smonk you: the best freaking daddy blog ever

I'm sure he wouldn't be thrilled that I titled a post like that but it's true. He was giggling because he was so excited that his name, Friedman, would be passed to another generation. It wasn't a given because I was born with a different last name...well technically like all people I was born without any name, but you get the point. Anyway my grandfather, Eddie, had 2 daughters so his surname ended there. But I was never really a fan of my father. So after college I changed my last name to Friedman to thank him for helping me pay for college (wasn't talking to my father but he wouldn't have given me a dime had I been) and to help him carry out his name. So this 96 year-old man is as happy as he could be to see another generation and especially another Friedman on it's way. And last...I have a feeling this post is going to bite me on the ass...my father doesn't know I changed my name (about 15 years ago) but I heard he was searching for me via the web...

Maybe it's early to be thinking about the baby room, but right now it's an office so we need to get ready for the makeover. While going through the room I found a box of stuff from my old job and opened it up to find a baby t-shirt that was swag from a project I worked on. Not sure how we got to it but Staci told me to try it on...and I thought it would make a great doo-rag. From the image you can tell I was right. FYI the project was when I was at Target. They do carnivals at the Target House at St. Jude 5 times a year. My copywriter Shawn and I got to work with Jesse LeDoux on this awesome project. You can see the art on his site . If you don't know much about what St. Jude check them out here ...they do great work for kids, and the Target house does great work with families of some of those kids.

We all hear stories of the food cravings women get during pregnancy. Sometimes it's weird stuff.  But what do you do if her craving is something you're totally objected to? Right now Staci's hankering squishy plums and nectarines.  I'm totally disgusted by them...they are basically rotten fruit and she loves them. But I want to make her happy so I went on the hunt for rotting, dying fruit. There I was at the grocery store trying to pick out some squishy fruit. While most people feel the fruit for ripeness I was feeling it for death. It was hard to find rotten fruit amongst perfectly ripe goodness. And I couldn't really complain about the condition the fruit was in. But finally after digging in the back of the plums I found a cache of what Staci was looking for. I got the squishy fruit and she was super happy. Her smile was worth touching that gross fruit...and she'll never know that I didn't buy her the squishiest (I just couldn't bring myself to get the

Today I read a great article from Wired's Geek Dad entitled '100 Things Your Kids May Never Know About.' When you think about it it's obvious...every generation changes and things become obsolete. However it seems like the digital age has sped up the process. Whether you have kids, are thinking about having kids or could care less about them I encourage you to take a peek at the article. No heavy thinking...it's a paragraph long and then a list. Here are some of my fave things they call out: Joysticks: luckily I have an Atari and a good cache of games so I will be able to humiliate my kid when it's friends are over and I pull that out while they are all playing with their Wii 7. Putting film in your camera Taking turns picking a radio station...during a long drive Toys actually being suitable for the under-3s Han shoots first (and another Star Wars one: “Obi-Wan never told you what happened to your father.” But they’ve already seen episode III, so it’s no big

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

Staci sleeping on the plane to Vancouver/Whistler on our honeymoon five years ago. It took a couple of years for our families (read Jewish Mothers) to ask (read nag us) when we'd have kids. From day one Staci and I pretty much agreed on waiting 5 years. Our moms wanted little Friedmans sooner. They 'allowed' us to wait but there was some discussion on whether 5 years meant we'd start in 5 or have a kid not more than 1826 days days after getting married. We were going with starting in 5 years...and wel, our 5th year anniversary plans, which involved a trip to a winery, had to change because Staci was 6 weeks pregnant and not feeling too good. We rocked the 5 year plan perfectly.

When I was a kid I had a plan for my life. I was going to own a pet store, specializing in the breeding of gerbils, and marry Drew Barrymore. Neither of these things happened. So knowing that plans don't always come to fruition I thought I'd start a list of things we plan on doing once we have the baby. I'll periodically update as things get done, fall through or are added. Cloth diapers: for me it's environmental reasons for Staci it's that and it helps for potty training. (FYI I hate the word potty.) A floor bed: floor bed instead of cribs are popular in the Montessori community and we plan on following some Montessori stuff since Staci is a teacher. We want to make our own baby food : it sounds like a good idea because we'll know what's in it and it seems easy. The baby will be vegetarian: I have been vegetarian since I was about 14 and Staci was for a bit before the pregnancy. The dog will not be ignored: everyone says it happens. Date night: after

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

That would be something not to say to your pregnant wife 3 days after you find out she's pregnant . She was feeling nauseous and tired but I thought it seemed to soon...

These are all things that came up today in an appointment where I met Staci's doctor for the first time. He's a super interesting guy and I could have talked to him for hours. I had 2 big takeaways from the meeting: first I'm a huge science geek...if I hadn't gone the creative route I would have ended up in some kind of science thing. Second...he called babies Random Events Generators (© my doctor) that's a pretty brilliant way to describe them.

The whole idea of starting this blog came when I was talking to friends about some of the things I've said to Staci since we found out she was pregnant. Things that you probably shouldn't say to anyone you like, especially your pregnant wife. I'll posts these Kennyisms as they happen, but for now I'll pepper in some of the things I've said so far. It started with a small one, but a good one. 2 days after we found out Staci was pregnant I made the comment that I thought she looked bloated, which is weird because she was only 7 days pregnant (or 14 weeks or one month or something. The math on pregnancy is ridiculous and I'll talk about that later.) Well she wasn't happy about the comment as she wouldn't show for a few months. But to be fair, she was bloated and looked normal a couple days later. So I was right or maybe I wasn't right but I was correct. I screwed up again the next day...I'll post that tomorrow.

Holy shit that's freaking crazy...is what I said as I saw this pre-kid (not sure the technical term) flopping around in our 12 week ultrasound today. I had no idea that at 12 weeks they move so much...it was crazy to see. I could write something longer but I don't think I will tonight. Look for more stuff to come.

I'm Kenny. At this moment I'm 35. I'm married to my beautiful wife Staci who's 33. We live with our dog Kalli (an American Dingo) and 2 cats; Random and Zoggs. We're expecting our first kid at the end of January 2010. So that's what this blog is going to be about..having my first kid. Might not sound super exciting...but no one's asking you to read it. But here's the deal...this won't be your normal 'everything is freaking amazing' kind of blog. Or a cliche 'I'm a macho guy who doesn't understand stuff about kids' kind of thing. What this is going to (hopefully) be is a funny irreverant look at pending fatherhood...it will be chock full of what I'm thinking, how we're planning and such. It will also be a good reference for other expectant fathers on things not to say to your wife...I screwed up 3 times in the first week we knew we were expecting. And I want it to be known that I'm super excited about being a father