Justin Neitzey

SkillsUSA [Flickr]

2012-02-10T07:01:52-08:00

J Neitzey posted a photo:

Judging again [Flickr]

2012-02-10T06:11:45-08:00

J Neitzey posted a photo:

Days of the Week [Flickr]

2012-01-26T14:52:07-08:00

J Neitzey posted a photo:

Moulding painted grey and placed on top of an IKEA metal dry erase board. I plan on integrating this into his morning routine.

Koshary [Flickr]

2012-01-25T14:52:31-08:00

J Neitzey posted a photo:

New Beetle [Flickr]

2012-01-19T08:42:28-08:00

J Neitzey posted a photo:

I love this new Beetle and the full moon wheel covers.

The Thomas of Birthdays

2012-01-06T19:50:00.001-05:00

Alex spent the entire day in Thomas pajamas today. All I remember of Thomas the Train was the little guy trying to get up the hill, chanting, "I think I can, I think I can". I don't think I've heard that phrase once in all of our new age of Thomas' experiences.

Our son is now a full three years old and he's proud to proclaim it if you ask him. I've always felt like he was older than he really was, but in terms of his mind, not in his years on this rock. I could say that it's flown by, but the particular feature of parenting a child with a peculiar taste for crackers, and nothing else, has ways of increasing the weight of a calendar page. It's true that it was really our only hang-up all year. The boy is a godsend; a truth heralded from the Angels of God no less: his grandparents and Kacey. We don't mind the getting out of bed at night; his thirst for water, his dropping trains on the floor (it's so far down to reach by himself), the boogers he finds, the dinosaurs he hears, the finger nails he picks away at...it's all really very cute.

I never would have thought that years ago, showing him YouTube videos of trains online (is that redundant) would have become a full blown Thomas fever so soon. I'm glad, though, that we missed a lot of more annoying toddler fads like Barney, Rug Rats and Dora. We caught the tail end of that annoying girl and her monkey. I'm much happier with talking trains and the occasional George Carlin narration.

This has really been a year of teaching and mimicking. I'm trying now to instill as much sarcasm in him as humanly possible. He seems to have a really good sense of humor, at least he laughs with us when laugh. I hope he's getting my silly, ironic nature. I hug him and kiss him as well as defy and mock him. I cry at him and he hugs me. He calls me out when I lie and grab him to hug him.

I hope as the years come he keeps me young at heart. I feel more tired as I age, but I love him too much not to answer his pleads to even simply run around the house with him. He makes me enjoy the simple things like that. I'm looking forward to next Spring's bike rides and walks to the park. I can't wait to show him better video games and more complex technology. Hopefully his food aversions with subside and I can introduce him to all of THAT.

Happy Birthday buddy.

The Best Trains Ever

2011-12-16T09:59:00.002-05:00

I still have most of the empathy for childhood left required to successfully pull him away from things like this without making feeling like a mom in Walmart about to slap her child silly while hanging onto him by one arm.

The tears were so pure, I'm almost sure they would have healed the sick or granted wishes if blessed by a holy man. I don't believe it was selfishness that was tightening his grip around the three engines he grasped onto for dear life; they were his new friends and companions.

As I started picking up the pieces of the track, he sat with his trains, watching me with glistening eyes. I told him to go downstairs and find mom, but he stopped at the door to turn around and grieve for his loss. I gave him an opportunity to say good-bye to the opened trunk, but it was too much for parting words.

When we got downstairs to say thank you to the family for brief master class in train engineering, I told the youngest daughter whose room we had overtaken that while we cleaned up the train off the floor, we left plenty of tears.

I Could Do With Just Two Stages

2011-11-14T12:03:00.001-05:00

Having a child that doesn't eat for you is one of the most stressful things in our life right now. This two year old eats some of the craziest foods at day care and then comes home and barely touches his plate. He used to be a good eater, but now the foods that he eats at day care make him gag. Now, on the weekends, he's getting up in the middle of the night multiple times and complaining of being hungry. I mean, he didn't even finish his Oreo cookie "desert".

