smonk you: the best freaking daddy blog ever

Today is my b-day... Last year on my birthday I tweeted 36 things that inspired me that year. Here are 37 things that inspired me this year. These will probably also be tweeted. I'm sure there have been more things...I will remember them tomorrow...oh well. 1. Being a dad 2. Staci as a mom 3 and 4. My 7D and a new photo project I started working on 5. a video of ants protesting 6. Mario meets skateboard decks 7. Anatomy posters of Gummi Bears and Gingerbread Men 8. Somehow hearing about the sculptor Do-Ho Suh 9 and 10. Creating infographics of Miloh's weeks and months...and a site that let's you create an infographic about you. 11. Learning how to create my own space photos...yes Miloh and I will do this when he's older. Another way to do it here . 12. Hello Again 13. Photos of people who look alike 14. Some animate gifs . 15. NYC Polaroid project 16. A hill 17. Hanging in Chicago with a buddy of mine and having one of his illustrations on Mi...

This post started awhile ago but I never finished it...now I have more to say about it. I had no idea what to expect when I became a dad. It's been just over six months and aside from the diapers and the lack of sleep it's been an amazing ride. I didn't know how I'd take to it, what it would be like or how it would change me...in ways I could never imagine. I never thought I could be comforted by a coo. This was more when he was younger and I'd walk in to his room to check on him. His door would squeak (still does because I forget to put WD40 on it) and he'd wiggle and coo. That coo was so comforting to me. I knew he was allright. I never thought I could stare at a baby all day. I really could. Again this was more about when he was younger, but still I find myself just staring at him being amazed. I never thought I'd try to steal him away from Staci. As I've said many times babies freak me out. But from day one, and still to this day, I grab h...

This was originally a guest post of at For The Birds ...check out Ry's blog here . My wife Staci was out of town for the first time since our only son Miloh was born 5.5 months ago. I had him all to myself as my in-laws, who live in the same city, and a lot of my friends who could help were all out of town as well. I knew I'd be able to handle taking care of him for the 2.5 days but I knew I could get a bit tired since it's not easy taking care of a baby all by yourself...but that's all boring. I guess it started Sunday night when I noticed Miloh had been kicking his right leg an awful lot...I tweeted asking for advice and the consensus was that it was normal... Then on Monday morning while on a call with someone from my office I noticed that Miloh's right foot was blue...I hung up the phone and went over to him...it was quite dark and looked dirty, but it wasn't. That was the same foot he had been kicking the night before. I knew something was wrong s...

yeah I'm re-using a pic but it works so well Here's a little story that has laughter, a hell of a lot of tears and a happy ending. It's basically like Shrek and should therefore be picked up by Pixar. If you are from there please contact me so we can work together. The story is about how we got putting Miloh to sleep. It starts with with an earlier pos t called Sweet Child O Mine. A post that talks about how I started going insane while trying to put him to sleep when he was a month old. Once we got over that hump it was smooth sailing. With the help of a twitter mom (thanks Mae) we came up with a great routine of bath, bottle then sleep, while we switched who put him to sleep every other night. Then something would happen...we'd bath him, give him the bottle, comfort him until a bit sleepy and then put him in his bed. The second the he hit the mattress he would start wailing...it wasn't fun...not at all. Staci and I had theories...mine was teething w...

One: Miloh hates the sound of velcro...he winces every time he hears it when we open his sleep sack or a diaper bag.   Two: My favorite thing he's doing right now is grabbing my finger while I feed him. He holds on so tight that his fingertips turn white...but of course it's a kind of soft grip. I love it. I also like that when he wiggles he often makes a fist and kind of punches. He finally connected a few yesterday. Three:  Staci's favorite thing is that she can burp him by just rubbing his back instead of patting it...and she love that when she does this he lays his head right in the crook of her neck. She also loves that he recognizes her...it's actually really cool that he recognizes us and our voices. Four: I got nothing for four. Five: Before Miloh was born I heard someone say "he's not as wrinkly as he was a week ago." I'm not sure of the context, it could have been TV, a tweet or a friend. But it's true about Miloh. I wish...

