You wouldn’t look any better after your first go-round with a stomach flu.
Last Tuesday night wasn’t unlike any other night of the week. I put Sophia to bed, laid with her for about half an hour, and she fell asleep. Later, Sarah and I went to bed. Around 11 or so, I hear Sophia crying in her room, which ins’t out of the ordinary. So, I go in to check on her. What happened, was not pleasant. AT ALL. Continue reading
Surviving and thriving.
I’ve been hesitant to write about this since the day it happened. Partially because I felt like I hadn’t done everything in my power to protect my daughter, and partially because it was horrible day. But here we are. Back in July, I finished helping Sarah pack her car to take Sophia down to the beach for the weekend. She was taking a half day, picking Sophia up from daycare and heading down to Rehoboth to spend the weekend with her sister and her boyfriend. I couldn’t go because I had plans to do a day of brewery tours with my buddies and wouldn’t have been home in time to go with them.
Sophia and I were a little late getting out the door to go to daycare. I needed gas, so that added to the delay. After pulling out of the gas station just down the street from our house, I proceeded down the road like I do every morning. Sitting at a red light, the light turns green and I start to pull into the intersection. That’s when it happened. Continue reading
Passed out in our bed, an all-too-common occurrence lately.
Parents with infants know all too well the fun of sleep training. It can often times be a tedious task to get your baby to sleep through the night, but most times, it works out and your little one gets into a nice pattern of sleep–so do you, as parents. When Sophia was an infant, we were able to sleep train her by eight weeks old, and then we were able to come up with a nice schedule for ourselves, as well. Continue reading
Sophia will soon have a little sister!
There comes a time in a father-to-be’s life where he has to face facts, and understand that making remarks stating “I don’t make girls” is never a good idea. Because the time will comes when your pregnant wife will get her ultrasound to find out what the gender of baby number two is, and deep down, you know, it’s going to be a girl, again. That being said, yesterday we had the ultrasound to reveal the gender of Baby Browne #2 and–you guessed it–it’s a girl!
I do have a confession to make. I was hoping for a boy this time around. I was hoping to have one boy and one girl and that would be that. But, God has a way of making you pay for your words and this was his way. I am destined to have a family of nothing but daughters. I’m alright with that. The way I look at it, is now I won’t have to teach a son how to fix things, or tie a tie, or any of the things that fathers are supposed to pass down to a son. And I’m kind of happy about that since I don’t know how to do most of those things. Mr. Fix-It, I am not.
As someone who grew up with two sisters, in addition to my brother, I know what I am in for when the teenage years come around for my two little ladies. So, needless to say, I think Sarah and I are going to be looking for somewhere to lay low for a few years… In all seriousness, I am very excited about what little girl number two is going to bring to our lives. If she is anything like Sophia, I’ll be one happy man. Plus, I know how close two sisters can be, judging from how close my sisters are, as well as how close Sarah and her sister are.
We think we have a name picked out, but we haven’t shared the name with anyone yet. Once we do announce it to family, I’ll be sure to post it on here, or I’ll decide to leave you all in suspense. Depends on how I feel!
One last thing. The original title of this post is what my family will be known as from here on out: Nick and His Merry Band of Women.
One of our belly bump shots from the first time around with Sophia
One of the first questions expecting parents get asked, aside from the due date, is “are you going to find out the sex??”. It’s an interesting debate, both for the to-be parents, as well as for family members, friends, and those random belly-touching-strangers-you-meet-on-the-street (Sarah doesn’t understand why they keep touching MY belly). When we had Sophia, we found out what we were having. We found out, but only told our immediate family members what we were having. It came out at the baby shower that we were having a girl, but at that point, we were so close to the due date that we didn’t mind our cover being blown. Well we didn’t mind THAT much… Continue reading
Big girl bed or crib for this little cuddle-monkey?
Two of the best parts of my days are when Sophia goes to sleep and when she wakes up in the morning. Every morning while I’m getting ready for work, she wakes up and I hear through her door “Daddy! Come HERE!!” over and over until I walk in to pick her up and out of her crib. At night, I generally carry her to bed, with her head laying on my shoulder. Followed by a hug and a kiss and down into the crib she goes. It’s those little moments that make life as a parent pretty great. But, we now face ourselves with the decision of whether it’s time for the crib to go and move to the toddler bed. Continue reading
If you’re like me, then when you had, or have, your first kid, you told yourself that the terrible twos would never arrive for your sweet, little baby. And, if you’re like me, you would have been dead wrong. Dead.Wrong. I thought there was more time. I thought it wouldn’t
I don’t trust you, snow. Not.One.Bit.
happen, until, ya know, Sophia actually hit two! Nope. They seem to have arrived a little bit early.
It’s not that she behaves badly, it’s just that the reactions, and of course, overreactions have gotten a little over-the-top. She’s also not a fan of listening when we tell her not to do something. Then again, Sarah tells me I don’t listen, but I usually don’t hear her tell me because, well, I’m not listening…
Continue reading
What’ did you just say? Oh, well let me repeat that…
There comes a point in time when you have kids that you realize it’s time for you to really watch what you say. That point is NOW. When they say that kids are like a sponge and they soak up everything you say or do, they are correct (whoever “they” are, anyway). Having to watch what I say probably isn’t going to be an easy thing for me to do. I’m not gonna lie and say I don’t have a potty mouth. I do. Do I like the fact that I do? No, of course not. It’s a habit I’ve been trying to kick for a long time. Continue reading
It’s crazy how Christmas can change for you as you get older. As a kid, Christmas is the
Sophia and I watching a special message from Santa
greatest day of the year, bar none. Even when you forget that you’re supposed to be grateful for the things you do get and not complain about what you don’t get (like an Eagles hat your brother got… only to get the same hat later in the day… I’ll never live that one down). As you get older, into your teens and then into your 20’s, Christmas is basically a chance for you to ask for all the latest technology devices, video games, sports equipment, and clothes. Something seems to be missing from Christmas when you hit those ages. At least for me it did.
“Do you understand the words that are coming outta my mouth?!” — Chris Tucker in Rush Hour
Learning to talk is a big deal. Heck, I’m 30 and I barely have a handle on the English
Sophia eating her ‘fren fwiiis’
language when I speak (and write…). So, needless to say, witnessing and helping Sophia learn to talk has been fun, awesome, entertaining, and sometimes, downright hilarious.
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