A note on being a Dad

This blog, started as a Journey to Fatherhood, has now become a Journey IN Fatherhood. I have spent most of these pages dedicated to the milestones and growth of Everett but have not touched on what it feels like to be a dad, so to remedy that I offer this thought:

When I was a child I spoke as a child I understood as a child I thought as a child; but when I became a man I put away childish things." I Cor. xiii. 11.

When I was a child I used to laugh and sing and dance around. When I became a man these things ceased as I knew them. The best part about being a dad is that I get to experience them all over again. I can dance to ridiculously goofy songs (think "Whip it" by Devo); I can run around the house acting like a monster, bounce on the bed, make funny faces, go sledding, pretend the grocery cart (carriage for New Englanders) is a race car (complete with skidding rear wheels.) I can even screech out the sound effects. I don't have to care what the outside world thinks of that behavior, only that it makes my son smile, or laugh that laugh that makes me forget there is an outside world. Sure, there will be a time that comes way to soon when that type of behavior embarrasses him and I will have to cease once again. Hell, I will probably even embarrass him a few times before I stop, but until then, I sure am having fun. It is important to remember how much fun the world can be, and however wise I think I become the real wisdom is in viewing the world through a child's eyes. I hope this blog is entertaining but also reminds us of how wonderful the little things are. I thank my son for showing me this once again.

Everett Discovers Snow

If you were watching the weather reports last week you would know that this past Friday we got a lot of snow in New England. 6-8 inches fell through the morning on Friday. Everett happened to discover it though the window while playing.

Seeing his interest I decided to take him to get a sled, that way on Saturday morning we could really introduce him to the snow. The next morning we got up, had some breakfast, got dressed for the weather, and after a quick internet search for the perfect hill complete with directions and topo maps we headed out for a good time. Here are a few pictures from the event.

As you can see from the last picture above, he didn't quite understand what was happening. Amy and I sure had a good time though. Check out the video below:

Everett's First Play Date

The other day we had the pleasure of watching Naomi for a few hours while her mom took care of some things she needed to take care of. Everett loved having another little person in the house. He touched her hair, tried to poke her eyes and nose and mouth, gave her big tackle hugs, and took every toy she was playing with. I guess we will have to work on the sharing. He is not used to other babies around. Naomi on the other hand attends daycare where she is often stepped on and tackled and crawled over, she just took it in stride. We loved having her and will gladly do it again anytime. Here are a few pictures of the two:

Everett is Walking

Everett has begun to take steps over the past few weeks. I was traveling this week and upon coming home I discovered that all he does now is walk around the house. He walks laps the whole day. Here is a video I shot this morning.

More Bahamas Pictures as Promised

Me on the Mayan Temple Slide

Amy and Everett on the rope bridge A really lazy river

Everett on the beach.

Amy taking a tube ride through the shark tank

Amy and Everett on a water slide

Baby in the Bahamas

This past month my company sent me to the Bahamas for a sales conference. I decided to stay a little longer and fly Amy and the baby down to enjoy a little vacation. We stayed at Atlantis on Paradise Island, Bahamas. It was a great time. We tried everything, the beaches, the waterslides, the aquariums. Here are a few pictures from the trip.

Everett enjoyed the Aquariums

He also liked the beach and started exploring sand.

This grouper could have easily swallowed Everett whole.

Here we are in one of the tunnels with a ray swimming above us
I have so many more pictures I will do a follow up post shortly with a bunch more.