Author Archives: Peter

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A New Dad’s New Year’s Resolutions

It’s the first day of 2015 and I’m already exhausted and ready for the weekend.  I’m feeling the effects of our New Year’s Eve right now… not because we had any wild party, or drank too much… but because we went to bed MUCHHHHH later than usual… Mom and I stayed up past 9:00 last night!  Shhhh, don’t tell anyone!  We did also wake up at 11:45 when someone in the neighborhood starting off shooting fireworks! (PS it’s not the new year until 12:00 idiots!)
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Either way… I know Jackson recently revealed his 2015 Resolutions: (https://newdadchronicles.wordpress.com/2015/01/01/an-eight-month-olds-new-years-resolutions/)… so I thought this might be a good time for me to post mine as well.  So here they are in no particular order:

  • Read More: I am an avid reader… unfortunately (and don’t get me wrong I do like the research I read on education, but they are more articles or short excerpts from longer texts.  I always set a goal for the amount of books I’ll read each year, but find myself falling woefully short each time.  Plus I want to set a good example for Jax.  So this year, I plan to read AT LEAST 20 books of my choice (research not included).

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  • Be More Spontaneous: I will stop using the work PASSWORD for every single password on my accounts.  With having to remember nap schedules, feeding amounts and times its literally impossible for my brain to have any more space for 5,000 different passwords.  (PS I am changing them all now, so don’t bother trying to hack me, unless you are North Korean… then you can hack me as long as you don’t release any of my emails!

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  • Tech Down: Less time on the phone, computer, email, etc.  Jax sees too much of that in this house with us.  It’s to the point where Jax is better at taking selfies than he is at crawling.

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  • Finish a Chap Stick: We need to start saving for college for this little man. Every time I hear that tuitions are going up I cringe. I would love for him to get a full ride somewhere, academic or athletic, but we can’t count on that. This is why I need to stop wasting so much money on chap sticks. I must buy 17 a day and I’m lucky if I make it through ¼ of one without losing it or finding one of the dogs eating it.

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In all honesty, I’d like to just be someone who my son and wife can look at and be proud of… what that means… I’m still not sure of… but I’ll figure it out as we go along.

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An Eight Month Old’s New Year’s Resolutions

Jax’ New Year’s Resolutions

1. Exercise More: everyone keeps commenting on how cute my “chubby thighs” are. Cute? Thanks, now I have a complex. They must have an early enough spin class so I won’t miss nap time.

2. Adopt a Green Lifestyle: I look good in green. It brings out my eyes.

3. Communicate Better: I know I’m not a good communicator. I have to do a better job discussing my feelings. Grunting and yelling like a pteradactal are not going to help convey my needs.

4. Not Get Sucked Into Family Drama: it’s not my fault dad put the Tupperware back in the wrong cabinet and it’s definitely not my problem that Buster and Max ate through mom’s Louis Vuitton to get to a pack of gum. I’m stayin outta those arguments.

5. Go on a Blind Date: all my baby friends are either already taken or not allowed to date until they’re like two. I’m considering just trying eHarmony or ChristianMingle just to see what’s out there.

6. Stop Worrying About Time: who cares… It’s not like I have anywhere to be but my crib or the playroom. Besides like Franklin P. Jones said, “The trouble with being punctual is that nobody’s there to appreciate it.”

7. Forgive More: Max I’ll forgive you for chewing my toys. Buster I’ll forgive you for eating all my oatmeal and formula. Mom and Dad I’ll forgive you for letting me “cry it out.” I get it, there’s some sort of lesson to be learned there. However I WILL NOT forgive you for using that thermometer you bought at CVS… you know they make ear, mouth and forehead thermometers right?

8. I will learn what the hell the word resolution means.

I can’t count past eight yet… So we’ll leave it at that.
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2014: A Year in Review

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I guess the first thing we can all admit is if it weren’t for the Jackson this blog wouldn’t exist.  There isn’t a doubt that he is the greatest thing to happen to me and Steph… both this year and in our lives.  (Although catching Jordy Nelson in the end zone during a Lambeau Leap is a pretty close second… see below even though it wasn’t this year).

We’ve had some highs and lows this year… as Im sure everyone has, but I wanted to take a moment to reflect on an amazing year:

January:  We had just found out we were having a boy and “revealed” it to everyone via a (step’s idea) cake with blue filling.  January become the month when are credit card bills skyrocketed due to the insane amount of boy’s clothing and room decor that began to fill the empty nursery.

February:  Valentine’s day and Steph’s birthday along with an expecting baby can be a challenge for any guy.  Im no different.  I struggled to balance the amount of power that was seemingly shifting from slightly in favor of Steph to completely in favor or Steph.  February usually belongs to the ladies… add in the fact that Steph celebrates a birthday MONTH and you’re going to have some issues.  Top that all with a mom who is expecting her first child, and I might as well have just thrown in the towel.  Luckily, Steph is the kind of girl who doesn’t like to be spoiled (HAHAHA).  But in all reality she deserves it and she actually was pretty well behaved the entire month!