I understand childhood eating patterns and tried to make all the internet articles make sense, but none of it does. We've tried the restrictions, the logical conversations (which he clearly understands) and even resorting to yelling. In the end, we're the ones that get upset and need time to cool off or recover. When your faced with a situation like this, where someone else has the perfect little child that eats with his buddies and tries all kinds of foods, it leaves you heartbroken, confused and helpless.

I'm not saying our case is special and I'm sure people, I know people, have worse situations with other problems in their lives every day, but this is ours. A dreaded problem, three times a day, that has us ready to go back to work on Monday and deal with those petty issues instead.

[10 minutes later]

Well, maybe I'm jumping the gun. We went into his room to find him laying on the floor, half asleep with obvious signs of not feeling well.

And that, friends, is the life of parenthood. Anger, frustration and helplessness all followed with immediate empathy and consideration. If that's not the five stages of parenting, I don't know what is.

Married Again (new tungsten carbide)

2011-11-07T16:58:00.001-05:00

Married Again (new tungsten carbide), a photo by J Neitzey on Flickr.

Married Again (new tungsten carbide)

Nicole in my circa 80s shirt

2011-11-01T18:05:00.001-04:00

Nicole in my circa 80s shirt, a photo by J Neitzey on Flickr.

Nicole in my circa 80s shirt

Halloween 2011

2011-10-31T22:37:00.001-04:00

We had a blast this evening taking our little puppy around the block to a few of the neighbor's houses for a little candy collecting. Surprisingly, we were one of the only families walking around the neighborhood. Most families were pulling kids along in cars, dropping them off at the end of one street and slowly following them down the block. I was a little disappointed. I can remember when we were kids being dropped off in a section of a neighborhood while mom and dad and our friends parents would sit in the van together, talking about lord knows what. We, on the other hand, we sprinting from house to house, parent free as fast as we could. I guess it's a different time.

Tonight though, we offered to push him around in his little blue push car but he wanted to walk and hold mommy's hand. He stumbled up the steps, quite as could be and barely peeped out a "Trick or Treat". But he did mind his manners and say, "Thank you, Happy Halloween."

When we got back around the block, we sat on the front porch and gave away a bag of candy. Two fist fulls at a time, he wasn't being shy or holding back any to save it for himself, handing out as much candy as he could. We ran out pretty quickly, which was good because it was pretty cold outside. But we had a good time yelling out into the street, "Hey, come here. I got your candy!"

My Favorite Band

2011-10-25T12:13:00.001-04:00

I never considered myself a huge music listener until around 2002 when I was introduced to a few bands. Breaking Benjamin, Linkin Park and Revis. All of these bands' sounds were so new to me. They had a heavy rock beat in their songs, catchy guitar riffs and monumental singers. I especially fell in love with the voice of the lead singers of Revis and Breaking Benjamin.

But it was Revis' song writing, their poetic verses and harmonies that were a perfect match to me. I bought their cd and listened to it non stop, a practice with any new cd I buy now to this day. Nicole and I would listen to it and Breaking Benjamin albums in the house while we played Magic: The Gathering, a memory I'm very fond of.

In 2003, we got to see Revis at the Recher Theater in Towson, MD, a small venue with standing room only. We were within spitting distance of the stage and I was really excited to be there with the band, singing their songs and anticipating parts of songs as I remembered them. The first concert I had ever been to was Rush, which didn't have the same effect that this concert did because I didn't really know their songs and the Verizon Wireless venue was enormous, lacking the intimate feeling of being gathered around the band in a small group. Recher Theater gave it the feeling of having a private birthday party and the band is there to play for you and your closest strangers. As we left the concert, we walked around back of the Recher to the parking lot and saw a huge tour bus and band members were standing around outside. I couldn't believe my luck to walk up to the band unexpectedly, with no one else around. We thanked them for the show, I told them they were my first favorite band and we got a picture. WINNING!

Revis, 2003, a photo by J Neitzey on Flickr.

A year later, Revis broke up. It was a sad day and just my luck, I figured.

Now, years later, the band is mostly back together and I'm just as excited to hear their new music soon and see them play live again. It was a nice surprise from Nicole to hear a new track on Spotify and geek out all over again about my favorite band in the world.

