smonk you: the best freaking daddy blog ever

You may remember last week's  open letter to Spitz Seeds...here is one to PF Flyers , my favorite (favourite for my Canadian readers) shoe company. Hello Mr or Mrs Flyers About a year and a half ago I had a job in which I had to wear dress shoes Monday through Thursday and was only allowed podiatric freedom on Fridays. On those days you'd see me in a pair of Converse or some Jack Purcells. Now I'm at a much better job that judges me on my work instead of my shoes and allows me the freedom to wear whatever shoe I want. And when I needed a good everyday shoe I knew Converse weren't the ones...too uncomfortable. So I hopped online, checked out the options and I found your shoes...I remembered the name from my childhood but don't remember if I wore them. I do remember wearing polo shirts from Sears that had the little dragon on it instead of the Izod alligator but if I were to bring those up it would be a total tangent, so I won't. Back to the shoes...I&#

Let's start off this post by pretending I have a great photo of the two little white shards poking out of Miloh's bottom gum. You have to pretend because although he likes getting his photo taken right now he's really not to happy about me grabbing his gums long enough to get a shot of his teeth...you know with the excruciating pain and all. I'm a person who has theories ...I'm actually not sure if they would be technically theories...because they are pure fact, but theories sounds cooler. And here's my theory on teething: It's based on what I know about human evolution and why we feel pain and such...so the basic stuff you learn in school with maybe some college classes peppered in. You see there is a really good reason to feel pain. If you step on a piece of glass you need the pain to alert you to the fact that your foot is now gushing with blood. If your tooth hurts you need a little warning to head to the dentist, or back in the day the barber (b

June 18-24

Since the a lot of folks ask about how the floor bed is going I thought I'd give periodic updates. Miloh seems to like it, although he knows no other way, and we're liking it to. He continues to roll of it but no longer gets upset when it happens. Last week I opened the door when I got up in the morning to see him lying off his bed, near his grey chair, and smiling as he tried to get his foot in his mouth. He doesn't cry when he wakes up because he can explore the room...but he's getting a bit more mobile so we're baby proofing it now. While he can't crawl yet he can roll across the room to get what he wants... One morning Staci heard clanging from his room. She thought a cat was banging on his door to get in. When she got up to shoo the cat away didn't see one, but she heard the banging, then she heard some giggles. When she opened the door she found that he's rolled across his room and started to play with the garbage can... That's the wh

This is a copy of a letter I would send to Spitz Seeds if they had an email address on their site, which they don't...but I figured I could use the power of the internet and hope someone from there will see this post too. They're owned by Frito-Lay which is owned by Pepsi...someone has to know someone who can hook me up...thanks Hello my friends at Spitz seeds. A few weeks ago I found myself at a gas station and I checked out the one of the promotional signs on the pump...I never really notice them. Anyway they were promoting a sale of Giant brand sunflower seeds...I saw they had a dill pickle flavor and was intrigued. I went into the station to buy some seeds...while there I did a price comparison and noticed your seeds were less expensive than the Giant ones...so I bought a bag of your dill pickle flavor seeds. And I loved them...they are awesome. I'm writing to you about seriously the best opportunity that has ever come your way. I would love for you to be th

It's funny because each time I write a post about Miloh sleeping well that very day I publish it he totally changes and we have to figure it all out again. It started with a post where I hit a wall when he was super young and had a fussy week. It had a happy ending but the night it posted on another site he got fussy again. Then we figured out a good routine and did cry it out..the night that post went live he became fussy again because he was teething. We figured that all out and he was good. So I think writing this post could be a mistake. It's about my most recent adventure in putting him to bed. You see part of our routine involved us singing a lullaby to him...there is one minor problem with that. I don't know any. I try to learn them but I forget them, instead I wind up making a song up to the tune of If I Only Had a Brain or something like that...when I do the words are pretty much the same every time...they involve me singing about how I don't know the w

I have a guest post over at Kolcraft today so head over there for some good stuff that probably hasn't been said here. And if you're coming from there, or haven't been here in awhile here's some stuff you should check out. First everyone needs to see the video of Miloh getting a ton of slobbery licks from our dog Kalli. C'mon, you gotta check it out . And here's the post of my best day so far. You can check out my 100th post which was a clip post of all my favorite posts. And since you're clicking you might as well click this so I get a vote on Top Baby Blogs...thanks.

