Bonnie and Snide

Baby Girl turned one-year-old the other day.  I know all the "time flies" stuff has been tread and re-tread by parents for generations, but man, I cannot believe  how quickly that went. And somehow I have, like, three memories of the first year of her life? Even worse, one of the few memories I do have is complaining about how time was creeping by. I think the year can mostly be summed up as thus: waiting for the girl to do something new, enjoying it for a day, remarking about how I can't wait for the next milestone. Having a one-year old has so far taught me a few things. First, infants are just still really not my deal. I loved mine, and I want to have more, but the older she gets, the more I feel actually connected to as a person. I know I've said it before: I have loved her from the moment she was born, but I am learning to actually enjoy her company as she learns to do more and more cool shit. Learning to sit up, roll over, smile, laugh, all of that was

My baby girl swims now. She's a swimmer. Well, ok that may be an exaggeration. She definitely flails, she kinda kicks. Oh and she for sure chokes and splutters when you dunk her (not my idea, blame the swim teacher!) We started swim lessons about a week ago, and the girl took to them instantly. As I have mentioned before, I won't allow any insinuation that my progeny aren't natural swimmers because "IT'S IN THE GENES"; but she even surprised me with how comfortable she seemed in the water. Since Adair has done basically everything to keep this child alive for the last 10 months, I jumped at swim lessons as my opportunity to take the lead on a parenting job and maybe give the wife some time (27 minutes) to herself.  The lessons themselves though, are bananas. Let's go through them bit by bit here: Location: Oregon City Pool When I said I would never move to the suburbs, I meant it, and I stand by it. I can't afford to live in Portl

Time has recently become incredibly confusing for me. In three months, baby girl will celebrate her first birthday. Three months! It seems so soon. On the other hand, that is a full 1/3 of this child's life. That seems like forever  to me. For me, that's 10 years. This girl sleeps "well" about one in three nights, so during the time between now and her first birthday, I'll get about one month of decent sleep. Math. Everyone, literally everyone, has told me to cherish these baby moments because before I know it, she will be all grown up and yelling at me to leave her alone. Thus far I have been...less than successful in the cherishment department, mostly because my daughter has been so dreadfully and insufferably booooring.  She's was so lame. Undeniably cute. Smells amazing. But just a boring little drip of a human being. Until now. Because now my baby crawls! She crawls like a maniac. She crawls with all the suicidal vengeance of John Wick on pur

Ha! I just looked back at a draft of a blog post that I had saved, but never published, entitled "6 Month Observations." All I had on the page was: "Serious question. How the hell  are second children ever born?" Apparently I had some strong feelings at the time; and those feelings were that only a goddamned FOOL would ever put himself and his family through this child-raising experience more than once. It has been more than two months since I started and never finished that post, and just today Adair and I were doing some light brainstorming about when (not if) we might start trying for Baby Row #2. So, I guess, things have gotten better. It feels weird to type that, since it's still day-to-day just a dreadfully exhausting endeavor. But with the clarity of being able to look back two months (a full 25% of my daughter's life!) I can say that things are already so much more fun. Baby is sleeping more, eating more, engaging with us more; and a lit

Pop culture has a way of depicting life for new dads thusly:  Male childless friend: "So, you just do this now instead of [insert relevant dude stuff; i.e. football, drunkenness, strip clubs] New dad: [Looking frazzled and red-eyed, yet smiling wisely] "Yeah dude." MCF: Uhhh cool I guess? Ok I'm gonna go and do [relevant dude stuff]. ND: [More wise smiling] Oh, dear friend. You'll understand...some day. [Solitary dad happiness tear, audience "awwwws".] _______________ Before Mina was born, I promised myself several things. I promised that although having a child must change so much in your life, I wouldn't let it change who I am at my core. I promised that I wouldn't let it change my relationship with my wife. Or my relationship with my family. Or with my friends. I promised I would still care about work, love the outdoors, love baseball, keep working on my writing, find time for my hobbies, keep my sense of humor, and

We spent a nice afternoon with Grandpa Boyd yesterday, and today we are hanging with Papa Joe. I am spending my first Father's Day as a father being conscious of all the Dads in our lives; what it means to be a dad, what we all have in common, what makes a good dad, etc. First thing to note: Both of the dads in my life seem to have hurt their backs moving kitchen appliances. In true dad fashion, both of them asked me to come down to Salem this weekend and help them move refrigerators. Before those refrigerators could be moved, both of them hurt themselves doing other things and the refrigerator plans got put on hold. So, instead of physical labor befitting a son or son-in-law, I experienced not one but two fantastic Days of the Father that just simply made me thankful for those old men in my life. Grandpa Boyd, (and/or his wife) were kind enough to buy me that 100 ft. hose I was coveting and a spray nozzle with what I have chosen to term "superb hand feel". Hey if foo