Annabelle Stands and Other Amazing Feets

Stand by me, Brutha

Happy Tuesday readers. Today started out as just another day.  But, like almost any day as a parent, no day is just another day.  And if you think closer about it, something significant will have happened during the time it takes the Earth to come full circle.

For us, today was about kicking, and also standing.

Standing.  Everyone had to start somewhere, right?  Even Custer had to have a first stand before he could have his famous last one.  Lukas made a famous one himself,  which was caught on tape by Mrs. LIAYF and documented right here several years back.

And now, after a few weeks of intense and focused determination, our sweet Annabelle stood herself up for the first time tonight!  Let it be noted!

Unfortunately, unlike with Lukas, Mrs. LIAYF was no where around with a camera to catch the monumental moment on tape.  It was only me there with her, and I actually missed seeing her do it the first time. Sad face.

That's right, I helped her stand up and grab the front bed rails in Mrs. LIAYF and my bedroom so she could see Lukas and her mother out the window coming into the house from the car. She stood there for a few moments babbling out loudly as Lukas passed below, to which he replied "You can see me Annabelle?!"  She then plopped her behind down on the bed, which is when I turned to grab a T-Shirt.

When I turned back around she was standing there once again, looking out the window!  I had to do a double take.  Then, as if to prove that I wasn't seeing things she plopped back down and pulled herself up to a full stand once again.  I was duly impressed.

Then later, when I put her down for the night, she was pulling herself up in her crib once again, rather than laying down and going to sleep.  Hmmm, I might want to retract my enthusiasm.

As for the kicking I mentioned earlier, that has to do with Lukas and his first Soccer practice of the Fall. That also happened tonight.  It has been a few months since he last played, and at that point he still had some learning to do.  But tonight I was pretty impressed with his skill level compared to the other dozen kids on the team.  His coordination seemed to be a notch or two higher than it had been last Spring.

Being the first practice, the team also had to choose a team name, as voted on by all the kids.  The winning name? It was 'The Peregrine Falcons', because they are such fast birds of prey.  Nice.

Lukas did inform us of the other two names up for consideration, which were rejected.  There was 'The Red Foxes', which when I asked him if they rejected it because Sanford was a junk man, he just stared at me blankly. Sigh.  So many of my 70's television humor references are lost on him.

And there was also the name submitted by the coaches daughter and one of the only two girls on the team 'The Purple Rainbow Feathers'.   I didn't count the votes, but my guess is that that one came in last.

So no readers, today was not just another day for us here at LIAYF.

Instead, It was full of amazing feets.

Small Game Hunter

As a father  of small children it is my responsibility to protect my family from hazards around the house, and beyond too.  That's why when there is a threat, however minor, of harm to my wife or kids it is my duty to deal with it, promptly.

The latest threat started in the form of a wasp who wanted to sample our dinner as Mrs. LIAYF, Lukas, Annabelle, and I were enjoying a meal on our deck.  Thankfully, I came up with a neat way to remove the threat.  Tupperware.  When he landed, I used my superior hand eye coordination to box him up tightly.

However, as I was reveling in the victory after having amazed Lukas with my wasp catching skill, another came along.  So, I caught him too.

Then, apparently not realizing the fate of their compadres, a few more arrived.  So, I just kept catching them.

Needless to say, this is high quality dinner entertainment when you have a 6 year old sitting next to you. "Wow, Dad!" Lukas exclaimed with a giddy laugh after I had caught the final one.

We actually haven't had that much of a problem with the wasps this Summer.  But, on Saturday when I was preparing to move the kids playhouse to a new location by climbing in an using my shoulders to lift the giant plastic house, I thankfully looked up first.

What I saw there was enough to give me pause.  It was a wasp nest.  Yes, in case you were wondering, that really IS the last thing one would want to shove their shoulder straight up into whilst in a  4X4 square, mostly enclosed chamber.

However, I was able to turn the house over though leaving the nest exposed to the sky, without getting the residents too upset.   Not wanting to use anything toxic to get rid of the wasps, after a quick internet search of an appropriate way to take out the hive, I was soon standing over the overturned house with a potful of boiling water.

The idea was to pour and run.  I could envision this going seriously wrong.  However, it didn't.  I was able to douse the hive with the water and run back to the safety of the house with only a lone angry wasp on my tail.  Wheeew!  Don't try this at home folks.  I'm sure I just got lucky.

I carefully checked the playhouse out a couple hours later and was amazed at the level of efficiency of my carnage as there were quite a few lifeless wasps floating there.  And the hive was loose and easily removed. But apparently I didn't get them all, and some of the homeless wasps were looking for a free meal at tonight's dinner.

