When Did This Happen?

I still have a full head of hair, but I’ve noticed a few gray hairs.

I take medication on a daily basis, but I don’t need one of those “days of the week” pill containers.

My body aches from doing work around the house, yet I’m arguably in the best shape I’ve been in 10-15 years.

On the other hand …

I haven’t started driving really slow with my right turn signal on forever.

I haven’t hiked my pants up past my belly button.

I haven’t started complaining about the “music the kids are listening to.”

I haven’t had to ask my children how to operate a computer, DVD player or video game system

On the other hand …

I don’t get the appeal of Jersey Shore or the Kardashians

I’ve never seen any of those Twilight movies

I’ve yet to wear black athletic socks with sandals

I’m not planking

Last year I turned 40.  Today I turned 41.  For whatever reason, I’m more conscious of my age on this birthday.  Maybe because I went from a station where I was of the younger people on staff, to a station where I’m one of the “older” people on the team.

That’s the thing – for the longest time, I always felt like I was always one of the “young people”.  Now it seems like I’m not one of them anymore.  Not that I don’t fit in.  Just somehow I passed over that line, where I’m on the other side of the young/old divide in most situations I’m in.

The other day someone said I looked like I could be 35.  I thanked them.  That’s now a compliment.

When did this happen?

They say (whoever they are) that age is just a number.  I used to think that was just something old people said.  Now, I kind of get that.  Yikes!

Mom’s No Peter Brady – A Birthday Eruption!

My mom is no Peter Brady.  There – I said it.  I know it hurts mom.  But when it comes to making a volcano that erupts, you still have work to do.  At the same time, we have to give you props for making the effort.  It’s better to make a non-erupting volcano, than no volcano at all … as the saying goes.

This past Saturday my daughter Olivia had her birthday party (she turns 9 on Wednesday).  She had a dinosaur-themed birthday party. There was little dinosaur decorations.  Dinosaurs on the cake.  A big inflatable dinosaur.  There were also fake mustaches for all the little girls to wear, naturally.

So with a dinosaur/mustache-themed birthday party, my mother decided to help kick the party up a notch by making a volcano.

Kids for years have channeled their inner-Peter Brady from the famous Brady Bunch and made a lava-erupting, oozing volcanos for school science projects. A thing that I love about my mom is that she always wants to make parties fun.  She always gets creative an add extra fun touches to family get-togethers.  Especially when it comes to her grand-children.

When watching our kids, she’s even thrown fun parties for the kids – like a Hawaiian-themed party or a Mexican fiesta. Sometimes mom’s ideas go over great; other times, not so much.  I remember when she snagged a still useable Dora the Explorer pinata out of her neighbor’s trash for Olivia’s 2nd birthday.  If you want to traumatize a 2-year-old girl, give kids a baseball bat and have them whack your child’s favorite cartoon character!

I usually laugh at my mom’s attempts. She usually does too.  You can hear my cackling in the video below.  My favorite parts – the little girls underwhelmed reaction to the volcano and my mom saying that this better not end up in one of my “cursed blogs”.Enjoy!

So my mom is no Peter Brady when it comes to volcanos.  That’s okay. Judging by the smile on Olivia’s face, I don’t think she cared. I’m thankful that she looks for attempts to make my life (and my kid’s life) fun.  I’m glad she tries.

Knowing my mom, she won’t stop trying.  And I won’t stop laughing … with her.

Field of Dreams

There are many times as a Dad where I missed the mark or didn’t get it right.  Not to brag, but I believe on Friday I got it right.

Side note:  Ever notice when someone says, “not to brag” they are about to brag?  It’s kind of like when people say, “I don’t mean to judge, but …” or “I’m not a racist, but …” or “I didn’t mean to use your toothbrush to clean the toilet, but …”

Anyway, back to my bragging (Don’t worry, you can brag about me later if you are worried about that) … on Friday, Evan celebrated his 11th birthday.  He originally didn’t want a party, but then days before his birthday he decided he wanted one.  It wouldn’t be a big deal, if birthday parties didn’t become such big deals!

Back in the day – it was friends, cake, presents and maybe a freaky clown that would give kids nightmares for years.  It was great and we liked it!  Now, they’ve become these elaborate events where you feel like you need pyrotechnics and a million dollar budget.

The only thing I can remember that was something beyond the normal for a birthday party when I was a kid is when me and my friends watched a bootlegged VHS copy of “Raiders of the Lost Ark” my Dad got from a friend.  Nothing is more heartwarming than a potential felony involved in your birthday.  Plus, I’m pretty sure we didn’t rewind the tape either.

