It's been a while, let's make a Catalog of life.
The last few months have been a swing down and then back up. Tyler was having some trouble in school, in the way that kids his age usually do. He was hitting other kids and not listening well, and so we met with the teachers to see what we could do about it. We ended up trying a lot of things, and some combination worked. Jess spent some time with him in his classroom, we started a chart of good behavior at home that he could use to get Ice Cream on Fridays, and one of the kids that we knew he was having trouble with ended up leaving the class. Something in there helped him out enough that we have not been having nearly so many problems now. He still loses control occasionally, but not too often. And at his age, that's kinda expected. They don't have the neurology to evaluate and hold back an impulse. He's just not set up for it. It would be like expecting him to run a 5k with me. He's just not equipped for it yet. But he's getting better day by day.
In August he heads off to PUBLIC SCHOOL. I'm reserving judgement until I see what it's like. I have a little bit of optimism just because he'll be starting with a few friends he knows from the street, and hopefully that will help him put it in a positive light. But I've heard from parents that have had good experiences with public schools and parents that have had terrible experiences with public schools. It depends a lot on the school, and the district, and especially the teacher. We'll see how he does, and adjust accordingly. That's right, we don't have a plan. We're winging it. That's what parents do. They just make it seem like it's part of the plan with their steady voice and noble bearing. We're panicking inside.
Casey is super cute. She's rounded the corner on Talking and is now interested in parroting a lot of words and picking up new ones as quick as she can. She's even put together a few ideas of her own from different words she knows. She'll probably be an author. She likes to sing, too. We do a pretty adorable rendition of "little boxes". I should record it.
Oh, Mom and Dad got me an Audio Interface for Christmas which allows me to use my fancy microphones to record the kids. I have done so to catalog how goddamn adorable their voices are. I should post up some stuff in podcast form. The audio quality is really nice.
This has also allowed me to start doing "Let's Play" videos with Tyler. I edit them down a bit to just the funny parts, and I do it all in Microsoft Movie Maker (Super low-level stuff) so it's not like I'm planning to burn up the Internet with my new hilarious Content. At least, not right away. But it does make me pretty cool that I can record Mincraft Let's Plays with my kid. I'm a cool dad.
Jess and I hit a rough patch for a while, but we're getting better. I want to have a record of when it happened for to remind myself later.
Jessie's mom lives in Austin now? I guess I don't know when I wrote the last one of these, but having her around for babysitting has been great. Jess and I go out for a lot more dates. We've even been going out to Adult Skate at playland Skate Center. I'm getting pretty good. It's great exercise, too.
On Friday I take Tyler to his first Martial Arts class. It starts out very introductory. Next week we can start attending classes. We'll see how it goes. I'm excited for the exercise as well as doing something fun with Tyler. He tends to not want to try new stuff, though, so it will be an experiment for both of us. Oh, and I'm taking the class too. I'm not missing the opportunity to break stuff with my super strong hands.
Tyler had his birthday, so he's 5. Casey will turn 2 soon. I have been a parent for 5 years. College didn't take this long.
I'm working on painting a big diorama for ReaperCon this year. Which is in October, and that's good, since I'll be painting this thing for a long, long time.
And now it's late and I want to go to bed. So good night, see everyone in another few months.
-N
Showing posts with label Being a Dad. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Being a Dad. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 19, 2016
Saturday, October 29, 2011
More things about Tyler
I was in charge of Tyler this week while Jessie was off traveling for work. Below, you will find some highlights, I trust you will enjoy them.
First off: what didn't happen. Tyler slept fine, seemed happy, and behaved quite well with his slightly less experienced parent. He played with me a lot, explored all of the everything, and was a great baby to take care off.
The first morning I tried to feed Tyler some green beans. It...didn't go well. He wasn't having it, and while I'm sure I got a few molecules in, most of it ended up on his bib, shirt, or pants. I had to change his clothes, and that was frustrating. After that I mostly fed him fruit: apples and pears, he really liked that.