Okay, so it's not exactly protecting the family from a serious threat.

But it does make for a good story, and me a hero in the eyes of one important 6 year old boy.

I Won't Miss the Baby Crap

Finally, FINALLY the time has come to off load some crap.  Okay, 'crap' may be a bit strong a word but, in effect, that is what something becomes when you no longer have use for it, right?

It's been fun, but you can't stay here.

After Lukas was born Mrs. LIAYF and I knew we were going to have another child in the house at some point.  So, as he gradually grew out of, or graduated on from, certain items we (and I am talking about the 'Royal' we here since it was primarily my lovely wife) packed away in plastic bins in the basement closet or alternatively in the garage.

These baby 'things' were kind of out of the way, but in the same breath they were taking up valuable real estate. And in Seattle, real estate is at a premium.  At one point I think I even recall Zillow sending us a Zestimate of what the all that hoarded space was worth in the current market.   (Okay, that may have been a dream.)  Yet it all just sat there.  Taking up space.  Day after day, week after week.

Of course we didn't expect was that it would be over 5 years before Annabelle came along. I will admit that it WAS nice to have those tubs full of baby stuff we didn't have to buy all over again.  But when we pulled out the bins of 'gender neutral' clothes of Lukas' we had saved, we had a good laugh because it was mostly blue and green, just lighter shades.

A lot of it promptly got donated.  The rest, plus many new items, were salvaged for Annabelle.

Subsequently the months have passed, much more quickly than they did when Lukas was that age too strangely enough. And with each passing month of physical and emotional development more and more of that those baby items become baby 'crap'.

Crap that we can get rid of!!

Let me tell you, I was never happier to get rid of something as I was when that Boppy thing got donated. Oh how I loathed that semi circular puffy pink pillow.  Seriously, I have enough of a spare tire already without wrapping an extra puffy pink one around my waist in order to feed the baby a bottle. Thankfully that only happened once.  Or twice.  I'm just glad there are no photos.  At least there had better not be any (looking at Mrs. LIAYF).

The baby activity mat was another thorn in my side, which I was thrilled to see go.  Have you ever tried to store one of those for the evening, with the curved arches that make it impossible to fold up and place out of sight? The devils handiwork those things are.  I smiled the day it left the house.

We have also sold, donated to charity, or given away a ton of clothes that she has already outgrow including most of those gender neutral pieces that sat in our closet all those years.

And it is just going to get better too!  We currently have the cradle swing listed on craigslist.  I can't even remember how many times I've stubbed my toe on that cursed thing.  And the bottle warmer needs to go now too.  Now that I've used it as a prop in my Starbucks Via video.  In reality we haven't used it for months.  And we are almost done the Bumbo chair as well! - that foamy little round green mound with the tray. Unstorable!

Hasta La Vista Crap!  Heehee, I'm a bit giddy here. Yes,  I love it, love it, love it!

Sorry, I guess I got a teensy bit carried away there. Especially since Mrs. LIAYF just reminded me that we needed  the extra room for the high chair, baby walker, beaded three dimensional maze, and all the other toys we've been storing that Annabelle is finally old enough for now.

Fine.  But give it a few more months, and it will be time for all that crap to go too. I won't miss any of it.

Unfortunately, that will also mean Annabelle has grow up a bit too, which is sad.  I'll miss her being little.

She is so darn adorable right now.

My Son is Telling People I Used to be a Nut

With the start of the School year, Lukas is back to wearing his uniform to school.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with school uniforms, it's not as bad as it sounds.

That's because they aren't wearing athletic jerseys, or aprons, or greasy coveralls with a patch displaying their name on their chest.  They are simply wearing certain articles of clothing such as khaki pants and polo shirts that are color schemed for the school.

Logos are off limits.  Unless, of course, it is the logo of the school.  For Lukas his school logo is that of an Owl, and we found out that for a few extra bucks Land's End will put the logo onto an article of clothing.  So we got him one, big spenders that we are.  The plan is that he will only wear this particular polo shirt, with the owl logo, on special occasions.  Like the first week of class.

And, apparently to after school care if he forgets to take it off.

Since his after school program is unaffiliated with his school, the folks there had not seen the owl logo on his shirt before and were duly impressed.  Read: They thought it was cool, which I will have to admit certainly is the case.  But as the aftercare director was telling me how cool the logo was, he also chuckled and said "Hey, I heard you used to be a nut".

