Somebody’s Birthday
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On his second birthday, Luke was terrified of candles. Since then, he wishes every day was somebody’s birthday so he can blow out the candles!
Growing Up
Anybody who’s been around Luke for any amount of time, knows that he is just the happiest little guy around. He just loves to have fun. Loves to play. Non stop. He’s a chatterbox, and a goof-nugget!
I absolutely love hanging out with him, of course because of all the things I just mentioned, but also because it reminds me so much about growing up myself. And how fun and carefree it all was. I mean yeah, Luke will have the occasional breakdown when he really wants something, but has to put his toys away first. But he rebounds quicker than you can flip a pancake. I had some extra time to spend at home this weekend and just about every minute was spent with this little guy.
He wouldn’t be such a happy kid though, if Andrea weren’t such a great mommy. I know it can be tough on her sometimes. I can imagine going all day without any kind of adult interaction can be draining, and probably a bit lonesome. But when you’re around Luke, you know how awesome she is at what she does! I try to help after work and on the weekends like this, just to give her a little break. I’m sure she could always use more though!
But basically what inspired this post was just all the things I’ve been able to share with him. And that he totally latches onto. We do a lot of things together that I did when I was a kid. We play with Hot Wheels cars, we race around on the carpet, we watch cartoons. We’ve been watching the Super Mario Bros cartoons from the 90’s, the Care Bears from the 80’s, and we see a lot of Mr. Rogers too.
It’s fun watching him get excited about things like the Care Bears. To us, they’re retro and dated, they’re brand new to him. And to be honest, it’s fun for me to watch them with him and see certain things and think to myself, “I THINK I remember that…” Mostly it’s not really specifics, but like the voices of a lot of the characters just feel super familiar, and this after not even thinking about the Care Bears for at least 20 years. Funny how our minds work.
Part of me feels a little guilty that I’m subjecting him to something that’s 3 decades old, compared to what his peers are probably being exposed to. He’ll go off to school and his friends will have whatever the hot new lunchbox is, and he’ll have no idea who the characters are on the cover. It’s not going to derail him socially, but still it’s a consequence of a choice I made, that he didn’t even know existed.
The other part of me thinks… you know my parents would have done the same thing as me… if they had the option to. We don’t have cable. We watch all this old stuff on places like Hulu and Youtube. It’s amazing how much is out there. More than I ever saw as a kid of these shows. When I was growing up, what was on TV is all that I could be exposed to. I suppose if my parents had the ability to keep me in a bubble of the media that they knew, trusted, and felt comfortable with, they would have done it too. They just had to keep an eye on what we watched and make sure it wasn’t too “out there”.
It does make you wonder though, if this is all he knew, what would Luke share with his children? Will kids still be watching really bad Mario & Luigi skits between animated mushroom adventures from 1991 in the year 2033? I’m sure as he gets older and starts interacting with other kids and being exposed to more, he’ll develop his own memories. Stuff that I just won’t understand. It will happen eventually. But until it does, I’m going to soak up our awesome Saturday mornings eating pancakes, watching cartoons, and pretending I’m growing up all over again too.
Bucket List Checkmark
This weekend was a whirlwind to be sure. It was Andrea’s birthday, she’s 29! And we went up to the NASCAR race to celebrate her and Duane’s birthdays together. It was a lot of fun.
The Birthday Crewe
I’ve seen a lot of NASCAR in my days. I’m not as huge a fan as I once was. I was probably most into it back in the early 2000’s. Bobby Labonte was driving the #18 car back then and was pretty darn good. I remember one season (after his championship) where he finished in the Top 10 like 26 times. He was a lot of fun to cheer for. After that he switched teams a couple times and just never was as competitive. And since then it seems like all they focus on is the drama. As far as I’m concerned, you can save the drama for your llama.
Bobby doesn’t race, and Pontiac doesn’t even exist anymore. Sheesh I’m old.
Having never been to an actual race I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. Honestly I anticipated it to be not as good as watching it on TV. What I found was it was completely different than a TV experience. You don’t get the benefit of replays. I mean they have a big screen down by the pits that show stuff, but it’s not like TV. But you really get a broader picture of the whole race. I’ve been to lots of little dirt track races over the years. And maybe it was all the caution flags, but this really felt more similar to that than I expected it to. Each restart seemed like a new “heat”, but there was an added strategy of pitting and tires, etc. It was just really cool to watch it all unfold on a broad scale.
We paid attention to Mark Martin for a good part of the race, a person I’m sure they weren’t talking about much on TV. But we had the little headsets where we could listen in to his radio. We could listen to the race officials, the cleanup crews. It was really cool. Kinda felt like behind the scenes.