He had sort of a rough first day at day care, but after that Jess made a point of getting on Skype with us after that, and Tyler really liked seeing her in the morning. I think it put him in a much better mood. It meant that he wasn't all excited when Jess got home, but I'm not actually that sure that he knew she was gone.
One evening I tried veggies again, no luck. But since I had them out anyway, I thought I'd just let him play around with them. I'd put some on the spoon and hand it to him. About half the time the thing in his hand went right into his mouth, predictably. The other half of the time he'd flail it around and get peas all over the place. After that Tyler and I took a bath together. Lots of splashing and giggling. That's a definite highlight.
Jess needed a lot of Tyler time when she got back. So Friday was a little 'event' at the day care, where they wanted kids to dress up like characters in some of the books they had been reading. Tyler's class was reading 'if you give a mouse a cookie', which a lot of people know about, I gather, and I made Tyler a crayon costume, which was a bunch of red clothes that I drew crayola patterns on. Jess and I want to watch the event, which was mostly getting all the babies together and reading the books to everyone in the activity room. After that, there was a little parade through the halls where all the older kids cheered for the cute little babies. It was neat to see.
After that, we went back to work...for a while. It wasn't too long before Jess came strolling into the room with a baby and a sheepish look on her face that she uses when she wants to pretend that she doesn't know she can do whatever she wants all the time and I have to be okay with it because I love her so much. Anyway, we stayed at work and showed him off for a little while, and then we went home for a short day and extra mommy-cuddling time.
We've tried to start Tyler on some finger foods, but he is having a rough time of it. He doesn't know how to chew things yet. It's hard enough for him to get to food into his mouth, and when he does, he just tries to send it right down his gullet. All that accomplishes is him coughing it right back up and scaring the crap out of his mom. I got some 'textured' baby food which will hopefully make a better intermediate step.
That's all I can think of for the moment. I'm having some relax time with Jessie after being a single dad for a while. Stressful, but knowing it would come to an end eventually helped immensely. And it could have been a lot worse if Tyler wasn't, you know, Tyler.
-N
First off: what didn't happen. Tyler slept fine, seemed happy, and behaved quite well with his slightly less experienced parent. He played with me a lot, explored all of the everything, and was a great baby to take care off.
The first morning I tried to feed Tyler some green beans. It...didn't go well. He wasn't having it, and while I'm sure I got a few molecules in, most of it ended up on his bib, shirt, or pants. I had to change his clothes, and that was frustrating. After that I mostly fed him fruit: apples and pears, he really liked that.
He had sort of a rough first day at day care, but after that Jess made a point of getting on Skype with us after that, and Tyler really liked seeing her in the morning. I think it put him in a much better mood. It meant that he wasn't all excited when Jess got home, but I'm not actually that sure that he knew she was gone.
One evening I tried veggies again, no luck. But since I had them out anyway, I thought I'd just let him play around with them. I'd put some on the spoon and hand it to him. About half the time the thing in his hand went right into his mouth, predictably. The other half of the time he'd flail it around and get peas all over the place. After that Tyler and I took a bath together. Lots of splashing and giggling. That's a definite highlight.
Jess needed a lot of Tyler time when she got back. So Friday was a little 'event' at the day care, where they wanted kids to dress up like characters in some of the books they had been reading. Tyler's class was reading 'if you give a mouse a cookie', which a lot of people know about, I gather, and I made Tyler a crayon costume, which was a bunch of red clothes that I drew crayola patterns on. Jess and I want to watch the event, which was mostly getting all the babies together and reading the books to everyone in the activity room. After that, there was a little parade through the halls where all the older kids cheered for the cute little babies. It was neat to see.
After that, we went back to work...for a while. It wasn't too long before Jess came strolling into the room with a baby and a sheepish look on her face that she uses when she wants to pretend that she doesn't know she can do whatever she wants all the time and I have to be okay with it because I love her so much. Anyway, we stayed at work and showed him off for a little while, and then we went home for a short day and extra mommy-cuddling time.
