smonk you: the best freaking daddy blog ever

Today is my b-day... Last year on my birthday I tweeted 36 things that inspired me that year. Here are 37 things that inspired me this year. These will probably also be tweeted. I'm sure there have been more things...I will remember them tomorrow...oh well. 1. Being a dad 2. Staci as a mom 3 and 4. My 7D and a new photo project I started working on 5. a video of ants protesting 6. Mario meets skateboard decks 7. Anatomy posters of Gummi Bears and Gingerbread Men 8. Somehow hearing about the sculptor Do-Ho Suh 9 and 10. Creating infographics of Miloh's weeks and months...and a site that let's you create an infographic about you. 11. Learning how to create my own space photos...yes Miloh and I will do this when he's older. Another way to do it here . 12. Hello Again 13. Photos of people who look alike 14. Some animate gifs . 15. NYC Polaroid project 16. A hill 17. Hanging in Chicago with a buddy of mine and having one of his illustrations on Mi...

Last week Gregg over at The Lame Sauce asked me to do a guest post on what I think is lame. I chose dead beat dad...but not for the reason you'd think. Here it is in case you missed it there...enjoy and then check out his site . This could really suck or The bestest guest blog post in the world. I’m supposed to write about something I think is lame but that’s really tough for me. Maybe it’s because I’m so sarcastic, skeptical and blunt that I have just too many things on my List O-Lame that I’m having a hard time narrowing it down. I could write about Facebook, because I think it’s pretty freaking lame. I guess it all depends on how you use it but I see too many sycophantic or high schoolish updates that it makes my skin crawl. I could write about people using any type of location service on social media when it’s letting the world know you’re in such lame places as Target, the dry cleaner or a McDonald’s drive-thru. No one cares. Also on my List O-Lame would be preach...

Wisdom for Miloh: know which lines work on girls and which don't. Here are a list of bad ones...I know these are bad from experience: We're good together if you don't talk (Said after a break) You hooked up with a couple guys so I'll get back together with you but I get to hook up with a couple girls I would never get serious with you because you have a boyfriend (don't judge...I was young) How's that big tea? (said to a girl who when I gave her the tea she ordered said "that's a big tea" I'm sure there are more but these are the ones that come to mind today...we can save the others for another time.

Someone last week asked if I was going to do a cloth diaper report. I think this will be a two-part report because Staci can give the facts on them because she learned a lot by chatting with the folks at Bum Genius. So this one will be about how I feel about cloth diapers. Looking back it seems like we started cloth diapers when Miloh was 4 months old. Before little dude was born (and he was just referred to as MF) we had 2 kinds of diapers, Bum Genius and Fuzzi Bunz. They were all one size fits all. Here's the deal with one size fits all...it's a lie. Even when we put all the adjustable things to the smallest size they were too big for his tiny lil butt. And even if we did somehow get them to stay on (staples or duct tape) they would have been so bulky that he wouldn't be able to wear any clothes...and he was born in the winter so that wasn't an option. We didn't really want to throw down the cash for the small size diapers because it was more temporary so ...

Yeah, another infographic...I've been out of town so I haven't had time to write...new stuff soonish. Aug 13 (Staci's Birthday) - Aug 19

August 6-12

Disclaimer: I dressed him and it was only for this shot. Still even though it's uncoordinated the outfit is cute. Wisdom for Miloh:  Question why...always. OK maybe not always but Aunt Kate and Uncle Matt gave you a kick ass shirt that says: "I ? Y" on the front and "Always" on the back...so it just sounds good. In reality if you keep asking "Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?" it will drive your mom and I nuts...so please...not always. I know there is no way that it won't happen. Every great invention came from someone asking why...or I guess from a mistake like leaving a piece of bread out or leaving some radioactive material lying around...but most are from people asking why. People asked questions like: Why the hell did that orange drop at the same speed as that rat? Why does my wife always get made that there is water on the floor when I get out of the tub...and oh, wait...why did the water level get higher when I got in the t...

I recently did a guest post about floor beds on Modern Hippie Mag . A bit of old a bit of new. And a tiny bit of good info about floor beds. Here's the post but that doesn't mean you can't still check out their site . Clang, clang, clang...clang, clang, clang. That's the sound that woke Staci  up about a month ago. She thought it was a cat trying to get in to our 5 month old son's room. When she walked to the room and saw no cat she started walking away. Just as she turned away she heard clang, clang, clang followed by a tiny little giggle. It was Miloh playing with a metal trash can in his room. You may wonder how a 5 month old gets out of his crib and to a trash can at 5 in the morning...the answer is simple...he has no crib. We have Miloh on a floor bed which is exactly as it sounds...a bed (more specifically a mattress) on the floor. No crib, no frame no nothing...just the mattress. I need to explain that my wife and I started off normal......

