Dad – Letters to Noodle

Spring

Ok. So, I haven’t even posted so far this year. How sad. 🙁 Sorry about that. Lots has happened. We got a mini-van. The charger is gone and the mini-van took it’s place. We are officially domesticated. Honestly, I love the van. The charger was fun. It had a lot of power, but it was terrible when it came to space. Just didn’t work anymore with 2 growing kids and their stuff.

2 kids. Both getting big. She is quickly turning into a young lady. He is moving well and will be walking soon. Blows my mind. Sometimes I just sit and watch you both. I think of what your mother and I did before you came along and I have a hard time coming up with things. I just all seems so insignificant now. I’ve learned so much about life and faith. I wouldn’t change a thing. I see some of myself and your mother in both of you. Sometimes it’s great and sometimes it’s scary. Scary because I know what that attitude or that trait will lead. Maybe we can explain them and you can avoid the pitfalls. More likely you’ll need to learn the hard way like we did. Hopefully we’ll be understanding and remember our times through that.

Summer’s coming. Can’t wait to get both of you to the lake this year. It’s going to be interesting.

Gotta get back to work. Yes, I’m typing this at work. 🙂

Love,

Dad

September Already

Last post was in February. Man, times flies. Last time I wrote our little girl’s baby brother wasn’t even a month old. Now he’s a pretty big and long (imagine that) little boy. Our little girl isn’t a toddler anymore. She really is a little girl. Little being relative. She’s a head taller than everyone else in her class at church. 🙂

She has had (and still does really) trouble with having a little brother around. All that sharing is tough. But it’s been good too. Last night she played with him some and it was a really cool moment to watch.

Her 3rd birthday was recently. That was fun. Had parties with both sets of grandparents. I was determined to get her a soccer ball. When I took her out to look at them, she ran past them and grabbed a baseball bat and a pink batting helmet. So now she has a plastic t-ball set as well as a soccer ball from mom and dad.

I hope you and your brother enjoy them both together.

Love you both.

Dad.

New Baby Brother

So, our little girl has a brand new baby brother. You are being really good about it and very helpful to your mom. Now that I’m back to work, she’s going to need you. Should be interesting how it all plays out. All I have to do with this blog is figure out how to write to both of you and keep things at least a little anonymous. That part may be pointless these days, especially considering the blogroll, but it makes me feel better.

So. Hopefully, the both of you will grow up and read all this. For those of you new here, the idea behind this is to just try and record the thoughts on the people your mom and I are right now, instead of the old people you’ll get to know later. 🙂 We’ll see how it works out.

Love you both.

Dad

He’s kicking

Your little brother is starting to kick. We are still trying to get you to hold your hand on mom’s belly to feel it. But your patience level isn’t quite there yet. 🙂 We are also trying to potty train you. Would be nice to have you at least aware of the idea by the time your brother gets here.

Wait, I didn’t tell you about finding out the new baby was a boy did I? Sorry about that. Your mom actually tells that story well. I’ll get her to post something. She also has a good story about how we found out about her being pregnant.

You are growing up so fast. I’m actually digging it. It’s so much fun watching your ride your scooter and your glide bike. You are talking a lot too. We’re still trying to understand most things you say. I’m convinced that you really are communicating real things and not just babbling.

I need to start directing some posts to your brother. But for now I’ll sign off with something to both of you. Stop FIGHTING!! 🙂

Love you both,

Dad

Slacking…

So, here we are about a month and a half away from your first birthday and I haven’t posted anything since February. I’m sorry sweetie. I’ll try to do better. Might be time to get your mom in here to post too. She’s recording all your milestones on our iPad. Should be interesting to see how clunky that thing is when you’re old enough enough to read this. My last post was about your first tooth. Well, now you have 8 teeth and really enjoy using them. When you read this ask me if I have any scars. So far, it’s all good.

So, what else is going on… Sometime in the next few weeks your cousin will be born. I have a feeling that you and her will be quite a pair. Your uncle and I have our work cut out for us. You’re almost walking. You can walk along furniture like an expert, but not quite ready to venture out without something to hold on to. You and I were playing on the floor and you used me to stand up and then stood completely on your own for a few seconds. It was pretty cool. Ever since then I’ve made it a habit to make you stand up and use only my hands to steady yourself. You get better at it every time.

Talking… you are close to that too. You babble all the time when you are in good mood (and a little whiny when you’re not 🙂 ). Still haven’t heard your first word yet, although it sounded like you said “Hi” recently. So maybe that was it. We say that to you a lot. That’s too easy though. I keeping whispering “da da” in your ear. So maybe… You’ll probably start off with complete sentences or something. You seem to be really smart about things and like to figure things out for yourself. Your mom and I both have big independent streaks, so it stands to reason you’d have one too. Don’t forget to ask for help, it makes life easier and less stressful. Try to recognize when you need help too. I have trouble with that one.

We get lots of compliments on you. Very easy going… Such a happy baby… You have your moments, but you’ve been a real blessing to your mom and I. We thank God for you every day. Make sure we don’t forget that.

Ok sweetie, I think I’m done for now. I love you.

Dad.

Hello again

Ok. So it’s been a really long time since I’ve written to you. Sorry about that. You’ve gotten a lot bigger and a lot more active since we last talked. You’re mom likes to watch your movements. She gets a real charge out of it. Generally speaking she has had an easy time of it all so far, compared to others we’ve heard about and talked to. Your mom is pretty tall, so she has a little more room for you to move around and grow.

