Tag Archives: Harry Potter

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Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 BC. 

‘Well, now – Let me see.’ He pulled a long tape measure with silver markings out of his pocket. ‘Which is your wand arm?’‘Er – well, I’m right-handed,’ said Oliver.

‘Hold out your arm. That’s it.’ He measured Oliver from shoulder to finger, then wrist to elbow, shoulder to floor, knee to armpit and round his head. As he measured, he said, ‘Every Ollivander wand has a core of a powerful magical substance. We use unicorn hairs, phoenix tail feathers and the heartstrings of dragons. No two Ollivander wands are the same, just as no two unicorns, dragons or phoenixes are quite the same. And of course, you will never get such good results with another wizard’s wand.’

Oliver suddenly realised that the tape measure, which was measuring between his nostrils, was doing this on its own. Mr Ollivander was flitting around the shelves, taking down boxes.

Oliver took the wand. He felt a sudden warmth in his fingers. He raised the wand above his head, brought it swishing down through the dusty air and a stream of red and gold sparks shot from the end like a firework, throwing dancing spots of light on to the walls. Mr Ollivander cried, ‘Oh, bravo! Yes, indeed, oh, very good.


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Oliver’s Tattoo 

When I decided it was time to get a tattoo honoring my newest little man it was obvious it would be something related to his name, Oliver, and also had to have some connection to Harry Potter. The olive branch has a very symbolic meaning which made it the perfect choice both references. The Olive Branch symbolizes a beginning of a new life. It was also written that the Olive Branch was the first thing that the dove brought to Noah as a sign of a new life in the land.

The Olive Branch also has long since symbolized victory and honor is currently still used as the symbol of Olympic victory in tribute to the early Olympian athletes who were crowned with Olive Branches. In Greek mythology it was attributed to the goddess Athena, and remains a symbol of peace and security. Athena, the Greek goddess of peace, war, arts, and wisdom, was said to have given the olive to humans.

In the Harry Potter story, Oliver Wood is the first Quidditch player we meet, keeper and captain of the Gryffindor team. Garrick Ollivander is the surname of the greatest wandmaker of his time. Ollivander is of Mediterranean origin meaning “he who owns an olive wand.”

The tattoo it surrounds is dedicated to Jackson and is a representation of a father and son taken from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (the short story The Tale of the Three Brothers).  For more on that click here: https://chroniclesofanewdad.com/2015/12/07/jax-tattoo/



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Hubris

Me after listening to eight hours of crying


I thought I had this parenting thing all figured a while back when Jackson hit a groove and was easing up on requiring parental services for every part of this life.  When the new guy came along we hit our stride pretty quickly and got a routine up and running the minute we were home from the hospital. For the first few weeks, the baby would sleep in the doc-a-tot thing or even in the Rock and play. I had no worries of long sleepless nights and knew once Oliver checked out A-OK for allergies this was going to be a piece of cake. 

I had False visions of a snoring little bundle of joy, peacefully dreaming while I watched his little face smiling back at me.  I’d be able to look over emails and complete teacher observation write-ups. I’d be able to binge watch on Netflix and get back to writing on a more consistent basis. Heck I’d even maybe up my to reading a more than two books a month. 

That was until I realized that my son was being possessed by Voldemort… before I came to the conclusion that he was housing a piece of Voldemort’s souls inside him… before I spent eight straight hours bouncing, walking, soothing, or rocking this evil little dark wizard from 9-5pm every night… before I heard the decibels of screaming that this child’s tiny voice box could produce… before I went three straight weeks with little to no sleep. 

And you know what… that’s my bad. I shouldn’t have been so cocky. I shouldn’t have counted my eggs before they hatched. I should have banked as much sleep as I could early on. And that’s what happens when you fly too close to the sun. Too much confidence will “melt the wax on your wings” and send you to a certain death. It happened to Icarus and its now happened to me. 

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Oliver Potter and the Staci Miller Newborn Photos

I’m not sure if i have a writing style… if you had to narrow it down I know a few people might say my style is “grammatically horrible,” or “not really funny”… something like that. First Person Narrative… I guess that’s the closest you can get to narrowing down the writing. I mean the blog is titled Chronicles of a New Dad… I’d like to think I’ve Chronicled my perspective on having kids in a unique way.

But, today… I’ve decide to change it up a bit… I needed to tell someone thanks. Thanks for quite a bit actually. So I’m changing things up a little bit and am going writing letter style.

