Dad Therapy

The Year in iPhone Photos

 
I was thinking of doing our annual slide show but was daunted by the thousands of photos we've been taking of the kids. How could I detail the year with so many? It'd take forever and be kind of boring. Then I thought, what if I just use the photos I took with my iPhone. They are a little more spontaneous.

It also reminded me of the little black camera my grandfather used to keep in the car in case we ever were in a situation that required it. I tried to find a picture of the camera, but it was inexpensive and black and had a pop-in type of film that you ratcheted to wind. He had like three of them just to make sure he didn't miss anything. If he was in my generation he'd probably love the iPhone because you have it on you at all times and you snag shots that you wouldn't take with film with its cost. He'd really appreciate the whole cost saving aspect of it that's for sure.

That's my set up. The gallery can be found here. Enjoy.

The Holidays in our New House

 
Nothing says you’ve made your house a home like decorating for the holidays. After I got home late Thursday night from the L.A. Auto Show I worked from home on Friday to recoup a bit and finish up a few different stories. But I was exhausted from what was essentially 72 hours of work. But being around the kids again was a nice recharge.

For the weekend we had our plans set. Saturday morning we went to get the Christmas tree. One nice thing about having rough rails on the Outback was some easy tying of the tree. What I thought was a large enough tree at the lot turned out to look like a puny tree when I got it on the stand. My first pic on the right definitely showed why I thought it was a Charlie Brown Christmas at the Thomas house.

But thanks to my wife’s spot-on decorating on Saturday night it turned out really really well. It also forced us to unpack the last moving box in the house although we still have some pictures to hang.

Is A Good Nanny Hard To Find?

 
One of the things we worried about after Carter was born was child care. I'm not sure if this is the first thing we were scared of, because I constantly freaked out about every aspect of fatherhood, but I know it weighed on Courtney’s mind.

Now that we've found a terrific new nanny for both kids, I'll tell you about how lucky we've truly been in this department after our third nanny search in two years.

How To Take Advantage of the Housing Bust via Near Catastrophe

Three years ago the missus and I — married for a year or so — bought what we thought was our dream home in a hip Chciago neighborhood. It was a rather large duplex and it was all new with nice fixtures and top-end appliances. We decked the place out with brand new furniture, built-in closets and a home theater system. Less than a year into ownership I woke up one night to the sound of water dripping. I rooted around in the dark to find it coming from an electric outlet in the bedroom.

“That’s weird” I thought, figuring the night’s rain was causing it or there was a leak on the roof.

What I Won't Miss About Living in the City

Now that I’ve detailed the few things I’ve liked living in the city of Chicago the past seven years, here’s a list of all the things I won’t miss. Be warned, this list is much longer.

Noise
Whether it’s the garbage trucks at 6 a.m., drunk people at 2 a.m., parties next door, the neighbors above us stomping around or random dogs barking outside, the sounds of the city will not be missed. I’m not even talking about the proximity to the highway or the fire engines, those noises are much easier to adjust to than the others.

Doggy Dilemmas

We found out the other day our beloved boxer Roxy has a cancerous growth on her lip. She’s heading to the surgeon for a consult and potentially surgery tomorrow. Hopefully, it’s the kind of localized thing that can be cut out and not spread.

Fingers crossed.

Roxy has pretty bad skin allergies that have gotten worse over the years but she is amazing around Carter and Evie. Carter has discovered he can smack her and she won’t take note, so he smacks her harder. It’s not good and we’re teaching him no. Roxy just takes it, gives a sad look and slowly moves away.  Of course, she also plants herself in the middle of the living room so he can’t get anywhere without having her move, hence the smacks.

Here’s a recent picture of Roxy amid the great nightly Tupperware dispersal.

My second father's day and all I got was this BSG t-shirt

This weekend went by too quickly and not because there was non-stop dad adulation going on either. I'm not saying I didn't have a great Fathers Day, it just didn't have any traditional dad's day trappings.

I was supposed to play golf on Saturday as part of a gift from my wife but the course was flooded. Instead of golf we opted to still visit the in-laws and run errands you can only do in the suburbs. That means Babys R Us most definitely to load up on supplies, but on the plus side Carter got to spend time with his godparents' son, Charlie. The two went for a quick ride in Carter's new red wagon his grandparents got him a few weeks ago.

Weekend Hangover Makes Me Worry

This weekend was one where I felt more exhausted when it was over than I did on Friday night after a full week of work. That’s just not fair. I was able to watch much of the draft and drink beer Saturday afternoon but there were a lot of things to check off the list first.

In the morning on Saturday we took Carter to his first swim lesson. At 14 months the “lesson” is more like organized playtime in the water. The first five minutes of that is calming the boy down after he gets in and realizes it is not as warm as his bath tub. Even I was kind of chilly at first. Carter’s favorite part was taking part in the songs where the kids got bobbed up and down in the water to the music. Otherwise he swallowed water when trying to make bubbles and cried and was generally not happy. There were moments of kicking here and there which made me happy. We’ll see what next week is like.

Daddy's Big Easter Weekend

It’s been a long time since I’ve had much time off. Certainly, there hasn’t been much non-dad time if there was non-work time. But Courtney and I both took Good Friday off and hit the in-laws in the suburbs a bit early for a long holiday weekend.

We loaded up the car (a BMW X3 I’m test driving for my day job) and headed out early Friday morning and with no traffic hit Palatine around 8 a.m. I had time to get a haircut at the local barber who I missed going to since we lived out in the ‘burbs and then my father-in-law hit the golf course.

I hadn’t picked up my clubs since last August and played surprisingly well after the first hole. The whole front nine was terrific. Back nine, not so much, but I was happy to be outside and enjoying the day.  After golf Courtney even let me take a nap on the couch during the Masters. It was pretty much the perfect day off.

No More Baby Mullett

We're up early on a Sunday having our milk and I figured I'd show everyone Carter's first haircut. Courtney just ran him in to her own stylist this week to chop off the mullett and the hair going all over his ears. Sounds silly, but I miss the mullett a little bit.