Thomas The Addiction Engine

2011-10-14T14:09:00.004-04:00

Mark last Friday, October the 7th, as the day that Alex got his first Thomas the Tank Engine playset that forever changed the way he thought about toys. Never has a toy, food, blanket or stuffed animal been held so tightly, coveted so immensely, that brushing teeth, taking a bath or eating food must be supervised by his little blue train.

I'm guessing that this will be the gift of the holiday/birthday season. The Pack and Play sets are aplenty on Amazon, Target and Toys R Us and I expect to be fully over inundated with Thomas fever for the next couple of years.

Link: Thomas the Tank Engine Pack and Play

The Sick Days

2011-09-27T19:15:00.000-04:00

Just when you think you have everything figured out as a parent, your kids get sick. At the tender age of two and under, there's almost nothing you can do but console and comfort.

The little man was just supposed to be home today as an precaution, but this afternoon it's turned into a full blown cough and congestion. His voice is tired and raspy. He's lethargic and settles for the iPad over playing and food. Both of his pacifiers are in full rotation.

I'm going to try to use my evening to find some games for him to play on the iPad and maybe line up some videos on Netflix and Xfinity. Luckily, bedside entertainment isn't in short supply. The internet is almost life saver, a comfort and a blessing all rolled into millions of tiny data packets flying through the air and delivered right to my little boy.

Santa Claus has nothing on the Internet Fairy.

10 Long Years

2011-09-22T23:38:00.005-04:00

Some good news for me: I've finally paid off my student loans.

In 2001, I graduated from college and, being the all star student that I was, landed a job at the school, too afraid to venture out in the world of cut throat programming nerds and played it safe. I took a job where I knew almost nothing about what I was doing and applied elbow grease and sweat to make a mediocre web programmer. HTML, CSS, Javascript, ASP. Those were my new friends. Oh, and Windows XP, but we don't talk about him much. That jerk will never go away.

The the economy tanked and I ended up doing a job that I said I would never do: help desk support. All that college education means nothing when no one is willing to pay. What I mean to say is, that if I had any drive beyond meeting my own needs, then I probably wouldn't have gotten a better job anyway. What I didn't expect is how wildly amazing this job is. It's thankless at times, but being invested in the public education system makes me feel good. Since one of my college decries was working for a for-profit company, I felt that I couldn't get a more morally positive job working for a budget crunching school district. I hate computers and I want to use them every day. I can't imagine what that feels like for people who don't want use them to but have to.

I think I can do some good here.

So even though I'm not living the post-college dream, that's not to say that I don't appreciate my college diploma. It got me quite a jump in my salary for both jobs and I realized that since the classes in the major I wanted weren't really teaching me things I didn't already have a pretty good grasp on, at least my diploma would guarantee me that.

It's just nice to have this piece of paper in my hand. Actually, it's under an empty box from Amazon.com right now. That's a life statement if there ever was one.

Hello, State Police

2011-09-18T23:20:00.004-04:00

Over the last two years I've stupidly made the assumption that the more numbers a 2 year old dials on the phone, the less likely his it to dial a real 10 digit number and hit the send button. But, unlike passwords to websites or pin codes, phones read very damn well the first 10 digits of anything you type in. Still, dialing up the Pennsylvania State Police was an amazing achievement.

When he said "hello" on the phone, his normal tone was very different and not as silly as usual. Then I heard the tinny voice on the other end say something. I ran over to the phone and as I did I heard it.

"This is the State Police, can I help you?"

I grabbed the phone and interrupted my little boy. I quickly said, "I'm sorry...I...I guess it finally happened to me." The officer on the other end giggled. We cleared up that there was in fact nothing wrong. I went back to the kitchen to finish cooking. I firmly seated myself in parenthood, once again.

Babies on Board

2011-08-06T19:03:00.000-04:00

First of all, I would like to say that I absolutely fret having to get in a car, bus or plane with my son for long periods of time lasting longer than 15 minutes. I'm very apprehensive about taking our little two-year-old finicky eater out to a restaurant where I know going in that he won't eat anything on the menu and most likely nothing we've packed in the small set of luggage we brought with us. That all being stated, if I didn't get out of the house to see friends or visit family or eat nice food, a doctor might diagnose us all with some sort of mental disease down the road.

Two and a half years after having our son, all it took was one little comment on Facebook to make me rethink it all.

"People with babies should not be allowed to fly...."