We've tried to start Tyler on some finger foods, but he is having a rough time of it. He doesn't know how to chew things yet. It's hard enough for him to get to food into his mouth, and when he does, he just tries to send it right down his gullet. All that accomplishes is him coughing it right back up and scaring the crap out of his mom. I got some 'textured' baby food which will hopefully make a better intermediate step.
That's all I can think of for the moment. I'm having some relax time with Jessie after being a single dad for a while. Stressful, but knowing it would come to an end eventually helped immensely. And it could have been a lot worse if Tyler wasn't, you know, Tyler.
-N
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Father's Day Thoughts
The material, mundane component of my present to Dad will have to wait for while before it arrives and it deposited in Dad's hands. (Is he 'grandad' now? Do we all just have to shift up by one generation?) But I wanted to take a moment to muse upon the aspects of fatherhood which are the most important but, for some reason, the least often discussed.
Being a parent is not a responsibility, it is the responsibility. It's the thing that everyone points to when you talk about being a grown-up. Are you ready to be in charge of another human being that can't feed, dress, change, or even fall asleep on it's own? All the time? Well then you're responsible now. High fives all around.
And as a task it's really hard to quantify. Being a dad is easy in the same way that knitting is easy. There's really only a few maneuvers you have to know. Few key differences, though, obviously. Primarily, it's okay if you're not very good at knitting. No one wants to be a bad father. Everyone wants to be great at it, it's demanded of us by these little bundles of needs and crying we are presented with every moment of the day. But you can't be great, because you're being measured against your own dad. And he was a full fledged dad. You're just you. For every new generation the task is impossible.
The only secret, as it turns out, is that you fake it. You go with your gut or book-learning, or try to adapt some half-remembered scrap from your own childhood. If you can keep up the facade up long enough, eventually they move out of the house, none the wiser that you never really had any idea what you were doing. Until, of course they have kids of their own, at which point it's too late to go back.
And the sacrifices. Let me tell you, it seems endless. Even just standing on the tip of the iceberg I have to eventually melt, I get a size of the vastness and weight of the things I won't be doing now that I'm a dad. Endless sleepings-in and fast cars sacrificed just so that someone else can have food and diapers so that they will grow past a point of their life that they won't even remember in a few years. And they'll never appreciate everything Dad could be doing with his time and money instead because hey, I didn't. Dad's are expected to toss those things away stoically and without second thoughts because after all, your dad did. Didn't he?
Oh.
So thanks for everything, dad. The more I understand about what you've already given me, the more glad I am to have had it so well.
-N
Being a parent is not a responsibility, it is the responsibility. It's the thing that everyone points to when you talk about being a grown-up. Are you ready to be in charge of another human being that can't feed, dress, change, or even fall asleep on it's own? All the time? Well then you're responsible now. High fives all around.
And as a task it's really hard to quantify. Being a dad is easy in the same way that knitting is easy. There's really only a few maneuvers you have to know. Few key differences, though, obviously. Primarily, it's okay if you're not very good at knitting. No one wants to be a bad father. Everyone wants to be great at it, it's demanded of us by these little bundles of needs and crying we are presented with every moment of the day. But you can't be great, because you're being measured against your own dad. And he was a full fledged dad. You're just you. For every new generation the task is impossible.
The only secret, as it turns out, is that you fake it. You go with your gut or book-learning, or try to adapt some half-remembered scrap from your own childhood. If you can keep up the facade up long enough, eventually they move out of the house, none the wiser that you never really had any idea what you were doing. Until, of course they have kids of their own, at which point it's too late to go back.
And the sacrifices. Let me tell you, it seems endless. Even just standing on the tip of the iceberg I have to eventually melt, I get a size of the vastness and weight of the things I won't be doing now that I'm a dad. Endless sleepings-in and fast cars sacrificed just so that someone else can have food and diapers so that they will grow past a point of their life that they won't even remember in a few years. And they'll never appreciate everything Dad could be doing with his time and money instead because hey, I didn't. Dad's are expected to toss those things away stoically and without second thoughts because after all, your dad did. Didn't he?
Oh.
So thanks for everything, dad. The more I understand about what you've already given me, the more glad I am to have had it so well.