Birthday parties somehow progressed to Chuck-E-Cheese (where a large rodent now scars children) to large events worthy of a professional party planner.   For my daughter’s 8th birthday, she had some traveling animal act come by the house.  It’s a long story, but the band Echoing Angels also came by the house and played for the kids.  I’m sure they’ll never forget the gig where they opened for Coyote Chris and his hedgehog at little girl’s birthday party.  They are pushing to be the headliner this year …

For Evan’s 10th birthday, we held it at an indoor water park.  They pretty much ignored all the slides and played basketball in the pool.  So this year, I said why don’t we just order pizza and you can play football in the backyard?  Well, in order to sell it I said I would throw him a “kick butt football party”.

It didn’t take amazing planning.  It wasn’t elaborate.  I took a few hours and 7 cans of spray paint to turn my backyard into a football field.  I have to say it looked pretty good – like a professional field, if a professional field had lots of weeds, dead grass and had to be pooper-scooped.

But Evan and his friends didn’t care – they loved it!  They literally played until they couldn’t see anymore.  One of his friends said it was the best birthday party he ever went to … they ate pizza and played football for 5 hours …  no clowns, no water park, no animal act, just pizza and play.

I was reminded that the best moments and memories, very rarely are attached to things that are expensive or elaborate.   Often times, it’s the simple things that show you love and care for them that have the biggest impact. I have a feeling he’ll remember this birthday – the day my dad made the backyard into football field – forever.

On Saturday, I looked into my backyard and saw a ripped apart lawn.  Julie reminded me that someday we’ll look back there and it will look beautiful and pristine and we’ll long for the days of boys happily playing on it and ripping it apart.

Evan at Eleven

I’m sitting here looking at my son play with some of his birthday presents.  Evan turned 11 today.

Eleven amazing years that have flown by.  I can remember 11 years and one day ago when Julie first started feeling contractions.  To pass the time until the contractions warranted going to the hospital, we went out to dinner.  Afterwards, we went to the mall – I needed to buy some shoes.  I remember thinking that I needed to buy these shoes tonight, because after having a child I could never justify buying something for myself again.  Sounds extreme, but in some ways it was accurate.

When you get married you have to adjust to life not just being about you.  Having a child takes it to a whole new level.  There’s that overwhelming feeling of having this little life that is completely dependent on you.

I heard someone the other day talking about the need to enjoy life before having kids, because once you do, you won’t be able to do anything for yourself until they graduate college and are on their own.  The implication is that it’s a bad thing.  But the majority of people who have kids, would say the joys outweigh any “inconvenience” of not being able to do what you want, when you want.

Any empty-nester will tell you to enjoy this time, because it does go fast.  There are days when it definitely doesn’t feel that way. But when I see how quickly these 11 years went, I get it.  In another 11 years, he’ll most likely be graduating from college and ready to start his “life”.  But when I even look at the years in between now and then, I realize how little time there is to soak this in.  He’ll be a teenager before you know it … driving and the freedom that comes with that … hanging with friends will become a lot more fun than hanging with mom and dad … and then off to college.

Sheesh!  I’ve managed to depress myself!

As I look at him, my heart just bursts with happiness.  He’s an amazing kid, who truly is one of a kind.  He’s tender-hearted, yet all boy.

He gets his great looks from his mother.  I’m sure his intelligence, too.  And he can talk (another trait he gets from his mom). I can remember one of his first report cards that was great, with the only “negative” being he tends to “socialize” a lot in class.

He gets his love of sports from me.  I love the fact we can watch and play sports together and how he seems to check espn.com every morning when he wakes up.

I love the way he loves his little sister Olivia and how the two of them are like best friends.  They genuinely like to play and laugh together.

I think the thing that I love the most about him is his zest for life.  He never does anything half way.  He soaks in every moment of every thing he does.  And everything he does, becomes an event.  As a toddler, it wasn’t enough for Julie to simply take him on a walk – he had to take snacks and supplies.  There’s no such thing as simple football game with his friends in the neighborhood.  You need to wear a jersey, have team names, keep stats and make brackets for a tournament.

He has taught me a lot. I want to live with that same kind of zest when it comes to being his dad.  To not parent half way.  And to soak in every moment.

When he was born, I remember saying, “Baby Evan, sent from Heaven.”  And it’s true.

Baby Evan, sent from Heaven is now eleven.  Happy Birthday Evan!  I’m proud to be your dad.

You are an amazing boy, that has made me a better man.