As I write this there are 7 weeks left until your due date. You’re room is almost done. We’ve actually spent more time rebuilding the bathroom from scratch than we have on your room. Someday we’ll show you some before and after pictures and I think you’ll agree that it was the right way to go. Family and friends have been pretty generous in the stuff they’ve given us for you. The first few months of your life will be much easier because of them. We thank God all the time for that. Remind me to tell you all about all of it and all of them. It’s important to remember things like that.

I find myself noticing dads with their daughters lately. I imagine that it’s me and you. Kinda cheesy I know, but that’s where I’m at right now. People often tell me about how life is going to change. My first thought is, yeah. That’s the point. I’m totally looking forward to it. I’ve spent most of my life thinking about myself. Making the world a better place for my daughter is something I look forward to very strongly. Sure, it’ll be a challenge and we’ll have tough times. There will be lots of “dad” moments, but honestly I’m looking forward to all that too.

Maybe I’m crazy, but I’m betting there are other dads out there that know what I mean.

Until next time, hopefully it won’t be so long.

Love dad.

Hi Little Girl

Hi baby girl. Felt you kick the other day. Your mom grabbed my hand and put it on her belly. It was pretty cool and surreal for me. I had flashbacks of my mom pregnant with one of my brothers and feeling them kick. Now here I am with a child of my own on the way. Pretty neat.

Obviously, we found out that you are a girl. I’m excited about that. There aren’t a lot of girls on my side of the family, which means that between you being the first grandchild and being a girl, you’ll be spoiled rotten. 🙂 I have a few cousins that I think will get a kick out of it too.

By the way, if by the time you are reading this, I haven’t taught you to play baseball, football and gotten you started in your BBQ education, call me out. 🙂

Looking forward to meeting you.

Love Dad.

A good day

Your mom and I went to the doctor today to get a good look at you. We got some great pictures. We even decided that we even wanted to find out your gender now instead of waiting until you were born. Well, turns out that you had something to say about that. You weren’t interested in letting us know at all. Pretty funny actually. We spent the whole pregnancy up until a few days ago thinking we didn’t want to know. Then the day comes and you decide, nope, I don’t think so.

The doc wants us to come back so they can get another look. They just want to make sure everything is forming properly. That’s the only part they weren’t able to check. Everything else is great. I knew it would be great to see you and hear your heartbeat, but I didn’t realize how cool it would be. I was mesmerized by the sound of your heart, beating so fast. Watching it beat, watching you move around, your hands and feet, that thumbs up shot we got (remind me to show you that one), amazing. Totally amazing.

Afterwards we went for a walk down by the river. Your mom got some great pictures of some ducks and geese. She’s really good at that. They always seem to stop and pose for her when she’s taking their picture. Pretty cool to see. You’ll find out all that soon enough.

The weather was great. Warm and sunny. Nice to see after such a rough winter. Your mom says the snow isn’t coming back. I think she’s right. All in all it was a pretty good day.

What Dad does

Dear Noodle,

It’s time for me to explain what I do for a living. I’m an IT guy, computer guy, web developer, tech guy, gadget guy and whatever other terms are invented for describing a person who works with and fixes technology for a living. Truth is I’ve been doing it for a long time and I like to think I’m fairly good at it.

I do have some complaints about it though. They’re not the complaints you’d think. They’re not about the people I help with their technology. That’s my job, to make it easier for people to deal with their tech. It’s my job to learn it, know it and be able to fix it. My complaints (maybe more of a rant) are about other tech people and the stances they take to what they use.

I get really annoyed at how protective people are about what they use. It used to be Apple vs Windows. People choose sides and would publicly put down the other. Now it seems to be Apple vs Android. (I do find it ironic though that one side of both of those “battles” is the same company) Same choosing of sides and the same putting down of the other. Drives me crazy. There’s nothing wrong with enjoying what you have, but getting obsessive about it enough to the point where you feel the need to put down someone else is not.

I grew up a Windows guy, but as I get older I find myself drawn to Apple products (I’m writing this post from our iPad). Maybe because they seem to be easier to use. Or maybe because I don’t have to tinker with it. Windows is great if you like to tinker. Android falls along those same lines. There’s lots of people that will appeal to. I figure that after 20 years of tinkering on PCs I’ve earned the right to not tinker on my personal stuff if I don’t want to. I shouldn’t be ridiculed for that anymore than I should ridicule someone else for prefering Android (like one of your Uncles).

I’m really curious to see what you’ll be using when you’re old enough to read and understand all this. Chances are it’ll be cool and it’ll be something you’ll like tinkering with. When I’m an old man ranting about how things are too complicated, just remind me of this post and that I used to be a tinkering Windows guy.

Love Dad.

To Noodle from Dad

Dear Noodle,

Got lots of snow recently. Shoveling snow is hard work, but can be satisfying when it’s over. 🙂 Even using a snow blower (borrowed from the neighbors, don’t forget to thank people for favors like that) is rough when you get the amount of snow we got in the last day or two. If we don’t have a snow blower of our own by the time you are old enough to read and understand all this, remind me of this post because you’ll be helping (at least) with this job. I will probably need to be reminded of the pain my shoulders are in, from clearing the driveway last night and the clearing of the end of the driveway this morning (with a shovel) after the city plows cleared our neighborhood during the night. I’m very thankful that they did it though, so your mom didn’t have to drive me to work (note: 4 wheel drive is a wonderful thing).

Looking forward to meeting you, so you can help with the driveway. I promise to wait until you’re old enough to hold a shovel.

Love Dad.