Lu Blog

My buddy Donnie is the New York Fire Fighter on the right.

Just by chance that anyone may accidently stumble upon this ghost town of a site, please check this man out:

Happy Birthday Tough Guy!

I’ve been MIA for some time now, changing jobs, moving, taking trips etc. Just a quick note for now to let everyone know that I finally posted some new pics of Trey. I really do plan to start posting again, but right now every night consists of new job training, house hunting, house selling and playing with baby. Okay, I sneak in a football game every once and awhile. (How ’bout dem Raidas Matt!) Keep the faith my multitude of followers, I shall return (Love ya mom).

OBX

: Since my last post, we took our first family vacation to the Outer Banks (OBX) in North Carolina. We went with 11 other family members and stayed in a beautiful home right, I mean right, on the beach. If you are not familiar with the outer banks, they are a narrow chain of islands about thirty miles of the coast of North Carolina. We traveled over an amazing network of bridges, some of them spanning over five miles to get too one of the most famous sand bars in the world. The Outer Banks are famous for the waves, seafood and general beach life. After much consideration, I chose body boarding, skim boarding and sea kayaking; it’s just been too long since surfing (sorry Bren.) Trey loved the beach. He especially loved yelling at the waves and seagulls. I foresee many days at the beach with him in our future.

PBR

: Joey (my bro-in-law) and I left the family vacation a bit early, and traveled to Dallas for a PBR (Professional Bull Riding) event. Joey has been producing the shows for the Outdoor Life Network for a few years now, and this time he hired me to go with him and call replays. My job was to look at a bank of about 8 monitors, which had various replay angles, and yell to the producer (Joey) and the director which replays I thought they should roll. It was a very fast paced introduction to television production. It was a special show too, Little Yellow Jacket and Blueberry Wine, two legendary bulls went public with their retirement plans. (Actually, their owners announced the plans.)

SAHD

: This past week began my summer of SAHD, (what a pathetic acronym, especially since I am so happy). SAHD for those who don’t know is a Stay at Home Dad. It was a wonderful first week. Joanie works from home too, so we have been able to enjoy breakfasts and lunch together, nice breaks, and fun family time. Don’t get me wrong, I am exhausted. We started Trey in a swim class this week, which he loves. The rest of my time as Jeff observed in an earlier post, has been on my knees chasing Trey around the house! He has been standing more and more, and attempting to take steps, so it looks as if he could take of walking in the next month or so. My knees will be grateful. It is amazing how he has been growing and learning. He is clapping his hands now, saying Mom, da da, pop pop, mom mom and making all kinds of fun new sounds. You can check out some new pics in the Summer ‘05 album.

Schoooools out for summmerrr!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No time to write today, but I did want to direct everyones attention to some new pics. More to come soon….

I am going to try and get back into posting soon. Trey came down with bronchitis, and we have been busy giving him extra love and breathing treatments. The busy life of parenting.
As you can tell, the page has been undergoing some changes! First was my failed attempt with some gnarly shades of yellow and messed up margins, and then Matt came to the rescue. What you see now is Matt’s fine handywork. I will continue as his apprentice, developing new headers, and tweaking the colors as time permits. For now, thanks Matt, I owe you yet another cold one.

The days are longer, warmer, and full of baseball and bar b ques. Life is good. Even better, I have begun the count down to summer break! (41 days to be exact) This summer break is especially exciting as I will not be teaching summer school, and spending my days with Trey. Speaking of the little guy, he turned six months today! That means it was time to put up an album for the fifth month. You can see the signs of spring in this new album: Trey’s first ball game, first pair of sunglasses, shots from our neighborhood from afternoon strolls etc. It is so nice to be getting Trey out and about. He is really into being outside. When he isn’t outside, he loves to sit by the window and just take in the scenery. This summer is going to be a blast!!

I say adventure for a reason. Those of you who have traveled with a young child know exactly what I mean. Those of you who have changed a diaper at 35,000 feet, kept a five month old entertained in an airplane seat for five hours, and dealt with an unholy amount of luggage know what an adventure it can be.
We loved every minute of our travels. Trey got to meet alot of family and friends over our four day tour: Grandpa Reed and YaYa, The SPU crew (Thanks Brandon and Kristin for the awesome party!) Friends from Portland, cousins, aunts and uncles (Thanks Ken and Virginia for the awesome Easter dinner!) and many others. Check out our Seattle Adventure pictures!

In other news, it has been a big week for Trey. He got his second tooth, started rolling over from his back to his stomach, is beginning to scoot around and had his first solid food. Phew, things are full steam ahead!

I wrapped up the fourth month album this afternoon with a few more pictures of Trey. He turned five months on Friday! I will be starting on a new album for the fifth month after spring break, so my page will probably be pretty quiet for the next week or so. I hope you all have a wonderful Easter!

male childcare workers, uncles, brothers, and dudes who dig kids: HELP!

For twelve years now, I have been involved in education or the childcare profession in one way or another. For all of these twelve years I have been responsible for the direct care and nurturance of young minds, but never as intimately as I am now as a father. Having always wanted to be a good teacher, caregiver, and now parent, I have read a plethora of materials on what children need to thrive in the world today, and what sticks with me most today as I write this, is the diminutive role that men play in publications about young children.