But there were times where I just took the headphones off and just soaked up the experience. I loved the noise. It has been on my bucket list to hear the “Drivers start your engines!”. Check. And just listening to the cars go flying by. It was totally awesome to be there.
I don’t think I’ve ever been in one place with that many people before. I’m not sure what the capacity is, but I bet it was over 150,000 people. Looking at them from our seats high in the air, they all just looked like gnats. It probably took us 45 minutes just to get in and parked. But only took us 10 minutes or so to get out.
I’d definitely be up to do it again, which going into it, I figured I’d go to one just to say I’ve been. But I can definitely see how people get hooked on it. I’d love to take a camper out to the infield and just hang out, drink beer and party for 5 days on a race weekend. That may be a little hard to accomplish anytime soon though!
09.15.13LAZY
This is where Luke and I spent most of the weekend.
Here I am, sitting on my bum, like I have spent most of the weekend. I haven’t left the house for almost 48 hours now and it feels glorious.
Without a doubt the majority of my time has been spent hanging out with Luke. He truly loves to play. From the moment he wakes up, until he is reluctantly put to bed, playing is serious business.
In all honestly, it’s really fun for me too. Deep down I’ve never really grown up. But now, as a dad, it’s socially acceptable for me to play with Hot Wheels, make tracks for the trains, race cars with Luke, watch cartoons and do all the stuff a kid wants to do. We spent probably an hour this morning, eating breakfast and watching Super Mario Bros. cartoons from the 90’s. Then we played cars on Luke’s rug with all the streets on it. Took the putt putt golf set and pretended we were playing hockey. Sang songs in the bathtub. Made a mess with a deck of cards. Had a pillow fight. Watched a full season of Video Game High School. And had a tickle fight. All just this weekend.
So no, I don’t really feel guilty at all about not getting anything done. What I did get done feels pretty rewarding.
09.5.13
Time… It Flies.
It is almost literally impossible for me to believe that this was just last year.
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Busy But Productive
Man, today was action packed for a Saturday. I had a lot to do at work, still working off my punishment for taking a vacation. No we aren’t actually punished for taking time off… but the work still piles up while I’m gone. I already had to stay late Friday for some sports so I didn’t want to stay even later and not get to see Luke at all. Rather I decided to just come in while everybody else was sleeping.
I rolled out of bed around 4AM, chatted a bit with Andrea who hadn’t gone to bed yet, ate some cereal, got dressed and made it to work by 5AM. I was able to get everything pretty much caught up by 11AM and headed back home. Luke and Andrea were just getting around for the day, so my plan worked out pretty well. I was a little tire so I caught a quick nap on the couch.
The doctor called today. They got the results from Luke’s lead test and his lead level has gone from a 5 to a 6 since the last time he was tested 6 months ago. I’m wracking my brain trying to figure out where he is coming in contact with the lead. This house was built in 1978 so there shouldn’t be any lead paint. I don’t think he’s been playing with any old toys or anything like that. It’s a little scary because he’s now crossed the threshold where they start getting concerned and we need to figure out where he is interacting with it before his lead level gets any higher. It’s not necessarily dangerous yet. But it’s getting into his system somehow, and if it continues to rise, then he will be at risk of health problems. So we need to get it sorted out. But I honestly can’t think of any place he’s been exposed to lead!
Later we headed up to Hoisington for the Labor Day celebration. They had an event called “Touch-A-Truck”. It was really pretty cool. Kinda like a car show, but with all kinds of trucks, tractors and other driveable machines. Luke was really excited when we first got there. Until the fire trucks and police trucks started sounding their sirens and blowing their horns. The loud noise scared the little guy. Luke was immediately ready to go. But we toughed it out and saw all there was to see. It’s a real bummer because he totally would have had a blast if it weren’t for the noise. He would briefly get interested, but then realized he was letting his guard down and nuzzled back into my shoulder.
So we went to town. Needed to get a few things from the store and ended up just walking around Wal-Mart for kicks. I don’t think I’ve done that since high school. I guess we were pretty bored. Didn’t see much we couldn’t live without and got out of the store for under $14.
Luke had to get a new Hot Wheels car though, because obviously he doesn’t have enough already… He did pick a pretty cool one though. He got an 84 Monte Carlo with flames on it. It is almost the same color as the Cutlass though, so we call it “Daddy’s Car”. Hehe.
So I had a lot of fun playing cars with Luke. He’s starting to develop that little brain so much. He’s to the point now he’ll start telling you what he want’s you to do. “Move, Daddy.” “Hey, watch this.” I’m just a pawn in his little scheme, but it’s totally worth it when you see him loving every minute of it.