-N
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Happy Mother's Day
I wanted to do my next post about Tyler's numbers. We've stopped using the little App that keeps track of all his stuff (accurately predicted by Dad) and I took pictures of the month-long graphs we got out of the projects, but now I've got a new laptop and all my pictures are still on the old one, so I guess you guys will have to wait for that one while I get my data all sorted out.
Mother's day! Jess told me she wanted flowers for mothers day, then she told me she didn't. So Tyler and I are teaming up for a mothers day morning surprise. I made Jessie some breakfast biscuits and scones for whenever she wakes up. Tyler is doing the important work of staying asleep while Daddy bakes. The other part of my mothers day present, and weekends in general, is that I take over Tyler duties during the morning so Jess can sleep in as much as she wants. She still takes care of him at night during the weekend though. What a trooper.
Speaking of moms, we have a couple of them on their way in just a day or so. We're excited for the additional visitors, of course, and we're quite pleased with ourselves that we managed to go a whole week just with the two of us in charge of Tyler, even with me working. Fantastic work, all. Tyler continues to be pretty much the best sleeper in the whole world. He wakes up 2 or sometimes just once at night, and he usually sleeps for 10 or 11 hours around that. Yes, we know how lucky that makes us. It also makes me nervous to consider another kid. What are *real* babies like? This one feels like we are cheating!
Tyler is starting to interact more, too. Though in this case, 'more' really means 'at all'. He's started smiling at us! When he hasn't seen you in a while and you come over and give him a big smile...and wait a few minutes while he figures out why that particular blob looks familiar...he'll smile at you! He was all grins for a good half-hour yesterday during morning playtime. The heart melts!
Oh, and because we've been told to write this down, and I can't remember if I've blogged about it before: nicknames. We do call him T-rex every once in a while, especially wen he's nursing. Jessie's nipples are getting tougher, but the kid definitely has some serious mouth-grip going on. I can tell when he latches, Jessie starts to wince...and occasionally curse.
The more common nickname is 'Starfish.' When he startles, like all babies, all of the limbs go out in every direction, even when he's asleep, sometimes. He tends to startle at a lot of things, from sudden noises to the sound of daddy laughing. I laugh loud, anyone who has ever lived with me can tell you that. Jessie sometimes calls him 'startlefish'.
Most common, though, is still 'Baby Tyler.' I tend to make up songs for him when I get home. Usually songs about how he is a baby and is so cute and likes to dance and occasionally tries to throw up on me. Different song every day. How come I can't make anything in my studio. I should be recording these.
It rained (finally) last week on one of the days I biked into work. Oh, I've been biking into work a lot. I like doing it, and it's just me going in, so that's been my exercise, most days. But it did rain one day, and Jess came out to get me. She insisted I was cold and miserable and needed a hot shower. I didn't, of course. It's just water, and the biking was keeping me plenty warm, although totally soaked, but she tends to project her worry for me. She's cute. Then on Friday my tire got flat at work and Jess had to come pick me up. We got some new tubes to replace the punctured one and then the three of us went out for Thai food. Tyler especially liked the Pad Se Ew.
Yes, I'm kidding. He just had formula. With coconut milk in it. No! I'm kidding again!
Speaking of coconut milk, I'm hoping to try and make some Chicken Tikka Masala for dinner today. Alton brown has a recipe, and I've got the whole spices to try out. Yum.
Oop, I hear the stirrings of a little baby. Ciao!
-N
Mother's day! Jess told me she wanted flowers for mothers day, then she told me she didn't. So Tyler and I are teaming up for a mothers day morning surprise. I made Jessie some breakfast biscuits and scones for whenever she wakes up. Tyler is doing the important work of staying asleep while Daddy bakes. The other part of my mothers day present, and weekends in general, is that I take over Tyler duties during the morning so Jess can sleep in as much as she wants. She still takes care of him at night during the weekend though. What a trooper.