Dear Staci Miller (Photography),

It’s been almost three years since you came into our life… expensive Nikon camera, gorgeous props and the patience of a saint. Yes, early on in our relationship you had a different name… Pink Elephant… different but still amazing. And that’s just it… i needed to thank you for bringing amazing to life.

Not many people can take the thoughts that swim around in this weird brain of mine… take those abstract ideas and make them concrete. You’ve successfully, in essence, painting the pictures of my mind and put them on canvas. You’re an artist with a flash and lost of fluorescent lighting.

The thing is, that’s not even what makes these pictures a masterpiece. It’s the fact that you have to deal with me… a hyper… anxiety riddled parent who is obsessed with details. I’m the Jack Nicholson (As Good As It Gets Nicholson) of parenting during new born photos. OCD to the max.

You’ve taken photos of a wizards hat and wand… you successfully posed an infant on a giant piece of cheese and most impressive of all captured numerous shots while getting peed on. It’s impressive to say the least.

There was the time at the barn where Jackson got bit by a rooster, the time where we got you caught up in a beach wedding with Miller Highlife cans in the background, the session where I made you take pictures of my sons butt and the time my pants were too tight to help hold Oliver’s head up. I admit to ruining quite the few “perfect shots.”

You took pictures while my son puked on your floor, peed on your brand new background and shattered glass Christmas ornaments (ok the ornaments were my fault… and I may have eaten a few cheese sticks out of your fridge, but you catch my drift… we’re not easy subjects to photograph.

But that all pales in comparison to the latest sitcom-like experience. You know the one where I made you snap photos of my son inside a flower pot while he was screaming (purposefully making him cry, because that’s what Mandrakes do in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets… (which by the way is my least favorite book and movie).

You did it all with a smile on your face and 85mm – 135mm lens in your hand (is that a real thing I know nothing about cameras?). You always welcomed us in your home, or your studio or some random farm, which if I were you I’d suggest every time since then Jackson can’t eat all your cookies and string cheese.

And for some reason you keep having us back and the pictures get better each time we do. For that… I thank you… from the bottom of my Harry Potter loving heart.


And then the unprofessional, I should have been helping instead of sneaking pictures w my iPhone, pictures:

 

Here is the link to Jackson’s newborn photos: https://chroniclesofanewdad.com/2014/05/10/5-10-14-newborn-photos/

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Mr O. Peter; Nursery up the Stairs

I may not be a child anymore, but I am willing to cut one off to get a better spot in line for a midnight release of one of the books or a prime seat at the midnight showing of “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” when it’s released.

As discussed numerous times my love for Potter started when I was in college . Bored on a summer day i finally decided to give the first book it’s due-diligence… and the rest is history. As the years passed and new potter books were published and new potter movies were released I would re-read the old books. I would wait in line at midnight at bookstares and head out, coffee in hand, for movie premieres. 

It’s no surprise that, to this day, I still check my mailbox hoping that my Hogwarts letter will be there… stuck between my mortgage bill, sports illustrated and the numerous credit card applications.

Luckily, for the second person in this house… their Hogwarts letter arrived. His Hogwarts Express ticket is in hand and he’s ready to board that steam-train and become a famous quidditch player… I guess I’ll have to live vicariously through him.

…that is… until my Hogwarts acceptance letter arrives too. 


Jax got his letter years ago as well… https://chroniclesofanewdad.com/2014/06/23/6-23-14-mr-j-carmine-nursery-up-the-stairs/

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Christmas Disaster

You remember that scene in Old School where Will Ferrell’s character takes a tranquilizer dark to the throat and then stumbles around aimlessly knocking over everything in his path? Remember that scene in Harry Potter where the troll is loose in the dungeon and starts smashing everything and destroying anything that he comes across? Yes? You do? Good then you don’t need to do much to imagine what I went through last night attempting to put up the Christmas tree with a two year old.

It was like watching Godzilla march through a Japanese village and topple over buildings and houses with no regard for humanity. Strings of lights popped, glass ornaments were launched into orbit and the dogs were forced into hiding. It became every man for himself. What should have taken an hour and included hot cocoa, laughs and fun… was more about dodging projectiles, fear of injury and trying to preserve a level of sanity that would at least keep me from drop kicking the tree out of the window.