The most glaring example of this lies within the glossy text of the checkout stand publications such as Parenting magazine, Babytalk, Parents etc. The next time you are out picking up some Chunky Jif for lunch, pick up one of these magazines, flip through real quick and try to find some images of men with children. Oh, there will be a few, probably of some distraught looking dad holding a baby out in front of him like he is going to catch a disease. If you have some extra time, or the person in front of you is trying to double up on coupons (you know who you are) try to find an article written by a man. Yeah, you may find one of those too, and it will probably go something like this:

“Uh, yeah dude, I’m a dad, and it’s way cool.” (Or it may be a whiny rant like this post )
In the last issue of Parents magazine (April 2005), in the section entitled “Dads", the content focuses on how dads can not keep their hands off of their children’s toys, comic books, or fruit snacks! Not that all of these things aren’t true, but is that how fatherhood is summed up? In another magazine, American Baby (February 2005) I scoured the table of contents, no male contributors. How about the letters? No male contributors.

So this is what I need: Does anyone out there know of a parenting or childcare publication that is written to include, represent, and involve men? How do you guys out there feel about the representation of our role with children within society? It seems ironic to me, that many people point the finger at lacking father figures as a major cause of social problems, when the models, representatives and voices for positive male care givers is next to invisible.

Gizoogle in the hizouse. (Parental guidance suggested. Be sure to push translate page.)

I added a few more pics to wrap up the third month. Last Friday Trey turned four monhts and visited the doctor the day before for his check up. He is still growing at a steady clip. 17 lbs 1 oz and 26 1/2 inches. Both of these measurements are above the 90th percentile. I love being a daddy, especially now that Trey is recognizing us more. There is nothing like coming home, seeing my boy, and his big smile to great me.
I especially like this pic of Trey turnin’ the wheels of steel, and this one too(love you guys!)

I added a few more pictures of Trey. I have slowed down a bit with the pictures, but I want to continue putting up a new album for each month, at least through the first year. Enjoy!

Wingbowl XIII was held during the wee hours of Friday morning. The crowds lined up starting Thursday night, and built to a raucous frenzy around five Friday morning when they turned away an estimated 10,0o0 fans. This years wing bowl was special, as it turned into a pep rally for the Super bowl bound Eagles. Making it even more special was a one wing victory for South Philly’s El Wingador. In what proved to be a tight battle, El Wingador edged his nemesis from one year ago, the Black Widow.
On the day after El Wingador’s triumph, the clouds broke and the temperatures climbed through out the Delaware valley to a balmy 51 degrees. Coincidence? I think not. An omen of what is to come at Super bowl XXXIX? I believe so.

I don’t think so.

I’m on the wagon. All year I stuck by my Seahawks. I still do. But for the next two weeks I am proud to announce that I have been allowed on the wagon to Jacksonville. I can hear the protests already: “You can’t have two teams!” “Traitor!” etc. etc. To all of you I say, you’ve never lived in a championship city.
Every Sunday throughout the football season I would either have to go somewhere to watch the Seahawks on satelite, or I would listen to a radio broadcast on real audio. It was difficult to follow their season, but I managed. My knowledge of the team suffered a bit due to a lack of news and minimal exposure to games. Obviously it was quite different with the Eagles. I have been inundated with Eagles news from late August when the preseason began, and have been pulled further and further in as the feverish pace has picked up.
Philadelphia is not your ordinary sports town. People here bleed green. Eagles flags out number the american flag two to one, every paper has Eagles on the front page, the news begins and ends with Eagles reports, the local paper ran articles before the NFC championship on which bird was more powerful, an Eagle or a Falcon. I have, simply by my proximity to Eagle fans, learned the fight song, I know the starting roster, and many of the back ups. I also own a Terrell Owens jersy (given to me by my mother and father in law). In short, I know more about the Eagles right now, than I do about any other team in the NFL.
Does this make me a fan? At the very least it makes me a supporter and cheerleader for the next few weeks. To make it official, my friends here in Philly granted me a pass to the Eagles train after the Seahawks bowed out. You have to know Philly and its fans to understand what an honor this is.
And next year? Ask me in two weeks.

GO EAGLES!!!! 
  

 
John Elway, after living a full life, died. When he got to heaven, God was
showing him around. They came to a modest little house with a faded Broncos
flag in the window. “This house is yours for eternity, John,” said God.
“This is very special; not everyone gets a house up here.” John felt
special, indeed, and walked up to his house. On his way up the porch, he
noticed another house just around the corner. It was a 3-story mansion with
a Green & White & Silver sidewalk, a 50 foot tall flagpole with an enormous
EAGLES logo flag, and in every window, an Eagles emblem. John looked at God
and said “God, I’m not trying to be ungrateful, but I have a question. I
was an all-pro QB, I won 2 Super Bowls, and I even went to the Hall of
Fame.” God said “So what’s your point John?” “Well, why does Donovan McNabb
get a better house than me?” God chuckled, and said “John, that’s not
Donovan’s house, it’s mine.”

                      GO EAGLES !