Speaking of moms, we have a couple of them on their way in just a day or so. We're excited for the additional visitors, of course, and we're quite pleased with ourselves that we managed to go a whole week just with the two of us in charge of Tyler, even with me working. Fantastic work, all. Tyler continues to be pretty much the best sleeper in the whole world. He wakes up 2 or sometimes just once at night, and he usually sleeps for 10 or 11 hours around that. Yes, we know how lucky that makes us. It also makes me nervous to consider another kid. What are *real* babies like? This one feels like we are cheating!
Tyler is starting to interact more, too. Though in this case, 'more' really means 'at all'. He's started smiling at us! When he hasn't seen you in a while and you come over and give him a big smile...and wait a few minutes while he figures out why that particular blob looks familiar...he'll smile at you! He was all grins for a good half-hour yesterday during morning playtime. The heart melts!
Oh, and because we've been told to write this down, and I can't remember if I've blogged about it before: nicknames. We do call him T-rex every once in a while, especially wen he's nursing. Jessie's nipples are getting tougher, but the kid definitely has some serious mouth-grip going on. I can tell when he latches, Jessie starts to wince...and occasionally curse.
The more common nickname is 'Starfish.' When he startles, like all babies, all of the limbs go out in every direction, even when he's asleep, sometimes. He tends to startle at a lot of things, from sudden noises to the sound of daddy laughing. I laugh loud, anyone who has ever lived with me can tell you that. Jessie sometimes calls him 'startlefish'.
Most common, though, is still 'Baby Tyler.' I tend to make up songs for him when I get home. Usually songs about how he is a baby and is so cute and likes to dance and occasionally tries to throw up on me. Different song every day. How come I can't make anything in my studio. I should be recording these.
It rained (finally) last week on one of the days I biked into work. Oh, I've been biking into work a lot. I like doing it, and it's just me going in, so that's been my exercise, most days. But it did rain one day, and Jess came out to get me. She insisted I was cold and miserable and needed a hot shower. I didn't, of course. It's just water, and the biking was keeping me plenty warm, although totally soaked, but she tends to project her worry for me. She's cute. Then on Friday my tire got flat at work and Jess had to come pick me up. We got some new tubes to replace the punctured one and then the three of us went out for Thai food. Tyler especially liked the Pad Se Ew.
Yes, I'm kidding. He just had formula. With coconut milk in it. No! I'm kidding again!
Speaking of coconut milk, I'm hoping to try and make some Chicken Tikka Masala for dinner today. Alton brown has a recipe, and I've got the whole spices to try out. Yum.
Oop, I hear the stirrings of a little baby. Ciao!
-N
Monday, April 11, 2011
My Application for Superdad Status
Name: Noel Preecs
Duration of Dadhood: One week, 5 days
Reason for Superdad Status: Managed to calm a baby by allowing him to suck on the pinky of my right hand while *simultaneously* giving my wife a massage with my left hand. Baby was comforted to sleep, and so was mom.
Application Status: Approved! *Ker-Stamp*
Very little that qualifies as ‘news’ happens around here. Did you know that Tyler continues to be hungry, poopy, and tired in a pseudorandom order pretty much all the time? His sleep has been pretty phenomenal, so far, actually. He slept for 5 or 6 hours in a row the last two nights. He always wakes up very hungry (and often in serious need of a new diaper) after those sessions, but it’s great for mom and Dad to recharge their batteries. Normally we all go to sleep together at about 8 or 9 and whenever Tyler wakes up, both parents get up and give him a feeding and use the milk pump. That’s usually his 5 hour span, right there. Then they’ll be some more random wake-ups for a while, then usually a few more 4 hour sleep stints, usually lasting until 11 or so in the morning. It can be a little rough at times but believe me, I appreciate how good we have it on the ‘restful baby o-meter’.
His umbilical cord is about to fall off, so I’m dosing out the alcohol pretty regularly. It goes around the belly button, for people who don’t know. I’m definitely not going to rush it, but it’s hanging on by an ever-decreasing thread. And once it heals up, bath time will be a lot more fun, I think.
Speaking of which, we gave Tyler a bath today, and his hair is soft and full of body once again. He likes the actual bathing but dislikes having to get out of the tub into the cold air.