There was a big change that happened in Miloh a week ago. He used to be a total angel when he went to sleep. Yeah he'd wake every 2.5 hours to eat, but he wouldn't fuss much. Then starting last Sunday he got really fussy...super-crazy fussy. And the thing is it affects me a lot because it's at the times that I'm watching him at night when he is at his worst. Well this Friday night I shared my experience on twitter ...so I thought I'd share it with all of you. I should probably mention that all those tweets came in the moments that Miloh actually slept, I wasn't ignoring him while he fussed and cried. Next I should say that The Happiest Baby on the Block DVD is total bullshit...you may remember that I did a post about it in which I swaddled my cat. While the method is great, the 5 'S's do calm Miloh, the actual DVD is what I think is misleading. Here's why I hate it...for some reason when I watched it I was completly mesmorized a...

In my last post I mentioned I was working on getting some celebs for this post. I was in talks with the quarterback of the Saints whatever his name is...I'm sure I could look it up. I was also trying to get Conan...those talks were going really well but then NBC squashed it. There were more but the moral is it's just me. So I thought I'd do a clips post to show my journey from dude who was scared of kids to dad. If you're new to my blog this will be a CliffsNotes version of what you missed. If you've been checking it out for awhile think of this as a best of. And since a blog can't work like a TV show if you want to get the full clip show experience you'll have to click through to the posts...but this will give you the gist. In the beginning...Staci and I wanted to have a child but we both had totally different experience with kids. Kids have always been magically attracted to her...which is probably why she is so great at her career as a Montessori teac...

Okay...I promised a post on our floor bed and the whole deal with floor beds in general. Honestly right now as I start this post I don't know a ton about them. Staci does because friends of her's have used them and she read the book Montessori from the Start ...plus it follows tenets of the Montessori philosophy which she teaches. I've absorbed some of the info from her and such but we'll learn together as I wade through some websites. That all being the case think of this as a Cliffs Notes version of floor beds...and I have learned from experience that teaches are correct that you can't pass the test by reading the Cliffs Notes alone. It's easy to explain what it is...just a crib mattress on the floor. You can add a floor bed frame, which is a 3 sided wood frame, but people we've talked to see them as a waste and a place for shins to bang into. You also need to set up the room so it's a completely safe place...every thing at reach is age appropriat...

I caught just a bit of this week's This American Life ...it was about predictions for 2010. There was a segment with a guy trying to figure out what his daughter would look like based on what he and his wife look like. A friend of his makes the comment that although we know dominance in genetics it's not cut and dry because our traits have inter-bred for so long. If I remember correctly even though I have brown eyes our child could have blue eyes because I may carry some of the recessive gene..Staci's eyes are blue. But like the guy (I forget his name) in the segment I can use the dominant/recessive genes as a guide.  (Left: Staci, Right: Me with my grandfather (I'm the shorter one). So if we go on straight dominance/recessiveness of genes here is what our baby will be like, unless noted the traits I pull out are dominant: Brown-eyed (me) Dark hair (me...although I had blond hair when I was young. I also had, and still have, sexy shoulders) Curly hair (Staci.....

2:00 A.M. Sunday morning Staci woke me up because she had some pains in her bellyish area/ribs. I comforted, cuddled her and took care of her in every way possible. Okay let's start this over a bit. I am not a morning person...at all. I can go to sleep whenever but I can't wake up early. And when I'm woken up I'm not happy...I don't talk...if under duress I will only grunt or spit out short sentences. That's why we have a plan that once the little dude/dudette is born I will be taking care of it late night. So here is how it actually went down. Staci told me she was having some pains...I said something like "yeah?" and went back to sleep. About a half hour later she told me she was still having pains...I told her they were Braxton-Hicks....and went back to sleep. About 15 minutes later she was writhing in pain...I asked if she wanted to go to the hospital...and told her it was probably Braxton-Hicks. She went down stairs and grabbed her coat. I too...

One: On Wednesday Staci learned that she had Gestational Diabetes. So on Friday we headed to a class to learn how to deal with it through diet and such. I was kind of dreading the class. Then I saw a clear tub with fake plastic food in it...wow...fake burgers, pizza and rice can't lead to good things. Luckily since it was the day after Thanksgiving we were the only one in the class. When all was said and done it was actually an interesting class. Of course a lot of info was basic but there was good stuff on carb servings vs. actual serving. It made me really think about when I order curry fried rice, eat the whole thing and fall asleep hard..maybe it's too many carbs. Thanks to all the twitter folks who gave me info on GD. Tomorrow I have another story about our adventures this weekend...that one includes 2 words I'm no longer allowed to say. Two: I wrote a guest blog for Jen over at MOmMy bRain it's about some of my new irrational fears including the crazy flo...

