Sunday, June 21, 2009

My First Father's Day

Today marks the first time I've celebrated Father's Day in 19 years.

My father passed away 19 years ago, so for me, Father's Day has been a day of remembrance, and often times melancholy. As time went on, there would be years that I wouldn't even know when it fell on the calendar. It seemed foolish to bother with it if I was going to get depressed. I loved my dad and I miss him everyday. No need to grind the knife home every June.

But this year was different. This was the first time I was the dad. Mommy and Max let me sleep in a bit, and then they crawled into bed with me. Max grinned and mommy gave me my gift. It took a little encouragement, but Max lent a helping hand in ripping the paper off. It was a multiphoto frame of pictures of Max and I! It really is great and heartwarming. Then, when I thought it was time to get up and greet the day, Angie said there was one more. This was a smaller frame. Again, Max helped open it up with much screeching.... This one brought tears to my eyes. It was a dual photo frame. On the left is a picture of my dad playing with me when I was 7 monts old. On the right is a picture of me playing with Max when he was nine months old, or (seven months adjusted) in pretty much the same position. My dad and I have the same haircut, and Max and I have big grins on our faces.



I always wondered why my dad always was appreciative of the bottle of Old Spice we got him every year, or the inexpensive fishing lure. Now I know, and it has nothing to do with what we got him, it was always about what was already given.

Thank you, my family. You've made Daddy (or Papa, or whatever I wind up being) very happy.

P.S. It's been one week since my last cigarette. I'm using the patch and it seems to be working. This is the longest I've gone in my memory.

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Love All Around!

The "Love Ya" Award states: These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who can pass this along to eight more if they choose!

The following fantastical people are my awardees:

1. Colleen at Messponential
2. Jenn at I Love You Best
3. Laura at A Light In My Attic
4. Stu at Michael's Memory
5. Maria at Mommy Melee
6. Nic at My Bottle's Up
7. Scott at Salmagundi Online
8. Liz at Letters From Liz

P.S. A fun side note- Colleen (who graced me with this award on her site) and I are 'virtual friends', though I feel if we were to meet today we'd get along like gang busters, drink frou-frou cocktails and gab for hours! In a fun twist of fate, we recently realized that we have a mutual "in real life" friend! Colleen was his karate instructor and I went to high school with him! How random and delightful is that?! "It's a small world after all!" (And yes, I lost my very first tooth on that ride at Disney World!)

Sunday, June 7, 2009

9 Months

Nine months ago (this past Fri) Max entered the world and changed our lives forever. It blows my mind to think it's been nine whole months since our visit to the ER that Wednesday night, the night that turned into an automatic ambulance ride for me and scrambling, packing, phone calling, etc. for Michael. A day and a half later, we had a son. We were not able to touch him immediately after his birth and did not hold him for another two weeks. But we had 'a Max'!

And boy, has that Max grown!

He now has the start of two teeth, a strong set of lungs and spunk to go with it. He's a shameless flirt! He's saying basic things like "Muh", "Da" and "Gee". We both swear we've heard him talk back with "I know" as well. =) His Uncle Dave got him to Army crawl this weekend, too- another first! He's into everything now- hello, baby proofing!

I'm going to go cuddle that sleeping little bugger right now.

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Loves

Don't think it's really possible for these two to be cuter/more handsome/more in complete awe and love with each other! It melts my heart to see them together. Max and I are at Nana's this week and we miss the Dad. We'll be home soon!

Monday, June 1, 2009

Chomper!

A quick note: Max got his first tooth on Sunday! He got up early for breakfast and then we all snuggled back in bed for a nap. Michael found it when we woke up. And there was much rejoicing!