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Becoming a Dad – Nice Little Sundays

July 19, 2009

Mom-to-be and I had ourselves a nice little weekend… We went to the Onion Creek farmer’s market, the antique store at Heights Station , even stopped a lotus garden. And we even managed to make it to Wholefoods and World Market… I knew we had to. I just didn’t know if we’d have enough time….

For those of you who with prego brain, that was totally a hit-or-miss joke from the movie ‘Old School’ but I promise you it was all true. We did all that this weekend plus more. Exciting huh?

Trust me, it’s very ironic just how much I’m starting to enjoy these little outings on my new-look weekends. Just 7 months ago, the last thing I thought was that I’d be the next out of our group to be expecting a kid, much less enjoying the weekend trips to Home Depot and such. Back then, it would have been a magnificent feat to find me awake before noon or know what I was doing that night, much less actually going out in the sunlight doing something productive on a regular basis. I kind of just flew by the seat of my pants doing what boys do like the rest of our crazy westchase chapter of ninjas. Then mom-to-be came into my life and everything changed.

Back to the present day, I just noticed about a week ago that my entire routine has changed. I keep a personal diary so I compared date-to-date from this year to the year before. What I’ve come to find is that I’m damn near unrecognizable from previous self in many ways.

Being involved in drunken nights and war stories have been converted to the weekly brunch meetings just to hear about them from the other guys. Nightly trips to Wendy’s for dinner has been substituted for protein shakes and ‘portion control.’ And waking up at noon is a distant memory. I cook breakfast on most weekends now and I’m working out more often.

I’m happy to report that I no longer miss the bad food, crazy nights out, and not getting up until noon. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not all the way there yet when it comes to being the stay-at-home-dad but what I’ve come to realize is that I’m appreciating home life more and more nowadays. It’s just amazing to me that this transformation is happening so naturally that I didn’t even notice it until I no longer minded the change. Now I’m beginning to understand why my parents had all those routines, cleaning, going places, etc. on weekends when I was a kid. Scary thought, this whole growing up business.

Below are some pictures I took of mom-to-be from this past weekend

In other news…. thanks to everyone who participated in the casino night charity for the VCSA and the Hoang Nguyen Foundation this past Saturday. Our very own ninja Eddie Corrin took home the grand prize, which was a rather large plasma television. And from the looks of things, it looks like the charity took home a good amount of change from a very fun event sponsoring an invaluable after-school program for tutors. Also, thanks to Cathy P. for having Megan and I over for the housewarming on Saturday afternoon. Dude, Cathy, your new house is amazing! And I never realized all this time that you were an art teacher. The work we saw at your place was amazing and Megan and I would be honored to buy a piece off your hands to put over our two fireplaces. 🙂

One last thing, this journal is currently #11 on Top Baby Blogs. Please click on the link and help vote us up. It’s be pretty cool for me to be the only man writing to ever crack the Top-10 of the baby blog ranking. Yes, I’m a dork, I know. LOL.

Categories: Fatherhood
Tags: baby, Becoming a Dad, colic, Fatherhood, parenthood

Comments: 1 Comment

Becoming a Dad – Grandfather’s Revenge

July 15, 2009

The Grandson: A book?
Grandpa: That’s right. When I was your age, television was called books. And this is a special book. It was the book my father used to read to me when I was sick, and I used to read it to your father. And today I’m gonna read it to you.
– from The Princess Bride

Isn’t it funny that sometimes when I reflect back on my own childhood, I think back on all the lessons I should have learned quicker? I was always the contentious one when it came to listening without being a contrarian, always rebelling like a stubborn fool. And my dad, he’s always been the type to give me just enough rope and freedom to learn (and hang myself in the process). Actually, he’d teach me the right things initially, then I’d invariably rebel for no discernible reason, and only after that did he really take the opportunity to drive the point home. I call it learning by experience, since I did learn through experience (and that’s invaluable) but most people call it learning the hard way.

disciplining-kids It is ironic that oftentimes it takes “getting old” to realize that all the “important” things were actually just that, important life lessons we should have learned the first time, aka “the easy way.” I mean, ultimately its true in many respects, the “like father, like son” quote that’s been repeated throughout the ages. Eventually you see the principles of life the same way as those that instilled them into you in the first place. That’s your job as a father right? To teach your kid right from wrong by passing on your own knowledge… I’m almost laughing my face off because now that I’m having my own son, I’m really hoping he’s not going to be as damn stubborn and hard-headed as I was. I definitely don’t wish that headache on anyone, much less myself. Sigh… it’s going to be ironic, the day when I start repeating the same stuff my Dad told me over and over. Maybe I’m just being paranoid but something tells me that all my past rebelling will come full-circle and bite me in the ass soon enough…. Poetic justice indeed.

By the way, I think I know what I’m going to do with this whole Becoming a Dad series when it’s all said and done. At first, my initial idea was to gain enough of a readership to warrant some advertisers for expensive day-cares (more on that next month). But throughout time, this whole thing has really become a passion project for me. Now when our son is born, I’m going to take this series offline and turn it into a book to be put away. And when my boy is old enough to the point of going through this experience himself, I’ll dust it off and pay the lesson forward to him as well.

🙂

Categories: Fatherhood
Tags: dad, Fatherhood, first-time father, grandfather's revenge, lessons, Princess Bride

Comments: 2 Comments

Becoming a Dad – A Chance Meeting

July 10, 2009

bus

So I stepped on the park-and-ride bus this morning and sat down in my usual seat, just two row back front the door against the window. Every morning when I get on, I usually notice random strangers idly chatting. I can always hear it but usually ignore them. After all, these are not my conversations and I want to sleep anyway. But this morning was very different because just when I’m about to doze off I hear a man remark to the bus driver, “Yeah man, we find out on Tuesday.”