This took me by surprise at first as I wasn't sure what he was referring to.  But then he elaborated. Apparently Lukas mentioned that his logo and mascot were indeed cool, which was fortunate because his dad was ONLY a nut, and didn't have a logo when he (I) was a kid.

I had to laugh at that, because it had been a while since I told him about my grade school and high school mascot.

You see I came from a very small town.  A town known for it's Oak Trees.  And, of course way back in the early part of the 1900's, or whenever the school and town elders, in their infinite wisdom, were deciding on a name for our school mascot they knew that we need one that sounded fierce.  One that would strike fear into the hearts of  local opponents.

That's why instead of simply the Acorns, we were known as The FIGHTING Acorns.

Pretty nuts, right?

When I told Lukas this he really got a kick out of it.  "You were nuts dad?!" he had asked with an incredulous smile on his face.  "Not just nuts, Bud. Fighting nuts!" I responded putting up my dukes in a mock pose.

Yeah, I guess you can imagine the reaction we got from our opponents.  Can't you?  The truth was we had to fight.  We had to be a little NUTS!  And we were.

Of course, as Mrs. LIAYF and Lukas will undoubtedly tell you, I still am.

Then We Battled the Ocean

The past week has been terrific.  We have been on Staycation here in our city.

With Annabelle so young, it felt like a good idea to stay close to home, and just schedule day trips.  It was a good call, as we were able to enjoy many of the fruits that the Pacific Northwest has to offer during a mild and beautiful late Summer.  We mostly  hiked, and biked, picked berries, and hung out at the beach.

For instance, on Saturday we loaded up our bikes and all rode down to the local beach where we spent the afternoon and early evening.  It was warm and sunny with a slight breeze, but the air had a certain Fall crispness to it that made the outing picture perfect.

Even though our bikes were pretty loaded down, including Annabelle being towed behind in a kid trailer, we were also able to pack a beach tent, which we set up at the far (and least crowded) end of the beach.  It was Annabelle's first extended trip to the beach, and she really enjoyed taking in the sights and rolling around under the shade the tent had to offer with Mrs. LIAYF by her side.  However, when I took her to see the waves and dip her toes into the ocean, she protested quite a bit.  I guess I don't blame her, as the water was on the cold side.

After a picnic lunch, Lukas went off to play in the sand while I sat there and watched.  In truth, I had something on my mind.  Something that I couldn't quite shake, and which was bothering me enough to diminish my enjoyment of this near perfect day with my family.

But, as I sat there with my mind elsewhere, Lukas came to me and grabbed my hand.  He led me the few feet out to the hole he had started in the sand.  "Dig with me Dad!" he demanded in a sweet voice, and with an inviting smile on his 6 year old face.  This was a request I couldn't ignore, so I sat next to him in the sand and began work on a castle. But my mind was still elsewhere.

Soon Lukas, seeing an approaching wave, ran headstrong into the ocean and raising his right leg gave the oncoming wave a healthy kick.  "Hi Yah!" he yelled as he did so, then beckoned me to join him in his battle. "Come on Dad!  We need to stop the waves!".

At that request I quickly slipped my phone and keys out of my shorts pockets, stood, and ran with abandon myself into the water, kicking determinedly at another oncoming wave next to Lukas.  Alone, he was no match for the full force of the mighty Pacific, but together it felt like we could stave off the relentless attack.

Soon, we retreated to the safety of the shore where we drew up plans with our fingers in the sand.  He would zig this way, I would zag that way, and when we got to the water we would throw fireballs at the waves, and use the water to throw up force fields which would protect us from its force!

All the time, Ms. LIAYF and Annabelle were watching us with piqued interest, surely happy we were having fun.

Time and again we attacked the water's edge, only to retreat and redraw our plans of attack.  In the end we were both dripping wet and shivering cold from our fearless battle against the force of the ocean.  We were also exhausted from laughing so much during our exploits.

Then, as we sat and dried ourselves off I remembered again what was on my mind.  But now, thanks to my family, and especially one energetic 6 year old, I was in a different place.  A very happy place at that.

I turned to face the sun, it's golden glow glistening off the approaching waves and felt it's comforting warmth.

It nearly matched the warmth I felt inside.

Han Solo Shot

We were finishing up a family biking trip this afternoon, which culminated in a short shuttle ride that dropped us off a few blocks from home, when we realized as we departed the shuttle that, after sprinkling for a while, it was now beginning to rain in earnest.

After riding a few miles, and playing hard on the beach for the afternoon, Lukas was pretty tired and had fallen asleep on the bus ride.  We had taken the bus to avoid a pretty steep grade we would have had to navigate had we decided to ride all the way home.  We're practical like that.