After supper I took it on myself to deep clean the tub/shower upstairs. We had a nasty plumbing issue where everything in the garbage disposal drained into the bathtub. It was 7.5/10 on the “Nasteriffic” scale. And that’s about as high as you can go without getting poo involved. I mentioned calling the plumber in a previous post. He was able to take care of it straight away. Every job is all about having the right tools. But what was left was a working show that no one wanted to use until it was thoroughly sterilized. I guess if any good has come of it, the show is now cleaner than it’s ever been.
So now Luke’s asleep. I’m down stairs chilling, and trying to decide if I want to do some gaming, or just watch some Youtube videos. I’m actually craving a bit of retro gaming right now, so maybe I’ll head to the retro room and fire up something old.
08.28.13Vacation Almost Over
I took a week off of work. It’s been really nice. Breaking the doldrums of the same old same old. I can say fore sure though, I didn’t get as much relaxing and gaming time as I had hoped.
The family and I all went out to Cimarron to help my Mom move to a new house. It went about as smooth as a move can possibly go I think. We started the heavy lifting at 8AM on Saturday, and we were done by noon that day! We had a bunch of help, so that sure made thing go smoother.
I really like their new place. It has lots of room both inside and out. Luke loved running around and there are all sorts of different areas of the house that you can use for different things. Upstairs is going to be a cool football room. I had the pleasure of hanging my first flat screen TV on the wall. It was actually a lot simpler than I thought it would be. We got their sound system working and they have a pretty awesome setup now. It will take some tweaking and organizing, but I helped get everything hooked up. It’s up to Mom and Duane now to make it the way they want it.
We came back on Monday and on the way home, we realized that the leak I thought I fixed in the Jeep… wasn’t fixed at all. The carpet on the passenger side was soaked from the condensation dripping from the AC into the cabin. Thank goodness for the internet I found a fix. Unfortunately it called for cutting a hole in the side of the frame on the Jeep! Something I don’t really have any tools for. But $25 worth of Dremel accessories and $5 of plastic tube and clamps later, I think I have it fixed. I ran out of time to thoroughly test it because Andrea had to go bowling and I needed to watch Luke. He’s just not to the age yet where you can go, “Stay where I can see you, don’t drink any poison.” So letting him roam around the garage while I work on cars still isn’t a good idea.
On top of that, Luke and I took a shower and I noticed that the tub wasn’t draining. This has happened before and usually I just have to plunge it out. However this attempt of that has proven fruitless. I even poured some drain clog remover down there, and nothing. So I called the Landlord. Something I haven’t had to do very often since we moved here. Most of the time because it’s easier to just fix stuff myself rather than wait and rely on someone else. But for this project, I got to the point where I said… “Why am I still screwing with this? I rent!” so I took advantage of one of the benefits of NOT being a homeowner and called this one in. A plumber is supposed to be coming over sometime today and I won’t have to worry about the bill!
So I planned on helping Mom move, that was the reason for the timing of the vacation. But I didn’t plan on having to tear apart the Jeep and mess around with plumbing. Feels like a lot of the time I’ve spent on “vacation” I’ve been working and fixing things. Andrea says that’s sure not her idea of a vacation. But you know, times like this when I can kick back on the couch with the laptop, a cup of coffee and write a blog in the middle of the morning… this is what it’s all about.
If anything this time off has helped me get back to my natural state, which is “laid-back”. Work gets me so uptight and hi-strung sometimes. I didn’t used to get all stressed out about stuff. Just not enough time any more I guess, blah, blah, cue what everyone always says.
I feel like I can go into work now with a bit of a re-freshed perspective. That is going to help a lot. I really am going to dedicate myself to dumping the stress from my life. Get done what I can get done and don’t sweat the rest. That’s my plan. We’ll see how long it lasts.
08.4.13Luke is Two!
Luke celebrated his 2nd birthday yesterday! His big shindig party isn’t until next week. But we wanted to at least commemorate the day.
We didn’t have a cake, but we did make some brownies, which he probably ate too much of (along with chocolate milk) since he spit up a bit of it later while he was playing, haha. I could have swore we had some extra birthday candles laying around. I couldn’t find any, so we used some tea candles. We lit two of them and set them on the plate with his brownie. He wanted NOTHING to do with them! He squirmed and cried. “Fire Away!” he kept saying. I think he’s still scarred from his 4th of July experience!
Then get got to open the present we got him. Just a little racetrack with some wind up cars. It’s actually pretty cool for as cheap as it was. He has had a blast with it so far. I’m sure by next week it will be “just another toy” but it is fun watching him just get completely fascinated by something. Then we let him stay up until about 10pm, which is way past his bedtime.