A careless thought thumbed out on phone by a guy held up in an airport.

My brain raged in anger. I'm not allowed to get on an airplane? Who the hell does this guy think he is?

Then I started to consider my inconsiderate action of boarding a closed up tin can in the air with no windows to roll down and submitting everyone around me that doesn't like being on a plane in the first place to the uncontrollable whims, rants and raves of a baby. Who am I to expose strangers to the hectic life of a parent with a teething, gassy, tired baby. You can see it in people's eyes when you walk into a restaurant; the nice quiet evening out is about to go downhill. I might as well have come in with a small, flea infested dog with a boombox harnessed to his back. It's going to be hell for all of us.

The Facebook thread went on to discuss separate airplanes or cordoned off rows with sound proofing. The idea intrigued me, but realistically, I knew it was a pipe dream I would never see unless I was filthy rich.

Then I started to think about my neighbor and the dog he keeps outside that barks when you make the slightest noise outside. The fat guy that sits next to me in the theater trying to enjoy the same movie as I. The smoking employees at 7-11 that stand outside the front door on their breaks creating the fog curtain I have to go through to get my iced coffee. I, just like them, have made a choice in my life that might be considered annoying to people that choose not to have kids just like other people have chosen to own dogs, eat too much or smoke.

Here's a key difference: I decided to make human life. It wasn't a decision I made lightly. I knew it would turn my life upside down and take up almost all of my time. I did it, my wife did it, my parents did it before me and this guy's parent's did it before him. It's the most nature thing we can do in our lives and it's also one of the most difficult. Obviously, I can't account for actually bad parents on planes that don't care, but to make a blanket statement that no parents should be allowed to fly is as bad as me blaming the guy in the theater with a screwed up thyroid gland for being fat, getting mad at the ladies that work at 7-11 who have to work three shifts to make ends meet for falling into smoking or the neighbor who's house got broken into so many times they moved to my neighborhood and got a real loud dog.

In the same vein, not everyone should be allowed to get on an airplane: the one that falls asleep and puts his head on your shoulder, the one that didn't use deodorant and has bad breath, the guy who smells like his dogs, the one that doesn't share the arm rests correctly, the one that puts their seat all the way back the entire plane ride and, yes, the one with the insanely crazy baby.

The Meaning of Vacation

2011-07-24T16:26:00.000-04:00

It surprises me how much vacation has come so welcomed again this second year. I've been looking forward to it since we left the shore last year after doing basically nothing but go to the beach, eat and sleep. No special sight seeing, no long drives or no weddings or birthday parties.

My expectations are met quite easily; I get my fill of internet, light casual gaming on the side, that book I've been meaning to finish but always gets interrupted and heavy pool time.

The interactions with my son are ever more fulfilling. Not only did we make it toes in the sand this year, but the water as well. A new found light duty in moving shovels of sand around the beach was especially fun for me as a dad. It brought back childhood dreams of pointlessly moving dirt and rocks with a bright yellow diesel front end loader that you could say is on my bucket list. I happily broke a non-beach pet peeve of getting covered in unusually soft, sticky sand to play with Alex and watch him work as waves crashed around us.

A storm is coming in now as we hope comes a break in the 100°+ weather. The wind is picking up and the sky is cloudy. I just woke up from a nap.

Back In My Face

2011-07-17T22:30:00.001-04:00

It's a new era. Days from here on out will be filled with misplaced and undirected complacency that has yet to be fine tuned as a weapon of underaged contempt.

It was just today that I've been told to sit in my chair and wait for the beep beeps from the microwave which has a built in bad child timeout timer. I was not allowed to get out of the chair. Luckily, a two-year-old's grasp on units of time allowed me to escape with a mere ten seconds of timeout. The timer went off and we were both very excited at the announcement of my freedom and we continued on to bath time.

This past week I've also been put to bed a number of times. A blanket put on me, a whisper of "good night" and a smart warning to stay in bed and not get out; an exact copy of our nightly routine. It's cute. For now. While he's still innocent.

A Watchful Eye

2011-06-13T22:03:00.000-04:00

The list of edible foods in our house is growing slightly. It's not always the kinds of foods we want, but since the main five consist of yogurt, peaches, healthy crackers, peanuts and string cheese, we consider ourselves on the lucky side of the finicky two-year-old diet.

