Bubblemania For My Four Year Old

I’ve blogged before on birthdays so you can relive history if you have recently joined me.

Yesterday was my oldest daughter’s birthday party. It was pretty cool. We had a “Bubblemania” party. Basically, there were buckets of bubble soap and bubble machines everywhere for the little ones to play with. We also had Aria’s little pool set up as well as her “Bouncy House.” Everything else was the usual little kid party fare…cake, candles, presents, and breaking up 4-year-old fights.

All the mom’s came to this party. One other dad came. Anyone else notice this trend? I can’t complain because I can always find an excuse to miss another kid party. (Grass needs mowing, work to catch up on, hair needs to be washed…)

I can’t believe how fast these four years have gone by. My little girl is now the big girl and getting bigger everyday. She knows she’s getting bigger too….she reminds me everyday.

Work, Work, Work

I feel sorry for people that don’t like their jobs. It must be brutal getting up everyday and dragging yourself to a place that you can’t stand to be so that you can spend the largest chunk of your day dealing with people that drive you crazy. It’s a bleak picture, but I know there are folks out there that live like that.

Fortunately, I am not one of those people. Most of the time, I don’t even think of my job as “work”. I enjoy the people I’m around and I like what I do.

I also feel sorry for people that wake up every morning next to somebody that they can’t stand. After their miserable day at work, they take the long way home to delay the inevitable misery that will ensue once they walk through the door to greet the sickening person they woke up with that same morning. I’ll quickly say that this is definitely not me, either.

Why all this talk about work and partners? Today is what I would call my official end of summer vacation. I have worked a little bit through the summer, but this is the first day that I actually have dedicated my entire day’s existence to work. (And I will continue to dedicate every hour of every day for the next four days.)

To make matters worse, it was also my TEN YEAR ANNIVERSARY. My poor wife deals with this every year. I’m always gone from home on her birthday and our anniversary. This was the first year I got to be home for her actual birthday. It was cool! I still missed the anniversary, though. Basically, I got up this morning, kissed my wife goodbye and said, “Happy Ten Years…see you on Monday!” We did do some celebrating prior to my leaving, and will do a longer trip after my work slows down a little (November).

So here’s to TEN YEARS of the best marriage a guy could ask for. (And a job that’s pretty good, too.)

All at Once

I’ll hit with the double play this week.

1: My wife’s birthday is on July 29. (About two minutes from now.)

2: 10 year anniversary is on August 2.

Of course, my job as a good and loving husband is to devise meaningful gifts for both occasions. I’m open to ideas so if anybody has one, let me know. (On a fairly strict budget, of course.) Any guy who has had to buy a gift for his wife in commemoration of a major relationship event such as a 10 year reunion will surely understand that my stress level is high. If I don’t get this right, I will be reminded of my blunder from now until the day I start pushing up daisies. Conversely, I’m learning that the birthday gifts are not as important as they used to be. I think it’s because we are approaching the time when birthdays would rather be forgotten.

We did get some nice “us” time this weekend. Nana came to watch both of the little ones while my wife and I went out. We shopped, saw two movies at the theater, ate out, and enjoyed some of the best grown-up conversation that we’ve had in a long time. It’s good to be married and it’s even better to be married to your best friend.

Amy got her own pair of Nike + shoes and accesories so Dawg’s wife better watch out!

We saw the following movies:

Transformers: LOVED IT. This movies was like everything I envisioned in my head as a kid, but on the screen and VERY realistic. Effects were awesome and the music was cool, but the acting was a little weak. That’s not why you go see a movie like this anyway.

I Now Pronounce you Chuck and Larry: My advice is wait for the DVD unless you enjoy being preached at. There were some very funny moments that are worth the cost of a rent, but too much of the time I felt like I was watching a Gay Rights propaganda film. I don’t care what the cause is, I don’t like to pay money to listen to a sermon. I can get that for free anytime. (My wife gives me free regular sermons and she can be very convincing.)

Perhaps the biggest news (tongue firmly in cheek) is that I bought a new THRONE. You can read all about it the model I chose by clicking on the link. I can’t wait to install it. I’ve been saving my last issue of Men’s Health for this very occasion.

B-Day

Today was the day. I woke up at about 5:00 this morning to the sound of some very heavy breathing. I asked my wife the obvious question to which she replied, “yes.”

We rolled in to hospital, checked in, and about 6 hours later, the newest addition to our family came tumbling into this world. She clocked in at 7 lbs 14 oz and is very even tempered so far. We’ll see what happens when we get home.

It’s late and I’m tired so I will sign off for today. Here is a pic.

B2N-and B-Day Parties

Back To Normal-Gal #2 is home again. It’s nice to hear the patter of little feet around the house. We played “monster”. This is a game where I basically pretend to be a tickle monster that chases her around the house. It never gets old.

When she returned, there were two birthday parties to go to. I did not have the pleasure of attending either one. My wife took those for the team. Actually, the parties are not that bad, they’re just for little kids. The moms sit around and talk about how lame their husbands are while the men,who are there, sit around and stare at the wall. Usually, the dads have their own circle of friends that do not include the dads of the other kids at said party. As a result, they don’t really talk to each other other than generic comments about the weather or the playoffs. As a side note, I should mention that most of the women don’t actually think their husbands are lame. It’s just not considered kosher to “stand by your man” at such an event; it’s a lot more fun to “daddy bash.” Of course, these are just my observations and you may have a completely different experience.

In that same vein, has anyone else noticed how CRAZY some of these kid birthday parties have gotten? It’s amazing to me how extravagant parents get for a two-year-old’s party that he/she won’t even remember. It’s like they’re afraid their kids won’t talk to them when they get older because they didn’t have ballin’ baby parties. What do these parents do when the kid turns 16? Never mind, I’ve seen “My Super Sweet Sixteen” on MTV. It’s shameful, really. I’m thinking about joining this organization…seriously.