Hidden Stories

This is your second cousin Joe Young and his wife Dina.  We just recently went to their wedding.  It was a beautiful ceremony and a wonderful celebration of two people who are very clearly in love.  I am sure that you will, at the time you read this, have some wonderful memories of them and probably lots of fun adventures with their children.

But I'm not writing this post just to talk about some of the wonderful people you'll have in your life.

I'm writing instead about something that I was reminded of at this wedding and in the picture above.  Underneath that canopy at the back of the picture, there is a man that you can barely see.  His name is Jeff Clark.  Obviously, you wouldn't even know that he was in the picture if I hadn't pointed it out just now.

What this picture doesn't tell you is that Jeff Clark is Joe's stepdad.  He came into Joe's life (marrying his mother) when Joe was pretty young and ended up playing a pretty big part in Joe's life.  On this wedding day, I don't think it would have been possible for Jeff to be prouder.  I watched him almost break down in tears on multiple occasions as he stood witness to the marriage of a young man who is a son to him in every way but biology.  It brought me to tears myself.

I hope that you can take a little lesson from this, Liam.  Looking at the surface of a place, a person, or a situation, you can never really know the whole story.  There is always more going on behind the scenes that we can't understand unless we consciously take the time to.

So, when you're faced with a situation where someone makes you upset or does something that you disagree with, take a moment to reflect and wonder what pieces of the picture you're not seeing.  There is probably something that you don't know that is influencing their reasoning and making their actions seem completely reasonable to them.

Love you lots little guy!

Dad

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

Some photographic insight into you...

As I am sitting in a hotel room (once again) thinking of you and wishing I was back with you and your mom, I find myself flipping through a whole bunch of pictures of you that I have taken recently... and that your mom has sent to me while I travel.

So, without further ado, I share them with you!

You like your bouncer... a LOT!

I love how skeptical you look in this one.  My mental caption is:

"Really? This sleeper in THIS rocker?  Well, you're the parent..."

You love your Mow-Mow... and she loves you...

Such an angelic look... well, either that or you're plotting something truly evil.  You'll have to let me know once you can talk!

You love bath time!

...and eating bath toys...

But not only bath toys!  You also like to eat real food now.

This is the aftermath of you eating a jar of carrots.  Despite what it looks like, more got inside you than what was left outside.

And here we are out at the Apple Orchard.  Depending on where we end up, I think that apple picking and home-made cider might just be a staple of your life by the point you read this...

I love you, Liam, and I can't wait to be home tomorrow!

Love,

Dad

Heading out on a trip soon...

Hi Liam,

Tomorrow, I am going to be heading out on a little trip and I'm really feeling right now how much I'm going to miss you and your mom.

It started out as just a weekend getaway with my friend Jay (who you will probably know as Uncle Jay).  Yeah, that's right, cool Uncle Jay.  But then, my work came in and made me travel down to Florida for a few days for some training.  So, what was going to be four days has now turned into a full week.  I haven't had to be gone from your side for that long since you were born and I am not looking forward to it.

As for what I'll be doing with Uncle Jay, we're going to run a storyline for a Live Action Roleplaying Game called NERO.  I don't know whether I'll still be doing that when you're reading this, but then again, I never would have imagined that I'd still be doing it now when I started playing at age 17.

Here are some of the things we'll be doing while I'm gone:

1.  We're burying Jay.  It won't be really deep (and your mom is worried), but the players in the story will actually be digging him up and opening the coffin that he built with him inside it.

2.  I built a giant snake-monster for the players to fight.  It's about 20 feet long and has a big rattle for a tail.

3.  We made some spooky music to be played over the speakers for them.  It includes some eerie chanting and the roaring of the snake monster.

Anyways, I'll be missing you little guy, and I just wanted to say that here.

Love!

Your Dad