Another mentionable sigh of disappointment is our son's new way of checking up on us after we put him to bed. I've tried telling him that we're okay by ourselves watching tv, but I don't think he believes us. We're not being rowdy or getting into trouble. I wish he would just leave us alone and learn to trust us. Coming out into the living room and with his judgmental hands behind his back and not saying anything...I mean, what is that all about. And every ten minutes! Geeze!

I hope he doesn't find this blog or we'll be grounded for sure.

A Peaceful Harmony

2011-05-16T11:22:00.000-04:00

It's easy to loose focus on being a parent due to all the changes that you have to make in your life. It's hard work, even with good kid(s). They don't tell you that, really. They try to prepare you as much as possible for life after birth, but there's really not much besides generalizations once your on your own with a 2 year old. I can't read books that layout every possible scenario because it just seems like they are typecasting your kid.

I think I might have finally reached a tipping point where I can safely say that I've learned my lesson this past two weeks, being a single parent while Nicole is away: you have to go to your child's level, not make them come to yours.

Eating has been the hardest thing to overcome for us. Trying to get him to eat at certain times or eating certain types of food is a fruitless endeavor. He has clearly picked his five foods and he's not budging. Luckily, they are all really healthy and we're not in a situation where chocolate milk and crackers are the only thing he eats. Otherwise, I might be in a different mood about it and be forced to go buy some of those books I don't like.

The new situation I've set myself up for now is almost pure enjoyment. I'm not wondering how or if the fireworks are going to be set off or if they might crash down and hit my car; I'm waiting for them to explode in the air and amaze me. I don't expect to get the lawn mowed in 45 minutes and get frustrated when he runs off or wants to help push, slowing me down. I can take the slower pace, forget keeping a schedule (which is really hard) and enjoy the interactions. I'm not saying I enjoyed cleaning up the powdered Ovaltine party he had one morning in the kitchen by himself, but I totally get why he did it.

I expect to be full tested for the rest of my life in this regard.

The Self-inflicted Harm They Call "Exercise"

2011-04-10T23:49:00.000-04:00

It all started with trying to learn how to play ultimate Frisbee. We were looking for something to do in the summer outdoors to enjoy the nice weather. We learned quickly (because there are less than 6 rules) and we standardized a weekly game. Conversations popped up about sore legs or how so-and-so fell pretty hard. It progressed to who slammed into who (or who's baby in the middle of the field looking for mama or dada) and learning new kinds of throws.

As the weather got too cold, we looked for alternative ways to work out and challenge ourselves. We started a challenge to workout three times a week for six weeks for 20 minutes. At the same time, we started playing indoor Frisbee, picking our weekly game back up. We also realized we had basketball nets to play with, so we started bringing in balls and splitting our time between Frisbee and basketball.

Now, into our second six week challenge (upping the time to 30 minutes of workout) we're almost exclusively playing basketball. It's a tough game and the most intense that I've ever played; I grew up playing tennis and golf in high school. I never touched a football competitively nor I have I played a real game of soccer since I was a child. In two hours of weekly play, I feel like I've worked a whole day with my father lifting sheets of drywall up and down the stairs of some rich person's home remodel, trying not to scratch the walls. I'm sore, aching and, tonight, I'm so tired I can't sleep.

I've also been running again. Last years effort in trying to run a mile has turned into running down to the park, picking some variant of trail to traverse on and then come back home, usually netting me 2.5-3.5 miles at a time. I'm almost ready to run a full mile at a decent clip and I've been using GPS on my phone to track my runs. It's a fun tool to look at online.

I have all my work friends to thank for this. We've been keeping each other going and challenging each other to get out and do something active. It's pretty difficult when you think you don't have any time at all with kids or work, but now I'm doing something three times a week. That's pretty good progress. Hopefully it will pay off as my son gets older and more active and I just plain get older.

Link: RunKeeper - My activity

Our Digital Son

2011-04-05T12:42:00.000-04:00

As soon as our son was old enough to even say "Dora", we were looking online for videos about the words he could pronounce well enough to understand. "Choo Choo" was a popular one that had me looking up trains all over the internet.