I’ve been part of a few insane missions as a parent: changing the first huge diaper explosion, or trying to coral a herd of children at a two year old’s birthday party, but even trying to put together “some assembly required toys” is nothing compared to the challenge of installing the North Pole in your home with a toddler on the loose. “You gotta keep your head on a swivel” is the understatement of the century.

Every time I turned to hang a candy cane, every time I stepped back to check the “swoop” of the string of snowflakes, literally at every turn there was damage done to something that has been in the family for generations. Grandma’s handmade strawberry ornaments were eaten as an after dinner snack, the “baby’s first Christmas ball was thrown into the fireplace faster than any left fielder trying to catch a running tagging up from third.

I mean I love my kid and I love Christmas… but I came out of this worse for the wear. I feel like I did in high school after football two-a-days. It was a long… long……. long night, but in the end another night worth the effort!


… now…. Calgon, take me away.

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Quality vs Quantity

“What we need,” said Dumbledore slowly, “is more time.”

I used to think playing a sport at the Collegiate  Division 1 level was one of the most time- consuming things in my life. Then I got a job as an elementary school teacher and and realized balancing my career with every day life was just as hard… And then I had a child; while I was an administrator in an elementary school and realized I had it all wrong, because this was one of the toughest things I’ve ever done…

…Fast forward four years, I now take on the role as a principal and added an extra 35 minutes to my drive, talk about time-consuming. After reflecting on my first few weeks… I’ve come to realize every new role you take on in life always becomes the next toughest thing you face. (Honestly though when I say toughest thing to face, I’m not talking about being able to handle the workload, or stress level, or anything of the sort. Those type of things come naturally to me and never have been much of an issue). Honestly, I don’t feel stress and pressure is not something that phases me. 

I will however, admit it’s tough spending time away from my little guy. My new role as a school principal takes up the majority of my day. When I’m awake… I’m think about being a principal, when I’m about to fall asleep… I’m thinking about being a principal, when I do fall asleep… I wake up and write down things that I thought about in terms of being a principal that I dreamt of while I was sleeping.  That has nothing to do with being stressed, or overworked, or anything of the sort. That has to do with being me. I’m detail oriented, dedicated and committed to what I do. I love what I do.  

Yet, now as I get home some nights at 7 o’clock… a quick hug, a kiss and a bedtime book is about all I get with Jackson. I know I’ve written about this before. This is not something new to me, or to any 21st century parent. Time is something that we all want more of… yet we will never get. There is always the quality vs quantity debate. But to be honest I’m not sure what to make of that when it comes to spending time with my son. Is there anyway I can get quantity AND quality time… at the same time… all the time? 

For now I have to accept the fact that I am doing what I love during the times I am not with him, and know that he is spending time with the people that also love him as much as i do when I am at work. Whether it’s mom, or Grammy, Mima or Auntie… I’m happy knowing he’s happy. 

After working a long day… Coming home to that hug and kiss goodnight means just a little bit more these days.  Just don’t be surprised if I read an extra book or two with him before bedtime… I’ll take quantity AND quality tonight please.

https://newdadchronicles.wordpress.com/2014/11/19/lost-time-is-never-found-again-benjamin-franklin/

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Visiting with an Old Friend: Harry Potter


Upon writing this in 2016 I was 37 years old

“There’s no way I’m reading this book.” I think I tried at least half a dozen times before finally giving up and looking for an Internet summary for a young-adult lit class in college. The year was 1999, and I was a Division 1 Athlete on a full sports scholarship and didn’t have the time for a story about witches and trolls or whatever these books were all about. It wasn’t until months later, during a dull summer afternoon I gave the Boy Wizard and his Lightening Bolt Scar another shot.

Fifteen-ish years… seven books, eight movies, three trips to the Harry Potter theme park in Orlando and an sleeve of Harry Potter tattoos later, I’m on the verge of attending a midnight release of another Harry Potter book.

I am 37 years old and just became an elementary school principal and I now have a son who turned three this past spring and another who is five months old. Like most of us who are now in our 30s, we grew up alongside the amazing world of Harry Potter, and the impact it has made on our life is hard to quantify. For my generation, (although I joined the wizarding world a little later than most of my peers), Harry Potter is a close friend and trusted companion. We came of age with the the young boy who found who he really was after leaving the “cupboard under the stairs” and we have now taken him into adulthood with us. I can’t imagine a childhood without him, and I’m so glad he’s stuck around as I’ve grown older.

