Photo by Jrg_ngoe

Tonight my son decided to make apple sauce and pea muffins out of his dinner. He put the peas in his applesauce, mixed it up, and dumped out his muffin. Usually, he likes muffins, but not this one. So, no dinner for him tonight.

We played around, took a bath, read some books and then he said his tummy hurt.  Imagine that.  So I asked him what he wanted to eat and he told me grapes.  I asked him how many and he told me five.  So I got him ten!!  He proceeded to tell me that was not five so I told him to count them.

He pointed to the first one and said “One, Two, Three, Four, Five, six, eight, seven, nine, ten!”  He was pretty much right, I gave him too many.  He ate all of them and asked me for five more.  This time I gave him five and he counted them again.  We played that game at least two more times before he had enough grapes.

It is funny how little kids want to learn so much that everything becomes an opportunity to learn.  Who knew that skipping dinner would turn into a chance to work on counting.  It was a lot of fun for both of us and he worked on his counting.  Next, we need to do calculus with Oreo Cookies!!

Photo by jcolman

My sophomore year of college at The University of Kentucky, I met a guy that ended up being one of my best friends in college.  He was my college roommate for the rest of his time at UK.  I needed another year to get out of there so my last year of school was without him!!

We all knew this guy would go on to do something impressive.  He was an outstanding student though his worst college grade came in an elective about dinosaurs.  I am thinking that most 8 year old boys could get an A in that class, but I probably would have done worse.  He graduated from UK with a Political Science degree and went out into the real world of politics.  While he was at UK, he was an intern for the Kentucky State Legislature, worked in the US Marshals office, was an FBI intern, and basically made it look like my 15 credits per semester was child’s play. 

He was always giving me crap about not spending the time I should have been studing and he was right.  He also called me a Yankee because I was from “Northern” Kentucky.  He was wrong about that.  The bottom line is that he was one of those positive influences that every parent hopes their kid will befriend although we managed to enjoy our college experience to say the least.

After undergrad, he went to DC and did some work for the Justice Department as a speech writer for Janet Reno (Republican as he is).  He called me one day and said that I have to watch Saturday Night Live that night but he wouldn’t tell me why.  That insider information got me to watch and what a treat it was to see the real Janet Reno on SNL. 

After working in DC, he returned home to UK and got his law degree, met a wonderful woman and I thought he would settle down in the bluegrass and pursue his political ambitions but next thing I heard was that he was off to the FBI training facility to become a federal agent.  While an agent, he even went off to Iraq to investigate something that if he told me about it, he would have to kill me.

Fortunately, he returned home with his life intact and his wonderful future unfolding before his eyes.  Soon, he and his wife had a beautiful little girl and they were settling into their life.  One day, I was looking on their family website and learned that something very tragic happened.  Something caused my friend to become paralyzed from the hips down and rendered him unable to walk.  A man who loved to run could no longer walk.

Fortunately, the stars aligned and he was able to find a clinic that could help him and it was in his beloved Bluegrass State.  He was put on the waiting list at the Frazier Rehab Institute and quickly was accepted.  Soon after packing up and moving to Louisville, I spoke to my friend on the phone:  he was very strong about the whole ordeal, just as I had expected he would be.  The one thing that got me was that he wanted to be able to chase his daughter around the house.  I don’t think that any mixture of factors could have provided more motivation for him than the thought of not being able to keep up with his little girl, and that really got to me.  I only knew him as a friend, not as a father; but I know how important getting back on his feet was for him because I wouldn’t want a life of watching my little boy grow up without chasing him through it.

So, I bring this story to you in hopes that if you have the means, you can help the rehab center that has helped my friend get back on his feet.  Below is a video of the Frazier Rehab Institute featuring Russell.  I am pleased to report that he has been able to pick up has daughter and I know that he and his family give a great deal of credit to the folks at Frazier.  We are all praying for you Russell, from AZ to DC and beyond.

Again, if you have the means to help the Frazier Rehab Institute, please visit the Red Carpet Bluegrass Event Celebrating the Frazier Rehab Institute.

Photo by Dalia topan

For those of you following along, I have just had one of the longest days this year for my family.  That is not supposed to happen on a Sunday but it did and I am going to tell you about it and provide some updates to previous posts.

Dream Job

I believe I wrote in My Dream Job that I was going to post my application video since I had time to work on it this weekend.  Well, that time flew right by as we sat in pediatric urgent care with my son.  Last week we took him to the doctor for a fever and sore throat. 