There is now a bookmark folder with his name on it in the browser that contains links to his favorite Nick Jr. shows. They update new content on them just slowly enough for him to get familiar with the shows and talk along with them after a few watches. At first we were skeptical about letting him brain drain in front of the "tv", but the concepts that he picks up are really not the same from when I was a kid watching tv. I think shows are way more kid/education friendly. I hear people say that they are shocked what's on tv for children, but I guess I'm not seeing the same content or looking in the right age range.

Long before any of this started, the iPod Touch was firmly in his hands before he turned two. He quickly knew what apps were fun and remembered their icons and how to use the Home button. The iPad was a huge hit too. I can easily see this becoming a staple on the baby registry along with a cradle and baby monitor. If you don't like buying traditional baby items and have a few bucks, get new parents an iPod touch. They can use it to play music for babies and there are so many apps aimed at newborns.

Now, just developing recently, our son has figured out the mouse. With Mac OS, movies on the desktop can be played right from their icon by clicking on it. He sees the movie still and realizes they are videos of him and watches them all the time in their little 1-inch icon. The other week I saw him move the mouse around on the Nick Jr. website and watch videos and start up games that he can't play yet. He watches the cursor go across the screen and press down on the Magic Mouse with his tiny fingers. He can even do it with the mouse oriented sideways because he doesn't know better.

I'm blessed to be able to raise a child in this digital age, even with all the pitfalls and scams and privacy concerns on the internet. Computers are seen by many as the new thing that will ruin kids, but responsible parents will see it as an opportunity to play and learn logical thinking. He was walking at eight months, swimming at 18 months and saying "Please", "Thank You" and "You're Welcome" at two years. I can't wait to see how quickly he learns to do everything else and I'm happy to give him anything I can to do it.

...until he charges $50 on my iTunes account.

Credit Due for Daily Life

2011-02-28T10:16:00.000-05:00

I realize I don't write much any more even though there are amazing things happening everyday in our family. The tiny, amazing moments that slip through the cracks pass by so quickly that I can't remember to capture them. I also think that part of my problem is that I figure people have or will experience them in their own life at some point, so I devalue their digital worthiness.

Our son is speaking Spanish. Thanks to Dora, the Explorer, he can count solidly to seis and then hits the scratch in his 45-rpm vinyl brain and repeats it endlessly. He knows the others, but maybe I handle him too roughly and broke him in one of his high flying stunts.

He is also, by far, the most polite person I have ever met. We are thanked on a regular basis for wiping his nose, giving him chocolate milk and even taking his temperature in his ear. We are also welcomed on occasion.

Since we have given up the fight to feed him food, I find that a new sense of relaxation washes over me when wants to eat on his own. It's comfort like sleeping through the night for the first time with anticipation of possibly getting up multiple times. Qdoba seems to be his restaurant of choice as a dinning setting and will happily stand in a booth to eat crackers and yogurt and his other normal dining fare. Last night, we all watched NCIS in the living room while he happily chomped on Raisin Bran and a myriad of other things from his high chair.

In the meantime, we are regularly kissing owies (real and not), blowing noses and racing Matchbox cars. We are quite hooked on Team Umizoomi and Bubble Guppies on Nick Jr. dot com. He takes good care of his baby doll and enjoys a good book at the end of the night. He counts the trees as we drive home from day care. He will occasional ask me, "Daddy?". I reply, "Yes?", but most of the time there is no response. He still doesn't like to wash his hair.

A Parent's Workout

2011-01-17T13:58:00.002-05:00

It's a workout I subscribe to on occasion.

Seemingly Insurmountable

2011-01-07T09:46:00.002-05:00

We all know that kids get sick every day and while those that don't have kids might not think about how hard it is to deal with, the reality, which I am learning as well, is that it is a complete life changer for the unforeseeable future.

First off, there is no medication for a child under 4 years old that you probably won't figure out as being mostly water. Deducing this is mearly realizing that no doctor could listen to breathing and a heart beat for 5 seconds and conclude a bronchial infection. That's way too specific for my animosity towards general practice physicians. So, you take your honey water and go home.