We have also acquired an ever-expanding repertoire of baby-soothing techniques including:
-Walking Around
-The Pinky Finger
-Running water in the sink (this one works the best)
-’Dancing Baby’ (The words go: “Dancing Baby loves to dance”)
More News as it Develops.
-N
Duration of Dadhood: One week, 5 days
Reason for Superdad Status: Managed to calm a baby by allowing him to suck on the pinky of my right hand while *simultaneously* giving my wife a massage with my left hand. Baby was comforted to sleep, and so was mom.
Application Status: Approved! *Ker-Stamp*
Very little that qualifies as ‘news’ happens around here. Did you know that Tyler continues to be hungry, poopy, and tired in a pseudorandom order pretty much all the time? His sleep has been pretty phenomenal, so far, actually. He slept for 5 or 6 hours in a row the last two nights. He always wakes up very hungry (and often in serious need of a new diaper) after those sessions, but it’s great for mom and Dad to recharge their batteries. Normally we all go to sleep together at about 8 or 9 and whenever Tyler wakes up, both parents get up and give him a feeding and use the milk pump. That’s usually his 5 hour span, right there. Then they’ll be some more random wake-ups for a while, then usually a few more 4 hour sleep stints, usually lasting until 11 or so in the morning. It can be a little rough at times but believe me, I appreciate how good we have it on the ‘restful baby o-meter’.
His umbilical cord is about to fall off, so I’m dosing out the alcohol pretty regularly. It goes around the belly button, for people who don’t know. I’m definitely not going to rush it, but it’s hanging on by an ever-decreasing thread. And once it heals up, bath time will be a lot more fun, I think.
Speaking of which, we gave Tyler a bath today, and his hair is soft and full of body once again. He likes the actual bathing but dislikes having to get out of the tub into the cold air.
We have also acquired an ever-expanding repertoire of baby-soothing techniques including:
-Walking Around
-The Pinky Finger
-Running water in the sink (this one works the best)
-’Dancing Baby’ (The words go: “Dancing Baby loves to dance”)
More News as it Develops.
-N
Sunday, October 10, 2010
I think I may actually qualify as Handy.
I made so much stuff this weekend that the only way to contain all my productivity is in a list:
1) Decided to fix pretty much everything
2) Disassembled and reassembled the dripping kitchen faucet to learn how to do it.
3) Tried to disassemble the master bathtub faucet
4) Failed
5) Did some internet research
6) Succeeded!
7) Went out to Lowes to buy a whole bunch of replacement parts and a ceiling fan.
8) Jess took a nap
9) Fixed tub.
10) Fixed kitchen sink
11) Hung up a ceiling fan (good arm exercise)
12) Jess woke up from her nap
13) Assembled a rocking chair (for future nursing-of-of-baby)
14) Did some Laundry
15) Replaced some light bulbs
16) Hammered some nails
17) Wrote some music.
That last one doesn’t count as handyman work, but I did accomplish it, so it goes on the list.
You want to *hear* my music? Of course you do. Click here and enjoy with your ears, not with your hands.
Preamble-Vengance on spooky mountain
-N
1) Decided to fix pretty much everything
2) Disassembled and reassembled the dripping kitchen faucet to learn how to do it.
3) Tried to disassemble the master bathtub faucet
4) Failed
5) Did some internet research
6) Succeeded!
7) Went out to Lowes to buy a whole bunch of replacement parts and a ceiling fan.
8) Jess took a nap
9) Fixed tub.
10) Fixed kitchen sink
11) Hung up a ceiling fan (good arm exercise)
12) Jess woke up from her nap
13) Assembled a rocking chair (for future nursing-of-of-baby)
14) Did some Laundry
15) Replaced some light bulbs
16) Hammered some nails
17) Wrote some music.
That last one doesn’t count as handyman work, but I did accomplish it, so it goes on the list.
You want to *hear* my music? Of course you do. Click here and enjoy with your ears, not with your hands.