Photo by Fiona Ayerst

Turns out he had Strep Throat and that he would get better after a day of Amoxicillin.  That he did!!  He was ready to go on Friday.  My wife even took him to the dirt lot on the end of the subdivision where he played for quite some time.  Then on Saturday, he went to his normal Little Gym meeting and ran around town.  We were planning on going to the Phoenix Zoo with a neighbor but we decided against it because we were worried it would be too much.  Turns out it was a good call.

Today, my son woke up with a fever.  We gave him some tylenol and he perked up pretty soon.  We met an old friend for lunch and while we were there he got worse.  He actually fell asleep in his mommy’s arms.  She put him down on the booth seat and he slept for about an hour.  If you knew my son, you would know that that is as far from his personality as it gets.  Usually it is everything we can do to keep him in a seat when we go out. 

We got home and checked his temperature; it was 102.  That is pretty high so we took him to urgent care.  Turns out that the drugs were not powerful enough and we got on something new as well as a mega dose of Tylenol and Motrin.  When we got him home he was ready to go.  He finally had a good meal and a good bathtime.  And then a great bedtime!!  So the bottom line is that my plans of making my video were crushed by my son’s stubborn Strep Throat.

I Love Books by Weaping Willow

Nightstand

I have added a new section to my site.  It can be found at the top of the page right under the title of the blog.  It is called the Nightstand and talks about the books that I have on my nightstand.  At this point, there are only two books but I promise that I have read more than that!!  I actually have a stack of books that are in my queue.

Image by ALFRED BENWAY

Even though you are not allowed to refer to the “Big Game” by name if you are a member of the media, I am going to talk about the game here today. I want to discuss how to make the day where fathers fail at parenting more than any other day, myself included, better for your kids without missing anything big.

The game that the sports caster, first name John, last name rhymes with Aladdin, got in trouble for saying on Phoenix sports radio is today.  (Again, trying to avoid copyright and trademark infringement). 

Most fathers want to dissapear into a world where they do not have to pay attention to anything other than the tv, chips, and beer.  You used to be able to pay attention to your outside distractions during the commercials, but even that has gone by the wayside when advertisers put monkeys and hot women in the ads.  Now the only respite exhausted moms get is during the extended half time show.  But we can’t pull our eyes off of that anymore because there may be another wardrobe malfunction!  I think we may be safe this year but you never know!!!

Photo by Zé Rodrigo

So how do we give our wives a few downs of football enjoyment so they can at least go to the bathroom?  Take this opportunity to teach your son about the game.  What is cooler than a 4 year old who knows that the ballcarrier has to get past the yellow line before another round of excitement erupts in the living room?  Here are a few ideas on how to get your little guys interested in the football game and not pulling the dirt out of your neighbors potted plants.

1. Teach them the difference between a pass and a run.

A good friend of mine taught his daughter this lesson and she would predict, with about 60% accuracy, if it would be a throw or a pass.  Could she be the first female offensive coordinator?  Maybe, but she could sit through an entire West Virginia football game and that is no small feat.  Give it a shot with your kids.

Photo by nicepickcowher.com

2. On every big play when everyone is shouting and giving high fives, tell your boy to high five everyone in the room.

Not only does this get your boy in the manly spirit of the game, it will also give you the opportunity to run the the fridge and get another cold one.  I did this during the NFC Championships two weeks ago and all the guys there enjoyed that.  My son went to everyone in the room and high fived them.  He had to tug on some pant legs and tap some shoulders to get their attention, but he did it.

3. Encourage him to celebrate when big things happen.

Two weeks ago, my son would be off playing with something, but when he heard the ruckus, he ran in and jumped around and danced and fell on the floor.  He had no clue why we were cheering, but he played along.

4. Put him in the gear.

Nothing gets a kid ready for a sporting event than gearing up.  Give him a football to play with.  Put him in a jersey on game day and talk about watching the game.  Make it a big deal for the two of you and he will have a great time too.  Pick up some football gear at Amazon.com.

5. Just have fun.

We watch football because it is fun.  Our emotions swing with the momentum shifts of the game.  Big plays excite us and bad plays bring us down but the emotion of watching sports make it so much fun.  Keep the emotions in check so your son learns that despite the outcome, it is just a game.  Despite the outcome, we are going to wake up tomorrow and get ready for the NBA Season!!!

Enjoy the game and go Cards!!!  Sorry Steelers fans.  Please come back to my site…