We definitely spoiled the little guy. But hey, it’s your birthday!
Everybody says it, but I can’t believe it’s been 2 years already. Seems like just a few weeks ago we were heading to the hospital with Andrea. It has been completely amazing though. Luke has to be the easiest kid to have around. He’s almost always in a good mood, loves to play, can entertain himself… sometimes. And is just a love filled little boy.
It’s so much fun watching him grow up. He’s really becoming his own person. He has his own preferences, his own favorites, his own habits even. If it wouldn’t go quite as fast, that would be great though!
Off the Grid
Well, this weekend was Mom’s 50th Birthday celebration. Duane, my stepdad, rented a cabin out at Coldwater lake and invited all the family out. It was a lot of fun! We enjoyed some frosty beverages, grilled some burgers and hot dogs and generally just did a lot of relaxing.
I made the decision that as soon as I got there I was turning the phone off. I already warned everyone I’d be out of cell phone range. And I can’t tell you the last time I was completely out of contact with the outside world. No phone, no internet, nada. I wanted to TOTALLY disconnect, and I found the experience to be a joyous one. I just popped it off as soon as we got there and left the phone in the Jeep. My mind was so free knowing that that phone wouldn’t, and couldn’t ring. At first my free thoughts were wondering how things were going back at the station, or if there was severe weather. But eventually my free thoughts became occupied by other more relaxing things like. How beautiful the sky was, how cool it would be to build a cabin like the one we were in someday. It was totally NON-stressful and it was great.
Luke is such a good little guy. He really does great in pretty much every situation. I suppose it helps that the weather was beautiful and the bugs weren’t bad at all. He had a great time playing outside the whole time with shovels, trucks and cars. His cousins Bryson and Brody were there and Luke was a good little worker helping them excavate the ground around our campfire.
We took the Jeep, which made me a bit nervous since we’ve been having issues with the oil pressure dropping down to zero. But the whole way down and back (about 4 hours round trip) you wouldn’t even know there was a problem. I still think there is an issue because I’ve heard the lifters ticking when the gauge drops to zero. Most of the research points to worn out cam bearings, which at that point you might as well get an engine rebuild. So for now we’re going to keep driving it until it starts getting noisy on a regular basis or it just plain explodes.
Luke’s First 4th of July
Luke started the day off happy as can be. He’s definitely a morning person and always wakes up in a good mood. I wish I could say the same about myself! So he and I are up eating waffles and pancakes for breakfast and I told him, “Today we get to shoot off fireworks!”
“Fireworks? Fireworks, right there,” he grinned, and pointed to the family pack we’ve had propped up near the back door the past couple days. With all the American Flags (he’s a big flag fan) and the colorful packaging, Luke has been very interested in them. But until yesterday, he didn’t really know what a firework did.
The fireworks store I did remotes at this year, had a cool little kid sized backpack full of all the traditional kid themed fireworks. Tanks, chickens, cars, etc. He thought it was awesome. Riiiight up to the point we started lighting fuses. I knew he probably wouldn’t like the big fireworks, but I thought he’d love some of the little cars and trains and such. Nope. Not at all. He was pretty much ready for it to be over as soon as it began.
At this point he has no idea what’s about to happen. This one whistled and scooted across the ground.
After the first tank went off, he’d really had enough. I guess I forgot that the tanks pop out full fledged, loud, banging, firecrakers. Too loud for little ears.
It’s no fun being scared. But it is kinda cute.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rehk0li7qu4]
So we took a nice long break. Luke got himself a well earned nap. And when he got up, the sun was getting lower. Other people in the neighborhood were starting to light their own fireworks. Funnily enough, Luke started to say “Watch fireworks? Watch fireworks?” So we figured we’d give it another shot. We pretty much just left the back patio door open, and he could come in and out as he felt comfortable. And we used some ear muffs we’d gotten for him to use at the race track.
This worked out a lot better. He still kept a cool weary distance from where we were lighting them down on the patio. But at least no crying. And once they were cooled off, Luke really had fun playing with them as toys. So he at least finally got a little enjoyment out of the holiday.
We all stayed out until about 9:00pm having fun, then figured we would try to put Luke to bed. It was going to be interesting on how he’d sleep, given that it sounded like a warzone all around us. Remarkably, other than not paying much attention to his bedtime story, our bedtime routine was fairly normal, and he laid down in his bed without a peep, and we didn’t hear from him the rest of the night. We kept the baby monitor on outside and Andrea and I decided to start pulling out some big stuff!
And with that, the night was over. Wrapped up around 11:30pm. Had a lot of fun. Been 2 years since we got to have one around here. And we had an ample supply to shoot off, fun with the family, it was just a really great day!