The books came to me at a time when reading was a chore… an assignment or research needed for a paper. I was in college and hadn’t been really interested in a book since The Catcher in the Rye or A Separate Peace which I read early on in high school. I was interested in my track practice schedule and where my next track meet was. I didn’t have time for “reading for fun.” I was never really a fan of the fantasy genre. I never really got into Star Wars and at the time had only read one book in the Chronicles of Narnia series (The Lion, Witch and Wardrobe, of course for a class assignment).

All that until I met a young wizard when I was in my early twenties. I was immediately… pardon the pun… enchanted by J.K. Rowling’s… pardon the pun again… magical way of spinning a tale. Harry, Ron and Hermione felt like old friends and Hogwarts felt like home. I had never interacted with text the way I did with these books. I had heard of “page-turners” before, but never held one myself. That was until that dull summer day all those years ago.

I tore through the first book in a few weeks, the second in about the same. Then came the Prisoner of Azkaban, my favorite of the series, which I devoured in three days on a trip to Boston. Book four, the longest of the series, took me about a week and was the first book I reread multiple times. The Order of the Phoenix was the first book I bought the day it was released and got through it in a few days. Then came book six, The Half Blood Prince. My first midnight release party. That night I asked Stephanie to marry me, gave her a ring and we sprinted to a small Indy bookstore on the Wildwood boardwalk to wait in line with hundreds of other people. I celebrated my engagement by reading in the hotel lobby until five in the morning and had the book finished on the beach the next day. The final book was an incredibly sad, yet even more exciting day for me. The last time I’d travel to Hogwarts with my friends, but also finally a chance to see our story to the finish line. I picked my preordered copy up at 8:00am and read 36 chapters and one epilogue (759 pages) in 17 hours. I stopped to eat and shower (I read during bathroom breaks too).

Luckily, the Potter fandom has created a life-line for the stories years after the books and movies came to an end. The stories’ centralized themes of friendship, love and leadership helped me be more self-reflective and even inspired others to create charities like the Harry Potter Alliance and Hogwarts’ Running Club. A recent study led by top professors across the world states that “people who grew up reading Harry Potter are more politically engaged and develop keener social perception and increased empathy.”


It’s been years since I picked up a new Potter book, but my time in the Wizarding World has still been busy. From Mugglenet.com and MuggleCast, to Pottermore online, movies, plays… and now as an educator and father introducing a new generation to my “old friends” and Professor Dumbledore’s wise words. My sons’ newborn photos (above) were done with a Harry Potter theme, (I’m sure he will love me sharing them when he’s in his teens). That’s what this series is all about… learning to love reading, whether it’s for the first time or like me learning to love reading again later in life.

I’m excited to bring my sons to Hogwarts for the first time and introduce them to my old friends. I’m interested to see if they’ll be sorted into Slytherin like their father… although based on Jackson’s adventurous, brave and quite daring side… I have a feeling he might be a Gryffindor, Oliver… Slytherin, (before the sorting hat even touches his head)… just like that Boy Wizard with the Lightening Bolt Scar I’m sure they’ll be in awe of the wizarding world. No matter the house they’re sorted into, or what it takes for my boys to become interested in the series, I think we’ll all be awaiting our Hogwarts letters together.

Here are some other Harry Potter related blogs I’ve written: 

https://chroniclesofanewdad.com/2018/06/23/top-ten-ways-you-know-youre-obsessed-with-harry-potter/

https://newdadchronicles.wordpress.com/2014/12/07/florida-trip-told-through-harry-potter-quotes/

https://newdadchronicles.wordpress.com/2015/12/07/jax-tattoo/

https://newdadchronicles.wordpress.com/2015/09/17/my-son-is-a-parseltongue/

https://newdadchronicles.wordpress.com/2015/09/02/backtohogwarts/

https://newdadchronicles.wordpress.com/2015/04/02/jackson-and-the-deathly-hallows/

https://newdadchronicles.wordpress.com/2015/03/25/for-in-dreams/

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Ketchup on Eggs


Who the heck puts ketchup on eggs?!!?? It’s not normal. As a matter of fact it’s un-American.  I am 100% serious when I say that if this kid is a ketchup on eggs kind of guy he’s getting left on his aunt and uncle’s door step Harry Potter style.  

All the note will say is: “He puts ketchup on eggs; he’s not welcome in my home anymore.”