a nice evening out at dinner, and then came back home and watched one of our Netflix movies (that has been sitting there for 4 months). I felt giddy about the idea of watching a movie again, and working through our Netflix que! How's that for how long it's been.

When we thought back on what we were doing at this time last year, our memories got fuzzy... as we were totally sleep deprived new parents to a 1 week old little Vince! To see the picture from last year click here; I must say we look a little more held together than I remember being.

Now, on to the t-shirt tradition. When Vince was born we took a picture and posted it of him in his Daddy's t-shirt.... and we plan on taking a picture every year in that same t-shirt until he basically doesn't let us do it anymore! I predict that's how this tradition will end up dying out... when Vince has had enough of it. Until then....

Vince: 2 weeks old

Vince: 12 months old

First Father's Day

I had Vince tackle Mike this morning so he could give him his Father's Day cards and attack him with hugs and kisses for his Daddy. I think they had a good time, but poor Mike could have slept a couple hours longer (on most days now we both could do that!).


We were able to get up and out early enough to get ourselves a spot to eat at the Deluxe Town Diner. We LOVE that place, and couldn't wait to introduce Vince to their sweet potato pancakes. He loved them of course, (the only vegetables he basically managed to eat today..... he's getting pretty picky) Maybe we need to make pancakes for him at all meals now and cook vegetables into them!!

His Grandma and Pop Pop were in charge of dealing with Vince as they wanted to have the end seats at the table! They got more than they bargained for, but they kept him pretty entertained for a long while. Vince's Pop Pop has been teaching him to stick his tongue out!! sorry, no pics of that great talent yet.

Father's Day Reflections: The First Year

With this being my first Father's Day, I figured that I'd take some time to jot down a few observations about fatherhood. I'm kind of amused by the fact that I had to wait over a year since Vince was born before my first Father's Day, but it has made it pretty special that he's old enough for me to play with.

In no particular order, here are some thoughts of mine:
1) Sleep deprivation is torture. When you have a young infant, and you're waking up every hour and a half, and you're going to work the next day, it really wears you down by the fifth night in a row. All of those Washington lawyers who argued that it's not torture either a) do not have kids; b) were uninvolved parents; or c) are just plain crazy. Sleep deprivation causes you physical pain. A little sleep deprivation can make a grown man cry.

2) Being a father is work. A LOT of work. To me, being a father is about taking care of your child, teaching them right from wrong, and being someone that they respect and want to emulate. Anyone can father a child, but it's hard to be a father. I can only speak about what it's like to be the father of an infant, but it's been a lot of work so far. If you're not prepared to put your life on hold while you take care of your child, then you shouldn't have a child. It certainly affected me more than I thought it would. Some things that you'd like to do, like keep the house clean or stay on top of work, just aren't going to happen. You also don't get much personal time anymore, which was a big adjustment for me. But I really want to be a good father, so I've been putting in the work. I don't want Vince to say what Kurt Cobain did: "I tried to have a father, but instead I had a dad."

3) Daycare pickup is a lot more fun than drop off. Luckily I don't have any problem with Vince when I drop him off. He's not that clingy, and there's a lot of fun things at daycare that he can play with. About half of the time, he's too busy playing to notice that I left. But when I pick him up, it's the best part of his day. When he sees me, he gets so excited, and he crawls as fast as he can towards me. If I don't pick him up right away, or if I put him down to gather up his things, he throws a fit. But I just love the overall joy that he shows when I walk into the room. It's one of the most satisfying parts of being a parent.

4) I don't miss the things I used to be able to do before kids as much as I thought would; except sleeping. There are some things that I used to do, that I don't do anymore, like staying out late at night and having a few drinks. I also don't sleep in half of the morning because I feel ill after staying out late at night and having a few drinks. It's really easy, as a parent, to say: If I didn't have a kid, I could be doing something really cool, like (fill in the blank). Of course, when I didn't have a kid, I wasn't doing those things very often anyway, and having Vince now is far more enjoyable and rewarding than anything I could do that "fills in the blank".

5) The day to day development of infants is more significant than I realized. It seems like Vince is doing new things all the time, and sometimes out of nowhere. I was convinced that he would never crawl - just go from dragging himself across the floor commando-style to walking. Then one day, he comes home from daycare and starts crawling all over the place! Whether it's a new sound that he makes, or new motor skills, it seems like there's something new all of the time. I couldn't imagine missing this part of his life, when he's changing so fast.

6) The most fun month of Vince's life is always the last month. Every day he's more interactive, and there's new ways that I can play with him. The older he is, the more he laughs, and the more he enjoys playing with me, too. Already the first 6 months of his life, which was more work than fun, is starting to fade, and I have more and more memories of the fun that we have together.