Since summer is just around the corner, I thought I would do a recap of our record breaking winter.
The first snow of the spring season:
Have a nice summer!
May 142010
May 122010
Happy Birthday my little man! Robert has turned five. This will be a transitional year as he will be starting kindergarten this fall. This is kind of scary. But on the flip side, I will have lots of bonding time with Jacob. I want this summer to be a great one. Here’s to new beginnings.
Well it has been a while since I have posted, just could not find that groove.
Robert Jr. has given me the inspiration to start posting again. He has been saying these one liners that just make me scratch my head. So I have decided to start a journal of them and post one a week. I will call them Robert-isms. So here is the first.
“If you stick your foot in ice cream, it will itch, because it is cold, slimy, and itchy.” – Robert Jr.
This was his response when offered a taste of ice cream.
Jul 272009
Well a stay at home dad made the front page of The Dallas Morning News. The name of the article was “Daddy’s New Job.” In a nut shell, this dad had to shut down his business, bring the kids home from day care, while the wife continued her job as a civil engineer. The article also talks about how he went into a funk, using the television for a babysitter, sitting on the couch all day, and his transition to accepting his new role. So this makes me want to ask the question, why are you a stay at home dad?
For me it was both choice and circumstance. When we found out Adriana was pregnant, we made the decision that one of us would stay at home with the baby. As time went on I knew that I wanted to be the one to stay home. As we got close to the due date, it became obvious that I would be staying home. She made more money and had way better benefits. If it had been the other way around, I probably would not be writing this post.
I have been at home now for four years. There have been plenty of times when I fall into a funk. Television is on all day. Nothing is getting done around the house. Then it takes a huge argument to get me out of it. During those funks, I also get to feeling guilty. First off I hate the fact that I have let my wife and kids down. Then I feel like Adriana should be the one at home (like I stole something from her). I feel like I should be the one working hard to put food on the table. The best way to get out of a funk, start moving, take the kids for a walk, to the park. Just get moving.
Men and women are wired differently. I have no question that Adriana could come in here and do a way better job then me. I am not a mom. I am not trying to be a mom. I am a dad, a stay at home dad.
Back to the news article, the father plans on going back to work. It also mentioned that census reports 140k sahds in America. Other professionals report the number should be closer to 2mil. That is a huge gap. I think it is closer to 2mil. The numbers of sahds will more then likely go down after the job market opens back up.
Here are some links the article recommended:
Here is one I would like to add:
So please share your story, leave a comment on why you are a stay at home dad.
Jul 202009
This post is aimed at soon to be parents, especially dad. Why? Mom needs to be concerned with just taking it easy and picking out stuff for baby. Dad get ready to do some assembling, painting, and de-cluttering. Now what I am about to write I either did or wish I had done.
I would say a good time to start is six months out. First and foremost, use a unisex color in the nursery. I do not care how certain they are about the sono. God has a great sense of humor. We were supposed to have a girl and ended up with a boy. No, the room was not painted pink. We had painted it yellow, but it was decked out in girly stuff. We had a ton of girl clothing. So have your baby showers be unisex.
De-clutter the room that is to become the nursery. Paint it. Get the furniture assembled and in place. When picking out furniture, get something practical. Get something that will actually work for you, not against you. Do not buy furniture just because it looks nice. Looking back I wish we had gone with stuff from IKEA. There stuff is really practical. My father-in-law offered to pay for the furniture, so we went gaga over the expensive stuff. It was not very useful and took up a lot of space.
Now focus on the little things. Register for practical stuff. Don’t get lost in the land of cute. Cute does not equal useful. Check out the diaper bags inside and out. Try it on. Avent bottles worked best for us. If mom is breastfeeding, buy Medela pumps only. Other breast pumps do not even come close to the quality in Medela. Yes, they are expensive. Check with your employer to see about benefits for discounts on Medela pumps. DO NOT BUY A USED PUMP! It is like sharing nail clippers or a toothbrush. Stick with Medela products for milk storage. We used other brands and it cost us a lot of milk. You run the risk of other bags breaking during the freezing process. Medela bags have very good seams that resist breakage during freezing.
Do not skimp on the car seat or carrier. You will probably use the carrier for at least the first six months or so. The car seat will last them for a few years. Our four year old is still using his. Get to know this equipment before the due date. I was pretty embarrassed when I got to the front door to pick up mom and baby and could not figure out how to slack up the seat belt in the carrier. Read instructions and get familiar with all your products.