Naturally my ears perked up immediately and spontaneously, my voice bursting out of nowhere to ask the man, “Are you and your wife were having a baby?”

From there happened the most fulfilling bus ride of my life.

He and I must have talked about everything relating to impending fatherhood. He told me about his experience the first-time around… About the struggle of trying like hell to have one baby with a wife that wasn’t able, only to discover the miracle of finding out he’s having not one but two. About having twin babies born three-months premature and driving to the hospital (same as ours) to see them every day, despite living 45-minutes away and working ten hour days… About how, looking back at it all seven years later, he still looks at his boys sometimes and thinks, in his own words, “I still can’t believe I’m a father.” And finally about how he’s fortunate enough now to be able to do it all over again.

It really motivates me to hear stories from other parents.

I learn a lot from them and experiences like today’s. Like how scooping the bubbles out of the milk and how that will help avoid colic. And how taking walks in public places with mother-to-be will make them seem much less tedious than walking in the neighborhood. And how not to splurge on a crib because the baby will sleep more in the bassinet anyway. And finally that the baby should learn his schedule right away, so he knows day is day and night is time for sleep so we can actually get some rest.

Goodness, we must have talked the whole thirty minutes into downtown like dorks without even noticing it.

Thanks man.

Categories: Fatherhood
Tags: baby, Becoming a Dad, colic, Fatherhood, parenthood, park and ride

Comments: 6 Comments

Becoming a Dad – Find Out the Sex of Our Baby

July 7, 2009

For those of you wondering – I saved my immediate reactions earlier from while I was in the waiting room and immediately after I found out the sex of our baby while mom-to-be was getting dressed.

July 7 – 10:30am

Megan must be inside getting her ultrasound done. When they called her name earlier, we were walking in together and I was immediately accosted at the doorway by this cold and unfeeling nurse, who said they were “only taking patients. we’ll call family when we’re ready for you.” &$%@… So I’ve been waiting outside imaging for almost two hours now. Thankfully, I’m actually not as nervous as I thought I would be… That probably has something to do with the fact that I barely slept last night, brooding of life’s possibilities and the differences between having a son or a daughter. Well, actually it was alternating between those thoughts to playing video games and back that kept me occupied. I wore myself out. And now, I think I’ll be at peace either way. After all, ultimately I guess no matter what we have, we’re going to have to raise this child the same exact way, the best we can. We’ll see what happens in a few minutes.

July 7 – 11:15am

Oh my God – words can’t express how happy I feel right now! Inevitably, I knew I’d be emotional during this but whatever I thought I was going to feel at this moment pales in comparison to the joy that is running through me. I never cried such tears of happiness in my life. When the nurse came and got me, it felt so suspenseful, the walk back towards the exam room. I felt almost tunnel-visioned, and if I could have quieted down my thoughts to a non-screaming level, I swear I could have felt my heart beat out of my chest. And when I got to Megan and saw the nurse moving the ultrasound stick thing around, I was so mentally prepared to hear that our baby was a girl. Then it happened. The nurse found what she was looking for and told us so matter of factly that our baby was in fact a boy! Oh believe me, it was a big blur from there. All I can recall was clapping my hands loud and sort of leaping up in an immediate and spontaneous reaction. I think my feet actually left the ground for a second before I hugged and kissed Megan. Now mind you, I actually tried to promise to myself that I wouldn’t cry. I actually held together pretty well other than a tear or two, but then the nurse left the room and I completely broke down in tears all over poor Megan. Crying like the little girl that I thought I would have. Happier than I’ve ever been in my entire life. And as we were leaving the Doctor’s office, I just wanted to tell everyone I saw as I walked by. Walking out the door, I actually made eye contact at some poor guy that was probably waiting for his own spouse. Fist pump, “It’s a BOY!

Categories: Fatherhood
Tags: baby, expectant father, Fatherhood, mother, twitter, ultrasound

Comments: 9 Comments

Becoming a Dad – Fireworks & a Birthplace

July 5, 2009

Fourth of July – Texas Style

So this was my first Fourth of July without the traditional beer and BBQ. It was also certainly my last Independence Day prior to becoming a dad. Both startling thoughts.

Megan and I decided to celebrate in an entirely different way this year, traveling to the birthplace of Texas to celebrate the birthplace of our nation. Now when we embarked on this journey, I had no idea what to expect. After all, I thought that Texas came from a little old place we like to call Mexico. But what I discovered an hour and a half away from home in Washington on the Brazos State Park was something I appreciated way more than watching silly fireworks.

We wandered around for a good while after we got to the park. Outside of walking the trails, taking pictures besides the barn where they signed the TX Declaration of Independence, and spending time with our good friends, the Talavera’s, who also made the trek, the greatest joy I gleamed from this experience was learning that this was one of Megan’s favorite places in her own childhood. Seeing the joy in her manner as she taught me about the history of the place (what happened there), what animals made the tracks by the lake (probably dogs), and the names of common TX wildflowers (red – Indian Paintbrush, blue – Bluebonnet, yellow – One-Eyed Susans) – that was what made this trip to Washington, TX worthwhile for me.

Just so you know, I’m pretty much an inside-cat and not an outdoor one. But going to this place was even worth the allergic reaction on the way home (horrible), the splinters and blisters on both feet, (painful) and the mildly-sprained ankle from the fields we parked in. (annoying) If for nothing else than the fact that I was able to get to know the mother of my child just a little bit better. I wouldn’t have traded it for all the beer and BBQ in the world.

Below are some pictures from our trip to Washington on the Brazos State Park.