Father of a 15 Month Old

Being a father to a 15 month old is really an incredible thing in life.  He has changed in so many ways since his birth and done so really fast.  He seems like such a bigger little boy than he actually is because he is quite tall for his age, in the 95^th percentile, and yet he is also quite skinny.  Just this morning I was getting him up and out of bed and noticed how big he is getting.  He was wearing a two piece pajama set that is pretty close to being skin tight and it made him look like he was about three years old.  It’s true what they say, kids grow up too fast. 

Looking back at these last 15 months I can easily remember the many sleepless nights, the nearly two weeks we spent in the hospital right after his birth due to him getting pneumonia, learning how to change a diaper and maybe more importantly the ways not to, watching my wife turn into an even more beautiful person than she was already by taking on the mother role with such a strong passion, and finding myself caring for this little person more than anything else. 

Parenting is certainly a test of one’s limits and mine have been pushed to the edge numerous times, mostly due to times when there seemed to literally be nothing I could do to make him stop crying.  That has been one of the worst feelings of my life because I am very much the type of person that likes to be in control of situations and I also feel I am good at helping others.  I can remember a specific night when he was particularly fussy, he must have been just a few months old, it was in the middle of the night and it felt like I had been up for hours with him when actually it was probably more like just one hour.  I had tried all of the tricks of the trade that we were taught by our pediatrician and other family members and friends who have raised children and nothing was working.  Luckily for me, and for my son Landon, my wife came to save the day, or rather night.  She swooped in and relieved me for the time being and I was able to get a hold of myself and relax a bit. 

Oh, one important tid bit of information if have not mentioned is that my wife is a stay at home mom and I work full time.  Due to this, I generally put him to bed and she tends to wake up during the night most of the time with him so I can sleep and be rested for work.  He was napping a couple times a day back then and she would take that opportunity to catch up on her sleep too, if that’s even possible.

What I have realized through experiences such as these is that my wife and I are extremely important to my son and providing him care.  And even though I sometimes like to think of myself as being very important and special for whatever reason or occasion, there are times when my son simply needs hi s mother to comfort him, and that is just fine.  There have been plenty of times in the past and there will be many more instances in which I can provide no solution for him when he is in a little crisis of his own and yet just being there to provide him a sense of security is most important.  And to provide my wife support and at times relief from our shared parenting duties is another thing that I truly appreciate.  I have learned to truly respect those single parents out there who have little to no support in raising their child because it is most certainly one of the most difficult things to do in life. 

I started this post with the intention of sharing most of my struggles and appreciations as a father and as you have now read, unless you are a skim reader like me most of the time, it really turned into more of a reflection of amazement at how my wife and I transformed into, what I believe to be, fantastic parents.  Without the support of each other and our unconditional love for our child, this whole experience could have been much different and not in a positive way.  But as with many things in life, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts and this family certainly feels like one smooth operating machine, at least most of the time. 

All images in this post were taken from my wife's blog http://www.laceyhorst-thomas.blogspot.com/ She fortunately has an iPhone to capture most of the pics of Landon that we take.  

Basketball Memories

I recently got a family membership to a local gym so that my wife and I can start to get into better shape and to allow us more time to spend with our son at an indoor pool.  The thing that excites me most about this is that I am now playing basketball regularly again, something I have missed out on for at least the past 5 years. 

I started playing basketball when I was in the first grade and played competitively through high school.  My best friend and I would spend most days during the summer playing basketball at my house or at local parks.  If we weren’t playing real basketball then you could probably find us playing it on whatever video game console was out at the time, most likely Super Nintendo and then later Nintendo 64.  As I got into high school the competition improved and I was still an average player on the varsity team.  I started most games but was never much of a scoring threat, although would consider myself a pretty good jump shooter.  Below you'll see a pair of Kobe Bryant shoes i wore that at the time I thought were great and still think they are unique, but I don't know what I was thinking in getting them or what Adidas was thinking in making them. 

When I went to college I did not try out for the team, which at the Division III level had both a varsity and junior varsity squad.  Instead, to quote Lebron James, I decided to take my talents to the intramural league that the school had to offer.  This was great because there was not nearly as much pressure to perform and it was mostly for fun.  Normally I would say that I thrive under pressure, but apparently when it comes to basketball less is more.  I found myself shooting many more shots than I would have taken in high school and scoring at a much higher rate.  I must also mention that I even got a fast break dunk, which for me being only 6’1” on a good day, is one of my more memorable highlights. 

In college if there was not an intramural league going on my roommates and friends would go to the gym, which was open most nights, and play pick up games for a few hours.  Getting caught up in my studies and with my girlfriend at the time, later to be my wife, I eventually played less and less basketball.  The funny thing that I noticed was that if I had not played in two weeks or more, it seemed like the next time I played I would shoot the lights out.  I guess all those years of practicing in my backyard until the sun went down paid off for my muscle memory.  