June 11-17

It's kind of weird for me for this to be my first Father's Day...not because I'm a new dad and all but because the day has never meant anything to me. I'll start by saying I'm not a fan of any Hallmark holiday. Most people see them as the day you need to go buy cards for folks so they know you care about them. I see them as a day that if you forget to buy a card you're screwed...you're seen as someone who doesn't care. I had this trouble growing up because my father never reminded me of any holiday...so I would often forget when mother's day was. I probably knew it was a Sunday...but I'm sure I wasn't 100% it was in May let a lone the _ th Sunday of the month. Does anyone really know for sure which Sunday it will be? I grew to appreciate Mother's day, because I probably forgot to tell my mom how I felt about her on regular days. Then when this one came along it became more important to me because of Staci. But I can say with all

We were listening to Pandora while Miloh had tummy time...as usual Kalli came to hang out. Lionel Richie's 'Oh No' was playing at the time and the song was perfect for what was going on.

I get a lot of emails to do reviews and all but a few go right to my virtual circular file. But a couple weeks ago I got an awesome one. It was to review a book called. Okay that's not really my thing but it's a book called  Devoted: The Story of a Father's Love for His Son  by Dick Hoyt. You may not have heard of him...actually when I first saw the name I thought I never heard it...then I saw he was half of Team Hoyt . If you're not familiar with Team Hoyt you should make yourself familiar. The team is Dick and his son Rick...they run marathons and Ironman triathlons together. The one thing is that Rick has Cerebral Palsy. So in an Ironman for instance, Dick pulls Rick in a boat for the 2.4 mile swim, rides with Rick in the front of a modified tandem bike for the 112 mile bike and pushes him in a wheelchair for the 26 mile run. And they have finished them in the time limit. With a quick check on a Sports Illustrated article  I realize I must have first seen t

Seems like it was only yesterday that we were feeding Miloh rice cereal. Now he's on solid food.

his "what are you about to do to me" face It's about that time. Our doctor told us that since MC F is tracking his bottle & our food and because he can sit well in a booster chair we could start to introduce him to some real food...well at least some semi-real food because he only gets watery rice cereal at this point. And so the adventure begins... When we got the spoon out he started to grab Staci's hand to get that spoon in his mouth...but once in he had no idea what to do with the cereal...like all kids his age. I'd say of the many spoonfuls he probably only swallowed a quarter teaspoon this first time out... We know he'll do better as he figures it out...and we know what comes after that...more food and horrible diapers...yeah... And if he doesn't dig the bland cereal I think we figured a way to get him interested...

We're loving the floor bed...it's so cool to be able to lay down with Miloh when we put him to sleep. Once we put him to sleep we lie with him for a it until he settles down. Today Staci put him down for a nap and he started grabbing her nose and giggling. He's already playing games with us...it's so cool. And if you enjoyed this please click on the banner below so I get a vote...all you need to do is click...then it will ask you to click once more. But before you click make a wish as it is guaranteed* to come true. *not a guarantee

June 4-10

He giggled more than I have ever seen before when he saw him...I'm talking about my grandfather. Miloh laughed too. A few weekends ago we went back to my hometown and our first stop was to see my grandfather, we'll call him Poppie for now on because that's what he's called. My mother asked me not to mention that she started crying before we even opened the door to his place*...so I won't do that. I'll skip right to when we opened the door to his place. Poppie laughed so hard. Then he went right up to Miloh in the stroller, where he was asleep, and leaned in to get a good look...but he was careful not to wake him. We chatted a bit and asked Poppie if he wanted us to wake Miloh so he could hold him, he said no...he didn't want to disturb Miloh. Not a minute later he said that now he was ready to hold Miloh. It was fantastic...my grandfather was elated, I think he teared up a bit...weird thing is Miloh teared up for a second too. Then Miloh smiled when P

May 28 - June 3

This weekend we went back to my home town for Miloh's baby naming...he got a Hebrew name...that should be a post and maybe it will someday become one. He was a bit off his game, we weren't sure if it was from the travel, the new environment or the teething. Well one night he was wailing like crazy...it was a new cry...seemed like it was of total pain. So I went down to the room he was sleeping in to check on him. I was just supposed to make sure he wasn't on his belly because sometimes he get's stuck there and get's frustrated...and before you go off on us allowing him to sleep on his belly our doc told us that at this point it was okay if he rolled there on his own...partly because he is strong enough to roll over, partly because he let's us know when he's had enough. I went down and saw that he was on his belly...but I could tell he was in total pain and flipping him over didn't do the trick. So I grabbed him up and comforted him until he went

click to enlarge From April 22 through May 21