Anyway, so as we arrived at our stop I unloaded the bikes from the front of the bus while Mrs. LIAYF stepped off the bus with a sleeping 6 year old hanging off of her neck.  To that point we hadn't bothered to don our rain jackets, but with big drops coming down I fished our jackets out of the bike panniers.

Mrs. LIAYF set Lukas down and I told a now bleary eyed Lukas to hold out his arms while I slipped the light blue rain jacket over his shoulders and grabbed each side so I could straighten it across his little chest.

It was at that point that he looked up at me, and with the look of a tired boy still in his eyes said.....

"Snap it up, Fuzzball."

Then, and only then did he let a wide smile cross his face.  Of course, the unexpectedness of that zinger caused me to laugh out loud.  I mean, his timing was spot on and took me by complete surprise.

To that I could only say.  "Well played young Padawan.  Well played."

The comedic force is certainly strong in this one.

Got Milk? Drama + Dairy = #SuperMilkMan. Not a Camel

Hello Readers.  I can tell you with unflinching conviction that Milk for breakfast really does do a body good. How's that?

Well, I used to be a milk producer, that's how.  I was actually in the business for the first 32 years of my life, and I've been drinking tons of milk all my life too.  That being said, save for a hairline fracture in my foot from a high school football injury, I haven't broken any bones in my 4 plus decades on this rock.  Impressive, right?  Much more so than my High School football career.

In fact, my father and brother still own the family organic dairy, and I can tell you how they pour their hearts and souls into producing delicious, nutritious, protein packed milk each and every day of the week.

That's why it was a perfect fit when I was contacted by Life of Dad to see if I wanted to participate in an ad campain/contest sponsered by the fine folks at Milk.  Duane Johnson, AKA The Rock is their current spokesman and he has a hilarious Milk commercial, which first aired during this past Superbowl where he was a #SuperMilkMan.

Here is the print ad version:

For the contest, we were asked to create a short Instagram video depicting how Milk can help us be a #SuperMilkMan too.   There are several very cool entries, and some folks with obviously better editing skills than I have, but you can see my entry below.  It was a lot of fun to make, with the obvious help of the lovely Mrs. LIAYF.

And, Introducing Miss Annabelle in her first dramatic role.   A star is definitely born folks.




Let me know what you think.  And don't forget to drink your milk, for goodness sake.

It really does do a body good.

FTC Disclaimer : I am working with The National Milk Mustache "got milk?" Campaign. Life of Dad, LLC is providing me compensation for this post and to be a part of the #SuperMilkMan contest.  But, like I mentioned, this is a natural fit for me since I know better than most the benefits of Milk in your diet.

Dad Bloggers....Like FBI Guys

Hey readers, I have a questions for you.  Are you a dad?

Yes?

Well, do your kids make you  belly laugh, smile, tear-up, or occasionally curl into a sniveling ball in the corner of the room? Do they make you frustrated, angry at times, thrilled during others, but more often exceedingly proud?  Are you lacking proper sleep, struggling to make ends meet, or constantly worried about the well beings of your offspring? 

Do you keep some form of camera constantly at the ready so that you can record every magical moment with them for posterity?  

Do you consider an infant pooping itself so magnificently that it soppingly reaches all the way up to its tiny little neck hilarious, and a great story to tell later?  Do you think your child's pre-school art projects are so good they should be hanging in an art gallery somewhere? That they're way better than some of the 'professional' crap you've seen? 

Do you possess the ability to articulate yourself reasonably well with the written word? 

Are you okay with the complex feelings and competing forces that come along with writing about loving your children, and actually spending time showing them that love?

If you answered yes to all these questions, maybe you can be a Dad Blogger just like me.  Dad Bloggers are a growing fraternity. It's true.  It's impossible to tell exactly how many of us there are out there, but there is at least one awesome Facebook community which now has over 400 members. 400!

Of course that is world wide, and we are always losing some.  So like FBI guys, there is a definitely a need for more Dad Bloggers.  

If you do decide to start your very own Dad Blog, I have to tell you the most important step outside of actually having kids is to choose a name.  A successful Dad Blog needs a name that will draw attention to it.  One that will compel readers to bookmark it and come back to it often for a read.  One like, well.... like  'Luke, I am Your Father'.  Yep, I nailed it with that one.

There were other names I could have chosen though.  Here are a few.

1.  The Sherpa Dad  - Seems appropriate every-time I haul stuff in from the car.

2.  Dad, Blasted -   And a related title for older dads Dad Gum it.

3.  Don't Stick that There! - Unconventional, but appropriate.

4.  Hoosier Daddy - If only I lived in Indiana.

5.  The Encumbered Dad - For Dads who are the opposite of  'unencumbered'.

I could go on and on but these are good ones. And available.