Now that I have access to a gym I still have to find time to fit it into my daily schedule, which currently involves spending time with my wife and kid, working a full time job, working another part time crisis job that puts me on call one night every other week and a full weekend every two months, as well as trying to take care of household chores and other miscellaneous things.  Oh and don’t let me forget my precious video games!  That alone could eat up several hours in a week, or even a day if I allow it.  So since I am a bit of a morning bird, I have decided to wake up at 5am everyday which lets me get to the gym by 5:30am where I can then play basketball for an hour before heading home and getting ready for work. 

This routine has been great for my energy level.  I am fairly energized during the day despite waking up earlier than normal and by 10pm I am definitely ready for bed.  In the past I would sometimes push myself to stay up late at night to get my video game fix, since during the day it is hard to fit it in between family time, and in doing so would end up staying up later than I would like only to be tired in the morning.  Now I look forward to going to bed so that I may wake up and go to an open gym where currently it has been just me, my basketball, two hoops and the shiny gloss of the hardwood court that seems to be waiting for me to arrive.  And if any of you have ever played basketball competitively and gone through grueling early morning practices on the weekends you will agree with my next comment…there seems to be nothing like walking in to a quiet gym in the morning to start your day, except maybe a peaceful golf course but I’m sure I’ll talk more about that another day. 
Images taken from http://www.google.com/imgres?num=10&hl=en&biw=1680&bih=955&tbm=isch&tbnid=YTiIBf0_rHq5eM:&imgrefurl=http://www.execustay.com/furnished-apartments/baton-rouge/tuscany-villas/index.php&docid=wCTu97IXHDmB_M&imgurl=http://www.execustay.com/furnished-apartments/baton-rouge/tuscany-villas/property_photos/BatonRougeFurnishedApartmentIndoorBasketballCourt-368x277.jpg&w=368&h=277&ei=N5ERUP7PHsShiQLYmYDIBg&zoom=1, http://www.consolepassion.co.uk/products/super-nintendo/games/nba-live-96, and http://capitalbrand.wordpress.com/2010/02/16/r-i-p-jordan-brand-air-jordan/ respectively. 

Dante's Inferno Game Review

Obviously one of my passions is for video games and therefore, here is my first real blog post that is not just a description of things to come.  Hope you enjoy.

In this Xbox 360 game you play as Dante, from the classic novel Dante’s Inferno, which is essentially a story about the journey through the 7 layers of hell for the condemned.  At the beginning there is a cut scene in which you are revealed the back story which has Dante searching for his beloved Beatrice, only to find that she has been murdered.   He then goes on to plunge into the depths of hell to fight for her salvation. 

Along the way you will fight a variety of enemies from non-baptized infants with blades for arms, to seductive women with octopus-like tentacles that reach to pull you in to their grasp.  Some of the more grotesque characters are from the glutton part of hell in which you will battle large overweight enemies who spew bodily fluids at you from both ends of their terrible bodies.  The boss sequences are not as challenging as expected and boiled down to timing attacks, dodging melees and timed prompted button pushing to deliver more significant blows. 

The game play was simplistic, requiring a variety of combinations of buttons for more intense and skilled attacks.  An interesting element of the game is the holy and unholy attacks which allow you some control about how enemies are punished or salvaged.  Each of these abilities is able to be upgraded through the acquisition of souls that are obtained when any enemy is defeated.  More souls are gathered generally from saving enemies through holy attacks than through punishing them through the more brutal unholy attacks. 

The game is quite graphic regarding the violence and gore while also offering multiple scenes of female nudity.  There is one specific scene of male nudity which comes awkwardly close to full frontal male nudity too.  These scenes seemed to be done for shock value and were not so over the top to take away from the game play.  My opinion is that most gamers that play Mature rated games will have no problem with the content of the game.  Having said that it is certainly not one I would play with my toddler around…or my wife for that matter since she would likely make some funny comment to me about nerdy gamer developers putting busty women in games for their own pleasure and I would never hear the end of it, although she would be right. 

All in all this is a great game to pick up at a local used game store of your choice.  I happened to stumble upon this for a mere $17 and after spending about 9 hours to beat the game, on the normal difficulty mode, it was well worth my money and more importantly my time.  (Pics from Amazon.com and IGN.com respectively)      

  

What To Expect From This Blog

This is my first attempt at a blog and have been inspired by my wife, who has been blogging for a few years and more seriously within the past few months (http://www.laceyhorst-thomas.blogspot.com/).  My plan for this blog is to share my views on things that come up in my life that others, mostly men, may relate to and find entertaining.  While I do not claim to be an expert on anything (my wife may say differently, that I do think of myself as an expert on some things) I will likely be writing about my experiences as a father to an incredible one year old, my life as a mental health counselor, my views on sports and video games, as well as other things in daily life. 

Another thing that I should tell any potential readers is that I know little to nothing about setting up a blog, writing code, creating ad space or other tech savvy ways of making this process of blogging easy for myself.  My hope is that I will learn along the way, as I have done with a lot of things in life, and to maybe even inspire you to venture into a new hobby/activity of your own.  For myself, it will be fun to see how this plays out and I am looking forward to learning ways to improve my blog and to watch it transform into, dare I say, a work of art…or at least expression.  My wife has found much joy in her blog and I hope to do the same, even if it is not followed by the masses, but one can hope.