Bottom line, keep it simple and practical. Brands that we would recommend: Medela, Avent, Munchkin, Gerber, Joovy, and Graco. Yes, go crazy with decorations and stuff. When it comes to the stuff you will use for feeding and caring for the baby, it needs to be good quality useful stuff.
Parents please leave some advice for soon to be parents.
Jul 162009
It is amazing to me how my oldest son acts so much like me. Even my family talks about how much he is like me. “He is just a little bit calmer then you.” My dad says that when Jr. is in hyper drive.
Thinking back to when I was a kid, I just don’t remember being that hyperactive. My mom and dad assure me that I was worse then little Robert. I can not even imagine that.
I use to do some crazy stuff. My sister and I had a nanny. She was a much older woman, and when she would vacuum I got off on pulling the chord out and making her wonder what the hell is going on with the vacuum. I was also a pyromaniac. I almost set the house on fire by setting a piece of paper on fire on the stove, then looking at it like what the hell do I with it now, and threw it into the trash. I gave nanny #2 a heart attack. No, I did not run off the first nanny, I believe she retired or got ill. I can not remember. My sister took it hard. My dad tells stories about how she did not talk for weeks, because she missed her so much. Then there is embarrassing mom and dad in public. My dad was cool about that kind of stuff. He would just give a look and then later make the comment, “we can’t take you anywhere.” One Sunday at Mass I decided to pass gas. Ripped it pretty good, resonated all they way through the pew. My mom was not cool about those kinds of situations. She gave me a nice pinch on the side of my arm and gave it a good twist. The only thing missing was the slap at the end. I guess since we were at Mass, she would skip on that part.
Little Robert is what I like to say “high on life.” He is actually scared of the vacuum. He will retreat to his room and ask me to shut the door. Robert is a people watcher when we go out and about. He gets his giggle going, ants in his pants, and annoys the crap out of his brother. He can do all of this without one gram of sugar. Adriana and I probably tell him twenty times to sit down and be quiet when at a restaurant. “If you don’t stop that we’re going to leave,” that empty threat gets applied a few times. Empty because mom and dad don’t want to leave. I love when we tell him to do something and it does not register, just like me. “Robert go do this…did you do it…no…why not…I don’t know.” Bill Cosby would call him brain damaged. This trait is so identical to me, just ask Adriana.
Robert makes me laugh, as he should. Free spirited children are God’s way of telling us to just chill out and enjoy the ride. Our lives here are so short, and the day to day lives we get to experience with our kids is so much shorter. One day we will turn around and off to college they go. So laugh it up! Live it up! We only have one shot at this. Make it count.
Jul 152009
Here is something I grabbed from my squidoo page.
And whoever does not provide for relatives and especially family members has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. I Timothy 5:8 (NAB)
This video clip may have been taken out of context, I have not seen the full sermon. So I am not going to rip John Hagee for this clip, but give my fair explanation. Now I realize that there are different versions of the Bible, but because I am Catholic I am using the NAB version. Now everyone has different interpretations of what they read, including the Bible. This even includes ministers and priest. They are humans too. Here is how I interpret the verse above. If you sit around, sleep late, eat, sleep some more, allow your kids to go without diaper changes, do not seek medical attention for your kids when they are sick, just flat out negligent and oblivious to what is going on around you, then yes…you are worse then an unbeliever. Now I believe that providing for your family is not just limited to money. Stay at home parents do quite a bit of providing. There is taking care of the kids, taking care of the house, laundry, cooking meals, grocery shopping, and handling home economics. Stay at home dads do even more. Like the things dads just do, like mowing the lawn, fixing broken this and that, taking out the trash. Now in our house I am not a very good cook. I do cook dinner for the boys, but she will cook for us when she gets home or walk me through something while in transit. We go grocery shopping as a family, she handles all the coupon stuff, she is really good at it. It is all about team work, we each provide for our family in certain ways for certain things. So…Am I going to hell?
Jul 142009
As we were taking care of PT duties this morning, Robert Jr. points at the rug and says “Do you see that really cool car?” I am like where? “There daddy, right there.” So I start to point at different areas of the rug, “that’s the front of the car, that’s the back of the car, there is the back seat.” What an imagination! All I could find was something that resembled a tire. What do you see?
What do you see?