Of course, none of these will see the light of day unless you, a dad who answered all the above question in the affirmative, decide you want to use one of them.  And become a Dad Blogger.

So what do you say?  Are you interested Dad? (slowly waving arm towards me).  Come on, climb aboard.  We're expecting you.

Just don't expect to make much money off of it.

Cache-ing In

Happy Saturday readers!

It seem hard to believe, but the start of school is only a couple of weeks away here in Seattle.  How exactly did that happen?  It always seems like once we are just getting into our Summertime rhythm here, September happens and messes it all up.  I guess that is because the real Summer weather here in the Emerald City usually doesn't kick in until sometime in mid to late July, so almost all the Summer themed events are crammed into an 8 week stretch.

We were actually lucky here this year though, since there was a stretch from Lukas' birthday in late June, to the first week in August where there was no measurable rain.  Yes, in Seattle.  Believe it folks.  Anyway that did help to stretch our Summer to a more reasonable window this year.

Despite all of the exceedingly fun things we have been doing this Summer - Hiking, Biking, Festivals, parties, concerts and the like, there has been one thing I have personally been wanting to do for some time now, especially with Lukas turning six years old recently.  We finally got a chance to do that thing today.

Geocaching.

I had previously created an account at the website geocaching.com, but that is as far as it got because I didn't have a GPS device and I was under the mistaken assumption the app I would need in order to use my iPhone would require an operating system of 4 or greater, while mine is an IOS3.  But once I saw online this morning that today was International Geocaching Day, I decided that it was time.

After a couple of extra Google queries I realized that, while not ideal, I could still load the app on my iPhone 3 and it would work well enough to get us started.

So I did just that. It was a quick and easy load, but a little pricey as far as apps go, ringing in at $9.99.

Later, while out for a walk through the neighborhood with the kids -and after we stopped for snack - we decided it was time to pull out the phone and see if there were any cache's in the area.   As it turned out there was one listed not far away!  The hunt was on.

About 10 minutes later, after wandering the streets with smart phone in hand,  Victory! was ours.  Lukas had found the LIAYF family's very first Geocache.  And he was rightfully excited.  Heck the idea of a treasure hunt is still appealing to me, at 45.  I can only imaging what was going through his six year old mind.

After logging into the enclosed book, logging our find on the website, and picking a small treasure to take with us, we enclosed another small item for the next treasure hunter to find.  And with that, we were hooked on a brand new hobby.

I'm not sure how many geocaches we will be finding in the weeks to come, but by looking on the app, and on the geocaching.com website there are countless opportunities for fun waiting for us just outside our door.  Plus, we are already making plans to hide out very own treasure cache in the near future.   Maybe one of you will even one day find treasure in our neck of the woods.

Good chance it'll be something Lego.

How about you, readers?  Have you tried Geocaching yet?

Instant Satisfaction

Happy Tuesday readers.  

This is normally the part where I apologize for not having posting in several weeks and explain how busy life is with an infant, a full time job, and plate full of summertime activities.  However, whenever I've previously made such proclamations I always wish I hadn't, because after I hit publish I realize that no one really had noticed my absence.

So, I am NOT going to be giving any such explanations in this here post.  I'll just reiterate that I'm still here, but just keeping my priorities in order.

With that being said, I wanted to let you know that I signed on for a fun project/contest sponsored by my friends at LifeofDad, and Starbucks.  The idea was to create a short Instagram, or Vine video highlighting a fun and humorous moment when Starbucks Instant Coffee product Via would come in  handy.

I signed on pretty quickly, since I am a huge fan of Starbucks (Mermaid Spotting is still one of my all time  most commented on posts) and also a drinker of Via, which I love to take on our annual "Camping" trip.

My First Attempt was a Vine video, which you can see here.  But, I had trouble embedding it into the blog post - so last night I decided to make an Instagram version instead which is my Official Entry in the contest (you can see all the entries at the LifeofDad link above).

Honestly, it was my first attempt at an Instagram video, so don't expect me to be posting about winning the top prize anytime soon, but it was a lot of fun to make off the cuff.   One can only imagine what I could have done, "if I only had the time....."

Here it is.  Let me know what you think, unless it's a negative thought.  Then you can fudge the truth.

In accordance with FTC regulations, I will disclose that I was compensated, and provided with product in exchange for my entry into this contest.  However, what I mentioned above about loving Starbucks, not influenced at all by this.  I mean, come on, it's Starbucks!