For days, he wouldn't eat, sleep or take up normal daily activities. He sat for hours playing with an iPod, watching the same videos over again, whining to you with no compressible language at all and generally looking like a sad panda all day. You worry if he's really okay. You get angry that nothing is going like it should. We stay up all night because he won't sleep. Then, after days feel like weeks and he's on the mend, you realize it was just a simple problem and it totally destroyed your life. Closed up in your house for days, you lack the greater mindset to properly fold the drama into your normal life and deal with it like every other one of life's sucker punches.

I realize now that I hunger for structure in my life and I only like change when I'm the one that initiates it. At least, disruption in my life brought about by someone who can verbalize more than "meehhhhhhhh....EEHHHHHHH" is much more appreciated.

The Insomniac

2010-11-22T05:03:00.000-05:00

Every thump, every bump,
every twerp, every chirp,
every cough, every sneeze,
every twitch, every itch.

Every jumping sheep,
every digit of pi,
well, really not that many
digits of pi.

That's what keeps me up at night
That's what keeps me up at night.

Every thought, every dream,
every cat, every freaking cat,
every buzz, eVery hum,
every quiet, every silence.

Every dream of endless tunnels,
every toothless nightmare,
well, writing doesn't really help
on an iPad.

That's what keeps me up at night
That's what keeps me up at night.

Seriously though, I've had more insomnia in the past two years than I've ever had. I used to get in the middle of the night as a kid and clean and rearrange my room, a process that is severely hampered with a permanent room mate. In college, it wasn't really bad either, but I would get up and walk down the halls or go to the store in the middle of the night.

But now I find that the smallest thing sets me awake. Our son sleeps better than most kids his age I've heard about, but I think having child set me up to be even more aware of the noises he made as a baby. Tonight was no different, as he too was awake at 1-4am, playing with his toys and dropping his feet onto his mattress. He wasn't upset, just bored. But after being up with him a time or two and looking in him, I'm wide awake even an hour after all has gone quiet.

I'll debate for a little while whether to call in for work, but I'll go. I'll hate the entire day, but I'll go. I'll come home thinking I might nap, knowing full well that I'll just start an evil trend if I do that. Naps disorient me and don't always refresh me.

Well, it looks like I might get a good two hours in now. My brain is finally slowing down and I'm running out of rabbit holes to follow. I've read the last six hours of updates from Google Reader, Facebook and Twitter. Delicious' Hotlist on my Flipboard app was on my list, but then this song idea came into my head.

Crap, now I'm hungry.

Father's Day Weekend Gift

2010-10-25T01:15:00.000-04:00

After two rain outs, I finally got to enjoy my Father's Day gift from Nicole from last year: four laps in a NASCAR car at Richmond International Raceway. I don't care much for NASCAR racing, but I do love speed.

I'm in the number 8 car, winning for the moment.

For four laps, I was pinned to the back and sides of my passenger seat while my father-in-law was in his ride along car keeping pace with me. Side by side, alone on the track. Watching the sport on t.v. really doesn't do it justice. While I'm sure that we weren't going at NASCAR race speed, I positively know that I was covered in flakes of tire when I got out of the car. The g-forces in the turns were amazing and the ride was very smooth. The smells of fuel exhaust and shredding tire completed the experience. It was a short four laps, but it was a lot to process. The top race speed at the track is 110mph. That doesn't mean much with your feel like the car is going to slide off the top of the track into the wall.

(I tried to upload a video, but there were some problems. This should suffice.)

With the track cleared just for us, the two drivers were free to drive as they pleased with out the customers on the track actually driving their own cars. Our drives gave us a good few examples of real racing with drafting, passing in corners and flat out open throttle down the front straight, inches away from one another and the outside wall. I was glad to be wearing a helmet mask so no one could see my jaw dropping gape. We finished up with some pictures in the winners lane with my son wearing my helmet.

On the way home we stopped by Carter Mountain Orchard to pick some apples to make apple sauce. The farm has an insane view over the valley. We were able to have some apple cider slushies and apple cider donuts. I've had fresh maple donuts and I have to admit I like the apple cider ones better. Now I just need to have some maple syrup slushies to have a full contest. Someone needs to get on that in Highland County.