I can't really talk about how feeding Miloh is going because he reads my blog and when I mention things like that he reverts...so I won't mention that here. Instead I'll walk you through how feeding goes...because it's unique (I think.) We bring Miloh into the his  Fisher Pricebooster seat  and snap him in. The moment we snap in the first side of his buckle Kalli, or dog, runs down stairs. Then Miloh stares at us until we put the tray onto the seat. Next he starts pretending he's eating puffs...while staring at us. I think he;s basically saying "give me some freaking puffs." We give him puffs and he goes to town on them...and Kalli is right on his left side waiting for some to drop. We grab his food from jars and put them in little cups to spoon from. Kalli now moves to Miloh's right side to get more puffs. And we spoon feed Miloh between the puffs he's eating. At this time Kalli moves back to the left and starts licking Miloh's hands...

Wisdom for Miloh:  Know when to walk away...know when to run...know when to duck into a store and put a sweatshirt and hat on. The first part of that comes from the Muppets...when some random dude sang a song called the Gambler...not sure what that guys first name was...hmmm. Anyway while you may think it's about poker...it's really about life...(dude should have listened to that when he opened the chicken store.) But let me give you a couple examples from my life: Airport story 1 Walk away when you're wife says that if you go to jail in Hawaii she will still take her planned flight back. You see your mom and I were once in Hawaii for your Aunt Jody and Uncle Ethan's wedding.  On our way back to the mainland we had a stop over in Honolulu. That airport has a Wiki Wiki shuttle that takes you from terminal to terminal so you don't have to go through security again. When we got off of our flight I asked the TSA guy where the Wiki Wiki to the terminal was. He p...

This post started awhile ago but I never finished it...now I have more to say about it. I had no idea what to expect when I became a dad. It's been just over six months and aside from the diapers and the lack of sleep it's been an amazing ride. I didn't know how I'd take to it, what it would be like or how it would change me...in ways I could never imagine. I never thought I could be comforted by a coo. This was more when he was younger and I'd walk in to his room to check on him. His door would squeak (still does because I forget to put WD40 on it) and he'd wiggle and coo. That coo was so comforting to me. I knew he was allright. I never thought I could stare at a baby all day. I really could. Again this was more about when he was younger, but still I find myself just staring at him being amazed. I never thought I'd try to steal him away from Staci. As I've said many times babies freak me out. But from day one, and still to this day, I grab h...

July 30 - August 5

July 23 - 29

Miloh is crawling like a mad man. These 2 videos are funny to me because it's like he's in a movie and he needs to hit his mark at certain times...they are very similar. You can see he loves cameras...he crawls to one if it's around, on the floor or in our hands. He almost broke the flash in the first and went after it in the second...luckily it's my B-camera so he wasn't messing with my 7D.

Miloh gets it...he's really starting to figure out the world, how to play in it and how to manipulate it. He's figured out that we're not fans of when he cries...he tries to use that to his advantage. One night when putting Miloh to bed his pacifier fell out right away and he started crying. We aren't ones to put it back in every time it drops but since it was right away I placed it in. He calmed himself, took it out, looked at me and started crying. I thought it was just coincidence that he looked at me beforehand...but then I put the pacifier back into his mouth...he did the same thing. He looked straight at me, took out the pacifier and started crying...I knew what was up and left the room...he stopped crying after a minute. He's also crawling like a madman...he was rolling with purpose for a bit...he'd see something turn and roll to it. Now he crawls like crazy...and with purpose. He and Kalli, or dog, flank our cat Zoggs and attack him from the sid...

Wisdom for Miloh:  Listen to Iron Maiden Well more specifically listen Bruce Dickinson the lead singer to Iron Maiden because he's a super interesting man. I think Maiden gets a bad rap because they're a metal band and their mascot, Eddie, is anything from a zombie to a skeleton and things in between. But they are a pretty smart group of guys. Years ago I saw a trailer clip from their appearance on Live From Abbey Road  in which Bruce talks about his career. Unfortunately when I searched for said clip I couldn't find it...I think it didn't make the cut for the show and was then pulled...but I remember the gist. He talks about his career and says that he considers himself to be a professional pilot (he flies for a charter airline) and is once again an amateur musician...and he likes it that way. I should say that as an amateur musician he does pretty well for himself. Bruce goes on to explain that the true meaning of amateur is someone who practices a study, sp...

June 22 - July 21