Another Road Trip... and love.

Liam,

I am heading off today on another road trip for work.  I don't like leaving you and your mom, but it's for a good purpose.  This time I am going to Chicago to run some training sessions.  I've got 15 Ford executives who signed up to watch me in action tomorrow!  Belatedly, wish me luck!

But this post isn't about the road trip itself.

This post is about what you can do when you love someone.

Some day, you'll fall in love with someone.  And some day, you'll fall in love with someone who loves you, too.

When you do, and when that person decides to make the plunge and spend the rest of their life with you, you will experience ups and downs.  Not every day is paradise, though when it's right more often than not they are.

Always remember to take the time to make little gestures to let that person know how much you care about them. It can be easy to take someone special for granted, but life is just so much better when you force yourself not to.  Remember that we all have insecurities and that we can all get a little positive bump from even the smallest signs that the person we love still feels that way about us.

For example, I am going to be gone for a few days, so I left a bunch of little notes for your mom.  They're all just little things, but she'll find them from time to time while I'm gone and they'll remind her how much I would rather be home continuing to share my life with her.

So remember that!  And make surethe person you love knows how much you care!

Bronchiolitis is scary...

Hi weebs!

So, we had a scary little surprise with you last week.

You got sick.  Fortunately, you decided to get sick the night before you had a doctor's appointment.  It kept your mom up most of the night because you were having a hard time breathing and she could hear it with her stethoscope.

When we took you in, they diagnosed you with Bronchiolitis.  They prescribed you some breathing treatments.  Fortunately, you kind of like them!

We even had to take you in to the emergency room the night after the doctor's appointment when things took a turn for the worse.  After some deep suction (which you didn't like), things took a turn for the better and you're mostly out of the woods now.  They scared us to death, though, by warning us that things could get worse at any moment.

I am so grateful to have a job right now that allowed me to take time off and just stay at home and make sure you were safe and that there were no surprises.

I'm just sharing this because some day you'll probably be a Dad.  When you are, your own little baby will probably get sick and you'll have some scary days and nights.

When you do, just remember that you're not alone.  We went through it, too, and you made it through with some extra care and diligence.  I love you, Liam!

Halloween!

Liam,

Your first Halloween!

Well, so your first Halloween costume was not a store-bought one.  Neither was it a commonly known entity.  In fact, your mom and I made it up.  It started as one of your nicknames and the song that went along with it.  From that little song was born Sir Von Weebly Day!

Here you are:

I could give you the full story, but in the effort of having a quick and easy way to describe your costume to people, I made a video to describe this conglomeration of Wolverine, the Thing, the Hulk, and Captain America:

Add a little ritual to life...

Liam,

In the world, there is a constant push toward speeding everything up.  Internet speed, cars, processors, checkout lines...  If you can name it, then people are focused on finding ways to make it happen faster and more efficiently.  I can only imagine that this trend is even more prevalent in the world you are growing up in.

I am writing this post to tell you to find some areas in your life to buck that trend.

For me, it's shaving ...

This wasn't always the case.  Until Father's Day of the year you became a reality, I had tried a number of ways to make shaving just another blip on the radar.  Before that day (and your mom), shaving was just an annoying thing that I did in the morning before starting my day.

The things you see above were a gift from your mother for that Father's Day.  She worried that I would find the new way of shaving more burdensome and that it would be more work.  In fact, she was right in those worries.

Previously, my shaving routine was:

1.  Wet face with hot water.

2.  Quickly shave with disposable razor.

3.  Take a shower.

Now, my shaving routine is:

1.  Take shower.

2.  Wet shaving brush with hot water.

3.  Create lather on brush in shaving soap.

4.  Apply lather to face.

5.  Shave in one direction.

6.  Repeat 4 & 5 two more times (sideways and then against grain)

7.  Rinse off face and brush with cold water.

8.  Apply aftershave.

So, what used to be a < 5 minute procedure is now an approximately 15 minute affair.

And you know what?  That's a great thing!

First of all (and this is important), the results are exceptionally better than the previous method.  As you probably will be cursed with, my facial hair is a wicked monster that tries to turn me into a wolf-man every day.  With the new shaving procedure, that were-creature is held at bay for a couple of extra hours.

But it's more than that!

The ritual of shaving itself is an incredibly relaxing and self-centering way to begin my day.  I enjoy the process of shaving actually more than I enjoy the results.  Instead of speeding through the act, the new method forces me to move slowly, relaxin as I just take in the whole process.

So, this whole post is designed to tell you to take the time to find the things in life that do not need to be sped up.  I don't know what it will be with you.  Really, it's hard to imagine what the world will be like for you.  But, regardless of how things change, I can guarantee that there will be things that are better when you take your time with them.  

In short, I'll just say...

There are things in the world that are better in their less efficient forms.

Find them.

Enjoy them.

Love,

Your Dad