March:  We were coming down to the final months of Married WithOUT Children.  Steph and I attempted to keep things relatively normal.  As normal as possible with a nursery that was being completely rebuilt (a nursery which we were not allowed to see until completion in April, a nursery which had new locks).

April:  Pretty uneventful month if I do say so myself… well I guess uneventful if you don’t count the nursery being completed (it was amazing, Chronicles of a New Dad blog debuted in its earliest form on Tumblr… and ohh yea… a baby being born.  Jax came two weeks early which is surprising considering his parents are never on time for ANYTHING, let alone early.

May:  Paturnity leave is non-existent, so good thing I never use sick days.  I had enough to take almost two weeks to not sleep, change tar-like poopie diapers, get peed on, not sleep, get puked on, enjoy every second of our new baby boy.  Buster and Max were still not totally sure what this little thing was that moved into their house, but eventually warmed up to him!

June:  Jax got his Hogwarts acceptance letter and I literally cried with happiness and joy at the sight of his Hogwarts Express ticket.  I also had a birthday somewhere in there, I just don’t remember it, I was never a big birthday guy… but this one is where I started to realize, I was no longer the center of attention in a room anymore.  Hugh Hefner’s wife started following the blog on twitter… interesting.

July:  Jax first time in the pool (crying), Jax first time on a boat (crying) and his first vacation (crying)… actually, I think the only one he really cried during was the pool… and that’s fine for me because I hate the pool too.  This was also the month the blog started to gain some attention.  Parent Magazine retweeted and favored some of the blog entries I posted up to twitter.  Huffington Post Parents also followed our antics.

August:  Our Anniversary, Jax first solid food, fantasy football draft, preseason football with the Packers, and I think we started to perfect our BATH, BOOK, BED nighttime routine.

September: Jax and his Godparents were blessed at his baptism. This was the first time the WHOLE family got together. It truly is amazing how a baby brings everyone closer. We also got to go to Yankee Stadium for his first baseball game… as an added bonus he’ll be able to say he saw Derek Jeter play before he retired.

October:  October was a great month, between Halloween and the craziness of being back into the swing of things for another school year I feel there was hardly time to breathe.  Then there was the blog… the traffic the blog was generating during October was tremendous.  Between the posts about Ebola (https://newdadchronicles.wordpress.com/2014/10/17/your-move-ebola/), Hip Hop Advice (https://newdadchronicles.wordpress.com/2014/10/06/advice-for-jax-taken-from-90s-hip-hop/), and about how life has changed since Jax came along (https://newdadchronicles.wordpress.com/2014/10/27/ocd-and-yuck/) and (https://newdadchronicles.wordpress.com/2014/10/13/life-at-100-mph/) I began to toy with the idea of moving the blog to my own site.  Wordpress was perfect for what I was looking for and Chronicles of a New Dad found a permanent home.

November:  November brought Thanksgiving… what more could I be thankful for?  I have an amazing and beautiful wife and the coolest son in the world!  i was on cloud nine (I also started a new job at a new school and am so happy with where I am).  The only thing that could improve my spirits was hanging out with a famous Hall of Fame Baseball player… my idol… Rickey Henderson…  Ohh yea no big deal, Rickey and Jax are now BFFs.

December:  December is always one of my favorite months.  I hate the snow and the cold, but I love the time to reflect, to sit in front of the Christmas tree with some old school Christmas carols on and think about how lucky I have been over the past 12 months.  Steph, Jax and I got to hang out with our favorite photographers at Pink Elephant Photography again for a fun filled shoot, Jax met Santa, Max and Buster ALMOST got their wish of eating the mailman and the blog was generating over 2000 hits and gaining followers.  I was also selected as the Featured Blogger of the Month on the Love all Dads website (www.lovealldads.com).

This year has been great.  I’m looking forward to growth and maturity levels developing (Jackson’s growth and maturity develop as well).  Im looking forward to the development of the blog and hope that you all stay with us on the journey… but most importantly I’m looking forward to spending each moment with my family!

Expect our New Year’s Resolutions to be up tomorrow morning!

2014

 

 

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Jordy Nelson and the Lambeau Leap

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The Cleaning Lady Did It

First I need to clarify two quick things.
1. Yes we have a cleaning lady. Between the hours we both work and the other responsibilities around here I thought we could use some help around the house every other week.
2. This blog has become sort of a confessional of sorts.

So day two of daddy duty this week turned out to be another adventure of “crazy things that can only happen to us.”  Yes, I forgot to pack the banana, pineapple, strawberry mixture with his oatmeal… but that was an easy solution… wait to get home to feed the little man.

Bigger problem… get the bottle all ready for the next time Jax is ready to eat… done, warmed up and left right on the counter for easy access right after nap time.  NAP TIME OVER… “WHERE THE HELL IS THE BOTTLE??!?!”  “Ummm… Fabreasha… did you see a bottle on the counter?”

“Yes, the bottle?  Yes, I washed it.”

… and that was that… the cleaning lady cleaned it.  She literally did her job… we asked her to clean things and she cleaned it.  6oz of deliciousness for Jax and it now was making its way through the pipes downtown somewhere.