Preamble-Vengance on spooky mountain
-N
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Working at being a DAD
We all have our rolls to play in starting a family. Jessie, as it turns out, gets hers with a *superpower*. It’s one of the things that can happen, evidently, when you become pregnant: your sense of smell gets really sensitive. Hers was already better than mine, which is very, very bad. Now it’s upgraded to downright *legendary*. Literally legendary. People have written epic poems about her olfactory sense. There was some lunch meat that was a little old and I wasn’t sure if it was good, so I had Jess smell it. She made a face and then threw it away. Superpowers!
I on the other hand, am trying to become a DAD.
Take that, debris!
This is my first attempt at proper Dad-hood. Not fatherhood. Being a father is easy. Genetics start the process and everything else goes kinda automatically. Not being a dad. That’s a much harder process. (I still remember some random box with a cover on the top that we had back in, I think, Kentucky, that said “Anyone can be a Father, but it takes someone special to be a DAD." True words.) Anyway, I figured being a dad involves power tools, and I’m pleased to say that I’ve managed to use all the of cool power tool set that dad got me for my housewarming present. The circular saw got used a while ago to cut off a plank of cedar for the cedar plank salmon I grilled up. Very tasty. A week or so ago a storm knocked a medium-sized branch off a tree in the backyard and I got to use my reciprocating saw to chop it down into trash-can-sized pieces. So I own power tools and I can use them. That makes me kind of a Dad, right?
I was pondering this on Saturday while tinkering around in the kitchen. “How am I going to be a good provider?” I thought while I put a load of shortcakes in the oven (they didn’t come out great). “What kind of things could I do for a family?” I asked while taking out the shortcakes and putting in some biscuits (they were pretty good). “What possible skills could I present as a dad?” I pondered while the biscuits came out and the scones went in (they were fantastic!) “Well yes,” I reasoned, as the scones came out and the chicken pot pie went in, “I guess there’s always baking.”
Man I am good at baking. I am so good at it, you have no idea. I can make different kinds of bread, quickbreads, cake, you name it. What do you need. Pizza dough? Pizza dough? Are you kidding? I make the best pizza dough that I’ve ever accidentally dropped on the table. I make it fast, I make it good, I make it fresh. Dads can bake, right?
zzzzzzz
Dads also play video games while wives and cats sleep next to them on the couch.
Man I hope I’ll be good at this.
-N
I on the other hand, am trying to become a DAD.
Take that, debris!
This is my first attempt at proper Dad-hood. Not fatherhood. Being a father is easy. Genetics start the process and everything else goes kinda automatically. Not being a dad. That’s a much harder process. (I still remember some random box with a cover on the top that we had back in, I think, Kentucky, that said “Anyone can be a Father, but it takes someone special to be a DAD." True words.) Anyway, I figured being a dad involves power tools, and I’m pleased to say that I’ve managed to use all the of cool power tool set that dad got me for my housewarming present. The circular saw got used a while ago to cut off a plank of cedar for the cedar plank salmon I grilled up. Very tasty. A week or so ago a storm knocked a medium-sized branch off a tree in the backyard and I got to use my reciprocating saw to chop it down into trash-can-sized pieces. So I own power tools and I can use them. That makes me kind of a Dad, right?
I was pondering this on Saturday while tinkering around in the kitchen. “How am I going to be a good provider?” I thought while I put a load of shortcakes in the oven (they didn’t come out great). “What kind of things could I do for a family?” I asked while taking out the shortcakes and putting in some biscuits (they were pretty good). “What possible skills could I present as a dad?” I pondered while the biscuits came out and the scones went in (they were fantastic!) “Well yes,” I reasoned, as the scones came out and the chicken pot pie went in, “I guess there’s always baking.”
Man I am good at baking. I am so good at it, you have no idea. I can make different kinds of bread, quickbreads, cake, you name it. What do you need. Pizza dough? Pizza dough? Are you kidding? I make the best pizza dough that I’ve ever accidentally dropped on the table. I make it fast, I make it good, I make it fresh. Dads can bake, right?
zzzzzzz
Dads also play video games while wives and cats sleep next to them on the couch.
Man I hope I’ll be good at this.
-N
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