It’s quiet… Like not a sound but the wind blowing the snow around outside and a few distant snowblowers. Jax? Asleep in his crib (this teething thing is exhausting). Mom? Asleep on the couch (she deserves the sleep). Buster? Asleep on my lap (he’s always sleeping). Max. Sleeping downstairs on the new carpet (he must be tired from running laps on his snow track). It’s Silent. I can hear myself think. I’ve read ten chapters of my book and wasn’t interrupted once.

I haven’t cleaned a runny nose, wiped a butt, cooked a meal, killed a spider, mopped up pee or been yelled at in over an hour. Best part is the dn phone hasn’t rung since I got in from shoveling the driveway! I honestly can’t remember this feeling. Was there ever a time that I just sat on the couch and listened to the outside? It’s crazy to hear nothing. Nothing but peacefulness.

Peace and quiet.

PS: Frozen dog races later. Max has a track best time of 27 seconds.

Introducing the Chronicles Guest Blog Series, where we will “attempt” to show off some other authors and their thoughts on parenting, children and life.

Our first Guest Blog comes to us from Mike Gabriel author of Enter the Mind of Maddness a blog of ramblings from a pop culture junkie.  I highly recommend you check him out on Tumblr!  

When international blogging sensation, Peter Fragola, asked me to write a guest entry for his blog, Chronicles of a New Dad, I was pumped.  As a fellow blogger, I was shocked him and his wife were willing to let me borrow his son for a test drive.  I approach blogging the same way Daniel Day Lewis approaches a new role, complete immersion into the character.  I guess I am what you call a “method blogger”, so in order to write about being a new father, I needed to become a new father.  Pete and his wife weren’t too keen on that whole “borrowing” Jax idea, so I guess I’m just going to have to imagine being a father.

I have known Pete for quite some time, and although we have our differences (Darth Vader vs Voldemort), I consider him a close friend.  I knew who Pete was before Jax.  A Green Bay Packer enthusiast with one of the best man caves I have ever seen, and a penchant for cheating at fantasy football.  And now I have the honor of knowing the new Pete, a Green Bay Packer enthusiast with one of the best man caves I have ever seen, with a penchant for cheating at fantasy football and a son.  I got married almost a year ago and having a kid is definitely on the horizon, but only once I reach 100% completion in Grand Theft Auto V.  Until then, I mentally prepare myself by reading “Chronicles of a New Dad” while shitting my pants, much like the blog’s title character (Pete, not Jackson).  Pete’s blog is as scary as a Stephen King novel, and just as long.  But it’s also just as good.

Although I look much younger than Pete, and did so before he had a baby, we are very similar in age and behavior.  We are technically “men”, however our science fiction/fantasy obsession and love of fart jokes basically make us nerdy teenage boys.  So who better to watch go through the “joys” of parenthood than someone identical to me, except for the looks, of course.  The thing I love about his blog is that it’s real.  When you turn 30, your entire Facebook feed morphs into a neverending stream of babies, thousands upon thousands of babies.  All of your friends have them, and each one is the cutest, happiest, smartest baby to ever walk the face of the earth.  While I’m sitting there posting photos of disgustingly, unhealthy food, here comes my good friend Doug, posting photos of his son Oxen successfully landing on the Moon.  It really makes you reevaluate your choices in life.

Nobody ever shows you the dark side, and as a Star Wars fan, thats the side I root for.  It’s all rainbows and butterflies.  But not my good friend Pete.  You see, Pete is not afraid to tell you about the those epic poops that somehow defy gravity and rise up a child’s back.  Pete is not afraid to tell you about the lack of sleep, and just the overall panic that comes with every decision.  Behind each one of those Facebook posts of a smiling, laughing baby, is a sleep deprived parent covered in poop.  Pete pulls back the curtain and lets every prospective parent have a peek inside the gritty underworld that is parenting.  He is the Martin Scorcese of dad blogs.  He embraces the fear, the lack of knowledge, and the growth process that comes with raising a child, and that alone is the reason everybody should be reading it.

The most amazing thing about the blog, and also Pete and Stef as parents, is the absolute joy that comes across in every entry.  Sure, they may only get a few hours of sleep at night, and they may not get to enjoy those same quiet, relaxing evenings together (using quiet and relaxing very loosely when referring to Pete), but from what I read, those moments aren’t as meaningful as they once were.  The only moments that matter now are Jax’s moments.  I’m sure 4 straight hours of Peppa Pig might make you want to take a soldering iron to your eye socket, but how about walking with your wife and your son through Diagon Alley?  How about having your idol, Ricky Henderson, pose in a picture with your son.  So what if Pete’s fantasy football teams come in last from now on, at least he can share that misery with young Jax.  It’s truly a privilege to live vicariously through his blog, and I can honestly say that, when my time comes, I will have learned something from “Chronicles of a New Dad”.  Now if we can only get him to proofread before he posts, but babysteps, I guess.

Should any of you be interested in what life was like before children (TV, movies, video games, random pointless rants on meaningless things), head on over to www.enterthemindofmadness.tumblr.com

Meet Mike:

I highly recommend checking Mike out on Tumblr for a few good laughs

www.enterthemindofmadness.tumblr.com

You got yourself up there dude… Now figure out how to get down. (I can just see the little wheels in his head turning as he tries to decide if it’s worth just dropping down. #Climber #DareDevil #LittleThinker #ProblemSolving

So this conversation happened today:

Steph: “Do you know what your son did today?”
Me: “Jackson?”
Steph: “No, Buster!! He ate poop!!!”
Me: “Like he chewed up a diaper?”
Steph: “No he literally pulled the diaper off the counter before my mom could throw it away and opened it up and ate the poop out of it!!”
Me: “What? Wait, what did he do?”
Steph: “It was a turd too. Like buster ate a full turd!”
💩💩💩💩💩

By 8AM I was already two hours deep into Peppa Pig:

Music class: I hung out on the giant drum:

Dad brushed my hair. He said it looked awesome:

Daddy and I played with all my toys:

I took a nap like a good boy:

Then mom and dad made me do exercises to get my cookies for my dessert:

I had a fun day!