I’m not sure if anyone knows this but microwave does not respond favorable (actually it doesn’t respond at all) to a human screaming, “HURRY UP AND DEFROST!!!”

The only good news to come out of this… I didn’t do it…

The cleaning lady did it.

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Awesome Dad Status in Jeopardy (Not According to Jax Though)

A day of highs and lows documented below:

Dad taking Jax for his flu shot… No big deal right???!!? Forgot a hat and it’s freezing out. No problem just make a bonnet out of a hoodie and tuck it in.

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Get the pediatrician’s office and can’t remember if he’s had his 1st flu shot. Nurse does a computer check… Problem averted. Flu shot done, 15 seconds of crying and 10 minutes of flirting with the nurses (him not me), no allergic reaction and we’re out.

Quick text from mom to make sure I remembered the bottle so he can eat before I head to the chiropractor. The response of “I thought you said bottle after Chiro,” did nothing for my great dad status. No issues he held out and smashed a 6oz bottle when we got home.

Squeeze in a nap for baby, Buster, Max and dad and everyone is feeling as refreshed as a teacher after summer break.

Second quick text from mom to make sure I remembered to feed him his oatmeal when he woke up. The response of “I thought you said bottle after nap?,” did nothing for my ever dwindling great dad status. He smashed a second 6oz bottle and dad is now his new favorite person!

We then proceeded to play with EVERY.SINGLE toy he owns. I ran out of things to do. We cleaned, we organized, we sang (well I sang which made him cry… So much for my American Idol auditions).

When all was said and done… We both made it through the day unscathed. With my ego and dad status little worse for the wear, and Jax with a full belly.

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Where Have the Last Eight Months Gone?

Eight months old already?!!

I feel like I was just telling Ryan (Uncle Fizzle) that your stomach hurt and I was taking you to the walk in and we’d be home in 30 minutes!!!!

PS: apparently Jax is an international fugitive!?!!
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Dog People vs Normal People (PS I Love My Dogs)

Let me start by saying I absolutely LOVE my boys!

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I guess I’m not a dog person.  I am not sure what that even means… I know there is some connotation that comes with that statement, and again I’m not sure what that even is.  I love my dogs, but after today I just can’t count myself as one of the “dog people.”  Steph and I have had Buster for almost nine years and Max for seven and we still love them more than we ever thought possible.  But the thing is, we now have a son… a human, someone who can’t sleep in a crate, someone who you can’t put a shock collar on to keep him in the yard.  You know a real living baby who is a person not a dog (not that our boys dogs ever used a crate!).

I remember before Jax came everyone used to say we would stop posting pictures on instagram and buying the boys (Buster and Max) Xmas gifts when we had our first child.  I remember people saying how annoying it was to see all these posts about “pets”, but you know what… too bad… these two little guys are part of our lives, they have been with us since the beginning and nothing will change that!

But here’s the thing… there is a difference, a REAL DIFFERENCE, between “dog people” and people who love their dogs.  I figured this out today, at the dog park of all places.  Steph and I try, not as much with Jax here now, but we try to get the boys as much excersize as possible, the dog park, doggie day care… even a simple walk around the block.  However, there always something that made me feel a bit out of sort.  When ever we went to the dog park, there was some sort of middle school lunch wave thing going on. Like if you don’t wear dog sweaters and carry a fanny pack filled with treats and poo bags then you don’t belong here.  I always noticed it, but never felt it until today.

We took an hour to pack the car like we were going on vacation for three weeks, and headed out the door for a nice family trip to the neighborhood (next town over) doggie park.  We got there and immediately were shunned by the locals.  Looks of disdain and disgust at the fact that we showed up without our dogs on a harness or the fact that we were wearing jeans and not stained, purple sweat pants.  Within two minutes Stephanie was being read the Dog Park Riot Act for something (we still have no idea what, maybe because she wasn’t wearing camouflage?!).  Every time dogs began playing with Buster and Max owners were quick to intervene.  I think I heard someone say, “ewww those two dogs pooped and their owners threw their poo in the garbage instead of holding in a fanny pack.”  Just pure weirdness.

So I guess there are “dog people”… the people who bring their dogs to the dog park and eat the same treats as their dogs do… and then their are people who love their dogs, like us.  Who are not made for the dog parks… we are more of the dress your dogs in an argyle sweater and take them for a walk at the doggie friendly outdoor shopping malls.

Love these two little monsters… and I am really glad that Jax is forming a bond with both of them!

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These two even hang out in the same places!602781_10200520835409784_1854874412_nphoto-2

And one of my favorites… the boys watching over their brother while he naps!

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I’m Sorry Jackson

I’m sorry Miss Jackson…

Hey bud, I’m not sure if you heard all that commotion, but I’m sorry. Daddy is an idiot and hit the Panic Button on the alarm, which caused all sorts of noise!

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Circus is over.

#1 Thanks to our PD for responding so quickly. Sorry we made you drive all the way out here, but we do appreciate everything you do to protect and serve.
#2 sorry for the craZieness Jax. Go back to sleep.