Originally posted on Dad Camp Until 5 years ago all but a few fathers I knew were 30 or more years older than me. That’s because the simple fact that most of my friends had no kids so the only fathers I knew were their parents. Since those fathers were 60 plus and I was 30ish I didn’t put myself in the same category as them. When we’re young we have a crazy concept of age. For instance when I went to day camp I thought all my counselors were about 30. I realized I was wrong when I was a counselor there at 15. But that warped sense of age stuck with me when it came to fathers. In my head since I am so much younger than the fathers I know, I can’t be one myself. Maybe it was a really simple way to look at things but it was keeping me from putting myself in the category of father. I knew I wanted a kid one day but it just seemed so far away. To add to my mental block of fatherhood, I thought of myself as just a normal guy. My conversations with other guys were about things like s...

Preggie Pops are a scam...that's my opinion. You get seven lollipops for 4 to 7 dollars. They come in flavors like ginger, peppermint and lavender that may help with nausea, but our doctor and nurses said Dum-Dums are just as good. Plus Dum-Dums have that mystery flavor and cost so much less. Soy and Rice milk boxes say something like 'not suitable for use as baby formula.' I understand why, people are stupid. However other beverages like Mountain Dew do not carry that warning, and some people are very stupid. Don't sit at your wife's feet at doctor appointments. The doc or nurse will ask you to move. I have made this mistake all 3 appointments I've gone to. When you first feel the pre-kid kick it's super light but cool. The first time you feel it flip around or turn is freaky. Giraffes are the most gender neutral animal out there...as far as clothes go. Owls seem to be a close second. Hippos and monkeys are for boys while pigs and birds are for girl...

Yesterday I turned 36 so I decided to tweet 36 things that I saw or did last year that inspired me. I decided I'd put them all together here. I would have done it yesterday but I needed to install a new router...long freaking story but I had to install from my wife's old Windows laptop, and it's a fact that Windows machines suck...they really do...so it took an hour. Anyway here are 36 things that inspired me, or made me smile, last year in no particular order: 1. My new mode of transportation , that Staci got me when I got my new job. 2 and 3. JJ Abrams's issue of Wired and his Mystery Box speech at Ted. 4. A clock I can't afford. 5. Stubby , the Iguana I photographed in St. Thomas. 6. Discovering that I'm on Hulu in the episode of Bathtastic! , hosted by Matt Muenster, Staci and I were on. It's also on DIY network where you can catch all new episodes and even see Matt in an episode of blog cabin. It's not a shameless plug if it's for a friend, ...

I actually got these a while ago...a long while ago. I'm almost embarrassed to say I bought them freshman year of college. When I was a kid I lost tons of mittens and gloves. Most had mitten clips, but those never worked. In fact if you every have a chance to sit down with my mom she might tell you the time one spring when I came home with a soaking wet mitten clipped to my hat; it was on my hat so it was closer to the sun and would dry faster. The mitten was lost in the winter and uncovered during the first thaw, I was so happy I found it (FYI they were probably Freezy Freakies .) So imagine how amazed I was to see these at a Gap outlet. I thought they were the most brilliant invention, mittens attached to each other on a string, you couldn't lose them. I wondered why no one thought of this earlier. I had to buy them for any future kids I'd have. So several years pass, these mittens were safely kept in storage and Staci found them. She thought it was endearing that I had ...

Until your wife is pregnant you probably haven't heard of HCG levels...in a nutshell they're hormones that can really affect what's going on with the pre -kid. There are charts of where you should be every week. Staci's were high in the beginning. This could have been a bad thing like a miscarriage or molar pregnancy...or it could have been twins. Since the levels were high, everything else looked good and things were too small to see on the ultrasound OK we thought we were having twins. When I was a kid I wanted to be a twin and I kind of thought it would be cool to have twins, plus we decided on one birth...so in a way twins would be great. No decision to have a second. Then I totally freaked out. I couldn't sleep for a couple nights. Our place is a two bedroom and with all the real estate bullshit I don't see us moving any time soon. I got to thinking how we could handle two kids. Even though big girl/big boy beds were a bit in the future I needed to see if ...