We walked down the steep hillside to get some pink lady and winesap apples. I've never picked apples on such a steep embankment. Most of the apples were still at the tops of the trees, but only on the downhill side. So we'd have to climb up a vertical mud hill and inside the tree just to reach them. The whole family enjoyed it the day there. I'd definitely recommend going for the afternoon with a packed lunch. Especially in such beautiful weather like we had this weekend.

Today we topped off the weekend with some ultimate frisbee and thai food for dinner. We just started these pick up games of frisbee, not really knowing how to play the sport and about all of us not being in any good physical condition to play it for real. We mark off a small part of the park with cones and follow the rules, but our pace is pretty slow and our field is about a fifth of the size of a regulation one. Which isn't too shabby considering we never have had more than eight people (six less than we need). Since we're always up for a challenge, we let our son roam around the park by himself. He usually stays close by, but I think everyone secretly (and sometimes not so secretly) doesn't mind one of us pausing the game to go get him from wandering off chasing a puppy being walked or a fetching co-ed jogger. Or a fetching co-ed jogger walking her puppy.

A Case of Scientific Importance

2010-10-06T11:11:00.000-04:00

I don't write much about being a parent, because I think that most things are pretty general or experienced at some point in life by everyone that has kids or that people with no kids don't want to read about. This time, I'm writing to the world for help and understanding.

Our son is reaching the age where scientists have yet to figure out how the early stages of brain development effect connections to all the muscles in the body. Learning how the brain controls essential, non-voluntary body functions like breathing and pumping blood versus walking and eating, I have considered, start between 20 and 24 months of age and only lasts for a short time in our lives. Our son has started learning the ability feed himself and all the complex muscle associations that involves. He can walk. He has also started to jump up in the air (it turns out that our fascination with flight starts at a very early age).

What I think scientists have yet to discover is, at this age, how tightly connected emotion is to muscle movement. At any given time, for any given reason, all muscles in his body shut down and he collapses on the floor. I have witnessed it first hand, as well as my wife. It has happened when we try to give him milk, walk him upstairs from the basement, tell him he can't have any cookies or chocolate, pick him up to place him in his high chair for dinner and, most notably, when we try to brush his teeth. Being as scientific minded as I am, I've notice a pattern involving ingesting certain things or foreign object sensitivity and have determined the problem is his mouth and that it only accepts things that he puts in it. I'm worried it may have become sentient and taken control from his brain over the rest of his body. I have not been able to find any information about this on the internet or on help forums. I'm currently looking for universities/medical companies undergoing studies that we can "participate" our son in.

I would like to help the entire medical world as well as parents that also notice this problem in their child. It's a time in a child's life that involuntary muscle relaxation really upsets him because he doesn't know what's going on. It's scary. Imagine if every time someone helped you not eat a lot of chocolate or cookies and you fell on the floor in uncontrollable, delirium. You would want help too.

Getting Out and Back to Work

2010-08-25T00:00:00.000-04:00

Ever since we took our son out into the world, just days after being born, I've had mixed emotions about it. One one hand, I love the exposure that he gets from the world and watching him pick up words and reactions and, well, mostly rocks and trash. On the other hand, the occasional burden of a toddler that knows how to play the role of his own Gollum in The Lord of the Neitzeys makes regretting even leaving the house very easy.

Take, for instance, our latest outing to JMU's faculty picnic where he learned how to say our friends name ("josh josh") as well as how to meander off on his own and still find his way about weaving through the hordes of tables and chairs. Fantastic. On the other hand, he only ate chocolate cookies and Dippin' Dots ice cream for dinner. Now, that doesn't sound horrible to most people, but I don't do deviations of the norm well. I'm not routine, but I am loosely planned with expectations of relaxation. So, admittedly, even though I am a pessimist at heart, I set myself up for failure more often with a baby in tow.

Now that I'm back into the full swing of work, I'm really missing the lack of stress that summer work hours provide and how much easier it was to turn my attentions back to home when I'm off the clock. I am looking forward to some cooler weather and feeling more comfortable about going outside more, even if it's just to walk with work friends for exercise in the evenings, which I really miss.

I'm putting the finishing touches on the basement and hopefully it'll all be buttoned up in a week or two. Three and a half years of work and laziness are finally culminating into exactly how I envisioned the basement to look. All my plans made it into the final product and I couldn't be happier.